Friday, May 31, 2013

Day 15: Rome to Athens

Another day of travel. Our flight today was on easyJet, which we were a little concerned about but for now reason. Our total weigh in was only 23 kg, way under our limit! Though there was no food service on the flight, it was quick and safe and our luggage arrived without problem. We got to our hostel and found that we were in a four bed room with an ensuite bathroom, and the other two beds are empty! It will be nice to be alone for another night. Tonight we walked over to Lycabettus Hill and took the Funicular up the hill and found an incredible view of the entire city. We got up to the hill at 7:30 and just enjoyed the breathtaking view for an hour before the sun set over the acropolis. We enjoyed a Grecian dinner in the cafe on the hill-- a pork and lamb pitas and a greek salad. It was quite good! After dinner, we went back up to the viewing point and saw the city all lit up and then climbed down the hill on foot (a feat for me, with my poor choice of shoes!). We got back to the hostel and now we are trying to figure out what to do tomorrow. We are definitely going to see the Acropolis as soon as it opens (8am) and then hopefully we will be able to go to a beach somewhere for the afternoon/evening. Our hostel receptionist recommended Temple of Poseidon by bus, but the women at Lycabettus Hill recommended Aegina Island by ferry. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what we decided to do!










Thursday, May 30, 2013

Day 14: Rome

For our final day in Rome, we left the country. In a short lived rainstorm, we entered the tiny entity of the Vatican City through the museums. In the first of two huge coincidences today, we walked passed a huge line of people (thanks to Brandon's research on the pre-purchased ticket!), through security and into one of many lines for ticket will call, and who should be directly in front of us but a member of the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club! Here, half way around the world, we happen to be in the line of the same building of the same city at the same time with someone we see on a weekly basis. Crazy. Anyway, we went into the Vatican Museums and saw hundreds or thousands of statues and artwork by people like Michaelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci. Eventually the path led us to the Sistine Chapel, which was a truly incredible sight. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures, but go here to see it yourself with a 360 tour. Very cool.

We left the country for lunch and found a nice little cafe where we enjoyed some spaghetti, pizza, and tiramisu before picking back up the exploration on the other side of the Vatican. We entered this time through St. Peter's Square, looking straight at the beautiful St. Peter's Basilica. We thought our museum tickets would get us in there too, but unfortunately it didn't work that way, and since the line was wrapped almost entirely around the square (for a wait that may have been 4+ hours), we decided not to go in. We then walked along the wall to the Castel San Angelo, the old fortress and home of papal apartments, built around the year 100AD. Climbing up to the top gave us another incredible view of the city.

For the next few hours, we wandered around, walking up the river, crossing over into the Piazza del Popolo and visiting the Leonardo DaVinci Museum, a place that houses physical recreations of his sketches which can be manipulated and maneuvered. It was totally cool, and we would recommend it to anyone, even though its a little hard to find. We slowly made our way back to the Trevi Fountain, one of our favorite locations to just sit and relax (and also peoplewatch). We sat there for over an hour just talking and reminiscing and enjoying the day. Then fate struck again in our second huge coincidence.

Brandon suggested that we go check out the Colloseum at night to see it lit up. I didn't really want to walk that far, but didn't want to waste our last night in Rome, so we went. It really was pretty neat to see. We took a few pictures and looked at the map. One main road was the clear path back to our hostel so we went on our way. There was a TON of traffic backed up and lots of cops everywhere. We thought there had been an accident. At one specific crossroads, there happened to be an ambulance and several police vans and some people. Brandon said, "Do you think we should go check it out or just keep going towards home?" We both kinda shrugged and decided, "When in Rome..." so we mosied up to what we now saw was quite a large crowd. As we got closer, we could hear singing and see people in all white holding candles. We knew that it had to be something religious. Brandon asked the guard standing in front of the barricade in Italian what was going on. He replied quietly, "Il Papa". We got chills! Suddenly we knew the voice we were hearing in song was the Pope! We couldn't see him from where we were so we ran around to the other side of the building. Again, we couldn't see the stage he was on, but music began to play and the cardinals began to file out of the square right past us and onto two big tour buses. We thought the Pope had to be close behind! Brandon suggested that they probably took him into the church to wait for the square to clear of the onlookers and then they would escort him to the bus shortly. So we waited. Suddenly, we saw barricades put up at the left end of the street we were on. This has to be it! He's coming right through here! I thought. A cheer suddenly erupted from somewhere and ended just shortly after it began. Brandon looked to the right and shouted, "There!" We took off running but we were too late. The pope mobile, now occupado, was on its way. We literally missed the sight of him by a few feet in a few seconds, but it was still an incredible unexpected experience for our last night in Rome. To hear the Holy Father, you can see our video here.

We are really still just in awe that we were that close to the Pope. It was so cool to hear him and be in the audience there. So as the high winds down, we are back at the hostel preparing for another day of travel. Tomorrow is Athens, with a 0% chance of rain and a high of 86. Can't wait to put our jeans and jackets away!













Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Day 13: Rome

Hello everyone, Brandon reporting to you live from a chilly marble staircase in an old hostel building. Today was very cool, but left us very tired so forgive my brevity in comparison with Mary's posts. We first went to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum which are the main historic district of Rome. We bought passes a few months ago which allowed us to skip all of the lines which surely saved us up a couple of hours of standing in the rain. It rained in the morning but much to our (and the weather forecasters') surprise, it got very sunny for the remainder of the day after about 10am! We were very excited as this was our first day of really comfortable weather. The sights were amazing and we got several beautiful pictures (about 200 from today alone!). The first picture here was taken by a very nice German family which we met trying to take a photo of their family divided up, so we offered (in German of course) to take their picture together. After the photos had been exchanged, the young daughter asked in a tiny voice "Kommen sie aus Deutschland!?" Which means, "Are you from Germany?" I replied that "Nein, wir kommen aus Amerika!" We learned that they were from Stuttgart, and the mother interrupted the flow of our conversation to pose the question in English, "Why do you speak such good German?" We brimmed with smiles from ear to ear upon ending this conversation. This was truly one of the highest compliments that they could have paid us and we were happy to have had the interaction.

Our time in the ancient city ended sooner than we expected simply because we had seen everything and we were left with basically an entire day with little planned. We then zig-zagged across the city seeing many cool ancient sites, including the Pantheon, a very famous temple/museum which served many tourists (including us) as a resting point today. I saw many people nodding off in the pews and succumbing to the need for respite.  We thought "when in Rome," and caught a few precious "Z's" ourselves. Ending up in the large park at the north end of the city, we rented segways for 10 Euro and cruised around the park. We both really enjoyed our first time on these neat machines in such unique surroundings. We returned to the hostel to put some things away and then walked back in to the main city after dark to see the famous Trevi Fountain by night. This is a very popular twilight destination and we were joined by many other tourists. But after some fountain gazing and people watching we headed back to a restaurant in our neighborhood for a late-night pizza and coke. It was a very cool day, and a very long one; but tomorrow we have the same sort of schedule before us so I will be going to bed now. Buonanotte i miei amici









.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Day 12: Vienna to Rome

Beginning this post makes me realize what a long day today has been. We started out at 9am, getting around in our Vienna hostel, making sure everything was ready for another day of travel. We found some brunch at the train station (a delicious chicken and bacon sandwich with some sort of cream cheese spread...yum!) and  eventually caught all the right trains, arriving at the airport around 11:15am. As usual, check-in was a breeze and we were ready to board an hour later. The plane took off and we had no idea what awaited us.

At first glance out the window of the plane, the expanse of green and stiff, upstanding trees said Classic Italy. Already we were excited. But we weren't even in Rome yet. Also, we were held in the airport for much longer than we would have liked since the Rome airport has some serious problems with baggage return. They had 5 flights scheduled on the same baggage carousel and they were all spewing out at the same time essentially. My bag came out with the Warsaw bags, and many passengers on my flight--including Brandon--were left waiting for 45 minutes before there was any sign of their bags. It was scary for all of us but we waited through it together, and finally we found them all. Anyway, with all our luggage in tow, Brandon used his awesome new Italian skills (for the first of several times tonight) to get us two train tickets into the city. We rode through Trastevere, the small area across the river and south of the Vatican which we had planned to go see tonight, but realized it wasn't what we thought it would be. So we scrapped that plan. We got into the city and found our hostel--we are lucky we did with the tiny amount of signage they have! We got in and learned all the rules and by 5pm, we were ready for some Italian dinner! We found a nice little restaurant on the street and got a pizza and a half liter of wine, all for 16E (~$20). We ran back to the hostel to grab some laundry since we are halfway through our trip now; 7E for a wash and dry (and he folded it too!), and now we don't have to worry about stinking for the next half.

Then we began the real evening. We decided to just walk around and get lost in the city. Every road we looked down was a new, beautiful sight with old buildings and incredible history. We took a TON of pictures because every time we saw something new it was a great photo op. So we'll post a selection of them below. Though our wanderings, we ended up on the north side, seeing Augustus Cesars Memorial, Trevi Fountain, Piazza del Popolo, and many little plazas and churches. Both Brandon and I were speechless  many times at the sights we are able to be seeing.

So now we are home for the night, ready to recharge for more awe-inspiring events tomorrow.









Monday, May 27, 2013

Day 11: Vienna

Today was our one and only day in Vienna, Austria. We had a list of 4 specific things to do, and then after that it was pretty much just whatever came to mind.

Number ONE was to go to Schloss Schoenbruenn, the Palace of Franz Josef. This is also the palace where Mozart gave his first royal concert at the age of 6. It was  a bit rainy still, so we didn't explore much of the grounds outside the Castle, but it was still beautiful. Since we got there right when it opened (8:30am) we still had a full day ahead of us. We stopped in a cafe in town to get some lunch, but were quickly told that lunch was not served at 10am and we disappointedly realized we would have to wait until 11 to find our schnitzel anywhere. So we continued on...

Number TWO was to go to the Central Cemetery, which is where many famous composers are buried. We took the train over to the Cemetery, which, despite its name, is not located very centrally at all. It is the second largest cemetery in the world and we certainly found that out the hard way. The train dropped us off at the opposite corner of the cemetery of the "infopoint", which we luckily found with other smaller infopoints along the way. After a trek through the entire cemetery, we found a very nice guidebook telling us that the composers we sought were right down the center aisle, so we turned around and found the plot including Strauss, Brahms and Beethoven. There is one more famous composer buried in Vienna, and he was next...

Number THREE was Mozart, buried at the St. Marx Cemetery closer to town. This one was much smaller and the map was much more readily available so we found Mozart quite easily. His grave marker stands alone in a large field, which Brandon and I were able to go right up to and touch. Appropriately, as Mozart was a bit of a prankster, there was sap on the gravestone, in the exact place where Brandon and I both placed our hands. That was fun.

Number FOUR was the Freud Museum. You may be thinking, "Didn't they already see the Freud Museum?" The answer to that is yes, however that was the one in London. There is one in London as well as Vienna. London has all of his cool stuff because that was his last home. But he lived the longest in Vienna, and it was also the home he loved and preferred so we decided to go there as well. It was awesome to see the room where patients waited and then were evaluated, and the rooms in which Freud spent so many hours. There were lots of cool pictures too.

So once we got those things done, we just wandered around looking for other things to do in the city. We saw Stephensplatz, a huge, beautiful church whose facade is well recognized as a symbol of Vienna. In that area we found a cute little restaurant called Hinterholz and finally got the Wienerschnitzel we craved! It was exactly what we were looking for. We tried to go see a Crime museum, but upon arriving, saw that they were closed on Mondays (which we would have known if we had read the map better... whoops) But we also got to see the Rathaus (like a city council) and Beethoven's house while just wandering around. Since we had accumulated some souvenirs, we stopped back at the hostel for a bit to drop things off and get ready for the evening, since we had tickets to the opera at 7pm. The Volksoper was playing "Wagners Ring Cycle an einem Abend", which was the whole Ring Cycle (4 different LONG operas) condensed into one night, with a narrator "filling in the blanks". Except everything was in German, so there were actually quite a lot of blanks left unfilled for us. Also, they didn't play the most famous song of all 4 operas, The Ride of the Valkyrie, so that was strange. But overall it was really nice and we always love a night at the opera.

Now we are back for our last night at the hostel in Vienna and tomorrow at 12:45 our flight leaves for ROME! Bis Morgen...







Sunday, May 26, 2013

Day 10: Berlin to Vienna

First of all, an update from last night: We did indeed go out to the Brandenburger Tor to see the Fanmeile, where the soccer final was being livecast. Yes, it was raining, but boy was it a cool experience! We ate some street-vended bratwurst and watched as Bayern, our preferred team, won the championship with two minutes left in gameplay. It was so neat to be there among all these German fans in this iconic German location watching two German teams face off. Luckily we had some super warm ponchos from someone special so the weather wasn't even too bad.

Now today has been really a day unlike any other. We got up at 10am, as the hostel checkout time was 11. So we got ready and put our luggage away in the locker room and went out into the city for the last time. We walked around the Stadtmitte subway station looking for some lunch and finally settled on some breakfast type cakes. We continued on to Potsdamer Platz and walked around a mall there, even though everything was very closed (it's sunday...).

So since that did not waste as much time as we had expected, we found our old friend Starbucks and used the internet to check a few things and get ideas of what to do. We finally realized that we didn't go see the Musical Instruments Museum after the concert yesterday, and since we were already in Potsdamer Platz, we decided to do that. Unfortunately, the experience was not one we would recommend. It was completely silent, the guards were following us, and even things that were seemingly hands-on exhibits were apparently not hands-on at all. So after wandering around, getting yelled at, and throwing our pursuers off our trail, we left the museum and were finally ready to leave the city.

By 2pm, we were back by Checkpoint Charlie (our home territory) and found some street bratwursts for lunch. Grabbing our bags, we went to the airport and were all checked in by 3:30. The plane wasn't even boarding until 5:10. Needless to say, we had a lot of time to kill at the airport. One girl sitting across from me looked just like Jodi Arias, which was weird... finally the time came and we were in the air on our way to Wein. We got our tickets for transportation and got onto the train for the City Center, arriving about 8:15. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ended up walking from the train station in the complete opposite direction of our hostel. But, we found it eventually and the reception was warm--free beer and wine! The hostel building was around the corner from reception so by the time we actually got to the room and got things situated, it was already 9:30. So we walked around the immediate area to find some quick dinner rather than going into the city center. We found a little pizza shop (open til 3am AND accepts Discover! Score!) and decided that would do just fine. Tomorrow we look forward to some Wienerschnitzel! Probably for lunch and dinner. Since tomorrow is our only day in Vienna, we will be getting an early start.


Saturday, May 25, 2013

Day 9: Berlin

Today was supposed to be our last full day in Berlin, as we thought we were going to be leaving for the airport around noon. Now we realize we don't have to leave until 2, so we actually have more time than we thought. But nonetheless, we tried to finish up our German agenda in today's activities.

We woke up at 9 and headed for that Bavarian Restaurant to enjoy some Weisswurst (Brandon's favorite German food, a white sausage), however it was closed. So we found a little cafe nearby and instead ate a salami sandwich and a chocolate muffin. Nourished for the time being, we began our adventures to Museeninsel, or Museum Island. It was raining fervently but we stood in line to get our tickets. Luckily we chose the shortest line at the time when very few knew it existed, so we got pretty lucky on wait time. With annoying kids in front of us and a boogery old man behind us, we were pleased to get our tickets and make our way out of the line and into our own museum exploration. The Pergamon, which houses classical artifacts and middle eastern art was our first stop. Our pass also allowed us to continue to other museums, so next we chose the Neues (new) Museum, where we got to see the painted head sculpture of Nefertiti, an Egyptian woman idolized for beauty and poise. Feeling a little museum-ed out for the day, we found an alternative bavarian restuarant in the area and ordered a sausage plate, which included Brandon's weisswurst. It was quite tasty and nice to be full again.

As it continued to rain, we made our way to Potsdamer Platz for the concert in the Berlin Philharmonic auditorium. We picked up our pre-ordered tickets at 3, and thought about running back to the hostel to drop some things off since the concert didn't start until 4, but continuing rain, wet shoes, and heavy eyes made the decision for us to just hang around the building for a snooze in the hallway. The concert was "Family Oriented" so we felt a bit out of place at first being the only couple there without kids, but that quickly went away. The concert was indeed geared for families as the "moderator" took on the identity of Antonio Stradivarius and explained the process of Violin making. We would have liked to have heard more music, but the instrumentalists were superb and hearing them play on Stradivarius instruments was so impressive.

Not feeling my best, Brandon got us back to the hostel so I could take some medicine and rest. I am now feeling quite a bit better, and since Germany is playing in the Fussball Finale at 8:45, we are thinking about going out to see the live screening of it at the Brandenburger Tor. Hopefully the rain will let up a bit and we will be able to enjoy the festivities for our final night in Berlin.