שלום מישראל

Israel

Be'er Sheva | Dead Sea | Jeusalem

"Well, I'm already across the Atlantic Ocean and halfway there, why not go all the way?"  That was basically my thought process in regards to going to Israel during my time in Europe.  As it turns out, that was an awesome decision, as this was one of the coolest, most interesting places I have ever visited.  Despite dreadful weather and several attempts on my life (completely kidding), I had a great time and I really, really want to go back.  (Hopefully I'll go back next time with someone with at least a basic grasp of Hebrew.)

Day 1: Arrival - My first day in Israel was obviously the least interesting.  It consisted of a three hour flight to Istanbul, Turkey; a two hour layover in the airport there; and a two hour flight to Tel Aviv.  For the record, Turkish Air is awesome!  I love this airline.  First of all, you get a meal on even a little two hour flight.  Why don't we have that in the U.S. anymore?  Also, you'll never guess what I watched on the way to Tel Aviv.  What did you guess?  Nope, wrong.  I watched Singing in the Rain.  Best in-flight movie I've ever seen.

flying awesome

Going through security was an interesting experience.  They asked me some basic questions, like where I was coming from; where I was going to; what I was doing in Israel.  When I mentioned I was visiting a friend in Be'er Sheva, I started getting drilled with questions:  "Who are you visiting?  Is he a college student? Does he have his own place?  Has he always lived in Be'er Sheva?"  Now, I've only met Eden when he visited the United States for a week or so, so I was clueless about the answers to virtually all of these questions.  The grilling was so intense I actually got a bit nervous as to whether or not I was going to get into the country.

I guess he looks a bit sketchy.

Of course, I got in no problem, but it was still a pretty intense grilling.  After this, I jumped on a train to Be'er Sheva, and I was there in no time.  On the way I met someone who I chatted with for a while.  I love trains. You get to meet people and chat with them about life.  Love it.  Anyway, upon reaching Be'er Sheva, I met up with Eden.  In the grand scheme of things, Be'er Sheva is a bit out of the way from what I wanted to do.  However, it was great to see Eden.

Day 2: Getting Trapped at the Dead Sea - The plan for the second day was to visit the Dead Sea and Masada.  The latter is a mountain fortress utilized by the local Jews during the first century AD in a revolt against the Roman Empire. That story does not end well.  The day started, however, with a trip around Be'er Sheva, trying to find a prepaid SIM card for my phone.  (I had no idea how good of an idea this would turn out to be.)  This turned out to be a very involved process, as most people aren't fluent in English (and I forgot to ask about Germany), and I am obviously not fluent in Hebrew.  Ultimately, I got what I needed and met back up with Eden.

On the way to the Dead Sea, we ran into some complications.  Due to the significant amount of rain that was occurring in Israel, there were flash floods all over the place, including across the road between Masada and the Dead Sea.

I decided to visit the Dead Sea first and then hit Masada on my way back to Be'er Sheva.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  But first, the Dead Sea.  Very cool place.  Aside from the obvious Dead Sea attraction (i.e. floating in the salty water), it was actually a really scenic area.  The contrast of a large body of water surrounded by an arid desert was an interesting view.  Also, it was 22°C (71°F), which meant I got to go in.  It was really cool.  I have no ability to float, so it was really cool that without any effort whatsoever.

crummy weather is frustrating, but it does create rainbows...

 

some salt buildup along the shore

like a boss

After that, however, things started going downhill.  I didn't check the bus schedules before I went down to the Dead Sea, so when I got back to the bus, I had to wait an hour and a half for the next bus.  Damn.  Looks like I'm not seeing Masada.  I wait and I wait and I wait.  After 1:45 goes by, a guy driving by pulls over at the bus stop and and tells me the buses are no longer running due to the flooding.  Damn...

I walked about 10 minutes to a nearby hostel and booked a room for the night.  Woo.  The original plan was to get back to Eden's that night and head to Jerusalem early in the morning.  Doesn't look like that's going to be happening.  I head over to my room, and I meet up with my roommates: two guys who have biked from London and are on their way to Israel.  Now, they cheated a bit and took boats over from London and from Greece to Israel, but it was a pretty impressive check out what they're up to at sidetrackedproject.com and explosivecuriosity.com.  It's some pretty impressive stuff.

Day 3: Almost Nothing But Travelling - Day two wasn't much better than Day one.  I had to spent the morning making my way back to Be'er Sheva.  Fortunately, the buses were running again and I was able to get out a little after 8:00 AM.  (I didn't realize that would be the first of only two buses, so I didn't go to a breakfast I paid for.)  Once I got back to Be'er Sheva, I again met up with Eden, who was also planning on going to Jerusalem to visit his girlfriend.  Due to snow in Jerusalem, the buses weren't running to the city, so we needed to take the train there.

About 10 minutes before the train left, Eden realizes that the train is leaving in 10 minutes.  Enough time to rush me to the train station, but not enough time for Eden to pack and come with me.  Looks like I'm on my own.  That really wouldn't have been a problem, if not for the fact that I'm supposed to switch trains in Tel Aviv.  After riding the train for about three hours (the time Eden told me it would take to get from Be'er Sheva to Jerusalem), I asked the person across from me how much longer until we arrived in Jerusalem.  This is when I learn that I am in Haifa, which is not where I want to go.

At this point I'm calling people like crazy, trying to figure out how I can get to Jerusalem.  The biggest problem is that Friday is the Sabbath, so the bus lines are running on a limited schedule.  I am able to find a bus into Jerusalem, but at the cost of several more hours.  Over the course of the day, I go from only about three hours of travelling (the original plan of Be'er Sheva to Jerusalem) to about seven.  Nothing says an enjoyable vacation like sitting in a bus/train/another bus.

I got to Jerusalem about 6:30 PM.  It was really cold, rainy, and deserted.  However, things turned around when I met up with Brian's friend Meital and her family for Shabat dinner.  The food was great, and Meital and her family (and Josh, who was also there) were great to spend time with.  It was a great experience.  Thanks to my friend Brian Thomas for hooking me up with both Eden and Meital.

Day 4-5: Crossroads of the World - Finally, I was where I wanted to be.  Sure, the weather wasn't anything like what I wanted it to be, but I was in Jerusalem, one of the most historically and socially important cities in the world.

This is now a choose your own adventure blog!  To learn about the history of Jerusalem, you can either read what I wrote or watch the video.  I say do both.  Why not?

A bit of history, this city dates back thousands of years.  Founded way back when, it was eventually captured by the Israelites and eventually made the capital of the Kingdom of Israel.  Over the next few thousand years, it passed hands many times - it was controlled by Israelites, Persians, Greeks (under Alexander the Great), Romans, Muslim Caliphates, European Christians, Ottomans, and Brits.  Following World War II, Great Britain offered the region to the United Nations to establish a Jewish homeland.

End of the choose your own adventure portion.  I hope you enjoyed it.

Since 1948, Israel has existed as an independent state, although under extremely difficult circumstances to say the least.  Most of its neighbors do not recognize its right to exist, and Israel has fought seven wars against its neighbors since its creation.  Currently, Israel controls an area which includes all of Jerusalem (originally partitioned) as well as areas known as the Palestinian Territories: the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.  Now, I'm not going to bore you with Israel's history any more than I already have, but it's important to know its history to understand what's going on there now.

The Muslim quarter is the largest and the most densely populated.  A might bit complicated, huh?

There are two Jerusalems: an old city and a new city.  The new city is like any other modern city.  The old city, however, is where things get interesting.  It is divided into quarters: Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian.  (The Armenians are the oldest Christian group in the world, the nation converting a few years before Constantine okay'd Christianity for the Roman Empire.)  This creates a delicate balance within a tiny area.  You always hear about how the (Jewish) Israelis and the (Muslim) Arabs (there are many Christian Arabs, too) are always trying to kill each other.  My mom was certainly worried about me being danger.  Admittedly, the Middle East is not the safest place in the world, but it's not a war zone, either.  I never felt concern for my safety, and in Jerusalem that was particularly true.  I think the people of Jerusalem, and in particular those who live in the Old City, realize the futility of fighting and maintain an air of tolerance and civility.

The Muslim quarter is the largest, with the other three about the same size.  On the first day, I did a tour with  Sandemans. (If you're ever in one of the cities listed, take the free tour!  They're great!)  We saw so much, but the crummy weather and the fact that I was there over the weekend limited my options.  Some favorites were the Dome of the Rock (where Muhammed ascended to heaven to speak with God), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (supposed site of Jesus's crucifixion and home to several different denominations of Christianity who arguably get along worse than Israel and its Arab neighbors), and the markets in the Muslim quarter.

In the Armenian quarter, some buildings are covered in broken glass.  It has something to do with telling the Israeli and

Arab groups that they wanted nothing to do with their conflicts regarding Jerusalem.  I'm not sure how broken glass

conveys this message, but there you have it.

 

Our awesome tour guide, Jonathan, gathers the group with a view of the Dome of the Rock (blue building) and the
Western Wall.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, home to several different Christian groups.  Considered to be where Jesus was crucified,
it's obviously a very important place to many Christians.  The problem is, however, is that none of these Christian
groups seem to be able to tolerated one another.  They are constntly fighting over every little thing that goes on in this
church.  For example, that little ladder by the window in the top left corner belongs to one of the groups (the
Armenians, I believe).  It serves no purpose now, and its original purpose can only be speculated, but it is maintained to
this day by the group to which it belongs.  When a sewer pipe burst beneath the church, no one would fix it because
they couldn't agree on who got to.  Whoever fixed it would be able to claim it as theirs.  The floor covered in sewage,the
Israeli government eventually said something along the lines of, "You're all idiots.  We'll fix it and it will belong to us."
Another fun story is that no one can agree on who gets to lock and unlock the church every day.  Finally the Ottomans
got tired of this crap, took the keys, and gave them to a Muslim family who has had them ever since.

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, completed 1898, is one of two Lutheran churches in the Old City.

The front of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer bears various symbols related to Germany, as it was built on land
donated by King William I of Germany.

Jerusalem depicted as the crossroads for three continents.

The market of the Arab quarter.

The Dome of the Rock was a very strange place; it was so open with so few people, a complete opposite from the rest
of the Old City of Jerusalem.

 Now on top of touring the city, I was able to do something that everyone wants to do while on vacation: write a paper!  Yup, due to my laziness, I was forced to write a paper, coincidentally about Israel, while in Israel.  It's really too bad, too, because I was in an awesome hostel where I met some awesome people.  I met people from the U.S., Israel, Germany, and South Africa.  (I've now got places to stay in northern Germany and South Africa.)  If you're ever looking for a place to stay in Jerusalem, I definitely recommend the Abraham Hostel.  It had lots of trips to stuff in and around the city (even as far as Petra in Jordan).

Abraham Hostel in Jerusalem

Day 6: Departure - The last day in Israel was a disappointing one.  After a week of crummy weather (with the exception of those two hours at the Dead Sea), it was finally beautiful.  And I was leaving.  Very frustrating.  Leaving Israel was interesting.  Now I thought getting into the country was tough(ish), getting out was more interesting.  My bag went through two x-ray machines, and not because I was pulled aside or anything.  That was the standard action taken for everybody.  You can't even check in at the ticket desk without first going through an x-ray machine.  I got asked a bunch of question again, especially when they saw that I had bought Arab clothing, like my keffiyeh.  Thankfully, they let me through, though I'm probably on a Massad watch list or something now.  Cool.

Well that's it for Israel.  It was an awesome trip, albeit a disappointing one considering the weather.  I definitely did not have enough time.  Sorry Mom, but I'm going to have to go back and spend a month of so travelling the country.  That would be an awesome experience.  The trip also got me more interested in Middle Eastern affairs, something I have been developing an interest in for a while now.

Well, that ended up being quite the novel.  Hope you don't get too bored reading it.  That's all for now.  Tschüss!

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Αθήνα, Ελλάδα

Athens, Greece

21. Feb - 24. Feb

 

Well, it's been about a month or so, but here's a post about my trip to Athens, Greece.  (Seriously, I'm going to try to post more often come next semester.)  Anyway, Athens was a great city in so many ways (and not good in one larger way).

First up, there was the journey to the airport.  Our plane left around 10:00 AM or so, which meant getting up really early to make the 2h 30m train ride from Eichstätt to the Munich airport.  Woohoo.  Now, in Germany, there is something called a Bayern-Ticket, which allows up to five people to travel anywhere in Bayern (Bavaria) for 29€.  Great.  Cody and I can just use that and only pay 14.50€ each.  That works for me.  Well, as it turns out, the Bayern-Ticket is only valid after 9:00 AM, and we were 'caught' on the train without a ticket.  Thankfully, the guy didn't make us pay the fine and had us purchase new tickets, but this mix up resulted in us paying 40€ in all instead of something smaller.

Despite this frustration, we arrived at the airport without any issue.  Our flight to Athens was equally uneventful, and we arrived without any problem.  We chatted with a Greek and two English on the way to the city proper from the airport.  The Greek had some interesting things to say about the EU; and they weren't nice things.  He believed it wasn't a good thing for Greece (or for the other economically weaker members).  He was particularly not fond of the German offer to buy some of Greece's islands.  Nice guy, though.

Our first hostel was not in a nice area, so we quickly switched to another, much better hostel: Athens Backpackers.  If you're ever looking for a place to stay in Greece, you can't do much better than this place (at least in terms of hostels).  Just check out this elevator.  It had a fantastic atmosphere, and the various other residents were great, too.  We met people from Australia, the U.S., and Canada.  All were really cool.

We took a free tour on the first day with a great tour guide, whose name is something along the lines of Evangilismos.  Yeah.  Something like that.  Regardless, it was a great tour.  Our guide knew a ton about the history of the city, both ancient and modern.  Apparently, ancient and modern Greek are relatively similar.  However, this does not mean the average modern Greek can read ancient Greek.

old gate thing dating to the Roman occupation of Athens

Anyone, it was really cool walking around the city and seeing the mix of modern and ancient.  It had a different feel that Rome.  The structures in Athens were smaller, but were more frequently scattered throughout the city, like the Roman archway on the left.  There was nothing as dominating as the Roman Colosseum, however.  (The Athenian Acropolis is an imposing structure, but it's up on a hill, set apart from the rest of the city.)

The weather during the tour was pretty dreary, and it wasn't great for very long, but there were plenty of times when it was decent.  (It wasn't nearly as bad as the weather in Israel, which I'll get to later.)  Unfortunately, dreary weather meant lots of time just hanging out in the hostel; way more time than I would have otherwise enjoyed spending in museums or walking about.

Statue of a guy breaking wood like a boss.
Maybe it's Xenophon, who, in order to inspire his
men, hiking through massive snow drifts to cut
wood naked.  Epic.

Hellenic Parliament

One of the issues with visiting Athens for only a few days, is that many of the things one can visit from Athens are a daytrip away.  Four hours isn't that big of a deal, but it is when you only have a few days in a city.  Next time I visit Greece (I definitely want to visit again), it will have to be for longer, to allow for trips to stuff like the Temple of Poseiden or the Greek islands (or soon-to-be, I suppose, the German islands).

Here are some scenes around Athens:

ruins beneath the streets of Athens

 

This church was built out of stones collected from all over
Athens.  This creates the interesting scenario of a church
covered in pagan paraphernalia.  The Christian builders fixed
this problem by carving crosses all over it.  That makes the pagan
imagery less pagan...I guess.

I have no recollection of what this building it.

This is the Roman marketplace.  Crap...or the Greek marketplace.
One of those two.  Regardless, this was a central place in
ancient Athens

An old church located in the aforementioned marketplace.

The temple of Hephaestus

The Acropolis of Athens, as seen from nearby Areopagus Hill.

Athens as seen from the Areopagus Hill.

plaza outside old Athenian theater

an old theater in Athens which was restored and is used
for concerts, etc.

The Athenian Acropolis as seen from our room in Athens Backpackers.

Athenian Acropolis (without scaffolding!)

The Athenian Acropolis is the most iconic ruin in ancient Athens (possibly the whole of Greece), and it was pretty awesome to behold.  Of course, in keeping with what has happened with every place I have visited in Europe, it was being renovated and was covered in scaffolding.  It had a great view of all of Athens.  Apparently, much of the art work is missing from the Acropolis, because some British guy back in the day bribed a bunch of people and stole all of the tiles to decorate his house with back in England.  Eventually, he died bankrupt and alone, and the tiles ended up in the possession of the British Museum.  Greece frequently demands the tiles be returned, but the museum refuses, because, you know, they totally rightfully belong to the British Museum.  Our tour guide believes Greece should sign a document saying they will return the tiles after displaying them in a Greek museum for a while, and then simply not return them.  Solid plan.

My posing was too dull for the people we were with, so
someone requested I be a tiger.  Grr...

The last night in Athens was spent hanging out with a group from the hostel at a bar which was doing karaoke.  Needless to say, Ice Ice Baby made an appearance.  It was a great group, and many of them were widely traveled.  One was flew to Europe from the U.S. with the plan to work until he had enough money to buy a plane ticket home.  By the time I met him, he had been in Europe for about three months and had acquired enough money to make it home.  However, he wasn't sure if he wanted to leave or not.

sluvoki (delicious)

All-in-all, Athens was a great trip.  The sites were awesome.  The food was great.The Greeks are some of the nicest, most helpful people I have ever met.  Our hostel was one of the best we've ever stayed in.  Interestingly enough, however, I was not very fond of the city itself.  I didn't find Athens to be a very nice city, despite the awesomeness of its people, food, and sites.  Regardless, I regret not having enough time to visit the sites in the city as well as those nearby.

~+~+~

Yay! for forgetting to adjust settings on your camera
from when you were taking pictures at night.

Weihnacten und Silvester

So here it is: a post in my blog.  While I was in Switzerland a week or so ago, I glanced at this thing and noticed how long it had been since I last posted anything (over a month as of this writing).  Sorry about that. I've obviously been up to some stuff since the last post, but I'll get to that later.  First, I'll fill you in on what I did during my two-week break from classes here in Eichstätt: Christmas in Switzerland, New Year's in Rome, and a brief stay in Milan.

die Schweiz (23. Dec - 30. Dec)

For the first part of the Christmas break, I headed over to Aarau, Switzerland for another visit to the Hersberger family, who were nice enough to welcome into their home for a second time.  This is good for me, because I love Switzerland, and any chance to go back is awesome.

Roxi Hersberger

  The first Christmas was with Verena's family on 24. December.

The second Christmas was with Heinz's family on 25. December.  (Note: The pictures on Facebook are of Heinz's family.)

Both were a lot of fun and, perhaps of equal, if not greater, importance, the food was so good.  The first night we had broth fondue, which I had never had/seen before and found to be delicious.  Then I had some ice cream that they added some alcoholic drink to - and then subsequently set on fire.  That was pretty cool.

L-R: Jeff, Friede Hersberger, Heinz H., Ernst H.

The second Christmas was with the Hersberger family.  Geurts Christmas was happening at the same time, so we had a Hersberger-Geurts Skype Christmas call.  That was pretty cool.  The food was great this time around as well.  (There seems to be a trend when it comes to food in Europe: it all seems to be really good.)  As a nice little addition to Christmas, my family sent me wrapped pictures of my gifts back home.


Later, we did a hike up a nearby mountain and, thanks in no small part to the beautiful weather, were able to see mountains all the way in Germany, France, and Austria.

The other major event of the trip was a trip to Bern, the capital of Switzerland.  Despite the sub-par, cloudy weather, it was still a pretty city.  The Christmas markets go longer outside of Germany, apparently, and we were able to visit Bern's.

cathedral in Bern

Bern decorated for Christmas

Eventually my week in Switzerland came to an end, and it was time for me to head off to Rome.  My plane left from Geneva, so I hopped a train Friday morning (30. December) and headed off.  Along the way, I discovered Lake Geneva (Genfersee), which I would totally enjoy living on.  Unfortunately, it's in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, so I'm either going to have to learn French (German is giving me enough trouble...) or settled for one of the other beautiful parts of Switzerland.

Some city on Lake Geneva (Geneva, perhaps?).

You can check out more pictures on Facebook.

Rome and Vatican City (30. Dec - 2. Jan)

After an easy flight from Geneva to Rome, the festivities began.  Cody wasn't going to arrived for two hours or so after me, so I went off and found our hostel, got us checked in, and headed back to pick up Cody.  After getting Cody settled, we decided to walk around the city for a while.  Little did we know that 'for a while' would end up keeping us out until 2:00 AM.  It's amazing the number of people who remain out in the centers of Rome until such a late hour.  And I'm not just talking about people my age.  I saw grade-school aged kids out with their parents walking around until past midnight.

This isn't a picture of mine, but check our the
number of people.  It was almost the same
for us, except at midnight.

We didn't realize it until later, but we actually saw quite a bit of the city during this ridiculous walk about.  We saw the Trevi Fountain, Rome's Christmas markets, the Spanish Steps, plenty of monuments and statues, and even a few ruins.  Rome definitely gave Vienna a run for its money in regards to its decorations for the holiday season: it seemed as though every street (or at least those connected to the main ones) was lit up.  My favorite was probably the Italian flag lights.

Much to Cody's chagrin, our late night did little to change our early start the next morning.  We only had two full days in Rome, and we needed to make the most of it.  Day two was spent at the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and more general walking around.  The Colosseum, although smaller than I imagined, was an awesome sight nonetheless.  Based on the decrepit condition of virtually every other ruin in the city, it's surprising (to me) the Colosseum has survived so well.

Me in the Colosseum.  It was pretty cool.

Spanish Steps by night

(NOTE: If you're going to run for three or more days, grab a Roma Pass.  It's valid for three days and gives you unlimited use of the City's public transportation, free entry to two museums (the Colosseum is counted among these), and discounted entry to subsequent museums.  What's really awesome though, is that your Roma Pass counts as your ticket, so you skip the ridiculously long line to buy tickets to get into the Colosseum or the Palantine Hill.  We probably shaved anywhere from one to two hours of our wait with this thing.)

Back at our hostel, we met Alyssa and Nathan, Americans living in Spain and visiting Rome.  They slept most of the day, but dragged their butts our of bed for New Year's Eve, which was awesome.  After cramming our way onto a packed subway car and taking it to the Colosseum, we got to watch the moderately enthralling spectacle of fireworks being shot over the Colosseum.  LOL, it was actually really cool.  It probably takes the cake as best New Year's celebration, but I will admit that I missed watching SyFy's New Year's Eve Twilight Zone marathon for several hours both before and after the Times Square ball drop (which, I will admit, I also missed a bit).  After that there were far too many people in the streets of Rome to do much else, so we wandered around until 3:00 or so and called it a night.

For New Year's Day we headed on over to the Vatican for the Pope's blessing of the new year.  When we got there, they were televising the Pope leading a religious ceremony.  This confused us, since we arrived an hour early for the noon blessing.  It didn't dawn on me me until the next day that it was Sunday mass.  At noon, the Pope came to his window and blessed the New Year in Latin, English, Italian, German, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.  It was pretty impressive.  St. Peter's was pretty impressive, too.

We then proceeded to do more of the same: a generally walking about the Vatican and Rome.  Castel Sant'Angelo was particularly cool, which started out as a tomb to the Roman Emperor Hadrian (as well as several subsequent emperors), was turned into a military fortress in 401, only to be sacked by the Visigoths in nine years later (it must have been pretty secure).  When the (regular) Goths laid siege in 537, items in the military-mausoleum-whatever were thrown at the invaders, destroying most of them.  By the beginning of the 14th century, the popes turned it into a castle.  Subsequently added were chapels, lavish papal residences, and finally a museum (and public bathrooms, much to my relief at the time).  It's also the secret lair for the Hassassin and contained a secret Illuminati church.

member of the Vatican's Swiss Gaurd

Our last day in Rome, we checked out the Pantheon and the Vatican Museums.  The Pantheon is an old Roman temple that has since been turned into a Catholic Church.  The best-preserved Roman building, it was huge.  I'm amazed the Romans were able to build the dome which forms the roof, without the help of modern machinery and techniques.

an emasculated Hercules/Heracles
(I'm still not messing with him.)

Finally, we've got the Vatican Museums.  Having bought out tickets beforehand, we skipped to the front of the arguably two-hour line (NOTE: Buy tickets for stuff in Rome beforehand!) and got in at about 11:30 AM.  Our train to Milan left at 5:00 PM, so we didn't have a lot of time for the museum, which was unfortunate.  Nonetheless, it was pretty awesome.  In now way limited to Christian/Church artifacts, the Vatican Museums had an awesome collection of Roman, Greek, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian artwork (with an emphasis on Greco-Roman).  It's unfortunate we had so little time.  Fun fact about many of the statues: some pope back in the day decided it was inappropriate to have naked men all over the Vatican, so he sent his people out to castrate all of the statues, many of which received a leaf in the penises' place.  The best part of this story is that they supposedly saved all of the penises in a box somewhere in a back room.  I've also heard that it's someone's job to go through this big box of penises and figure out who they belong to.  Sounds like fun.  The Sistine Chapel was included in the Vatican Museums, and it was just ridiculous.  The thought of painting all of that (by yourself?) is just crazy.  (By the way, the genitalia Michelangelo included in his famous ceiling mural were painted over during the same anti-penis popes.)

Sistine Chapel

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Ye Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

Milan (2. Dec - 4. Jan)

Milan Cathedral

While we had run into some other issues over the course of this trip, Milan is where things got interesting.  As it turns out, a large number of the Eichstätt’s Italian exchange students are from the Milan area.  So, Cody and I figured we would round off our trip to Italy with a visit to our friends in Milan.  Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication between the two groups, and when Cody and I arrived in Milan, no one was there to meet us.  Unable to get in touch with our friends via phone or Facebook, we decided to just take the next train home.  Unfortunately, the next available train wasn’t until the following day.  Our first thought was to just hang out in the train station that night, but we quickly realized how stupid that plan was and got a hotel room across the street from the train station.

Milan Cathedral statue overlooking city

Now with a roof over our heads and a quality internet connection, we got in touch with our friends and came to find that they weren’t expecting us for another few days.  Whoops.  Ultimately, we were able to meet up, but Cody and I decided to just exchange our tickets for new ones and head back to Eichstätt a bit early.

While in Milan, we checked out the Milan Cathedral (which was a pretty awesome structure), walk through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and spin around on a bull for good luck.  It did the latter a few times to save up for the last month of the semester.

spinning on a bull for luck

After a brief tour of the city, we headed to Elisa’s house for some awesome Italian food.  It was so good…  I’m so glad I’ve reduced the degree of my pickiness when it comes to food.  After dinner, Elisa's sister went to get a game - and came back with Risk.  What a great family...

You can check out more pictures on Facebook.

Eichstätt (4. Dec)

Finally, there was Eichstätt.  After a ten-hour or so train ride, we were back.  Not much to say, other then the fact that my room was covered in ponies Doro and Dan made for me.  (They apparently bought a coloring book and relived kindergarten for the sake of my room's interior design - and my happiness.)

Switzerland and Italy were great, but it's good to be back in Eichstätt.  I was exhausted after all of the travelling, late nights, and early mornings of the previous 11 days.  I can't wait to get back to Switzerland, though I'm not sure if I that will happen before the summer (though skiing there would be awesome).

We've only got a month left in this semester, the end of which I am not looking particularly looking forward to.  So many of my new friends are only here for a single semester.  While I hope next semester's group will be as good as this one, I highly doubt that will be the case.  Just have to make the most of their company while I've still got them around.

I suppose that's all for now.  Once again, you can see more pictures on Facebook and Google+ (latter coming soon).  Tschüss!

awesome postcard