I just got back from camping out in Munich for Oktoberfest. What did you do this weekend?

When we arrived at the Stoke Travel campground at 9:00 AM on Friday, the party officially started. We were greeted by very friendly Australians with cups of cold beer and sangria before we could even put our bags down. After checking in we were able to find our tents and and get breakfast, a five-star meal of a fried egg on a piece of toast and beans. After a few hours of hanging out, we took a bus and a train into the heart of Munich for a bike tour of the city.
The bike tour was a great way to quickly see the city of Munich. It lasted about 3 hours and we got to see just how beautiful Munich is. We stopped at the "Englisher Garten" (English Garden for those who aren't fluent in German, myself included) for an authentic German lunch of french fries, sausages, giant pretzels, and last but not least, beer.
Picture
The famous Haufbrauhaus on the left

After a restless nights sleep in the tents, Saturday was the big day we got to spend at Oktoberfest. We woke up at 6:30 AM to make it to the tents early to get a table, turns out we still weren't early enough. We waited outside the Hofbräu Festhalle for over an hour in the rain before we were let inside where several large German security men ripped my umbrella out of my hands and threw it away (RIP umbrella). Fortunately, some of our friends made it inside before we did and got us a table. The Hofbräu Festhalle had seating for 7,000 people, but there had to be at least 10,000 inside and even more outside.
Picture
Inside the Haufbrau tent
Being at Oktoberfest for the opening day was really cool. The mayor of Munich goes to a tent at noon and taps the first keg, signifying the opening of Oktoberfest. As soon as he taps the first keg, all the other tents are allowed to tap their kegs and the whole building erupted. Somehow, our table was one of the first ones served. We must have gotten the beer wench to really like us somehow, hard to believe for a bunch of college students from the US. We joined in with the rest of the tent singing German drinking songs and chants (the "Let's Go Marist" chant didn't quite work out, but at least we tried).

Our tables were reserved at 3:00 PM, so security came over and screamed and blew whistles at us and kicked us out of the tent, but we like to say that we were being too loud and got kicked out on our own account. We walked around the festival grounds for a few hours, bought my souvenir stein, and then went back to the campsite for the after party. Safe to say we all slept pretty soundly that night.

WARNING: Turn your volume down for the video below!!!



After sleeping in for a few extra hours Sunday morning, we took off to Dachau concentration camp, the first Nazi concentration camp in Germany that opened in 1933. As much fun as Oktoberfest was, this experience brought all of us back to Earth. We walked around and followed a tour path with signs and descriptions of what we were seeing. Over 200,000 prisoners were incarcerated here and more than 43,000 died. Truly a humbling experience walking though the gas chambers and past the crematoriums. Being able to see the camp first hand is something that I will never forget.
We departed Munich Sunday afternoon and arrived in Florence shortly after midnight. What a weekend. I have a few days of classes and then we're off to London for the weekend. I'll be sure to give the Queen everyone's best wishes.

Prost! (German for "Cheers!")
 
I'll start by saying I never expected Croatia to be as amazing as it was. It was one of those countries that I've heard of but  knew nothing about or had any intention of visiting until we started planning and looking into trips.

We showed up at the bus meeting point and I looked around at the group and noticed something. Other than our tour guide, I was the only guy on the trip. 50 girls. 2 guys. 12 hour bus ride. It's safe to say I was a little worried for my life...

After the 13 hour overnight bus ride (highway was shut down to to incredibly strong wind), we checked into our hostel in Split, Croatia, dropped off our bags, and headed out to go white water rafting. After a bus ride through the mountains, we met the rafting crew at the Cetina River. They gave us our wetsuits, helmets, and water shoes and we were on our way.
We spent about 3 hours rafting down the river with a few breaks to swim and cliff jump. Our tour guide took us up to the top of a cliff (about 15-20 feet tall). It didn't look as far down til about half way into the jump, but it was a great experience. We asked our tour guide, Marco, about life in Croatia and he asked us about the U.S. and our culture. He was a very funny guy and made fun of the girls in the boat for being tired and not paddling hard enough. When it started raining Marco started to sing "It's raining again! Hallelujah!" until we told him the correct lyrics of "It's raining men!". Safe to say he won't be singing that on any future tours. We finished up the rafting in the pouring rain and they had dinner waiting for us (and wine to cheer everyone up).

We spent Saturday cruising Croatia's Dalmatian coastline on the Adriatic Sea on a private boat going island hopping and swimming. Tough life huh? The views from the bow of the boat were amazing and I spent the entire boat ride sitting back and watching the waves go by. Certainly could get used to this lifestyle. We stopped at the islands of Brac and Solta to swim and nap on the rock beach. I couldn't believe how clear and blue the water was. It looked more like a painting than reality. A boat ride back to shore, dinner in Trogir, Croatia, and then we called it a day.
Picture
View from the beach
On our way back to Florence on Sunday we stopped at Krka National Park to go swimming in a waterfall. Walking through the paths to get to the waterfall looked like a scene out of Avatar. The water was a little chilly but we all got over it pretty quickly. Swimming out to the base of the waterfall was unreal. It was a perfect way to end the weekend before our 10 hour bus ride back to Florence.
 
Hard to believe that it's already been two weeks since I arrived in Italy. The time is flying by and I'm constantly doing something, including going to classes. If it wasn't for Lorenzo de' Medici's strict attendance policy I'd be out cruising the islands of Greece, but unfortunately, I have class.

Last week of class was "syllabus week" where the professors just go over what we will be learning and the students go out every night to the bars. This week we had assignments and reading due. All of my classes seem really interesting and the professors are all very nice and enthusiastic about their course. They all speak English with an accent so at times it's hard to understand. I was able to pick my classes so I don't have any on Mondays, and the school doesn't have Friday classes, so I have four day weekends to travel and catch up on sleep. It's a hard life but somebody's got to do it.

I start the week off with Elementary Italian Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 9:00 AM (3:00 AM EST), were learning some key phrases and words so we can get by in conversation. Italian is pretty similar to Spanish, so I know a lot of the words already, but everything is pronounced differently so I have to retrain myself to say the words correctly. But if you just talk really loudly, wave your arms around, and roll your R's it all sounds the exact same to me.

Tuesday afternoons I have Lifestyles of Renaissance Florence with Marcello Bellini, a short, eccentric Italian man who loves to make fun of the students and himself. The first day of class he told us how mad he gets when people call him "Marshmallow" and for us to never call him that. The class focuses on the art, architecture, sculptures, and lifestyles of Florence from the 13th century and it's surprisingly much more interesting than it sounds. We talked about a couple families the first half of class and spent the second half exploring the city of Florence. We visited the Santa Trinita church and saw the chapels and tombs of the families we talked about. You get a much better understanding of the times when you're standing next to the guy's dead body. Next week we're visiting the Santa Croce church (hopefully named after my ancestors).
Picture
Santa Croce, view from the top of the Bell Tower near the Duomo
Wednesdays I have Introduction to Italian Philosophy. Not that interesting to me but still pretty cool to be reading the works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

After Philosophy I have my most interesting class, Mysteries and Sacred Knowledge in Architecture. It reminded me of the "Da Vinci Code" and so far hasn't disappointed. Today we learned about different theories and myths of ancient pyramids and how the Egyptians might not have actually build them. The professor is a self-proclaimed hippie and is pretty out there. Half way through class he stopped and lead us in meditation for ten minutes. He said we'll do a different type of meditation each class to change our level of consciousness. Can't believe I actually get credit for his class.

Thursdays I have Elementary Italian again and then Italian Style Cooking in the afternoons. The professor prides himself on using fresh and healthy ingredients low in calories. Last week we made bruschetta with buffalo mozzarella and basil, a bell pepper bread roll, baked eggplant with herbs on top, and a fruit salad with vanilla dressing. The best part is that we end each class eating all the food we just made. We're also going on two field trips for cooking, one to San Gimignano (where I did the wine tour last weekend) and the other to the Chocolate Factory of Perugina in San Sista. Hopefully it will be a little different than Willie Wonka's chocolate factory...

I'm slowing adjusting to the Florence city lifestyle. The streets are very narrow and the cars, buses, vespas, and bicycles drive incredibly fast right past you. There are always groups of foreigners on tours and gypsies begging you for money. You just put your head down walking to class and go. Other than walking around, everything moves at a much slower pace: at least two hours if you go out to eat, professors arrive late to class, the washing machine takes over two hours to finish. But it's nice to sit back and relax with a glass of wine (yes, I can legally buy alcohol now!). There are no dryers so everything has to be put on a drying rack in our kitchen over night to dry. While food shopping you just buy what you see and hope it's something you'll eat, but worst case scenario I have a Subway and McDonald's right down the street from my apartment.

Off to a family style dinner with unlimited wine now. I'll be spending this upcoming weekend white water rafting and island hopping in Croatia. Ahhh living the life!
 


After a long day drinking wine in San Gimignano, how better than to spend the next day at the beach? A few of my friends and I took a train from the Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence to Viareggio, about 1:45 hours away on the northwestern coast of Italy. After getting a little bit lost, we finally found the public beach at the end of the strip. It was great to be able to float around in the water, and it was a lot warmer than the beaches on the Cape. Not a bad view either... 
 
Today we took a day trip to Siena and San Gimignano with Bus2Alps, a student travel agency that plans day, weekend, and week long trips around Europe. Siena used to be a rival city to Florence and is home to medieval and renaissance architecture. We started with a walking tour of the city and saw the Siena Cathedral and Duomo and then walked to Piazza del Campo in the center of Siena. Twice every year, the piazza is completely transformed to host the Pailo di Siena, an incredibly dangerous horse race for both jockeys and horses. The piazza is packed full of people and everyone is dead quiet at the start of the race. I had to watch this video to actually believe it.
Picture
Piazza del Campo
From Siena we drove to Tenuta Torciano, a winery and vineyard in San Gimignano. We got the VIP treatment there, 8 different wines to sample, a plate of bread, cheeses, and salamis to try with the wines, and a plate of lasagna with truffle oil drizzled over it. The owner of the vineyard, Pierluigi, was the typical Italian wine drinker. He said wine isn't just a drink, its "passion and love." My friend Nikki had quite the encounter with the owner's nephew (video below). We all had a great time throwing back glass after glass and could have spent hours there.
Picture
My friend Kristen and I at the vineyard
Don't worry, he didn't feed or kiss me after the video stopped...

Loaded up with lots of wine, we went to the walled medieval town of San Gimignano for gelato and time to explore the city. We didn't last there very long and everyone passed out on the bus ride home.
Picture
View from overlook at San Gimignano
 
This past weekend we went on our first trip of the semester sponsored by LdM to Verona, Garda Lake, and the Swiss Alps in northern Italy. We started in Verona with a bus tour along the Adige River and saw the Bridge of Castlevecchio. We then drove up a hill to get an overlook of the entire city of Verona. It was a little rainy Saturday but still nice enough for us to walk around.
We then got dropped off in the city of Verona. Verona is the "home" to Romeo and Juliet. Although the story is not true, Verona has a courtyard called the "House of Juliet" that has a balcony and statue with Juliet. We were told it was good luck to take a picture with Juliet's "bust" (couldn't resist the corny pun). Although I have a feeling it was just a way for the locals to make fun of the tourists.
After Verona, we traveled to Garda Lake, Italy's largest lake renowned for its summer resorts. We visited the town of Sirmione located on the tip of a peninsula. Talk about a place to retire to. The view from Sirmione was incredible.
We stayed the night in Hotel America (yes, a very Italian cultural experience...) in Trento, Italy hear the foothills of the Swiss Alps in Italy. Sunday morning we left for the towns of Madonna di Campiglio and Pinzolo, two of the most famous ski resort towns in the Trentino region of the Alps. We spend almost 5 hours hiking through the mountains lead by an Alpine Guide and his daughter. The paths were narrow and directly on the sides of steep slopes, but the risk was worth the reward. We hiked to a small restaurant overlooking a waterfall and were able to actually walk right behind the water rushing down on the rocks. We were all soaked and freezing cold but it was worth it! The views from the top of the mountains were incredible. We all went into hibernation as soon as we reached the bus back to Florence. This will probably be one of my favorite trips of the semester.