the last month

First of all, I want to apologize for the lapse of time in between this post and the last.  Each trip has come and gone so quickly, and the few days I have at home in Prague have passed even more rapidly.  A lot has happened since the last time I updated the blog; namely trips to Barcelona, Copenhagen, and the first three days of a ten-day marathon trip up and down the coast of Italy.  First of course, came a trip in late February/early March to the coastal Spanish town of Barcelona.

Inside of Sagreda Familia

View of Sagreda Familia from Park Guell

Paige and I at the Barcelona game

Barcelona truly is a remarkable town.  It incorporates not only loads of history, but also fascinating architecture (namely by Antoni Gaudi) and a well-rehearsed nightlife.  The trip started off with a concert attended by virtually all American students studying abroad in Europe.  Afrojack is a techno DJ that has many big hits in America.  I’m not the biggest techno fan around, but I do really appreciate the added energy it brings to the night, and I am a big Afrojack fan.  The venue, Opium Mar, was on a strip of exclusive bars, clubs, and fancy restaurants dotted along a street hugging the Mediterranean coast of Barcelona.  It was a gorgeous venue inside, and it turned out to be a wonderful evening out with all my friends and Paige.  The following three days I spent in Barcelona was spent dining, hiking, and touring the wacky but impressive works of Gaudi.  Ron, Paige, and I took a free Gaudi walking tour where were toured several of his most famous works. Gaudi was a 19^th century architect born and raised in Barcelona.  He was commissioned to build numerous lavish apartment and other buildings throughout the city.  Each has unique charm and design.  His buildings are simply magnificent and were like nothing I have ever witnessed before.  He inspired many other architects in his day and also inspired the design for Darth Vader and the storm troopers in Star Wars (at least it was rumored so when George Lucas visited Barcelona in the mid 1970’s). My favorite spot in the entire city was his Park Guell.  It was a park up in the hills overlooking the city and the harbor.  But it wasn’t an ordinary park, it incorporated many of the same wacky styles we saw in his other works.  Probably his most famous building is the Sagreda Familia.  The building is massive, and still isn’t close to complete (he was granted the commission in the late 1880’s and isn’t scheduled to be completed until 2027).  We went inside (definitely worth the 11 euro entrance fee) and saw some of his work firsthand.  The view from the top (or the current top) was also incredible.  The building also has some history.  It was nearly destroyed in the 1930’s when fascists renounced all religion (Sagreda Familia is after all a church of course).  Sadly, Gaudi was killed by a streetcar while looking at Sagreda Familia. His death went relatively unnoticed (no one even identified the body as his until the following day) because in his later life he lived a quiet life where religion and work engulfed his life.  Although he’s gone, his legacy lives on and will live on in Barcelona forever.  Friday evening, we had probably the best meal of the entire trip at a tapas restaurant in the heart of the city.  Paige and I split six tapas, wine, a beer, and desserts for only 19 euros.  The meal was awesome and I loved trying many different things in one meal.  We finished out the weekend by attending an FC Barcelona football game.  The stadium was enormous, much larger to the naked eye than any football stadium I’ve seen in America.  Despite the extreme size, the stadium actually only holds roughly 90 thousand people (less than both the Los Angeles Coliseum and the Rose Bowl).  We witnessed soccer in its purest form, a 1-0 thriller with very few combined scoring opportunities.  While I have warmed up to soccer in recent years (the world cup and being in Europe this semester), I still do not think its excitement level matches up with football.  There are simply not the same amount of meaningful plays in the game.  For example, when an offensive player turns the ball over at midfield in a soccer match, everyone stands and cheers even though the play likely had zero impact on the game.  In a football game, because of the constant field-position battle, every play matters greatly.  Even a dropped five-yard pass in football has great impact on the next drive for a team.  Regardless of which sport I prefer, the atmosphere in and around the stadium was incredible.  It was ridiculously loud the entire time, from singing songs before and after the game to the deafening sound of cheers following the one goal in the game.   Behind the goal, a specifically loud and rambunctious group of fans sang and waved flags throughout the match.  One fan even had a large bass drum that he led cheers from for the entire stadium.  Despite paying a hefty price for the ticket and the required Barcelona jersey, it was definitely a worthwhile experience to witness first-hand the world’s most popular sport.  Leaving Barcelona was bittersweet, and many of my friends felt the same feeling as we embarked back to Prague.  But all good things must come to an end, and for the sake of my thinning wallet, it couldn’t have come sooner.

The following weekend my high school friend Jon came to Prague for a visit.  It was a great opportunity to see more of the city and discover new places in my home city.  We did all the normal tourist activities (the castle, Charles bridge, Old Town Square) but also discovered a few new places.  The Golden Tiger is a famous local pub off the tourist trail near Old Town.  President Clinton was taken there by Vaclav Havel during a visit to the Czech Republic and the picture of the two of them proudly sits in the pub.  The beer, shipped directly from Plzen to the pub in only barrel form (meaning it’s unpasteurized and unpreserved in anyway), guarantees the freshest quality beer in the world.  The pub opens at 3:00, and has reservations starting at 6:00 until it closes.  So getting a table is a miracle in itself.  But Jon and I managed to find a place.  They don’t ask what you want or how you want it, but just throw two beers down at you when you sit down.  The beers were absolutely marvelous.  As fresh as they were when I tasted Pilsner from the actual factory.  When you finish your beer, you don’t wait longer than two minutes for the guy to clear your glass and send another beer your way.  A classic place that I will now be taking all my visitors to.  Another new discovery was drinks atop the Dancing House. I’m sure most of you have seen a picture of the Dancing House, one of Prague’s most famous buildings.  But only recently did I discover that you could go atop the building for drinks to see the view (previously I thought the only way up was to have an expensive dinner at the expensive restaurant).  The view was awesome, and a perfect place to see the river and the castle in the background.  Needless to say, we stayed up there a lot longer than we expected.  It was great to see Jon, and reminisce on some good times in high school (hard to believe that it’s already been three years since we graduated!). 

Copenhagen!

Last weekend, Paige and I ventured off to the Danish capital city of Copenhagen.  I can honestly say (at least so far) that this is my favorite European city.  It felt so comfortable, charming, and truly like home.  The architecture has a nice blend of old grand buildings and stunning modern marvels.  Everyone speaks English, and virtually everyone you meet in the city is incredibly nice.  The government really takes care of its people (can you imagine that?) and a recent survey named the Danish as the happiest people in the world.   Danish students get a stipend of a few thousand dollars per month just for attending college.  It is also home to the worlds first theme park Tivoli and is credited with being the inspiration for Disneyland.  The only downside was the inflated price of everything there.  Beers were eight dollars each, and a value meal at McDonald’s was 12 dollars.  Money was the only thing that kept me from studying in Copenhagen, and ironically, it’s the only thing that made me happy to leave.  Friday night, we took a train 45 minutes north with one of Paige’s high school friends Sophie, to visit her host school and enjoy a delicious authentic Danish meal.  Her school was really cool despite trekking 10 minutes through a dark forest to get there and the food was also very good.  Sunday, Paige and I saw most of what Copenhagen had to offer including the Little Mermaid statue named after Hans Christian Andersen’s book with the same.  Several times since leaving, I’ve found myself missing Copenhagen for its authenticity, charm of its people, and pristine natural beauty.

With only two full days back in Prague before embarking for Italy, I felt a little rushed, but now that we’re here it’s a welcomed adventure.  I flew with three friends to Rome Thursday morning.  We had Thursday evening and Friday morning/early afternoon to explore Rome before leaving for two days in Napoli.  Rome has a surplus of famous buildings and sites to see, but we managed to do a lot in our limited time there so far.  We’ve already seen the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and numerous ruins and other famous buildings I haven’t familiarized myself with yet.  Our train to Naploli left Rome’s Termini station at 4:45.  We got there plenty early, but made the mistake of waiting until 4:15 to go find a seat aboard the train.  There already weren’t any seats available (except the fold out ones in the place in between cars which we begrudgingly took), and people kept piling in.  Before we left there were so many people around us in the corridor that bags were laying on my lap from other people.  Eventually we had to stand up for sheer lack of space.  I’ve seen pictures of things like this, but never actually witnessed it.  Quite the experience, and something I would highly recommend any claustrophobic person avoid.  Eventually (about two hours into the ride) we found real seats. 

Coliseum

Trevie Fountain

Blake, Ian, and I at Pompei

Napoli is a seedy and gritty Italian town run by the biggest international organized crime syndicate in the world.  An already run-down dirty town was worsened by a strike of the waste-management facilities. Trash was literally everywhere, and dumpsters were overflowing so much that trash filled the surrounding 5 feet by 5 square feet around the actual dumpster.  There are also so many street vendors trying to sell stupid and stolen items. My friend Blake found that out the hard way.  The less than stellar living conditions did not affect the incredible pizza in Napoli.  Napoli invented pizza and continues to prefect it.  We ate at two pizza places (one founded in 1870 with only two pizzas; Margherita and Mariniara), and both ridiculously good.  The crust was soft and chewy, the tomato sauce was sweet and tangy, and the cheese was only the freshest mozzarella.  I can now confidently say I’ve had the best pizza in the world.  Saturday we went to Pompeii (only a 40 minute train ride away) and saw the demolished town.  Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 and covered the entire town in deadly volcanic ash and magma within hours.  The town was much bigger than I expected (5-6 times the size of Machu Piccu) and had many impressive squares and half-standing buildings.  They even had real human skeletons preserved by the volcano on display.  Really an eerie place, but still something I’d recommend.  Today, we saw some more of the famous buildings Naploli has to offer including the Castel Nuovo and the Duomo Cathedral.  Napoli has its problems but overall a place worthy of a short visit for the pizza alone.  That being said, I’m glad we are currently waiting in the train station for our train back to Rome.

Okay so I may have just written the longest blog post in history, but like I said, I’ve done A LOT since my last blog post.  I promise to not let as much time pass until the next update.  Thanks for the few of you (Mom and Dad) that actually read through this entire post.  Can’t wait to continue with this Italian adventure!

Sam