Joel's Sememester Abroad

Pictures from Break

2008-11-12T00:22:00.001-08:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/joelwackerbarth/MyFallBreakTheShortVersion#

Gotta run

2008-10-24T04:14:00.001-07:00

Hallo!

Quick update, I have a plane to catch!

2 weekends ago I went to Ireland and met up with Derek, we spent some quality time exploring temple bar, chilling at subway, and going to Glendalaugh (monastic ruins from like 800 years ago) in the Wicklow Mountains.

It was a relief to hear English spoke consistently and to be able to stop and actually ask for directions! Dublin is an interesting city, and the guiness there does actually taste better (though they have this DELICOUS apple cider).

The last few weeks have been for the most part pretty low key.

I ran in the Dresden 10k last weekend and finished in under 50 minutes, which considering I went on one 1/2 hour run about 2 months ago to train for it, I was satisfied.

Also of note: They (of course) had beer for the runners at the finish line. Non-alcoholic frothy brew for even the young runners to enjoy. Only in Germany!

I'm off today for my long break. Meeting up with Erica in Istanbul tonight and then from there we are planning (assuming it works out) to take an overnight train to Athens, spend the night there, and then end up on Santorini in the Greek Islands. Who knows what this week holds, but I can tell you I AM SO EXCITED for whatever comes out way.

Ill definetly get some pictures up from Ireland eventually, and of course do my best to update you on Turkey and Greece.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Castles, Beer, and Italian Villages--Just your average 2 weekends

2008-10-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

So I unfortunately don't really have that much time to write a full report on Oktoberfest or on my great weekend in Italy, but as an apology I have uploaded a bunch of photo's onto Picassa that you can look through from my last 2 weekends.

http://picasaweb.google.com/joelwackerbarth/

Quick story from Oktoberfest. Andrew and I managed to get into one of the huge beer tents at around 8:45 pm after standing outside the backdoor for awhile and finally being let in by the security guard (somewhat miraculously actually). Inside was insane. So many people, a live band, everyone standing on the tables singing and just having a generally amazing time. It was such a fun atmosphere.

Anyway, we wandered around for a bit with no seat to be had and just stood in the ailes. Eventually a girl invited Andrew and I to stand up on their bench with her. Turns out she is from Austria and speaks pretty good english. Andrew had to leave at like 930 and at this point I had no cellphone and no idea where anyone from my program was so I decided just to stay. Hanna (the austrian girl) started translating what the people were saying, helped me to order a Maß from a beer madien,and of course danced on the benches. and have just overall really really fun time.

After the music stopped at 11 and the tent closed we went outside and the girls paid for me to go on the bumper cars and swing ride, while I paid for the 4 of us to go in the haunted house, afterwards they invited me to go back to their flat until I had to go to the train station. I, of course in the spirit of adventure, accepted and had a very interesting conversation until I had to leave and wander my way back to the train station (with only a little hand drawn map on a postit note) at 115 in the morning. I had to use the phrase "Wo ist der Hauptbahnhoff?" like no ones buisness.

Crazy fun and if I am ever back in Munich I have at least 2 friends!

also very funny joke from Hanna. I told her that I was from Seattle and she says oh does it rain a lot there and I was like...yeah, but not as much as the say and then she says

"I hear people have trouble sleeping there"

get it

Sleepless in Seattle

haha.

My weekend in Disneyland-or Prague-or Prag or Praha. Whatever you prefer to call it?

2008-09-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went to Prague, which is only about 2 hours east of Dresden (where I am living in Germany). We got up suuuper early in the morning on Friday, gathered up, and boarded the bus. It is amazing to me these EU boarder crossings, I was awake (unlike much of my companions) doing some light studying and watched as we went off a ramp on the freeway and suddenly the signs were in a different language. And like that, I had entered yet another sovereign nation.

We arrived at about 9 oclock, changed money (as we had left the Euro zone), and hustled down to the subway to try and make it to our hostel quicky. The Czech way of doing escalators is awesome, I swear they travel at 3 times the speed of the 'normal' escalors, and are much steeper. It legitimetly felt like an amusment ride, and eventhough I used them say 8 or 9 times, it was still just as fun everytime
We eventually made it to the hostel, made our way to our tour guide, took a short tour, and then ended up on a boat tour. Honestly, the weakest point of the trip, but it was a relaxing cruise through the city and it had an all you can eat buffet (paid for by BU). My monster plate on the right-->
(1 of 4). <----View of charles bridge on left After the tour we trooped back to the hostel, which was BEAUTIFULLY located about 3 minutes from the main square and at 13 Euro's a night, a pretty good bargain as well. A few of us went on a quick walk through the city, basically through the main Old town square and then to the Charles Bridge. Old Town and the Charles Bridge are from a Disney kingdom, you really can't convince me otherwise. They are so beautiful, old, and authentic (which is how I would describe Prague btw). I basically just walked around the whole weekend amazed that my eye's kept on being absolutely delighted by what was around the next bend (except when I could see two different McDonald's and One KFC from where I stood on the steet), but thats the Europe that I am living in.
On Charles Bridge-------- (and below)--->
<---Old Town Square
Anyway. The delight of this city was walking around, just looking. On saturday we hiked up to the Prague castle and toured the largest castle in europe. The views of the city from the thing were ridiculus. We saw the changing of the guards at noon, a procession involving a band playing from the windows of the palace and marching guards ceremonially changing duty.

from the palace

<---Chaning of the guards <--Amazing view of castle and city Anyway, we just explored that area essentially all mornign, then met up with others at around noon and kept on exploring, eventually happeing upon a great lookout over the city and the castle, which i just had to take a solo-picture for Mom and Dad (thats what we would call it whenever we would request someone take a picture of just us, ie. "can i get one for mom and dad?" Sunday I got up early and trekked across the city by myself before anyone had seemed to wake up, I was trying to find somewhere for coffee, but other than Starbucks (and their 4 Euro mochas) nothing was open. I eventually hit a very far portion of the city and elected to take the metro back instead of rewalking everything, I meant to go a couple stops past the hostel just to check it out but zoned out and missed my intended stop by like 2 stops. Whoops. So I got a LOT of walking, but it was very fun to see a different part of the city. I submit to you that this is better than disneyland. Clocktower at 8 am

Later in the day I met up with the guys again and we set off to see the jewish sites. We saw several cool meseums, a very interesting old graveyard (from when it was a Ghetto and Jew's were not allowed to bury their dead anywhere else for 300 years and the it became a plateu as they had to bury on top of other graves)
Then we decided to go find the Lennon Wall. Apparently during the communist era when John Lennon was killed in 1980 overnight graffiti appeared on a wall in a tribute, with song lyrics other artistic expressition. Of course the communists painted this over, but then, the next night, again it was spray painted. This continued until 1989 when communism fell and became a focal point for the youth of Prague. Today this tribute is exactly how it was then, un-controlled and very very powerful. When we found it, we were really the only people there. Reading the quotes and stories written, layer upon layer, on the wall literally had shivers running up and down my spine. It seemed the more you looked, the more wisdom and meaning you could derive from the wall. It was beautiful, with poem's song lyrics, signatures of friends, lovers, solo-travelers, multiple languages, all with a common thread, hope an optamism for humanity. Inspired by John Lennon. We spent a good 45 minutes until we basically had to RUN across the city to get dinner and make it back to the bus on time, but it was an experiance that I will definetly not readily forget.

Anyway, I could really go on in more detail about how amazing it was and how cool, but really i have homework; but just know, Praha is a very, very cool city to visit and I wouldnt be surprised if i ended up there again this year. Its only two hours to fantasy land!

some pictures from my time in dresden!

2008-09-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

so put up some 120 pictures from my time here in Germany, here is the link!

http://picasaweb.google.com/joelwackerbarth/DresdenGorlitzBerlinMeissen#

Rollerblading after dark

2008-09-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

Last night a couple of us decided to try out the Dresden skating at night. A couple of weeks ago I had been walking through the city at night and had seen a police escort of like 8 cars closing streets for hundreds and hundreds of rollerbladers. It looked like a blast and I had to try it.

It happens every Friday night (weather permitting) and so last night we went for it. We showed up and rented skates and pads for 5 euro. Hundreds and hundreds of German's on rollerblades eventually showed up and bam, 9 oclock on the dot (German's don't do the whole late thing), we were rolling behind a truck with speakers blaring music.

I guess I should mention that we had no idea 1) where we were going 2) how far we were going or 3) how long it would take.

I found myself basically skating as hard as possible, completely seperated from the group that I came with. We whoosed through residential streets, past the zoo (which I could tell because I could smell it), and through many parks. Hundred's of children with glowsticks in one hand and moms hand in the other watched from the side as a seemingly endless stream of roller bladers sped by.

I thought this would be a nice relaxing, fun cruise through the city. What we didn't know was that instead it was more of an athletic event. At about 10 the entire group paused, at which point we realized that no, it was not almost over, and yes this was about half way.

My feet and ankels were burning, but honestly there is no way to stop because I had no idea where I was and could not navigate home. So I stood back up, rolled to the front and bam we were moving again. This time I decided to stay in the front, because the music took away some of the intense pain I felt in my feet and in my ankles. We cruised through quiet german streets, on rollerblades and bumping to a strange mix of music that included German techno, american techno, and american pop music. I decided to take the lead for a little, the sight of completely open pavement was a welcome relief from constantly avoiding hundreds of legs and arms all methodically pushing forward. This lasted for 2 minutes until one of the organizors started yelling in German and I realized, probably not good to lead if you can't understand directions.

The event must almost be over. I assured myself over and over. And yet the pavement kept coming.

Finally, a sign I recognized, one that ment we had to be close!

Finally at around 11 oclock we made it back to the park where the whole event started, exausted I had made it back in the top 5 or 6 skaters (not that it was a race, but I still took pride in this). I basically collapsed, throwing my skates off of my throbbing feet, and the blood slowly began to return to my painful extremities.

At this point I found out how long the skate had been and decided maybe no rollerblading for awhile.

25 kilometers.

15.5 miles.

2 ridiculusly sore feet, but an interesting experiance that I will never forget.

2 very cool weekends, with some crappy class in between

2008-09-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago we started our intensive language course, and suddenly we were no longer on vacation anymore. We had to study? What? To be honest, it sucked. German is a really hard language to get the feel for, especially when the teacher uses very very little english, and the textbook is all in German. Stressful pop quizzes basically defined the last 2 weeks of class for me, but THANKFULLY it is finally over and done with. So enough about that. Lets talk about the weekends!

Last weekend (Fri, Sat., Sun) I did 3 separate day trips. On Friday we were given a tour of the Radeberger Pilsner brewery in nearby Radeberger. The tour was pretty good (or about as good a tour of a brewery actually is) and then we got to taste the beer. They have 2 kinds, filtered and unfiltered, and because it all falls under the German purity laws it has nothing but Water, Barley, Hops, and Yeast in it. So the shelf life isnt really long.

German beer is actually much different than I imagined. When we think of Germans and beer, we imagine something like what we have in the US but times like 5 (in terms of selection), but that is really not true. Every region or town basically has its own brewery, and only that beer (with a few others) is sold at every resteraunt and bar in the region. So to get some unique brew, you actually have to GO there to buy it.

Anyway, brewery was good. The next day a group of us got up early a hopped on a train to Gorlitz, a small town towards Poland. We wandered the city and happened upon a medivial street festival. It was very festive and very fun. The city was very pretty and had a bunch of different architectural styles. It felt very non-touristy, and had a very very interesting experiance waiting for us.

As we walked down the city lanes towards the river we began to get excited. Because one of the whole reasons for going to Gorlitz was because it is very unique in that when the worlds powers redrew Europe after WWII they drew the border between Poland and Germany using the river the runs through Gorlitz. The problem was that the city was divided between the two banks and suddenly became two separate countries. The Poles kicked out all the Germans and suddenly we have two cities, but only a river seperating them. We were able to walk down to the river, cross a bridge and the people, language, and general feel changed.

Poland was interesting. It felt very different, though we didnt spend a lot of time there it was a thrill to be able to cross a bridge and enter a differenent country with a different alphabet and different currency.

Sunday we went hiking in the Saxon-Switzerland National park. The hike was nothing difficult, but the town that we started out in was so cute and the sandstone pillars and bridge at the top where breathtaking. All about 20 minutes from the Czech Republic.

I have to go to the store and buy some food and then go to class, but i will try to update on this weekend in Berlin very soon!

First Week in Dresden

2008-08-24T03:59:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow will be one week of my program complete and so I figured I would get on for a quick update.

Things are starting slow, much of this week has just been bureaucratic in nature, signing paper-work, paying housing fees, getting biometric photos for the government, going to ikea to pick up supplies, and exploring the city a little bit.

The dorm where I am staying is about a 25 minute walk from the old city part of town, so thats kinda long, but I have done it like 6 times so far. It is a very pretty city, downtown is very new (because of reconstruction), but very cool. They have done an amazing job of re-creating historic buildings.

The biggest challenge so far has been to figure out food, because we are given a stipend, and told to figure it out. Going to the grocery store, which I'm not sure I could 100% do in the United States, got 100x harder when I stepped into the german market and NOTHING is in English, and none of the same brands are present. I put it off about 5 days (eating out, eating other stuff) but last night I made my first attempt at cooking. I made a chicken stir fry, and it was actually pretty dang good. So look at me, I can feed myself! Woohoo.

I am starting my German classes tomorrow, so that will be really nice to be able to learn a little of their language out here. Not a lot of people speak English, especially away from the tourist area's.

I am hoping things will begin to pick up as we are starting class, visiting a brewery, Prague, and Berlin in the next 3 weekends, and finally feeling like we kinda understand how the city works. Who knows though, cause Organic Chemistry is just around the corner......

Bosnia and the End of Croatia

2008-08-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

Talk about slacking off on the journaling. Well that is me.

Right now I am flying to Vienna again, how I got to this time and place I will try and summarize for you.

We left Dubrovnik and made the long drive to Mostar, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We stopped inside Bosnia at a small town with a small castle and a cool little mosque. Refueled we continued our drive. I think it took about 4 hours or so. Arriving, there was a tangible difference in the ‘feel’ from the relatively touristy Croatia. This was accentuated when the eerie Muslim call to pray echoed from the minarets of the many mosques in the city. We quickly (YAY) found our hotel and moved our stuff in, we contacted a local guide for a guided walk, and had lunch in the courtyard.

Our tour guide took us around the city and explaining various ins and outs to the city. We walked down a very cool street and eventually made it to the pride and joy of the city, the bridge. It was very magnificent and recently rebuilt as the original bridge (built by the ottomans) was destroyed in the recent war. Absolutely beautiful! We also toured a Turkish house and another mosque, which really made me excited to go to Istanbul in the fall.

What really was chilling about Mostar was that it is not completely restored. They only finished rebuilding the bridge in 2004. Many of the buildings still show evidence of battle. Several buildings still have burned sections, bullet holes, and huge holes from artillery of some kind. We walked through two or three cemeteries full of graves of young men, all with a deceased date of 1992 or ’93. It was so weird to see so many graves all with the same date of death, all roughly around my age. Like I said, chilling. If you are interested, google some of the war time pictures of Mostar and then compare them with my pictures, how much progress and rebuilding they have done!

We enjoyed a nice dinner in full view of the bridge all lit up and met some extremely cute and friendly kittens. My mom was particularly taken with one black and white one and picked it up to feed it. A very cute cat, overall: a very interesting, moving, and unique city.

Yay for travel days!

Our next day was essentially a travel day as we drove 5 hours to Split (again), flew to Zagreb and then to Pula, Croatia arriving at 11:30 pm after all the lay-over’s and such. The drive was pretty at times as we drove along the BEAUTIFUL coast. Tiring day, but one that was necessary to reach the northern part of the country.

The Next day

We saw the 6th biggest roman amphitheater still preserved and then headed to Rovinge. We toured the city a bit, settled in and went swimming of the rocky shores of the city outskirts. Remember when I said the other cities we visited were romantic? Try this one. Especially cause the day we were there was the Croatian version of Valentines day and the city had set up 8 stages around the city by the water where musicians played and were required to play love songs. Jesse and I walked the city for hours that night. Just circling the city, people watching, and enjoying some music every once in awhile. The city is only 2 hours by boat from Venice and it definitely feels it. Very Italian, to the extent that the schools teach both Croatian and Italian and the locals use them interchangeably. It was somewhat of a relief to hear a language that I knew a little of (not that the Croatian’s don’t, for the most part, speak English). Anyway, exhausted from the miles of walking we did, Jesse and I wandered back, flipped on the Olympics and crashed. It was a pretty good last day in Croatia.

To Slovenia—and the EU

Back to the Euro. Oh yay!

Pictures!

2008-08-13T08:55:00.001-07:00

Vienna and Croatia

scratch that

2008-08-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

pictures are too big cause my camera is really nice....i will have to figure out a way to downsize and get them up for you.

2008-08-09T14:31:00.001-07:00

facebook might work to get my pictures up??? so if you are curious check them out

The World’s youngest country—Montenegro

2008-08-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a day trip to the Bay of Kotor in nearby Montenegro (which i may have misstated as Herzogovina in my last post?) Whoooooops. Showerd up, changed and ready for dinner..

We got up relatively early and walked to where our rental car was parked at Peter (the owner of our little apartments) about 15 minutes outside the city. Absolutely breathtaking view of Dubronik’s harbor in the morning light, already started to get hot!
We drove about 45 minutes to the south to the border of Croatia and Montenegro. They had two checkpoints, one for leaving Croatia, and one for entering Montenegro, my question was what was the area in between?
We drove down into Montenegro after waiting foreveeeeeer at the border, for nothing more than a little, tiny, cursory glance and stamp of the passport. BOOOO. Drove through several cities along the water before entering into the huge bay of Kotar. Montenegro doesn’t seem quiteeeee as put together as Croatia, and given that it only got its independence in 2006 I guess that makes sense. It was a little more communist in feel, and a little more rundown, but of course we did not spend that much time in the country.
Along the way, we stopped at a small town of Venetian ancestry, cool little city with a nice old church and very old buildings. Out in front there are two very small islands with buildings on them. One of the islands is man made and the other is natural, cool stuff.
We had a cappuccino and continued our drive. Eventually we arrived at Kotor (the city) and found a place to park. We walked around the old city, which is very small and very very legit. Much less of a tourist destination than the other cities we have seen and it showed. It has a very large city wall that climbs a huge cliff/mountain/hill? behind the city. Check the pictures and decide for yourself. We paid 2 Euro and climbed up the old city wall towards the fortress at the top halfway up was a church with a great vista. Apparently this fortress repelled an Ottoman siege of 2 months in the 1600’s. We continued up and up and up all the way to the top of the fortress, working up a pretty big sweat. Eventually we descended, walked around the city some more, had lunch and took off. Very neat city, one that my mom was super excited about. She decided she thought it was the most charming one so far.
We packed up, and started the drive back. We took a different route back that involved a short ferry across the narrowest part of the bay. Long wait, but it was kinda cool to add ‘small-car ferry’ to our long list of transportation used on this trip and another country to the growing list.

1. Plane
2. Subway
3. Tram
4. Taxi
5. Bus
6. Small Car-Ferry
7. Large Ferry
8. Rental Car
9. Fast Catermeran
10. Foot? I just wanted an even 10 haha.

Countries

1)Canada
2) England
3)Austria
4)Croatia
5)Montenegro
6)Bosnia and Herzegovina (tomorrow)
7) Slovenia (3 days)
8) Germany (Next week)

Whew. What a list so far. Amazing what you can accomplish in one week of traveling!

The drive into Dabronik was especially beautiful as the sky had exploded in color for a breathtaking sunset. Also, I cut my hand climbing the cliffs yesterday and it is getting infected, and jonny mcconny you saw the last time my hand got infected. Hopefully that clears itself up soon.

Off on the long drive to Mostar, Bosnia tomorrow for a little more up close and personal glance into the impact of war on this area. Very important to remember that not too long ago brutal violence and genocide plagued this area. The darkness that humanity can create is truly astonishing and frightening, especially when we are watching on TV reports on the conflict in Georgia. Kinda hits harder when you are in an area that went through something similar not 15 years ago. Hopefully things clear up there ASAP and the Russians and Georgians can have peace.

Korcula and Dobrovnik—The Wonderful Adriatic

2008-08-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

Korcula and Dobrovnik—The Wonderful Adriatic

As last wrote my computer died and I had no converter to charge my batteries. But, I found a converter and I can type up an update on my last couple of days!

As we arrived on the Croatian Island of Korcula, we got in line to ride a bus over the island to the actual city of Korcula, but the bus was full and we piled into a taxi with 4 ladies from Australia who were taking a year off from their 5 year law program and traveling the world. They were going to attempt to camp for the first time, having purchased a tent in the previous city. Good luck to them!
Dropped off in Korcula we scrambled to find a room as we had nothing set up (aka jesse and I hung out with the bags as my parents ran around asking people if they had Sobe’s (Rooms) aavailable for rent. It was a little hit and miss as it was quite busy, but eventually we were able to get two rooms (in two different places). Mom and Pop had a wonderful view out of theirs . While ours, was not as scenic, but still very nice, a couple of long stairs up the hill.
We dropped our stuff and practically sprinted for the ocean. The swimming was great, the Adriatic, beautifully blue, looked like all sorts of flavors of Gatorade frost. Blissfully cooled off we proceeded to explore the city of Korcula. If you ever travel to Croatia, and want somewhere romantic to take your wonderful partner…I suggest checking out Korcula. What a great city to wander, get a drink, and enjoy the sun setting over the Adriatic. The actual old town was relatively small and designed to look like a fishes skeleton, with all the streets branching off the one main street. Then walls were designed to let the wind rush down into the city fromn the west (good), but not from the east (bad wind). Very cool.
Jesse and I explored past the city at night, through the marina and down towards the resort areas that mainly cater to European tourists, not that cool, but interesting. We found an ocean based water polo court and swimming pool, just walled off with ocean water allowed to flow in and out. We explored the local fruit market, which was very cool and had really delicious fresh fruit. Also of note, we discovered in the local supermarket that they sell beer in 2 liter plastic bottles. Talk about classy! Reminded me of the classiest drinker I know. Kenny Curry. So there is a picture for you sir.
The next day we opted to spend most of our time relaxing along the water, swimming when hot and reading books, in full view of the beautiful old city. (PHOTO) Very amazing. We had an interesting conversation out on a huge metal buoy with a guy from New Zealand there with his Croatian girlfriend about the prevalence of “hotties walkin around.” Nice guy, and was curious to know if the weather was as bad in Seattle as people say. Also was aware of Nirvana and the grunge movement, oh what our city is known for! We walked around the city one more time in the afternoon, enjoying the vista’s again. We boarded a catamaran for the journey to Dobrovnik, a very hot 2.75 trip.
Arriving at the dock we spent a good 25 minutes trying to get into the city (aka talking to a cab driver who tried to charge my mom 50 Euro for the journey) . We eventually tried to take the bus, but then headed back to a cab and got the trip for like 15 bucks. It dropped us outside the Pile entrance to the old city (no cars allowed inside) and we walked into the city.
This was a surreal experience, it felt like walking into a city from lord of the rings, across a drawbridge, down some steps, through a wall and then BOOM, thousands of people, speaking languages I didn’t understand, milling through a beauuuuutiful old city. Pictures really don’t do this city justice, but man it was an experience to walk through.
We eventually made our way to where we thought our apartments would be, started a huge climb up a narrow steep road. My mom was having trouble getting her stuff up and a gentleman stopped to help her. He carried it about half way and I thought we were going to building 15, but the guy said “no, it is number 19, I am Peter” aka, he owns the place we were going! It was pretty funny and he is a very friendly man.
After settling in we headed out for dinner, ice cream and a walk through the city streets. Back to the room for some BBC in ENGLISH!! Also the tv here has like literally over 100 porn channels of some sort and at least half are Arabic…..kinda weird.
This morning we awoke and ate breakfast in our room, and headed to the city walls to walk around them. It was over a mile walk all the way around and pictures are better than words so here you go (PICTURES). But what is really important to note is the prevalence of brand new tiles on the roof mixed with maybe 10 % old tiles. The new tiles are a result of the 8 months of shelling the city suffered under during the Yugoslavian conflict about 10 years ago. The white cross up on the hill (shown lit up at night) is where the artillery launched the explosives into the city. Pretty chilling. Over 2/3 of the roofs in old town were hit. Here is a map showing all the places with damage. ( PICTURE)
Next we grabbed lunch, headed back to the room and grabbed some swimsuits. Going outside the city walls we eventually found an area to jump into the water. Swimming a bit we jumped from some pretty low rocks, but a tour boat video taped me and cheered. If only they knew what we were about to do…. We swam a bit across a little tiny bay and climbed out of the water. Scaling some rocks we eventually climbed maybe 20 meters up to a small ledge out of the cliff and jumped, very exhilarating. Some British dudes thought we were “crazy” as they told our parents. Next continued swimming to another little area where a guy from Iowa pointed us in the direction of the big jump. From the water it looked crazy, but we figured, lets go up and check it out. Well from up there it still was crazy. 30 Meters above the water, back against ancient city walls of Dobrovnik Jesse and I did our secret handshake and Jesse jumped (as he requested to go first this time). It was a crazy long time till he hit the water, and he did not look too happy when he hit the water, but of course I had to do it. Jumping, the water seemed to take forever to reach up and smack me. 30 meters/9.8 meters per second = a little over 3 seconds of hang time. RIDICULUS!!!!! Similar feeling to jumping out of an airplane. The air knocked out of me, we gathered our senses and swam back to the other side. We came, we jumped, it was awesome, something I will never forget. Let me just express myself again. IT WAS EPIC.
We walked back, got some water, and then headed back to our room to shower, watch the Olympic opening ceremony (which is a manageable time diff here), and to write this here blog. Another good day so far. Off to the Bay of Kotor in nearby Herzegovina tomorrow. Hope all is well back at home! Miss you guys (and gals) already. WEEK 1 COMPLETE!

Travels in Austria and Croatia (Pics later maybe)

2008-08-06T13:47:00.001-07:00

Dobar dan! (Hello)

After flying from Vancouver to London (which was insane as we traveled first class due to frequent flier miles, I got a 3 course meal, champagne, wine, pajamas, slippers, movies, a ‘seat’ that turns into a bed fit for all 6 feet 2 inches of me), London to Vienna, we spent one evening and one morning exploring Vienna. It was rather cloudy (and somewhat cold), but still comfortable. We spent a fair amount of time orienting ourselves, taking trains and subways, and walking to our place. It is always an adventure with my family to find our hotel, pension, or apartment.
Our first night we had an Italian evening (Pizza and Gelato) as we were not feeling adventurous nor comfortable enough with our phrase book German to navigate Viennese menus. We stayed at a small pension, (picture) that was somewhat removed from the bustle of the city, but definitely close enough to walk from one end to the other (of the old town). We spent the night wandering the main street that was well maintained and contained very high class shopping (Rolex, Dolce and Gabanna, Versaci etc). Vienna is fashionable!
Our second day we woke up relatively early and took the fast and efficient light rail around the outside of the old city. It was interesting to see such a new feeling old city, as brand new streets and buildings stand directly next to well maintained, but very old buildings from Vienna’s past. Mumsie and Dad went to the Opera house to take a tour, but JP and I elected to explore the old Imperial Palace. It was very impressive, and hand many very cool corroding copper statues and roofs. It was not hard to imagine the area in its hayday. We walked around somemore and where disappointed when someone immediately pegged us for English speakers asking if we wanted to see a concert (maybe it was my t-shit, or our general air, but my theory is that it was our shorts, which are much longer in fact than those that the average Euro male seems to wear). We walked across the city, grabbed our luggage and took a taxi to the airport.
I was able to check facebook (lame), check my email, and get the latest mariners score on my iPod touch (which is awesome!) in the airport and before I knew it we were flying our way out of Austria and down to the Balkan peninsula.
We arrived in Split, Croatia at around 4 or so, bused into the city and took roughly 45 minutes to find our place (a VERY good time by our standards). Villa Ana was very nice, only 5 rroms, and Rick Steeves favorite place in Split, plus they had air conditioning (SCORE). We walked around the city heading over to the old town where there are winding alleys, an old roman palace, and just very picturesque walking. We explored a bit, walked on the waterfront, and eventually found a place to eat. After eating, and drinking .5 L of local beer (because my Dad thought he was ordering 1 big one for us to share, but instead got 2 big one). We walked along the waterfront again, there were people EVERYWHERE and it was great people watching. However, still tired from the time difference I suspect we went back to the room and were asleep by 10:30.
This moring we again walked to city through a huge market (with all sorts of produce), through a fish market (video=, pictures). Purchased my Croatian soccer jersey that I have been so pumped about, and then caught a ferry to an island. I am currently on said ferry as it is about 2 hours and 45 minutes long. Periodically we pass little cities on the ocean, which are spectacular with their orange roofs and white walls.. All in aqll the Adriatic is very cool, and there are sail boats abound. Croatia has been very enjoyable so far and is quite spectacular.

Sorry this is so long, but as the first blog entry I feel as though I am a little more excited to be writing then I will be in 2 weeks, but we will see!

Bog! (Good-Bye)

One Day and Counting

2008-08-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

I forgot to buy one of my textbooks. That is a huge hassle.....Ugh. Shipping to Germany? Expensive.

The List that never ends

2008-07-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

So it just hit me, I am leaving for Europe on Sunday, and if you do the complicated math on that one that is....lets see....carry the 6.........4 days from now. I will be doing a whirlwind tour of Croatia and Bosnia and then up to Dresden, Germany for my study abroad program that starts on August 18th......Yikes, this summer flew past.

Ask me what I have prepared to go. The answer? I ordered my textbooks a couple of weeks ago (some of which have yet to arrive), and I got a couple of big duffel bags to stuff my clothes and things into. How does one pack for 5 months in a foreign country????? All of which must fit in 2 medium bags that I need to be able to navigate through various international airports and transportation systems on my own. Possible? We will see.

My list of things I need to do keeps growing, and each one seems to interfere with what I would like to do, which is see those that I care about for a little bit before I throw myself across the ocean and leave my country for 5 months. Which reminds me, I need to figure out how to get my absentee ballot in the right place so that Mr. Obama can receive my vote.

You see, the list never ends!!!!!!! AHHH!