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!
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