Easter in Castiglion

So now for the Easter story...

Our adventure this time starts on Tuesday (March 22) with Jim and I running to catch the Easter Procession through town. I caught this first glimpse of the procession...

The easter procession coming down main street... looks kind of odd

Then Jim ran up behind me and told me a bird had crapped on him. Sure enough he turns around and theres a little dab of bird doo on his back. I was like "haha oh man that sucks!" (SPLAT!)

They got me too :(

Darn birds! They say this is good luck here or something... Oh well, we caught back up to the procession and watched it for a long time. I took a long video of the whole thing and a few snapshots.

The front of the procesion moving down the corso

Each night the people carry a different statue of Jesus, representing the events of the last week of His life. We saw the processions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Friday was of course quite solemn.

Ok, yeah, it looks like a KKK rally. It's not. It's Italians on Easter...

The whole town was very solemn watching Jesus body be carried through town

The weeping Mary follows Jesus on Friday

Then on Saturday night at midnight the church bells go NUTS and the people all run to the cathedral where they have fireworks and stuff and they unveil a statue of Jesus kind of radiant with the marks of crucifixion but clearly alive and blessing the crowd. The kids are the most excited of course, but literally the whole town shows up to see it. The easter services are packed just like in the US, and then the entire city goes home to eat with their families like we do at Thanksgiving. Monday is a national holiday also (called hangover day maybe?) where the people recover from their easter parties. So that's Easter in Castiglion. Cool huh? Alright, now I finally FINALLY am caught up to the present. Go blogger! More exciting adventures to come as we have two major field trips this week and a cool trip this weekend, so ciao for now!

Orvieto

Ok so these posts are going to be fractionally out of order. The next post has some stuff from Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday... this one deals with Wednesday. Whatev.

So Wednesday, March 23 we went to Orvieto. It was a pretty rocking place. Mostly I found it very scenic and a pleasant place to hang out. It was kind of crawling with tourists, but yeah, that happens.

To be totally honest not that much happened, we just goofed off and saw a lot of coolness, so I'm going to just let the pictures tell the story.

Kind of hard to see, but to get to the town you have to take a nearly vertical train from the main train station


Gothic, meet Romanesque.


The town likes flowers


I took this right before I saw the vietato fotographia sign... oops.


More cool streets in town


The old city walls form a park, the new city is visable at the bottom of the hill


The park at the old fortress was really nice


More views of the park


Buildings on the walls


That is a long ### drop


Andrea and Caitlyn on the wall (500 foot drop behind them... yeah)


The new town centered on the train station



A wider view of the walls, mostly a natural rock formation


Walking along the walls


Our group found a playground...


Why did we take these pictures with the sun behind us...


Jim and I got stuck in the spider web


Laura loves tennis


Andrea loves... stumps?


The train ride back down to the station... this was like a 30 degree angle at least

So that wraps up our adventure in Orvieto. It was pretty cool. That spider web sucked though, it was hard to beat off the giant spider that almost ate us. Thankfully Caitlyn carries a shotgun with her at all times...

The Return Trip, and some thoughts about Spring Break

So the morning of Saturday, March 19 we got up at 5am, packed, checked out and headed to the train station to try and get a seat on a 6:30 train to Venice. We couldn't reserve a seat but you're still allowed to take the train with Eurail Passes so we got on and waited in what looked like an unpopular area of the train. The rule in that case is that you can sit any place that's not taken by a reserved ticket holder, and the risk you take is that you might end up standing if every seat is taken. We had about 10 minutes before the train was to leave and there weren't that many people on it. I said "Well hey at this rate we'll be fine. The train's pretty empty and I doubt a huge swarm of people will show up suddenly with only 10 minutes before departure on an international train." No more than 5 minutes later this ARMY of kids walks on the train with some parents being dragged along behind them. Jeez! Sure enough these kids walk up and are whining in German looking at their tickets and their parents and at our seats...

So we stood for a while. The train took off and we did eventually find a few empty seats, and so we got to watch the Austrian countryside for a while. I have to say that Austria is amazing. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places on earth. No wonder the people are so great, they live in a fantasticly beautiful world.

The train to Venice got us there about 1:30 in the afternoon, perfect timing to catch a 1:35 train to Napoli (which stopped in Arezzo). We got to Arezzo about 4:30 and caught a Chiusi train which took us to Castiglion Fiorentino. Thus we got back to town a little before 5 PM and got to the center just after 5. Thus my whirlwind spring break reached its conclusion.

Looking back on it now I am certain that Vienna was my favorite european city. I'm dying to go back, it was just that awesome. My previous favorite, Rome, was dethroned by Vienna for a couple reasons. Both cities have awesome monumental architecture, both cities have lots of parks and trees, both cities are very friendly. Rome has the amazing historical center and incredible ruins going for it, but Vienna has just enough to outweight that. First of all Vienna is cleaner and a little closer to American technological standards. Second of all the mass-transit in Vienna is a lot better, and the city is more pedestrian friendly (all the UStraße are pedestrian only and most of the city core is too). The city is better planned in a set of concentric rings, and it appears to be as easy for cars to get around as it is for people (though to be totally fair I don't know since I didn't try to drive). The modern architecture is really cool, the mix of various ages of buildings shows the history of the city and really gives it a vibrant and living character, whereas Rome, while very vibrant, has very little modern stuff - there are new buildings but they are "fake old buildings" that are intended to blend into to the historical city until you get well away from the center. Finally Vienna was a lot more diverse. There is actually variety of foods in Vienna, whereas there is hardly any in all of Italy including Rome.

That last bit really gets me. I'm not joking here: There is more variety of food in College Station than in the entire nation of Italy. I swear I am not kidding, there is really really little variety of food and culture in Italy. Italian culture is great, but that's all you will find here.

The other thing this trip highlighted for me is about the feasible enjoyable lenght of a european excursion. I think most Americans could really enjoy about two weeks (which for me was Venice with our profs + spring break) in Europe before they'd start to be tired of it. That is the best time to zip back to the US. You'd be really glad you came, you'd enjoy every minute of the trip, and just when you felt like it would be great if the Europeans learned to get better plumbing, electricity, and food, you'd be back in America. You wouldn't have enough time to dislike europe at all, only enough to know you like the US better.

And really sometimes I wish that was how this trip was. Living in Italy is a blessing (despite the lack of food) because the people here are among the nicest we've met in Europe and the language is really easy to learn and beautiful to hear. Plus the town we're in isn't a tourist attraction, so we're accepted as students who may be foreign but are living residents of town rather than migrant tourists. The people here are used to the idea that Americans are always wandering around and they're quite nice to us, especially when we try to speak the language and are polite back to them.

Of all the places in Europe I think that Italy is the most like Texas culturally, though I haven't traveled enough to stake money on that. But seriously the people here are great, they are a lot like people back home and I think they'd all really enjoy their time in Texas if they were to visit. It's kind of funny because they complain about cold weather just like we do and are proud to be the home of "nice hot weather".... except that in Europe that means 80 degrees. But it's about 60 degrees outside this week (which I find fantastic) and the people here are still wearing heavy parkas and stuff. I bet the English and Germans would love to have sunny 60 degree weather... well actually I know they would because they all vacation in Italy like crazy.

So my last thoughts on Spring Break...
I think Germany is entirely too serious. Prior to this trip I had 3 top destinations that I couldn't wait to see: London, Rome, and Berlin. Saw Rome, was in love from the beginning. Going to London April 21, can't wait. I went to Berlin equally excited, and I can't say I was blown away. At first it was really great, because the whole city is modern, and I hadn't seen much modern stuff since leaving the US. But aside from the appearance, which reminded me somehow more of New York or Los Angeles than Europe, it wasn't that great. Like I said the people were entirely too serious, and walking around on the streets wasn't that incredibly pleasant. Vienna and Rome on the other hand are just amazing to walk around, the people are happy and full of energy. So while I did like Berlin I was not as in love as I thought I would have been.

Austria is the coolest place ever. When we were there I thought to myself a few times that maybe A&M should have study abroad there instead of Italy. That's probably not true because Italy is really great but Austria is amazing. I think that A&M should probably add Austria as an option though. The coolest part is that despite how amazingly beautiful it is it really wasn't that touristy. Another cool thing: being in Germany didn't make me want to learn German, but being in Austria did. I really loved it. Especially the Wieners.

Most of all I made a few interesting realizations about what people I missed most while we were gone to spring break, how good it was to get a break from Italy for a little while, and how Italy compares to the rest of Europe. I am much less tired of Italy now that I got away for a bit. Prior to leaving for Venice I was having a really bad time feeling just not that good about Europe. I don't think I can call it homesickness because it was less that I missed being home in College Station or seeing family and friends from America and more that I was just getting tired of the dumb things about Italy. Getting out gave me new perspective about what things Italy does better (and worse) than the rest of Europe, and I like Italy better for that. At this point I'm just sort of coasting for the rest of the semester. I'm looking forward to a couple more trips I've got planned, and one really big trip on May 6th, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it all.

That pretty much wraps up my thoughts on the matter. Of course there's more to it than that but I'd have no details to talk over when I get back home if I kept writing! So ponder and discuss amongst your friends, and I'll tell you about Orvietto and Easter in Castiglion (and bird doo) tomorrow. Ciao!

Wien: Day Two

So we woke up on Friday, March 18th feeling pretty great about Vienna. It was a seriously rocking town, and we had just seen an awesome symphony the night before. That morning I shopped around for a bit and found a really cool soccer jersey for the Austrian National Team (I love Austria!) and then had another amazing lunch. Then we took off to the Musuem's Quartier. On the way there we passed some cool stuff

Yes.


One of the many theaters in town (not for movies, for acting)


The Museum of Modern Art


Inside the Musuem of Modern Art


Another building in the Museums Quartier

We found information about a Piet Mondrian Exhibit and headed to go see it. Along the way we passed through this really cool park.

An awesome park in Vienna, one of many


Stautes like this covered the park and the city


Another cool building near the park, this one from the late 1800's

The entrance to the gallery is on the left. This picture really shows the contrast in various ages of architecture in the city

We went to the exhibit, which was really cool, and it turned out that we were able to see two other nice exhibits while we were there. One was a photography exhibit, another was a christian artist who had painted a whole lot of illustrations for churches in modern art style. It was pretty neat.

The main atrium in the musuem, another example of the cool contrast of old and new in Vienna


A typical staircase, but this shows the simple elegance that characterizes Vienna

From here we headed out to the U1 to go see the Danube river which we figured would be cool. We were right.

The plaza on the way out of the gallery


The riverfront


One of three river crossings through the city. Click to view a big version.


Penguins? A cool billboard I saw near the river

From here we headed back towards the Opern Ring, and on the way went to Viennas most famous restaurant (that was the name of the place) and got some awesome Schitzel. We passed cool stuff on the way...

The Wiener Tram


A cool restored old building


WIENER SCHNITZEL!!!

Ok seriously that shnitzel was big enough to feed three people, but of course each of us ordered one and we all finished it. Bellisima! So on the way out we headed toward a movie theater, we figured we'd see if we could catch a film just because we hadn't had any americana in a long time, but they didn't have a show in english until 9PM which would get us home a little after midnight and we had to leave the hotel at 5AM... so we decided to just chill. We went and got some Austrian food and drinks from the local market and hung out in the appartment for the evening, then went to sleep to get a little rest before our rediculous train journey the next day.

The sun setting in town

Our last view of the Wiener Leinen Station

That basically ended our travels in Vienna, which I have to say makes me pretty sad. Vienna was so cool, but we'll get into more details on that later. Thus ended Vienna Day Two.

Wien: Day One

So the icing on the cake about Vienna is its name. We walked off the train some time early Thursday morning (March 17) and found signs everywhere that said "Wien" this and "Wien" that. It turns out Veinna in German is Wien. Ok here's why this is so cool. If you're from Berlin you're a Berliner. Cool enough. If you're from Hamburg you're a Hamburger. Heh, ok nice.

If you're from Wien you're a Wiener.

Yessssssssssss.

So lots and lots of stuff in Vienna was called the Wiener whatever. For example the subway is the Wiener Leinen. The surface trains are the Wiener Tram. The bus is the Wiener Bus. Yes. I couldn't make this up. To make things even better the german word for way is "Fahrt". So the entrance to a building is the Einfahrt. There was a poster which mentioned the Viennese way. Oh yes. The Wiener Fahrt. God bless Austria.
So Wien was really cool.

Our first view of Wien

A Wiener statue

Ok so our trip in Vienna starts getting better. We spend a while trying to find our Hotel, which was pretty hard because NOBODY speaks English and none of us speak a word of German (but as soon as I'm fluent in Italian I'm going to start practicing German) but the Austrian people are nice and when I pointed at the address of the place written on our reservation form and pointed around questioningly they would point in the direction until we found the street it was on and then finally found the Hotel.

The hotel rocked. It was 20 Euro a night (cheapest of the trip) for a 2 bedroom apartment. Yes ladies and gentlemen, and apartment. We had two bedrooms, a kitchen, an entry hall with coat racks and a sitting area, and a huge bathroom with an actual bath in it. It was amazing. I took a video of me walking around the apartment, you won't believe it.

The view out of my window looking north


The view out of my window looking south

So Vienna was pretty nice around our hotel but really we were in the slums and just hadn't realized it yet. We had some AMAZING wurst for lunch and then went to the downtown area on the WIENER LEINEN (I love it.) We hopped out at Stephensplatz which is the middle of town. I was instantly in love.

Main Street in Vienna, aka U1 on the Wiener Leinen

One of the coolest things about Vienna is the way their main street grid works. The significant routes are marked by a Wiener Leinen below the surface, while up on top there is a pedestrian street. It makes for a really really cool environment. People are out an about everywhere yet you can get really far really fast using the Wiener Leinin, and an all day transit pass (which they call a Fahrt Karten by the way) is only 5 euro and gets you on all the mass transit modes.

Modern buildings mixed throughout the city really are a nice addition

Another awesome thing about Vienna was the vibrance and character. There are lots and lots of historical buildings, some very old (the cathedral in the center of town is from the 1300's for example) but unlike Italy where every ruin is a protected historical element the Austrians allow dilapidated old buildings to be torn down and try to save just the better old stuff. Because of this there is a lot of variety and a nice grainyness to the city. The character is similar throughout the town but the style evolves as you walk around, and you can see how all the buildings from all the different time periods relate to eachother yet are very unique.

A historical building typical of Vienna

We spent quite a while walking around the city. When we first emerged from the U1 we ran into Bess Collier (from A&M) and her boyfriend. She's studying abroad with us at Santa Chiara but we'd never heard her spring break plans, so it was a pleasant surprise to find she was spending the whole time in Austria (good call) and so we chatted for a minute then let the two lovebirds have their privacy once more.

We walked around a lot more and at one point found a really cool Brittish bookstore. It was an excellent find and I took that opportunity to buy a book for the next train ride. The book I found was called "Bush Country," and it's a must read. The book is an interesting look at the last 4 and a half years, sort of breaking down all the major events of the presidency and examining how the administration has responded to various political challenges. It rebukes several of the silly attacks made at George W. Bush (such as that he is an idiot or that he is the puppet of his overlord father or political interest groups) but doesn't fail to point out the weaknesses of the administration (like the steel import tarrifs which were purely a political move to try and win Pennsylvaina and the very high ammount of government spending during Bush's first term). It's not written by a Republican, and I didn't feel like it was intended to try and persuade you one way or the other, its just a very interesting and honest investigation of the administration and a critisicm of the mass media bias against him. In my opinion this verifies and validates many of the things I already had felt, but like I said its a must read for all people regardless of your political affiliation. After going through the bookstore we headed back to the main plaza and the cathedral.

Another cool street corner in Vienna

So we went to the Wiener Cathedral, Saint Stephens. It was really cool as cathedrals go, this was the first one I've been to that was really Gothic in the traditional sense. We went in the cathedral, which was REALLY cool, and then we went to the top of the bell tower, which was awesome as well. I don't know how to say "vietato fotographia" in German, so I took a ton of pictures...

Saint Stephen's Cathedral


One corner of Saint Stephens, note the detail in the sculpture


Another view of the Wiener Cathedral


The nave of the cathedral


A column in the nave


Another column


The light in the cathedral was awesome, the hallmark of gothic design


The view from the bell tower toward the westwork


Wieners call this home, I love it!


Stephensplatz, the main square of Viena


I had to make a cameo, dude my hair is getting too long

So we headed down from the bell tower, took a last look around the cathedral and headed back into the city. While we were in the plaza there this guy in a classical costume asked us if we were interested in the Wiener Symphony. Holla! He told us about it and we got tickets for 25 Euro (half price for students, yes!!). So that night we went to a combination symphony/opera/ballet.

On our way to the symphony we passed by some other cool stuff...

Another view of the main street


The OpernRing, which is the street we took from the U1 to get to the Musieums Quartier (for future reference we'd normally switch to the U2 to get there but it was closed while they upgrade it)


The National History Museum


Jason inside one of the shrubs (not bushes) in Musuems Quartier

The symphony was AMAZING. First of all the we saw it in the opera hall where Mozart first played. It was also cool because of the music they played, which was a collection of Johan Strauss and Mozart. That's rocking msic. After the first song was done everyone was clapping like crazy, then as the clapping quieted down the musicians were getting ready to play and this lady comes in and slams the door behind her. Everyone turns around to see this woman walking in the opera hall, and we're like "man can you believe she just slammed that door!". So right then this guy in the audience stands up and yells at her. I'm thinking "Wow I can't believe he's calling her out like that! Go Vienna!" But then after a few seconds they start singing at each other and I realized it was a performance. Wow. They were amazing. We heard the opera singers on several other songs, which was cool. The balet part wasn't as cool as the other parts, but it was entertaining. During one dance this girl was "a robot" and she kept having to be rewound and repaired. At the end she knocks out the guy who was fixing her. By accident of course. Anyway, seeing an opera in Vienna was really flippin sweet. That wrapped up day one in Vienna. Heck of a day. Good thing we had an AWESOME apartment / hotel to crash in!