So we finished up the amazing city of Prague by going up the hill to their amazing castle and gothic church which have been there for centuries. i loved prague and its quaintness and castle arcitecture but i only have a little bit of time on the computer so i will try to recap what I can for you that has happened recently...
Berlin is a very very interesting city with extremely poignant
history. we took a 4 hour walking tour of the city the other day
(mostly through east berlin) and the things this city/country has gone
through over the past century is pretty unfathomable. hearing about
the berlin wall and the division of the iron curtain is one thing, but
then seeing the city that was split down its heart by a wall with a
death zone, and seeing how the city developed differently on both
sides is truly astonishing. it is weird after going to cities with its
most important history being hundreds of years ago to going to a place
like this where the city is only 19 years old.
Berlin is also absolutely huge. the metro system is expansive,
underground overground with trains and buses and metros. it takes us a
good 45 min to get from our hostel into the city center. the
architecture here is also extremely modern, and you can tell how much
of a production economy they are just by looking around. there is also
rele cool graffiti everywhere.
We visited everything from the famous Brandenburg gate to the Pergamon museum with ancient Babylonian, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian ruins, with an ancient Babylonian gate that was buried underground for years. we visited parts of the Berlin wall that have been turned into a modern artistic, graffiti cultural mural. We have eaten good sausage and curryworst, and drank good cheap beer. the people here are so nice, and they seem to want to try and help you understand their city as best as possible.
Today we woke up early and went on this tour of the
concentration camp that was the nerve center for the holocaust (I cant remember all the names of places off the top of my head, when i get home ill tell you), and it was really interesting and depressing. The one thing about this camp was it was a production and work camp as opposed to solely a death camp, so it was different than i was expecting (huge and open areas with brickworking and machinery things along with the death places) but still sad.
Well im running out of time here so I am going to have to say goodbye, tomorrow i leave for Amsterdam so ill let you know how it is after my nine hour train ride tomorrow!
David
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Italy and now Prague
So its been a while since my last post and so much has happened but i will try to give you a quick update. We went to Florence then Rome then Venice and now I am in Prague. Florence was an awesome city, the architecture is amazing, the Duomo is unreal (and we walked all 400 steps to the top to get and amazing aerial view of the city), the David in the Accademia was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen (it is hard to explain until you get there and realize the absolute enormity and perfectness of it), we went on a wine tasting tour in Tuscany, ate some wonderful food, haggled with street vendors, saw some unbelievable churches and just had a great time.
Rome was a big incredible city. the romans were amazing people, and the scale and grandour of everything they accomplished is breathtaking. the city is so cool in the fact that the city seems to have layer upon layer of history thrown on top of each other, the first starting over 2000 years ago. we saw all the ancient roman sights, saw all the fountains and acquaducts and cool always-flowing water fountains. then there was the vatican. i cant even explain it properly enough to justify the magnificence and scale of detail and money that must have gone in to build the entire thing. the artwork by rafael and michaelangelo is incredible, and the cathedral is enormous (the biggest in the world). we saw all of rome and walked around through other crazy stuff but those were the highlights.
after the airline lost our bags for a day coming back to barcelona, and after the airline i was taking to venice went bankrupt but didnt tell any of its customers so we got one hour of sleep on these couches in a hotel i stayed at previously and had to buy new tickets that left at 630 and after taking a 15 and 70 euro respectively cab rides for going to the wrong terminal/airport respectively we finally arrived in venice.
Venice is a cool city, with the water running through the town and there being "water atxis" which are like there metro syste, but on water, the city is unlike any in the entire world. we continously got lost in a labiryth of streets and bridges, but the uniqueness of the city (along with its combination of East meets West style) is unparralled.
So now i am in Prague, which is probably my favorite city I have visited thus far. there is a huge castle overlooking the city, cobble stoned streets, eastern european aricticture with gothic and a lot of castle looking spires. there are big squares and lots of green, the bars are pretty cool, we went to this wild one that was all made out of crazy metal stuff and there was this live reggae guys performing. there is the big charles river cutting through the middle of the town, and our hostel is right outside the big main square with an astronomical clock tower, a big castle tower thing, and it is pretty nice too.
Tommorrw we are going to go to the other side of the river and go to the big castle, and hopefuly find our way up this big hill to have an epic view of the town. oh and i want to bring home some absinthe from here, there are some crazy ones with beatles and worms in them which looks pretty wild.
So i have been having the time of my life out here, a few more days here then on to Berlin, hopefully without all the travel problems I have had previously. Hope everyone is having an awesome summer!
Rome was a big incredible city. the romans were amazing people, and the scale and grandour of everything they accomplished is breathtaking. the city is so cool in the fact that the city seems to have layer upon layer of history thrown on top of each other, the first starting over 2000 years ago. we saw all the ancient roman sights, saw all the fountains and acquaducts and cool always-flowing water fountains. then there was the vatican. i cant even explain it properly enough to justify the magnificence and scale of detail and money that must have gone in to build the entire thing. the artwork by rafael and michaelangelo is incredible, and the cathedral is enormous (the biggest in the world). we saw all of rome and walked around through other crazy stuff but those were the highlights.
after the airline lost our bags for a day coming back to barcelona, and after the airline i was taking to venice went bankrupt but didnt tell any of its customers so we got one hour of sleep on these couches in a hotel i stayed at previously and had to buy new tickets that left at 630 and after taking a 15 and 70 euro respectively cab rides for going to the wrong terminal/airport respectively we finally arrived in venice.
Venice is a cool city, with the water running through the town and there being "water atxis" which are like there metro syste, but on water, the city is unlike any in the entire world. we continously got lost in a labiryth of streets and bridges, but the uniqueness of the city (along with its combination of East meets West style) is unparralled.
So now i am in Prague, which is probably my favorite city I have visited thus far. there is a huge castle overlooking the city, cobble stoned streets, eastern european aricticture with gothic and a lot of castle looking spires. there are big squares and lots of green, the bars are pretty cool, we went to this wild one that was all made out of crazy metal stuff and there was this live reggae guys performing. there is the big charles river cutting through the middle of the town, and our hostel is right outside the big main square with an astronomical clock tower, a big castle tower thing, and it is pretty nice too.
Tommorrw we are going to go to the other side of the river and go to the big castle, and hopefuly find our way up this big hill to have an epic view of the town. oh and i want to bring home some absinthe from here, there are some crazy ones with beatles and worms in them which looks pretty wild.
So i have been having the time of my life out here, a few more days here then on to Berlin, hopefully without all the travel problems I have had previously. Hope everyone is having an awesome summer!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Short update
So after ancient castles, Roman arenas and aquaducts, fields of sunflowers, monasteries and gothic churches, amazing food and cute towns, we have finally finished up with beautiful Provence and its amazingly nice people and headed towards Nice. Nice has been an interesting little city, much bigger than any of the towns in provence, and is a cutesy little french town with tons of sidewalk cafes and tons of little shops (as well as all of your high end french designer fashion super stars like louis votton dulche and gabonna however you spell those things and others) the beach boardwalk was very pretty but there was no sand, simply rocks that heated like an oven under your butt. so it was a nice place to spend a half day but I am ready to move on. So tomorrow is an almost all day train ride to the awesome city of Florence, I cant wait to see what is in store for me there!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Meeting up with the Family
So my days in Barcelona are officially over :( I took my spanish final, had a few fiestas with my friends and then bid them goodbye. well technically barca is not completely over because I am going back for one day, but essentially over. My dad and marlys came out for a few days, took the roommates out to some awesome place to eat amazing seafood, and I took them on a tour around the city. Then my mom and John and kelly came out so I took them around barca as their official tour guide showing them some of my favorite things that I have experienced over the past month. From cool sites such as Arc de Triumf and La Sagrada Familia, to good food such as doner kabobs and this place CDLC, to entertainment, sights, and plenty of cool Gaudi. I think they got a good feel for the city and hopefully they had a good time, even if I did walk them about ten miles every day.
So we took an early train to Southern France and are currently staying at a nice hotel in Sant Reme de Provence which is South of Avignon. Intial prognosis of France is the following: the food is absolutely amazing. It comes awesomely prepared and is some of the best dishes I have had. The wine is awesome and cheap, the people are really really nice (I know right! maybe its cuz we are in small cities or something) the landscape is awesome, and its unbelievable the history that is behind this place. We went and visited the castle fortress of Lea Baux which was first built in the 12th century. The ruins still show an awesome amount of history and turmoil. We also saw a monastery first built in 98 AD and also visited ancient Roman churches and arenas. And this was only in our first real day here! Its a good thing we rented a car which allows us to get from place to place much easier. Tommorrow we are going to visit some wineries as well as one of the biggest Roman acuadeucts. There is other stuff ont the agenda, but I let the parents figure it out, it is nice not having to do all the planning for the first time in a month. oh and its also awesome not to have to really pay for anything, yeah it will only last so long but ive got to take advantage of it while its here.
In two days we are going to drive over to Niece and spend a day there and then take a train to Florence. I am extremely excited for what lays in store for me. This place is as different from Barcelona as I could possibly imagine, but it has so many awesome qualities that Barca didnt. Oh, and btw, this language is impossibly hard. But everyone here sounds so cool, their language is so beautiful, they even manage to make english sound good with their accents! The only things I know how to say are hello, good-bye, good night, good day, and the check please. Yeah it makes things a little difficult but we manage haha. well this was only a short post as Im sure a lot are going to be from here on out but hope everyone is having a good summer!
David
So we took an early train to Southern France and are currently staying at a nice hotel in Sant Reme de Provence which is South of Avignon. Intial prognosis of France is the following: the food is absolutely amazing. It comes awesomely prepared and is some of the best dishes I have had. The wine is awesome and cheap, the people are really really nice (I know right! maybe its cuz we are in small cities or something) the landscape is awesome, and its unbelievable the history that is behind this place. We went and visited the castle fortress of Lea Baux which was first built in the 12th century. The ruins still show an awesome amount of history and turmoil. We also saw a monastery first built in 98 AD and also visited ancient Roman churches and arenas. And this was only in our first real day here! Its a good thing we rented a car which allows us to get from place to place much easier. Tommorrow we are going to visit some wineries as well as one of the biggest Roman acuadeucts. There is other stuff ont the agenda, but I let the parents figure it out, it is nice not having to do all the planning for the first time in a month. oh and its also awesome not to have to really pay for anything, yeah it will only last so long but ive got to take advantage of it while its here.
In two days we are going to drive over to Niece and spend a day there and then take a train to Florence. I am extremely excited for what lays in store for me. This place is as different from Barcelona as I could possibly imagine, but it has so many awesome qualities that Barca didnt. Oh, and btw, this language is impossibly hard. But everyone here sounds so cool, their language is so beautiful, they even manage to make english sound good with their accents! The only things I know how to say are hello, good-bye, good night, good day, and the check please. Yeah it makes things a little difficult but we manage haha. well this was only a short post as Im sure a lot are going to be from here on out but hope everyone is having a good summer!
David
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Last week in Barcelona :(
So this is officially my last week in Barcelona which is kind of sad, and I cant believe how fast this month has flown by. I have done things every single day here and there is still things that I havent had the chance to do. Well to update you on the past few days...
I went to Madrid this weekend, and decided it was a cool city, but different from Barcelona and no where near as cool. It is a very big and crowded city, very modern. There were a ton of banks and financial districts, i didnt like the architecture anywhere near as much as barca, it just seemed like a really big city. One thing about it that I thought was cooler than barca was the fact that it was an extremly clean city, and also the fact that there was lots of green mixed in with the city (trees bushes parks and actually a prak with a lake in the middle that you could rent paddle boats and paddle around) We stayed in a relatively nice hotel in the city center and prob the best thing I did there was visit the Palacio Real which is the royal palace there. It was an absolutely incredible building (the inside) there were gold plated tapestries and gigantic silver chandiliers and the coolest paintings everywhere. The entire building was completely over the top decorated with wild things, gigantic carpets and every room had different themes to them. It was another place where you couldnt take pictures which was unfortunate cuz its hard to explain it but if you have ever been to hearst castle it is similar in design.
I also went into the Prado museum because it is supposedly one of the best museums in Europe or something, but I was honestly really bored. It was a bunch of paintings (mostly religous) from a long long time ago (14th to 19th century)
I also went into the photographic exhibition of Annie Leibowitz who took photos of many famous people/things (one of her popular ones was pregnant demi moore for vanity fair i believe) but it was really cool and interesting
Then I was suppossed to fly home to meet up with my dad and marlys, however I forgot my passport and they said they wouldnt allow copies. So I had to scramble around trying to find a way to get back to barca and eventually got to the train station and took a high speed train back home which took only 2.5 hours (9.5 by bus and 1.5 by plane so it was a pretty cool way to go)
Then the next day with my dad we went around the city, got a good lunch, went down to the beach, checked out a few cool sites including some old catholic churches and roman fortress (stuff ive already seen earlier) and the cool gothic quarter, then went and saw this light show at Montjuic. It is Belagio like display in the middle of one of the squares and was pretty cool.
The next day we must have walked at least 10 miles, covering the entire city from one far end to the other (using a lot of metro of course) We went up to the highest point in barcelona called Tibidabo. There is a cable car that takes you up a good portion of the mountain (which we couldnt find and ended up walking the entire thing) and then a car/tram thing that is pretty vertical jutting through the side of the mountain that takes you the rest of the way up. Up at the top there is an amusement park (i know random right?) and some bars and restaurants and this early 19th century church with a statue of Jesus looking over the city which they allow you to walk up the windy staircases and get to the base of his feet. It was an amazing 360 degree view, and I didnt realize that behind barca away from the beach are lots of green mountain/hills which are really pretty.
Then we went back to the other side of the city and got onto this gondola-like thing that was built to connect Olympic village and the new modern area to where they built the stadiums and swimming pools etc. It was another good view from the other side of barca, and went over the harbor and dropped you off right down by the beach.
Then dad and marlys took my roommates and I out to eat at this amazing restaurant right on the Marina and we got a schmorgesborg of amazing seafood. It included everything from mussels, octopus, hake and other fish I have never heard of, to my dinner platter of lobster paella, which was probably the best thing I have eaten yet in Europe. The roommates and I then went out with lots of people from our program and had a fun night.
Next on the list is my Mom, John and Kelly coming out for a visit for a few days. I have a ten min oral presentation tomorrow morning which I made a cool powerpoint for earlier today. Thursday is my final and the family coming out (which is going to really help since I am running out of money much faster than I expected out here, too bad the dollar is so weak) so it will be nice to get some good food and take them around and show them my city for a few days before Italy. I dont know how much I am going to be able to blog after my program ends, but I will try to keep up with it as best as I can. Have a good week and see you soon Mom!
David
I went to Madrid this weekend, and decided it was a cool city, but different from Barcelona and no where near as cool. It is a very big and crowded city, very modern. There were a ton of banks and financial districts, i didnt like the architecture anywhere near as much as barca, it just seemed like a really big city. One thing about it that I thought was cooler than barca was the fact that it was an extremly clean city, and also the fact that there was lots of green mixed in with the city (trees bushes parks and actually a prak with a lake in the middle that you could rent paddle boats and paddle around) We stayed in a relatively nice hotel in the city center and prob the best thing I did there was visit the Palacio Real which is the royal palace there. It was an absolutely incredible building (the inside) there were gold plated tapestries and gigantic silver chandiliers and the coolest paintings everywhere. The entire building was completely over the top decorated with wild things, gigantic carpets and every room had different themes to them. It was another place where you couldnt take pictures which was unfortunate cuz its hard to explain it but if you have ever been to hearst castle it is similar in design.
I also went into the Prado museum because it is supposedly one of the best museums in Europe or something, but I was honestly really bored. It was a bunch of paintings (mostly religous) from a long long time ago (14th to 19th century)
I also went into the photographic exhibition of Annie Leibowitz who took photos of many famous people/things (one of her popular ones was pregnant demi moore for vanity fair i believe) but it was really cool and interesting
Then I was suppossed to fly home to meet up with my dad and marlys, however I forgot my passport and they said they wouldnt allow copies. So I had to scramble around trying to find a way to get back to barca and eventually got to the train station and took a high speed train back home which took only 2.5 hours (9.5 by bus and 1.5 by plane so it was a pretty cool way to go)
Then the next day with my dad we went around the city, got a good lunch, went down to the beach, checked out a few cool sites including some old catholic churches and roman fortress (stuff ive already seen earlier) and the cool gothic quarter, then went and saw this light show at Montjuic. It is Belagio like display in the middle of one of the squares and was pretty cool.
The next day we must have walked at least 10 miles, covering the entire city from one far end to the other (using a lot of metro of course) We went up to the highest point in barcelona called Tibidabo. There is a cable car that takes you up a good portion of the mountain (which we couldnt find and ended up walking the entire thing) and then a car/tram thing that is pretty vertical jutting through the side of the mountain that takes you the rest of the way up. Up at the top there is an amusement park (i know random right?) and some bars and restaurants and this early 19th century church with a statue of Jesus looking over the city which they allow you to walk up the windy staircases and get to the base of his feet. It was an amazing 360 degree view, and I didnt realize that behind barca away from the beach are lots of green mountain/hills which are really pretty.
Then we went back to the other side of the city and got onto this gondola-like thing that was built to connect Olympic village and the new modern area to where they built the stadiums and swimming pools etc. It was another good view from the other side of barca, and went over the harbor and dropped you off right down by the beach.
Then dad and marlys took my roommates and I out to eat at this amazing restaurant right on the Marina and we got a schmorgesborg of amazing seafood. It included everything from mussels, octopus, hake and other fish I have never heard of, to my dinner platter of lobster paella, which was probably the best thing I have eaten yet in Europe. The roommates and I then went out with lots of people from our program and had a fun night.
Next on the list is my Mom, John and Kelly coming out for a visit for a few days. I have a ten min oral presentation tomorrow morning which I made a cool powerpoint for earlier today. Thursday is my final and the family coming out (which is going to really help since I am running out of money much faster than I expected out here, too bad the dollar is so weak) so it will be nice to get some good food and take them around and show them my city for a few days before Italy. I dont know how much I am going to be able to blog after my program ends, but I will try to keep up with it as best as I can. Have a good week and see you soon Mom!
David
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Relaxing week
So after my previous crazy weekend, I have the feeling that everything is going to seem pretty mellow from here forward. So far this week has been exactly that. I went to a few museums, the Museo de Maritim (which is a museum built from an old shipyard down by the harbor, and has lots of replicas and many preserved old items from Barcelona's maritim history. They were in fact the power of the sea a few centuries ago, and there was a lot of interesting information) and the FC Barcelona football museum, where they have the Champions Cup (the biggest award in club soccer, basically winning the Super Bowl here...) and got to see the 120,000 person stadium. It was absolutely massive, with all the seats packed together. I couldn't even imagine the place filled to capacity, with hundreds of thousands of screaming rambuncous fans. It is one thing I really wish I could see here.
Another day I went up the 200 meters to the top of one of the towers of La Sagrada Familia and had an excellent view of the city, albeit from a very precarious position. I also went to the Gaudi designed Parc Guell, which was originally designed to be a country club for elite Barcelonians, but after the financier died, the city commissioned it and turned it into a public park. It is a strange, almost fantasy land like park with weird houses that look like gingerbread house, cool sculptures, a leaning towers, strange caves; basically a very strange and surreal park designed by the cities most famous arcitect.
Other than that it has been a very mild, relaxing week where i seem to have done a lot of walking/exploring around districts and finding cool places to eat. Tommorrow our class is going to do an exchange thing with another spanish school where their students are learning english, and we are going to talk with them and do activiteis etc which should be really fun. After that I am going to take a train up north to nicer beaches away from the city and see how they are. This weekend I have an excursion with my school to Madrid, we are taking a 9 hour bus right (ugh!) and then get to stay in a hotel and the next day get a tour of the city. My dad and step mom are coming out this weekend as well so I am going to fly home early to show them around a bit. So, have a good weekend and ill try to post some pictures up if I can!
David
Another day I went up the 200 meters to the top of one of the towers of La Sagrada Familia and had an excellent view of the city, albeit from a very precarious position. I also went to the Gaudi designed Parc Guell, which was originally designed to be a country club for elite Barcelonians, but after the financier died, the city commissioned it and turned it into a public park. It is a strange, almost fantasy land like park with weird houses that look like gingerbread house, cool sculptures, a leaning towers, strange caves; basically a very strange and surreal park designed by the cities most famous arcitect.
Other than that it has been a very mild, relaxing week where i seem to have done a lot of walking/exploring around districts and finding cool places to eat. Tommorrow our class is going to do an exchange thing with another spanish school where their students are learning english, and we are going to talk with them and do activiteis etc which should be really fun. After that I am going to take a train up north to nicer beaches away from the city and see how they are. This weekend I have an excursion with my school to Madrid, we are taking a 9 hour bus right (ugh!) and then get to stay in a hotel and the next day get a tour of the city. My dad and step mom are coming out this weekend as well so I am going to fly home early to show them around a bit. So, have a good weekend and ill try to post some pictures up if I can!
David
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