Danke Schoen, darling Danke Schoen

Danke schoen is probably the extent of my German. Plus gesundheit and shiza, but obviously that vocabulary won't get me very far. Luckily the people in Munich were very friendly, despite that fact that most of them spoke little English. I had a lot of fun this weekend and saw a wide variety of things- Munich is a strange mix of a clean modern city dotted with Nazi artifacts and old-school Bavarian beer halls. I saw a lot of old men in lederhosen.
First thing Friday morning we went to Dachau, which was one of the first Nazi work camps in Europe. That was a sobering experience to say the least.

The gate at the entrance of the camp. The top translates to "work will set you free"
The beds inside the buildings where the people lived
The trench and fence at the edge of the camp. Apparently, their used to be more obstacles to make it even harder to escape.
After that we went and did something a little more lighthearted. We made our way back to downtown Munich and went to the Haufbrauhaus for lunch. That is the huge famous beer hall where the waiters are dressed in leiderhosen or milkmaid type clothing and the food is traditional german. We stopped and had a very filling lunch. Here are a few of my friends attempting to finish their pig knuckles.
After lunch a bunch of us went on the walking tour to see some of what Munich has to offer. One of the more interesting buildings in the downtown area- the Old Town Hall.
We also saw where the Nazi regime had their headquarters in the 1930s. The famous book burnings where in front of this building.
I didn't do much else that day because I had started to come down with a cold. I went to the beer hall across the street from our hostel for dinner, but in general I took it easy since I wasn't feeling so great.

The next day I spent the whole day looking at art. My friend Megan and I went to the old art museum and the new art museum and had a great time seeing a variety of famous painters. There was pretty much a little bit of everything- french impressionists, german painters, dutch masters, you name it, they had it. Here's the new art museum.
For dinner we went across the street again (neither one of us were feeling well, so we stuck close to the hostel again) and we ordered pig knuckles for dinner. It was excellent. The next day we went to Neuschwanstein, which is the castle that Walt Disney modeled the Disney Castle after. I was very excited for this visit, unfortunately it was snowy and foggy, so I couldn't see much of it. No worries though, I still had a lot of fun and managed to get a few good souvenirs and a tasty lunch.
Unfortunately, this is probably the best shot of the castle that I got.
My friends and I made the executive decision that the path was in fact not dangerous, so we hopped the fence. It was definitely worth it; we had a nice litte hike.
The view from the illegal hike
So all in all I had a fun visit. Despite having a cold and the fog at Neuschwanstein, I really enjoyed the trip to Munich.

Visitors continued + Prague with the roommates!

So, where did I leave off? Let's see...
After Bologna, Joe and I hung out in Florence for a few days. Then we spent two days in Rome. I'll admit, it probably wasn't enough time to see it all, but we gave it our best shot.

Joe in the Pantheon

Outside of the Pantheon

In St. Ignatius
In front of the Trevi Fountain
Joe at the Roman Forum
Joe at St. Peter's on our way up to the top of the Cupola
The two of us at the top (we made it!)
Joe in the courtyard at the Vatican Museum
At the Colosseum with our new gladiator friend
Inside the Colosseum

After our trip to Rome we came back to Florence for a few days. Gram and Papa showed up a few days later, so we all took a day trip to Pisa. The weather was great and we had a really nice time.

Joe holding up the tower
We're sort of leaning with it...
Everyone in Pisa

The next day was Joe's last in Italy, so sadly he had to go, but seeing him in person was nice while it lasted. I am a very lucky girl.

Fortunately, Gram and Papa were still here, so we did some traveling during the week. It also happened to be my spring break, so we took some day trips.

We spent a few days in Florence, but we also went to Venice. Venice is like nowhere else I've ever been, and we were lucky enough to have a warm and sunny day to explore the city.

This is the Rialta Bridge, one of the famous bridges on the main canal.
A mask store- we missed Carnevale but there were still masks everywhere
St. Mark's Cathedral
Gondolas
Gram and Papa near St. Mark's Cathedral
Gondoliers
The Grand Canal in Venice

We spent a few more days in Florence and also took a day trip to Rome, although I think Papa has all of the pictures from that. I had so much fun with all of my visitors, and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as well.

So, because I haven't been doing enough traveling lately, I also went to Prague to meet Molly and Rosemary. It was great to see the two of them; after living with them last semester I was so used to seeing them all of the time. Our weekend in Prague was a good remedy for my Marquette room mate withdrawals.

In the airport with Molly and the welcome sign
Tyn Church
Rosemary and Molly in front of St. Vitus Cathedral
One of the windows inside of St. Vitus Cathedral- the individual pieces of glass were amazingly small
Rosemary and Molly walking around the castle
Rosemary and Molly in front of the Vltava River
The three of us at the Karlovy Lazne, the 5 story nightclub
Ok, so we had all heard about this 5 story nightclub from other people who had visited Prague, so we knew a visit to Prague would be incomplete without it. It was not overrated- we had a great time. Each floor was like a completely different club- decor, music, the works. It was also an interesting visit, because we noticed that the majority of people there lacked good dance moves. We may have attracted a little extra attention, but I guess those Eastern Europeans just don't know how bust a move.

As you may or may not already know, Prague is in the Czech Republic, and therefore it does not use the euro. Instead we used czech koruny (pronunciation is still up for debate, but I think I heard a few people refer to them as crowns). The exchange rate is about 20.5 koruny to 1 US dollar. this made for fun math the entire weekend.

See, what looks like a very large sum of money is actually approximately $65.

Here's a picture of the famous clock in the Old Town Square. Little people come out every hour on the hour.

The John Lennon Wall- a tribute to the singer and a sign of peace. Apparently the communists weren't too happy with this when the Czech Republic was still a communist state.

A nice view of the Castle

Now, don't get me wrong, we had a great time, but Prague is definitely just a place to visit, not a place to live. When it came to the quality of service, that was hit or miss. I would say that we got a lukewarm reception based on the fact that we are Americans. Despite this ambiguous attitude towards Americans, Prague was full of American businesses. I saw Starbucks everywhere and we ate lunch at KFC on one of the days. The KFC wasn't too Americanized though; we were a little disappointed by the portion sizes, which were notably small. So, Prague was fun, it was great to see Molly and Rosemary, but I am glad to be back in Italy. Although I won't be here for long, because this weekend is my trip to Munich. Stay tuned!

yay visitors!

Well, I've been hanging around here for the past couple of weeks and have no good excuse for not putting up pictures. Things have been a little busy, people have come to visit, midterms, sickness, you name it- but still no excuse- so without further ado: Pictures!
Mom and Dad came to visit and we had a great time. We went all over Florence and even took a fun (albeit rainy) day trip to Lucca.

Here are Mom and Dad at the Brancacci Chapel.
Here is proof that Mom really can make friends with anyone. Example: a statue in front of the Uffizi Gallery.
Dad and me outside of Pitti Palace (in the Boboli Gardens)
Mom and Dad on Ponte Vecchio

Our day trip to Lucca was fun but rainy. I'm sure it's a cute little town on a sunny day, but it was basically abandoned in the downpour. We still managed to make the best of it. Here's Mom in front of their Basilica that was built in 1111. Here's Dad on the train back to Florence. He's excited because he's eating his cookies from his new favorite store, the Euro Store. Everything is a Euro- I think he stopped in about twice a day for snacks.
Mom rubbing the pig's nose so that her wish to come back to Florence comes true

Just as Mom and Dad were getting ready to leave, Joe came to visit. Woohoo! One place he wanted to see was Bologna, because it is the city where his fraternity first started. We made the trip on Saturday and had a really fun day. As it turns out, there are lots of cool things in Bologna.
Here he is with the two famous towers in the background.
Here's the view from the bottom. We climbed the taller, straighter one (It's hard to tell from this angle, but the other one has a severe lean to it).


We made it to the top! After quite the climb, here's Joe with Basilica San Petronia in the background.
Another view of the city
Then we went for a walk to find the gates to the city. First we came across a very large, very pretty park. Here's Joe in the park. Almost immediately after this picture was taken, gelato was spotted and a mandatory stop was made. Then, after more walking we finally found the gates. Yes, we are both wearing Kappa Sigma t-shirts. I think this is about as corny as it gets.

Today we took a little trip to Fiesole, which is a little hill town just outside of Florence. After a short bus ride and a short, but steep hike we settled at the top. It was grassy, and the sun was shiny so we sat for a while. Then Joe fell asleep.

Sleeping Beauty himself.Here's the view from the top. Not too shabby, although it was a bit windy.
Stay tuned! There will be more visitors and therefore more trips and pictures. Yay!