A Hungarian Experience: Budapest

The next morning, Saturday May 21st, 2011 I knew I had to leave Salzburg, if I ever wanted to continue on with my trip. If I didn’t leave then, I probably would have just stayed there. I loved that city so much. Well I decided to commit and booked my hostel for that night in Budapest so I knew I would have to leave.

After breakfast, Eden and I went off to visit Mozart’s birthplace downtown and we did a little shopping, Eden did more shopping than I did. I think all I got were some of those delicious Mozart chocolate balls. Mozart’s house was cool, pretty much what you would suspect from someone’s birth house, small, cute neighborhood, etc. Outside the house, Eden and I danced the polka to a local band, and then carried on as if nothing had happened. We wandered the city some more and found ourselves inside the big cathedral in Salzburg. Finally, I looked at the time to realize I wouldn’t be making the train I had originally envisioned taking, so we sat at the hostel and waited for the next train. Eden and I took the same train as he was headed to Vienna, and the train to Budapest goes through Vienna to get there. He was lucky, he was only on the train for 3 hours, I was there for 6 hours.

I said goodbye to Eden, switched trains, and got on a janky train full of barking dogs and crying babies headed to Budapest. Fortunately, on the train I met Judith. Judith is a lady who is working in Vienna, but is originally from Budapest. She helped give me advice as to where I should go, how much money I should take out (as in Hungary they use the Hungarian Fronks, I think is what they’re called), explained what train station I should get off to get to my hostel, etc. All around super helpful.

Eventually, I found my way to my hostel, got checked in, and just crashed. I was in a 8-bed room full of old men and was frankly too tired to think about it, so just went right to sleep. The next morning, I got up and had breakfast. Then decided to go see the day. But first, I made the decision that I was going to return to Austria that night and stay in Vienna for a few days. Despite being there for only a few hours, Hungary was already quite confusing for me.  Also, I knew I had a friend back in Vienna that I could travel with, opposed to exploring a random country by myself. I knew I would have 2 whole weeks to do that later, why not hang out with others while I had the chance.

Once I booked my hostel in Vienna, I went exploring. Not knowing anything about Budapest made it a little difficult to know what I was looking for, but even still I found things to do. I left the hostel and just began to wander; I ended up at a giant synagogue. Having vaguely remembered Monsieur Piette telling me about synagogues in Budapest, I went. It was my first time ever-stepping foot inside a synagogue and it was not that different than a church. Men had to cover their heads and there were no crosses, but otherwise, they were pretty similar in structure. In the backyard of the Great Synagogue housed a symbolic memorial cemetery to the Jews who had been killed in the Second World War. Additionally, there a really cool weeping willow monument made from steel in the garden with names of Hungarian Jews who had been persecuted and killed.

Once, I left the Great Synagogue, I got a little lost, but somehow ended up at the other synagogue. This one was mostly ruins, but it was still cool to go inside and see the destruction caused by the war. I guess cool really isn’t the best choice of words, but it was enlightening and disheartening to see wreckage of what one can clearly tell used to be a magnificent place to worship.

From these synagogues, I went off in search of the opera house, but got sidetracked by a ice cream parlor. Since everything is so cheap in Hungary, 2 scoops of ice cream only cost .75-euro cents, something like 200 HUF! After sitting for a while, I forgot how nice it was not to be walking around frantically trying to find something when I had no idea what was in the city, and that’s when I decided to do a bus tour. First I walked through the Sunday market, and admired some cool art pieces, then I walked back to my hostel, where right outside a bus was picking people up for the tour.  The tour was brilliant because the city is quite large and split into two sections by the Danube River, Buda and Pest. The tour took us all over both sides and had an audio component for 16 languages. It was similar to the bus tour I did was Mom and Aunt Barb in Paris; it was a hop-on hop-off type deal.

The bus took us all over. We went to József Nádor tér, Erzsébet tér/Deák Ferenc tér, Andrássy út, and the Opera House. The Hungarian State Opera House (Hungarian: Magyar Állami operaház) is a neo-Reneissance opera house located in central Pest, (a part of Budapest) on Andrássy út. Although in size and capacity it is not among the grates, the beauty and the quality of acoustics the Budapest Opera house is considered to be amongst the first few opera houses in the world. Then, it went to Liszt Ferenc tér / Oktogon, and Heroes’ Square / City Park, which is Hungary’s biggest square, complete with historical statues and famous museums. Next to the drop off point was the Budapest Zoo, the Széchenyi Thermal Bath, the Gundel restaurant, and the Vajdahunyad Castle.

Then we went to Keleti Railway Station / Hungaria Hotel, the Astoria, in downtown Pest, near the National Museum and the Synagogue. Following that was the Chain Bridge / Funicular, found on the Buda side, at the Buda bridgehead, underneath the Castle Hill. Castle District / Dísz tér) On the Castle Hill, within walking distance from the Fishermen’s Bastion, Matthias Church, and the Buda Castle was after that. Citadel, which is the highest point of downtown Budapest, with breathtaking views of the city and its river followed. It stopped at Váci utca – Március 15. tér, and finally went to Parliament, which is Budapest’s most revered building in the government district.

Part way through the tour, I caught myself falling asleep, and I wasn’t prepared for that, so I got off the bus at the opera house stop and did a tour of it. The opera house in Budapest is smaller to the one in Vienna, but its inside is more elaborately made, its detailed with real gold, and the ceiling is painted with a picture of the gods. Also, there is a special seat in the back of the audience dead-center known as the king’s seat, and only royalty or presidents can sit there. The only person who has ever sat there without fitting that criteria is Madonna because she’s a diva and got her way when they were in Budapest filming Evita.

After the tour, I got back on the tour bus and got dropped off at the hostel. From the hostel, I picked up my bags, and went to the Keleti train station and was on a train back to Vienna in no time. Back at the Vienna train station, Eden was there waiting for me, and he helped me find my hostel for that night, since the hostel he was staying in claimed it was booked online. My hostel was at the end of the U4 line, in the boonies. It was in the back woods of Vienna, I don’t think it was even Vienna, I think it was some suburb of the city. Either way, we found my hostel. Despite it being so far away, it was nice because I ended up having a 4-person room to myself. This room even had its own bathroom and shower in it! Once I was all checked in, we went out for dinner discussing what we had done with our days apart. Eden hadn’t really done anything, and I told him all about Budapest. As it was getting late, he took the metro back to his hostel and we said goodnight.

The Hills Are Alive With the Sounds of Salzburg

The next morning, we all had breakfast together, and that is where I met Eden. Eden is such a joke; I love this man. He is a 33-year-old British actor, who doesn’t necessarily define himself as an actor. He does a lot of acting/ teaching work, more community based than anything.  He is a gem. So breakfast ends at 9:30am at the JUFA hostel, and Eden walks in at 9:20am and is astounded that almost all the food is gone already. He and Nauri had met the night before when he checked in, and since we were all traveling alone we decided why not go exploring together. Since Brenna had lived in Salzburg and still had friends here, she was off on her own, but the other 2 and I went off. Eden and I had plans to go see a show at the Marionette theatre downtown, so we started off by walking there first. On the way, we ended up at the Mirabell-Garden, where Maria and the children sing “Do-Rei-Mi.” We played/ wandered around there for a while before we found the theatre. Then Eden and I bought our tickets to see the Nutcracker that night. We walked over the bridge toward the hostel, passing by Mozart’s birthplace, a Sound of Music gallery place, found the main square where we ate ice cream and played the game, “guess the nationality.” By the time I looked at the time, I realized I needed to book it back to the hostel if I wanted to do the Sound of Music sights tour. So I quickly ran/ jogged back to the hostel just on time to have a van pick me up only to drop me back off downtown where I had just ran from. Oh well.

Once I got dropped off downtown, I got on a coach tour bus and we were off. First stop on the tour was the Pavilion where Lisle and Ralph sing, “I am 16 going on 17.” This was at Hellbourne. Here we also got to see the trees that the children and Maria hang from when Captain Von Trapp returns home with the Baroness. Next stop, was the lake where the children are seen canoeing in when they are reunited with Captain Von Trapp and the Baroness. This lake is not actually behind the site that they used for the Von Trapp house, that house is on the other side of the city. From the lake, we set out to the mountains and got to go summer tobogganing. Basically, we sat on this little carts and were tow-roped up the mountain, and then we got to racetrack down the hill. It was so much fun! The scariest part was going up backwards up the mountain. Since Nauri had already done the tour and Eden had never seen the movie, I was flying solo and ended up meeting this American family who were seeing all the famous battlefields in Europe. Somehow, we bonded and they ended the tour by the youngest guy (still not young, early 30s giving me his email address, lovely).

I’m digressing again, sorry. After tobogganing, we saw the Moon Lake and the mountains where at the end of the film the Von Trapp family hikes through to get to freedom. What’s funny are these mountains are the mountains leading to Germany, not Switzerland like the movie portrays, and clearly the Von Trapps would not be fleeing Austria to go to Germany! We also passed by the real Von Trapp house, which today is a bed and breakfast and traditional Austrian clothing store.  Additionally, we passed by the Convent where Maria was, but you aren’t allowed to tour inside, so we just saw the outside; still impressive. Our final stop on the four-hour tour was the cathedral where Maria and Captain Von Trapp are married. After we saw that, we had a half hour break until we returned to Salzburg, so I tried some of the traditional Austrian chocolate cake. It was so delicious. It really hit the spot.

Next, we returned to Salzburg, and passed by the Red Bull Factory Headquarters. Luke, I thought of you! By now it had started to rain, so none of us were anxious to get off the bus by the time we got back to town. Since I was supposed to be meeting up with Eden to walk to the show, I braved the rain and took the city bus to our hostel. Quickly got changed and we were off. The marionette theatre did a superb job of the Nutcracker. Literally, there were times when I thought the puppets were real people! It was that good. There was a scene where they had baby-flying cupid shooting arrows at the lovers, and neither Eden nor I could figure out how they had accomplished such a cool trick.

After the show, we returned to the hostel. Now online the hostel claims that they show the Sound of Music each night at 8pm, so I was hoping to watch it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t playing so I thought we had missed it. Turns out, they only play it if people are interested, so Eden and I watched it. I was excited to see the sites I had seen earlier that day, and it was his first time seeing it ever.

Now keep in mind The Sound of Music isn’t a short film and we started after the puppet show, so by now it was one something in the morning, the film was over, and we went to sleep.

By now, its Friday, May 20^th, 2011 and I had originally planned on leaving Salzburg, but since I had made such lovely friends and had yet to finish seeing the city I stayed another night. Once again, Eden showed up late for breakfast and today we decided we were going to go see the trick fountain at Hellbourne. Nauri, Eden, and I set off and first did the Trick Fountain tour. The Trick fountains were set up by masons from Salzburg and Italy, the best craftsmen of their time, under the guidance of Santino Solari. The most famous features are the Neptunfountain by H. C. Asper, built in the early 17th century and the so-called Roman Theatre with a marble table with seats that are part of a hidden fountain. If the Prince Archbishop hosted a dinner in Hellbrunn Palace, nobody was supposed to get up from his or her seat as long as the Prince Archbishop was still seated - which explains why his chair is the only one not targeted by the fountain. The machinery underlying this mechanism is based on five automatic water pumps that are part of the original ensemble. They were supplemented with waterpower driven mechanical theatre between 1749 and 1752. This theatre of Hellbrunn contains 138 moving, wooden figures.

Pretty much, they are great fun and you get wet, more specifically you constantly get splashed and spayed with water. But its awesome, so go if you ever get the chance. Once we were all wet, we decided to sit in the sun for a while to dry off before we went into the Hellbourne Palace. Once we dried off, we went back to take pictures of the Pavillon from the film, then back to Hellbourne Palace. Inside the palace we got to hear about the nobles who lived there and their enjoyment in practical jokes. When we finished with the palace, Nauri left to meet up with a friend, so Eden and I climbed a mountain to get to the Folk Museum. It was cool, and had a lovely view of the city. What intrigued me the most was how many costumes and masks the museum housed, pretty swanky! Once we were already on top of the hill, we decided we might as well find the theatre up there, so we walked around for a while before we saw something that looked like s stone stage. We played on the stage envisioning shows we would like to put on there, then we went back down the other side of the mountain to realize that was in fact the theatre we had been looking for. Good for us! But now we were on the other side of the mountain and didn’t really know how to get back, so we kept asking people, who pointed us all over, but eventually we found our way back to the palace to the bus back to the hostel.

As it was our last night together in Salzburg, we decided to go out for traditional Austrian food at a place called the Augustiner Bar. Before the left the hostel, we met a girl named Grace, who was spending her summer nannying in Gratz, and was just in Salzburg for the next day. At the Augustiner, I had a sausage, a cheese dumpling in a chicken-type broth, a pretzel, and a home-brewed Augustiner beer. At this place, we met a group of guys from Germany who were studying music who we ended up hanging out with for the rest of the night.

When the Augustiner turned off their lights, we knew it was closing time, so we headed back toward downtown to Nauri’s favorite bar in Salzburg, the Irish Pub called Shamrocks.  Shamrocks was such a fun place. I had a creepy old man try to dance with me, then I had another creepy old man dance with me, and finally I had one of the German guys dance with me; finally someone my own age, opposed to all these older men! After Shamrocks, we walked back to the hostel and called it a night.

Look! A Castle

The next morning I got up and at breakfast. At breakfast I made friends with another woman from Australia, this was a woman in her 50s who was traveling for 7 weeks. She was adorable, in a feisty way. She was traveling by herself and clearly just wanted to talk, so I just listened as she told me her life story. I really do love meeting new people and I don’t know why but people love to tell me their life stories, so its win-win!

When I finished talking to the Aussie, I set off to the train station to catch a train leaving Cologne to go to Mannheim to end up in Heidelberg. The girl in my room from the night before had recommended it to me and it sounded cool, so I said, “why not?” and went. I arrived in Mannheim and took the train to Heidelberg the first time, but got off at the stop too early. Thinking that was all Heidelberg had to offer (fields) I went back to Mannheim. I asked the people at the information desk, and told me I had simply gotten off too early, so I got back on the train to Heidelberg and got off at the correct stop. Then I stored my luggage a locker at the train station and went off to explore.

There is a castle in Heidelberg, so I took the public bus to the area closest to the castle, then hiked a mountain to get the castle itself. It is a beautiful place. Today, it is mostly ruins, but you can still see how beautiful it must have been in its former glory. Doing what I always do, I randomly joined a group of Asain tourists who looked like they knew what they were looking at and ended up in the castle gardens; absolutely stunning!

Once I figured I had seen all there was to the castle, I hiked back down the hill, and toured a little bit of the city. I walked around the market, entered City Hall, found a church, walked across the bridge, which is the start of the Philosopher’s trail, and looked at the time to realize if I didn’t leave soon I was going to miss my train to Salzburg, Austria where I had booked my hostel for that night. I took the bus back to the train depot, collected my luggage and hopped on the train back to Mannheim. By the time I got there I had missed my train, but luckily the train pass I have is open ended, so it doesn’t matter what time I take a train. I went to information to ask fastest way to get to Salzburg only to find out I had to go back to Heidelberg and take a direct train from there….WahWah. Oh well. I guess I just really love going to-and-from Heidelberg from Mannheim.

Train ride to Salzburg was uneventful; I rolled into the city around 10:30pm and took a bus to my hostel. It was funny because I was walking around with this slip of paper with directions and an address to my hostel, and went to this large light up building asking them where my hostel was and they were like “Are you Janice?” They had been waiting for me since 6pm when I had originally said I’d be checking in, and this large building was, in fact, my hostel! JUFA hostel in Salzburg is by far, the best hostel I have ever stayed in. I knew I was going to like Salzburg, even before I got there for it’s the setting for the Sound of Music, but I had no idea just how much I was going to like it. The hostel was super nice with its friendly staff, large rooms, free WIFI, free breakfast, overall wonderful. I got checked into another 8 all female room, but again there were only 2 other girls in the room. One was a girl who had spent the year studying abroad in Salzburg and was now back to say her goodbyes before she left to return to the US (Brenna), and the other was a girl who was traveling Europe for 2 months and had already visited Salzburg, but had fallen in love with it (Nauri). Once I got acquainted with them, I went upstairs sent out some emails, and went to sleep.

You'd Think The Locals Would Smell Better

Tuesday, May 17^th I got up early and showered. Then, I went downstairs and ate breakfast. Went back upstairs to make sure everything was packed and sent out my final updates/ emails to loved ones letting them know what the situation was; where I was going, that I was still safe, etc.  When I went downstairs with all my stuff (my backpack, my black duffel, and my purse, I was leaving my rolling suitcase with the Piette’s), they were all tears. Being the food pusher that she is, Madame Piette made me 4 sandwiches so I wouldn’t go hungry on the train. Then, we said our farewells. Despite the fact that I will be back in their house in June, they will be doing some jet setting of their own in the Canary Islands, so unless they come visit the US or I return to Beligium this would be the last time that I saw them for a while. They were so cute. They kept asking me if I had everything. Monsieur Piette kept reminding me to keep my passport and money in my front pocket, and Madame Piette kept trying to find more food to leave me with. Just as they were telling me to keep safe, I clumsily fell out the door landing on the pavement outside their house, giving them a lot of faith in my solo travels. Once I got back up, we all just laughed, hugged, and parted ways. I will never forget the Piette’s and their crazy, odd habits.

I then took the metro, where my MOBIB had finally run out so I had to buy a ticket, to Arts Loi/ Kunst Wet (and giggled like a 13 year old boy like I always do), and transferred, arriving at Gare de Midi. There I hopped on a train to Cologne. The train ride was fine. I met a girl from Taiwan who was also using a eurail train pass, so we chatted for a while about where to visit, where we’ve visited, and where we were going to visit. Before I knew it, it was 12:25pm and I was in Cologne, so I said best of luck to the girl, and went off in search of my hostel called the Black Sheep hostel.

It was a nice enough hostel, I was in an 8 bed female room, but I lucked out and only had 2 other girls in the room, not 7. I dropped off my bags, and decided to go exploring, first stop was the Dom Cathedral. Apparently, Cologne is known for two things among Europeans: this great Dom Cathedral and a great gay scene. I only noted the Dom.

Apparently, it took 600 years to complete the Dom. It was originally established to be the home of the relics of the Three Magi. Once I finished admiring both the inside and outside of the church, I went to the tourist office to ask what they suggest I should see. The office was quite unhelpful, so I just sat there for while looking at the map trying to decide what looked like fun. I walked around the Dom and ended up outside the Ludwig Museum and the Roman/ German Museum. Then decided to follow some elderly people in a pack who looked like they knew where they were going, and ended up at St. Martin’s. From there, I followed another couple of old people and ended up following the Rhine River. I followed it back to the Dom. Silly me, getting lost in Cologne. Well, from there I went to St. Angnes church, St. Ursula church, and I’m pretty sure another church. I also ended up at City Hall. Since I neither speak nor read German, I got thoroughly confused at times. I do know that I ended up at the Cologne City Museum, where I learned a little about Cologne’s history.

After the museum, I sat on a bench and called my parents just to let them know I was ok and all was well. When I got off the phone, I went back to the tourist information and inquired what shows were playing that night. The man at the desk tried to help me, but since he wasn’t a big theatre goer himself, it posed as a problem. I decided I would just walk to the opera house and see what was up. Good thing I did because students can purchase any ticket they want an hour before the show for only 6 euros. So, I bought a ticket to see the opera “Mamma Mafia” in the 5^th row back, dead center.

“Mamma Mafia” was a weird show. It was about the history of the mafia, but for part of the opera it was mostly silent with the men acting out and teaching the audience all the secreat movements and hand gestures that the mafia gives to one another to kill someone, and the second act was full of the men wearing Nixon masks and dancing in their boxers around the “Mamma” figure who was dressed in a black leotard with a tutu in the colors of the Italian flag. Very odd! To be fair, it probably would have made more sense if I spoke German, but since I don’t, I was, for the most part, confused.

Once the opera had finished I walked back to the Dom, passed by the 1477 Cologne Perfume store, and took the underground back to my hostel. There I met the two girls who were staying in my room. One was from Austraila and was spending 2 months just exploring Germany, and the other was from Indonesia and was traveling Europe for 2 weeks. The girl from Australia was much more outgoing and told me all sorts of cool places to visit and we just chatted. She was so nice! Eventually, I was so tired from having traveled from Brussels and walking all day, I just conked out and fell asleep.

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good night

Ok so here’s the deal, on Monday, May 16^th, 2011 both my roommates Cayla and Jiemin left. Since I still had to get my life together, aka plan out where I wanted to go I stayed another night at the Piette’s. Monday was a melancholic day; it was dreary outside, slightly raining, still warmish with a freezing cold rain. Madame Piette drove us to the airport to drop off Jiemin, which was so cute! I cried when we parted ways. Then, we got back to the Piette’s, Cayla grabbed her stuff, and she and I took the metro to Gare de Midi, where we parted ways. She was going to travel to London for a few days with a friend from VeCo (that’s what we call Vesalius College, the school I attended in Brussels), and then she was going to Paris to travel with her Mom and sister. Precious!

Needless to say, having to say goodbyes has not been my favorite thing to do this past year, and yet I have somehow managed to have to say goodbye to everyone. The goodbyes started first in May, when I had to say goodbye to friends from Beloit who I wouldn’t be seeing until senior year. Then in August, I had to say goodbye to my family and friends from home. Next in January when I had to say farewell to Magic Kingdom and all the new friends I had made there. And now it was May 2011 and I was saying goodbye to Belgium friends.  The good thing about this year is I have met so many new people! I can honestly say I have a friend in every single one of the fifty states, and I have friends sprinkled all over Europe.  Pretty cool!

But I digress from what I was beginning to tell the story of.  So I said my goodbyes to the last of my friends abroad, stayed inside packing, and pretended to plan out my trip. By the end of the day, I had finally decided on a starting point for my travels: Cologne, Germany.

I chose Cologne purely because it was only a 2-hour train ride, I knew various other friends who had visited it and liked it, and the hostels there seemed pretty cheap. I didn’t choose it because I knew anything about it, no, I chose it because others had talked about it.

So Monday night, I had my last dinner with the Piette’s, some sort of chicken dish. I love the Piette’s more than anything, but Madame Piette is a food pusher. She loves to cook, but hates the thought of having leftovers. Now, it seems as though she had forgotten that Jiemin and Cayla had already left for she made the same amount of food for 5 people, but for only 3 of us. Once I had finished my first plate and was feeling quite full, I take a sip of water to realize she is putting more food on my plate saying, “Eat. Eat.” What a lady!

After dinner, I went back upstairs had a brief freak out about my month of adventure. I kept wishing I was just going home like everyone else, not going traveling by myself for an entire month, but my mother and the Crescent Club convinced me I had committed to this adventurous plan last year, and I was on the home stretch there was no point in turning back now. Of course, they were right, but at the time, I was such a mess. I didn’t have a plan. This was the first time I had no plan whatsoever. Generally I have some idea of what I’m going to do, but this time nope. I knew I was going to Berlin to meet with Alissa and EuroDisney with Hilary, but that was it, otherwise it was just me. So I put on my matching Belgium t-shirt my roommates and I all have, and I watched an episode of Grey’s and said, “Well it’s happening. I’m leaving tomorrow for Cologne and I’ll just go from there,” and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing!

A Month of Adventures!

[I just want to preface this by apologizing for not yet updating you on the rest of Spring Break 2011 and the end of my Brussels semester, but since I remember this now, I will update this. Then go back once I am updated with today.]

It all began last July when I was planning out my Year of Adventure. I was trying to decide when I should buy my return ticket from Belgium, when various family and friends persuaded me that I should take some time after my semester abroad ended to travel the continent known at Europe. Needless to say, it didn’t take long to convince me that an extra month traveling would be the best way for me to spend my days.  And so, last July I booked my return ticket to the US for June 14^th.

In my semester abroad (my Erasmus year as its called in Europe) I did a lot of traveling; both around the continent and in Belgium. Just to give you a recap of some of the places that I visited, in case you haven’t been following my blog from the very start, or if I still haven’t gotten around yet to posting some of these travels):

• Brussels, Belgium (well, obviously I traveled and got to know the city, its where I lived for the past 5 months)
• Antwerp, Belgium (with my roommates, Cayla and Jiemin, and Elana and Alison) 
• Liege, Belgium (with Annie, Ari, Danis, and Jackie)
• Trier, Germany (with my ART class)
• Bruges, Belgium (with my ART class)
• Antwerp, Belgium (yep went there twice, this time with my ART class)
• Amsterdam, Netherlands (I went by myself to meet up with the lovely Katherine Francis)
• Paris, France (with my lovely Mother and Aunt Barb)
• Brighton, United Kingdom (with Stacy)
• Oslo, Norway (with Elisa)
• Paris, France (with my ART class)
• Brussels, Belgium (its listed twice because this is when Alisa and Gaffey came to visit, and exploring the city with them was a trip in it of itself. This is also during the same time that Mom and Aunt Barb were here too!)
• Venice, Italy (with Christy, Kelly, Katie, and Maisah for Spring Break)
• Cinque Terre, Italy (with Christy, Kelly, Katie, and Maisah for Spring Break)
• Rome, Italy (with Christy, Kelly, Katie, and Maisah for Spring Break, there we also met up with Elisa and Casey)
• Athens, Greece (with Christy, Kelly, and Katie for Spring Break, there we met up with Maddy)
• Aegina, Greece (with Christy, Kelly, and Katie for Spring Break)
• Amsterdam, Netherlands (with my ART class)
• Waterloo, Belgium (with Meaghan and Casey)
• Ostend, Belgium (with Cayla and Jiemin)

 What a semester! Now, I’m off on a month long journey of traveling.

Traveling Europe

So I realize that I haven't finished spring break or the rest of Beligum yet, but I will! Promise!
For the moment though, I just wanted to let you all know that I am leaving Brussels today off for a month of adventure returning to the US in mid June.

I am starting off my trip in Cologne, Germany, and from there taking it day by day. I know I'll be in Berlin and EuroDisney for part of the trip!

Hope your having a magical day and wish me luck!
Here I go!
Janice

It's All Greek to Me: Athens

By now I am day 11 into my two week long spring break and its April 19^th. This morning I got up at some unfortunate time like 4am, and got myself packed. Let’s be real for a minute, its not like I’d been getting a lot of great sleep on the trip so 4am wasn’t that early, and my body was in some sort of trance mode of let’s go, so that’s what I did I went. I got up Elisa and moved her to my room since the people in her room had moved her stuff off her bed the night before and she didn’t trust them. Plus, she and Joe were going to spend part of the day exploring more of Rome before they both left the hostel for good. After I get myself and the crew all situated we say goodbye to Roma and we take a shuttlebus to the airport with the destination of Athens in mind.

         
The airport was kind of a funny story in that no one looked at my passport. They saw that I had one and that it said USA, but no one opened it. Not a single person opened up my passport to see if I really was who I said I was. Also, I later found out that I still had my razor and liquids in my bag, things your not supposed to fly with. And finally, my bag was by far too big for the EasyJet restrictions, but somehow I got away with all of the above. Apparently, airport security that morning wasn’t feeling too chipper to verify that I follow the rules.

So after no one looked at my passport, we boarded a bus, which took us to the plane, where similar to Ryanair, we had to board the plane outside. Oh rando European airports, how you never cease to amaze me! Took a little plane to Greece, and the next thing you know we were in Athens! Luckily for us the wonderful Madeline Kramer was there to help us by telling us what bus to take from the airport to the city, so we did just that. We arrived in Syntagma Square for a few unpleasant sightings/ occurrences a) it was cold b) there were at least twenty dogs in a 40 foot radius just lying there on the ground looking dead c) sometimes the dogs would get up and just walk into the middle of a busy road d) everything was in Greek, I could literally utter the phrase, "its all Greek to me" and not feel like a cliche, no now I was living the cliche! e) why was it cold in Greece? It was warmer in Brussels than Greece. 

After walking in the opposite direction for a while, we found Maddy, who also proceeded to lead us in the wrong direction. Eventually, we found where the other girls were staying, and we got them all checked in. Maddy left for class, so the rest of us went out to lunch on a street we had passed earlier. We walked into a gyros shop and all they had to say to us was "2 euros." We were all quite confused, but Christy just responded by giving them 2 euros and telling all of us to give them the money. Once we had and we were just standing there, we were like "uh, what was the 2 euro for?" Then they explained it was 2 euros for a gyros, but that was the take-away price. If we wanted to eat there it was .15 euro more. Since it was freezing out and we were tired, we just sat and enjoyed our delicious gyros inside. From there we went to a little pastry shop where the girls got baklava and I had some tasty chocolate dessert. Next, we walked to Parliament and saw the changing of the guards.

Kelly, Christy, and I wandered a little into the National gardens before meeting Katie at the Blue Ferry travel agency to plan our island excursion. We knew we wanted to visit an island during our time in Greece and now that it was cold out, our need to go someplace warm was only magnified. We pretty wasted an hour at the agency realizing the two main islands we wanted to visit: Mykannos and Santorini  were super expensive. So we left full of ideas of where to go to instead, and went to Temple of Zeus.

From the Temple of Zeus, we saw Hadrian's gate. And from there, we went to the Acropolis Museum. The Acropolis Museum houses masterpieces of ancient Greek civilization and art, including sculptures, friezes, and figurines. After a while, we got kind of sleepy from our 4am wake up, so left and returned to the hostel awaiting Maddy's call for dinner. 4 hours later, we woke up from our naps to realize it was now 8pm! We then contacted Maddy and went out to eat at a restaurant near the Acropolis. We had maastraki, stranginki (a fried cheese dish), oranges, and lamb. NOM NOM NOM. 

After a delightful dinner where Maddy explained to us the dos and don'ts of Greek life, we met up with Katie and her friend from home who is studying in Athens. As we all walked back to the hostel we saw one of those homeless dogs try to attack a man, turns out if you look shady, the dogs will try to attack you. Scary business these homeless dogs. After that adventure, I picked up my stuff from the girl's hostel, and Maddy and I walked to her apartment. There we bonded and had a little reunion sharing stories of our lives, and then it was time for some more much needed sleep. 

Roman Holiday

Eventually our night train rolled into Rome at 6am, and we went off to find our hostel, the Hotel Barry. This hostel had a great location, right in the heart of Rome and next to the train station, so perfect for us! The only problem was we got there too early, so the hotel wouldn't let us in. It wasn't really even a hotel/ hostel it was 5 rooms which held about 4 to 6 persons per room with 2 bathrooms and one shower. Anyways, they wouldn't let us in yet, so we fell asleep in the hallway outside once again like hobos. Around 7am they let us in, and by in I mean we got to sit in the hallway now inside the hotel, opposed to outside. We also got to shower and put our stuff into a storage room, so we wouldn't have to worry about until later that afternoon when we checked in.

Once we were all clean and feeling a bit more awake, we decided it only seemed right to go to mass at the Vatican since it was after all Palm Sunday. We took the metro, which only has 2 lines and went the wrong way. Then, we got back on the metro and finally made it to the Vatican. Before we could get in, we had to have our purses searched by security. The Vatican is huge. It is gorgeous. It is breathtaking. There were so many people there, I could only imagine what it was like on Easter; I'm sure it was packed. We pushed our way as close to the front as we could get, really not that close with thousands of other people present. Despite all the others, we were still able to see the Pope and listen to him give mass for 3 hours. After the three hour mark and mass still wasn't over, we had to sit down. The sun was beating down on us and we hadn't had anything to eat yet, so we were in quite the state. We left saying our prayers, I got some palm leaves for donating to the scouts, and we found ourselves lunch as some restaurant nearby.

Christy, Kelly, Katie, and I at the Vatican!

Palm Sunday Mass

The Pope

 After lunch, we went to the Colosseum to meet up with Casey and Elisa, only to find out they had already done it. Since Christy wanted a guided tour, we signed up for some tour with a dodgy tour guide, despite the fact that the Colosseum was free this day. Nevertheless, we saw the Colosseum, its truly amazing how these structures have survived the tests of time.

Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

Katie, Janice, Christy, and Kelly inside the Colosseum

 We were given a 45minute break to keep looking at the Colosseum before we were to meet up with our tour guide to view the Forum Baths. In that time, we continued looking at the Colosseum, then met up with Casey and Elisa. After a reunion, we went back to meet up with our tour group to find no one! So, we went to the baths ourselves to realize we had been scammed and our guide had peaced out after the Colosseum. Rough, but the Baths were cool until it began to rain, so we left.

Arch

Inside the Forum Baths

 By the time we got out of the Baths, it was sunny out again, so we just walked down the street to the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento. Then, we walked back to our hostel to officially check-in and just sit for a while. This is where we met Joe, Joe was sharing a room with Christy, Kelly, and I. He was traveling by himself, so ended up joining us for dinner and on a few excursions around the city. Once we were all situated, we went to the Spanish steps, the Trevi Fountain (where I made a wish), and then to dinner. Dinner was like all meals in Italy, delicious! I had pasta. SO GOOD! After dinner, we went out for gelatto and stumbled upon a Pinocchio store and the Pantheon. Its funny what you find when you're looking for something else and when you are looking for something in particular you can never seem to find it! Once we had passed by a few more monuments, we made it to the hotel and went to sleep.

Museo Centrale del Risorgimento

Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain

Pinocchio

 The next morning (April 18th) we got up, showered, and went in the direction of the Vatican Museum. Before we did anything too strenuous though, we started our day by eating lunch. Then, we had some sketchy tour guide get us to the front of the 4 hour line and we went and toured the Sistine Chapel. Since Christy had already seen it in high school she refrained, instead just sat in the Basilica Square, where mass had taken place the day before. The Vatican is gigantic! And the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel while breathtaking is ruined by being rushed through the room by Vatican Museum staff and thousands of others pushing their way through to properly view the ceiling.

weird globe in the middle of Vatican gardens

Rodin's The Thinker

Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Bronze statue of Hercules

 After the museum, we met up with Christy and took the metro to Piazzo where we got gelatto. Then we walked in search of the Pantheon, and whilst lost we stumbled upon Gelatti (the gelatto place we had been trying to find with over 70 different kinds of gelatto!). It was so great. If any of you ever get to Rome, go to Gelatti. Its worth the trip, believe me! NOM NOM NOM

Piazzo

After our little gelatto stops we visited the inside of the Pantheon. From there, we walked to the Republicca where a bird took a shit on me. That's supposed to be good luck, right? Well it happened, whether I like it or not. From the Republicca, we returned to the hotel where Joe was napping. Whoops! He then decided to join us for dinner in some back alley that he had discovered, turns out it had some of the best food ever as well. Once dinner had ended, a few of us decided to walk to the Colosseum to see it at night. Worth it. Then, we walked back to the hotel, packed, and went to sleep.

Partheon

Republicca

Colosseum at night

Cinque Terre

April 15th:
Once we all regrouped in La Spezia, we went to the office of tourism and got our Cinque Terre pass which would allow us to hike on the paths and use the train system between cities. Then, we took the train from La Spezia to our hostel in the mountains. We got off the train and hiked up this hill to check in at the receptionist of our hostel. Just when we thought we would get a minute rest, we got right back, walked down the hill, and hiked up the other side of the mountain to get to our actual room. Our hostel was more like renting out an apartment. The bottom floor had a kitchen area with a sink, some dishes, pots and pans, a refrig, a stove, and a washing machine. Also, the ground floor had a bathroom with a shower. Upstairs, there were 2 bunk beds, one single bed, and this lavish purple silk covered queen sized bed with a gold lace canopy above it. Since we were all horrified by the purple bed, we claimed the bunk beds. Since we were all feeling quite gross we took turns showering before we went off to explore the national park of Cinque Terre.

After we all were clean, we hiked back down the hill of our hostel which was in Riomaggiore, and took the train to Vernazza. Vernazza is beautiful! Like all of Cinque Terre. In Vernazza we got gelato, and walked along the water enjoying how blue it was. After a while, Katie, Christy, and I decided to venture off and we ended up at a castle tower on top of a mountain. It was breathtaking view.

Vernazza

THIS IS REAL!

Gelato Number 3

Vernazza

the water is so blue

Beautiful!

After some time of appreciating the view from the top of the tower, we got down and soaked up the sun. By the time we were feeling hungry, we were on the train back to Riomaggiore. At dinner, Christy and I tried the traditional raisin wine, and if I can just say, it was quite tasty! It was very strong and potent at first sip and then it was nice. You could only have small sips at a time. No gulping allowed when you drink that wine. It would be too overwhelming. After dinner, we were all looking forward to our beds, so walked back up the hill to our hostel only to see the sun setting, so we kept walking up and found a bench where we sat and watched the sun set. Then, we returned to the hostel to meet our other roommates, two girls from the US who were studying in Rome. Since we were going to Rome next we bombarded them with questions, and then since we had yet to sleep for a few days, we were out by 8 or 9pm.

Grandma Janice enjoying the sun set

Day 8 of SPRING BREAK 2011, April 16th.
We got up, ate some sweet honey and bread, then set off to see all 5 of the cities. First though, we had to go back to La Spezia and deposit our luggage in baggage storage. From there it was off to a day of hiking and exploring! We started off our day right with some gelato in the first city, then began hiking the blue trail from city to city. After a good long while of hiking, we decided it was time for our European lunch of cheese, bread, boxed wine, apples, and water. NOM NOM NOM.

Gelato number 4

Hiking the Lover's Trail

Gelato number 5

Our European lunch

Still can't believe I saw this!

After we reached the last city, we sat for a while on the pebble beach and once again watched the sun set. As we were watching, this obnoxious frat boy passed us saying "you want to see a drunk guy jump off a cliff, just wait a minute." Once he got to the top of the cliff, he panicked and realized he wasn't as drunk as he thought and noticed all the rocks in the water surrounding the cliff, so opted not to jump. Once he was finished freaking out, we climbed the cliff to realize just how truly high up it was! Then, we got down and went to yet another delicious pasta dinner.

2011

After dinner, we looked at the clock to realize we were just going to make it in time to collect our luggage from the train station...or so we thought! We got there at 9:57pm and it was closed! It wasn't supposed to close until 10pm, but here we were at a loss for words, what were we going to do? For starters, we banged on the doors, then I ran to the police and frantically tried to explain the situation, only to have them tell me they were Italian and I needed to slow down my gibberish English. Lucky for us, the police were super nice and once they realized we were taking a train at 3am, they agreed to open up the luggage space.

In an uproar about all that happened, I was a range of emotions: so joyful they had gotten our luggage for us, and so upset that one of our travel companions a) had left us all day b) wasn't there to pick up her luggage c) later then didn't care when I told her the traumatic story. Didn't even say thank you that I had collected her luggage too! Grrr....

Anywho, so we got our stuff, found the nearest, cleanest looking hotel, asked them if we could stay in their lobby until our train. Did just that. Waited for the other girl to arrive with the two other girls we had shared the hostel with, then we took the train.

The train was a disaster! It was overbooked, so people were once again sleeping in the hallways. Only this time we had seat reservations, so had to awkwardly kick people out of our seats. For the rest of the night/ morning all I heard was the people next to me snoring in my ear. Not the best night, but it had been a wonderful day in Cinque Terre.

Where the Towers Are Leaning

After our brief nap at the hotel with the receptionist who took pity on us, we boarded our 3am train to Florence, where we would then take a connecting train to Pisa, then to La Spezia. At 3am, nothing should be open, no one should be awake, yet there we were standing in the cold with all our belongings for 2 weeks waiting for a train. When the train finally arrived we were so happy, so happy until we got on the train to realize there were no more seats left. For a good hour into the train ride, we were sitting on top of our bags in the outside hallway corridor hoping at the next stop someone would get off and then we could take their chair. About 2 hours into the ride, our prayers were answered and we got chairs. We rolled into Florence around 7am, and by now we were all beat. Everyone sat in silence, just waiting for the connecting train to arrive so we could get to La Spezia to get to our hostel, to get to a bed to rest our weary heads.

Eventually, the connecting train arrived and we were then dropped off at Pisa. Our next train was leaving in 10 minutes, but the following train wasn't supposed to leave for another hour, so we decided as long as we were in Pisa, we might as well go see the Leaning Tower that everyone seems to talk about. We took a taxi to the area, ran to the tower, ran back to the taxi, and was back at the train station within 20 minutes. Unfortunately, our first train had already left, so we waited for the next train going to La Spezia. When the train came, we simply hopped on, paying no attention to what kind of train it was, if it was a local train or high-speed train. Quickly though, we came to understand that we were on a nice high speed train and our tickets were not valid on this train. The stewardess gave me two options: 1. pay the difference, which would have been something obscene like 45 euro per person, or 2. we could get off at the next stop free of charge and wait for the next regular train heading our way. Obviously, we chose the latter.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

I'm pushing it back up!

Other leaning buildings in Pisa

 When we got off the train, we looked around to realize we were in some sort of podunk town in Italy. Since it was still raining and we had a long time to wait, we decided to go inside the waiting area. At first we talked about drinking to pass the time then we thought that made us sound like alcoholics and by now it was only 9am, far too early to start drinking! Instead we passed the time by playing cards and eating chocolate. Our surroundings were quite scary though, it reminded me of something that you would imagine in seeing in a creepy carnival fun house. There was a giant Obama head. Yes, there was in fact, a giant plaster sculpture of President Obama's head. It only got weirder the longer we stayed there. Midway through our card game, the bartender came up to our table and started tapping away on his metal tray, just rapping his fingers and trying to give his commentary of the game. But since he spoke Italian, that whole conversation scene was not working out to well. Finally, after what seems like days of being in this creepy place we left. And by we left, I mean Maisah and I got on the train with Kelly and Christy's stuff, while the others were in the bathroom. Eventually, we all met up at La Spezia to enjoy a superb time in Cinque Terre.

Venice

So after the first leg of spring break with the Art 361 class had come to a close, I got off the train from Paris at Brussels Midi, raced home, took a shower, repacked, had anawkward exchange with my host family about why I was home, then left again off to gare central to make a train to Charleroi, since the shuttle buses had already stopped for the night. I get to the train station 5 minutes before the train is to
depart, only to realize that the train station doesn't sell tickets past 10pm (so the ticket attendant Kelly had talked to the day before had lied to her) and Maisah was at the wrong train station. By the time we (Kelly, Katie, Maisah, and I) were all situated it was now 12:30am. Since we had already gotten this far in our plan there was no turning back now. We decided we would all just split a taxi to the Charleroi airport. After falling asleep for most of the ride we awoke to an unfortunate bill of about 40 euro per person! Rough. The worst part about it all was that our flight wasn't until 7am, so we got to hunker down like hobos at the airport and get some zzz's before our Spring Break 2011 could officially commence. At 4am when the airport officially opened we were woken up my guards kindly asking us to wake up. It seems as though the airport has no problem with people spending the night there, but in the morning when they open their doors they want all the hobo college kids waiting for their flights to get up. Once we were up, we pretty much sat around waiting for Christy to join us (her host mother was driving her so she wouldn't have to sleep at Charleroi. Once Christy arrived we checked in, got coffee, and once again waited for our flight. While waiting we ran into Zack, who was also heading to Venice.

Kelly and Katie at 4am at Charleroi Airport

SPRING BREAK 2011

 When 7:15 rolled around we were finally off on yet another joyous Ryanair adventure. After a rocky flight we arrived safely in Venice-Treviso. It seems as though every time I take a Ryanair flight I end up an hour out if the city I am aiming to arrive in and this trip was no different. We had to take an hour long bus ride from the airport to get to our destination of Venice. First thing we did in Venice was figure ourselves out, for we were only spending the day there and then taking a night train to Cinque Terre. In order to situate ourselves best, we dropped off our luggage at the train station, then went off to explore the city. Katie had managed to fill up her memory card in Paris on the ART trip and didn't clear it when she stopped by her host family, so we stopped at a stand and got her a new memory card that then didn't even end up working. But since she had opened up the packaging, she wasn't allowed to return it. It was after this little fiasco of trying to return the memory stick that I learned that bargaining and bartering wasn't going to happen during this break. 

Church next to the train station

Once I learned this, which by the way, I was super unhappy about, we stumbled upon a protest outside a church. What the protest was for is truly beyond me, but they looked upset, so we quickly got out of there. In our wanderings we found some gelato, our first experience with gelato was awesome. And it just kept being awesome! I can honestly say, I don't think I'll ever get tired of gelato. Its sooo NOM NOM NOM!

Protest in Venice

Gelato Number 1

Later, we went to a delicious lunch of pizza. Our first true Italian pizza! Then, we passed by numerous canals and found the Rialto brige. Just as we were trying to find St. Mark's square, we ran into Sam from Beloit, the only other Beloit student studying at Vesalius. With his help we found St. Mark's square. There we walked around admiring the vast open area surrounded by churches, the town hall, and the Zodiac clock.

Katie, Janice, Kelly, and Christy

Janice on the Rialto Bridge

Rialto Bridge

I WISH I HAD BOUGHT THIS HAT!

St. Mark's Square

Zodiac Clock

 From there we headed to the Marina area and Katie went off to find some beads that her dad had gotten for her as a child. Since I decided it was a lost card, Kelly, Christy, and I went off and ended up in some random children's museum.

Children's Museum

 After the fun of the museum, we got more gelato! Then ended up in a music museum, where we got to see some classic instruments made in Venice. The Hemingway exhibit in another museum became our next stop. In case you were wondering, it was quite cold outside, so we kept ducking into museums to try and get some warmth.

Gelato Number 2

Musical Instrument Museum

 Once we left the Hemingway exhibit, we stopped by the Opera and Theatre house, as well as we visited a church. We did a giant circle somehow and ended back on the Rialto Bridge, only to end up at a restaurant where we got coffee. By this time, we were running on no sleep, gelato, and it was cold out, so sitting down to drink something warm was just what we wanted! After about 2 hours of sitting and drinking our coffee we started feeling hungry, so we left that restaurant to walk across the street to go to another restaurant.

One of the guys from the other restaurant walked into the one that we were now eating dinner at and they kept asking us why we had left them to go to the place we were at. We simply smiled and said we were hungry. Before we know it we are getting asked out for drinks after the waiter was done with work, and since we didn't have any other plans we said yes. This was our first mistake. We ended up having drinks with the waiter and his boss, who was about 45 over back at another one of the restaurants that they own. But the longer we spent there, the creepier they got, until finally the bad vibes got me and I stood up saying we needed to leave, only to find out that they had closed a garage-type door. This is the point in the trip when I said, "Oh shit...." then I began to bang on the doors. Quickly, they let us out and we ran back to the train station. As it was getting late, we picked up our luggage and went to the closest hotel. We went inside and asked if it would be ok for us to sit in their lobby until 3am when I train left because we didn't feel safe waiting at the train station and the receptionist was so kind. He said of course, and showed us where to stay for the next few hours. We waited in a lobby which fortunately had enough couches for all of us, so most of us just took a quick nap before our alarms went off a few hours later leading us to the next day of our spring break journey...