Stopped keeping track of days; I'm in Rome

Went to Brescia a day early, so no Venice, but Brescia was very nice and I got to visit with Francesco's family.  Then, Esther and I went to Rome and have been here for 6 days, I believe.  I've seen so much stuff.  You really have to check out facebook to see all of my pictures, there's a lot.  1st day we went to a few churches and monuments and I got to see Piazza Navona and the Fountain of the Four Rivers, as described in Dan Brown's Angels and Demons.  I then resolved to see the other 4 points described in the book:  Castle di San Angelo, The church of Santa Maria del Poppolo, Santa Maria del Vittoria, and The obelisk in Saint Peter's square, but more on that later.  The 1st night was a Sunday and Esther showed me her favorite church, the Santa Maria in Trastevere, earlier that day, so we went to Catholic mass there at 6:30.  I'd never been to mass, and it was a new and interesting experience for me.  Other points I've visited are the Colosseum, of course, The Forums, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, etc.  It's a very exciting city and you can get almost everywhere on foot.  One evening, I took a walk and ended up at Campo de Fiori, where two guys were playing Bob Dylan songs next to a statue.  I stood and listened for a while.  Another cool thing was walking along Via Giulia, because i randomly recognized many of the intersections from the choir trip.  In fact, i think Chris Petty took a picture of a part of the street only 2 minutes away from the apartment.  What a coincidence.  Anyway, it is a beautiful city and today, Esther took me to two interesting places.  The first was Villa Borghese, an old estate that is now a park.  It's basically a massive garden with trees, fountains, statues, and a lake.  I could walk around it all day, and I almost did.  The other was a video installation, designed by Brian Eno called Presentism, celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the Futuristic art and music movement in Rome.  It was unlike anything I'd ever seen, but I will try to describe it.  Basically, the theory behind a video installation, is to have multiple screens, set up artistically, displaying various images or works of art, all dissolving into each other, set to music.  This one, was set up like a movie theater, with seats and the screens set up in a symmetrical (rotational symmetry that is) design, rotating through dozens of different combinations of digital artwork all set to kind of enyaesque, new wave, ambient, psychedellic music.  Also, to the lower right of the main design, was a simple square screen that simply cycled through different colors, according to musical cues.  And on the floor in fron of this were two piles of sand.  one larger and more spread out, and the other, in front of the larger one, was smaller and stacked higher.  The smaller pile had one constant color light shining on it from above, the larger pile had a light above it that cycled through colors.  It was very strange.  Sort of relaxing in an erie sort of way.  Anyway, it's late, and I'm going to bed.  Song of the Day: The Rake's Song by The Decemberists.

Days 25-29: Letmathe, Iserlohn, Pilsen, and Munich

I had a great few days with the Knoeppel family.  Stayed with Phillip, Thomas and Inge's son.  He took me a few places including a youth retreat, his band's practice, Altena, and other places.  To Mom: I ate very well.  We went to Phil's parents' house for dinner a few times and there is an excellent bakery 2 minutes away from his apartment so I stopped in for a cheap breakfast/lunch a few times.  I also went to their Church and heard an Austrailian pastor preach in English (which was nice).  It was cool to hear the translation and helped me learn some more German.  I've been speaking as much German as I can and i think I'm getting it right, but people are patient.  I got to visit Gunter and Irma, Thomas' parents who my mother stayed with when she studied in Germany.  That was fun and they showed me pictures of my mom and my uncle when they we only 20 or so.  Phil took me, as i said, to his band practice.  They're cool guys, they sound pretty good too.  They are called Bernstein, which i found out is the German word for Amber (like in Jurassic Park).  Anyway, overall a good time in Lethmate.  Now i am in Munich for one night and then Venice for one night and then it is on to Rome with Francesco's mother.  I'm excited, hope you are too.  Keep checking facebook for pictures etc.  Song of the day: Paralyzed by The Gang of Four

     -Dan

Day 19-24: Prague, Berlin, and Letmathe

Sorry everyone, I had spotty internet in Prague and limited use in Berlin, so this is the first time in a few day's I've been able to update this.  I have boon busy though.  I was in Prague for one very cold day, walked around a bit, saw the St. Charles bridge (check facebook albums 1, 2, 3, and 4 for pictures) and a few other very cool parts of the city.  Met some Brazilians at the hostel.  One gave me a bunch of cool Brazilian music and told me about his hometown of Curitiba, a little ways south of San Paulo.  He studies medicine there and was in the Czech Republic studying for a few months.  Anyway, the next day I headed to Berlin, but had to stop first at Furth im Wald because the last time my family and I were in Germany, we had our first Kebap, or gyros, in Furth im Wald.  So i had to go back to the Sultan's Doner.  Then I hopped on the train to Berlin and lost my directions to the hostel, so I had to wander for about an hour in the cold, but I found it and finally got to sleep.  Next day i went into Berlin, it wasn't to cold thankfully, and saw the famous Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, and the East Side Gallery (the portion of the Berlin Wall that is still standing).  It was a good, but long day.  Then Yesterday, i got on the train bound for Hagen, or so I thought.  Apparently I got on the wrong train.  There were 2 leaving at the same time, both bound for Cologne, but one was taking the Northern route.  I got on that one and was supposed to be on the Southern route that goes through Hagen.  Anyway i had to get off at Bochom and had to get on a train back to Dortmund then to Hagen about an hour and a half late.  But it all got figured out in the end and I met up with Phillip and Thomas and Inge Knoeppel, friends of my Mother.  I was feeling a bit queasy at the end of the day, ended up waking up in the middle of the night and losing my dinner, but I feel a lot better today.  Phillip took me to the yearly retreat of their church's youth group.  They were all very hospitable and tried their best to speak English, but it was really cool to listen to the fluent German.  It's really cool, because I can't even accidentally hear other people's conversations, so it really all becomes just random voices.  But it was fun.  We put a rudimentary zipline up between 2 trees, which was fun, and i learned a cool rope trick and a song that Phillip's band plays.  Anyway, it was overall a really good day, and tomorrow looks to be just as good.  Stay tuned for More of Iserlohn, Venice and Rome.  

     -Dan

Day 18

 Big day of travel, got up bright and early and hopped on the train from Salzburg to Linz, then Linz to Prague.  Found the hostel easily enough and I'll go out into town tomorrow to take pictures and explore a bit.  Anyway, not much happened today, so I don't have much to write about.  Stay tuned though, tomorrow will be more eventful.  Song of the Day: 33 by Coheed and Cambria.

     -Dan

Days 14-17: Budapest, Salzburg

So I am now over 2 weeks into this trip.  I left Graz on the 30th and got into Budapest that evening.  Stayed at the Keleti Hostel.  Great place, really nice owner named Joseph.  Unfortunately, i was unaware that they do not use the Euro in Hungary, and all the change places had closed for the evening, so I survived on my train snacks (Werther's Caramels, Hit, and Water) that evening.  In the morning I met 2 Australians who had just come in from Istanbul that morning, then went to get some Hungarian Fornits.  Took a subway into the castle district.  The train and subway ticketing procedure is much more strict over there.  Anyway, i walked around for a few hours.  Saw some churches, most were locked up for some reason, but the outsides were very cool.  Saw the Buda Castle which is absolutely massive, and the Parliment building, also huge.  I appreciate seeing buildings that are centuries older than my country.  I'm doing a lot more journal writing, and i will try to do more blogging, but it's a little difficult to find the internet sometimes.  Anyway, I hung out with the Australians, Steve and Emma, last night.  We played the card game of monopoly (nothing like the board game), she made pasta, I gave them my extra Hungarian Fornits becuse they would be there another 2 or 3 days, and we talked about folk music and third world countries (they were in Cairo before Istanbul).  They saved up for a year and sold 75% of their worldly possessions to take this trip.  They were col backpacking people and pretty chill.  Steve plays the guitar and he's pretty good, been playing for 15 years.  But this morning, I headed out at around 11 on a train to Vienna to catch a connection to Prague.  Missed it.  It was the only one for the rest of the day, so i came to Salzburg on a whim, found a hostel, got some dinner, and here I am.  Found out what trains to take to get to Prague, booked a hostel, and found out how to get there.  I'm getting the hang of this 'world traveler' bit.  Anyway, news on Kebap: Worst so far- Some grill in Budapest.  Best so far- Still Umut in Zwingenberg.  Check out my pictures on facebook.  Stay tuned for adventures in Prague, Berlin, and Isserlohn.  Song of the Day: Joe's Head by The Kings of Leon.

     -Dan