drum roll please...

family and friends,

italy has come and gone and we were fortunate enough to see so much. we consider ourselves very lucky to have visited a place so vast with history. many of you have been asking about it, and really, we could write individual entries about the food or the history or the art alone, but to save attention spans, we'll keep it to one post, although it will be long. so here is our trip, day by day:

friday-
when we stepped off our plane from our two hour flight into rome, we literally had no idea how to get to our hostel, so naturally, we got lost on our way. after riding the trams, trains, buses, and walking around the city, we eventually put our pride aside and got a taxi. with a steep fee, he successfully took us to our destination. after we got settled in our tiny room which housed 6 other people, we went out into the city to find food. our first meal was delicious: scrumptous pizza and pasta. after dinner we got gelato. italian gelato is fantastic, and we got it at least once a day. what amazed us on the first day was our frequent and random stumblings upon crazy ruins which are mixed in with more modern buildings all throughout the city.

saturday-
queues are very common when attempting to get into the vatican, so when we walked there, we were greeted by a line took us about 2 hours to get through. waiting in the line was worth it however, since we got to see some the most amazing art that has ever been created. as we walked through the vatican, we saw numerous sculptures, busts, and paintings from before even jesus' time. it was filled with renaissance art by leonardo, michaelangelo, raphael, and donatello. basically we hung out with the pope and the ninja turtles all day. cowabunga! at the end our tour through the museum, we found ourselves in the sistine chapel which took michaelangelo 8 years to complete. we were truly awestruck when we stepped into the room that was covered in depictions of biblical stories. taking pictures was strictly forbidden in the sistine chapel. however, we had to snap a few before getting yelled at by the chapel security.







following the vatican, we strolled over to st. peter's basilica which is a gigantic, overwhelming church with mile high ceilings and numerous works of art. when we first entered the church, we accidentally stumbled upon the basement where all of the deceased popes were held in their tombs. many people were paying their respect to their past catholic leaders. although it wasn't as meaningful for us, it was still very interesting to see the veneration of the individuals towards the popes. however, what blew us away was the tomb of peter. PETER!?! we were pretty dumbfounded to know that one of the most popular biblical figures was laying before us. the rest of our time at st. peter's was spent wandering around the cathedral, admiring it's beauty.







sunday-
we woke up early (although we did everyday) and made our way over to the area with the most concentrated ruins: the roman forum. on our way, we randomly ran into the spot where julius ceasar was murdered. from the morning to the early afternoon, we roamed around (pun intended) some of the oldest buildings and structures in the world. the roman forum leads up to palatine hill, which is where the first settlement in italy occurred. that means that we were walking through structures that are some 3-4,000 years old. it was really cool because although the buildings no longer have roofs, they still have walls and you can clearly see how the set up of houses, churches, and other institutions looked. it was hard to imagine people just like us living their daily lives in these places.



finally, at the end of the ruins stands the ever so popular coliseum. it was huge! much larger than we had imagined. finished in 80 AD, it is truly remarkable that this building still stands. we spent some time outside just staring at it, but eventually we went inside to take a look. it was so cool to see all the detail and to try and imagine animals, gladiators and christians fighting in the arena below. they had part of the floor of the arena removed so that you could see below where the animal cages where kept and where the other chambers existed. it was one of the most remarkable things we saw.





monday-
this was another history-filled day for us. we started by going to the piazza navona, a famous town square where many artists and vendors were selling their work. next we passed the tower that was erected in honor of marcus aurelius, it was quite detailed. we also visited the famous trevy fountain, although apparently someone had spilled red paint in the fountain the day before, so the fountain was emptied and being cleaned. it lacked a little luster. next, we visited the spanish steps- a popular meeting point for both toursits and locals alike for years passed. finally, we ended our afternoon with the pantheon, which was the largest dome in the world before the invention of reinforced concrete in the 20th century. it is the best preserved building of it's time- built in 27 BC. the circle and the dimensions of the dome are so perfect that to this day, they do not know how they achieved this without modern technology. it also holds the tomb of raphael and many other italian kings.





that night, we had our first evening to spend just the two of us, so we had a nice dinner and walked around the city a bit. it was very nice.

tuesday-
we were both excited to see the countryside, so when it came time to board our train to florence we had high expectations. during our ride, a train attendant came up to us and checked our tickets. suddenly he started lecturing us in italian, so we were both very confused. he eventually spoke in english and told us that we didn't stamp our tickets and we could face a possible 50 euro ($75) fine each. luckily he had mercy on us, but it was quite a scare. once we arrived in florence, we got delicious pizza at a nearby restaurant. italian style pizza is very thin and uses less sauce than american pizza. it's very tasty.

wednesday-
on wednesday, we went to the santa croce which held the tombs of many prominent italians, namely michaelangelo and galileo. it also housed a sculpture by donatello and many renaissance pieces. following the santa croce, we got lunch at a place called mario's. mario's is an authentic italian eatery, with noisy locals and a busy, but endearing staff mainly consisting of family members. the meal was so good that we broke our "no eating at the same restaurant more than once" rule and ate there twice. afterwards we went to the duomo which is one of the world's largest cathedrals. the building was beautifully decorated with stained glass windows by donatello. then we went to the accademia which was one of our most favorite places in florence because it displayed michaelangelo's famous david sculpture.







thursday-
we took a day trip with our good friend bradley from florence to pisa to visit the leaning tower of pisa. it was a lot of fun to take silly pictures, and the tower leaned more than we thought! it was one of our more relaxing days. also worth mentioning is the fact that we set out specifially to find a good canoli to eat that day. we were successful. we also visited the pitti palace, the home of the medici family.





friday-
friday we woke even earlier than normal because we had a reservation at the uffizi gallery- without reservations the wait is 2-3 hours to get in. so we arrived only to learn that the national gallery workers had gone on strike and the gallery was closed for the day. we were upset, so we boosted our spirits by going to mario's again. that afternoon, just the two of us travelled back to rome for the evening, and we walked to the coliseum at night. we managed to find a reasonable restaurant with a great view of the coliseum, and it was a wonderful way to end our trip.

saturday-
the next morning we flew back to prague. when we arrived we stepped out of the airport, happy to be back on familiar ground.

wow. so that was pretty long. i'm guessing not everyone read it all, but hopefully they looked at our pictures. we loved our stay in italy and had a blast with john and bradley.

this weekend we leave the country once more to go to poland to visit auschwitz. we think it will be a pretty heavy trip. nevertheless, we are very excited.

we love you all and look forward to seeing you in about a month and a half!

d&a

p.s. we have a lot more photos, so when we get home, we'll show you the rest. and if you have any questions, ask!

ciao bella

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been so long since we've last posted, but this week has been a busy one with a lot of papers and midterms. Not to mention all the preparations for Italy! Just to let you know, as I write this post, Drew is in the kitchen cooking up a storm. It smells so good! He gets his good cooking skills from his mom :)

Last weekend we went to a spa town in the mountains called Karlovy Vary. Many czechs travel to this town not only for its spa services, but for the hot spring that runs through the town. The water from the spring is high in minerals, so it is believed to have healing powers. So people come from all over the Czech Republic with their ailments in hopes to drink the water and be healed. We, fortunately, had no ailments to test the water with, but we did taste it. If you ever make it out to K.V., DON'T DRINK THE WATER just for the heck of it. It tastes like blood. No Joke.

On a more positive note, the town is charming. It is situated along the path of a river and the pastel buildings make it quite colorful. Because the town is in the mountains, it was also a nice day to enjoy the fall weather. We even took some time to play in the leaves. Another cool thing about this trip was that there were only about 12 other students with us. Which meant that we got a much more personal experience with our staff guide, "Z". He took us to his favorite coffee shop (where I found chai for the first time EVER since coming on this trip!!!), his favorite restaurant (where Drew had the best czech meal he's had yet), and to a Russian Orthodox church. I don't think visiting the churches of this country will ever get old.











I can't believe that we leave in the morning for Italy. It has come so soon! Italy has been a dream of mine for years and I am so blessed to be going so early in my life. I predict a lot of history, beauty, food and chaos all packed into one week. When we get home, we will only have 6 more weeks here in Prague. Time has flown by!

So you won't be hearing from us for about a week and a half again. We miss home more every day and constantly talk about certain aspects of life that we're craving, and people that we can't wait to see!

fuori all'Italia!
Alie

cesky krumlov...

hello again, drew here,

another week has passed and we've got so much to tell!!! ... not really, but what we do have to say is pretty interesting...

this past weekend the institute took us to cesky (chesky) krumlov, a quaint little town that seemed to be plucked right out of a fairy tale. it had a castle on a hill with winding cobblestone roads lined with colorful buildings. it's important to mention that c.k. had absolutely no commercial activity which is what made it so charming. no mcdonalds, no tommy hilfiger, no kentucky fried chicken, just local mom & pop restaurants and gift shops. as we climbed the hill to the castle, we were stopped by a moat that caged 2 bears. the bears are now just an attraction, but when the castle was occupied it was guarded by the bears.















during our walk throughout the castle exterior we were stopped by numerous overlooks onto the town. they were all breathtaking. then we walked through castle garden which was a beautiful sight to see since the tree leaves were starting to change to their autumn colors. after roaming the castle we walked back down the hill to further explore the town. we wandered the streets to find chocolatiers, marionette shops, antique shops, and other authentic czech knick knack stores. it was a nice change from the busy streets of prague.





alie and i have decided that cesky krumlov is our favorite town that we have visited, thus far.

classes are beginning to pick up. our first paper was due today and we have alot of reading to do for later this week. school is school, we are just happy to be in prague.

we miss and love you,
drew

weinerschnitzel for all!

hello world,

well, it's a new week and we have a lot to tell about. since we last wrote, we've been to vienna and back. it was a really great trip that exceeded my expectations. i always picture vienna as a rural countryside. i suppose the only idea of austria that i have is the sound of music, even though that took place in salzburg.

so our first day consisted of alot of travelling, since it took around 5 hours to get from praha to wien. once we arrived at our destination, i was surprised to find out that vienna is very beautiful with massive monuments and statues. friday we walked as a group to the center of town, and then dispersed to explore for the evening. then on saturday morning, "z", an AIFS tour guide gave us a tour of the city. he took us to a few churches that were amazing as usual and we were also able to see where beethoven and mozart lived. i never knew that vienna possessed so much history. after the tour we were given the opportunity to go some nearby museums and do whatever else we pleased for day. this is when alie and i unfortunately got split up. i thought that she had gone off with another group of people, so my friend bradley and i when to a couple museums on our own. we went to the museum of modern art where there were some works by warhol, yoko ono, sigmer polke, and others. after that we went to the museum of fine arts which was in a beautiful building. my favorite part of that museum was the egyptian artifacts.





ok, so i'm going to let alie take over from here, but before i do, i need to take this moment to express my excitement for some recent news:
RADIOHEAD HAS FINISHED THEIR ALBUM "IN RAINBOWS" AND IT WILL BE RELEASED ON THE 10TH OF OCTOBER!!! i have preordered this album and i'm so excited to get it. i've been waiting for 4 years to get this album!!! ... ok here's alie. see ya.

hey all. when drew thought that i had gone off with another group, i was actually sitting in the grass reading a map. when i looked up, the group had dispersed. so i spent the afternoon alone, but i didn't let it ruin my experience. i, too, went to the museum of modern art. i also spent some time in a few of vienna's amazing parks, sampled their famous "sacher torte" (dense chocolate cake that was first created at a hotel in vienna), and wandered around because it was such a beautiful day. eventually, drew and i were able to meet back up in the evening and, of all places, guess where we ended up? that's right, starbucks. i'm not sure how he did it, but drew was able to go a whole month without starbucks here in prague. so, of course, we had to visit when we found one in vienna.







the next morning, we woke up early to go hear the famous vienna boys choir perform at a catholic mass. they sounded amazing, but unfortunately we weren't the only tourists who tried to take advantage of this free event (how can they charge for holy mass?), so we were left standing in the lobby of the church. that afternoon we visited the hundertwasser-krawinhaus, which is a 15 apartment complex designed by a contemporary artist. i can't really describe it with words, so pictures will have to do.



we then spent the rest of the afternoon at the schonburn palace, which was the summer palace where the hapsburgs lived, and also where marie antoinette spent a lot of time, and where the movie took place. it was gorgeous and we could have spent the whole day there. they had emaculate gardens that stretched for miles, the reminded me of the gardens in alice and wonderland. also on the grounds was a state of the art greenhouse and a zoo. we were sad to leave vienna because it was so pretty, and we both agree that we could have spent much more time there.







so that wraps up the weekend. monday we had classes, and today we had the day off because the school was closed to prepare the pipes for the winter (or something). we went to the john lennon wall, which is a giant wall that during communist regime was a representation of peace fueled by lennon's music. the wall is covered in graffiti, stating mantras of peace and love. several times, the soviets painted over the graffiti, but it kept being repainted by the czech people each time.





we then went to a restaurant that a teacher of mine recommended for their hot chocolate. i ordered this as my drink, but when it arrived i found out that it was literally hot chocolate- it tasted like warm brownie batter. nonetheless, it was a really cool place to eat at. it probably sounds like we eat out a lot, because we're always writing about different restaurants, but i promise we really don't. we only eat out about once a week.



the rest of the week looks pretty quiet. it's supposed to rain a lot, so we might visit the museum of communism and a few art galleries. this weekend we are going to cesky krumlov for the day, i won't say too much about that now because i really don't know too many of the details. the only thing i've heard is that it reminds people of a town in a fairy tale.

we miss you all, and we love hearing about what's happening back home. we're sad to miss sam's 2nd birthday on sunday, but that just means that you bergens will have to send us lots of photos.



love, alie