It's Been A Long Time

Hello everyone! I am very sorry that I haven't written in my blog in while. I have had limited internet access and to help that I don't have a laptop as some of you know. I am currently in Vienna staying with Bethany because if I were in Klagenfurt still I would be paying to stay in a hostel because my school people dont' have my room ready until tomorrow because the guy who has all the keys is on summer vacation. Oh well.

I have been alone for while and I haven't decided if I like it or not. I certainly like being around people a lot but being by yourself is a very different experience. I don't have a lot of time right now but I forsee me getting regular internet use very soon so I will be writing a lot more. See ya soon!

Beer and Waffles!

Sorry It's been a while since I have written but as any of you who read this should know that I have very limited internet access. That will be the last time I apologize for that. I feel like I say that a lot in e-mails and such.....anyway...

I am currently chillin' in Brussels, Belgium. I have had the waffles and they are not all they are cracked up to be. My opinion may be biased, however, because i really like to have syrup on my breakfast foods and they don't do that here. Whatever. I haven't really done a whole here in brussels because there really isn't a whole lot to do because it isn't like rome where there is a ton of crazy touristy stuff to do. Moving on....

About a week and a half ago I was touring around Prague, so I will start there. Prague was overall the hardest city to navigate because the language barrier was so much more difficult that any other country. There was a completely different alphabet and no cognates what-so-ever. Aside from that it was a pretty cool place. There was a really cool astronomical clock and a really big bridge. Most of all i thought it was cool to get away from western europe for a little while and get a taste of what the other half of the continent was like. Mind you, it was only a taste. I've been told that Prague is the most westernized city in eastern europe.

Next we spent about 4 days in Berlin. This is the most we had stayed in one place on the entire trip. I really think that Berlin was my favorite city. I got to see all of the touristy stuff and I also got to just walk around and see things that were not so touristy. This is also the only city where we paid to go on a guided tour. It was really cool because for once we actually got know something about all the cool churches or the big fountains or whatever we were looking at. All the other times we just look at stuff and say, "Oooh that's pretty." Another opportunity i got was to go and see a famous concentration camp that was just outside of Berlin. Ironically enough it decided to rain the day we go a place that was full of tragedy. It was kind of depressing but I am glad I got to experience it. Another thing I discovered in Berlin was that I like dark beer. I can't stand normal light beer, but I really did like the dark beer. For any of you who know my relationship with beer this should come as a shock. My favorite part about Berlin however, was that not only did it have years and years of history in all of it's architecture, it also had a lot of modern and recent things. It was a just an overall really cool city.

Last, just a couple of days ago, my trip with the big group ended in Amsterdam. We only had a full day there due to some planning errors(that's why we were in Berlin for 4 days), but I think I had enough of it when we left. I am not going to try to explain Amsterdam to you other than it is a very interesting place that I think you should visit.

Now, sadly enough, the group has gone their separate ways and I am now in Brussels with Veronica and Bethany and I am really enjoying just relaxing after my long trip.

Venice/Milan

Hello Again!
We just left Venice today and now we are kind of in transit in Milan. We are staying the night here because we forgot to book an extra night in Venice. We are flying out tomorrow to go to Prague in the Czech Republic. Anyway, Venice was really cool but not nearly as full of stuff as the last 3 cities. We saw the famous San Marco's Square. It was huge! It's the one that is really famous for having pigeons everywhere. I totally was able to catch one by its legs and tail. It was flapping its wings a lot. Bethany took a picture so whenever I can get some on here you can see. We also saw the St. Mary of the Friar church. It has the Madonna with child painting. Again we were not supposed to take pictures but I totally did. We also went to the murano island and the burano island. The murano island is the one that is famous for it's glass making and burano is famous for it's lace. Murano was much cooler. We got to see a free demonstration where someone made a glass horse. Other than that we just kind of walked around venice, which by the way is really hard to navigate because it has a lot of really small little side streets that are not on the map. Venice is probably the prettiest city we've been to. It's really nice with all of the little canals here and there and then all the apartments/houses are really neat. We have been in Italy for almost a week now and the one thing I am going to miss about this country is all the Gilato. It is absolutely delicious! I think I might go through withdrawal. Anyway.....off to Prague!!!

Rome

Hello all!
I am currently in Rome, Italy and having a wonderful time still. Today we went to the Vatican City! It was incredible! Everything inside is absolutely beautiful. It is all very detailed and extremely well done, as expected. We were in St. Peter's Basillica and we saw the Sistine Chapel. We also saw the tombs of all the popes. My favorite part was the easily the Sistine Chapel. It was just utterly breathtaking. We aren't supposed to take pictures but I totally got a picture of the really famous part of the ceiling where God is reaching out to Adam. Yesterday, I got to go to the Colloseum and the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. Not sure I spelled all that right, but you get the idea. The Roaman Forum and the Palatine hill took somewhere between 3-5 hours. It was huge!!! It was literally all of the downtown of ancient Rome but in ruins obviously. There was also the house of Augustus in the Ruins and that was pretty cool. Last night we saw the Trevi Fountain which aparently really famous but I had never heard of before. It was again huge and very cool. It is really hard for me to explain everything without showing you so as soon as I figure out how to put pictures up I will try and put up the thousand pics I've got. I am not exagerating by the way. I really do have over one thousand pictures so far. Tomorrow we are going to see the Pantheon and the Fountain of the 4 Rivers. Then we leave for Venice on Sunday. I probably won't be updating before that though, so I will get back soon!