Monday, April 30, 2012

Pompeii, Italy

While on Spring Break, we had been in Rome since Wednesday. On Saturday morning, we decided to take a trip to Pompeii to see the volcanic ruins.  We took the 7:30 am fast train to Naples. We got there really fast. I asked a man on the breakfast cart, and he said we were traveling at 250 km/hr. Once in Naples, we boarded another train for Pompeii. It was a beautiful day, and when we got there, we found out it was free entry today! We did pay 5 Euros for an audio tour though. We walked around the city for a few hours. It was really interesting but chilling at the same time. We saw bodies that were preserved just how they had been found.  Pompeii had their own small colosseum, too. It was really interesting to see how the town had been set up and preserved.  Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 a.d. and covered the city of Pompeii. It was really amazing to see how advanced the city already was. They had markets, bakers, a brothel, churches and temples, spas and beautiful homes. 

Temple in Pompeii
Arch in Pompeii

One of the bodies recovered in Pompeii. 

Pompeii

Spa in Pompeii

Inside a home in Pompeii

Inside the colosseum in Pompeii. 

A theatre in Pompeii

Above modern Pompeii. 

On the train ride from Naples --> Rome. 

Friday, April 27, 2012

When in Rome...

Traveling to Rome didn't go exactly as planned. Unfortunately, Abby left her passport at the restaurant from the night before when we used their printer to print off boarding passes. Soo, we didn't get that figured out until we were at the airport. Sadly, Evan and I were forced to take the flight and Abby had to take a later flight. When Evan and I got into Venice, we took a 4 hour train to Rome. Abby was able to get a direct flight for 2 pm to Rome. We met at the hostel, and our little Abby made it safe and sound!! Evan and I were so worried and felt terrible for splitting up! We celebrated our reunion with beer, flowers, and Ritz crackers...

The next morning, we toured the colosseum. The colosseum was definitely one of the highlights for me. I was in awe with the history. The fights and shows that were held here would have been incredible. The structure itself is amazing, too.
A couple of gladiators left outside the Colosseum. 

Inside the Colosseum. The floor was reconstructed to give an idea of how it was used. 

Roma

That pigeon photo-bombed my picture of Trevi Fountain! 

In front of Trevi Fountain. 

In front of the Pantheon. 

On top of Castel St. Angelo. The Vatican is behind me. 

In Rome, we walked a lot. We walked miles across Rome and back, from the colosseum to the Pantheon, to Trevi Fountain, to Castel St. Angelo, and then back to our hostel near the colosseum. We were exhausted every night from our tours. On Friday, we had tickets for the Vatican museum, so we walked to the metro to take the subway there. Unfortunately, when we got there, we found out there was a Public Transit Strike! So we ended up having to take a taxi. We were really worried it would cost a fortune, but it only cost 19 Euros, which for people to split was amazing, considering the distance.  We spent hours in the museum.  We saw thousands of sculptures and paintings, tombs and artifacts. We were able to go into the Sistine Chapel, and it was beautiful. It was very crowded though.After the museum, we wondered through the city and worked our way back towards the hostel. It had poured rain earlier in the day, but by afternoon, the sky was a beautiful bright blue. The colosseum looked even better the next day in the great weather.

Outside the entrance for the Vatican. 

Inside Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica 

Colosseum 

Colosseum

After our last supper in Rome, out for a night stroll to the Colosseum! 

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Malta, Malta, Malta!!!

I'm not even sure that I can express how much I loved Malta. If you're not familiar with it, Malta is a little country that is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily.

There's little Malta! Right between Europe and Africa in the Mediterranean Sea.
Our flight landed in Malta around midnight. After arriving at our hotel (which was right on the beach!) we decided we'd better try to go out to a pub. Well, that was a huge fail. It was pouring rain, and we walked a couple blocks the the pub the guy at the front desk of our hotel had recommended, and it was closed. We decided to go home, and call it a night, so we could get up early and explore the island.
Our rainy arrival in Malta. 

When we woke up, we finally got to see the beautiful coast. Our room faced out to the sea, and we were so excited. We decided to take a double-decker tour bus to take us around the island. It was a beautiful day, and we got to see so much. The bus was also an audio tour, so we got to learn all kinds of interesting tid-bits as we went.
The view from our hotel room's balcony. 

Abby and I on Monday morning in Malta. 

My first time in the Mediterranean! 
A view of Malta

This church is a typical Maltese church. You may notice it has two clocks on it.
It's a Maltese belief that if you have two clocks on a church, with two different times,
the devil will stay away because he won't know what time Mass starts. 

Maltese flags in the capital, Valletta. 

Malta

Malta

Outside one of the housing complexes. I love their colors outside of the windows. 

Abby and I on the bus.
For lunch we ate in the fishing village. We sat outside at a restaurant called Pisces. I had grilled swordfish, which was delicious. After lunch we went to the Blue Grotto. Unfortunately, my camera died. That would happen! The Blue Grotto was unbelievably gorgeous. I could have sat there all day. We got back on the bus though, and made it back to the hotel. After our first day in Malta, we were pretty tired after being in the sun all day. We showered before going to supper, and decided to take a quick nap. Well once again, we slept until we woke up the next morning, 12 hours later. Malta is so beautiful it wore us out! :)

The next day we continued our bus tour. This time, we got to see the Dome Church. This church is famous, because during WWII, the Germans dropped a bomb on it during mass. Well, the bomb flew through the roof of the church, skidded across the floor, and didn't injure anyone, although there were over 300 people attending mass. It's considered to be a miracle. We were able to see a replica of the bomb. The whole in the roof has since been fixed, and it's still in use today.

Evan and I on Day 2 of Malta

The Dome Church in Malta.
That was our last full day in Malta. That night, Abby and I both got massages at the hotel's spa, which we both felt like were well deserved. Traveling is hard work! :) We had supper in a restaurant next to the hotel. Evan booked our flight from Rome --> Brno for the end of the week. Abby and I shared the local Maltese dish of fried rabbit, which was actually pretty tasty! We went back to our room and packed up for our 8 am flight back to Italy.


Venice, Italy

On Friday, April 13th, the group began our 7 hour bus ride from Vienna to Venice. Seven hours on a bus may sound horrible, but honestly, it was a beautiful ride through the Alps and it was nice to have the time to rest.
One of the beautiful little towns on our drive. 
By the time we finally made it to Venice, it was cold and raining. It took us quite awhile to get to the hostel. First our bus had to drop us off at the train station, then we took the train onto the island. Then we had to get on a water taxi, and we finally made it to the right area. We then had to walk several blocks in order to get to our hostel. It was pretty cold outside, and our hostel was built in the 16th Century (which was amazing, but definitely not warm). Lisa, Abby and I were roommates. We walked to the town square and I had a sinus infection by this point, so my eyes were just streaming with tears and I felt pretty crappy. After arriving in the center, we had free time. Tim, Lisa, Abby, and I had supper in an Italian restaurant a few blocks away from the main center.
Abby, Lisa and I after supper in Venice. 

A typical street in Venice. 
After supper, we were walking home, and as we crossed Academia Bridge, some guys yelled, "'Mericans!!". Well, that was of course one of our favorite phrases, and we loved spotting Americans ourselves, so we stopped and talked to them. They were a group that had been studying in Italy, and had just had their finals earlier that day.  They were celebrating their last night in Italy and invited us to go with them to their favorite bar, Madigan's. Of course, we couldn't turn that down, so we joined them....   Well, to make a long story short, one of the guys from the other group stayed behind with us when we ran into everyone else in our group, and when we tried to catch back up and get to Madigan's, we got lost.  Well, it's really not so bad to be lost in beautiful Venice. So, we made the best of it and bought some bottles of wine to help us explore.  Miraculously we ended up at the bar. When we got to Madigan's, the rest of their American group was there, and we were all excited to meet. There was even a guy from Lincoln there! We played Beer Pong and Tippy Cup, and made some great fuzzy memories.
The next morning, outside of Madigan's Pub. 
The next day, my class explored Venice together. We toured some of the government buildings and the main church. After lunch, when we had the afternoon free, I went home and went to bed since I was still sick. The next day (Sunday) was the beginning of our Spring Break! Since Abby, Evan and I didn't have a flight until later in the day, we went to an art museum Sunday morning with a few other people that were still hanging around.
Venice, Italy


Gondolas 
Preparing to leave Venice. Once again, it was raining.
My backpack was pretty heavy, and you can be sure I couldn't wait to be in Sunny Malta!!


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Vienna, Austria!!

On Wednesday, April 11, my group piled into our bus a little after 8 am and we made it to Vienna around 11:30. We grabbed our bags and made it to the hostel. Since this was the beginning of an almost two-week trip, "just grabbing my bag" was not an easy task. I had all my things jam packed into a navy hiking backpack. We stayed at the Happy Hostel in Vienna, which was honestly the best hostel that I stayed in. It was clean, modern, and we all had enough space to spread out a little.  Abby, Lisa, Katie, Alyshia and I shared a flat.
The girls and I in our room.
 We all walked to the city square to see the basilica before we broke for lunch. The roommates ate outside in a restaurant off the square. We shared a bottle of wine and I had an amazing lunch - creamy chicken and rice. It was a beautiful day out, and everything was going great. We met back up with the group and walked around to see some of the historic sites. We had free time, so the girls and I went to Starbucks for frappes, and then we sat on the lawn of the Hapsburg Palace for awhile and people-watched. We shopped our way home and made plans to go out that night.  I had a headache, and Abby didn't feel good, so we both took naps. We ended up not waking up until the next morning! Vienna is exhausting!
Lunch. Yum.
Habsuburg Palace

Touring Vienna with Dr. Clark! 

The next day we woke up to rain. Good think I had my rain boots, right? We walked to the metro with Dr. Clark and Jan and it was freezing, really rainy, and windy.  We went to the Hapsburg Summer Palace and took an audio tour. It was really interesting to explore the palace. The audio tour was really nice too, because we were able to go at our own pace. I was excited to see my last name "Herzog", in front of so many things in the palace, because Herzog means "duke" in German! For lunch, Lisa and I went to another Starbucks and had sandwiches and I had chai tea. It was nice to get inside somewhere warm for awhile. I could tell I was beginning to get sick.
Austrian Starbucks. Still delicious! 


That night, a bunch of us went to Inge's, which was a restaurant near our hostel. Inge herself was the owner, and she was an adorably sweet 73-year-old German woman who was married to an American man named Gary. Gary was home in California visiting family, so we didn't meet him, but we chatted with Inge for most of the night. We shared some of her favorite apricot liquor with her and a plate of goulash. Inge told us her and Gary's love story, and it was the cutest thing. She said when they first met, she didn't speak a word of English, and Gary didn't speak a word of German. They fell in love at first sight though, and they began to write letters. They turned to friends and family to help them understand the letters, and now they've been married for 20 years. We were all sad to leave Inge. It's amazing to meet such sweet, kind people like Inge.
All of us with Inge in her restaurant.

Just a fraction of the notes on the walls in the restaurant.
All of the notes were from people all over the world, thanking Inge for her hospitality.
She was a Saint, I'm sure of it!