prague

prague is a truly amazing and beautiful city. last post i left off with us leaving venice. we woke up saturday morning and after some breakfast at the hotel we left to walk to where the bus would meet us to take us 45 minutes to a small airport outside of venice back on the peninsula. the airport was extremely small to what i have always been used to. when boarding we walked ( on the tarmac ) to the plane and boarded via a stair case. when we landed in prague we were all surprised how cold it was ( luckily that was the coldest it was during our trip ). getting to the city center from the airport involved a bus, subway, and some walking. we finally got into our hostel and got settled. our hostel was located only a few block away from the main street in the city center so we decided to walk up and down the street and get dinner at one of the stands along the way. the food was an nice change of pace from the usual pasta. every stand had 4 to 5 different types of sausage. all types where pretty amazing. another popular street stand food is fried cheese. they take what looks like a chicken patty of cheese and throw it in a deep fryer, put it on a bun, and cover it in whatever topping you want; yea, incredible. everyone i had talked to before leaving could not stop talking about the food and the beer. now that we had the food out of the way we turned our attention to trying all types of local beer and, as i expected, all were amazing. later that night nick and i headed to one of the ( what seemed like ) 10,000 casinos along the main street. i had never gambled but i figured i would give it a shot. i ended up winning two times in a row playing roulette and figured i would quit. the next day we got up and set our sites on charles bridge, the castle, main cathedral, and old town square of prague.

after getting somewhat of a late start we began walking to charles bridge. on the way we stopped to see a building done by frank gehry. eh. the area seemed somewhat empty until we got close the the charles bridge. once we crossed the bridge we began climbing up a steep road towards the castle and cathedral. the view back on prague from the castle is pretty amazing. the cathedral of st. vitus is situated as a part of the castle and is amazing. construction on the gothic cathedral began in the 1300's and took over 600 years to complete. after walking around the cathedral we began or walk down ( crossing the river again ) back to the old town square. when we first got there we were surprised with a yearly town festival that was ending that day. nick and i each got a huge helping of goulash and a beer to wash it down. we hung out here and watched the astronomical clock and resumed exploring the rest of the city. that night we found some small pubs and met up with the other group of 4 traveling in prague. for our last day we decided we would go find some modern architecture and head to the main university of prague. we walked around the new technical library of prague first and we all really enjoyed the building. after the library we went to the architecture building to see what kind of project they were working on...  after exploring the school we decided to head back to the cathedral and town square. that night nick and i got a cigar and walked around prague with the girls and took it pretty easy. we had to get up the next day and catch a train to munich...

prague tower

weird baby sculptures climbing the tower?

main street of prague

frank gehry

charles bridge

entrance to the castle / cathedral. you can see the two towers of the cathedral's facade behind the building

cathedral facade

looking back on prague from castle

old town square with the astronomical clock on the left

national technical library 

awesome architecture studio

venice

when arriving in venice, since no cars are allowed in the city, our bus had to drop us off and we had to walk from there. venice is located in the middle of a lagoon and a single bridge takes all trains and vehicle traffic to the city. next to the train station is drop off point for buses and cars. when we got there it was raining and we all walked to our hotel. it was already late and we had been out in the rain all day so we put on some fresh clothes and went to take a vaporetto ( venice's public transit boats ) down the grand canal. during dinner the rain really started to pick up and when we left the restaurant the city was beginning to flood. apparently venice floods about 50 days a year, the ground floor of most building ( in the lowest part of the city ) are empty of any nice furniture or have an elevated floor. parts of piazza san marco were under over a foot of water. this happens so often the put elevated platforms through the city to walk on. we found ourselves stranded in the center of the piazza and had to wade through water to get back. the forecast was supposed to be rain all week but we ended up getting extremely lucky because the next day we woke up the sun was shining and the water had ( for the most part ) receded. we met marco and spent our morning exploring the doge's palace. afterwards a few of us took a 30 min vaporetto ride to the island or murano. later that night nick, craig, and i went to one of the two casinos in venice. it is located on the grand canal and you are required to wear a jacket to play, we were able to rent one at the front desk. i just wanted to go see the casino but nick and craig both gambled. later that night we met up with the rest of the group celebrating st. pattys day at an irish pub. the next morning we did a walking tour of venice and continued to explore for the rest of the day. we found beer and pizza for dinner and got to bed early to catch an early flight to prague saturday morning.

piazza san marco flooded

doge's palace

between the two columns ( this is where they use to hold public executions )

piazza san marco half way drained

casino

milan and verona

we had our second main trip this semester to northern italy. the class trip started on monday but i decided to leave early to visit my cousin alberta in milan. we had an extra class with marco friday morning and i left right after to catch the five hour and 30 min train ride to milan, which wasn't bad until about 15 min outside of milan. the train in front of me broke down and we sat on the tracks and got to milan an hour and a half late. my other cousin alessandro met me at the central station in milan and drove me to alberta's house. by this time it was already late so we just relaxed and watched some italian tv, which is extremely different than american tv. saturday morning was carnivale in milan. carnivale is about a month long celebration and culminates on fat tuesday. the sunday before and fat tuesday itself is a pretty big holiday. milan's celebration of carnivale is a week after the rest of italy. so on saturday morning we took giovanni ( alberta's four year old son ) out to a carnivale parade. all of the kids dress up similar to our halloween costumes and giovanni went as a carabinieri ( italian police man ). all of the kids (and some of the adults) at the parade throw handfuls of confetti spray silly  string everywhere. after a few confetti showers we watched the canrivale parade go through. after this alessandro and i left to go see the city center of milan. the piazza infront of the duomo was carpeted with confetti and empty silly string bottles. the duomo in milan is one of the largest churches in the world and cant seat over 40,000 people inside. we then walked through the gallery and walked through the main areas of milan. we got back late and went to bed right after. sunday morning alessandro had to catch a plane back to gioiosa in southern italy. sunday the weather was overcast so we hung around indoors until late afternoon when we drove up to lake como for dinner with some of alberta's friends and family. alot of the people we were eating with spoke english so i was able to communicate pretty well. we had amazing pizza for dinner. everyone ordered their own and when they came out they were each about 8 inches wide and a little over 2 feet long and were fantastic. after pizza we had some desert and left to head back. monday morning it was time for me to leave and meet up with my class that was on their way to verona. on the way to the train we dropped giovanni off at his preschool. 

i ended up getting to verona about an hour before my class so i waited for them on the platform. when they got there we all checked into our hotel and left to explore. verona is the city where the story of romeo and juliet took place so we stopped by the famous juliet's balcony. we had a group dinner that night which wasn't the greatest and most of us went searching for more food right after leaving the resturant. verona is also one of the only other cities in italy that has an existing coloseum. unlike the coloseum in rome this one is still in relatively good condition and is still used for concerts and other large events. we went into the coloseum as a class and after a short walking tour we were released again to explore. almost all of us climbed the hill to get an amazing panorama of verona. the next day we got up and left for venice...

giovanni attacking me with confetti

at parade

alberta and giovanni

dropping giovanni off at school

galleria in milan ( some of the most expensive shopping ever )

duomo in milan

juliet's balcony in verona

coloseum in verona