Party at the Monastery

A few days ago I was releasing some of my wanderlust by exploring the world on Google Earth. I was visiting some of the places I have previously traveled to and written about, places I’ve traveled to and haven’t gotten around to writing about, as well as the various placed I’ve lived. While I was exploring the Giessen area, I stumbled upon a nearby Monastery and was reminded of what may be my most unique “cultural” experience during my time in Germany.

University sponsored parties were already something unusual for me. In Germany, anyone can be served beer in public starting at the age of 16, and the legal age for hard alcohol is 18. So by the time everyone gets to university, everybody is of legal age. Nothing for the universities to worry about. So, at least at Uni-Giessen, university sponsored parties are common place, and there’s usually one at least once a month.

I went to the first Uni party of the semester. It was thrown in the two story academic building that houses four major lecture halls. It was like a gigantic house party, except first of all, it was legal, and two different beer tables (one on each floor) replaced the typical keg(s). In addition to a DJ upstairs, there was live music for half the night on the ground floor. Another table sold shots on the first floor and Vodka-Red Bulls upstairs. Once you got past the idea you were at a party in a school building, it was a pretty typical party.

While I was busy seeing Europe, I missed the next Uni party, which was the same as the first; I also missed the party at the university’s sports complex. Sounds like that party was a good one. It produced some legendary stories…

I finally stopped traveling and was in Giessen for a weekend in the middle of June. That weekend, the Uni-party was in the courtyard of a Monastery. …yes, a Monastery. For whatever reason, the exchange students started dropping out on by one (something about having exams to study for and papers to write… ), and by the time the evening of the party rolled around, Karl and I were the only ones going.

The party was at Kloster Schiffenberg, and the French girls told us there was a bus that ran from the city center to Schiffenberg. As Karl and I were running around the Altstadt, trying to find where the bus left from, we found out that the bus to Schiffenberg only runs on Sundays. Luckily, we also ran into our favorite waitress from the Pizza Haus, who informed us that Kloster Schiffenberg wasn’t actually IN Schiffenberg, and if we were up for it, it was probably walk-able from the edge of town where our dorms were. So Karl and I took the bus back to our edge of town and then walked nearly an hour through the woods as the sun started to set. Thanks to randomly stumbling on a sign with a map on it, we continued our trek onward through a forest I would best describe as some sort of poorly advertised state park with a single hiking trail. We were starting to question where the heck we were when we heard the music coming through the forest from the hill up ahead. By that time, the sun had almost completely set, and hundreds of fire flies were dancing around the trees like fairies or sprites as if I was in some sort of real-life Disney movie or fairy tale.

The party itself was like any other. It was good, it was fun, but it was nothing special. …oh yeah, except that it was put on by the university and located in the courtyard of a monastery, a feeling I never really got over.

America to the Rescue

...so I apparently don't have an application installed to watch videos online on the daily show's website (I tried to download and install the app, but the video still doesn't play from the website). However, embedding them into my blog allows me to watch them.

I was looking for the particular video which I have seen and even shared in the past. After taking a History of the Modern Middle East course during my semester in Rome last fall, I like to share this video(from August, 2007), as I feel it does a reasonably accurate job depicting America's foreign policy pertaining to the Middle East over the last several decades (despite its comedic intent).

Attempting to embed a video

Personal Domestic Policy

About a month ago, republican presidential candidate John McCain's nomination of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin came out of left field. I was skeptical about her nomination, and even though I had already determined who would be receiving my vote in November, I tried to keep an open mind and give her a chance.

She seemed to energize and excite a lot of the republican base and many others who were not already energized and excited by Barack Obama's democratic nomination for president. Even though I disagree with many of her political stances, was baffled by the McCain campaign's strategy to abandon the only argument they seemed to have at the time (Obama is "inexperienced"), and saw her quickly learn the McCain campaign's tactics to twist Obama's statements and ideas and turn them into ridiculous and often incoherent arguments, I thought the excitement she was generating was good for American politics. (Maybe US voter turnout will crack 60% for the first time since the Vietnam War era).

But now I'm surprised the McCain campaign is still allowing Sarah Palin to not only appear in public but open her mouth in public (in front of rolling cameras, even). It's pathetic and embarassing when the script for a Saturday Night Live skit featuring Tina Fey can be taken almost verbatim from a Palin interview.

Readers of my blog from the very beginning might recall a YouTube video featuring 2007's Miss Teen South Carolina, which I linked in one of my first posts while en route to Italy.
Whether you consider yourself a Republican, Democrat, or Independant; whether you can see through the contradictory campaign policies, arguments, "logic", and catch phrases Palin spews, or you choose to blindly agree; whether you are a fan of Keith Olbermann or abandoned him when he left ESPN's SportsCenter in favor of expressing his political views; I don't think it is much of a stretch to make a connection or two between Sarah Palin and the former Miss Teen South Carolina. (Feel free to fast forward to about 0:48 in the Palin video.)

Former beauty queens and incoherent thoughts? Mrs. Palin, are you sure you're against gay marriage? That's a shame. You and Miss South Carolina seem like a perfect match.

Surprise!

I brought my laptop with to Morocco primarily so that I could unload pictures from my camera during the 5 nights that I am here. I didn't want to be limited to the 500 8 megapixel pictures that can fit on my 1 GB memory card. In the first three nights, I've already accumulated 414 and counting.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Riad we're staying in has wireless internet, so on two occasions, I've already checked email and facebook from my bed or the rooftop terrace.

After finally figuring out that بحث المدونة الإلكترونية means "sign in" in Arabic, I'm able to login to my blog.

I won't take the time right now to go into too many details; I'll save that for my return. But
There have been many highlights so far. So of which include the 30 cent fresh squeezed orange juice one can purchase at one of the 30+ stalls and the camel ride on the way to a waterfall outside of Marrakech, at the beginnings of the Atlas mountains.


Another side note: my title is Adam's World Tour: Eurotrip
I think I need a new title.
I'm not in Europe anymore

Rome [revisited]

At the beginning of my settlement in Germany, I won €20 for a trip to Erfurt for two girls and myself. Well, actually Roman won it for me the day before my showing me all around Giessen, unknowingly giving me half of the answers to the scavenger hunt the Auslandsamt was sending us on in our first day of class.

I skipped out on those €20 to play tour guide for Krista in Rome. The two cities she had her heart set on seeing in her three weeks in Europe were Paris and Rome. And why not? They’re two of my most favorite cities in the world. At first, I was hesitant buying tickets and spending one of my valuable weekends in Europe to go some place I’ve already been. But immediately after buying tickets, I got more and more excited by the day.

Coincidentally, I found out Chase and Izzy had tickets to go to Rome that weekend as well. We were staying in separate places, but we were on the exact same flight each way. It made for good in-flight company. But upon arrival in Rome, we accidentally got separated in the metro station. Krista and I made it down the escalator to the platforms. Chase and Izzy went missing. …or maybe to them, we went missing. They waited near the top of the escalator for us while we, noticing they were missing once we hit the platforms, waited near the bottom. We skipped the first subway that ran passed, but when they still weren’t down the escalator when the second train arrived, I said screw it and hopped on. Without either Chase’s or Izzy’s number, Krista and I didn’t see either until the bus back to the airport three days later.

We stayed in a B&B in a courtyard off the main street that runs east of the Coliseum. This put us about 5 minutes (walking) from the Metro A line to the east, and the same distance from the Coliseum stop on the Metro B line to the west. It meant that regardless of where we were heading in the city, even if we turned right coming out of the courtyard towards the Metro A line, we always glanced left first to catch a glimpse of the amazing arena sitting at the end of the street.

On day one, I took Krista on a whirlwind tour through Rome. Obviously, the Coliseum was the first sight in our day. Even if we hadn’t wanted it to be, we couldn’t help it. It was right there. Unavoidable. We actually just gazed at it from the outside. My inside knowledge led us passed the Coliseum to the Palatino. The same ticket covers the Coliseum, Palatino, and Roman Forum. And many less people head into the Palatino. It means shorter lines. Less time spent waiting impatiently in lines.

After the Palatino, we walked through the Forum, and then our hunger mission led us away from the Coliseum. After a bite to eat at a Pizzeria near Area Sacra (one JD led me to just one week before I left Rome last semester), and after letting the animal lover play with the cats in the cat sanctuary, Krista and I continued on to Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, and a fantastic gelateria on our way to the Pantheon. The gelateria served up a bowl of fresh strawberries which we topped with lemon gelato. Heavenly. From there, we threw our coins into the Trevi to guarantee ourselves a return to Rome, and we stumbled across the Roma city police marching band on our way back to the B&B to catch our collective breath.

For a reasonably priced dinner, we headed to a familiar restaurant in Trestevere, Carlo Menta (where I first ate Ox tail), coincidentally passing a rose garden near Circo Massimo which I had just learned about the day before thanks to Roman exchange student Silvia. After dinner, I dragged Krista to Mr. Brown’s – My apartment's happy hour bar from last semester – for a drink and to be able to rub it in to all my Roman roommates back in the states. Talk about Karma. Mr. Browns wasn’t quite the same. I didn’t recognize any of the people working, and all I did was miss my roommates. We left after my one beer.

Our walk back to our place provided the opportunity for some night pictures.

Day Two was filled with the main sights. The Vatican Museums filled the entire morning. Lunch was at a café right across the street from the Coliseum, after which we went inside using the tickets we’d purchased the day before (which just so happen to be valid for two days). A spur of the moment “What’s Next?” decision led us south, out of the old city walls to St. Paul’s Basilica, a sight I didn’t see in my entire three and a half months last semester in Rome but I did see in my first visit there with my family. For comparison’s sake, we made our way all the way back to St. Peter’s. But the line was too long, so we waited until Monday to enter. Nighttime brought about the Spanish Steps, and Piazza della Repubblica.

Sunday was a day at the beach, after spending the morning at Piazza del Popolo and the Pincio. We made our way once again back to the Vatican for night photos. We hadn’t taken any night shots of the Vatican yet, and it was our last night in Roma.

Monday we checked out. We hit the inside of St. Peter’s Basilica, got rejected at by the Baths of Caracalla (they closed at 2pm on Mondays. We showed up at 2:40pm). I tried to lead us out to scenic Appian Way for our last hours in Rome, but I must have picked the wrong bus, because what looked familiar at the beginning became unfamiliar after 15 minutes. We wound up in the fascist built EUR area, grabbed a bite to eat, snapped a picture, and headed back to the center of the city.

We returned to the heart of Rome on the 175 bus. The street names started looking familiar. Then the shops on the street started looking familiar. We passed the store where Justin wowed the sales clerks 9 months previously, scrambling and then solving a Rubik’s cube in the two and a half minutes it took the clerk to process Justin’s information in order to buy and register a cell phone. It would have only taken the clerk two minutes had he not been looking up in amazement every 10 seconds.

As we passed that store, I knew exactly where the bus was taking us. We ran right by Stazion Trastevere, down Viale di Trastevere and passed Pizza Boom and my second floor apartment I lived in for three and a half marvelous months. I wanted to yell “Stop the bus!” but I knew none of the roommates were within 4,000 miles and we didn’t live there anymore. …not that the Roman bus driver would have understood “stop the bus” anyway…

After a successful hunt for souvenirs and unexpectedly passing the same anti-war graffiti I had snapped a picture of three years ago, Krista and I capped off my return to Rome with that delicious gelato near the Pantheon.

We ran into Chase and Izzy at the bus stop to go back to the airport for our 10pm flight, and made it back to Giessen watching the sunrise from the train.

Krista flew home just a few hours later.

Traveler's Review:

I was definitely spoiled by Budapest.

Both cities, Budapest and Prague, have two hills on the west bank of a river with much of the city lying on the east bank. Castles sit atop both main hills in each city. Prague castle itself clobbers Buda castle as far as things to see (Buda castle only houses two museums inside, but is still enjoyable from the outside [see Budapest photos]). With that said, Prague’s castle made me feel like I was in Disneyland or on a Hollywood set. It still held my interest, but I have the feeling Prague castle rivals Cinderella’s as far as annual summer visitors. The tourists were already swarming, and it was only the beginning of May.

Buda castle plus Fishermen’s Bastion on Buda Hill are enough to edge by Prague castle on my book. The views of Budapest from the Citadel atop its second hill easily beat Prague’s second hill, which is mostly green with either wooded trails or an open park. I’m sure it would be an excellent place to relax if I was a Prague resident, but the views from the top, while pretty, can’t compare with Budapest. And while I would say the average building is prettier in Prague than in Budapest, Budapest is beautiful still.

Prague is Budapest with many, many, many more annoying tourists while lacking Budapest’s Turkish baths.