my longest walking tour yet

Today has so far been quite the long day. Met at my hostel's front desk at 915am for a walking tour. We saw ALL the big sites here in Athens and afterwards I walked through a market with someone I met on the tour. All in all I walked for about 7 hours straight today. Whew! Here are a few photo highlights....out of the about 60 I actually took today.

Most well-preserved temple in Athens.

On top of the rock location where Socrates was executed with Athens below in the background.

Theater of Isis - still in use today!

The Parthenon (@ the Acropolis.)

Zeus' temple - 16 columns remain standing today, but when it was first finished there were over 100!


The olympic stadium where the first modern olympic games were held in Athens. Holds 50,000 people.

So that's all for now. Going out for greek food, bars, and yes, probably some ouzo tonight with friends from the hostel. Headed to Patras, Greece sometime tomorrow! Not sure if there will be internet there (I'm staying in a hotel as there aren't any hostels there), so I may not be able to update this again until I arrive in Italy on June 2nd. We'll see if I can't scrounge up an internet connection somewhere though!

the longest 48 hours of my life

I've just arrived in Athens, Greece and am SO glad to be here...not because it's beautiful Greece, home of ancient ruins and excellent food, but because I am FINALLY done with trains for a few days! Here's the breakdown of the last 48 hours...

Wednesday, 630pm - leave on sleeper train from Vienna and am scared by the train conductor woman who says "there are many thieves on this train - lock all 3 locks!" Luckily I don't have anyone else in my compartment....pretty nice not having to share that little room with 5 others.

Thursday, 630am - arrive at Belgrade, Serbia train station...it's pretty dirty here and fairly sketchy.

Thursday 730am - depart Belgrade for Sofia, Bulgaria on the grossest train ever. It is a pukey yellow-gold color straight out of the 70's and smells like the old camper that we used as a kid that my dad's parents actually took him and his siblings camping in - in the 70's!! This train ride is 10 hours long and very very depressing. Serbia is a sad place with an incredible amount of trash EVERYWHERE....everything from discarded kids toys and old mattresses to construction debris. Also lots of empty or partially destroyed houses. Again - sad deal.

Thursday, 530pm - arrive in Sofia, Bulgaria and proceed to spend the next 4 hours waiting for my next train at the station there. Pigeons roam freely, as do a few cats. Yep, it's nasty here. The time changes here, which thankfully makes my layover only 4 hours instead of 5. I also meet a Peace Corps volunteer from North Dakota here. He saw my book with its english title and got very excited to speak english so he introduced himself. He also helped me read the departure board, which wasn't in english and the information person didn't speak english either.

Thursday, 1030pm - depart Sofia for Thessaloniki, Greece on a sleeper car. Though older, it was the comfiest I've been on. It had a real mattress instead of just the seats pulling down, which would have been great if it'd been a longer trip. Sadly it was only 7 hours.....that ended up being very interupted. At 3am we crossed the Bulgarian/Greek border and had to stop for customs. The customs people come around, knock on your door to wake you up, look at your passport, and stamp it. This had happened when my Thursday day train crossed from Serbia into Bulgaria, so it wasn't anything new. (This doesn't happen when you cross borders between EU member countries.) After the Bulgarian authorities stamp us for leaving their country we go a little ways further and then do the same thing with Greek officials for entering their country. The difference was, when the Greek customs officials woke me up and looked at my passport they asked me to get off the train and go with them. Did everyone go? Nope, just me. 330am, I'm at the Bulgarian/Greek border and having to explain to customs people where and why I am traveling. Plus, I'm half-asleep still. Very confusing. I think why they asked me was because they were unsure as to why I was traveling alone. They were nice though and let me back on the train after a few minutes - and of course getting the stamp on my passport - whew!

Friday, 540am - arrive in Thessaloniki, Greece where I attempt to make a reservation for the 713am train to Athens as previous attempts to make that reservation from other countries were denied. It was full, as was the next 2 trains. So I sat in the Thessaloniki train station for 7 hours until the 1242pm train. And another 6 hours later, I arrived in Greece. Then I took the best shower ever :)

The end. For now.

gehen sie bananen!

Yes, you've guessed it (or maybe you didn't), the title of this blog is "go bananas" in german. Yesterday was really warm and my mouth was positively watering for ice cream of some sort. But wanting to be cheap, I elected to grab a shake off the 1 euro menu @ McDonald's. When I asked for chocolate I was shocked to hear they didn't have it. I was even more shocked to find out the flavors they DID have were vanilla, strawberry, and yep, banana! Gross! Later that night the sushi bar & lounge I was at also had several martinis using banana liqueur. I guess the Viennese really like their bananas. After helping plan and subsequently take part in a banana themed party a few years ago I'm still a little banana'd out - too many banana daquiris and banana games - to tempt me to try the banana beverages here in Vienna.

vienna is all about the roses

I'm only in Vienna for a day and a half (arrived early this afternoon), but I've already scoped out a lot of the "historical stuff". This included an old palace, city hall, and the most amazing historical garden ever. It had tons and tons and tons of rose trees of all different colors and varieties. It smelled excellent too.

So this is a little random, but I thought this light post was really neat.

Rows of rose trees in the historical garden - so beautiful!

City hall - looks like a cathedral.

And last but not least - a little bit of urban art on a bench outside of the museum area. I'd love to ask the artist why she doesn't have a mouth. Maybe she isn't supposed to have a voice? Hmmm...I'll ponder that on the long ride to Athens. I have an overnight train tomorrow night to Belgrade, Serbia, then a train most of the day to Sophia, Bulgaria, a few hours off to get some dinner, then another night train to Thessaloniki, Greece, then a 4 hour train into Athens on Friday. I'm going to die of boredom. Just hoping the landscape is interesting. Today's ride through the Czech Republic into Austria looked a lot like Iowa actually...plus plum trees.

wandering the old town in prague

Finally I made it to and through Prague! I stuck to exploring the "old town" area of the city as it was within walking distance of my hostel...walking distance, but still a ways actually. I didn't seek out a walking tour, so most of the info about the city I have came from the map I grabbed from my hostel. The architecture was fantastic, the Charles Bridge beautiful, and I managed to escape the famously successful pickpockets of the city! Prague also has the distinction of being the first - and I think only - stop along my trip where I know absolutely zero of the local language. And let me tell you, Czech doesn't seem easy to pick up. Luckily I am fluent in gesturing and it's been extremely helpful here! Here are some highlights...

The celestial clock that's in the main square. Not sure exactly how it works, but it was really neat. There was lots of miniatures being sold at the market I visited also.

The Charles bridge - one of the oldest in Europe.

The view across the river to the castle. And yes, I walked across the Charles bridge, up a bunch of hills, through lots of tiny streets to get to that castle. In addition, my hostel was probably 1 1/2-2 miles back behind me the other direction from where this photo was taken. This is why I am so walked out after Prague!

Here is the view from the castle looking back at Prague.

Looking out at the people boating on the river. Looked like fun!

And finally (for Jen) my dinner - salmon pasta and a huge glass of red wine. All for 270kc (the Czech Republic still has their own currency)....which is about $14 USD. I've been living on baguettes and cookies since having that lovely meal.

Tomorrow it's off to Vienna, Austria. Hoping that the people at the Wien (local spelling for Vienna) train station are nicer than here in Prague. I tried to make a reservation for several upcoming trains that require them but the lady at the ticket office got mad that I didn't know the train numbers. I figured I could find them online, but no luck so far! Wish I could go back to Barcelona Sants station - their information people were the best.

an addition concerning berlin

As pointed out to me, I neglected to mention specifically my new friends met in Berlin. There were several, but the one I'll be keeping in touch with is a handsome Australian named Xavier. I was my usual smartass self, but he managed to keep up with what I like to call my witty banter. Plus he can dance - friends, you all know how much I appreciate that in a guy :)

Addition finished, out to enjoy the sun in Prague!

berlin, where i found love & happiness in shoes & jagermeister...among other things!

So last night, I went on a pub crawl that is led every night by the same people who put on the free walking tour that I took in Paris as well as Berlin. While on the pub crawl I met lots of new people and one was a man from Hamburg, Germany. When he asked how I liked Berlin I had to pause and really think about it. What I decided on was that Berlin is a nice city with a really crazy history (mainly the last 100 years) but what I love so much about this trip is seeing the old architecture that just doesn't exist in the midwest. Berlin had a lot of that, before 90% of the city was destroyed during world war 2. So there are still some interesting structures with 1+ decades of history behind them, but Berlin is largely a new city.

I learned so much about Paris' history on the walking tour there that I made sure I went on the one in Berlin done by the same group. Before the tour I was really shaky on my Berlin history....basically I knew that it was an important place during world war 2, had also been involved in world war 1, and that they had that awful wall until it went down sometime in the 80's. I learned an incredible amount, saw a lot of neat stuff, and still managed to fit in time to pick up a pair of shoes (my Berlin souvenier -I allow myself to purchase 1 thing in each country I visit) and meet yet more new friends. Here are some of the photo highlights:

The Brandeburg gate - the statue on top was first stolen by Napoleon, later stolen back by Germany who then renamed the woman from Peace to Victory and turned her head so she is always keeping an eye on Paris. Pretty cheeky, huh?

The holocaust memorial. Very moving...enough said.

A cathedral that though only about 100 years old, was built to look much older at the request of the ruler at the time who wanted "an old cathedral" built for himself.

As mentioned earlier, on the last night of my Berlin stay I went on a pub crawl put on by the same people as the walking tour. I had gone on the one in Paris and had a blast. This one did not disappoint. More new friends, and a healthy appreciation for the powers of Jagermeister.

And a few things from Belgium now that I have a good wifi connection to post photos -The Grand Place - the main square in Brussels. Very ornate and beautiful with tons of cafes and such surrounding it.

3 course meal for 15 euros? Heck yes!! This is the smoked salmon...

...and the filet mignon - with fries! (they were invented in Belgium, so they come with practically everything)...

...and the chocolate mousse!

I also went to Bruges, Belgium for an afternoon. This trip was inspired by the movie "In Bruges", which is pretty great in my opinion. This is the clock tower in the main square that is featured in the movie. I also had the very best beer of my life in Bruges. Recommended by the bartender and brewed by trappist monks, it was incredible...now if I could only remember the name of it! Argh!

i could live on belgian beer

No joke, belgian beer is AMAZING. My favorite was an amber ale brewed by trappist monks that I had in Bruges, Belgium yesterday. I was inspired to take a quick day trip to Bruges by the movie "In Bruges", which you should all rent, for the scenery in it if nothing else.

I also admired the amazing architecture present in the center squares of both Brussels and Bruges, mastered the art of walking on cobblestones (you just have to walk like it's a regular paved sidewalk and be prepared when it goes awry), ate ice cream, felt poorly for not knowing any of the 3 common languages in Brussels (French, Dutch, German), got a history lesson from a bartender in Bruges as to WHY they speak so many languages there, scouted out a bar called Celtica that has 1 euro beers til midnight every day - only to find out it had BURNT DOWN the DAY BEFORE I arrived, and instead had beer at Delirium - Guinness Record holder for most varieties of beer - I had 2004 kinds to choose from!! The best one that I had there was called Barbar, hilariously pronounced like the elephant Babar.

Belgium is beautiful and I felt a little inspired at times to move to a little farm in the country there, raise a few white cows (every cow I saw was at least 50% white), learn Dutch, and of course ride my bicycle everywhere.

For now I am in Berlin (newly arrived) and am ready to continue my world beer tour. Sorry no pictures as the wireless here stinks, so I'm using the hostel's computer. More to come, but possibly until I make it to Prague on Sunday. Over 1 week completed and cannot believe how fast time is flying!

the city of lights

I've been in Paris for a day and a half and it has flown by. First, to get here I took my first overnight sleeper train car. It was kind of a hard bed, but I did get some sleep - a miracle considering there was 6 people crammed in a room the size of my parents' closet.

I met a group of 4 American girls from West Virginia who were traveling together on the train. The 5 of us ended up doing a free walking tour of Paris the morning we got in. It was great, but looong - 4 hours to be exact! Between that and all of the stairs in my very hilly neighborhood I'm staying in I've easily been burning off all I've eaten. (There are 102 stairs in my train station!)


Here's the "nice meal" I had my first evening - pasta with salmon. Holy yumm!

And the delicious raspberry tart from the bakery that's 30 feet away from my hostel. Heaven in my mouth!!

While on the walking tour with my new friends we were informed that the group that does the tour also puts on a bar crawl every night. 12 euros to do it, but amazing drink specials (for Paris and especially for the center of Paris where it was held) and entrance to a club that usually costs 20 euros.

We had an excellent time. Love making new friends :) That's the Arc de Triomphe in the background.

And lastly, here is a picture of the city from Sacre Coeur (a cathedral that sits on the top of the hill in Montmarte (the neighborhood I'm staying in). Picasso and Van Gogh painted in Montemarte.


And now a picture from the Musee d'Orsay looking back at Montemarte - you can see Sacre Coeur at the very top. I got to see my very favorite Monet at that museum today.

Tonight I pack, tomorrow I'm off to Brussels, Belgium! Au revoir Paris!

sacre bleu!

Well I am in Paris and man have I been busy! Mostly because I can't seem to help making friends. I am off for the day but WILL post some photos and stories from yesterday this afternoon.

PS.French people really are a bit snooty.

barcelonians are craaazy about their futbol

So last night Barcelonaś futbol (soccer) team won some tournament. I went with some people staying at my hostel to check out the celebrating. It. Was. Insane. We went to Las Ramblas at Playa Catalunya and basically just watched the craziness for awhile. Lots of flares being lit and danced with (like a very dangerous glowstick), fireworks being set off, and people breaking stuff. We eventually went and found a bar that was pretty big once you got inside but the entrance looked like it be a small tunnel or something. It was pretty fun. I had two nice spanish men tell me I had beautiful eyes at that bar. My response - gracias of course! (My high school spanish has slowly been resurfacing.) After the bar we went to a club (after a short run from la policia - don't worry we weren misbehaving) and danced until 6am. All in all a pretty solid night. I am glad that I was in town to see what itś like after a futbol game - it was quite the experience. My friends from the hostel were all really fun too; they were from Spain, Berlin, New Zealand, Illinois, Texas, and Quebec and even included one of the receptionists from the hostel - she was our fearless leader for the night.

In a few hours I board the train for Paris and will get there in the morning. Adios amigos!

barri gotic

So today, after a nice restful 8 1/2 hours of sleep, I headed out to explore the gothic part of Barcelona. I started towards the bottom of Las Ramblas (a bunch of connected streets all with 'la rambla' in the name) and headed up. It was really interesting. Lots of crazy street performers, vendors - even a whole section of pets for sale! Mom - they were even selling roosters haha! This is all in the middle section of the street, which is for pedestrians, but on the outside edges of the street were lots of little tapas bars, shops, and other stores. I ventured away from Las Ramblas to go down several of the mini 10 foot wide side streets. I did some good small-store research for my thesis, saw some sights, and ate some lunch:

tapas (ibiza cured ham, goat cheese, herb mushrooms)...

plus a 1/2 litre of sangria. Yummm.

This building is pretty typical of Barri Gotic architecturally - though each is unique.


Check this building out - it looks like the building was completely gutted...completely meaning there is literally NOTHING left on the inside (you can see sky through it) and metal braces are holding everything together. Really curious as to what is going to be done with it.

After the gothic area I took the train up to Parc Guell. Lots of fun Gaudi-ness here and beautiful vegetation.

Definitely feeling the love from this city. Wish I had more time to just live the life here and hit the beach. Sadly I don't think tomorrow will give me enough time to do more than head out for a short while before I head to the train station. They couldn't give me a train reservation, so I need to just go a bit early and hope for the best!

the first day

So here it is - my hostel! It's really clean and the staff is pretty friendly. They gave me a map and directions on how to get around...which sort of worked for me. It's located pretty close to the Barcelona Sants train station, which makes it easy to get to and from here.

My first meal in Spain: a salad. I know - whoa! Honestly it was still a food adventure though since I don't like black olives and I'm in love with ranch dressing. I ate some olives - not too terrible actually! And I tried both of the dressings they gave me - extra virgin olive oil (technically just olive oil, not a dressing) was nice, the wine vinegar was not. Yuck yuck yuck!

Here is a picture of the street my hostel is on....look how cute it is with all of the old buildings and trees. I especially love how some of the buildings have incredible detail. The mini balconies are great too. And on my walk home down that tree-lined street I walked past an open mechanic's shop and saw this....
America is present in Barcelona too! Mostly through McDonalds and Coca-Cola, but an old Ford shows up here and there too I guess.

Today was most an explore-the-neighborhood kind of day. Lots of shops and cafes around my hostel. Tomorrow I'm planning to explore the gothic area and seek out some of Gaudi's work (amaaaazing architect). Pretty sure I'm up the the local public transit system now :)

PS. Thanks for all of the warm wishes everyone!

whatś with the signs, barcelona?

I just spent the last hour wandering the streets surrounding Barcelona Sants train station looking for my hostel. Or more accurately looking for the street it is on. Why must the street signs be located ON buildings here in beautiful Barcelona? It probably took me a full 20 minutes before I even realized that. For a bit I was starting to think that they were adverse to street signs and everyone here just inherently knows where they are at all times. Geez and I thought I had a good sense of direction!

But now, and hour later, I am checked into my hotel, slowly cooling off, really wondering how much my backpack weighs (I was afraid to weigh it before I left...decided it was better to not know at all), trying to forget that it´s 430am in Iowa as I am determined to get on the right time zone immediatley, working on adjusting to this funky keyboard, and am relaxing because - I made it! Iḿ really here! Now letś go explore...

airports...

...are boring! At least the people-watching is good though. Slow movers, kids toting carry ons larger than themselves, sickeningly cute couples, and the ever-present self- important businessmen glued to their Blackberries...and one very cute hippie boy. Wonder who I'll be sitting next to? Hmmm...

packing it up

I am at t-minus 2 days until departure - whoa! I am busily trying to convert my nervous energy into excitement about whatever happens. I know I am going to get lost at some point, so I'm mentally preparing for it now so that it's a fun adventure and not a scary one. I'm also busy wrapping up lots of loose ends here - writing out rent checks for my mom to mail for me while I'm away (gotta keep paying the bills somehow!), analyzing maps of Barcelona (my first stop), and soaking up lots of family time. I've been at the family farm since last Friday and am loving it - I even helped my dad bottle feed a baby calf on Friday...I think it's been at least 7 years since I've done that!

The biggest thing right now is figuring out the best way to pack my backpack. I bought a serious backpack for this trip and was told it is pretty much the Rolls Royce of backpacks - ha!

See how fancy it is?! So far everything fits *huge sigh of relief*, but I need to measure it to make sure it's small enough to be my carry-on for the plane. There is no way I'm checking any luggage as I'm 99% certain the airline wouldn't be able to track me down to get it back to me if something was lost. Any thoughts on what the best packing strategy is would be welcome. Right now I'm thinking the clothing will have to be on top to lessen the top-heaviness that I experience the first time I test-packed it. Other than that, I've got my space-saving bags to roll my clothes in, my 3oz liquids chosen, and am well-stocked with magazine and puzzles for the plane thanks to Emily. I'm almost ready!!

the things i'll miss

So I've blogged a little bit about being nervous about my upcoming trip and a lot of the 'oh my god I can't believe it's so close!' kind of stuff, but today I've been thinking about all of the things I'm going to miss while I'm away. First, very upsettingly, there are several concerts during the second half of May at Peoples on Court in Des Moines that I will be missing - The Used, Meiko, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Framing Hanley - who I reaalllly want to see. For a music-lover like myself this is a huge disappointment. I will also be missing the 2nd annual Mile High Music Festival. I went to the inaugural event last year and it was the highlight of my summer. No joke. So missing out on some seriously amazing live music is a big bummer.

It should go without saying that I'll miss my friends here dearly, but I'll say it again - I'm going to miss you guys. My best friend is currently 7 weeks pregnant, so I'll miss out on the emergence of her baby bump. Other friends are buying houses. Still others are just going to be doing fun summer things without me - like tubing the Skunk River and fighting the algae while attempting to get some sun on floaties at Big Creek State Park's lake.

The one I'm going to miss the very most though is my roommate. Since we live together we've become pretty close and while she doesn't make me soup when I'm sick or let me borrow her clothes, she does like to watch crappy television with me and cuddle on the couch during thunderstorms. Yes, I am talking about Lucy...my dog. She is spending most of today in the living room windowsill enjoying the nice weather outside. It's her favorite spot. I decided to snap a few photos to document her most common position.

She likes sitting here so she can watch the comings and goings of the backyard. Basically she's a bit of a creeper. It's cute though. Also please note the small toy collection she has stashed there.
She got curious about the camera and came up close to investigate. I took the opportunity to snap a candid portrait. She's looking fairly apathetic/sleepy in this one.

I'll miss her for sure, but I'm hoping my parents will include her in some gmail video chat dates so that I can see her and make sure she hasn't changed too much in my absence! She doesn't know it yet, but she is about to become a farm dog for the summer. Her "grandparents" can't wait :)