Ten Day continued...

When we last left off I was about to head out to the alternative tour of Berlin. I did do that, and it was very cool. We saw a lot of street art, which was very cool. You could tell certain artists apart because they did specific things. One guy, for instance, always draws a girl called Little Lucy, and in every piece Lucy is killing her cat in some way or another. Another guy just draws this one cartoon fist, and another one just draws the number 6 all over the place for no reason anyone can tell.

The Berliners seem to be proud of their street art. The Berlin Wall is actually a street art gallery.

This one is from the East Side Gallery on the wall.














The evening after that tour we met up with some friends from school and hung out at their hostel. The next day was beautiful and we went to the zoo. Later on we tried to meet up with our friends again, but we couldn't find them, so we went to bed because we had to get up at 4am for our flight.

We got up bright (well, not really) and early the next day and left for Amsterdam. We got there, got settled in, walked around, found food, found Jarvis, and promptly took a nap. The getting up at four after walking around all day is very tiring. After our nap we wandered around the city for a while and then went to a pub for a drink and then went to bed.

On Thursday we went to this big park in up town. It was a beautiful day and there were tons of people in the park. Later on we met up with some kids from school and wandered around with them for a while and got dinner. After that we just went back to our hostel to hang out.

Friday morning was very hectic because we had only booked our hostel for two nights. But I was responsible and got up early when they start giving away beds and managed to get a bed. However, when I went back at check in time the bed had suddenly disappeared. The guy at the desk was very apologetic and called up the hostels other location and said he found us two beds over there. So Alex and I dragged all of our belongings across town to the other hostel. Once there we are told that the girl there had made a mistake and they only have one bed. But that is OK because they can pull out an extra mattress. As all of this is being sorted out, the girl gets a call from the guy at the first hostel saying he found the beds he had originally booked for us. At this point we were so tired we did not want to go all the way back, so we took the mattress. It was pretty ridiculous. Alexandra pointed out that the reason why weed is illegal in most places might simply be for convenience’s sake...

In that whole process we managed to completely lose all of our classmates who are in this city, so we're back down to just me and Alex. Today is our last full day of Ten Day. Tomorrow we flight back to Rome. It has been fun, but I'm ready to go back. Hostels are a little awkward and I have no clean clothes left.

Days 0 through 3 of 10 Day.

So, on Thursday we had classes and lunch on campus. After lunch I bought plane tickets for the third travel weekend to go to Ireland with Ann and Phil. After that I packed and called a cab. It turned out that to get to the airport there were two options: 1) Take the bus to the metro, the metro to Termini station, and the train to Fuimucino Airport. This costs 14,40. Or 2) take a cab, which costs 88 for 6-8 people. There were seven of us trying to get on this flight, and with the use of arithmetic we figured out that 88/7 is 12,50ish, which is less than 14,40. So that worked out well.

The flight was fine, and we had no problem finding Florian, our Austrian friend, at the Vienna airport. He drove me and Alex and our friend Devon, who was staying in the same hostel as us, to our hostel. After we got settled in we hung out with the UD boys who had been on our flight. We went to the bar in our hostel and had green beer because it was St Patrick’s day. When they closed we went around the corner to a restaurant/bar that was still opened. There was a man there who asked us about our trip and then wrote a poem for it. I took pictures with my Polaroid, which fascinated everyone there.

The next day was rainy and cold, but we set out anyway. We saw St. Stephan’s Cathedral, the Belvadere (palace/museum), and went to das Haus der Musik (a sound/music museum). It was fun. That night Florian picked me and Alex up from our hostel and we took the metro and tram to his dorm where we drank and chatted with his friends. Then two of his friends and we went to this club called Prater Dome. It is the biggest club in Vienna. It has three clubs inside it. One plays kind of country/ho-down type music, which was odd. One plays hip-hop, and the biggest one plays techno/house. That one is already the size of a really large club. It has a massive dance floor, seating and bars along the sides, and a balcony above. It was pretty cool.

On Saturday, Florian picked us up at 10am and took us sight-seeing. We saw the parliament building and a bunch of other things in Vienna. We got sausages at the train station and then went out to the huge Hapsburg palace that begins with the letter S… That was very cool. We took a tour. After that Florian took us to his farm. It is so pretty! His parents are adorable. His mother kept feeding us delicious food. We got to meet his niece and nephews who were super cute and loud. We also got to meet the cows and see them getting milked, which was awesome. We also saw the stills and such for the most (a kind of wine-like drink) and schnapps. We got to taste the schnapps. Florian said he was apricot, but we could not taste that at all. Apparently there is an art to schnapps tasting. Florian is taking a class about it. We went to Mass Saturday night. The church was beautiful and cold. It was very confusing because they sat and stood and knelt in weird places.

That night we went to this big 4H party in the country. Apparently there were around 10,000 people there, but I would have pegged it at more like 5,000. Either way, it was an awfully big party. It was a lot of 16-22 year old kids, with a smattering of old people. Everyone was very, very drunk. Also a lot of people were wearing lederhosen, so that was very funny. I had my Polaroid camera with me, and some drunk kid who looked about as hipstery as you can get saw me taking pictures. He asked if I could take his picture, he even offered to pay me for it. I took his picture, and not his money, and he got really excited. He had never seen such a think before. I was very proud to have taken this hipster’s first Polaroid.

On Sunday we went to the airport and came to Berlin, where we are now. Our hostel is lovely, and Berlin seems lovely too, from what we have seen. We had Vietnamese food for dinner, in order to have the true German experience.

In a little while, after we bother to get dressed, we will head out to the Alexanderplatz Starbucks to meet up with an alternative walking tour of the city. Apparently they will show us cool graffiti and bizarre shops and local art and such. It sounds like a lot of fun. At some point we will also go to the zoo, even though the polar bear died the other day.

Pictures

This is in Assisi.

This is from early in the semester. We are on the Via Appia Antigua. Im in the front of the group there.

Wine tasting from the first weekend. From left to right, Me, Patrick, Nicole, Andy, Alexandra.

Lunch in Assisi. That is Jarvis on the left.

This is Hermes holding baby Dionysus in Olympia.

Three of my classmates on the Areopagus (sp?) preforming part of the Eunemides (sp).

The arch leading onto the Olympic stadium in Olympia.

This is San Pietro.

Me on a bridge over the Tiber.

Tiber again.

My art teacher told me to go pose under the Lion's Gate because she thought it looked cool with my pink umbrella. This is at Mycenea.

The "cast" of our performance of The Bacchea. Delphi.

Delphi.

A church in Patras.

Olympia.

Delphi.

The view from the Ferry. Greece is so beautiful.

Bridge from the Peloponese (sp?) to the main land.

This is my friend Deandra performing in Delphi. She is holding the head of her son who she has just killed. But she thinks it's a goat.

The Acropolis in Athens. That's the Parthenon there.

Jon Polce, one of our awesome RAs.

Our class takes up a whole restaurant when we eat. This is in Athens.

Our play in Delphi.

View from the Agora of some hill in Athens.

The Parthenon.

The church of St Patrick in Bari, Italy.

Our play again.

These all same Themystolces. There are only three or four different handwrittings. It was the first rigged vote to banish Themystocles from Athens. Pretty cool.

Athens is not very pretty. But it is very cold.

On the acropolis.

Our men running in the Olympic stadium.

The theater of Dionysus in Delphi.

The temple of the oracle of Delphi.