Prague: Czech Me Out

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!

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Berlin and Dresden

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. 

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Living a Calm Life in Tarnow

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!!

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Czesc z Polski!

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. :)

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The End is Near

On Saturday, I went to the beach.  It was a beautiful day, and we spent most of the day playing paddleball and sunbathing.  After the beach, we went to Goody’s, a Greek fast food chain.  I wanted to go before I left Greece.  If I lived in Greece, I wouldn’t go back to Goody’s; it just wasn’t that good.  In the evening, we went out and had a good time dancing.
On Sunday, I relaxed and stayed inside most of the day because I got sunburned.  I read and studied for my Greek final.  Monday, I did more studying and went running in the National Gardens.  Tuesday was my Greek final, so the morning was spent studying as well.  The final went well, and now I’m done with Greek class!  

Yesterday, we went to the island of Aegina, which is only one hour away from the port, Piraeus.  We visited Cape Kolonna, which was the site of the ancient town and port in Aegina, the Temple of Aphaia, and Paleokhora, which is a hill with 33 small churches on it.  We only visited about 8 or 9 of the churches, and they were very small.  We spent some time on the beach, and I learned to play backgammon.  When it was time to catch the ferry back to Piraeus, we found out that there had been a fishermen’s strike at the port, and they had closed it down for a while, so there were no ferries going in or out.  We had to wait 2 hours until we could get on a ferry, but we made it back. 

This morning, we were supposed to go to the Benaki and Goulandris Museums but because we couldn’t work on our papers yesterday, our professor made these visits optional so we have more time to write our final papers.  I can’t wait to be done with this paper!

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Thessaloniki II

Thursday was another busy day.  In the morning, we went to the Byzantine Museum and the Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki.  It was a long morning of walking around museums.  They had interesting gold jewelry from the Byzantine period, among many other artifacts.  After the museums, we went to see the Arch of Galerius and the Rotunda.  The Rotunda was closed, however, so we only saw the outside.  

The next stop was the Palace of Galerius which is right in the middle of a square, so there is a clash of old and new.  There were also cool floor mosaics that had been restored.  Mosaics are one of my favorite things to see here.  After seeing the palace, we walked back to the hotel, and I went back to the market.  I found a whole other section I had not seen on Wednesday, with clothes shops.  After the market, I found Trigones Elenidis, a pastry shop specializing in trigones (triangular pastries with cream in them).  I walked past the bakery twice before I finally found it.  It was a pretty small place and not exactly on the corner as I had been expecting, so it was harder to find than I had expected, but in the end, I found it!  The trigona I got was very good.  I ate it while sitting by the sea and the White Tower.  

In the evening, we went to the Acheiropoieitos and Agia Sophia churches.  They were each unique and from the early years of Christianity, with beautiful mosaics and icons.  For dinner, I went to the Zithos beerhouse and had mavti, a homemade pasta with meat inside served on a bed of yogurt.  It was good to try something new, and I really liked it.  After dinner, we went to another bakery for some yummy dessert.
Yesterday we drove a lot.  We made one stop at Dion, a big archeological park that was the site of a main sanctuary and city in ancient Macedonia. 

Other than that, we drove 6 hours to get back to Athens.  It’s was really warm evening, so we went to go see Sex and the City 2 at an open air movie theater.  Today is supposed to be a beautiful day, so I’m going to the beach.  J

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Thessaloniki

On Tuesday, we made our way to Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece.  Most of the day was spent driving, since it is about a 7-8 hour drive.  On the way, we stopped at Thermopylae, the site of the famous battle of the Spartans and the Persians which the graphic novel and movie 300 is based on.  There is a monument next to the highway and a plaque at the top of a small hill.  It’s not as awe-inspiring as you might expect.  Once we got to Thessaloniki, we went to dinner at a taverna where I had soutzukakia (like meatballs, but in a log shape) with yogurt sauce.  Delicious!!

This morning, we went to Vergina, the site of a tumulus covering three royal tombs.  The tombs are incorporated into the museum, which is very cool.  There is controversy over who is buried in which graves, so it is interesting to see how the museum has chosen to label and present this information.  After returning to Thessaloniki, we had some free time, so I walked around and explored the city.  I like this city better than Athens.  It may be that I’m just sick of Athens, but Thessaloniki seems more alive, whereas Athens is grungier and more depressing.  I walked by the Rotunda, the Arch of Galerius, the Agia Sophia church (which was closed), the Agiou Ioannou church and catacombs, Bey Hamam (Turkish baths), which now hosts art exhibits, and finally ended up at Modiano Market, where they sell fresh fish and meat as well as all sorts of sweets.  I love markets!!  Thessaloniki has my two favorite things about Greece in one place: open air markets and the sea.  Before going back to the hotel, I got some tsoureki bread covered in chocolate from a famous bakery- yum!! I sat by the sea eating my treat, then went back to the hotel, where we were meeting. 

We went to Osios David, one of the oldest Christian churches with a pre-Iconoclast image and then to Aghios Dimitrios, the church of the patron saint of Thessaloniki.  We went down into the crypt, the site of the Roman baths where St. Demitrios was killed.  For dinner, we went to a fish tavern for some fresh seafood.  We had four different kinds of fish and mussels!  They also had a guitar there, so we had a really great time singing songs.  It was a lot of fun.  Tomorrow is another full day of sightseeing.

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