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This past weekend, I went to stay with my cousin Gosia for a few days.  On Friday night, we went to the rynek (town square) in Tarnow.  During the day, it's pretty empty, but in the evening, it was full of people sitting in the beer gardens.  On Saturday, we went to Zakopane, a city in the mountains.  We walked down Krupowki and rode to the top of Gubalowka, a mountain.  It was a pretty short stay because there was a lot of traffic on the way there, and we were with small children.  On Sunday, we took the train to Krakow, a very old city that used to be the capital of Poland.  There we saw Florian's Gate, Wawel Castle with the dragon's cave, the Jagellonian University, and St. Mary's Church. 
I spent the rest of the week visiting family before my departure.  Tomorrow I'll be back in Chicago!  I'm happy to go home, but on the other hand I'd like to stay here longer.  Hopefully I can come back soon!

On the last full day of my trip, I visited Schonbrunn Palace.  The palace is nice, but the gardens are beautiful.  So many fountains and flowers!  After Schonbrunn, I went to Karlsplatz and saw the Karlskierche (Church), then I walked to the Opera House.  On the way, I got a kaiserkraner, which is a bratwurst filled with cheese in a bun.  It was delicious!  Next to the Opera House is the Hotel Sacher, with its famous Sachertorte.  Of course, I got a piece.  It's chocolate cake layered with apricot jam.  Yum!  I then strolled through the Vokesgarten, and then saw the Parliament and City Hall (Rathaus).  I ended my day in the Museums Quartier, where I went to an exhibition on British fashion.  I was super tired, so I went to the park and read.  An excellent end to an excellent trip.   The next morning at 7am (!) I caught the train to Katowice, then from Katowice to Tarnow. 
Now I only have 9 days left in Poland!  I've started my MCAT class, so now I have to study!  Hopefully I'll go to Krakow this weekend. 

Before I caught my train to Prague, I rode a bike around Dresden, and I felt a little like a local.  :)  To continue that experience, I didn't buy a tram ticket either!!  When I got to Prague, the first thing I needed to do was change my money- so inconvenient!  A Czech crown is worth about 5 cents.  Once I found my hostel and dropped off my things, I walked around New Town and some of Old Town and saw the Charles Bridge and the Dancing Building.  I found Patrinske Park and Wenceslas Square.  I had some trdelnik, which is a traditional pastry. 
On Saturday, I took a tour of Prague.  We saw the Old Town Square, the Church of Our Lady of Tyn,  the Astrological Clock,  the Karolinium, Estates Theatre, where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni, Powder Tower, the Municipal House, one of the only Cubist style buildings, and St. Jacob's Church, where the shriveled arm of a thief hangs.  After the tour, I visited Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral, the Charles Bridge, the peeing men statue at the Kafka Museum, watched the parade of apostles at the Astrological Clock, tried to find the entrance to St. Jacob's Church but couldn't, so I didn't see the arm :( then ended at the National Museum.  In the evening, I went on a pub crawl with some girls I met at the hostel.  Prague night life is fun, and we ended the night at the Karlovy Lazne, the biggest dance club in central Europe. 
Yesterday, I took the train to Vienna and explore a little.  There's no free tour here, so I'm on my own.  I saw Stephensdom and walked around Stadt Park, with statues of famous composers in it, and finished the day at the Danube Island Music Festival.  Today is another full day of sightseeing!

I'm currently in Dresden, very tired from a long day of walking and sightseeing. 
I spent the last 2 days in Berlin, and I'm surprised at how much I liked it.  I definitely want to go back.  I did not get to see all I wanted to.  I took a walking tour the first day and saw the Brandenberg Gate in Pariser Platz, the Holocaust Memorial, the parking lot over Hitler's bunker, Checkpoint Charlie, what remains of the Berlin Wall and the East Side Gallery, the Luftwarfe Headquarters, Humbolt University, the Book Burning Memorial, Museum Island, the Berlin Dom, and TV Tower.  There is so much culture and history in Berlin, and it is constantly changing.  It's a great city!! 
The next day I went to the Reichstag, the location of the German parliament, which has a huge glass dome in the middle so the people can watch their representatives and the politicians can look up and see that they are serving the people.  It's really a great concept, and it's free to go up and see the great views of Berlin.  I then went to the museum associated with the Holocaust Memorial and then the Topography of Terror exhibition on the site of the former headquarters of the Gestapo.  It is very powerful stuff, but super interesting.  Walking around Berlin after visiting the exhibits, I found a random building that I couldn't find a name for on my map so I'll have to look in to that.  Walking back to the hostel, I bought myself a pair of Birkenstock sandals.  I couldn't resist.  In the evening, I went ot watch the Germany Ghana World Cup game at a beach bar on the river.  It was fun, and of course we drank overpriced beer. 
So many people ride bikes in Germany!! There is also an interesting style and fashion sense in Berlin.  I like it, and I wanted to go shopping but there wasn't enough time.  German trains are really efficient and smooth, too.  The language is actually not as harsh as people usually think.  Traveling here makes me want to learn German! 
Today I took the train to Dresden and did a self-guided walking tour with a book I got at my hostel.  The architecture here is different, and I explored the Old and New Town.  I think I saw all the major things, including the Kreuzkirche (Church of the Holy Cross), Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), the Royal Palace, Semper Opera House, Zwinger, Japanese Palace, Dreikonigskirche (Church of the Magi), Goldener Reiter (Golden Rider), and Jewish Cementary.  Tomorrow, I'm going to try to ride around a bit on a bike then catch my train to Prague. 

I haven't written in a while because there really isn't much to write about.  The week I got to Tarnow, my uncle was getting ready for the festival at his Church,. so the lady that cooks for us was baking delicious cakes and pies.  Then there was the festival, where I some my cousins and their kids.  During that week I went to my great aunt's for dinner.  The next week, I went to the mountains for a few days with my uncle.  It was nice and relaxing, not that I have much stress in my life right now. :)
Now I'm in Zielona Gora in western Poland, visiting my cousin.  This part of Poland used to be a part of Germany so there are a lot of ruins and old buildings from WWII.  Today we went to an old dynamite factory hidden in the woods.  It was pretty cool.  I didn't bring my laptop so I can't put up any pictures.  Tomorrow we're going to Wroclaw, then I'm going on another trip around Europe: Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, and Bratislava.  I'm really excited to be travelling again!!

The last weekend in Greece was busy but relaxing too.  On Friday morning we went back to the Acropolis Museum and had an interesting discussion about the Elgin Marbles.  That evening, we had a group farewell dinner and went out dancing afterwards.  Saturday was spent doing some last minute shopping and packing.  Sunday morning, I dragged my suitcase and duffel from my apartment to the metro station in Syndagma.  That was not the best idea- I didn't realize how heavy the duffel was!  Anyway, I made it there and made my flight with plenty of time to spare. 
My uncle picked me up from the airport in Warsaw, and we drove 5 hours to get to Tarnow.  I was pretty tired and slept sooo well last night.  Today, my arms are sore from carrying my suitcase, but it's fine since I'm just bumming around, doing laundry and playing with my uncle's super cute dogs.  I can't complain. :)

I can't believe that after this weekend, I only have 2 weeks left in Greece!  Time has gone by so quickly.  I have to say that I am going to be glad to be done with classes and go to Poland.
On Wednesday, we took a trip to Corinth, which was an important city during ancient times.  We got shown around by the archeologist who excavated the site, which was great because our current professor does not know too much about ancient Greece (he's an English professor).  We climbed to the top of Acrocorinth.  The view was amazing!

Yesterday, we had a free morning and wanted to play volleyball, but as there was another general strike yesterday, the courts at the National Gardens were closed.  We played at a park nearby for a while but got kicked out by the mothers there.  Then we tried to play at the Stadium, but again we got kicked out.  Not a very successful morning for volleyball...
This morning, we had a walking tour of modern Athens.  We saw the Zappeion, Parliament, the National Library, the Academy, the National Museum, and the cathedral.  Most of us are very familiar with these sites since we pass them a lot when we walk around Athens.  Our professor didn't know very much about the sites, so it was a tiring morning.  Tonight there's a talk about the economic crisis in Greece that I think will be very interesting.  I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

J'aime beaucoup Paris!!
Yesterday morning, we had our petit dejeuner of croissant with butter and jam, orange juice, cereal, and coffee at the hostel and went for a free walking tour of Paris.  It was 3 1/2 hours long, but we saw a lot of the important sites in Paris. 

We saw the Notre Dame cathedral, the Palais de Justice, the Pont Neuf, the Pont des Arts (where couples place locks on the bridge then throw the key into the water to symbolize their eternal love- so cute!), l'Academie, the Louvre, the Palais Royal, the Jardin de Tulieres, and the Obelisque.  Our tour guide as very good.  After the tour ended, I walked down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe (the traffic around it is CRAZY) and then to the Eiffel Tower.  After that, I walked to the Ecole Militaire and then to Les Invalides, where Napoleon's tomb is and where there is still a hospital.
I walked across the Pont de Alexandre on my way to the Grand Palais and Petit Palais and then wandered around some touristy shops where I bought a beret (!) among other things.  I also saw the Madeleine, the Opera, and In the evening, I went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the inverted pyramid on the way out.  That museum is huge, and I didn't have very much time there, but I saw the most famous pieces.  Sarah and I grabbed a sandwich for dinner before we saw Date Night (translated Crazy Night in French) at a theatre on the Camps Elysees.  There was a special at the theatre so we only paid 3.50 euro for the movie.  It was in English with French subtitles and very funny!  I enjoyed it a lot!!  After the movie ended, we walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night.  It glitters at certain times, which was very cool!  We took the metro back to our hostel, and I got a crepe on the way.

This morning, we went by the Panthon and went back to the Notre Dame and went inside.  The stained glass windows are amazing, as are the statues on the outside of the building by the doors.  The Fait du Pain (Party of Bread) was going on outside the cathedral, so we got to see how baguettes are made.  They roll the dough with their hands then put it in a cloth which they bunch up between the loaves.  It's very simple.  After leaving the cathedral, we walked around and explored the area, stopping in Shakespeare and Company, and English bookstore where famous authors like Ernest Hemingway spent their time while they were living in Paris.  We had crepes and espresso for lunch, and we are going to go to the markets along the street where our hostel is and buy baguettes, meat, cheese, vegetables, and wine for dinner.  Our flight to London is at 10pm tonight. I am sad to leave Paris- I like it a lot here.  I'll have to come back and visit again!
Au revoir!

On Saturday morning, we flew from Athens to Paris using Easyjet.  This is my first experience flying with Easyjet, and I have to say that I don't have the best opinion of them after this one flight.  The flight was delayed 40 minutes when we got to the airport, and boarding was SO SLOW that the flight took off an hour later than scheduled.  I sat next to a very annoying group of people.  Thank goodness the flight was only about 3 1/2 hours.  The flight attendants are very non-chalant and somewhat professional.
I'm traveling with my friend Sarah, whio is studying in Athens in the same program as me, this entire week, but we flew with another friend that was going to spend the week in Paris.  Her boyfriend met us at the airport and gave us an intro to the metro and RER system.

Our hostel for Saturday night was in Montmarte, on a very busy street.  For my first hostel experience, it wasn't too bad.  The area was a bit iffy, but we had an early train to catch so we weren't out late.  That afternoon, we went to see the Sacre Coeur church, but we got lost on the way.  A very nice, older Parisian man saw that we were lost and led us to the base of the hill where the church is located.  French people are nice!  The Sacre Coeur has beautiful architecture and on the inside has a lot of shrines to different saints aroudn the peri,eter of the church.  We happened to be walking around inside when a service began, and the acoustics of the church made the nuns voices sound so pure.  It was beautiful.  When we left, it started to rain, and I hadn't brought my umbrella, so Sarah bought one, and we continued our exploration of Paris.  We walked to the Place de le Republique, saw the Marie du 10eme, then stopped by a supermarket to buy sandwiches for dinner.  I noticed that in Greece, everyone sits outside at the cafes drinking coffee, but here people sit at the cafes and bratisseries drinking beer or wine.

Sunday morning we took the train to Marseille.  Our hostel was much nicer there, and I met Christen and her friends there.  They were coming from Nice.  Marseille is the second largest city in France and was originally a Greek colony, but you can't tell.  There we saw the Vieux Port, which is just the main port, the Notre Dame du Gard, which is a church dedicated to the fishermen of the area, so it has a nautical theme, the Ville Charite, which was an orphanage and is now a museum, and the Nuveau Catedral, which was stunning.  I had a crepe with Nutella for dinner. :) I probably won't have another one while I'm here- it was way too sweet.
Monday morning, we took a ferry to see the Chateau d'If, which used to house a prison and was made famous by being the prison in Count of Monte Cristo. 

After that we walked along the shore- the weather was beautiful, warm and sunny.  Next we went to the Palace de Longchamps, which is a fountain/park/museum.  This was my favorite part of the trip to Marseille.  I'll post pictures later, since I don't have my laptop with me to get the pictures off my camera.  For dinner, I wanted to get the boulebaise, the fish soup that Marseille is known for, but the restaurant we went to was out of mussels so I had just the fish broth instead.  Close enough.  It was very salty, but I'm glad I tried it.  Earlier that day, we had also bought navettes, which are cookies that are only made in Marseille.  I think they are flavored with lavendar.  I like them, and even bought a chocolate version the next day.  In the evening, we went to a pub and got some French beer, 1664.

This morning, we visited some more palaces: Palais de le Bourse and Palais d'les Artes.  They were not as impressive as Longchamps, but still nice.  Then we saw the Fontaine Castellene and bought some shoes. :)
We caught our train back to Paris, found our hostel, which is in the Latin Quarter, and now we will do some more exploring.  It is very cold, about 50°, and raining.  Hopefully it'll warm up some tomorrow!

There is a general strike in Athens today with protests in Syndagma Square.  I live about a 15 minute walk from Syndagma but sitting here at the Athens Centre, there is no indication in this neighborhood that anything out of the ordinary is going on.  It's too dangerous to go to Syndagma to see what's going on, so I'm getting all my info from online news sources.  It's been reported that a fire bomb was thrown at a bank in Syndagma, and that three people died and four were trapped because of it.  As I was walking back from the National Archeological Museum yesterday, we came across a protest march and as we walked through Syndagma, there were riot police starting to line up and streets were being roped off.  I was glad to be walking away from the square, not towards it.  The general strike today caused us to alter our class schedule, since we were supposed to go to Eleusis today, but it is closed because of the strike.  The plan is to go tomorrow, so hopefully things die down a little by then.  
It frustrates me that we are so isolated from the current situation here.  We are so focused on our study of the ancient Greek world, that we really can't relate to the modern Greek one.  I have not met a single Greek person my age so far.  How am I supposed to get a real sense of what is going on if I don't even know any "real" Greeks? 
Here's some more info about today's events:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/05/greece.strikes/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703961104575225472577513414.html?mod=WSJEUROPE_hpp_LEFTTopStories

Quick recap of the past few days:

As mentioned in the previous post, on Wednesday we went to Marathon and Ramnous.  Ramnous was a rural city in ancient Greece and the site of the temples of Themis and Nemesis.  There we got to see unpublished finds that are not open to the public, which was a cool experience.  Marathon was the site of the important Athenian victory in the Persian War, and we visited the museum there.  We also "reinacted" the battle on the hillside.  I was on the Perian side, so unfortunately we lost. 
On Thursday, we didn't have an excursion in the morning, so a bunch of us played volleyball at the courts near the National Gardens.  I had a lot of fun!
Yesterday, we had class at the Ancient Agora.  We were split into groups and had to present the different buildings there.  I liked it, and I got a taste of what it would be like to be a tour guide, which I'm pretty sure I would not want to be.  My groups' presentation went very well, and we got a silver medal.  In the evening, we were planning on going to hear some Greek blues, bouzaki, but we ended up not going.  We went to a cafe, but drinks were so expensive we just left and went back home.  At least it was a nice walk...
Today, it is cooler and drizzling a little.  I wanted to go to the Opera tonight, but the remaining tickets are too expensive for our student budgets. 
To explain why there are no pictures in this post:  My laptop's battery charger (AC adapter) is failing me, so I can't charge my computer.  I'm writing this post at an internet cafe.  A friend of mine has the same problem, but we haven't had much success finding replacements.  We'll have to wait until Monday to continue our search since most things are closed on the weekends.  So until I find a way to charge my laptop, I can't get pictures off of my camera.