Coming Home

Heading home soon. In the airport in Paris. Really can't believe it.

Final posts will have to wait until later when I have a keyboard again because the one I've been using with my iPad spontaneously decided to stop working, and poking one letter at a time is really annoying and time consuming. But I'll give a quick summary of the last week.

Decided not to write about Interlaken. It is a great little town but I was only there one night because it was in between seasons- too cold and wet for outdoor adventure sports and too warm for winter sports. The hostel I stayed at is one of the best and well-known hostels in the area, with the ability to sleep at least one or two hundred people. When I was there, I was one of six. Even got excited to do a bit of hiking before I left, but sure enough it was raining cats and dogs that day.

Slightly defeated, I kept my hopes up as I went to meet up with friends Brittany, Annah, and Susannah, whom I had met in Antwerp. They had kept in touch with me via facebook since our last time together, and when they asked if I wanted to go skiing with them in Bad Gastein, Austria, i jumped on the chance. The following morning we all woke up early to catch the 7 am train into the next town over, and then took a taxi up to the top of the mountain, excited to rent some equipment and hit the slopes. We thought it was kind of strange that the taxi driver offered to bring us back down too. Apparently he must have seen the sign at the bottom of the mountain informing potential skiers that the summit was too windy that day and the mountain would be closed...which was in German, of course. He must have chuckled to himself the whole drive up the mountain, thinking about the 40 euros we were about to give him for driving us up to a ski resort for the view of the base.

We ended up making the most of the unfortunate situation. We hitched a ride back down the mountain with a nice Austrian man on the way to another place to ski, then again with a very kind woman that had overheard our conversation with a bartender when we were inquiring about buses back to the train station, only to find out that they too were cancelled due to an Austrian holiday. she gave us a ride back to the station and wouldn't even let us buy her a coffee, she was too kind. Good job austrians.

Then went to Vienna, Slovenia, Venice, and Rome. Sorry but this is getting too annoying. One of the worse posts so far, but I can't stand typing one letter at a time anymore.

Will do the rest from home...

USA here I come.


- Matt

Location:Paris, France

zuRICH

I stayed in Zurich for two nights, and I only have a couple things to say about it. For one - its really expensive (all of Switzerland, but more so in Zurich than Interlaken). Second - Who is in charge of advertisements in Zurich? And does this stuff really work?

This is something I really want to talk about. Maybe its because Zurich supported the warnings I had heard from multiple travelers that Switzerland is kinda boring, and I mostly walked around by myself and was therefore left to my own thoughts, which can get out of control if left alone too long. I wandered mostly through the old part of the city, often just strolling up and down Bahnhofstrasse, the main strip leading out of the main train station and up through the middle of the city.

I first likened Zurich to Brussels, in that the shopping streets were lined with shops selling similar things- either high fashion clothing, watches, other jewelry, or chocolates. But as the night went on I realized something peculiar with these stores, which I soon realized was all around the city- really, really weird advertisements. I think pictures will help prove my point (yes I was this bored)...



We'll start with a view of Bahnhofstrasse at night...elegantly beautiful with wires hanging strings of blue and white lights over the street. So far so good...



Next we may start to notice some strange things, like stores selling overly fancy and unnecessary foot insert devices for the equivalent of just under a hundred dollars...



Next you witness the window advertisements...please tell me you see what I mean- this is a Louie Vitton store's window display. I think it works, don't you? Now I want to buy that purse so that I can be heavier than a small circus elephant...



Next, I have a strange desire to buy Burger jeans so that naked women will put there hands down my pants when I'm rocking them commando



H&M go back to the basics and use girls kissing to catch your attention. This one isn't even the worse, in the train station the girls were kissing on the lips. Must buy those clothes.




this one is just creepy. Nothing to joke about, these manakins scared me.



"don't worry Susan, we're wearing (insert name of fancy store)'s clothes, the sheep won't hurt us"

Yeah, even I know that last one was bad, but hopefully you see what I mean. Do these advertisements really work?!

In all fairness though, Zurich is truly a wonderful place. It is elegant, clean, and from what I can only assume - fashionable, but in all honesty, it's just not for me. But to show how nice it is, here are a couple pictures to put that perspective back in focus-






Can't deny that beauty.

But still, just not the place for me. Maybe the Swiss mountain towns will be more of my style... (next - Interlaken)

- Matt

Location:Zurich, Switzerland

Hold on a sec

Ok, so I'm a little bit behind on posts, but for good reason. I'm currently writing this in Venice, literally while I'm playing a drinking game.

I have a couple posts half written, one about Zurich and another about Interlaken and my time in Austria, but I keep getting too caught up meeting people and experiencing new cities in my last couple weeks in europe, that I haven't had time to finish them. I'm writing this real quick just to explain my assumed laziness the last week - I'm just in a mission to make my last two weeks (now one week) as great and memorable as possible. Therefore, posts are harder to come by these days. Sorry, but not sorry.

Gotta get back to a drinking game called "thumper". I'll post those other ones tomorrow when I finish them.

One week.


- Matt

Location:Venice, Italy

Two Weeks and Counting

Wow time flies by. Just the other day I was sheepishly telling one of my first
dorm mates that it was my first day in Europe, after he told me he was months in. Now, I have two weeks left in my 4 month adventure. (Coming home on the 20th, flight finally booked).

It has been creeping up on me for a couple weeks now - the feeling that a chapter in my life is coming to an end. Needless to say I've been a bit restless lately, so much in fact that I've been in four countries and 5 cities in the last week.

After Bruges I decided to go to one more city in Belgium, giving Antwerp a try. Only stayed a couple days and really don't have much to say about the city, only the people I met. As I may have discussed before, when traveling solo your experience in a city can be really affected by the people you meet, and/or the hostel you stay in. In this case, I loved my time in Antwerp, loved my hostel, and it was entirely based on the people I met there. For the most part, I spent the whole time there with a group of three girls from Tennessee and another girl from Canada. More on them later, I'm actually on the way to Bad Gastein, Austria to ski with them for a day then go to Vienna. So more on them later. Here's an idea of how cool we are though:



Album cover shot - act too cool for the picture being taken of you. And pose somewhere really weird...though we decided to climb this jungle gym before the picture, so maybe we're just immature...

I went to the train station the next morning with only an idea of where I might go. I was interested in seeing Luxembourg, that little country wedged between Belgium, France, and Germany, so I found the next train with "Luxembourg" written next to it on the board and hopped on. I was only going to stay the night so I wandered the city, trying to see as much as I could in the dark. Lucky for me, there's really not much to see in Luxembourg. I walked around for a few hours, trying to find a bar or something to meet some people and have a drink, and couldn't find anything that seemed appealing, or even full of people. Sure your country is smaller than Rhode Island, but come on. Something that was great about the city was their natural layout, spread across hills and small mountains, and beautifully connected by some impressive bridged. Below is a picture of my hostel, right next to one of the railway bridges... sadly the picture I took at night of more impressive bridges didn't turn out too well.


Getting to this place was a pain...

The following morning I made the painstaking climb back to the Luxembourg train station and hopped on a train on the way to Zurich. A couple hours in it made a stop in Strasbourg, France. I had no reason to be in Zurich that day, hadn't booked a hostel or anything so I grabbed my bag and got off. Why not? I spent the next three hours walking around the city trying to find a hostel. The first one I went to was way outside of the city and ended up being closed for renovations. Finally made it to one on the other side of the city for a reasonable price and dropped by bag off. Headed into town for a day of exploring a totally random city, and loved it. Strasbourg was filled with Christmas markets, especially around the Notre Dame cathedral in the center. Even the streets connecting them were decked out in holiday lights and decorations.



After walking through a few of them, I toured the cathedral and climbed to the top for a great view of the city at night. Here's a picture I took earlier in the day-



After I joined the festive mood even more and bought a cub of vin chaud (hot wine, aka mulled wine) that is so loved in these parts. Gotta admit, I was skeptical but it was pretty good. Also ate a giant hot dog covered in cheese - so french - even too cheesy for me. Seriously, look at these suckers-


I've noticed my camera is best at taking pictures of food... man I'm hungry right now.

The next day I went to Zurich. Then I went to Interlaken, and now I'm going to Bad Gastein, Austria. Yes, I'm ending this post abruptly. Switzerland will get its own post. I have some things I need to say about it, accompanied with plenty of pictures. You will see.

- Matt

Location:Belgium, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Zurich, Interlaken

24 Hours in Bruges

Bonjour! ...Is what I said to the first few people I saw in Bruges. Being somewhere where you can speak the local language is always nice, and my elementary French got me by in France and Brussels, so I was going to continue doing it in Bruges. Problem: They speak Flemish in Bruges.

Belgium is split almost down the middle lingually, with its capital Brussels as the unofficial dividing line between the two languages of French (South, including Brussels) and Flemish (North). Suddenly I couldn't speak a word of the local language, and even though every northern Belgian can speak French, I quickly remembered some advice from my travel book that warned that they don't like to speak "the other" language if they don't have to. Of course, as with most of northern Europe, this would not end up being a problem as most could understand English.

I arrived in Bruges knowing I was just going to spend a night and most of a day there but I was excited nonetheless. A small town, a few hundred years ago Bruges was once a thriving city in Europe, with the same population size as London, thanks to its economically significant port. However over time its importance diminished and it became somewhat forgotten to outsiders, so it sat for hundreds of years just minding its own business until the last century when tourists rediscovered its beauty and charm and started filling up its small town square all over again. Today the old town is a UNESCO World Heritage sight. I wanted to see what the hype was all about.

I arrived late afternoon to my hostel to find just one other person in my 8-bed dorm. Annie, an American doing exactly what I am doing, was more than eager to have a traveling companion for the day and we soon set out on foot to explore the city before it got too dark. Walking into the main square, our eyes opened wide to see a small christmas market, fully equipped with a small ice skating rink built in the middle surrounded by small wooden stalls selling delicious hot beverages (mulled wine is huge in these parts for some reason), and other tasty treats, as well as the usual christmas trinkets and souvenirs. Oh, and the horse-drawn carriages- everywhere! Annie and I decided after bikes, the locals favorite mode of transportation must have been these carriages, because not only were they all over the place, but every one we saw was transporting people.



Seriously this place was a fairytale city. We strolled under the Bell Tower (seen above) and suddenly found ourselves in front of a medieval reenactment with a dozen fully-dressed adults, two of which fought in full armor and real swords. Annie and I couldn't help but laugh, it was just so random. We had both traveled that day so were equally tired so we had an early night so we could get an early start the following morning.

We awoke early the next day and headed out for a full day of touring before I had to catch a train to Antwerp. We headed back to the square and climbed the Bell Tower.


Here you can see the best picture I could get from the top of the square down below. You can see the skating rink, the surrounding vendors, and if you look close enough, three or four horse-drawn carriages near the top.








Back down in the main square, we grabbed a bite to eat from the vendors. We decided on a popular one selling giant sausages. Check out the awkward timing of this picture with the couple on the right haha.





Next we decided to tour the two most Belgian things - chocolate and beer. First we headed to the Chocolate museum, which was way too much museum and not enough chocolate. We did have a fifteen minute demonstration on making chocolate at the end, with a the chance to try the chocolate at the end. Delicious.

After we headed to De Halve Maan Brouweru Taverne (The Half Moon Brewery Tavern), where my guide book had suggested as a good place for a tour of a Belgian brewery. Right again Mr. Steves. We had a blast, our guide was hilarious, and the tour was topped off by one of there beers called Brugse Jot.


In the words of Homer Simpson: "Mmmmm Beerrrrr (and drooling sounds)

After had to rush back to catch a train to go to Antwerp, my final stop in Belgium.

Fin.

- Matt

Location:Bruges, Belgium

Thanksgiving in Rotterdam

No more past stories, I'm done with it. If you want to hear about Portugal, Paris, Brussels, just ask me someday and I would be more than willing to tell you about my time in those places. But from now on, I just want to write about the present or near past, so I'm skipping them and fast forwarding to now...

I'm on a short one-hour train from Brussels to Bruges. This morning I was in Rotterdam, where I had spent a surprising 5 nights considering how fast it went by. I had only planned on passing through Rotterdam on my way to Bruges or possibly Antwerp, but ended up loving my hostel and the friends I made there, and decided to use Rotterdam as my home base for a couple day trips around to other towns and cities in the Netherlands, as well as the place where I would spend my European Thanksgiving.

I arrived midday on Tuesday, and got to Hostel ROOM to find a very nice hostel with a lively atmosphere and a young and friendly staff. There was only one other person in my room, an Australian girl named Gretel, and we quickly became friends. We spent that night staying in the hostel which had its own bar and great music, meeting the staff and other travelers in the hostel.

The next day Gretel and I rented bikes from the central station and set out on a day to explore the city on two wheels. She had been in Rotterdam for a full day before me so she had a pretty good idea of where to go and what to see. To make it even better, she was even studying architecture at school, and as I would come to learn, Rotterdam is well known globally for its great architecture. Nearly completely flattened by German bombs in WWII, the city planners, architects, and whoever else does that stuff has turned it into a city full of beautiful and unique buildings. Just google Cube Houses in Rotterdam, and you will see an example. Why don't I just show you a couple pictures? Oh well thats easy - I am an idiot and forgot my camera that day. There.

That evening I met three other Americans staying in the hostel and by the end of the night we had decided on staying the next day to do Thanksgiving together. The day after I went to a museum, it was great, blah blah, and then we got together to plan dinner.

Turkey is awfully hard to come by in Rotterdam. Plan B, consisting of roasting a chicken, was also equally difficult once we realized there was no oven in the hostel kitchen. Plan C? Buy the only rotisserie chickens we could find... three little things that looked like chicken rolling around in a spit outside a deli - good enough. We then put more effort into the rest of the meal, making a salad, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and deviled eggs, accompanied with bread and of course, wine and beer.




The other American cooks before we start making dinner... starting with a glass of wine, of course.




The prep work, and unfortunately the only picture I took of us cooking



The meal! Success! Accompanied by friends from other nationalities as well (Aussies mostly)



The Americans/Cooks. Fake Fall-colored flowers were a nice touch, don't you think?

Here's the best part though- Somehow we didn't know until we were done cooking, that the entire hostel and friends were having a thanksgiving feast. Maybe its because they were eating around 8 and we were trying to eat at more normal Thanksgiving time, but we shared our meal with others (in typical Thanksgiving style we made way too much food) and then we joined them for theirs. Wish I had a picture, because we had a table that stretched from the reception area/bar all the way through the common room, seating around 30 people. And only 7 Americans, including us. Having to explain the meaning of Thanksgiving gets hard when you grow up and realize its not just about pilgrims and Indians (mass genocide, throwing them out of their land, etc), but I think I did a good job emphasizing the family aspect of it.

The day after I took a day trip by bike to a neighboring town full of windmills and quite canals. Why am I not telling you the name? Because I forgot it. Its written on something somewhere in my bag, and I'm not in the mood to find it, sorry. Pictures!











I know, so artsy. I've developed a fool-proof way for a good picture. Throw a windmill in it, maybe some water, maybe a beautiful sunset, or better yet a combo of two or more and you're good.

This trip inspired me to take it to the next extreme. The following morning I packed my day pack and headed out on bike again, but this time to Den Haag (The Hague). Only "an hour, maybe an hour and fifteen minutes away" said the receptionist, but I managed to make it a wonderful three hour trip there. I wish I could say it was because I was taking my time, but alas, I got lost a few times. But glad I did, because the whole way was surrounded by green fields, farms, and just perfect picturesque moments.




My bike, and check out that view.

I was influenced to go there because it was one of the towns that Van Gogh had lived and worked, and I don't know why but I just assumed it would be a little country town, full of sunshine, starry nights, and huge weird looking yet beautiful sunflowers, but instead found myself biking into a city. A big, clunky, shopping city. In the couple hours I walked around, I stayed mostly around the Grote Market, where everyone seemed to want to be. Though not me. Where were my sunflowers? Where were the beautiful little country homes and warm, inviting pubs where Van Gogh drank too much Absinthe? Nowhere to be found. I took the train home.

Oh! Almost forgot. When I got back to the hostel that night, I walked past the kitchen which was on the lowest floor, with a window out to the side street. In the window I saw three Russian-looking men sitting around a table, while a party was going on in the bar upstairs, drinking what appeared to be a bottle of vodka. Of course I had to investigate. Thirty minutes later I'm sitting with them - two russians, one Slovakian. I was almost sad when I found out it was Gin they were drinking, I wanted it to be vodka just to go along with the stereotype. Ended up staying with them for an hour, drinking straight gin, and talking about politics. That's the kind of thing that only happens in hostels, and also only if you put yourself out their more. One of the best lessons I've learned so far.

Loved Rotterdam. Loved Hostel ROOM. Loved the staff. Loved my Thanksgivings. What was I thankful for? The opportunity to do what I am doing, the family and friends that support me along the way (including the ones I make along the way), and to have such great people in this world, they would drop whatever they were doing for a day to make a small handful of strangers happy and feel a little less homesick on one of my favorite holidays.

And other stuff.

To be honest, I finished this post on the train from Antwerp to Luxembourg. Why Luxembourg? Because I can (Country #16). I'll get you caught up on Bruges and Antwerp tomorrow. Talk to ya soon.


- Matt

Location:Rotterdam and Den Haag, Netherlands

Another Blog to Follow

Speaking of good friends, just reminded me that I wanted to let everyone know about another blog a hundred times better and more interesting than mine. One of my best friends, Will Armour, along with his longtime girlfriend and my good friend Maggie Pahos, is part-time working/volunteering/living in Ghana, and part time traveling the continent before eventually traveling through Europe as well. Great people, and great writers. Please don't compare their blog to mine. You can see a link to their blog, titled Our Battered Suitcases, in the list at the bottom of my blog under My Blog List, along with a couple other blogs that I'm following. Or just click here-

Link to Will and Maggie's Blog

Another great one worth checking out is 365 Days of Germany, written by one of my best friends Lauren, who is working as an Au Pair in Germany. Very cool perspective as someone actually living in Europe and starting to integrate into a European culture.

K go. Bye


- Matt

Location:Africa and Europe

Madrid - Enter Colin

In Madrid I met up with one of my best friends since High School, Colin Hopkins. Colin and I are weird together, we know that. We have a special handshake that is so cool, it has stopped people in their tracks in awe at how cool we are; twice! Having this kind of companionship in my travels was going to be a first for me, so I was really excited to do some traveling with him.

I arrived in Madrid early morning to find his flight had gotten in early and was waiting for me in the train station. A college friend of Colin's was nice enough to let us stay at her place for the week (Thank you for the millionth time, Katelyn), and we made our way over there. We spent the first day wandering Madrid; we visited Katelyn's work, ate some tapas, and in the late afternoon we made it to the Prado museum. The Prado museum houses the best collection of Spanish art from the 12th through the 19th century, and is one of the top museums in all of Spain. So we were excited - even more so when we pretended to still be students and got in for free.

Touring a museum alone can often be a very good experience if you do it right. You can take as much time as you want, or as little, you really cater your museum experience around what you want and nothing else. Well, touring a museum with a close friend is better. We played such classic museum games as Rename Each Painting Based On Absurdities Found Within and Find The Similarity Of Every Painting In This Room. Seriously, do other people not see these things? Individually, Colin and I are very responsible, fairly mature, young adults. Together, not always the same story. At one point in our tour of the museum, we broke into uncontrollable full-bodied laughter over an artist's name, that was very similar to something like Heironymous Bohner. That night we went to see the new Tintin movie, a favorite cartoon from my childhood, and then met up with Katelyn at a pub by her apartment for a quick beer.

One of the best things about Spain is tapas. Not just the tapas themselves, but the common practice of giving a patron a tapas or two with the beer they order. For instance, here's a pic of our first experience with this that night -


Simple stuff but still just a great concept. Our week in Spain we would frequently stop into places for a beer and a tapas, just to try different types of tapas. Beer may have been watery and boring, but at least the food was fun.

The next day Taylor joined our group. We decided to do touristy things and started in the center point of the city at Puerta del Sol. We learned a bunch of historical stuff, but I won't bore you. One cool thing in the square was the actual geographical center point of Spain, the marker called "kilometer zero."



Look how cool we are

From there we followed suggestions my guidebook had and checked out a confiteria Salon La Mallorguina. We stopped in and had our lives changed by their coffee and tasty treats. Exaggeration? Yes. But it was very, very good. We ate Madrid's answer to doughnuts, rosquillas. And another treat with chocolate in it, so obviously that was delicious too.



Yum. After we ate, we walked down to another large square, Plaza Mayor, a few more stops I won't bore you with, and then made it to the Royal Palace. A monstrosity of a building, it is from what I remember reading, the third largest palace in the world. Sadly didn't get a chance to go in because it was too late, but it was still a sight to see.

The day after we took a day trip outside of Madrid, to Salamanca. A small city in western Spain, its so beautiful and historically significant that it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage sight (well, at least the Old City is).

Salamanca followed right along the ideals of old, medieval european cities - cobblestone winding streets, hilly neighborhoods, churches on every corner, with the skyline dominated by the largest of the churches steeples and towers. I've developed a fondness for these kind of cities because I like the way they make you feel like you go back in time as you stroll down their streets. You never have anything like that in the States.

We loved our day in Salamanca. We toured a couple churches, ate a ton of different tapas, and enjoyed a beautiful day in a beautiful little city.



First we stumbled upon a group of older men playing a very competitive game of bocce. Later on, at a church we fooled around with some mirrors they had in their garden/courtyard area...



So artistic



See what I mean

Ok this has taken too long. Having Colin there was really a great time, and I am really lucky to have such great friends that they will travel halfway around the world to hang out with you.

Its late, I'm going to bed. Going to Bruges tomorrow morning.

Goodnight.



- Matt

Location:Madrid, Spain

Halloween in Florence

After the Sensation White party in Copenhagen, I flew down to Florence, Italy along with Taylor and Lindsay Kimble, another Elon student studying in Copenhagen. Well actually we flew to Bologna first, and then took a train to Florence to save some money. Going along with my pattern of eating foods related to their origins/common name, in the 30 minutes we had before out train I found a pizza place that had bologna on its pizza. OK FINE the guy said "hotdog" in his broken english, but I'm pretending and I don't care to hear otherwise.

In Florence we met up with Taylor's friends Michelle, Caroline, and Lexi, who were nice enough to meet us at the train station and walk us to their apartment where Taylor would be staying. Just on the 15 minute walk there, we passed more beautiful and historically important landmarks than there are in my entire hometown.


Boom. "Oh hold on a sec, I need to walk around this badass building to get to my astronomy class." I quickly began to realize why my friend Jacki had loved studying here her sophomore year - this town isn't real. Florence, as I would come to learn, is the home of the Renaissance and birthplace of the modern world - people don't actually go to school here - they live in a fantasy world of amazing italian food, awesome buildings, bridges, and captivating landscapes, oh and some classes they have to go to every now and then.

Even the girls' apartment was on a street right off the main touristy drag, right next to Pizzaria O'Vesuvio - recently made more famous as the pizza place the cast of the Jersey Shore worked in. Ah I hate that show. Not relevant to the historical buildings, but still really cool.

I waited in their apartment until I could connect with my friend Chris, who I had met at Oktoberfest (you may remember him from such enthralling posts as Oktoberfest, and maybe thats it I can't look back now I have a bad memory and have no internet access to see what I had written). When I did connect with him, it turned out he lived just around the corner...literally...and next to Dante's House - one of the famed tourist attractions in Florence where the author Dante had lived. Of course. Fantasy world.

That night we ate italian food, and my tastes buds changed forever. Never again will they be the same - YOU'VE BROKEN ME ITALY. Some examples:



Two kinds of pasta and turkey with cheese wrapped in chicken wrapped in cheese wrapped in bacon - like I said, I'm forever tainted.




Pizza the way it was supposed to be made.

Sadly thats it for pictures of food in Italy, guess I didn't bring my camera out much. More on food throughout Europe later (Just wait till I get to my post on Paris).

The following day Taylor and I toured Florence on our own with the help of my guidebook. We went first to the cathedral, or Duomo, the centerpiece of the town (partially pictured in the first picture). We walked down to the Uffizi Palace and around the Piazza della Signoria and the other fixtures of the old part of town, and more and more we stood around in awe, jaws down to our knees in disbelief that her friends refer to this place as "where they go to school".

We then walked over to the Ponte Vecchio, the shop-lined bridge across the Arno River. Pictured below...



Taken from the top of Mount Michelangelo, tallest natural point in city

Time ran short, and we met up with the girls to plan Halloween costumes. This was a long process of trying to come up with an idea or group theme to make all of our costumes cheap, witty, and yet easy as well. Of course, that would not be easy. Props to Michelle Gill for coming up with the winning idea - the four girls were gelato flavors and I the gelato man (I just bought a 5 euro chef apron and borrowed chris's hat - not lazy, genius. The girls put a lot more effort into theirs and created little gelato cups with their own flavor and attached them to their heads, with matching/relevant outfits). Picture to be added later after I steal it off facebook. We went on a pub crawl, along with dozens of other students, many from Elon which made my night that much better seeing so many familiar faces (especially my AZD girls). The night was a blast.

The next day I saw Taylor off to the train station for her trip to Barcelona, and then I headed back for some more touristy stuff. First headed to Galleria dell'Accademia, the museum that houses Michelangelo's statue of David, as well as other great works of his and many others. I don't care how many pictures you see, the statue of David will take your breath away when you see it in person (No picture, cameras not allowed). After I climbed to the top of the Duomo for this ridiculous view:



The glorious red-tiled roofs of Florence

After I met back up with Chris to hike the tallest natural point in the city, mount Michelangelo...



and then headed to Santa Croce Church...



where you can see this awesome statue of Dante looking down angrily at the people of Florence for once putting him in exhile out of their city in his lifetime, a piece of history every Florentine is still embarrassed about to this day.



Inside I saw and admired the finally burial places for Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli. Don't know why I like to see famous graves.

Headed to Madrid after a very fast few days in Florence to meet up with a friend of mine from home. Florence was just a taste of what Italy has to offer and I cant wait to get back (should be near the end of my journey)


- Matt

Location:Florence, Italy

Sensation White

I took a night train out of Amsterdam into Copenhagen. I wonderful 15 hour journey snuggled up tightly with 5 random strangers in a 6 person cabin, with a broken air condition unit and a sweaty guy that looked like an ugly Spock from Star Trek next to me. Luckily, by 6 am most had made their destinations and I got a few hours of sleep sprawled out across the three seats on my side of the cabin. For those that don't know, most night trains have sleeper and couchette cabins, where you can get a pretty good nights sleep for a little bit more of a cost that is always worth it. I had learned this lesson after my first night train and had since made sure to choose the better nights sleep over the cheaper choice for accommodation, but for some reason every sleeper and couchette that weekend was booked...

That reason - people were flocking to Copenhagen for Sensation White.

The "Sensation" parties originally started in 2000 in Amsterdam, but have since spread to almost 20 countries mostly around Europe, hosted primarily in huge arenas in large cities. There are two types of parties - Sensation White, and Black. This one, hosted in Copenhagen this year, was white - and therefore everyone attending had to wear at least 90 percent white clothing .

The idea of the party is great - in a way. So everyone dresses in white, goes to a huge arena where they have great lighting effects and professional DJs from around the world, and everyone has a great time.

But...something about a couple thousand sweaty strangers grinding up against me, dancing around like they're probably on some sort of substance, bouncing along to the same beat over and over again...just doesn't do it for me. I know, I'm so weird.

Still had a great time - slightly tarnished by the annoying crowd of human beings and horrible music, as well as cutting my thumb open trying to slide down a level of stairs without using my feet at the pre game - but yeah, still a great time. Good experience, though I wouldn't go very much out of my way to go again.

The following morning - flight to Florence.


- Matt

Location:Copenhagen, Denmark