the internet crapped out on me the other night, so this one will just have to be a double whammy

sharkey and i are practicing in case we get mugged.

our first full day, we went to Halle, a restaurant next to the modern kunsthaus. yes, it was as delicious as it looked

a picture of sharkey at breakfast (to show his mother that he is having a good time! woohooo!)

across the street, who's that i see?
in front of the museums

our first stop: the kunsthaus historic museum
we are like tiny ants inside the massive museum

vermeers, velasquez, rafaels, and carvagiooooos

a room of rubens

and a room of heads

more beautiful grass, so we laid down in it

and yes, i took a jumping picture in front of the pretty museum

our next stop, st. stephen's cathedral

then we ventured down the avenue to the hotel sacher to get the famous sacher torte

on our way back form the secession building we saw this red sculptury thing by a train stop...

so of course we stuck our heads through it

we had a lot of fun with the wall, and it was all free fun!

just hangin'

although we were cute from the front, the back..not so much

a sculpture, just my size!

we were all too smelly to stand too close.
just kidddinggg

K FOR KATHLEEN! YAYAYA

next day, we went to schoenbrunn palace, home of the hapsburgs...and the "hapsburger", (which is not as good as the american "hapsburger")

buckle your seat belts, some gooood group pictures coming up

i'm holding up the entire gloriette

the gloriette in allll it's glory

awwww cuute

a sundial! but it was cloudy :(

at the gardens :)

my first time on a sleeper train
an 11 hour train ride from vienna to florence, quite an experience to say the least
a chlaustrophobic person would have died, but personally, i don't mind being shoved into a small space with 6 of my friends and all of our stuff.
you wouldn't believe the creativity it took to cram all 7 of us and our like 27937 pieces of luggage in this tiny sleeper compartment.
needless to say, if there was a fire, we would have been in a wee-bit-o trouble since we probably broke like 7 different fire codes.
Praise God, we got to florence safe and sound and in one piece.

photocred to melissa and her vonderfull fish-eye lens

you don't even know...
don't be deceived by our smiles..
just kidding, we were laughing almost the entire time

that's all for now, more tomorrow

HELLOOOO VIIEENNNAAA
only a short post today
ventured around vienna for the ONCE A YEAR nightwalk festival with livemusic and a bazillion people
too squishy for us americans, so we left

vienna welcomes me! :)

chess anyone? our hostel has a lifesize chessboard

"don't try to be an apple if you are a banana, you will always be a second rate apple"

julie and me by the pretty windowsill flowers, listening to some violin playing flowing into the street from the open windows

tomorrow, the real fun begins

after a 6 hour train ride, we finally arrived in MUNICH, and the sun was there waiting for us.

we spent a lot of time roaming around the train station looking for a way to get to our hostel

after emerging from the subway, we found this, marienplatz
it was so pretty!

especially these little pink flowers everywhere

there were these flowers in front of every window of the old church

us at the plaza


had dinner at the famous HOFBRAUHAUS, really huge, EVERYONE had this giant mugs of german beer and they're eating huge parts of cows that look like knees.

ended the meal with apple strudel. mmmmmm :)

another half day of munich and then off to vienna tomorrow

peekaboo! another post!

second day in berlin
sadly it rained :( but the gloom seemed to suit the city well, but maybe not so much my sandal-ed feet.

note: if you notice in my pictures, it appears i have not changed clothes, which is false. i have been wearing the same sweater, that is all :)

first we visited the pergamon museum, which was SO mind blowing! the pergamon houses some of the oldest, largest ancient architectural ruins

unfortunately, it came with a small price. in addition to the 5 euros, we waited in an hour long line in the drizzly rain. but it was well worth it

we were first greeted by the alter of zeus

i wish i could convey the scale of this bad boy, it is SERIOUSLY huge, but pictures really could not do it justice

some friends (i am clearly the tallest of the group). we had fun in this room
moving on to some more giant ancient architecture...

this one's not giant, but still nice
i bet he misses his head and arm


GIANT ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE!

i found a new pet :)

i'm hugging an ancient column! i'm probably not supposed to touch those...

the famous babylonian ishtar gate

another huge column

we stumbled upon this little, er..large gem. the berliner dome
(which is better than the berlin dome, but not as good as the berlinest dome. haha. a small pun based on superlatives)

then, unto the subway to the jewish museum by david libeskind, a famous architectural landmark. it is by far one of the best museums ive ever been to. the building in itself is breathtaking.

the exterior, a bunch of slits through the metal facade



the museum is oriented around 3 axises, the axis of holocaust, the axis of exile, the axis of continuity.

the inside has a bunch of crazy angles

the museum cannot be put into words, you have to go visit on your own. at the end of one of the axises there is a "void", a room that is 24 feet tall, not heated and not lit except for this tiny slit at the top of the wall.

another void, an art installation, a HUGE one

each one of these faces is made of heavy metal, representing fallen souls

stepping on them makes really loud echo-ey metal sounds that sounds like machinery
(don't worry, this is totally allowed, in fact, encouraged)

our next adventure:
brandenburg gate

and the reischstag, a dome built by norman foster as an addition to the government building

the inside has a light tunnel tornado thing of mirrors, we learned about it in class, something about hoop stress, i don't know.

okay that's the last of it! until next time..

munich, here i come!

love/miss you guys.