Prague: Cobbled Streets, Clobbered Feet

Czech it out, it's the Prague update. Terrible pun, yes, but I couldn't resist. I haven't run spell check on this one, so sorry for any mistakes.

After a six hour train ride, I arrived in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Because Prague largely escaped the bombings of World War 2, it stands as one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe. This may also explain why the city has so many cobbled streets, which wear down my feet much faster than regular pavement. On the day I arrived in Prague I encountered a storm of insects while walking around buying groceries. A friend of mine described them as Prague's "zombie mosquitos", which may have been just a joke, but probably was not too far off the truth either. Thankfully, I never ran into them again over the next two days.

The first full day in Prague was spent covering the part of the city on the east side of the Vltava River. I started out at Wenceslas Square, which is not really a square but a city boulevard that is sometimes used as a square. At the top is the National Museum (closed for renovation when I was there) and a statue of King Wenceslas, the beloved old king of the Czech People. While I was there the statue came alive and tried to kill me, but I put the spirit of King Wenceslas back in the grave where it belongs. From the top of the square, I moved down while reading a bit about the 1989 break with communism that occurred on the square. It was here in 89 that Czech independence from the Soviet system was proclaimed, and the square still holds a special place in the minds of the Czech people. At the bottom end of the square I came across a Franciscan garden on the other side of a shopping mall, and then took a roundabout way to Old Town Square, passing the Powder Tower (where gunpowder was stored) along the way. Old Town Square is one of the largest city squares in Europe, though it didn't seem so big at ground level when I was there because Hyundai (the car manufacturer) had set up an expo related to the Euro Tournament. The square holds Prague's famous astronomical clock, which puts on a little show at the top of each hour. A skeleton rings a bell signaling the change of the hour, and a pair of windows open up to show a parade of the twelve apostles passing by and then a guy at the top of the tower plays a little tune on a trumpet. Perhaps more entertaining than the show itself is the sight of the tourist horde gathered at the base of the clock and how in unison 1,000 cameras are raised to photograph the show. Later on I took the lift up to the top of the tower to get photos of Prague from up there, and I happened to be up at the top of the hour so I got to see the mass of other tourists from above. Back down on the ground, you can find the Jan Hus monument in near the middle of the square. As some of you know, Jan Hus is considered the first major church reformer (he lived about 150 years before Martin Luther) and his followers became known as Hussites. Also around Old Town Square are several old churches. One of which is Tyn Chuch, (pronounced like "teen") which was the primary church of the Hussites until the Austrians conquered Prague and turned it back into a catholic church and redecorated the interior with a heavy dose of gold. When I had finished with Old Town Square, I moved north towards the Vltava River and on the way passed through the Jewish Quarter. Prague historically had a sizable Jewish population and there are several notable synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, but I didn't go into any of them (next time). When I reached the river I got some photos from one of the bridges that crosses it, and then moved west and south along the river to Charles Bridge, Prague's most famous bridge which links the old town with the castle district on the other side of the river. I passed by the bridge (I went on it the next day) and came to the next bridge south of it which crosses one of the islands in the river. The island was just a park, but there was a small sand beach on the northern tip which had good views of the Charles Bridge. From there I kept going south along the river until I reached the Fred and Ginger dance building. It actually has another name, but is called the Fred and Ginger building (at least, by English speakers) in honor of the early 1900s dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. After that I went back to my hostel, though I went out again later to see how the city looked at night. Back at Old Town Square a large screen had been set up and was showing the Euro Tournament, and I got to see the last few minutes of the Czech Republic vs Portugal game, which Portugal won (I suspect my slaying of King Wenceslas earlier that day may have doomed the Czechs). Back at the hostel I stayed up until 1:00am figuring out my schedule for the final week of my trip across Europe. When I finally had everything planned and paid for, a couple from the room I was staying in had just come in with some beers and asked if I wanted a drink. I don't normally like beer, but with a great burden of not knowing where I was going in my final week now lifted, it seemed a fitting occaision for a drink. We stayed up talking until a bit after 2:00am, and I drank nearly a whole bottle of beer (perhaps the most I've ever drank in a single sitting).

The next day I didn't get so much sightseeing in, because I stayed up so late the night before and consequently slept in much later than normal. I walked over to Charles Bridge and crossed it to the west side of the river, where I saw the city's oldest waterwheel and the Lenin Wall (named for John Lenin, of Beatles fame). Not to far from the bridge is St Nicholas' Church, which I went in to take a look. After that I made the uphill hike to the Strahov Monastary, which is on the same hill as Prague Castle but further up the hill. My thought was to start at the top and then work my way down the hill. I found the main part of the monastary closed at the time I got there, so after looking around the area I walked over to Castle Square, which leads directly to the castle grounds. Prague Castle is really more a palace with other buildings and than what we would normally think of as a castle. True, there are some walls, but the place does not strike me as a strong defensive position, other than it being on a hill. I worked my way through the basic sights of the castle (as covered by my ticket) a bit quickly, as I only had about 1.5 hours before the place closed for the day (the tickets allow you to come back the next day if you run out of time, but since I was leaving in the morning I needed to see everything now). The main draw other than the castle grounds is St Vitus Cathedral, which I visited first. It's a large gothic cathedral, so there's not too much in the way of interior decoration, but it has some nice stained-glass windows. Next I went through the Old Royal Palace, which honestly didn't have too much in it. As I understand it, a fire ravaged the castle a few hundred years ago and much of the older historical stuffs were lost. After the palace I visited the basilica of St George, which has the appearance of a romanesque chapel cut out of the side of a mountain. Then I walked down the Golden Lane, which is strangely named, seeing as how I didn't see any gold on it. The lane is a road lined with recreations of period shops and houses, inside of which you can see displays of what life used to be like for people living in the castle. At the end of the Golden Lane I came down to the opposite end of the castle and exited, but from there I hiked back up alongside the castle back to the entrance I had come into earlier, and from there I hiked over to Petrin Hill, which is really the same hill as the one the castle is on, but gets its own name. There I went up a tower that looked sort of like a mini Eiffel Tower, but had great views of the entire city. The view from there is better than from Prague Castle or anywhere else. When I finished up there, I came down the hill and saw the Monument to the Victims of Communism who Survived (long name, but it fits). The monument  is a series of human figures, but as you look further back the statues are slowly disfigured and destroyed, symbolizing the slow decay of humanity in the communist system. After viewing that, I took a tram back towards my hostel. I also got some ice cream, to indulge my inner capitalist pig. That ended the second full day in Prague. I had meant to do a few more things, but with the previous night's escapades I was out of time.

And thus ended Prague and my time in the Czech Republic. The following morning I left for the boondocks of Germany, to a small town called Großschönau, the subject of the next post.

Munich: Urban Surfing

The quest to catch up the blog continues. Here is an entry covering my short time in Munich, Germany.

After Salzburg, I arrived in Munich, Germany, the predominant city of the region of Bavaria. I have heard that Bavaria is the Texas of Germany. This raises the question of what Texas city Munich is (maybe Austin).

In Munich I stayed at "the Tent", which is just that; a large tent (actually there are several tents) set up each summer that hold hundreds of cheap beds inside. The place is something of a cross between a hostel and a campground, and I wasn't expecting much from it, but the facilities are surprisingly good. Although it is not by the city center, there's a tram stop nearby so you can easily reach the main part of town. For me the best part of the Tent is that there was an outdoor clothesline that anyone could use, so I took the opportunity to do all my laundry there (domestic adventures, hurray).

After setting out all of my laundry, I took the tram back to near the Munich train station and walked down a pedestrian street towards Marienplatz, the main square of Munich. Along the way I paid a visit to Frauenkirche, a brick medieval church with onion domes. I was planning on climbing the church's south tower to get views of Munich, but the tower was closed for repairs when I was there. Moving on, I came to Marienplatz. There's a large Gothic building on the square that I figured was either a cathedral or government building, but when I went in I only found restaurants in the inner courtyard, so I'm not sure what it is for. After looking around the square for a bit, I continued down the pedestrian street until it ended and then kept going along a regular street until I hit the river that runs through town. Like many other rivers I've seen, Munich's had a few islands in it and I checked out one as I moved north along the river. I continued alongside the river, checking out an open church along the way, until I got to a street called MaximillionstraBe (sorry, I'm not sure how to make one of those German upper-case B's that are a double S). Going left (west?) along the road I walked over to near the Residenz, and then went up to the square next to it. The Residenz was the Munich estate of the dukes of Bavaria, who ruled the land back when Germany was made up of a hundred small nation-states. I would have taken the tour of the Residenz, but with my limited time so I had to keep moving. Near the Residenz is a large baroque church that I looked in, and then I passed through the Hofgarten (a park that used to be the garden of the Residenz) to reach the English Garden. The English Garden is really a very large municipal park, supposedly the largest city park in the world. There I got to see Munich's river surfers, who surf an artificial wave that exists in one of the streams that runs through the park. The surfers try to ride the wave as long as possible - until either they fall off their board or until the water pushes them over the crest of the wave. Some of these surfers are quite good and actually throw and leap onto their boards to land on the wave. After watching these people for awhile, I explored the park a bit further. If you ever come to Munich's English Garden, be aware that you might see some scattered FKK (nude sunbathing) going on. A ways into the park, I came to one of Munich's main beer gardens, which strangely has a Chinese pagoda in it. As many of you know, I don't like the taste of beer, so I didn't drink anything there. At that point the day was about over so I caught a tram back to the pedestrian street that leads to Marienplatz and then walked along it to the other end and then caught a tram back to the Tent.

That was all for Munich. I had only one full day there, but I feel I saw a decent amount of the city. From there I went to Prague, in the Czech Republic, which will be the subject of the next post. I am typing this from Krakow, Poland, and should be able to get at least that Prague update added to the blog before I leave here.

Salzburg and Halstatt: The Sound of Tourism

Here's another late update for you. This one covers my time in the towns of Salzburg and Halstatt, which are both in Austria.

I left for Salzburg from Vienna earlier than I had originally intended. My original plan was to see a few more museums in Vienna and then go to Salzburg in the late afternoon, but I decided that I was much more interested in seeing Halstatt and to do that I needed get to Salzburg sooner and see the city so that I could day trip to Halstatt the next day. In a way I sort of left Vienna a bit incomplete, but I like to think that I have a reason to go back one day. Austria's ever punctual train system took me through the Austrian countryside and delivered me promptly into Salzburg by midday, and from there I set out into the town. Salzburg is not a large town, and many of the sights there are dedicated to either Mozart (who spent his early life in Salzburg) or The Sound of Music. Since I was not overly interested in either one of those, I covered nearly all of what I wanted to see that afternoon. It was a hot day in Salzburg, so I refilled my water bottle a few times as I went around town. I walked down to the Salzach River, passing through some nice flower gardens along the way, and crossed to the south side where most of the sights are located. From there I started my sightseeing at Mozartplatz, which if you haven't guessed already, is a town square named for Mozart, and moved on to Salzburg's main cathedral. The prince-archbishop (the rulers of Salzburg were both nobles and clergy at the same time) wanted Salzburg to be the "Rome of the North" and built a large cathedral in town. Although Salzburg is nowhere near as grand as Rome, funding from the Vatican and profits from local salt mines allowed the cathedral and other buildings in the old town to get built. The cathedral interior is on par with what you would expect from a cathedral in a much larger town, and this is partly due to Salzburg siding with the Vatican during the Reformation, so Rome sent money and relics to Salzburg as thanks. Moving on from the cathedral, (whose cool interior was a nice break from the heat outside) I passed by the oldest waterwheel in town (still in use today) and came to St Peter's graveyard. Normally graveyards aren't what you have in mind for sightseeing, but in parts of Austria they have a tradition where each burial plot has a small garden on top of it that is tended by the dead person's relatives or friends. It makes for a strangely beautiful graveyard, but the downside is that the plots of land are rented and every ten years the rented plot has be renewed. If you run out of relatives or friends willing to pay and maintain your grave, your body gets dug up and moved elsewhere, and someone else will be put in your former grave site. Coming out of the graveyard, I took a quick look in St Peter's Church, and saw nearby what is supposedly the oldest restaurant in Europe, being founded in 803 and having Charlemagne as one of its first guests. Outside the restaurant there was a wedding reception going on (how many of these am I going to see on this trip?). I walked over to Universitatplatz where Salzburg's outdoor market is held and from there continued on to a street called Getreidegasse. This street used to be Salzburg's main commercial street, and all the shops had small metal signs outside with an image of what they sold (most of the town was illiterate at the time). Today the street is mostly modern chain stores, and even has a McDonalds, though it is a bit easy to miss because all the stores have to use the old style of street signs rather than the modern big ones you normally would see. I got some decent ice cream while walking down that street, and continued on to another town square where I ended my little tour if Salzburg. The only thing left at that point that I still wanted to see was Salzburg Castle, which I would get to at a later time.

The next day I took a train out to the lakeside town of Halstatt. At the Halstatt train stop the intrepid boat Stefany ferries people across the lake to Halstatt with each train that arrives (I image the owner makes good money from ferrying so many tourists back and forth). Halstatt is a picturesque town built on a mountainside that slides right down to the lake. The houses appear to almost be set on top of each other, and I'm not sure how they were originally built. Alas, Halstatt has been "discovered" by the tourist horde, but even so it is still an enjoyable town to visit. From the boat landing, I checked out the protestant church and then walked around Halstatt's side alleys before moving south to the only flat piece of land in town, called the Lahn. From there and several other points in town you can rent boats to go about the lake, and I thought about it but decided to spend my time in town. Coming back to the main part of Halstatt, I hiked up to the catholic church, where you can find more of those "garden graves" like in Salzburg. I also saw the bone chapel behind the church, which is where the skulls and large bones of people whose remains get removed from the graveyard are put. Because most of the people in town choose to get cremated these days, there haven't been any new bones added since the 80s, with the exception of a woman who specifically asked to be put in there (you can see her skull with her gold tooth just to the right of the center if you ever go there). From there I took a path up the side of the mountain to see what was up there, but after a few minutes I hadn't seen anything interesting, so I came back down. I walked to the north end of town (just houses up there) and then came back to the town center. Before catching the boat back across the lake I hiked up to a parking lot up above the town which had a nice panorama of the area, and also a waterfall that flows into town. There's very limited parking inside Halstatt itself, so if you drive into town you may have to leave your car up there. I then took the boat back to the other side of the lake and then got on the train back to Salzburg. On the way back my train stopped for some reason and I had to get on a bus to carry me to the next train station (they explained what was going on in German, but I don't speak German so I just went along with it). From there I got back to Salzburg without incident.

On the day I departed Salburg I checked out my hostel and then went over to the castle, which I had meant to see earlier but ran out of time. The hike up was a bit steep in places, but not too bad overall. Within the castle are a few decent museums, but the main draw is the castle itself and the views you can get up there. I took a tour of some of the castle rooms and the viewing tower, which came with an audioguide explaining what everything was. Take my advice; if you do this tour be sure to get your photos first when you reach the viewing tower and then listen to the audioguide, as the tour is escorted and you have only a set amount of time in each area before you're supposed to leave (I listened to the audioguide first, but then had to hurry to get my photos before being ushered back downstairs). When I finished with the whole castle I took a trail that leads along the hill that the castle is on and had multiple points where you can get panorama views of Salzburg. The hike supposedly takes only 30 minutes, but I spent about 2 hours on it because I kept taking detours to check out other areas on the hill. After coming down I crossed the river back to the north side and sat in a park for awhile. At that point it was time to catch my train to Munich, so I got my backpack from my hostel and went to the train station.

That concluded my time in Salzburg and Halstatt, where the hills are alive with the sound of tourism. The next entry will cover my short time in Munich, Germany.

Vienna: Heritage

Hi all, here is the overdue Vienna update.

My time in Vienna was a return to full-speed tourism. A friend of mine advised me that Vienna was a good city to relax and take it slow, but I did the exact opposite. On my first full day in Vienna I walked over towards the old town and paid a quick visit to the Museum Quarter, an area with lots of smaller museums dedicated to more contemporary things. I then crossed the ring road which goes around the old town. This road used to be where the city walls were, but some time back the walls were taken down and now a wide street with cars and trams circles the old town. In old town I went over to the Vienna Opera House and took a look at the outside. Opera as an art form has been slowly declining over the past 100 years, and the opera house actually has a screen on the outside that sometimes displays live shows, in an effort to generate more interest in opera (and thus more ticket sales). I then moved north through the old town, zigzagging from street to street. Along the way I saw the Monument Against War and Fascism and the church where the Hapsburgs (the family that controlled Austria and much of Europe for a time) are buried. Much of what you see in Vienna is somehow related to the Hapsburgs, as they were central to Austria's history for a few hundred years. After awhile I came to St Stephen's Basilica, which is the largest cathedral in Vienna and located in the center of the old town. I climbed up a really long spiral staircase in its south tower for views of the city and then came down and went in. The church interior is divided into sections that you can see for free, and others that you have to pay a small fee to enter. However, because you can see all the pay sections fairly well from the free areas, I just got photos from the free areas before leaving. From the cathedral I went over to Vienna's Plague Monument, which was built to commemorate the end of a plague epidemic that hit the city in the 1600s. Nearby it is St Peter's Cathedral, where I found an organ recital in progress. I stuck around for awhile since it was free, but decided to come back the next day when the inside wouldn't be so crowded and I could get better photos of the interior. Leaving St Peter's, I went over to the Hofburg Palace, a large palace which was the administrative center for the Austrian Empire and the residence of the Austrian royal family. I got a ticket to view two of the museums there and the imperial apartments, but since I had gotten there only an hour before closing I didn't finish everything. Thankfully, I was told that I could just come back the next day and see the parts I had missed. To finish the day, I walked over and got photos of the Austrian Parliament, which is just outside the old town. Next to it is a university and just a short ways from the university is another cathedral. The cathedral was under renovation and much of the interior and exterior had scaffolding on it, so I didn't stay long there. I then called it day and went back to my hostel.

The next day I did more intensive sightseeing. I went back to the Hofburg Palace and finished up there. No photos allowed in the imperial apartments unfortunately. After finishing the palace I went back to St Peter's Cathedral and got the photos I had intended to get the day before. With that done, I got on the U-Bahn (Vienna's subway) and went out to the Schonbrunn Palace, which is just outside the main part of Vienna. The Schonbrunn is Austria's version of Versailles, and served as the summer residence of the royal family. Although a bit smaller than Versailles, the Schonbrunn probably is the only other palace I've seen in Europe that comes close to matching Versailles' grandeur. Like Versailles, the inside is packed full of artwork and fine furniture. The Schonbrunn is also where JFK met Khrushchev in 1961. Austria, being the neutral country in the middle of Europe during the Cold War, worked well for meetings between western and eastern leaders. After finishing the palace, I spent some time in the gardens, which aren't as big as Versailles' gardens but are still pretty nice. Since it was a warm day I spent a lot of time in the shade. When I finished covering the gardens I left the palace and returned to Vienna. I paid a short visit back to the Hofburg to check out the palace's small church and then was walking through town when I saw a long train of cyclists going by on one of the city streets. I'm not sure what it was for, but there were at least a few hundred of them and traffic was stopped for a few minutes. After dinner I went back out for a night walk across the old town. Vienna is ok after dark, but not quite as scenic as Paris, Rome or some other major cities at night. While walking around, I saw a large group of people on roller blades cruising around the streets of Vienna, but they had police escort so it must have been for some sort of city activity. Since there wasn't too much to see at night, I went back to my hostel and ended the day.

So, that was Vienna. I am typing this update late at night from Prague in the Czech Republic. I leave tomorrow to visit a family I know over in Germany, and since I'm not really doing sightseeing there I might have a chance to add some more blog updates. We're getting close to the end here, and I will do my best to get the blog caught up with where I am now.

Budapest: Hydro Therapy

Hi all, here is the highly (not) anticipated Budapest update that I promised you.

It was a seven hour train ride from Zagreb to Budapest, and a humid one at that. I was fortunate to be sitting with a recently engaged American couple (the guy proposed when they were in Ireland) who helped pass the time and we even had some fun trying to guess the pronunciation of various Hungarian towns that we passed. We managed to keep the cabin we were in all to ourselves for the first five and a half hours, but after that the train got so full of people we had to let some others in. It was a humid day and we were keeping the window down to cool off, but an old Hungarian lady indicated that she did not like the window down, so we closed it and sweated it out for the final hour of the trip.

In Budapest I found an ATM and it asked me how many thousands of Forints (the Hungarian currency) I wanted. I wasn't sure, so I took out 25,000 Forints, which is about 110 American dollars. Crazy as this may sound, I managed to spend exactly 25,000 Forints during my time in Budapest. Hungary is one of those nations that will make you feel like a king when you go to the store. I didn't get too much done that arrival day, but I did take a walk at night along the Danube River, which was nice.

My first full day in Budapest was spent mostly on the Buda side, which is on the west side of the river and is the hilly part of town. I started out by checking out the Hungarian Parliament building, (on the Pest/eastern side) which lies along the Danube and is apparently the second largest congress/parliament building in the world. It looks somewhat like the American capitol building, but in a neogothic architecture style. After that I walked a bridge over the Danube and while crossing briefly walked around the island in the river by Parliament. The island appeared to be mostly a large park, but I didn't go very deep into it because I wanted to dedicate time to sights on the Buda side of the river. Having crossed the river, I went south along it until I reached a church that sort of looked like a smaller version of the Notre Dame church in Paris. From there I hiked up to Matthias Church, which is the church the old Hungarian royalty used to attend. The inside of the church was mostly covered up due to restoration work, and I honestly did not think it was worth the entry fee. I imagine it will look much better when the restoration work is done, but if you go to Budapest in the near future and go to Matthias Church you will probably be fine just getting some photos of the outside. Moving on, I worked my way over to the Royal Palace, which these days holds various museums. Unfortunately it was Monday, so all of them were closed (Monday closures for museums seem to be a common thing across Europe). On the plus side the palace has a good view of most of Budapest. From there I went over to the Liberty Statue, which is on another hill separate from the palace, so I had to hike down the palace hill and then up the statue hill. The hike up to the Liberty Statue was fairly step and quite tiring. At the top I had to stop to rest for a little while, and then I got some more photos of Budapest. There is also a fort on top of the statue hill (not really a castle, just a stone fort) but I didn't go in. I came down from the statue hill near the "Green Bridge" (it has a real name, but is known as the Green Bridge because that is the color it is painted) which I crossed to go back to the Pest side of town. Near the bridge on the Pest side is Budapest's Central Market Hall, which was closed for the day when I got there. Since it was getting late, I walked north along a pedestrian street up to the Chain Bridge, which was the first permanent bridge to cross the Danube in Budapest (and thus permanently link what had been two separate towns). I continued on to St. Stephen's Basilica and then on back to my hostel to end the day. Along the way I came across a park where a large screen had been set up and a few hundred people were watching the Euro Tournament.

Day two in Budapest was dominated by a single event, which you'll read about momentarily. I started out back at St. Stephen's Basilica, which I had passed by the day before. It is Budapest's largest cathedral and much more impressive than the Matthias Church. Inside you can see the hand of Saint Stephen. Just FYI, this is not the Stephen who got stoned to death in the book of Acts in the Bible, but a Hungarian saint by the same name. After looking around inside the church, I walked over to the Great Synagogue of Budapest, which is the second largest synagogue in the world, after the one in New York City. Among other things, I got to see the Tree of Life, which is a metal tree whose leaves each have a name of a person from Budapest who died in the Holocaust. When I finished with the synagogue, I took the metro out to the northeastern part of central Budapest, to the famous Szechenyl Baths. Thermal baths are something of a Hungarian tradition, and the Szechenyl Baths are supposed to be the best in town, so I decided to go ahead and drop some money on a new experience (then again, when you do the currency conversion I only spent about 32 dollars total). In addition to getting into the bathhouse, I opted to get a aromatic massage (I wasn't even totally sure what that was at the time) which I know is completely out of character for me, but I was feeling somewhat adventurous. The inside of the bathhouse is a neoclassical sight to be seen (go to Google images and look up "Szechenyi Baths". I'll wait). I got my massage before going in, and got worked over by a fat dude. I do not know what oil they used on me, but it was embedded into my skin and did not come off, even later on when I was in the pools. It's a strange feeling to feel a bit oily while underwater. I was told later on that the oil is actually meant to do that and helps keep your skin from getting irritated or dried out. Over the course of five hours I tried out nearly every pool in the bathhouse, both indoor and outdoor. Perhaps my favorite part though was the lazy river, which propels people around in a circle. If you stay near the edge you can get moving pretty fast, and I might have been enjoying myself too much, because I had a few collisions with other guests. As I stated earlier, I spent over five hours in the baths, and then had to fight myself to get out. When I finally left, I walked over to the nearby Heroes Square, which is a large public square dedicated to the Hungarian people and features statues of various Hungarian heroes from across time. I also took a look over at Vajdahunyad Castle, (take a shot at pronouncing that) which isn't so much a castle as a chateau with a moat. I then walked back towards my hostel and along the way passed the House of Terror. This museum is dedicated to the history of the secret police in Budapest, first the fascists and then the communists, and how they terrorized the city from the 1940s up until the fall of communism. I had been told that it's a great museum and had really meant to see it, but I had spent too long at the baths and hence it was closed when I got there. Oh well, now I have another reason to come back one day.

The next day I left Budapest, and had managed to spend exactly 25,000 Forints (so nothing lost to currency conversion, hurray!). Budapest has been one of my favorite cities so far, and I think is a must visit for anyone doing eastern Europe. After Budapest I came to Vienna, which will be the subject of the next blog post. I am typing this update from Prague, in the Czech Republic and hopefully will be able to type one or two more posts before leaving here.

Falling Behind

Hi all. I know I'm running behind (again) with the updates, but I haven't forgotten about them. My internet access has been patchy over the past week, but as soon as I can I'll add more posts to the blog. I am currently in Salzburg, Austria and am about to leave for Munich. Currently I am not counting on having much internet access in Munich, but I think I should have good access after that when I am in Prague. It might be a few more days before I have enough time to update, but you can expect posts on Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg and Halstatt, Munich, and perhaps even Prague in the future.

Croatia: Crimson Tide

Hi everyone, and welcome back to another edition of the blog. This posts covers my time in Croatia, which was spent in the towns of Zagreb and Split. I decided to do all of Croatia as a single post, and hence why it's been a little while since the last update.

Sorry to disappoint you, but I had no misadventures getting to Zagreb (if you haven't read it already, go read my previous post on Slovenia and see how my trip from Venice to Ljubljana went). All I got was a new stamp in my passport. In Zagreb I got acquainted with Croatia's currency, the Kuna, whose name I find strangely funny. I also picked up a few Croatian words from the staff at the hostel I was at, but like Slovenia there are a fair number of English speakers in Croatia so I never really had much of a language barrier. Zagreb is the capital of Croatia and it's largest city. You can see all the major sights in a day, and I think most people would be satisfied with just that. The city is divided in to what are known as the upper and lower towns, with most of the older sights in the upper town and most of the (relatively) newer sights in the lower town. Between the two and marking the center of town is Zagreb's main square, Trg bana Jelacica (take a stab at pronouncing that one). Any tour of the town starts of ends there, and for me it did both. I started at the square and then moved on to Zagreb's cathedral, which has it's own defensive wall around most of it. A few hundred years ago, the Ottoman Turks were advancing farther and farther into Europe and were getting close to Zagreb, so walls were set up around the old city and cathedral. Today the city walls are gone, but the cathedral still has three sides of it's original walls intact. From there I paid a visit to Zagreb's outdoor market, which sells mostly produce, and then over to what I call the "chapel in the underpass," which is small chapel set up along a road in a tunnel through a building. The chapel houses a Madonna and Child painting that miraculously survived a fire (or something else) and is a special place of worship for the city's catholic community. While walking about I also saw the Croatian Parliament building and the nearby St Mark's church, which has the Croatian national coat of arms in the tiles of its roof. After this I came to what I personally thought was the most interesting sight in Zagreb, the Museum of Broken Relationships. The museum seems like a bad joke at first, but is actually dedicated to mementos from various people's broken relationships that have been donated to the museum. Each item comes with a story from the person who donated it. Some are serious, some are silly and some are just tragic. After perusing the museum and waiting for a rainstorm to stop, I came back to the main square and then spent an hour or two walking around lower town, but I didn't go into any of the museums or buildings. That ended my day in Zagreb, though the next day before my trip to Split I did a brief bit of walking around the area near the main square.

Getting to Split, which is on the Adriatic coast, takes a little over six hours by train. Croatia's rail system is ok, but nowhere near as good as those found in western European countries. Upon arrival, I was greeted by  a small herd of room sellers, who are drawn to tourists like sharks to blood (more on blood later in this post). My first full day in Split started at Diocletian's Palace, which was originally the estate of the roman emperor Diocletian, and after the empire fell it was occupied by residents of a nearby town who were seeking refuge from barbarian raids. The whole place is now a combination of historical sights, shops, hotels and a few residences. Unfortunately it was a national holiday that day and all the historical sights in there were closed, so I decided to come back again the next day. I worked my way through town to the base of the hill overlooking Split's harbor and began my ascent. The hike to the top was long and tiring, and at one point I thought I had reached the top only to realize I still had another long set of stairs to reach the actual summit. The top of the hill is capped by a cement structure which offers good views of the town and surrounding area. On the way back down I counted over 800 steps back to the bottom, but on the plus side you don't need to climb all the way up for the best view of Split. The actual best views of town are from a panorama point about halfway up, and there's a road that leads up to it, so if you have a car you can just drive to it. Back at the bottom I walked the harbor front back to my hostel and then got set for the water. My hostel was located just a one minute walk from one of Split's few sand beaches (most are pebble/rock beaches) so all I had to do was walk down the street to reach the beach. The Adriatic water was both clear, cool, mostly wave free and stayed shallow for longer than I'm used to. I had to walk a bit of ways out into the water to get above waist height. I spent a little time in the water before moving farther out to a set of pillars that people swim out to, to climb on and dive off of. I pulled myself onto one of the pillars and sat for awhile taking in the scenery. After a few minutes I decided to not jump off the pillar because I'm a terrible diver, and I lowered myself back into the water and swam back to shore. There I discovered my right foot was bleeding. My best guess is that I got cut when I dismounted the pillar. The only things on the sides of them that your feet can grip are these mussel/clam things that are attached to it, and they have rough edges so I must have slashed myself on them. Back at my hostel I disinfected and cleaned the wound (digging sand out of your own flesh is just as pleasant as you might think) and bandaged it over. I also checked with the State Department and confirmed that American blood in the water officially makes the place ours, so congratulations everyone, we now own the Atlantic (or at least the Adriatic)!

The next day in Split I didn't walk around too much because of my foot injury. I went over to Diocletian's Palace again, and now that stuff was open I climbed the bell tower, which had a nice sea breeze blowing through at the top (it was a hot day that day). After that I got lunch at a seaside restaurant named Karaka. If I had gotten a sit down meal at a seaside restaurant in western Europe I would have dropped quite a few euros on the meal, but since I was in Croatia and their currency isn't worth much, I paid only about the equivalent of seven US dollars. After eating what was possibly the best burger I've ever had and enjoying a free dessert pancake, (the restaurant has a deal with the hostel I was at) I rested briefly at my hostel before going back to old town again. To escape the heat I went down into the substructure of Diocletian's Palace. Because the areas under the palace were not occupied by the locals they are fairly well preserved. I returned again to the hostel and spent the rest of the daytime there. After dark, I went over to a nearby bar and had a drink (read: Sprite) with an Australian couple I had met at the hostel and then did a short night walk through old town. I would done more that day, but I didn't want to risk reopening the wound on my foot so I had limit my exploration.

The next day I got up and while I was getting ready for the day a few guys were watching a pirated copy of American Pie 4, which had hilariously inaccurate subtitles. Since I had a few hours before my train, I did one last visit to old town and visited the small cathedral in Diocletian's Palace. Outside the palace, along the harbor front, I found that every policeman in the city had all shown up at the same place, and many of them were in riot gear. I wasn't sure what was going on at the time, but was later told that there was going to be a gay pride parade, and the police were there to make sure the parade was not harassed (Croatia is a more conservative society than some other European countries). Returning to my hostel, I got my backpack together and left for the train station. The ride to Zagreb was uneventful, though I had to switch trains midway there. In Zagreb I didn't do much of anything since I had already seen the city. The next day I left for Budapest, thus ending my time in Croatia.

So, that"s all for Croatia. I am typing this update from Budapest, Hungary and will be leaving tomorrow for Vienna, Austria. The Budapest entry should be a good one, so look forward to it.

Slovenia: Wallet Saved, Wallet Bled

Dober dan everyone. That is a Slovenian greeting that means roughly "good day" (it also works in Croatia). Here is an update covering my short time in Slovenia, which consisted of two days in the capital of Ljubljana, (pronounced kind of like "loo-blee-yana")one of which was spent doing a day trip to Lake Bled.

Before we get to Ljubljana, I must recount my misadventure in traveling from Venice to Ljubljana (if you read the Venice post you'll remember my foreboding). There is no direct line between Venice and Ljubljana, so I had to connect regional trains to make the journey. The first train went off without a hitch, and when I arrived in the first intermediate town I caught a bus to the other side of the town to get on train number two (the second train left from a different station than the one I arrived in). The train stations up in the small mountain towns between Venice and Ljubljana are not well labeled, so when a train arrived at exactly the right time for the one I wanted, I got on. Unfortunately, thirty minutes into the ride I realized I was in fact on the wrong train, heading the wrong direction. I got off at the next stop, which was a small town/village up in the mountains, overlooking the Soča River. The schedule of the wall of the run down station showed that there would be no train going back for two hours, so I decided to make the most of it and looked around. The area is actually quite beautiful, so it wasn't such a bad place to be temporarily stranded. While walking around, I met an elderly Italian (they might have been Slovenian, but they spoke Italian) couple. They didn't speak English, and I don't speak much Italian, so I did my best to explain my situation to them and they actually invited me into their home and gave me some juice and cookies. I spent about an hour with them and showed them some photos from my journey so far. When it was time, I said goodbye and returned to the little train station and caught the train back to the previous train station, where I had to wait another two hours for the next train to the correct place; a town called Sezana. When I reached Sezana the last train of the day was about to leave for Ljubljana, so I had to run and got on board just before the doors closed. From this point everything went fine, and I arrived in Ljubljana at about 10:00pm. Welcome to Slovenia.

Slovenia only has just under two million people in the whole country, and I'm guessing about one fourth are in the greater Ljubljana area. It's not a nation you visit for great cities or grand architecture, (try western Europe for that) but it strikes me as a place you would love if you like backpacking the mountains and other outdoor activities. The country has expansive forests, mountain ranges, and even a small stretch of coastline. But if there's one thing I really like about Slovenia, it was that everything there costs less than in Western Europe, and after the money hole that was Venice my wallet was much relieved. Anyways, let's get started with my time in Slovenia. Day one in Ljubljana consisted of just looking around town and seeing the sights of the city, which aren't too many. You can see the whole city in a day, or half a day if you just do the highlights. After making reservations at the train station for my future trip to Split, (which will be covered by the next post) I got lunch at the nearby McDonalds. Maybe because I hadn't had a full meal since breakfast the day before, but this was the best tasting McDonalds I've ever had. After that I went down to the so called Dragon Bridge that crosses the river that runs through Ljubljana. The reason it is called that is because on each corner of the bridge there is a dragon sculpture. Dragons are part of the local folklore and the city coat of arms has a dragon on top of a castle on a hill. On the other side of the river I spent some time looking around Ljubljana's outdoor market, which meets in the morning and sells mostly food, but also flowers, furniture, crafts and other stuff. While there I spotted some people from Coca Cola passing out free cans of Coke Zero, which I'm guessing is new to Slovenia, and I helped myself to a can. Near the market is the city's main square and triple bridge, called such because it is three bridges right along side each other over the river. Although not very big, the square does feel like the center of the city and the area around it is the closest thing you can find to a downtown section of the city. After checking out the area, I hiked up Ljubljana's hill to its castle. Although the castle goes back to Roman times, it's modern form was created in the 1800s after major renovations. The castle has changed appearance several times, and inside the castle there's a small exhibit showing how it used to look in each period. Although the castle is kind of sparse on the inside, the looking tower has good views of the city and there's a decent museum in the castle too. There was actually a wedding finishing up when I got there, so there was a bride, groom and the various wedding guests were posing for photos at various places along the castle. Before coming down I paid a short visit to the park that's next to the castle and has some panoramic views of the surrounding area. When I came down from the hill my day was more or less done, and I got bought some food and worked on the Rome entry of the blog.

Day two in Slovenia was all about a day trip out to Lake Bled. There's no trains to the town of Bled, so I got on a bus and the ride took about 1.2 hours. I traveled there with an Israeli guy named Ami who I had met at the hostel in Ljubljana. He was staying the night in Bled so we both rode the bus into town and then parted ways some time later at the lake. Lake Bled is a very beautiful place; one of those photogenic spots that always appears on tourism materials. I walked the whole way around the lake, and on the way met a guy and girl from Michigan who were on their own journey across Europe. They had arrived at the lake very early in the morning and were looking for a place to stay in town, and Ami (who was still with me at the time) offered to walk with them back into town to try to find a place. We parted ways and I spent some more time at the lake before bleeding my wallet by taking a boat across the lake to the island in the middle of it. The boat ride is actually a bit expensive at twelve euros for a round trip, and there's not too much on the island so it may not be worth it for everyone. If you do take the trip, be sure to get one of the old paddle boats for the full experience, and not get stuck with a motorboat like me. Anyways, on the island is an old church, a few smaller buildings and a staircase leading from where the boat landing is to the courtyard where the church is. A local tradition says that a man is not fit to marry unless he can carry his fiance up all 98 steps to the top. Just like at the castle in Ljubljana, there was a wedding wrapping up on the island while I was there, so everyone was posing for photos (do I see a trend here?). As a tourist, you're only supposed to stay on the island for about half an hour, and when my time was up I returned to the lake shore and spent the rest of the time looking around the town of Bled before my bus back to Ljubljana arrived. While exploring, I went to an ice cream place whose name I can't pronounce. I had seen it earlier while walking from the bus stop to the lake, and there had been a long line of locals (including a priest, which officially makes the place legit) at the door. After buying some myself, I can see why, as the ice cream was very good. After ice cream I went back to the bus stop and waited for the bus that took me back to Ljubljana. That was all for day two.

I am typing this update from Split, in Croatia. I'm thinking I will do all of Croatia (Split and Zagreb) as a single entry in the blog, so I probably won't have the next update published for a few days. I have another day here in Split before returning to Zagreb for a single night. Then, it is off to Budapest.

Venice: Sinking

Hi all, here is the Venice update I promised. Thanks to free internet access at my hostel here in Zagreb, Croatia, I have completed this entry a little sooner than expected. I spent two days in Venice, and although it is very nice, it is also very expensive. Internet access there costed five euros for thirty minutes, which I why I waited to type the recent Rome and Venice updates. If you go to Venice, be prepared to drop some money into the lagoon that the city is slowly sinking into.

Venice actually got off to somewhat of a bad start on the day I arrived. I was trying to make arrangements for my travel from Venice to Ljubljana, but there's no direct line so I had to line up a few regional trains to get there. However because I had had some trouble with regional trains in France, I investigated an alternative option, which was to take a bus to a town on the Austrian border and then a train from there to Ljubljana. This investigation became something of a wild goose chase as I couldn't seem to get accurate information on the bus service and I ended up spending some time walking around the area by the train and bus stations trying to figure out the bus. In the end I got too frustrated, so I decided I would take my chances with the regional trains (when I post my Slovenia update you'll get to read how this turned out). I remember being fairly unhappy at the end of that day, but Venice would win me over in the end.

The place I stayed in Venice was near the Rialto bridge. There are no cars in Venice (except at the parking garage where people park who have driven across the bridge from the mainland) so you walk everywhere. The city is not very large so that's not really a problem, but the street layout is a complex web of small streets so you really need a map. I started day one by checking out the Rialto bridge and then moved on to San Marco square, one of the most famous squares in Europe. I spent some time just taking in the sights there and getting photos before going into the San Marco Basilica. The basilica ceiling is entirely covered with mosaics that range from old Byzantine styles to Renaissance ones. The terrace of the church also has good views of the square. When I finished with the church I went back outside to the square and looked around some more before catching a waterbus to San Giorgio island. Waterbuses are very expensive, at about seven euros for a one way ride, so I don't recommend using them unless absolutely necessary. The waterbus to the island however only costs four euros for a round trip, so it wasn't so bad. The island, and in particular the bell tower of the church have really good views of the main section of Venice. Once I returned to the main islands of Venice, I went east towards the tail of the "fish" (take a look at a map of the main part of Venice) where there is a large park. This is a good place to get away from the zoo of the touristy parts of Venice and recharge before jumping back into the fray. Leaving the park, I went back west and a little north to the old Arsenal of Venice, which used to be the town's fort and shipyard. Today it is still owned by the Italian military and they were not allowing visitors. Moving on, I got a really late lunch at a place called Birreria Forst, which is on a street called Calle Rosse, I think. It's a sandwich bar just east of San Marco square and one of the few cheap places to grab a meal near San Marco. They have some delicious ham sandwiches, and strangely good tasting Pepsi. After my meal I went back to my hostel for a little while before going out one last time for a night stroll back to San Marco square. On the way I got some good gelato from a place called the Gelato Boutique (great taste and big scoops; an award winning combination). San Marco square really is a different place at night with the buildings lit up and dueling bands playing at several of the outdoor restaurants. Although there are still quite a few tourists at night, it is much less than during the day and the place has a great ambiance to it. I got to hear one band perform the Titanic theme, and it was moving. I think going to San Marco is one of those definitive Venice experiences, and I strongly recommend doing it if you have the time.

Day two in Venice was about filling in some gaps in the city and also revisiting a few places from day one. Once again I started at the Rialto Bridge, because I realized that while I had taken pictures from the bridge, I had none of the bridge itself. I moved on to the Santa Maria dei Frari church after that, which has great Venetian artwork in it, but a no photo policy (booo!!!). Just around the corner from it is the even more impressive Scuola Grande di San Rocco, which is sometimes called Venice's Sistine Chapel. The bottom floor doesn't have too much, but go upstairs for large hall that will snap your neck from looking up so much. They actually provide people mirrors so that people don't hurt themselves doing this. The place costed something like eight euros, but was worth every cent. Again no photos, which to me is just criminal with how photogenic that place is. I then worked my way south through the city to the area with the Accademia Museum, which I considered going into, but I decided against because I was trying to budget my spending. I'm told it is full of Venetian artwork from Venice's glory days, so maybe I'll go in next time. I then crossed the Accademia Bridge across the Grand Canal, and walked all the way to the Rialto Bridge and crossed that to find a pizza place I had read about that was not too far from my hostel. Alas, the place was closed when I got there, so I worked my way back to Campo Manin and ate a kabob instead. I then returned to San Marco square and visited the Correr Museum (Venetian artifacts) because a ticket to the museum also covers the more popular Doge's Palace and allows you to skip the ticket line there. The Doge's Palace starts out a bit sparse in the Doge's apartments, but gets good when you reach the chambers used by the various Venetian councils and the arsenal rooms. Once again, no photos (what's wrong with this city?!). When I finished with the Doge's Palace I walked to the north end of the main islands and walked along the waterside walkway all the way to... a gas station for boats (which finally answered the question of where people  get fuel for their boats). I then returned to the hostel, and on the way took my only gondola ride of my trip to Venice. The Grand Canal, which runs through the main part of Venice, only has three main bridges across it, so to fill in gaps there are larger gondolas (called Tronchettos) that carry people across for 50 cents. After eating dinner and resting a little, I decided to do San Marco square at night again, since I liked it so much the last time. Again I got gelato from the Gelato Boutique and went over to the square. Like the night before it was a great scene, and this time I heard a band do the music of the theme songs from both Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Not a bad way to end Venice.

As stated earlier, this update is being typed from Zagreb, Croatia. I hope to have an update on my time in Slovenia in the next few days. After Zagreb I am moving down to the town of Split, which is on the Adriatic coast.

Rome: Living In The Past

Hi all, here is the update I meant to type in Venice, however because internet access in that city was crazy expensive, I decided to wait until I had cheaper internet access. Said internet has been located here in Slovenia, whose low prices are a relief after the high prices of Venice. I wish I could tell you that I'll have a Venice update soon, but I'm not really sure how soon I'll be able to get to it. Please be aware that the keyboards here in Slovenia are the strangest ones yet, so there may be more errors than usual. Anyways, here is Rome:

I spent four days in Rome and walked the length of the city many times over. I can confirm that Rome's notorious traffic is for real and the only rule on the streets seems to be the rule of no harm, no foul. As long as a driver doesn't hit anyone else, (and likewise a pedestrian doesn't get hit) all is well. You have to be assertive (and a bit courageous) as a pedestrian when crossing the street, or you'll be stuck on the curb for awhile. I once saw a guy driving a scooter with one arm while weaving in and out of traffic, talking on his cell phone and doing the stereotypical Italian hand gestures with the other arm. Crazy as this might be, I'm told southern Italy is even worse.

On my first full day in Rome I started out at the Colosseum. To skip the lines I had a Roma Pass, which is not as good as the Paris Museum Pass, but is still worthwhile if you're going to visit a lot of places. I got to walk past the long lines at the Colosseum and go straight in. Even after 2,000 years of neglect and decay, the Colosseum is still an impressive sight. I walked all around the lower and upper areas and looked down into the lower levels, where many thousands of gladiators, martyrs and criminals spent their last few hours before rising to the stadium floor to die. After the Colosseum I went over to the Roman Forum and Palantine Hill, which are directly next to the Colosseum. Both are a graveyard of sections of buildings, broken columns and require a little imagination to reconstruct the old scene. When I finally finished with the area I went over to the Borghese Gallery, which is an art museum. The museum is by reservation only, and while it is not very big, it has a good collection of paintings and sculptures by Bernini. Moving on, I went over to Piazza del Popolo, a major square in Rome that used to be the north entry area into the old city. On the square there was a police expo celebrating the 160th anniversary of the Rome Police Department (I think) and they were showing off various police vehicles from over the past 100 years or so. Among them was a police Ferrari, which I thought only existed in video games, but apparently is real. I don't know what it is used for or where you would put an arrested person in it, but maybe it just impresses criminals into surrendering. There was also a little police smart car and even a police segway. To finish the day I went over to the Spanish Steps, which is a large staircase leading up to an old obelisk and church that is popular gathering spot for both locals and tourist.

On day two I paid a visit to the Roma National Museum, which is near Termini train station. The museum has an extensive collection of Roman artifacts, and has an old bronze sculpture of a boxer that I really liked. After the museum I took a bus over to Castel Sant Angelo which used to be a mausoleum for a Roman emperor but got renovated and turned into a fort. The fort later got a bridge connecting it directly to the Vatican so that the pope could quickly escape to it whenever Rome was getting raided by barbarians. The fort has some good views of the city from the top and is a short walk from Vatican City, which is where I was going next. I walked over to St Peter's Basilica and took a quick look around before walking to the north side of Vatican City, which is where the entrance to the Vatican Museum is. I had been told that if you don't have reservations for the museum you should go in the afternoon, and I think that really is the winning strategy. I arrived at about 2:30 and spent only five minutes in line. Apparently the Vatican experiences a morning rush each day, partly because almost all the guides tell people to show up early. Like a giant herd of sheep, everyone comes in the morning and the lines are crazy long. If you have reservations it's not a problem, but if you want to save a few euros you should come after 1:00pm. The Vatican Museum is somewhat like the Louvre in Paris, in that it has tons of artwork, but unlike the Louvre it is sort of small, so everyone is packed into narrow corridors and you sometimes have to muscle your way through the tour groups to get better views of things. There are also several points where you can take a shortcut straight to the Sistine Chapel, but I wanted to get the most out of my entry fee and saw the entire thing. Sadly, there is no photography allowed in the Sistine Chapel, though I did see some people trying to sneak photos past the guards. After the chapel I went straight into St Peter's using a passageway that's supposed to just be for tour groups, but no one was checking. St Peter's is the largest cathedral in the world, and even has markers on the floor to show where other cathedrals would end if you stuck them inside (just to rub it in). Because of the size, it can be a bit tricky to photograph. I didn't see the pope, so I never got to challenge him to a Reformation Rematch (he must have known I was there). After leaving the cathedral I looked around St Peter's square for awhile and then took a bus back towards my hostel. I got most of the way back, but my bus was brought to a halt by a few thousands protesters on bicycles, who I'm guessing were protesting that Rome is not very friendly to cyclists. It looked like they weren't going anywhere for awhile, so I walked the rest of the way back (and of course, it started to rain). Thus ended day two.

Day three started with me checking out a few churches and then I went down to the Circus Maximus, which is near the Colosseum. There's almost nothing there; it's really just an open field shaped like a chariot racecourse. I wasn't expecting much of anything, but I still left a bit disappointed. Walking north, I moved to Capitoline Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome, which has a few museums on it as well as the Victor Emmanuel monument. I went up to the top of the monument, which actually has good, though slightly obstructed views of the city. When I came down from the top of the monument, I was looking for a toilet when I came across what I call the "Chandelier Church" up on the hill (I'll let you guess what its most prominent interior features were). After checking out the church and finding the toilet I was looking for, I walked down the steps of the Victor Emmanuel monument to the bottom. The monument commemorates Italian unification and the nation's first king, and it has the largest statue of a guy on a horse in the world. The king's mustache is just over five feet long. Apparently the monument is not entirely popular with locals and because it is made out of really white marble it gets dirty easily from Rome's pollution and requires frequent and expensive cleaning. Near the bottom of the monument is Trajan's column, which tells the story of Emperor Trajan's military campaign in a slowly rising spiral. I then walked over to the Trevi Fountain, which was overrun with tourists but cool nonetheless. From there I went over to the Pantheon and spent some time there. The Pantheon is the best preserved Roman building in Rome, since it remained in use after Rome fell and never got cannibalized for stone like the Colosseum. It's also free and has a great ambiance about it. When I finished with the Pantheon I took a quick look over at nearby Piazza Noavona to wrap up the day.

On day four I walked more than any other day so far on my trip. I had already seen all the big sights that I wanted to see, so I didn't have much of a plan for the day. I visited quite a few squares like Campo di Fiori and Piazza Navona and also walked along the Tiber River at a few points. Along the Tiber I came to the August mausoleum, which is sort of like Castel Sant Angelo except is never got renovated and is in a state of disrepair. Next to it is the Arc Pacis building, which was the first new building in Rome since the 1930s and holds the old Roman alter of peace. From there I went north to Piazza de Popolo, which was now devoid of the police expo. It was raining until the early afternoon that day, so I ate my lunch under the old city gate there. After eating I walked down Via del Corso, a major street lined with expensive shops that leads to the Victor Emmanuel monument. I got sidetracked at the Marcus Aurelius column, which is like Trajan's Column, but is much more worn out. Nearby it is an old Egyptian obelisk in front of a government building, and after that I went into the church of Sant Ignazio, which I call the Temple of Darkness, because it is so poorly lit. Rome has a church every 100 yards in any given direction, so I ended up seeing quite a few of them that day. South of the church I wound up back at the Tiber River and I checked out the small island on it. The Tiber River does not seem to have as much importance to Rome as the Seine does to Paris or the Thames to London, in terms of sightseeing. It is really more just something you have to cross to get to sights on the western side of the river. I found myself back by the Circus Maximus and decided to check out the church of San Giovanni Laterno in the southeast part of Rome, and along the way there I saw some protesters, but I wasn't sure what the protest was about. The church is definitely worth the walk (or, you can reach it much more easily by metro) and used to serve as the primary cathedral in Rome until St Peter's was built. The inside has large statues of the twelve apostles in the main section and feels like a hall of fame. Close to the church there is also a building which houses a set of stairs that supposedly Jesus climbed in Jerusalem. You're only allowed to climb them on your knees, and I opted to walk up to the top using a parallel set of stairs. When I left the building I took the metro back to my hostel where I ate and rested a little before doing a night walk to cap off my time in Rome. I saw a lot of the sights like the Pantheon and Trevi fountain lit up, which was really nice and a great way to end my time in the city.

As I said, I am typing this update in Slovenia. Later today I leave for Croatia, where hopefully I will have the chance to type updates covering Venice and Slovenia.