Went up to Regensburg to visit my favorite German Andy! He took me to a neat Medieval pub and we had mead! Also delicious bread. There were furs all over and also a guy with drinking horn. Two, actually! The mead tasted a lot like honey than I expected. On Saturday Sophia came up for the day and we hung out and went to the Regensburg Spectaculum which is a medieval festival and it was super neat. Lots of cool craftsmanship and sampling some DELICIOUS spiced wine. Super good stuff. Also there was eating of sausages and buying me a bike. So that was cool. I got it for 65 euros. In retrospect, we probably could have gotten it for less, but we can still be gladthat Andy did the haggling because I would have been way too nice.
Anyway, it was super nice to like hang out with people that are my friends and stuff.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Monday, July 21, 2014
July 15-17: Munich!
Of all the cities I've been in so far, I think Munich is the one I would like to actually live in the most. It has some nice architecture, but it's not as pretty as the Italian cities. Also no water fountains everywhere =(. However! it seems a lot less touristy and there are bikes everywhere and there are some massive and beautiful parks. I'm big into parks. I didn't even go to any museums. Honestly, I was spending a lot of time dealing with my phone shit. I did go on a really nice bike tour with Mike's Bikes and they took us swimming and to a beer garden and gave me advice on how to get a cheap bike, which was pretty great of them. Also we got to swim in the stream and we saw some dudes surfing. Apparently those dudes are always surfing there.
I met some people on the tour and we were going to go out, which was exciting because traveling alone, I don't really get the chance to do that often. I was going to meet them at their hotel or some club that they heard about, but they decided not to go out after all. I kind of suspected that that would happen, but I went anyway. I was afraid of going into the club alone, but then I did out of insolence or something. Of course, I had forgotten how I don't really like clubs and how they are full of sounds and people dancing awkwardly, but I stuck it out for maybe ten minutes or so before leaving. I ended up walking around in a park. There, I discovered a BigBelly! Whaaaaaaaat. So that was exciting. The internet said that the last train back to my hostel was around 2-3. It would have been wise to look up an exact time, because when I got to the station at 2:10, I found that the next train to my hostel would be at 5 in the morning. Lame. I ended up going out to the plaza where I had previously found and H&M that had wifi I could use. It was conveniently right next to another station on my route, so that was nice too. I stayed there for most of my wait, using the internet and stuff. I'm pretty sure some guy thought I was a prostitute. I'm never really sure what to do when randoItalian German guys start saying things to me in Italian German.
I met some people on the tour and we were going to go out, which was exciting because traveling alone, I don't really get the chance to do that often. I was going to meet them at their hotel or some club that they heard about, but they decided not to go out after all. I kind of suspected that that would happen, but I went anyway. I was afraid of going into the club alone, but then I did out of insolence or something. Of course, I had forgotten how I don't really like clubs and how they are full of sounds and people dancing awkwardly, but I stuck it out for maybe ten minutes or so before leaving. I ended up walking around in a park. There, I discovered a BigBelly! Whaaaaaaaat. So that was exciting. The internet said that the last train back to my hostel was around 2-3. It would have been wise to look up an exact time, because when I got to the station at 2:10, I found that the next train to my hostel would be at 5 in the morning. Lame. I ended up going out to the plaza where I had previously found and H&M that had wifi I could use. It was conveniently right next to another station on my route, so that was nice too. I stayed there for most of my wait, using the internet and stuff. I'm pretty sure some guy thought I was a prostitute. I'm never really sure what to do when rando
Ping pong tables!
Really neat minimalist play area
You mean I can't just drink out of whatever fountain? UGH.
So the Deutches museum is supposed to be this super awesome amazing science museum. It turns out that the museum I went to was not the actual Deutches museum but rather a lesser branch all about transportation which was still pretty neat.
Chinese Tower beer garden!
This is where it says that my train won't be coming for several hours.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
July 11-14: Venice!
Venice was weird. There are a lot of tourists. Like, a lot. People said to go there, so I did but there were lots and lots of tourists. I managed to find some places that didn't have as many, but those were mostly parks or streets with almost no people. Or the market.
As per my uze, I spent a lot of the time walking around. Since my hostel was pretty expensive, I didn't really want to spend money on things. Especially churches, since I've seen a solid gajillion and I think it's kind of weird for churches to charge an entrance fee anyway. I'm pretty sure that the streets of Venice are based on a tree-like structure, thus getting rid of any superfluous routes for getting from one point to another. Which is to say that I did a lot of exploring, reaching a dead end after a long time, and having to go back the way I came. Also, it's basically impossible to tell if the narrow street you are one is going to be a dead end or if it's vital to get to the main roads.
I went on a free tour of venice which was pretty nice. I met another person from Minnesota! Also our tour guide was very sweet and it was her first tour and we got rained on really hard but she still persisted, which was awesome.
In this very rainstorm, I managed to hurt my phone. It worked fine as far as getting me back to my hostel. Later, however, it stopped charging and I discovered water behind the battery, which is no good. After much sadness, I went and got a new phone so that I could have wifi and gps and stuff. The cheapest money could buy. It's pretty shitty, and for a while I didn't have an adapter for the sim card, so I couldn't call people, but at least I have a (kind of) working gps, wifi, and a camera.
I also visited the outer islands, so I got to see a bunch of glass at Merano! I saw a free demonstration of glass blowing, but it wasn't great. The guy just demonstrated some basic techniques, like blowing and pulling the molten glass, without using any colors or any of the fancy stuff. He ended up throwing away the things he made.
Oh, and by the way, you know those signs that say that you will get a massive fine if you don't have a ticket on the boat? Yeah, they're not kidding. So that sucked also. But considering the price of the tickets, I didn't actually spend SO MUCH more than I would have.
Also, still no pictures because of hassles and shit and phone and sd card dying and also I'm using my friend's computer anyway.
As per my uze, I spent a lot of the time walking around. Since my hostel was pretty expensive, I didn't really want to spend money on things. Especially churches, since I've seen a solid gajillion and I think it's kind of weird for churches to charge an entrance fee anyway. I'm pretty sure that the streets of Venice are based on a tree-like structure, thus getting rid of any superfluous routes for getting from one point to another. Which is to say that I did a lot of exploring, reaching a dead end after a long time, and having to go back the way I came. Also, it's basically impossible to tell if the narrow street you are one is going to be a dead end or if it's vital to get to the main roads.
I went on a free tour of venice which was pretty nice. I met another person from Minnesota! Also our tour guide was very sweet and it was her first tour and we got rained on really hard but she still persisted, which was awesome.
In this very rainstorm, I managed to hurt my phone. It worked fine as far as getting me back to my hostel. Later, however, it stopped charging and I discovered water behind the battery, which is no good. After much sadness, I went and got a new phone so that I could have wifi and gps and stuff. The cheapest money could buy. It's pretty shitty, and for a while I didn't have an adapter for the sim card, so I couldn't call people, but at least I have a (kind of) working gps, wifi, and a camera.
I also visited the outer islands, so I got to see a bunch of glass at Merano! I saw a free demonstration of glass blowing, but it wasn't great. The guy just demonstrated some basic techniques, like blowing and pulling the molten glass, without using any colors or any of the fancy stuff. He ended up throwing away the things he made.
Oh, and by the way, you know those signs that say that you will get a massive fine if you don't have a ticket on the boat? Yeah, they're not kidding. So that sucked also. But considering the price of the tickets, I didn't actually spend SO MUCH more than I would have.
Also, still no pictures because of hassles and shit and phone and sd card dying and also I'm using my friend's computer anyway.
Monday, July 14, 2014
July 10: Verona!
Just as nice an Italian city as the others. No pictures though because of the phone sitch which will be described later.
It had a lot more Romeo and Juliet stuff tan I expected- I got all confused because I'm pretty sure they were not real people so I didn't really understand where Juliet's tomb came from but whatever. There was some similarplace relating to Juliet and maybe the Capulets or something. Anyway there was a bunch of lovey dovey graffiti and the walls appeared to be covered in gum. Gross. I never knew that was a thing. Do both people have to chew the gum before it goes on the wall?
I only spent a day there since staying there was kind of expensive. I think the hostels must have all been full because the cheapest place I could find was a bed and breakfast run by a lovely lady who didn't speak any English. I may have a thing for kindly old people that don't speak English. For some reason, it seems to be next to a prison. At the olace where google maps said it would be, there was instead of a cute B&B, a great hulking concrete building with bar on the walls.
It had a lot more Romeo and Juliet stuff tan I expected- I got all confused because I'm pretty sure they were not real people so I didn't really understand where Juliet's tomb came from but whatever. There was some similarplace relating to Juliet and maybe the Capulets or something. Anyway there was a bunch of lovey dovey graffiti and the walls appeared to be covered in gum. Gross. I never knew that was a thing. Do both people have to chew the gum before it goes on the wall?
I only spent a day there since staying there was kind of expensive. I think the hostels must have all been full because the cheapest place I could find was a bed and breakfast run by a lovely lady who didn't speak any English. I may have a thing for kindly old people that don't speak English. For some reason, it seems to be next to a prison. At the olace where google maps said it would be, there was instead of a cute B&B, a great hulking concrete building with bar on the walls.
Friday, July 11, 2014
July 8-9: Milan!
Milan is super gorgeous. Here are pictures.
Finally went to a museum with some contemporary art! I got excited by the math ones
The church connected to a really nice archeological museum that was way cheap and had a delightful old man who did not speak English. I think being old and friendly and not speaking English automatically makes you delightful
There was a ton of graffiti when I came in but maybe that was just because I was walking through a university neighborhood.
Park, obvs
The Duomo was magnificent. Normally Gothic architecture isn't my super favorite but holy hell. The Duomo was amazing. And huge. I don't know if I managed to capture how absurdly large and magnificent it was.
People for scale
Dead holy person. This is a 100% okay and legit thing to do with this person's body.
It always weirds me out when Europeans pull out the native American stuff but I guess it's no different from Americans pulling out the gypsy stuff
White people doing an Indian dance thing. I may have been primed by a conversation about cultural appropriation on facebook.
More gelato, natch. The lady gave me the wrong flavor but I was too chickenshit to say anything (with sufficient force).
Finally went to a museum with some contemporary art! I got excited by the math ones
This one was neat because the shadows shifted depending on the angle you looked at it
Pretty sure this is a belly button
Also belly buttons
Super creeps
Leonardo da Vinci. I have yet to actually make it in to one of the da Vinci museums
Dude tied these around my worst and then made me pay for them. It was the worst. Motherfucker wanted 5 euros for these. I have him 2.
Apparently The Last Supper is housed in Milan but you have to but tickets in advance and it's super expensive and you only get like 15 minutes. Close by though, there is a church which is few to enter and had lots of nice art on the walls.
A scene I actually know
Not quite /the/ last supper, but I guess it's /a/ last supper
Restoration demonstration?
A map of Milan or a game of Settlers?
More belly button
Chillin'
Really fucking creepy
It's an Art
There was background music here. I'm not sure if it was live or not but it sure did seem to involve a lot of intermittent coughing
Pats on the head for everyone!
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