Europe 2008

Bavarian Alps

2008-11-19T14:07:00.001-08:00

My parents made their first-ever international trip a few weeks ago and we spent a few days in Vienna to take in all the sights. After my last exam, we left for a day in the Bavarian Alps. We had a quick stop in Salzburg and after a difficult time finding a bus, we headed out to Berchtesgaden. This is a nice little German town...but it is best known for its association with Hitler and the Nazis. It was basically their home away from Berlin. Just a few minutes outside of town is Hitler's Eagle's Nest. The only way up to the top of the mountain is a difficult bus ride and then an elevator ride...but the house was already closed for the winter. You can still see it overlooking everything in the area though:

So we couldn't go in there, but we did visit Obersalzberg, the Nazi Documentation Center. This was a pretty intense museum that showed how Hitler gained control of Germany, and then what happened after he had control. The purpose of this place is clearly to show the horrors of the Nazis and not glorify them. Based on the pictures inside, the museum definitely succeeded. Underneath the Documentation Center are the bunkers that the Nazis built for their last stand. This was all fairly impressive to see:

After seeing that, we decided to visit nearby Lake Konigsee. To get to the lake, you take a bus from Berchtesgaden and then walk through a typical (or at least what I would think of as typical) small Bavarian town. It's a beautiful lake with views of the Bavarian Alps all around. We got there too late to actually go out on the lake, but it was still impressive to see.

Great views of the mountains all around as well.

Overall, it was a nice trip to Bavaria. It'd definitely be nice to spend a few more days here and also visit in the summer when the lake's warmer and the Eagle's Nest is open.

Slea Head & Dingle Peninsula

2008-11-10T14:00:00.000-08:00

I'm running way behind on this blog--lots of work, travel, and inability to connect to the Internet. But one last entry on Ireland...

This point marks the Western-most place in Europe. Right where the Spanish Armada crashed in 1588. This is far off the beaten path. In fact, I had to get from this very point to Vienna for a class the next day, and this is how I got back home:

-Biked 14 miles to get back to Dingle town

-Took the bus for 1.5 hours to get to Tralee

-Took the bus for 2 hours to get to Limerick

-Took the bus for 4 hours to get to Dublin

-Walked through downtown Dublin and took a bus to the airport

-Got on the plane and waited for an hour

-Got off the plane and moved onto another plane

-Flew for 3 hours to get to Bratislava

-Took the bus for 1.5 hours to get back to Vienna

-Took the train to get to my class in northern Vienna

It's a bit of a reach to get there, but it's still worth it. The Dingle Peninsula is one of the most beautiful places and one of the most unique cultures that I've seen. This is the Anti-Dublin--it's more like Ireland was a couple hundred years ago. (Cliff Death Warning signs excluded.)

The town of Dingle is a small fishing village. You can basically walk around the entire town in about 15 minutes. It's a fishing village, but I don't think it would still exist without the tourists. Lots of Irish pubs and touristy gift shops. Of course, lots of tourists to fill those pubs and shops too.

So the first day I was in Dingle, I walked around the town and went to a few of the pubs at night. The town is well known for the traditional Irish music in the pubs, which was great to see.

On the second day, I decided to bike around the peninsula. I wanted to visit Slea Head and Rick Steves recommended that I rent a bike for the trip. I went to a bed & breakfast and found a woman who was willing to rent me a bike. In fact, it was a B&B with Rick Steves' name on the sign nonetheless:

Well my bike was not exactly a mountain bike. In fact, it wasn't even a men's bike. The best description would be a grandmotherly bike. The only thing it needed was streamers on the handlebars.

I set out on my trip with my grandmotherly bike, Rick Steves' handy directions and a large bottle of juice. On a side note, I had been drinking juice during my entire trip in Ireland. When I tasted the juice here, my first thought was "This is the worst juice I've ever had in my life." It was some type of fruit that we don't have back in the States and it was cheap, so I thought maybe it was just a cultural difference. I tried a different one the next day and thought the same thing. At the end of my stay, I found out that I'd been drinking concentrate over here. It wasn't listed on the bottle, but it's concentrate. Keep that in mind if you're visiting.

So I set out on my trip with my directions and my large bottle of concentrate. The first few miles were pretty straightforward--mainly back roads and little traffic. Then you get to the main road to Slea Head. Now I was expecting a nice bike path and lots of other bikers out here. Well there is no bike path. I basically rode my bike on a highway around the peninsula. Granted, there wasn't much traffic, but not exactly the safest route. On my 5-hour trip I didn't see one other biker on the road. There were tourists driving around, but not a single person on a bike taking this tour.

It wasn't dangerous because there weren't too many cars around. Plus the view is much better when you ride a bike around the peninsula. There are lots of cliffs, huge waves on the shore, and thousands of cows and sheep.

There are also stone beehive huts on the way to Slea Head that look like igloos. No one knows how old the huts are (estimated that they're somewhere between 800-4,000 years old--kind of a wide range).

Plenty of great views as you continue up Slea Head. Note the currach boats in the bottom of the picture.

Alright, so after the long trip back from Dingle, I traveled back to Vienna. More updates later this week...

Dublin Part II

2008-10-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

On the second day in Dublin, I visited the two sites that I really wanted to see. First up was the Kilmainham Gaol. This site is most famous for its role as a political prison up to the early 20th century. (If you're British, I wouldn't recommend going here.) This is one of the most important historical sites in Ireland because prominent leaders in Ireland's many revolutions were held and often executed here. We had a great tour and it was fascinating to walk through the jail and go in the cells. Very similar to Alcatraz, but with much, much more cultural significance.

I'm going to go off on a tangent, but I've developed this huge pet peeve since I've been over here. It's the habit of people taking Facebook pictures in historical places. (I define a Facebook picture as: a picture of only yourself where you're smiling and giving a thumb's up sign or some other gesture. Preferably the picture is taken somewhere that will make you look cool. Bonus points if you can see your arm holding up your camera to take the picture.) Some places are appropriate for this, but there are other places that just aren't. I consider the jail to be one of the latter. More than once on this tour, the guide would give a detailed description about how a tragic event took place in a particular spot, and then 2 seconds later some idiot was giving a thumb's up posing for a picture. But enough of that...

After the jail, the next stop was the Guinness factory. I have to admit that this was probably the main reason why I wanted to go to Dublin. Guinness is basically my favorite brand of anything, so I was excited to see what the the brewery and the museums were like. Once you're inside, you keep going up stairs in the storehouse--you see the detailed history of the company and the process that's used to make the beer. You also see all of the ingredients that are used. The process was a bit more complicated than the bucket I use to make beer at home.

I think most people do the tour in about an hour and a half, but I was here for 5 hours. There was a huge exhibit on Guinness advertising, and I'm a bit of a marketing nerd. Naturally I took pictures of every single ad and other historical items that they had here. It was at least a few hundred pictures. Donald Draper would be proud.

Once you get to the top of the building, there's a Gravity Bar. Of course, the only thing on tap in the bar is Guinness. In the bar, there's an amazing panoramic view of the entire city--probably the best view in town...when the sky is clear. (Note: the sky is never clear in Ireland, so I'll let you figure that out.)

Dublin - Part I

2008-10-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

I had no intention of going to Ireland, but the flight was just too inexpensive to pass up (60 euros roundtrip). Unfortunately for that price, I had to take a bus to Bratislava to catch my plane. I don't know a whole lot about Bratislava, but I'm a firm believer that you can tell a lot about a city by their airport. For example, San Diego's airport smells like the beach when you get there...on the other hand, Baltimore's airport smells like garbage. At the airport in Bratislava, there's a big sign when you check in at the service desk. It shows pictures of all the items you're not allowed to bring with you when you leave Bratislava. The banned list includes staples like: grenades, gasoline, and poison. I made a quick note to return here for Christmas shopping.

There are some fun things to do in Dublin, but there are also some negatives too. For one thing, Dublin is very expensive. I subsisted on a healthy diet of cookies (35 cents for a box) and apple juice, but expect to pay 4 or 5 euros for a Guinness here...even though they can basically walk the kegs from the brewery to the bars. The nightlife scene is very cosmopolitan, and it didn't feel like true Irish culture. Lots of tourists and expatriates around.

Aside from that, there are still a few places that you have to see. The first one that I visited was the National Museum. This museum had artifacts that were thousands of years old, including swords and other items from the Vikings. It was a massive collection, including a number of items from other countries--Egyptian mummies and Roman artifacts among them. The most impressive item was a 2,500 year-old longboat that was carved out of a single oak tree. As always--no pictures allowed, but I tried to grab one:

I went on a 2-day whirlwind tour of Dublin to see all of the major sites--Temple Bar, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle, O'Connell Street, St. Stephen's Green. It's actually fairly easy to walk around to anything in the center of Dublin in 10-15 minutes.

The first day ended with an eventful night at the hostel. I've stayed in lots of different places over the years--some sketchier than others--but this was the first time that I ever demanded to be moved to a new room at 2AM. That's a story for another time.

Long Night of the Museums

2008-10-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

I'm back from a week in Ireland and promise to have new pics and posts up by this weekend but first, before I left, we went to the Long Night of the Museums in Vienna. Basically this is an event where you can visit all of the museums in the city for one night. It's a cheap and entertaining way to see a number of different museums in the city, but then you realize that there are over 90 museums in Vienna. There are some amazing ones here--including the Albertina, the Belvedere, and the Hapsburg Treasury, but I'll bet you didn't know that we also have the world-renowned museums for snowglobes, shoes, contraception, and chimney sweepers as well. (Not all in one museum because that would just be strange.) Unfortunately I'll have to visit those last few another time because 7 hours just isn't enough time to see all the museums in the city.

There is a great Van Gogh exhibit in the Albertina and we also saw an unusual exhibit on the history of blood and violence around the world. Lots of people were everywhere around town, so it was very difficult to see the more popular exhibits--I'll have to go back another time to look at the Van Gogh collection. The treasury is probably the most unique museum in Vienna because you can see all of the crown jewels and other items from the Hapsburg Dynasty. So many scepters and capes--I find it hard to believe that people actually wore those things in real life!

Oktoberfest

2008-10-07T00:45:00.000-07:00

For the final activity at orientation, the Buddy Program at the university took a group of 200 students to Oktoberfest in Munich. It was only one day, but the trip basically consisted of three very distinct parts--the train ride to Munich, the Oktoberfest celebration, and the train ride back to Vienna. It was an exhausting trip, but all in all, Oktoberfest is something that everyone should go to at least once.

The train ride to Munich was basically a pre-Oktoberfest party (meaning no chance to sleep). We took the overnight train from Vienna and reached Munich at about 6AM. There were definitely some problems with the organization of the trip, but that's a story for another time. It can be a bit difficult to find things to do in Munich on a Sunday at 6AM, but after a short rest in the train station, we headed for the English Garden. The English Garden is one of the largest parks in the world, and I was surprised by the number of people that were out in the park at that time of day. Not all of the places were open on a Sunday morning, but there was still plenty to see in the park:

(I don't think anyone expected a lovely picture of a swan in an Oktoberfest post.) After the park, we toured around Munich for a few hours. We mainly walked around the Marienplatz square and saw all of the famous buildings around town. I won't even attempt to explain the history of these buildings--although I know that a large number of buildings were destroyed during World War II, and the government decided to rebuild Munich with its classic look as opposed to a few other German cities that opted to modernize. (My thanks to Wikipedia.)

After the tour around Munich, we finally ventured into the Oktoberfest area. I guess the closest comparison for the U.S. would be a giant state fair...if the men at the state fair wore leather capri pants...and they served beer by the liter. There were rides, carnival games, and plenty of food inside the grounds.

Each of the major Munich breweries has a tent inside the festival grounds. Our group had reserved a number of tables at the Hofbrauhaus tent. The atmosphere outside the tent is similar to what you'd find at a family barbecue or picnic. There are a lot of people at picnic tables eating the popular foods--the only difference is that there are barmaids that carry 10 glasses of beer to the table at a time.

The atmosphere inside the tents is completely different. There are traditional German bands and thousands of people singing and toasting inside. You see the occasional fight, but for the most part everyone is extremely happy to be there. This part is something you actually have to see to understand how enormous it is.

Naturally with the crowd that's inside, outside of the tents there's a hill where the attendees can take their friends who've passed out. I think the picture is pretty self-explanatory:

So after you've been to all of the different tents and avoided upsetting the leather capri-wearing Bavarians, it's time to try the food. Basically the food here is cooked whole and on a spit. I opted to try the hendl, which is a small whole chicken...and an oxen sandwich on the side. I guess anything might taste good after a full day at Oktoberfest, but the food was some of the best that I've had since I've been in Europe.

So that leads me to the trip home...At 11 PM, we headed back to the train station to leave for Vienna. I'd been up for almost 2 days, so all I really wanted to do was to sleep for a few hours on the train. Unfortunately the Austrian rail system had completely lost our group's reservations. Now keep in mind this was a reservation for 200 people on the fully booked Sunday night train. After an hour of indecisiveness, they decided that they would just put everyone on the train and figure out the details later. Seats weren't an option, so they sent us to the luggage car. I managed to find a small place to squeeze halfway into the aisle, which was at least palatable until a few students decided they wanted to turn the train into a party train. A couple more hours of that, and then we were ushered off the train so that they could add 2 more cars. We waited for another hour, and then I managed to grab a very small seat for the final few hours. Definitely one of the worst rides I've ever taken. I finally got back home in Vienna at around 7AM and happily slept for the rest of the day.

Orientation Week 2

2008-09-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

The second week of orientation included another week of German class, as well as other activities around Vienna. Over the weekend we visited Schonbrunn Palace, the massive home of the Hapsburg dynasty:

There were a few rooms that really stood out inside the building. The Porcelain Room was decorated with over 200 pen and ink drawings in blue and white. The Lacquer Room was decorated with Chinese pictures and these amazing wooden panels. There were large dining rooms and huge ceiling paintings...but after you've seen enough palaces, they begin to run together. We also toured the gardens surrounding the palace. It amazes me that Vienna still has these enormous palaces and gardens inside the city when the rest of the city is so crowded.

On Monday we participated in a scavenger hunt covering the entire city. It was a good time, but the language barrier created some problems with a few of the activities. On Tuesday we visited the Opera to see Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Vienna is most famous for its musical history, so this was a great experience. For 3 euros you can purchase a standing-room ticket--although it was a great performance, I was too tired to stand for 3 hours, so I left for home during the intermission. No photos allowed during the performance (for good reason), but here's one pic from the Staatsoper:

Wednesday was another party for the orientation program at an Irish bar in downtown Vienna. I was most impressed with the selection of food that was provided--buffalo wings, fries, and other American appetizers. I think the Europeans were a little offended by the amount of food that some of us Americans ate...but this was the first American food I'd eaten in a month, so I wasn't too concerned. Now if I could only find some barbecue and sweet tea here...

Thursday and Friday were the final two days of German class. Thursday included a trip to Kunst Haus in Vienna. The building, designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, is one of the most unique homes I've ever seen. They had a great collection of Hundertwasser paintings as well, which I enjoyed. At the end of the week, I also began meeting with my group for my first class in Vienna. The final two days of orientation included a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest, which I'll try and get up here tomorrow. Here's a shot from outside Kunst Haus:

Graz & Zotter Chocolate Factory

2008-09-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

OK...back from Oktoberfest, so time to start updating this blog. Starting with our trip to Graz during orientation:

Graz is the second-largest city in Austria, and is located a few hours to the south of Vienna. Just like Vienna (and seemingly every city in Europe), Graz has a long history and a few major sights to see. The city has some beautiful architecture, including a few old churches and the ubiquitous Hapsburg castle. Inside the castle is this bizarre staircase from the 15th century. A little was lost in translation, but for some reason there is a place on the staircase where you can place your camera, take a picture, and then get this gun barrel-esque picture:

In addition to the classic architecture, Graz has a mixture of modern buildings and structures in the city as well. Here is the city's famous bridge that leads to an island cafe (the bridge apparently lights up blue at night, but I didn't have a chance to take a picture at night):

I then toured the Armory, which is a museum of weapons from Austria. The museum included swords, suits of armor, guns, helmets and other pieces of warfare from the middle ages. The entire collection was massive--thousands of weapons spread over four different floors.

Next I toured the Kunsthaus, which is the city's museum for modern art. When I heard that it was a modern art museum, I figured there would be artists like Picasso, Matisse, or Pollock in there (like the modern museum in New York). No such luck. There was one exhibit with different flashing neon lights and one exhibit that looked like a house of mirrors. One final "exhibit" was simply three rotating displays of post cards. When I looked at the postcards, a security guard came up and told me to "make a wish and pick two cards" in broken English. Needless to say, I didn't spend a lot of time in here. The museum itself is probably the better attraction. I'm not sure what the design in based on, but I decided that it looked like a stomach. At any rate, here is Graz's Kunsthaus:

After the museum, I went up to visit the Clock Tower at the top of the city. The clock dates back to 1712, while the tower was built in 1561. This is the place that most people associate with the city of Graz. There was also a great garden right underneath the tower where you can view the entire city. Here are some images from the long path to get up to the tower, and then the tower at the top:

After a visit to the park in Graz, it was time to leave for the Zotter chocolate factory. Zotter is a relatively new chocolate manufacturer located in Bergl. (At least I think it's in Bergl. It was at least an hour away from Graz in a very rural part of Austria.) The manufacturing process was exactly like one that I read about for my supply chain class last semester. We could watch through windows, but couldn't actually go down to see how the chocolate was made though. However, we did get to taste chocolate at each stage of the process, beginning with the imported beans:

We went through a long assembly line to taste the different types of chocolate that the company makes. Of course, I tried every single one--I didn't keep track of the number, but there were about 75 different kinds. It was a bit exotic for my taste, plus the tastes start to run together once you've tried that many flavors.

The final part of the tour was Zotter's hot chocolate cafe (Zotter also makes a wide range of hot chocolate products). We were served a glass of hot milk as soon as we entered the room, and then bars of chocolate came in on a wire that circled around the room. The whole process was similar to a ski lift. We picked the flavor that we wanted off of the "ski lift" and then mashed it into the milk to make hot chocolate. I have to admit I thought the hot chocolate was much better than the traditional chocolate bars.

So after a long day of travel, we left Zotter and returned back to Vienna. (More pics from both places in the gallery.) I'll get caught up with the rest of orientation and Oktoberfest/Munich in the next couple days...

Orientation

2008-09-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

First, here are a couple pictures from Schonbrunn Palace:

A few thoughts...

With the wide variety of cultures around here, you start to notice the subtle differences. So here are a few gross generalizations.

Americans tend to:

-Wear board shorts and flip flops

-Wear sneakers and white socks

-Hold the door open for other people

-Offer to give a subway seat up to a woman/child

-Block people from moving up the escalator

-Talk loudly on the subway

-Carry around numerous copies of Rick Steves' books

While Europeans:

-Wear tight jeans (guys or girls)

-Wear capri pants (guys or girls)

-Carry purses (guys or girls)

-Chain smoke cigarettes everywhere

-Bring their dogs everywhere (grocery stores, trains, banks, etc.)

-Love techno and American rock/pop music

I'm still a bit confused about holding the door open--maybe that's just from growing up in the south. If I hold the door open for someone here, I tend to get very strange looks. Oh, and white socks are a dead giveaway for identifying Americans too.

I'm in the second week of orientation and our intensive German class. We toured Vienna, took a day trip to Graz, and visited Schonbrunn Palace last week. It's been very cold and rainy for the last week, but everyone's enjoyed the trips so far. (I'll add pictures as soon as I get a chance.) Lots of students from all over the world here. Our scavenger hunt group today had five students--2 from the US, 1 from Russia, 1 from Denmark, and 1 from Holland. I'm in the introductory German class, and our group includes students from Italy, Russia, Portugal, Canada, Sri Lanka, and the U.S. We can only learn so much German in two weeks, so I'll be happy just to learn how to pronounce menu items and learn how to count!

Portovenere

2008-09-19T14:27:00.001-07:00

I'm running about a week behind now, so here's a short post on my trip to Portovenere...

I hadn't really intended going there, but Ernesto said he preferred it even more than Cinque Terre. It obviously wasn't as rugged as the Cinque Terre (no trails here), and there were definitely fewer Americans here as well. It seemed to be mostly vacationing Italians. Basically the town has been around for nearly 2000 years, with castles dating back to the 12th century. There's a great rocky beach that I sat out on--the beach had a Riviera vibe to it, but it was a perfect spot to sit and relax. Lots and lots of fishing boats in the port. The local specialties are mussels and octopus, but unfortunately both were a little out of my food budget for the week...

Here are a few pictures. This is the Church of St. Peter, which was built in the 12th century:

These are some pics of Doria Castle, and from the top of Doria Castle:

Just like Cinque Terre, there's amazing water. It's a great SCUBA site, which is something I'll have to try out another time:

Of course, I was excited that there were plenty of kayaks around as well:

After Portovenere, I went back to La Spezia and had a great Italian meal at Ernesto's. We checked out the festival in downtown La Spezia again. It was Friday, so they had a few major concerts--I'm not sure who the bands were (nothing in English), but there were a lot of locals out downtown. We also saw a few more of the street performers, although I was a little concerned about these guys. I always tried my best to blend into to the crowd because the comedians particularly like to pick out audience members and speak with them (or make fun of them). I had no idea what was going on because of the language issues, so that was the last thing I wanted to do. Overall, it was another exhausting day, but a great end to an incredible trip through Italy.

Cinque Terre

2008-09-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

So after the train ride from Florence to La Spezia, I took another short train up to Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore is one of the five small towns that make up the Cinque Terre in Liguria. My real interest was kayaking by the five towns, so I rented a boat after about 10 minutes of looking around in Riomaggiore. The water in the Mediterranean was amazing, and it gives you a completely different perspective of the five towns too. I paddled from Riomaggiore up to Vernazza before heading back.

I really only wanted to kayak through the five towns, but I figured that I might as well hike the trail while I'm there. Although if I'd known that beforehand, I probably would have planned for the hike a little better. I was traveling with just my backpack, which was loaded with about 50 pounds of stuff by this point of the trip. My bad shoulders were already killing me from carrying it around all week. The hike wasn't too difficult until you get past Manarola, the second town. When you're going into Corniglia, you have to climb the "Lardarina." The Lardarina is basically 33 flights of stairs that lead into the town. I found it amusing that they actually have a name for the steps:

I think I may have nightmares about this part of the trail for a long time. By this point, I definitely just wanted to take a nap...but I figured I might as well finish the entire trail since I'd already started it. Even though the hikes from Corniglia to Vernazza, and from Vernazza to Monterosso had a ridiculous amount of steps, the view was definitely worth it!

You have to be careful because a lot of places have very small pathways and little or no railing. It can be a huge pain when you meet people coming from the other direction.

Anyway, so after the 11-mile hike, a few hours of kayaking, and traveling all day with my backpack, I was absolutely exhausted. Luckily I finished up the trail right before sunset.

The Cinque Terre is obviously a beautiful place, but there are some problems. One is that there are way too many tourists there. Even in September, the place was overrun by Americans. I saw far more Americans here than any place I've been to in Europe so far. It makes me wonder what the locals think of it all. Another problem was the Italian trains...but I'll get back to that another time.

I went back to La Spezia because I was staying the night over at Ernesto's apartment. Ernesto lends out his couch to couchsurfers--for those who don't know, couchsurfing is basically a hospitality networking system where you stay at other members' homes when you go to different towns. It's all free, but more importantly, it's a much better way to learn about local cultures than just staying in a hotel. The language barrier can be a bit challenging, but I guess that's part of the experience too.

Back in La Spezia, there was a street festival in town that weekend. We checked out a few different street performers around town--jugglers, comedians, etc. Then we met up with Ernesto's friends and I followed them around while they spoke Italian. Somehow we ended up in a 100-year-old movie theater at around 11:00. At this point, I had no idea what was going on. The movie turned out to be an Italian movie about a Sri Lankan handball team that defected in Germany. I'm completely serious. I couldn't understand any of the words, but at least I got that much out of it. At this point, it was well after 1:00 and finally time to go to sleep.

Florence

2008-09-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

I had a week off before orientation started, so I decided to travel through Italy because that's the one place I've always wanted to see. Unfortunately the only train I could get was the 6AM ride, which meant that I had to wake up at 3:30 to get from my apartment in the 19th district to the train station. Not the best way to start the day! I got into Florence and checked into the Archi Rossi Hostel, which was a very nice (and affordable) place. (Recommended by NCSU Vienna alumni--thanks!)

I met plenty of English speakers at the hostel, and I went around town with Dave from the UK and George from San Francisco, who were both backpacking around Europe. It was a nice change of pace to finally be able to speak English. We checked out the touristy spots by the Dome and the Piazza della Signoria, as well as some of the local bars too. There are museums, statues, and other famous spots everywhere you look. Plenty of tourists too. One of the biggest hassles is trying to avoid getting in other people's pictures.

The next day, we checked out the major attractions in the city. First up was the Uffizi museum, which has the best collection of Italian art in the world. This is a place where you could spend the better part of a day. Hundreds of ancient statues, and a few very famous paintings. Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, and da Vinci's Annunciation were all here. We'd heard there could be a 4-5 hour wait, but it was only about 20 minutes to get in. Definitely well worth it!

Next up was the Accademia gallery, which is where Michelangelo's David is located. A very long line to get in, but you don't really have a choice--you basically have to see this if you're in Florence. The statue's a lot bigger than you would think, but it's amazing to see it in person. I managed to snap some illegal pictures while I was there. (There are basically 5 or 6 people whose only job is to make sure you don't take pictures. They do everything short of throwing your camera on the ground and stomping on it.)

After looking around the Cathedral and the Ponte Vecchio, my last touristy stop in Florence was to go inside the Dome. There is a long history with the building and the innovations that went into designing the dome, but you can read all about that somewhere else. Another very, very long line. As you get closer, people also start to drop out when they find out that there's no elevator to the top. 463 steps to the top...

but then you get to see Florence and Tuscany from the top...

After all of the tourism, we went out for a little while in Florence, and then I was off to the coast. I'll try and add the Cinque Terre/Portovenere section in here tomorrow. More pictures from Florence at the link on the top right (by my info).

Vienna Pictures

2008-09-14T05:07:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a week in Italy. I'll add those pictures as soon as I get a chance, but here are some more pics from Vienna.

Vienna is one of the greenest cities in the world with all of its gardens and parks. Houses and buildings are covered too:

Here's the Klimt painting "The Kiss" from the Belvedere Palace:

I live in the 19th District, which is close to the countryside and vineyards in Vienna. Here are some views from that area:

First Days in Vienna

2008-09-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hey--I finally put aside some time to set up this blog!

I spent my first few days here in Vienna. Definitely a bit of culture shock...and it took a few days to get used to the 6-hour time difference. It's a beautiful city, but completely different from cities in the U.S. The first thing I learned is that there are no superstores here--no Costcos, Wal-Marts, or even supermarkets. I'm spoiled by going to one store and doing all my shopping. I had to go to different parts of the city just to track down everything I needed here. Everything is in much smaller portions, so I can't do all of my grocery shopping for the entire month. And be sure to bring your own shopping bag--I learned that lesson the hard way.

I'm not big on doing all the tourist traps, but I figured I should check out some of the major spots in Vienna to find my way around the city. The two places I checked out on my first day were St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Belvedere Palace. The Cathedral was built in the 12th century, and there can be no building taller than it inside the city.

The part I was most interested in seeing were the catacombs under the cathedral. Basically it's where they kept the tombs of the cardinals and royalty, as well as people who died from the plague in the 17th century. About 20 rooms underneath the building itself--no pictures allowed though.

I also checked out the Belvedere Palace as well. Basically Vienna has enough palaces that you could visit a different one every day of the week, but I had always wanted to check this place out. The gardens and the architecture were amazing, but I was most interested in seeing the art collection there. The Belvedere has the largest collection of Gustav Klimt paintings in the world...although I believe they lost five of them a couple years ago in a lawsuit over paintings that were stolen by the Nazis. You have to see these paintings in person to appreciate the detail. You could probably spend an hour looking at each one. No pictures there, but I bought some cards that I'll put up tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from the Belvedere:

They had plenty of other great pieces--Monet, Renoir, Degas. There was a special exhibition of Austrian Fantastic Realist painters that was great. I wasn't very familiar with the work beforehand, but the style is similar to surrealism. I'll try to put up some images of the pieces I liked best tomorrow.