Thursday, June 28, 2007
Yellow
School
The school organizes several activities outside the classrooms to get us to meet other students outside our classmates. For example 2 weeks ago we went to a beer garden inside the English Garden. This is a very big park in the heart of the city; something similar to central park in New York City. We had a beer right next to the Chinese Turm or Chinese Tower. There were about 12-15 students who came to this activity where we all shared a little bit about ourselves while drinking a beer and enjoying a typical Bavarian meal. I had the best pork schnitzel that I’ve eaten in Germany so far. They have also organized a couple of get togethers to play pool at a bar near the school and a visit to the “Tollwood” festival in the Olympic center. Tollwood is just a festival that takes place everyday of the week between June and July. It is an arts and crafts festival with food tents from all over the world, music tents, beer gardens and lots of people.
Thus far my plan is go to school the remaining of June and all of July. I will probably take a break in August and then resume my school activities in September.
Friday, June 22, 2007
The first 3 weeks
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English Garden --- Marien Platz
I finally found a place of my own for which I already signed the lease contract a couple of days ago. Now I just need to wait for the landlord to sign the contract so that I can deposit the 1st month’s rent and deposit on the landlord’s account and Bingo: I will be given the keys to the apartment. Well, to call it an apartment or even a studio is an overstatement. I call it my “Streichholzschächtelchen” or little matchbox (ja ja ja, just trying to teach you some German). By the way, they say that if you can read this word correctly you will have no problem mastering the language. The studio is located in an area of town called “Neuhausen”. It is on the northwest part of Munich but close to the city center. It has a small hallway with a closet, a small kitchenette, one room that functions as a bedroom/living/room/dining room/family room etc. etc plus a bathroom and a balcony. It is completely furnished and it even comes with a TV. Something that Carlo’s apartment lacks and that is driving me somewhat insane. I haven’t watched the news or TV for that matter, since the last hotel night in Milan. I have no clue as to what is going on in the world. For all I know Fidel could be dead, a couple of tropical storms or even hurricane could have been close to hitting somewhere along the eastern coast of the U.S, .the democratic and republican primaries could be over, or allies could have taken over part of the world (anywhere but Munich) without me knowing about it. Ok, where was I? The studio won’t be available until July 1st so in the meantime I will continue to live in my friend’s (Carlos) apartment. What I love about my place is that it is near a lively “platz” or square called “Rotkreutzplatz”. The square has several restaurants and cafés with tables set outside, shops, small supermarkets, fruit stands, and a department store. I will post some pictures of the area once I move in. One of the subway lines as well as 2 trams and 3 buses (one of them a night bus that runs from 1 until 5 o’clock in the morning) stop at Rotkreutzplatz. So this area is easily accessible 24 hours a day with public transportation. And the building is about a 5 minute walk from Rotkreutzplatz. I also love the fact that it is located about a 20 minute walk to the Olympic Center (where the 1972 Olympics took place. Yes, the same ones portrayed in the movie Munich) and the castle of Nympherburg. Places where I plan to bike to and jog once I purchase a bike and get back to my jogging routine. I’ve realized that just as there is a cult to the beer in Munich there is definitely a cult to the bicycle. In this city there are probably as many bikes as there are cars. I swear; one of my biggest fears is not to be hit by a car, but to be run over by a bike. There may very well be no criminality in this city to worry about but there are plenty of bikes that threaten your every day life. All the streets in Munich have a bike path in between the sidewalk and the street. And when I say all I mean absolutely all the streets. At the beginning it was horrible because I was not used to having to watch out for bikes. I was close to getting into a bike accident on a few occasions. Of course, since my brain was not aware of the existence of bike paths and I was not used to having to watch out for bikes. I would just walk or stand on a bike path without paying attention or without looking both ways before crossing to make sure there were not bikes rapidly approaching me. So I’ve decided to get me a bike to ride while I´m here. They tell me that I can get a second hand bike for 30-40 euros and then sell it back for 20-30 euros when I leave.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Cinque Terre
On Thursday night we finally arrived at Cinque Terre. The last stretch of the trip and perhaps the place we were looking forward to visit the most. This last part of the trip was also a relaxing one. It was a perfect way to end up the 3 week long vacation before starting my new life here in Munich. We arrived to Monterosso at night after a 2 hour train ride and after having dropped the car in Pisa. Since the ride took place at night we did not see much of the area’s landscape except for some very minor glimpses of the water. Nevertheless, we were as excited to see the water as Christophe Columbus was to see land. The next morning we realzed that once the train gets into this region it goes inside many tunnels as it moves along the coast an through the cliffs, so there was not really much more to see from the train.
Monterosso is one of five villages that make up Cinque Terre or "Five Villages", a region of the Liguria coast on the Italian Mediterranean. Monterosso is the northern most village of the 5. All the villages are small and mainly pedestrians with colorful houses, very narrow streets, lots of small shops, restaurants and cafes and very relaxed tourists. Just by looking at the people who are walking down the streets or sitting down while they drink a Limoncello (a lemon liquor from Italy), you can tell that everyone is at ease, totally stress less and truly enjoying themselves. The towns are connected via different hiking trails along the coast line or other trails that go deeper into the mountains. All of the trails are located in what is called the Cinque Terre National Park. There is also the option to go from town to town by train, bus or boat. The train takes anywhere between 2-5 minutes to go from one town to the next.
On Friday morning we woke up to a thunderstorm. Very similar to the ones we are used to in Miami: with a couple of power outages and momentary interruptions included. Our plan was to hike a couple of the trails so we had to wait for the rain to stop before we could leave the hotel. Around noon, with the ticket to enter the 5Terre National Park in our hands, the map highlighting all of the trails, a bottle of water and a recharged battery for the camera we finally embarked on the first hiking adventure of the day.
Hiking trail
The park has many trails, however there are 4 that are the closest to the coast. These trails take you from one village to the next. The first trail we walked was from Monteroso to Vernazza. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes. This first trail is supposed to be the hardest one. You start by going up the mountain through a series of very steep steps that seem endless. But once you are done with this first series of step you just continue on a somewhat straight trail until it is time to start coming down. The views from the top are breathtaking. Whatever I can tell you to describe it will not the place any justice, so I will let you judge for yourself by looking at the pictures we took.
View of Vernazza
Flowers I collected on the way from Monterosso to Vernazza
View of Monterosso from trail --- View of Vernazza from trail
When we got to Vernazza it was time for us to have lunch. We sat down at a place near the water to have some pesto pasta. The pesto sauce comes originally from this region. I had a pesto lasagna that was to die for, with only layers of pasta, cheese, and pesto sauce. After lunch we took the train to Riomaggiore, the southern most village, and just walked around town. From Riomaggiore we walked 20 minutes to the next village: Manarola. From Manarola we walked about 40 minutes to the next village: Corniglia. Every village is as enchanting and colorful as the previous one. All filled with small shops selling arts and crafts from this region. Shops where the owner of the place is the artist himself and is happy and proud to sell and exhibit his or her art to all the tourists that visit them.
By the time we left Corniglia it was getting late and the sun was starting to set so we took the train back to Monterosso to avoid hiking in the mountain while it was dark.
On Saturday it rained again in the morning so we just "chilled" in Monterosso until it was time for our train departure to Milan. We had a quiet afternoon in Milan. We just walked the area around the cathedral. We ended the night rather early since we all had to wake up at the crack of dawn to take a train/flight the following morning. And well, you already know how the day went on Sunday when I headed back to Munich.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Under the Tuscan Sun...and Rain
Tuscan Landscape
After managing to get out of Rome we went first to the town of Orvieto; a place known mainly for a special kind of white wine produced in the region. Unfortunately it was raining most of the time we were there. Nevertheless we walked around town and did a little bit of wine tasting. We then drove to the nearby town of Montepulcino. Another place known for its wine. We followed the same routine from Orvieto: wine tasting, walked around town, and had dinner. After dinner my dear travel companions decided it was a good idea to drive around town to see the part of town we had not gotten to see earlier. If I had to compare the roads of Montepulcino to something else it would have to be with the roads in Toledo: extremely narrow roads made of stones (not paved), with cars sometimes parked along the side of the road, roads that go up and down, and of course no traffic lights, only a couple of stop signs from time to time. Oh! And did I tell you this was at 10 o’clock at night? I made a wrong turn and ended up on what seemed to be the entrance to the parking of a building that was under construction. Karina and Marelys had to get out of the car in order to guide me in getting out of there ...in reverse.
The first thing we looked for when we arrived in Pisa: the leaning tower of course!! The tower is located in an area called "Campo dei Miracoli" or Field of Dreams . 4 buildings sit on this green field: the cathedral or duomo, the baptistery, the cemetery and the tower. The leaning tower is the bell tower of the duomo. The tower started to lean soon after construction began in 1173 because of a poorly laid foundation. It turns out that all of the buildings are leaning or sinking one one side, not only the tower; it’s just that the tower is the one with the biggest problem. However, the tower went thru some major restoration effort a couple of years ago and they were able to correct the lean by about half a degree .
Campo dei Miracoli
Driving in Italy
-Pic1:Which lane do you take when you have to read this set of signs from a distance of 500´?
-Pic2: This sign tells you that the street will make a weird turn around what seems to be a block, a building or whatever else your imagination tells you.
Have you ever been told a joke, seen movies or heard about the way Italians drive? Well, if you have driven or at least witnessed how people in Latin America drive then you can have a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about: chaotic. Before leaving Miami we decided to be braver this time around and rent a car in Italy thinking this would give us the opportunity to drive to different Tuscan towns at our own pace and enjoy the scenic routes without having to rush to catch a train or bus. Tuesday morning we attempted to leave Rome at a decent time (right after breakfast) in our Opel Astra and head out to beautiful and sunny Tuscany. Since it was raining badly in Rome we left our luggage in the hotel, walked about 5 blocks from the hotel to the car rental counter at the main train station and picked-up the car 3 blocks from the station. Our goal was to avoid the 8 block walk with our heavy bags in the rain. At the Avis counter we were given the pertinent maps for Rome, Karina (as the good planner she is) had brought from Miami 2 maps with the major Italian roads, the previous night I had psychologically prepared for the driving experienced, and had prayed 2 rosaries , and Marelys had learned how to curse in Italian in case we needed this sort of skill. So as you see we were as prepared as we could for the road experience. Well, I’m exaggerating a little bit. We only had the maps and the psychological preparation with us.
Lesson #1 when driving in Rome: 95%f the streets are one way (once again I am exaggerating. I must have gotten it from the Italians). But it is true that a lot and I really mean a lot of streets are one way streets. So even though we made an L to get to the car (5 blocks going north-south along one street and 3 blocks going east-west on a second street) we had to make a WW followed by an S before we could get back to the hotel. What we walked in 7 minutes took close to 15 minutes by car. At the Avis counter we were also given directions on how to get out of the city and into the "Autostrada" or expressway. Just take a wild guess, how much time do you think were we told it would take us to get to the Autostrada?? 20 minutes. You are doing very well!!
Ok, let me continue with lesson #2: develop your eyesight. You need to be someone close to the 6 million dollar man or bionic women to be able to read the street names as most of them are just a plaque made out of stone in a somewhat white or grayish color with the name of the street engraved. And on top of it they are mounted into the walls of a building that are basically the same color. I know I can only speak for myself so I can only tell you that for me it was nearly impossible to read the name of the street we were in, to determine where the heck we were on the map. Thank god we had Marelys, who happens to have excellent eyesight and could make some sense of the street names.
Lesson # 3: develop your sixth sense or intuition skills. Many times we found ourselves driving and then noticing that the street would split into 3 directions ahead of us. You do see a bunch of confusing signs at a distance (exactly at the point where you have to make the turn and it is too late to make a decision). So where do you go? Left? Right? Keep on going straight? This is why I say you have to develop a sixth sense. And even with that you are bound to make the wrong turn, choose the wrong direction to divert into and end up in a loop or having to go around 20,000 one way streets to make it to the same point again and make the right turn the second, third, or fourth time around.
Instead of 20 minutes it took us about 1-1.5 hours to get to the Autostrada. And the only reason we made it in this time frame is because we had 2 great co-pilots. By the way, Marelys never had to use the cursing skills….
Now, would I do it again? Absolutely. It was an entertaining and amusing experience. You just can’t stress about it. And at the end it allowed us to achieve our goals. We survived the experience, had fun at it and thank God had no problems.
Rome
Our arrival in Rome meant going back to the fast pace of the big cosmopolitan city. If you add to it that there is soooo much history in Rome you can imagine how much sightseeing there is to do and how many monuments, buildings, churches, ruins, columns, etc, there are to visit. We went of course to most of the major "tourist" attractions:
-The Coliseum
-The Roman Forum
View of St. Peter´s Cathedral from the rooftop of Castello St. Angelo
-Piazza del Popolo, Piazza Venezia, and many more Piazzas
-Vatican City: St. Peter’s Cathedral together with a small tour of the crypt where the popes are buried. We went to the Vatican Museum and of course the Sistine Chapel.
-The Spanish Steps
-La Fontana di Trevi (Trevi’s fountain)
Rome was a lot of fun. It is a hectic city but the Italian people make it a very colorful and even folkloric place. One thing for sure is that the Italians will never die of stress or of a heart attack. They don’t rush for anything (well, except driving). When you ask them about a time frame everything takes 10-20 minutes, if you asked them about distances everything is close. Nothing for them is a burden, nothing is complicated. And of course at the beginning your tendency (or at least ours) is to believe them. But once it’s been 45 minutes and you are still waiting or you still have not gotten to your destination you begin to wonder if it’s not just part of who they are.
Exhibit A: We want to walk to the coliseum, is it far? How long will it take?? -Si si il coliseo vicino vicino dieci minute diestra, sinistra, diestra, sinistra- (Yes yes, the coliseum close, 10 minutes, right, left, right left). Once you get to the coliseum 40 minutes later and after 3 other Italians you asked on your way tell you the same (vicino, vicino, 10 minute) you wonder why you paid attention to Italian #1 and didn’t just take the subway in the first place .
Friday, June 8, 2007
Amalfi Coast
Wednesday, May 23 - Friday, May 25
The next 2 days were spent visiting a couple of towns near Sorrento that are also part of the Amalfi Coast. Here is a summary of what we did during those 2 days:
- Thursday: Took a boat to the town of Amalfi (population 7,000) to be able and enjoy the view of the coast from the Mediterranean. You can see some pictures taken from the boat. We walked around town and visited the Cathedral of Amalfi. Inside the cathedral you can visit (as we did) the Crypt of St. Andrew (the Apostle). The remains of the saint are preserved in this crypt.
- Returned to Sorrento via boat
- Friday: Took a 20 minute boat from Sorrento to the island of Capri. We checked out of the hotel that morning and brought our luggage to Capri. Left the luggage in a little storage place inside a store so we could do some sightseeing. First we went to the blue grotto by boat. Just look at the picture to appreciate the beauty of this place. After coming back from the blue grotto we took a bus to the capital of the island: AnaCapri.
View of the Amalfi Coast ---- Cathedral of Amalfi
Island of Capri, on our way to the blue Grotto---Blue Grotto
- Got on a chair lift that takes you all the way to the top of the mountain in about 15 minutes. Up there you are supposed to have the best views of both cities and on clear days you should be able to see Mt. Vesuvius from there.View of the island of Capri from mountain top in Anacapri
- Took another boat trip for about 1 hour (with our luggage) to the city Naples
- Took a taxi from the port in Naples to the main train station. The taxi driver called himself “Speedy Gonzalez…andale andale”. So you can just picture how fast he was going, how many traffic violations he committed, and how many times we had a near encounter with death. Just to give you an illustration of what I’m talking about, while driving on a main road he ran into a police car (carabinieri) and he was disappointed because he couldn’t speed anymore. So what did he do? He quickly deviated to the entrance of a mini bus terminal, speeded along the streets where only buses are supposed to go, got back into the main road (ahead of the police) and continued on his merry way letting us know once again that he was “Speedy Gonzalez”
- Took a train from Naples to Rome
- Arrived in the eternal city around 11:30 at night
Berlin
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TV tower in Alexanderplatz
Outside Berlin Cathedral and City view from top of the Dome
The Berliner Dome (Berlin Cathedral) is for example of one of those buildings. We climbed all the way to the top of the Dome to get a good glance of the city.
Continuing our walk down Unter den Linden we ran into one of Berlin’s opera houses: The Staatsoper. It turns out that night was the last performance of the season for the opera “Manon”. This year they decided to broadcast live the performance on big screens on the “platz” or square right outside the opera house in an event called “staatsoper für alle” or opera for everyone. So in trying to become somewhat cultured, we decided to stay throughout the whole performance and enjoy the nice evenin.
http://www.staatsoper-berlin.org/spielplan/detailansicht.php?id_event_cluster=60640&id_event_date=139517&id_language=2&show=pics&aktiv=special
Other places we visited that are a must when you go to Berlin include:
- Checkpoint Charlie and Haus am Checkpoint Charlie –. Checkpoint Charlie was the “border” or control point to cross from Berlin's U.S sector to the soviet one.
- Berlin Wall (East Side Gallery: this is about a kilometer long piece of the Berlin Wall that has not been thorned down.
- Reichstag: the German parliament
Let's Talk Vacation
Monday, June 4, 2007
The Vacation is Over
For me it was a relaxing trip back home where I got to rest after 20 days filled with sightseeing activities, walks across towns, never ending steps leading to churches, domes, small towns on top of mountains, and long nights talking and catching up with my friends. I got to sleep for about 3 hours and woke up to what I believed was the border between Italy and Austria. I believed so because of the landscape and the small towns we were crossing at the time (Alpine looking mountains with snow still covering their peaks, forests along the mountains, small towns visible along side of the mountains and houses made of white painted concrete and dark or maple colored wood). It turned out to be that we were still in the northern part of Italy and we were still about an hour to an hour and a half from the border. I have to say that I was surprised by how “austro-germainc” (is this a word or am I making it up?) this part of Italy looked. I liked what I saw and now I will definitely consider visiting this region in one of my future travel plans. I spent the remainder of the trip listening to music, catching up with my book reading, sleeping some more and just enjoying the view. One of the best parts of the view was being able to see a sunny day with a clear blue sky. The last stretch of our vacation was filled with rainy and gloomy days so it was a great feeling to get back to Munich and find such a great weather. The train arrived about 20 minutes late (something almost unheard of in this country). One thing that you can count on as far as the train/bus/subway schedule in Germany is that they are always on time. I seriously think that this is the first time I experience tardiness in any mean of transportation in Germany; but hey, there is always a first time. As a matter of fact, I was glad we were late; it gave an extra power nap of 20 minutes!!!
I spend the rest of the day just chilling: a lot of it was consumed by downloading to my laptop the close to 500 pictures we took during the trip. You know me: I downloaded them, categorized them by place and date and renamed them accordingly, edited a couple of them that needed to be cropped etc etc. Now all I need is to finally be able to connect my laptop to a high-speed internet connection so I can upload them to the blog and start sharing them with you.