Last Weekends Happenings

This past weekend was much like the last. Lots of sleeping and movies and working out. Nothing really happened Thursday or Friday. On Saturday Mark and I hiked to the top of Rome's tallest hill, Gianicolo Hill, to check out the view. It was pretty cool, you could see about 10 miles in all directions. I found out how to use the Panoramic setting on my camera and downloaded a Microsoft program that pastes the pictures into a panorama. Meanwhile, John took a day trip to Perguia to tour a Chocolate Factory and go to the Chocolate Festival. On Sunday, Mark and I woke up early and took a bus to Santa Susana Church where we attended an English mass. Afterwards we went to the Porta Portese Flea Market. This time we acutally made it through the whole market. The main drag is like two miles long filled on both sides and there are a bunch of side streets that have tents set up. We went there knowing what we wanted to buy which was nice, so we knew to look for certain tents that had what we wanted. Mark was looking for a portable speaker for his Archos and I was looking for a belt and some other stuff.. We ended up getting what we wanted and we both got some authentic silk ties that look pretty sweet for cheap! Sunday night we went to Abby Theatre to watch the Packer's Game. Somehow they won. And Rodgers did pretty good for my fantasy team too! Tonight we have basketball in Trastevere and tomorrow we have our onsite class, ending up inside the Colloseum. I think were going to spend a couple of extra hours there and check it out.

Ciao.

Panoramia

Here are some pictures I took while on top of Gianicolo Hill, the tallest hill in Rome.

Seeing the Pope

The next morning Mark and I went to St. Peter's Square to see the Pope give a speech/ blessing at noon. I think there had to have been about 40,000 people there but I could have been wrong.. The Pope said prayers in about ten languages, Italian, Spanish, English, German, Polish to name a few. After that we stopped to pick up a few souvenirs..

Pompei, Sorrento, Capri

After a short week of classes we were off to Pompei on a class field trip on Friday. We departed from Piazza Trilussa at 7 am. We had to get up at 5:45 to shower, eat breakfast, and pack lunches for the day. Once on the bus we had a couple hour ride down to Pompei. We stopped once in Naples for breakfast, then cruised the rest of the way to Pompei. The bus dropped us off on one side of the Ruins and throughout the day we were to walk to the other side to catch the bus there. We got there at around 10 o'clock and we had class until right before 4 o'clock. We spent the whole afternoon touring and learning about Pompei before and after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. We stopped for lunch after we saw the Theatre. Below are some pictures we took at the Theatre.

After lunch we continued our tour and saw some old shops and homes that were preserved in the ash. We also saw another ampitheatre and the Pompei Forum. We then stopped for a break at a Coffee Shop/ Cafeteria in the middle of the Ruins. We then continued on to the other side to meet up with the bus so we could grab our bags. Once we got to the other edge of the 'scavi', excavations, we had a 5 minute walk to the bus and then we went to the train station to catch a bus to Sorrento. It was about a half an hour ride and our roommate Adam showed us right where our Hostel was, he stayed at it a couple of weeks back. Once we got to the hostel we checked in, FYI you need your passports, which I didn't have and you also have to pay with cash. Here's the rest of the Pompei pictures..

After checking in we put on our suits and headed to the beach. It was getting late, around 6ish, but we wanted to get in the water after being in the sun the whole day.. After cooling off and swimming awhile we went and ate some pizza at a local place. The pizza there was awesome, but I didn't eat all day either so that might have been why it tasted so good. Here's some beach pictures and whatnot of Sorrento.

The next morning we had to head to the port to check out the ferry times to the island Capri. Mark and I left early to check the train schedule cause we were gonna head back later that afternoon. We had an hour train ride back to Naples and the last train left Naples for Rome at 8:30 and it would be about a three hour train ride home from there.. So we had to plan our day around the trains we were going to catch to go home.. We bought tickets for the 'Paul and Shark' ferry at 10:45 and were free to catch any ferry coming back. The 'ferry' we took was actually a huge cruise ship, a couple hundred people could fit on it easily.  Here's a couple pictures of our boat ride to the island.

Once we got to Capri we contemplated what to do next. We settled on a boat tour around the island. The tour was two hours and took us around the whole island and showed us some of the main tourist attractions. Our boat driver was really cool and he interacted with everyone on the boat and made it fun. The boat tour took just under three hours. It was pretty amazing because the water was so blue. We did stop at the blue grotto and get out and get in row boats and go inside the grotto. I put up some videos of the boat tour, they can be seen on my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/schmitty111?feature=mhee . I'm still working on uploading the one from inside the blue grotto cause it's a couple minutes long and it takes forever to upload. Since my camera went dead as soon as I got to Pompei the day before, Mark gave me his Flip Cam and I took some videos for him. The driver stopped at one point to let us out to swim for a couple of minutes.. He said he usually doesn't do that, but since he liked us it was ok. Here's some pictures from the tour.. 

Here's the rest of the pictures from the tour: 

After the tour we had pizza at a place that the guide recommended, then headed to the beach for awhile. Mark and I had to leave around 5 o'clock to be back to Sorrento at 6 to catch the 6:30 train to Naples (which was an hour long) to catch the last 8:30 train to Rome.. That was the plan.. So we headed  out after spending about an hour on the beach. We headed to the port to hop on the boat to go back to the mainland. Once we were back in Sorrento we had to hike up the countryside to get to the train station, and we only had about 25 minutes to do so. We got there right on time but it took a little longer that we expected getting out tickets and we missed our 6:30 train to Naples, so we got on the next train and waited for it to depart at 7:00. Mark and I thought we were toast, we would have to spend the night somewhere in Naples. 

We just waited and hoped. Once we got to the main train station in Naples we hurried to the nearest ticket booth and asked for direction and the guy directed us to the right place. When we got off the train it was 8:05 and we thought the last train was 8:15. We got to the right place to buy tickets and the kiosk said our train departed at 20:17 and it was about 8:15 so we had to run to get on the train. Turns out the train got switched so it would leave later than planned. whew. It ended up leaving at 8:45 and we  were headed home! The train stopped at a bunch of stops along the way and it took about three and a half hours to get home. Once we got home, we caught a night bus to San Peitro Piazza and we were home free, in our own beds!

Touring Rome... for class

Every Tuesday morning from 9:30 until Noon we have to meet onsite for class. We meet at a different place every week and discuss different works of art, buildings, and monuments that reflect the lifestyle of Ancient Rome. Our first class we got an intro of the class in the classroom and we took a short walk to Tiber Island. I got to see an original from Ancient Rome, it's about 2000 years old! Here's some of the pictures I took.

The second class we met at Capitoline Hill and spent the morning in two Museums there. We got to see a lot of reconstructed statues and works of art. We also saw an original bronze statue of Marcus Arelius. Here are some of the pictures from the second week:

The third class we met at 'Cat Sanctuary' a local Piazza where excavations are being done and hundreds of cats hang out. From there we walked around Rome and we focused on two main Theatres. They are not existing today but complexes were built out of their structures to save on material cost. A few pictures in the album show this:

The fourth week we meet at Ara Pacis, which is an alter dedicated to Augustus. It was moved from its previous location and now is a museum as well. We then walked through the city and ended up at the Pantheon. Our teacher showed us the oldest Gellateria in the city and we had to go back after class to try some. John tried to bribe her to stop during class but I guess she didn't want any gellato at the time.. Here's some pictures of the fourth week.

We didn't have class today, the fifth week, because we took a class trip to Pompei to visit the Ruins there and see Mount Vesuvius, so we were given a class off because of this. Check out the "Pompei, Sorrento, Capri" Post for more info on this. Andiamo!

Back to the beach!

After our onsite class a couple of Tuesdays ago we headed straight for the beach. We had to hit up a McDonald's on our way thought.  FYI the signs in Rome are aimed at driving time, so when the sign says 5 minutes, that's by car not walking. It took us a good 20 minutes to find the McDonald's we thought was right around the corner.

McD's!!

Anyways, we ate and headed to the train stazione to catch the train to Ostia. We decided to try the beach right in town rather than take the train outside of town and go where we already went. John met a nice old lady on the bus and she pointed us to the 'Lido Norte' stop and proceed to tell us how to get to the water. We hopped on the shuttle and coincidentally, she was on too. She showed us the exact stop to get off and we found the beach very easily. Thank goodness for nice people!

Mark decided to take a short nap while John and I took a walk along the beach. We walked down the beach a couple miles and walked out on two piers.. It was kind of cool we got to see some cool stuff and see someone fishing in the ocean. When we got back we hanged out on the beach for awhile. Mark and I thought it was time for some refreshments, so we went a bought a drink at the restaurant right behind us. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing under the sun in Ostia. We didn't have to be back to Rome for anything so we thought we would catch a bus back around dinnertime and make some pasta for dinner when we got back..

Here's some photos we took at the beach:

Right before we were about to leave I told the other guys that we had some business to attend to.. We started sculpting in the sand and took some pictures! This was totally my idea so I definitely got Mark and John some  brownie points taking those pics.. Here's what we did:

Piacere. Ciao!

Oktoberfest

"It was finally Thursday, the day that I would head to Oktoberfest! I was so excited to visit Germany, the home of my ancestors. I couldn't wait to see Munich and experience the world's largest fair. Since hotels and plane tickets to Munich had been sold out for many months, I signed up to go with Bus2Alps, an organization made for students wanting to travel Europe. A 12 hour bus ride to Munich didn't sound like much fun, but I knew that it would be worth it.

The excitement was among us as we gathered with 150 other students going to Oktoberfest. Our bus left Termini Station at 8:00 pm on Thursday evening and arrived in Munich at 8:30 am. It was a very cramped ride with little leg room. We passed the time by watching movies, listening to music, and napping while we could. At last we arrived to our destination of Munchen, Germany. We knew that we had arrived to our site when we saw all the tents and people bustling around. We were all very relieved to get off the bus and stretch our legs. After picking up our bags we headed to the main tent to check in. As soon as we got in line people started offering us beers. We had been off the bus for 2 minutes and we were already drinking beer. This was a great start to an even better weekend.

Andrew, Me and John with our first Bavarian beers

The camp site was like what I expected: tents crammed together, long lines for the community bathroom, and plenty of beer. Once we checked in and got our wristbands for beer and food, we headed to see what our tents looked like. They were small two-person tents, but they would suffice for the weekend. 

John and Andrew heading to find our tents

Main campsite area with food and beer tents

Our campsite was outside of Munich so we had to take a bus and then a metro into town. Our trip leaders showed us the way into town and we made sure to know the stops since we would need to find our way back later. Once we got off the metro we headed up the steps to Munich's main square, Marienplatz. Munich is so beautiful and I was blown away by all of the extraordinary buildings and architecture.

Marienplatz Square

While we were in the check-in line at the campsite we were told that a bike tour of Munich was going to happen at 12:30. We decided that this would be a great way to see the city, instead of just being on the inside of beers tents all weekend. Frankie's Bike Tour was the company we went through for our tour of the city.

Below are just some of the sites we visited on our tour of Munich:

English Garden - One of the world's largest urban public parks 

Chinese Tower - The second largest beer garden in the world. 

Hofgarten - The city's oldest park 

Maximilianeum - Home of the state parliament

We stopped at many different squares, drove by some of Munich's most important buildings, and even went inside a church. After learning about many of these sites we headed to the Chinese Tower for lunch. We were very excited to get our first taste of Bavarian food and Hofbräu beer. Both were amazing and left us wanting to come back for more.

Chinese Tower

Bavarian food and Hofbräu beer

We did more than just look at all the cool buildings in Munich as we biked by, we also got some history of the city and the festival. Our tour guide, Kevin, was very knowledgeable and had fun with us while we learned about Munich. I didn't know the origin of Oktoberfest before coming, but Kevin told us that this festival had been happening for just over 200 years. Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on October 12th, 1810. All the citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festival to celebrate the royal wedding. The next year brought about the anniversary celebration and it has continued happening ever since.

Kevin also prepared us for one of the most popular songs that was sung inside all of the beer tents. We practiced it while we were eating at the picnic tables at the Chinese Towers. The whole group looked quite foolish trying to sing the song in front of hundreds of Germans, but we didn't care because we were having so much fun. Many of them laughed at us and some even started to sing along with us. The song goes as follows:

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit

der Gemütlichkeit.

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit

der Gemütlichkeit.

The closest English translation to this song is "A toast, a toast to the atmosphere." With atmosphere meaning a feeling of social acceptance, belonging, being cheery and leaving your troubles at the door.

Hofgarten Park

A river running through the English Garden

Our first stein of beer!

After our epic bike tour, we headed to the festival. As soon as we entered the gate we realized how this was the largest festival in the world. The streets were packed from side to side and there were tents, carnival rides, food stands and other vendors everywhere. We wandered the streets and various tents and finally settled down in the Hofbräu tent. We waited for a while before a table opened up, but as soon as it did we quickly grabbed it and sat down. Some friends showed up a little bit later and we had a full table. Waitresses kept coming back to our table seeing that we sucked down the very tasty Hofbräu brew. A group of 3 Germans sat down at the table next to us and we began to chat about where we were from and what we did. They told us that they worked at a hotel in Munich and just got off work. It was fun to talk with some of the locals and see what they thought of the festival.

Our night of drinking and talking was coming to an end so we jumped on the metro and headed back to our campsite. We decided that we shouldn't stay up too late, that way we could get in line early on Saturday to ensure ourselves a good location for the day. Our tents weren't the coziest, but a couple beers made it so we soon fell asleep.

Andrew and John at the Hofbräu tent

Andrew with 4 steins!

Saturday morning was here and it was time to get going so we could get in line for a good tent. I asked many people throughout the day Friday what their favorite tent was and almost all of them replied "Augustiner". Everyone in our group agreed that we should go there and see if it was up to the hype. We arrived to the festival at 8:30 and got in line shortly after. The doors to our tent opened at 9:00 and we found a table inside. We waited a little bit for the servers to get ready and we ordered our first beers. We thoroughly enjoyed this Augustiner beer and ordered another round. Pretzel sellers were strolling around so we snagged a couple of those throughout the morning. We also order a few rounds of these white sausages that resembled brats. They were both quite tasty and it was nice to get some food in our stomach.

The whole morning consisted of drinking, chatting, singing, and laughing. It was nice to let loose and not care about anything except having a good time. By this time the tent was alive and the beer was flowing. The band up on the balcony was playing some local favorites and the tent erupted in chants. Our table even joined in on a couple that we caught onto throughout the morning. Being inside the tents next to hundreds of other people just there for a good time was an awesome feeling. The atmosphere inside the tent can't even be explained, it's just something that you have to experience for yourself.

We met a group of Spanish people in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day talking and drinking with them. They were a fun group to talk to and they even bought us a couple plates of chicken to split amongst ourselves.

Our tent on Saturday

Inside our tent

Table of steins at the beginning of the day

Our first steins on Saturday

Since we started drinking at 9:00 in the morning, we didn't feel too bad leaving the festival at 6:30. It was an unbelievable day and we had a blast. We headed to the metro and made our way back to the campsite to get some grub. We were delighted to find that they were serving burgers and sausages and we grabbed one of each. We spent that evening drinking beer and talking with other people staying in our campsite.

We got up Sunday morning and headed back to the festival to pick up some steins for souvenirs. We found a stand that was selling some simple ones for 10 euros, so we each bought a stein and then got some tenderloins at a food stand nearby. On our way out of the festival we saw a stand that was selling appelkuchen and it was too hard to pass up. We each bought one and felt very satisfied as we left Oktoberfest. It was the perfect way to end an unforgettable weekend." -Mark Monat. I'm still working on composing my bit. But, here are my pictures I took.