Escaping from Italy

Sunday the 19th, my supposedly last day in Italy, was spent showing Jaclyn around the city and saying goodbye to friends. Rumor had it that there was more snow coming and airports were getting messed up, but as far as we could tell our flight was still on for the next day. The at 9pm at night, 12 hours before we were supposed to fly to Frankfurt and then New York, Lufthansa posted online that our flight was cancelled, simply as that. Naturally we all flew into a panic, not having cell phones or even reliable Internet. Sara Abad finally got through to Lufthansa only to find out the soonest they could get us out was Wednesday the 23rd, two days before Christmas. This meant I was missing my non-refundable (as my father was quick to point out) flight from New York to Salt Lake and would have to attempt to non-rev home two days before Christmas. I tried to still make sure Jaclyn was enjoying her last night in Italy, yet couldn't help breaking down and crying at the thought of being stuck somewhere for Christmas, not knowing when I was going to get out, not knowing where I could stay, having no food, and only about 12 euros left.

After finally getting through to my parents,  decided I was going to try to fly stand by home from Rome on the same flight as Jaclyn Monday morning. This meant taking the 5 am train to Rome, with two giant bags, navigating the over run airport, and maybe not even getting a seat.  Once I turned off my computer that night I received a flood of emails from my parents telling me not to do it, but the next morning I was on the train to Rome, taking out people left and right with my giant bags but I didn't care, I wanted to be home.

By some Christmas Miracle I made it on the flight, first class too! I still think I owe the universe a huge favor for letting that happen. When the gate agent called my name I almost hugged her! All's well that ends well, I made it to New York, shared a hotel with Jaclyn, and got on my fight home the next morning to Salt Lake City. I never thought I would be so happy to be out of Italy.

Rome with Jaclyn

Making sure I left Italy with a bang, one of my best friends from college, Jaclyn, flew all the way out from Boston to visit and we went to Rome for the weekend. While I had been there before, it was nice to end my trip on such a historically significant note and take in all the cites with a old friend. Our first night we went to a pizza place close to the Forum but on a tiny side street. I warned Jaclyn that no one ate until 8:30, but due to jet lag she got hungry around 7. She was shocked when we were the only ones eating besides the restaurant staff until about 9:00. The pizza was amazing and the house wine was barely four euro a liter.

The next day (Friday) we woke up early and trekked off to the Vatican City. I had made us reservations ahead of time but when we showed up it turns out it was pretty much empty. There was no line any where and the Sistine Chapel was barely 1/4th full. It was so nice to be able to slowly wander and take everything in in silence with out a mass of people trying to look at each painting. We wandered over to St. Paul's cathedral where the choir was practicing for Christmas Mass. It was amazing being inside such a large church with the echo of choir all around us. Friday night we followed a recommendation out to some piazza and had an amazing pasta dinner. As we sat down it started pouring rain so we made our meal last as long as possible and even splurged on some Tiramisu.

Saturday we sought out the ruins, and saw the Coliseum, Pantheon, Forum, and a walking tour that lead us from the Spanish steps, through the main streets to Palatine Hill. Thanks to Rick Steve's we even found the best coffee in Rome. I am a coffee snob and even I thought it was excellent. We caught a late train back to Florence that night, only to arrive and find about two feet of snow on the ground!

Munich

Last weekend was mine and Sara’s last weekend trip together before we return home, so to end with a bang we ventured to Munich. This was my second trip to Munich, but we meet up with John, a friend of ours from the sailing team who had recently moved to Stuttgart and told him our two goals while there were to go to as many Christmas markets and beer halls as possible. Well let’s just say we probably hit over a dozen Christmas markets, they were everywhere! The whole town was one giant Christmas market. As for beer halls, we managed to go to three, and went to Dachau, so in the end it was quite a successful trip.

We arrived in Munich Friday night and stayed in the best hostel so far, all glass, a covered courtyard, an amazing breakfast buffet, and very clean. Our first stop was the Augistiner Brewery, one of the main four in Bavaria. It is off the path and unlike the Hofbrauhaus, very un-touristy. We sat at an open table with a nice looking couple and there two friends. As we looked at the menu, we realized that the couple was on our menu....a few questions later we find out we were sitting with the owners of the place! They were very nice, helped us decide on the best things to order and even shared some cookies with us.

Saturday morning we woke up to very cold weather, about 14 degrees Fahrenheit and due to a large snowstorm earlier in the week, the ground was covered in snow. They don't seem to shovel there, instead the snow simply covers the ground, sidewalks, and streets until it becomes packed down and everything is blanketed in white. We saw some churches, went to the Oktoberfest fair grounds (where a giant christmas market had sprung up), wandered all around, to the English garden (christmas market), Mareinplatz (giant christmas market), Odeinplatz (gluhwein stand), and even saw Sinterclaus! We ended the night at the Hofbrauhaus, where we didn't meet the owners, but we did manage to consume 8 masses (those giant steins).

Sunday was another frigid day, but we bundled up and went to the Dachau concentration camp. Seeing it covered in snow and freezing really added another element to the whole experience. We did the audio tour and saw the makeshift monuments set up for Christmas and Hanukah. In true Moffitt fashion we had a lunch of stolen sandwich material from the hostel and some hot chocolate just to warm up.
We hit up one last Christmas festival that afternoon and then headed to the airport, where low and behold there was another Christmas market! I love Germany at Christmas time!

Amsterdam!

            Mostly due to Sara’s convincing, I went to Amsterdam this weekend. I had no idea what to expect before going, it is hard to imagine Holland much past windmills and clogs, while Amsterdam had always just seemed like a town of partying backwash to me. But I went, and it turns out, I love Holland and even better, everyone there looks just like me!

            We arrived around seven on Thursday night after flying our first reputable airlines since arriving, reputable as in its theme colors weren’t neon and they actually had snacks and leg room. We meet up with a friend of ours from SACI and her friend from home for drinks in downtown and to orient ourselves. Walking from the bar to the bus stop we found our first red-lighted window, complete with a prostitute on display. At the time it was very exciting, but much like the bison in yellow stone phenomenon, by the end we would see so many it was almost obnoxious.

            Our hostel was a 30 minute bus ride to the suburbs, it was part hotel, part hostel, you could easily tell which patrons would be sleeping in the dorm rooms by the giant backpacks and/or bloodshot eyes. Our room slept six people, complete with a very very loud snorer, but it was clean and had a good free breakfast so no complaints there.

            Friday we wandered the red light district and were surprised to find that not only do prostitutes start work at 8:30 am in the morning, but also that they come in all shapes and ages, and I mean all. We saw some churches, including St. Nicholas’s, the patron saint of sailors, found the oldest pedestrian-draw bridge, admired the canals, charming row houses, and quaint feel of it all. Dutch Pancakes made up our lunch before we hit the Van Gogh museum and wandered around the 9’s district (there version of

Newberry street

or SoH0).  It was sunny but cold, probably -7 Celsius, so about every two hours we had to go inside somewhere and warm up or else suffer frostbite.

The most shocking thing about Amsterdam is the coziness of it. Everything is very well maintained and seems to be straight out of a Vermeer or Rembrandt painting. The canals with houseboats and stone bridges lead to numerous parks and every house is adorable. This charm is throughout the city, which makes the red light district so shocking, one moment you are admiring architecture, and the next moment you realize there are prostitutes in the windows and pot on the menu. Outside of the central canal though things are very calm, no prostitutes and not many coffee houses.

Saturday we woke up to a few inches of snow and trudged through it to the Anne Frank house. From there Sara went to the Rjiks museum while I found some more monuments and window shopped. Afterwards we stumbled across a Christmarket and indulged in some glue wine and morsels and are too good to describe and way to difficult to even attempt to spell.

Sunday, despite the freezing cold, we rented bikes and pretend to be local for a bit. Everyone rides bikes around, instead of burlies, they have carts in the front, like a cross between a wheelbarrow and a bike. We saw everything being transported in these carts from up to five children to a week’s worth of groceries. We rode around all the canals, Vondelpark, and managed to never be hit by a car or fellow biker. It was then time to head to the airport and hope back on a plane to Florence.

Assisi

Art History Field Trip to Assisi

Since I only have five weekends left here, I decided to mix up my fun and care-free travels with something a little more serious. So this past weekend I joined in on the art history class's field trip to Assisi, Arezzo, Urbino, and some other small random towns and seemed to hold significance to everyone but me. I went a long because I wanted to see Assisi, the trip was free including hotel, and all my friends were going. It sounds great, being able to go to all these museums, hear vital information about the architecture of churches and frescoes, but once you meet the teacher, Helen, you would understand the seriousness of the situation.

Helen has no last name, like Madonna, or Sting. She is either a well kept 70 or a hard lived 50. I tried to look at her hands as an indicator, but they never stayed still. She is a whirlwind, walking at a pace even my parents would have trouble keeping up with and constantly spouting a fountain of encyclopedic knowledge regarding every detail of a painting or church. She could talk for two hours about an alter that looks like every other renaissance alter, in fact she did talk for two hours about said alter, always in the same tone, no voice infliction is ever used.

Luckily for me though, I am not in the class and will not have to take a test on the information, so after about ten minutes I would simply shut of my headset with her voice being pounded into my skull, and walk around the church or museum in silence. I got to see some amazing things, including St. Francis church where his tomb is. It is the most elaborately decorated church, covered in frescoes that even I could love. His tomb is simply, fitting with his lifestyle, and surrounded by monks and other pilgrims, silently praying. We saw his old cell where there is a statue of him that two turtle doves live in. A long time ago a dove built a nest in the statue's hands and two of them have been there ever since. I am trying to stay idealistic and ignore the fact they are probably trained pets and simply a tourist attractions. Assisi, Arezzo, and Urbino are adorable walled cities, bustling with old women in aprons, men leaning out the window sills, fresh back bread and church bells. I tried to take in as much of the towns charm as possible as we speed walked across it, all of Helen's body titled forwards to propel herself as much as possible.

In Urbino we got a tour of the palace were Duke Fredrich lived (the man in that painting in the Uffizi with the huge nose). We saw the servant’s quarters, the master chambers, and heard all about the paintings that adorned the walls. I tried to listen, but at one point I started taking pictures with my friends trying to poise like the Duke instead.

There was lots of driving in the bus, but at the end of the day Saturday we were rewarded with an amazing farm fresh dinner at our "hotel". Eating family style with about half the kids of SACI was really fun and I got to know a lot of people I never would of meet otherwise. The unlimited wine helped this friendly atmosphere and by the time our four course dinner was done everyone immediately went to bed. That’s what a full day of art history does to you, makes you fall fast asleep despite the fact it was barely ten o'clock. Sunday was filled with more driving and art learning. I saw the only painting of a pregnant Virgin Mary, climbed a hill to an old tower, saw frescoes and paintings and "miracle crosses" until I had art knowledge coming out of my ears.
It was all worth it though, I don't think I would have made it to these small towns on my own, and hey, now if it ever comes up, I can talk about the different between Pietro's frescoes and Davied's in the Marches church. Oh I also saw Rapheals house, well his parent’s house, but he was born there. I only know he matters because a turtle ranger is named after him, but to everyone else in the class this was like the holy shrine of Renaissance painting. I looked interested, but really I was just eating gummy bears.

Lovely Prague in the Fall!