Berlin: Tons of history, cool sites, and sobering images.  We learned all about Germanys past under Nazi and Communist rule, and saw where many important events took place.  We also took day trips to the palace at Potsdam and a concentration camp.  I tried to jump over the Berlin Wall (unsuccessfully), ate and enjoyed Russian food (to Olgas joy), discovered the wild fun that is public drinking, and got some insider hostel tips from our favorite hostel leader, Arthur.

Prague: The beautfiul architecture and cobblestone streets of Prague definitiely made it one of the more aestetically pleasing stops, but our variety of activities made it an especially cool experience.  We hiked throughout the mountains and hills of Cyechy Raj national preserve in northern Czech Republic, celebrated Olgas 21st birthday with an epic pub crawl, saw Barack Obamas first international speech (and by sheer luck stood about 20 yards away from the podium where he spoke…look out for the pictures), and seriously stalked NBC White House correspondant Chuck Todd for a good 30 minutes.  Aside from the worst hostel roommates ever (The Germans, as we called them), a great 4 days.

Vienna: Vienna was an awesome city with more beautiful buildings in a central cluster than Ive ever seen.  Our hostel, The Wombats, had a cool bar in the basement, and we brought in Marks 21st in style with cocktails and a trip to the opera.  This awful Austrian women tried to get us kicked out of the opera because we werent wearing jackets and starting screaming at us in German, but we kept our cool and managed to use her as the asshole position in a Presidents and Assholes cardgame that night.  We also trekked to the cemetary where Mozart and Beethoven lie, bought awesome hats (the boys) for Poland and beyond, and ate a ton of delicious Italian food!

Budapest: Another varied trip to a really cool city!  We toured the beautiful hilly Buda side by day and took a crazy, underground caving tour) with jumpsuits and helmuts and all!) in the evening.  The next day we spent a quality couple hours at a Turkish bath, saw the cool Heroes square, and explored more of the hills and a pretty island with great weather.  This cultimated in a 6 hour bus trip through beautiful Slovakia (with Sam) this morning at 6 am, and an arrival in Krakow, Poland.  So far, so good!

Hope this wets your appeitie enough for the full posts later.  Next up is Krakow, Wroclaw, and then 5 final relaxing days in Barcelona!  Bze for now!!

My brother arrived on Saturday as well, and I was really excited to  have him visit!  Dan Morris is a worldly traveler, having been to India and China, Israel, and a bike trip across the country.  This trip, however, marked his first visit to Europe, and so by definition, his best so far!  I took the long tube ride to the airport to pick him up, and we immediately set up on a day full of sitght-seeing and plans.  This may have been a little too ambitious considering he hadn’t slept in the past 24-ish hours, but as Walt said in an old Lost episode that Daniel either forgot or didn’t pay attention to: “we had work to do.”

First stop was the Tower of London, a tour that my Dad had raved about.  We went with Olga, Mark, and Colin, and began by receiving a free tour from a yeomen guard.  He was hilarious, telling us the history of the London Tower (which is kind of like a castle) intersperced with some hilarious jokes.  My favorites – “The tower of London was built in this location because of its proximity to the tube stop” and “That house is over there is the most important in the tower.  Its haunted.  Why is it the most important? Because I live there.  Why is it haunted?  Because so does my wife.” ZING.  Aside from some good knee-slappers, we saw the inner-workings of the tower grounds, the prisoner/traiter gate, the spot where they killed said traitors, and the queen’s jewels and glamour collection.  Everyone agreed it was a great tour, and even worth the steep admission price.

From there we met up with Sam and headed to Notting Hill gate, where we walked through the infamous Portobello Road Market.  Although we didn’t stop for too long to long at the usual array of trinkets, we did have enough time to get a delicious falafel at the Falafel King.  Daniel was starting to look delirious at this point, so we decided (sort of unclearly, apparently) to do one more closeby attraction.  Another visit to Abbey Road.  This time there were 5 of us (Me, Daniel, Sam, Mark Colin), so we took turns taking pictures with everyone in different positions.  I wasn’t the only Ringo this time!  We also were drastically more efficient, and laughed as a bunch of JV tourists kept messing up their pictures.  Amateurs!

Daniel headed on home to sleep, and the remaining 4 of us made chicken parm and watched Part 1 of Watchmen (I still haven’t seen Part 2).  When I awoke in the morning, I realized I had slept for almost 11 hours!  Daniel, was still sleeping as well, and he had gone to bed 5 hours before me!  Fully refreshed, we set off for another day of London sightseeing – Speakers Corner in Hyde Park and a picnic, the Trafalgar Square St. Patty’s Day Parade, and a tour of Westminster (Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, etc.).  For this, we have to share some of the great bro-tastic pictures!  For dinner, we went to Brick Lane with Mark and Olga, where we were begged by every Indian restaurant manager to eat at their place.  After much deliberation we chose one, and it was delicious!

On Monday, we had an epic adventure day: our trip to the mysterious Stonehenge.  Although this is casually explained in the upcoming video, heres how it went down…  First, we took the tube to Waterloo, where we caught a 1.5 hour train to Salisbury.  Salisbury is a cute English town with lots of green pastures and a pretty cathedral.  We were informed of our two options to get to Stonehenge: either pay 14.50 for the Stonehenge tour bus that takes you straight there and back with free admision or pay 5.25 for a bus ticket to Amesbury, walk 2.5 miles each way to get to the rocks, and pay 5.10 to get in.  Being the adventure-thirsty Morris boys that we are, we took the latter option, hoping to save 4 pounds and have a nice walk.

We toyed with the idea of biking, so we checked a local bike shop to see if they rented for the day.  Ian, the bike shop guy, informed us that they didn’t rent, but there was a place nearby that did.  He said he had heard that they were all sold out for the week, but he looked up their exact location for us anyways.  Nice guy!  I pointed out to Daniel that the next bus to Amesbury left very soon, but he still wanted to give the other bike shop a chance.  Sure enough, we missed the bus and the bike shop was empty.  Lets just hope the future Doctor makes better decisions in the operating room.  Just kidding!

When the next bus finally came, we were fifth in line – behind 4 little old, adorable, English ladies.  This meant that we could get the greatest seats on the bus: the two on the top above the driver.  We got a great view of the countryside as we drove along the narrow, unbikable path to Amesbury.  It was really pretty.  At Amesbury, a smaller town than even Salisbury, we talked to Anne, a nice lady who told us which direction we would want to go to get to Stonehenge.  As we walked the 2.5 miles, we saw it in the distance and realized that directions wouldn’t be a huge problem.  Obviously, this sign was extremely helpful:

Stonehenge was pretty cool as we approached it closer, but we wondered what the deal with an admission was.  Like, the rocks were just in a field.  Apparently, this is a hot button topic, because a crazy old guy was sitting outside the barrier with protest signs about the English Heritage foundation.  We supported the guys wishes (and our own), as we Philly-fanned our way into a crowded bus tour group and walked through without paying.  We also got free audio guides and learned about the rock’s mysteries.  But after a long and speculative story and past, it really seemed obvious to both of us that the rocks were used as a Sun Calendar.  What really makes them cool is that they’ve been there for almost 5000 years (since 2500 BC).  We sat on a bench to play chess and took some funny pictures.

Watch the videos!

Once we had squeezed all the possible fun out of a Stonehenge trip, we headed back to Amesbury and ate pumpkin bread at a local bakery.  Then we took the bus back to Salisbury and checked out the town a little.  Very pretty town squares and cathedral, probably worth more time than we gave it!  By dinnertime, we were already headed back to London!  At night, I took Daniel to The Fitzrovia, one of the many pubs in my neighborhood.  For the first time, I bought him a beer – a Hoegaarden, one of my favorites.

On Tuesday, we went to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards in the morning, and the Imperial War Museum in the afternoon.  Both were cool and worth a second visit.  In the afternoon I had to actually attend class, so I went to the National Gallery for Art History, and left Daniel to explore it himself as well as the National Portrait Gallery.

For dinner, Daniel and I met up with our cousin, Gillian!!!  She was visiting a friend from school in London coincidentally on the same week, so we picked her up from her local tube stop and headed over to COVENT GARDEN for dinner.  I used caps for Covent Garden in case Gillian forgot what it was called – she was really adamant about being able to tell her friend she’d been there.  The dinner was great, it was nice catching up with Gillian and I think we all had a great time.  She surprised us after we ate with the news that my Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Robert would be paying for the meal via plastic, and Daniel and I quickly (and graciously) accepted.  I only wish I could have known before dinner so I would have bought a more expensive item on the menu (just kidding guys – thanks so much for dinner!).  From there I pretended to be lost (sort of) and took Gillian down to the Thames River where she saw Big Ben and Parliament for the first time at night.  It was a pretty site and definitely picture-worthy, but sadly for the blog it was taken on Gillian’s camera. Here is one of her and my brother on the tube back to Gillian’s stop:

On Wednesday, Daniel and I had another trip: a visit to the old and beautiful college town, Cambridge.  We met with Irina’s friend, Lindsay, who is a Gates Scholar there and showed us around as well as all the Cambridge and Gates perks.  We learned about the old traditon of punting, (I thought we should have gone for it!) which is a lot like self-gondolaing.  We also helped ourselves to the free Gates Scholars vending machine.  Thats right, a vending machine where everything is free!  We all got soup(s), hot chocolate, and chilled water.  Lindsay also took us to her college, Trinity, and some of the rival colleges like St. Johns and Kings.  It was mutual agreement that Trinity was the best, especially since the Wash U quad was modeled entirely off of it.  Only senior deans can walk on the grass in Cambridge, and they flaunt their status.  We tried not to let it stop us.  Shhh!

On Thursday, Daniel had finally caught up with Lost, so we watched the newest episode at Sam’s.  I finally had to spend a full day at class, so Daniel went off to find a library to study in.  When we met up again at 4, we headed over to Leicster Square with Olga where we happened to run into the UK movie primere of Fast and Furious.  Although we didn’t wait for VIn Diesel, we did get to see Paul Walker and the infamous Michelle Rodriguez/Daniel’s favorite Lost character, Ana Lucia!  Fun and random.

At night, we went to see Oliver!a fantastic show that was highlighted by the fact that our favorite British actor – Rowan Atkinson, was starring in it.  That’s right, Mr. Bean himself!  Although the role didn’t necessarily warrant any Bean-like behaviors, Rowan definitely threw some in and it was hilarious to see live.  Aside from just Bean, the show itself was fantastic, and Daniel and I both had a great time.  After the show we met Sam and Mark for a night cap at The Court.

On Friday, Daniel’s last day, we went to Brough Market for lunch, did the Thames Walk, and saw St. Paul’s cathedral.  We basically took it easy, and made a delicious dinner with Olga at her place.  We also split some delicious Floris Apple Beers that really taste like Fuji apples.

And that was the trip!  It was amzing to hang out with Daniel in London and other parts of England, and we both had a really fun time!

Well thats all folks.  Tonight I leave for Berlin and then eastern Europe for 3 weeks!  See you all then!  Hopefully, I’ll be able to make some updates on the road, but its doubtful.  Also, note the last two travel locations on the schedule.  I just recently booked tickets to Cinque Terre and Ireland.  Bye for now!

There was nothing really to report on our first day, there.  We had a relatively uneventful 45 minute flight and 4 other hours of shuttling, waiting, and train-ing to our final destination, despite the previous day’s tragedy at the Amsterdam airport.  When we arrived, we checked into our hostel, roamed the streets a little, and went to sleep.  Only 2 sketchy guys asked me if I wanted to buy hardcore drugs as I walked along that night, which turned out to be a record low.  I really don’t understand what attracted the drug dealer’s to me.  It may have been my dirty, Jack from Season 3 finale-like jacket, my long, messy hair, and the 2.5 weeks of not shaving that rubbed them the…right way, but I guess I’ll never know.  Speaking of not shaving, Sam and I have agreed to pull a Dan Morris on our long 3 week eastern Europe trip, so I may have to fend off some more of them pretty soon.

On Friday morning, Sam and Mark finally arrived, and we all headed over to the Anne Frank house.  It was sad and interesting and definitiely worth a visit, especially considering the strong gradient in subject matters between the house and the rest of the city.  Not that the city is bad.  It actually is quite pretty, with many canals and bicyclists, big parks and city squares.  Sadly, it either rained or looked gloomy every day we were there, and theres no mistaking that the streets really do reek of pot.

Next, we got subpar and expensive crepes at a famous “Pancake” house that reminded me of Jade Goody, because neither should actually be famous.  Too soon?  In the evening we went to the sex museum, which was unintentionally hilarious and kind of sad.  Not as sad, however, as the windows and windows of prostitutes lining the streets of the Red-Light District.  There are literally hundreds of girls standing or sitting in these windows wearing bikinis and making gestures at you throughout all hours of the day/night.  They come in all shapes and sizes (and ethnicities and ages, etc), and some are actually pretty atractive.  We were happy to see a few guys walk in and out of some of the rooms behind the windows; the girls pay 200 euros a day to use the windows , and they only get about 50 euros per “client.”  In light of the current economic crisis, their daily investments must be at risk!

On Saturday, Sam, Mark, and I did the Heinekin experience: a self-guided, but awesome tour through the Heinekin brewery.  We learned about the brewing process, experienced the 4-D “Brew You” journey, and starred in our own James Bond/Heinekin beer commercials:

We also drank two free beers before noon, and I helped the bartender serve the “perfectly poured glasses” by knocking off the excess foam with the official Heiny Wand.  We all agreed that it was a great tour, and we even purchased Heinekin glasses at the end.  Purchased!?  I know, right?  They only cost 2.33 euros a glass, which is less than the price of a beer, so we all agreed that we were saving money.  Self-justification? Check.

Next, we had a picnic in the Vondelpark: turkey and cheese sandwiches, pretzels, and bananas.  Sam and Mark left to go home, and me, Olga, and Bernacchi checked in to our new hostel: Bob’s.  Bob’s hostel was a funny place.  It was in the Red-light District, and literally on one side of us was a coffee shop and on the other side of us was a window with a prostitute in it.  You also could smoke pot in the main room of Bob’s, but not cigarettes.  As Bob put it, “Green smoke = good, other smoke = bad.”  This wasn’t just a policy from Bob’s but in fact the whole city.  Recently, Amsterdam hilariously passed an indoor smoking ban which only applies to tabacco.

To kill time, the three of us decided to take a short ferry ride to North Amsterdam where we saw residential living and not much else.  That night, we walked around the Red-Light District one more time, but sadly did not find some of the freaky one-legged or three-armed prostitutes that I’d heard existed.  You might say I was looking in the wrong places, but I probably needed to be in the “wrong places” if I really wanted to find them.

The highlight of Sunday was finding the “I amsterdam” sign.  Its like I am amsterdam, but they cut out one of the “am”s.  Clever.  We took fun pictures for a little while and then relaxed until the flight home.

Oh, and we ate at this yummy Falafel place called Maoz like 5 times.  The food in Amsterdam otherwise sucked.  Except for Choco-Duo which is like Nutella but instead of just chocolate, its Vanilla and Chocolate striped.  I haven’t found it anywhere else, but if you do, please let me know!  Bye!

For all those readers out there who theorized that my insane eating diet in Italy would cease along with Sam’s presence…you were sadly mistaken.  Not long after our goodbye at Pizza Boom, Nicole and I hopped over to a little spaghetti place near her apartment where we devoured two plates of delicious Riggatoni Vodka.  She also taught me the perils of eating in Italian restaurants that made me cringe: they add 3 euros to the bill automatically in exchange for “free” bread and they don’t serve tap water.  Nicole made me order seltzer water which I do not like in the slightest, so I ended up paying for water which I didn’t even want.  A low point in my career as a consumer.

Nicole and I had planned to watch a movie that night, but my eyes could not stay open so we abandoned ship and turned in early.  Where did I sleep?  My room in London is a single with a bed, a sink, a fridge, a desk, and yellow walls.  Nicole’s apartment in Rome had a freaking guest room.  I had my own room, my own bed, and best of all, a shared bathroom with 2 other girls.

The next few days I had a great time doing 2nd tier touristy things with Nicole.  We went to a flea market and got 2 pairs of sunglasseses for 6 euros.  I like shopping at markets where you can barter.  The key is to not be infactuated with an item.  They can usually tell if you’re going to buy it.  Rather, find something you’d consider buying or kind of want, ask how much it is, and then start to walk away.  One of two things will happen: a) they’ll call you back and lower the price (jackpot!) or b) you’ll walk away asking yourself if you have too much pride to turn around and buy it.  If you get a), you’re golden.  If they lower the price even once, they’ll definitely be willing to lower it some more.  You’re welcome.

We also went to the gardens, a couple more restaurants and gelaterias, some bars and clubs (where Nicole’s roommate Kelly helped me steal a sweet Nastro Azzura glass), and I did some exploring of mine own in St. Peters at the Vatican.  All in all it was a great few days of exploring Rome, seeing Nicole, and relaxing.

Getting home, however, was not so relaxing.  There was this massive strike or protest going on in the street between Nicole’s house and the road to the train station where I had to catch a shuttle to my plane.  Needless to say, there was a roadblock and the police wouldn’t let me go through.  I don’t think I looked like a protester and I tried to explain to the guy that I was just trying to catch my plane, but sadly he didn’t speak English.  Here is a video of the madness in the street from earlier in the day (I saw a commotion and assumed it must be the pope coming, so I stuck around):

I did make it to the train station eventually, but I had to hop on a different shuttle to make it to the airport on time.  Oh those crazy Italians!

Next up: Amsterdam, Paris, and a week with my broskie.

HEY EVERYBODY! Sorry for the long delay, but as you might imagine, things have been quite…hectic around here.  My crazy five weekends straight of traveling are behind me, as well as visits from Colin from Wash U and a week with my brother!  Very exciting stuff that I will all talk about (eventually)!  Look for a bunch of posts in the next few days before we head off on our crazy three-week Eastern Europe adventure! Anyways, on to my travels…

When we last left off, Sam and I were jet-setting across Italy from Venice to Rome.  Sure enough, we made it.  Once at Termini (the main train station in Rome), Sam and I metroed over to the stop closest to our hostel, and picked up real Roman pizza and these fried ball things.  After walking past the building twice, we finally discovered that the brilliantly titled Happy Days Hostel was not its own building, but rather a 5th floor apartment with beds.  While we certainly did have “happy days” while we stayed in Rome, our nights and mornings in the hostel were… not so much.  A strange old man that was definitely not the Fonz chain-smoked in the kitchen and the bed to bathroom ratio was bigger than the number of stolen glasses I have sitting on my window sill (i.e. a lot).  To avoid the queues, Sam and I brushed our teeth in plastic cups and skipped a shower or two.

Not that it was all bad; we did get to watch one of the strangest episodes of Lost on the hostel computer and got a free map with cartoon versions of all the major sites.  The first night we arrived, we decided to check off two of the little cartoons: the Vatican (a short walk from our hostel) and the Saint Angelo Castle.  We realized quickly how beautiful the city was at night and became very excited to explore it by day.

The next morning we did it all!  First, we met up with Sam’s friend and our personal tour guide, Kate, at the Pantheon.  From there we trekked to the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the extravagent Vittorio Emanuel monument, and of course, the old Roman Forum and Collisuem.  Aside from the amazing architecture and design at each site, we also found fountains and sculptures on almost every street and piazza.  Rome is truly incredible in the way its integrated 21st century life with 0 century life.  On one side of a street is a McDonalds.  On the other is an incredibly preserved landmark.  Here are a few pictures:

Kate left us around mid-afternoon, and Sam and I trekked around the city to a few more less-famous places: Pizza Art (a random restaurant where we had awesome sicillian pizza with things like potato risotto, shrimp, and salmon – you know its good pizza when they cut it with scissors…), the old synagogue (by accident, we had been sitting on the steps of the entrance for 10 minutes looking at our map, and then looked up and realized we were “home”), an island with a hospital that we used for a bathroom break, and a beautiful hill on the South side of the city where we sat and watched the sunset over the city.

This took us to dinnertime where we met back up with Kate and her friends to eat incredible spaghetti at “l’archetto,” and expensive drinks at Campo.  Sam and I missed the (what suddenly felt like) cheap pints we could get back in London.  At the first bar we went to, I became memorized by a sport shown on TV called “Hurling.”  Its basically an awesome combination of lacrosse with field hockey sticks, rugby, basketball, and football (the good kind).  Unfortunately, its really only played in Ireland, and I can’t imagine I’d be able to find it anywhere in America with the exception of maybe on “Versus.”  Check out a clip of it below:

I also met up with my buddy from high school, Sean, but it had to be a quick visit because it was already late in the evening and Sam and I had huge plans for the next morning: to be alone in the Sistene Chapel!  That’s right, we woke up at the crack of dawn (6:30) and rolled out of our hostel beds (technically I couldn’t roll because I was in a top bunk, but you get the idea) to head over to the mysterious Vatican Museum which didn’t open until 9.  We had both received tips to try to get there really early and really first in line and sure enough we did!  When we arrived, there was no clear indication of where the line began.  Rather there was just a man standing outside the museum exit and a group of Chinese newscasters taking some pictures of things from weired angles.  Confused, we tried three different places to start the line.  Finally, the guy at the exit walked through the exit (clearly a Vatican worker), and several other people came up to come through the exit.  One of them finally indicated to us where the line began.

After about 30 minutes of waiting, two girls came up to us and realized we were first in line.  Rather than becoming #3 and 4, they seemingly gave up and walked off.  30 more minutes passed until we finally got a few companions to wait in line with, so we have overestimated our wakeup time slightly.  Around 8,our excitiment began to vanish as we saw tour groups start to line up in a different line.  Masses and masses of people filled in and we cursed in agony at our misfortune.  Were we really going to have to share the Sistene Chapel with all these people?  We had been in line since 6:45!  As the tour groups were let in to the museum, Sam and I created drafts on the angry letters we would write to the Pope.  Although they would begin with “Dear Pope,” the rest of the letters are too graphic and inappropriate for a family website such as MTG.

At 8:40, those same girls who had their opportunities to be #3 and #4 in line but were now closer to 10 and 11, asked a guard what the deal was.  Why did we get screwed?  He simply said the tour groups paid more, but we would be let in soon.  Finally at 8:45, 15 minutes earlier than the time we were expecting, the guard let us in.  Sam and I knew that the tour groups had a 45 minute head-start on us, but the museum is kind of large and the Sistene Chapel is at the end.  So we did what we had to do.  We ran.  Signs everywhere pointed around corners and bends of the museum leading us to the Chapel.  We passed guards with raised eyebrows and tour groups wondering what the commotion was, but we would not be stopped.  Finally, we entered an empty room and looked around.  There were no more signs.  It took us about 5 seconds to look up at the ceiling and realize that we had made it.  And we were all alone!

After several high fives, we peered up and walked around the room taking it all in.  The ceiling truly was amazing.  We decided to lay on the ground to get a better view of it all.  After about 5 minutes a guard came in and asked us, “What are you doing?” Maybe it was a trick question, but Sam and I decided to stand up.  Moments later tour groups began to enter.  And that ended our 5 minutes alone in the Sistene Chapel.  Here are some bad illegal photographs I took (pictures aren’t allowed).

We stayed in the Chapel for about 20 minutes.  I didn’t realize that the picture of God touching Adam’s hand was in there, especially because the whole ceiling was amazing and it seemed strange for one painting to be so much more famous than the rest.  Afterwards we backtracked through the museum and looked at some of the other cool things that Popes had accumulated throughout the years, but it all seemed like chump change relative to Mike’s ceiling.

By the time we left we were pretty tired from our lack of sleep, so we took some pictures of the Pope’s house from the outside and headed back to out hostel to check out.  From there, I attempted to meet up with my friend, Nicole, who I would be staying with in Rome for the next 3 days.  She waited for me for over an hour at the Spanish Steps while I practiced my orienteering skills by getting to the Espagnola Palace that was located on my map.  Sadly for both of us, Espagnola Palace and the Spansh Steps are not the same.  But doesn’t “Espagnol” sound Spanish? Sam went off to fulfill his lifelong dream of getting a Roma Hard Rock Cafe shirt, and finally the 3 of us met up to go back to Nicole’s home on Trastevere.  Nicole informed us that we didn’t really have to pay for the tram, and we took her advice to heart.

After a small snack of toast with olive oil, Sam and I had our fairwell in traditional fashion – at a pizza place, called Pizza Boom.  Although my Italy travel companion was gone, the trip was not done yet.  I still had 3 more days to experience Rome with a local’s point of view – or at least a temporary local.  Next up: my 3 well-accomodated days with Nicole!

The first thing we did when we arrived was look for a place to eat.  We both were determined to eat lots of Italian food while we were on our trip – so much so that we made a pact to eat nothing but Italian food for the entirity of the 5 days.  The promise of 3.95 pasta on a store front led us into a restaurant that served us two different types of pastas: penne with a tomato sauce and linguine with a cheese sauce.  They were both delicious!  Unfortunately, we were charged closer to 5 euros and we weren’t sure why because everything was in Italian.  This became a constant theme throughout the trip – not necessarily getting exactly what we wanted or the best deals because of the language barrier.

Next stop was a gellateria, where we discovered the joys of true Italian gellato.  I got Vanilla and Sam got chocolatte.  It would be the last time we got such “boring” flavors.  One scoop cost 1.20, but as we later learned this was not uniform throughout the island.  Depending on the area of Venice you were in, a scoop of gellato could be as cheap as 1.00, occasionally around 1.20 or 1.25, and as expensive as 1.50.  We used the gellato prices to figure out which areas had cheaper food and shops.  Obviously, touristy and nearby areas would be 1.50 land, while the areas in-between would be 1.00 land.  By noon we were mavens of the Venice gellato industy!

One of the coolest parts of being in Venice was that it was during Carnivale, the annual big celebration!  The streets were flooded with people dressed up in ridiculous costumes and masks.  We talked about buying masks, and I decided that my favorite one was the “doctor mask” with a long beak.  Unfortuantely, we both had a strange feeling that it was somehow anti-semetic, and I struggled for the next two days over whether to gamble and buy it.  In the end, my fear of betraying my people in a very ironic situation was too much and I went home maskless. I’m still not sure if it is or isn’t.  Any thoughts??  Here’s what it looks like:

Here are some of my favorite costumes that I saw on the streets:

We spent most of the afternoon just wandering the island aimlessly.  We followed strange signs to several small little streets and canals where residents hung their clothes on drying lines.  We also walked through parks, crossed several canal bridges, and discovered our heritage in the old Jewish quarter.  Eventually, we made our way to the most famous canal bridge – the Rialto, and Piazza San Marco – the main tourist area in Venice.  It is filled with beautiful churches, monuments, and sculptures, as well as several mask and food stands.  The most beautiful church is St. Mark’s made-up mostly of mosaic art.  On the second day we went into St. Mark’s and looked at the incredible interior.  Sorry, no pictures were allowed!

Several themes stood out from these adventures.  First, Sam and I enjoyed traveling in a way which focuses on walking around/exploring and finding delicious places to eat.  I stopped at almost every block to look at the displays of food in each shop window.  Second, Venice had fewer Americans than any other place we had traveled thus far.  The only time we heard English was when we spoke it to each other.  Finally, Venice was truly a beautiful city.  The canals and architecture were a great backdrop for several great pictures!

You might be wondering why the name of this post seemed to imply an emphasis on food.  Well, that was certainly the emphasis of the trip!  Between the two days we spent walking around Venice, we each ate four different types of pasta (the first two previously mentioned, a gnocchi dish, and a risotto dish), had 3 different slices of pizza, had 3 gellatos, a meringue cookie, a pizza roll, a pizza baguette, and a calzone.  Plus a couple of pastry snacks along the way.  By the middle of the first day we already realized that we could no longer refer to meals as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but rather, meal #1, meal #2, meal #3, meal #4, etc…

At the end of the first night, we tried to check out a tip we had received about cheap liters of wine at wine bars.  We brought an empty 2 liter bottle of water and hoped to get it half full, but the wine bar guy didn’t understand us (or vice versa) and we ended up getting 1.5 liters of wine in a 1.5 liter water bottle for 3 euros total.  This was way too much wine, especially since we couldn’t bring it on the plane to Rome (what a joke that would be at security!), but we decided that a good deal was a good deal and called it a night!

The 2nd day was more of the same.  We walked around the canals and got lost in old neighborhoods, occasionally finding ourselves back in touristy areas filled with the masks and food.  For the 2nd day in a row, we had wonderful weather (or at least un-London-like weather).  No famous gondola rides though.  It was too hard to justify throwing down 80 euros on a boat ride when we considered how much food we could buy with that money!  We left for the airport late in the afternoon, with our bellys full and our excitement towards Rome brimming!

There isn’t much to say about the airport, however, there is a funny story to share about RyanAir’s boarding policy.  Its mostly first-come, first serve for seats with the exception of those who pay 3 pounds to be “priority boarders.”  In addition to choosing their seat first, they also get taken to the plane from the gate via coach.  Because the airport was so small (it had 6 gates), the plane was right next to the gate about 30 yards away at most.  Still, the priority boarders had to step onto a bus and do a quick turn next to arrive at the plane.  It probably took twice as long to drive as it would have to walk.  Me and Sam found this to be quite hilarious!

Coming Up in Italy Part 2: Rome wasn’t Toured in a Day!

First, I was running late (it was 2:30).  I grabbed my JIM bag filled with my weeks-worth of clothes and my bag of library books and headed off to campus.  It usually takes about 5-7 minutes to get to campus, but due to some sort of busy traffic or construction or something, it took more like 15.  I headed to the science library where I had to print my paper.  I headed to an open computer and sent my paper to the printer.  As luck would (or wouldn’t) have it, someone had just decided to print a J-store article without downloading it first.  This caused the printer to spit out each page in 30 second intervals.  He sheepishly apologized and noted that it was a 40 page article.  I ran back to my computer and figured out a way to send it to the downstairs computer.  Level 1 complete at 2:55.

Next, I headed over to the Archeology building.  It was a great situation because I could turn in my paper there and return all my library books at the Archeology library.  Two birds, one stone, right?  Sadly, one of the 6 books could not be returned there.  It could only be returned to the main library.  I pleaded with the lady at the counter that I was late for a flight and did not want to have to carry around a big book about Renaissance Art before 1400 all week and throw away the 40p a day fine.  She made a joke about how the book might come in handy in Italy.  I did not find it funny.  I sprinted across campus with my big bag in one hand and the book in the other, headed for the main library.  I was wearing both a sweatshirt and my coat so I could avoid having to stuff them in my bag.  By the time I dropped my book off, I was sweating profusely!  I left the main library and headed for the nearest tube.  Level 2 complete at 3:12.

Naturally, my tube monthly pass had expired a day earlier.  Rather than head through the turnstyles VIP style, I had to wait in line to meet with an operator to top-up my Oyster card.  The self-service machines just happened to be broken.  10 pounds later, I ran down the escalator only to watch the train pulling away.  2 minutes later I boarded the next train.  Thank god for the London tube!  Level 3 complete at 3:25.

I was half-expecting the tube to shut down or something.  It did take an extra long break at Oxford Circus and I sweated a little more (despite now holding my jacket and sweatshirt) but ultimately the train got to Victoria Station.  I found Sam and told him not to ask, as I breathed heavy on our way to the coach station.  We made it, Hurley-style!

After an hour and 40 minute bus ride to the airport, Sam and I agreed that Stanstead shouldn’t really be called a London airport, but rather an England airport.  Maybe it was just the traffic because we didn’t pass Mark’s home until 45 minutes in.  Or maybe Mark just lives really far away.  Stanstead turned out to be like a mall; it had several shopping facilities and food stands.  Obviously the shopping stores aren’t targeting RyanAir passengers – how could they be expected to fit the stuff they buy in their limited baggage space?

Our plane ride was a little over 2 hours, and we touched down at Treviso airport around 10pm local time.  We caught a shuttle from Treviso to Mestre (a town across the water from Venice).  Our conversation with the shuttle driver was basically, “Mestre?” “Mestre.” “Mestre?” “Mestre.”  Sadly, we didn’t know where we were or how to get to our hotel, but we found a map in a train station and using a little google map preparation we eventually found our way.  Not before trekking through a sketchy Italian town at night, crossing train tracks and passing shady characters.  We were starving, but downtown Mestre is the worst and absolutely nothing (we spent a while exploring) was open.  We couldn’t go to Venice because the last bus came back at midnight.  Tired and dissapointed we went to sleep in our double bed (very adorable) and dreamed of better days ahead.  And thats absolutely what they were!!!

After a crazy week of working hard on papers for archeology and art history classes, I got ready to leave for Scotland with everyone!  Due to an unfortuante website malfunction, Sam had booked his train ticket to Edinburgh on Thursday and the rest of us were stuck taking a 9-hour overnight MegaBus.  If you learn anything from reading my blog (very doubtful), please please please learn this:  Do not take an overnight MegaBus.  They are cramped, bumpy, and nauseating.  I was able to get around 3 hours of sleep total (45 minutes here and there), with random late night paper and pencil games with Olga.  She taught me how to play Cows and Bulls which is basically a Russian number version of the boardgame Mastermind.  I reccomend this game to everyone on a long trip except for Jenny Janovitz (it involves logc).  Anyways, this is what everyone had to say upon arrival the next morning:

Me: “I feel like I just woke up from surgery, and my doctor was Edward Scissorhands.”

Olga: “I feel like I just got continuously punched in the face for 9 hours.”

Mark: He actually didn’t say anything.  He just had a look on his face that usually indicated complete and utter disgust.  A rare Mark-face, but a priceless one.

Bernacchi: “I don’t feel horrible, but I also don’t feel like I slept at all.”

But seeing Edinburgh as we got off was lovely!  Our hostel reminded me of a hut in the White Mountains that I used to stay at with a fun staff and a good community.  I slept on a high bunk bed with no barriers on the side, but managed to stay on both nights!

Sam came down from his normal night of sleep in a bed, and the 5 of us set off on our first Scottish adventure.  The adventure turned out to be a free 3-hour walking tour of the city with Grace, a punky half-Brit, half-Scot who had destroyed her face with piercings and dyed her hair bright green like a Tomba! character.  Upon making this observation, Bernacchi and I discovered that we were each the only people we knew who loved the old Playstation game, Tomba!  Its actually really rare now and worth over 100 bucks on ebay, but I refuse to sell!  Grace led us to all of the beautiful sites of Edinburgh, taught us some awesome Scotish catch-phrases (lovely/quite nice/brilliant = something good, wee = smallish, ay = Desmond), and gave us reccommendations for trying Scottish food (the disgusting meaty bits of Haggis), Scottish soda (the disgusting neon orange Irn Bru), Scottish whisky (I didn’t go there), and Scottish dessert (surely my Mom’s favorite: fried Mars Bars).

After the tour we were already pretty exhausted (it tends to happen when you don’t sleep) so we relaxed in the hostel and walked around the university and a neat park.  That night we went to dinner at a pub where Sam, Olga, and I got pasta, Bernacchi got Haggis, and Mark got hit on by a drunk, older woman.  Before going to sleep for an early night, we played a few rounds of Presidents and Assholes, the card game.  Sam was president most of the night, and our gracious leader even created rules to try to give others opportunities.  By the end, he was the asshole.  We had fun and it certainly will not be our last time playing during our travels.

The next morning was the highlight of the trip.  We woke up relatively early and ate breakfast at the same place J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter.  Then we made our way through town until we got to a summit of the beautiful landscape surrounding the city.  We hiked around the Edinburgh hills/mountains for a couple hours, finally settling on the highest peak of Arthur’s Seat – named after King Arthur.  We had a great time trekking through the Scottish wilderness, with lots of grassy areas and beautiful stone walls (yes, it did remind me of Lost a wee bit).  The sights of the city below us was amazing, and everyone was happy to make it to the top.  So happy in fact that I made this video:

The rest of the day we spent mostly walking around the city.  We checked out Castle, the fabric museum where they make kilts, and had some great meals: delicious chicken shwarma for lunch and an Italian dinner with generous portions.  Along the way we saw this guy playing traditional Scottish music on his bagpipes:

That night we decided to have a fun time out.  We picked up some items at the grocery store and played cards for a while in the hostel.  There, we met some new friends from Newcastle who we trekked over to a bar with.  Mark was as hilarious as ever, and his presence was a noticeable and wonderful contrast to our night out in Belgium…  One more video!  Why not?

The next day we explored some other neighborhoods in Edinburgh that we had missed the first time around.  We had lunch, played some pool in the hostel, and headed over to the train for a much more manageable ride home.  All in all good fun!  By the way, yes, we did steal a glass.  I was hoping to get a Belhaven for my brother, but I never had a good opportunity.  Instead I settled for “Tennents Ice Cold” which I found just sitting on a window sill early Saturday morning.

Last night in London we saw Ricky Gervais peform.  He was hilarious and brought up some interesting debatable questions! Next up is Italy: Venice and Rome with Sam!  I won’t be back until a week from today (the 24th) so I guess MTG is going on a brief hiatus.  Feel free to comment with suggestions and feedback!  Thanks everyone!

At the train station it was unclear whether trains headed to Bruges and if so which trains.  And by unclear I mean not in English.  We asked the ticket window for roundtrip tickets and she told us the platform it was leaving on and that it was in 10 minutes.  Little did we know, multiple trains leave from the same platform in a 20 minute span, so when we got to the platform we just hopped on the train.  Something didn’t seem right when the train left 1 minute later, so we all looked at each other in horror, realizing that we were on some random train in Belgium that could be headed anywhere.  I ran up to a conductor right before the first stop, and thankfully using the art of the point, I was able to communicate to him that we wanted to go to Bruges.  He had us get off the train and told us the platform and time of the train we actually wanted.  A brief scare, but whats a Eurotrip without them?

The actual train ride turned out to be around an hour, and it was highlighted by the antics of a crazy man who looked like Rip Van Winkle and spoke into his cell phone louder than my Dad.  Maybe it was because he was speaking a different language in a booming voice or maybe it was because the lady sitting across from him actually got up to sit somewhere else midway through his phone conversation, but regardless we had a hard time from bursting out in laughter.

My feelings for Bruges was love at first step.  I’ve been waiting all of my time in Europe to find streets made of cobblestone, and Bruges is filled with them.  Most of the neighborhoods have a small village feel to them and their are several canals through the streets.  There is also a grand marketplace in the center and we checked out the main sites like the Belfry (prominently featured in In Bruges) and…well, that was about it.  Bruges is really nice, but there isn’t really all that much to do.  We did get lunch at a great crepe/pancake (they call them “pancakes” in Belgium, but they are 100% crepes.  I like crepes, but sadly, I like pancakes more) place which was pretty much just smothered in sugar and butter.  That last part was for my Mom.

After lunch, with the beauty of Bruges starting to wear off as we debated visits to the Chocolate Museum and the Frites Museum (delicious, but not interesting enough to warrant a museum), we decided to rent bikes instead.  This turned out to be a great idea!  Although Sam and I wished we had brought gloves, the ensuing journey was worth the cold.  We trekked out into the Belgian countryside – full of windmills and cow manure – headed towards a small village called Domme about 3.5 miles away.  If Bruges was an incredibly cute girl-next-door, Domme was an adorable little, old lady.  It was mostly old houses, a strip of shops, and a central church.  We had a beer at a small pub where everyone spoke Dutch, and walked around the village for about an hour finding some pretty cool things along the way.  Here are some pictures:

We biked back to Bruges in search of a supposed 3 euro plate of Spaghetti.  When we arrived at 5:30 to a half-empty restaurant, the owner asked if we had reservations and told us she was full for the night.  Disappointed, we stumbled into another Italian restaurant and discovered these magical take-away “sleeves” of penne pasta with the choice of several delicious sauces for only 2.95 euros.  And we didn’t even have to tip!  The bench we chose to eat them on in the main marketplace just so happened to look directly upon the two famous competing frites stands in Bruges.  We inspected each carefully before choosing the one on the right, and this time we asked for a garlic sauce.  All in all a delicious dinner.

Everyone agreed we had squeezed everything out of Bruges (and Domme), so we boarded the next train back to Brussels.  The night was still young so we decided to check out Delirium again to see if we could replicate the fun of Thursday night.  It was again very crowded but we were all exhausted from the last two days so instead of making tons of friends, we settled for a Free Souvenier!

4) Apple Floris Bier: Downstairs in Delirium is like a paradise but glass stealing connaisseurs like ourselves.  Sam ordered an Orval and loved the beer, but he was haunted by the sight of the bartender pulling out a generic glass to pour it in.  Mark snagged a cool Pilsner Urquell glass (and drank the beer in it first – but who really cares?) and I chose the previously reccommended to me Apple Beer by Floris.  The beer literally tasted like a fuji apple, and I thanked the beer gods for allowing such a delicious, girly-tasting drink to be called a beer, so I could still look cool and manly.  The glass was especially a nice surprise because it coincidently had the name “Josh” written on it, as Floris’ mascot or something.  Anyways, the bar was so crowded that the chances of anyone seeing me slip it into my pocket were weaker than Chad Pennington’s arm.  Risk factor of getting caught: 1 pint out of 5.

That night we went to the rooftop of a parking garage that supposedly had a great view of Brussels’ skyline.  It did indeed.  After Mark figured out how to correctly operate his flash so the city lights came out right, we headed home for a well-deserved final night.

The next day was mostly a blur.  After our pain du chocolates, we walked around the city aimlessly looking once again for Sam’s favorite street.  After several failed attempts, he still didn’t give up and we finally found it.  In contrast, while checking out a pizza place called Moma Roma’s for lunch, I pulled the door unsuccesfully and declared it closed.  While I was walking away, Sam pushed the door in, noting the people in the window and the ease in which I gave up.  It was a good thing he did because we all agreed that the pizza was great!

5) Hoegaarden: The highlight of the day occured at a flea market where we were hoping to find cheap glasses of our favorite Belgian beer before our trip to Belgium, Hoegaarden.  We had been unsuccesful in acquring the glass throughout the trip despite some close calls, so it was definitely on our minds.  As luck would have it, a bar next to the flea market had some outside service and I spotted two glasses on the table as we approached.  I simply just walked by and snatched the glass.  Success!  Sam did the same and we walked around the block back to the flea market from a different street.

After that, Sam wanted another crack at his Orval glass.  We went to a bar near our Hotel and Sam and Mark orderd Orvals.  We decided to sit outside because Sam thought it would be easier to walk away with it.  As luck would have it, Sam’s glass was clearly old and the print on it was peeling.  Mark’s was just about brand new.  What then ensued was quite possibly the funniest game theory application I have ever witnessed:

Sam wanted Mark’s glass because it was much nicer.  Mark didn’t really want to steal at all.  But if Sam were going to take a glass, then Mark felt like the damage was already done so it would actually improve his utility to take his, too.  Mark told Sam that they could either leave both glasses behind, or Sam could take his own crappy one and Mark would take his nice one.  Sam told Mark that he was a dick.  I thought it was hilarious.  We debabted whether they could get away with stealing them, whether Mark’s was really that much nicer, and whether Mark was being a dick (I thought he was acting quite rationally) for about 30 minutes.  In the meantime, they had to drink their beers at about relatively the same rate in order to prevent the waiter from coming and taking one away.  In the end, Mark finished his drink quickly and slid it over to Sam as a peace offering.  However, at that moment the waiter decided to stand at a spot indoors that would make it easy to see us through the window.  We convinced Sam not to take it, and then left.

6) Hoegaarden Rose: Mark and I headed over to the bar across the street.  Sam went to a novelty shop to buy an Orval glass for 6.50.  He just couldn’t let it get away!  In the meantime, Mark ordered a Hoegaarden so he also could get the glass, and I ordered a Hoegaarden Rose because it seemed like an interesting fruity twist on what already was a tasty beer.  It turns out they poured it into this Hoegaarden labeled wine glass.  Mark and I took our time in enjoying our drinks, then pocketed them and left.

All in all we left Belgian with 15 glasses between us.  We had gone too far.  We all agreed to never again take glasses…until our next trip to Edinburgh.

After a relaxing viewing of Jack Nicolson in Chinatown at an old movie theatre we made our way home.  On our way back Mark and I made sure to sample some famous Belgium chocolates!

How about a poll for the weekend? Please vote. I’m going to Italy for a week on Tuesday, and I will be in Rome for 5 days. I’m considering taking a super early bus one morning to Florence and then taking a super late bus back the same night. It costs about $67 roundtrip. Is it worth it? I’ve heard great praise of Florence…