And so it begins....

Ok, so I've been slacking.

I haven't posted in a long time, though I've certainly been keeping busy. Right now I just arrived in Heidelberg, my first stop for backpacking. For the next four weeks I'll be traveling through Germany, Austria, and maybe Denmark/Belgium/Luxeumbourg/Switzerland - we'll see.

I'll try and post where I'm at when possible, and throw up a few pictures from the past month and a half.

Till then, ciao.

A few little castles

First we went to Schloss (castle) Linderhof, one of King Ludwig II's smaller castles (and let's keep things in perspective, smaller is a relative word).












Neuschwanstein - the castle Walt Disney based the Magic Kingdom castle off of. There are only a few finished rooms inside, and unfortunately you're not allowed to take pictures (I was not too plussed). The only room that was really cool was the music hall, which had really cool acoustics. The tour guide heard Theo was an Opera major, and he belted out some tune, which was sweet.

We began with a 20 minute walk up the mountain, had a tour through, then hiked up to a bridge behind the castle and snapped some photos.

Feiertag, take 2

Today was the second national holiday (Feiertag) since I've been in Germany. With no class we decided to visit the Englischergarten, like Central Park but much bigger.

Stop looking at me, swan.

It has at least two Biergartens inside, one which has the Chinesischer Turm and I believe is the second largest in Germany/the world. It's a very cool place to go with a big group and hang out while the sun sets.

one of the biergartens

The Friendly Engineers

Today I met Christian, one of the guys in my building. He's from the Italian speaking part of Switzerland - I had completely forgotten that there was an Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Anyway he's a very cool guy, and we have to speak in German since his English isn't good (trust me, a GOOD thing; people always want to talk Englisch with you when they figure out you're American). Christian, Katja and I ended up walking around Karlsplatz, a really cool place at night.



We then ended up at a party with a bunch of Italian Engineers studying in Munich. They insisted on giving us food and drinks - very cool. The even had posted up flyers saying "we're having a party, come in, we like to meet random people." Very cool.

Most of them were doing Internships or finishing up their Bachelor's, and I got to hear their take on Munich and America.

Munich, Day 1+2

Yesterday I arrived in Munich after an interesting night's sleep in a Sleeper train. There were three beds, bunk style, with a little sink and barely enough room for us to fanangle our luggage in there. After a placement test and some paperwork, Jenn and I helped each other move in, which somehow took forever. I ended up in a Biergarten with a bunch of people from her building. Then Francesco, an Italian Professor, bought a bunch of drinks for everyone and we went back to the common room of his building and got to know everyone. No ice-cream social here, ladies and gents.




Today I had my first day of classes, which were very different from Frankfurt. Instead of 4 people in my class, I have about 18, which changes the whole dynamic. I think it's almost as effective though, since the teachers are really good at what they do. I was placed in too low of a class, so I'll probably move up in the next few days. We liked the biergarten from last night that we invited a bunch of different people out to get to know them.

It's gonna be a great month.

Krk

I'm off to Krk for the weekend, a very nice beach where my Aunt has a house. I'll be without internet until I get to Munich, so no posts for a few days.

Here's a pic I found online, it has awesome blue water.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Markus and I walked around Zagreb some more today. We stopped by the technical museum which had a lot of old machines from the past 100+ years, and a planetarium.

How funny would it be to see someone riding this

Old-school radiation therapy

Planetarium star maker thingy


Old Soviet space satellite

We then walked around the city some more and met up with Sandra. Saw this one the way.

Interesting graffiti

My Namesake

Today my Grandma, Nikola and I visited the place where my Grampa Egon is buried. He's who I get my middle name from.

Grandma and Grandson

In the area was also a memorial to soldiers who died in the war for Croatian Independence, and WWII. Croatia has had a tumultuous 100 years, and now is the first time that it has been at peace for a sustained period of time.





We then had some ice cream and coffee, and talked about old times. The ice cream in Croatia is displayed much differently than I've seen before, and is very creamy.

My Mother's Hometown

Some of you may not know, but my Mom was born and grew up in Zagreb, Croatia. She emigrated to the States to go to college, and eventually became a US Citizen. I've been to Zagreb once before, but I never really had the chance to explore it in my own way.

Marko was able to take some time off work and show me around the city. It was cool to see some of the places my Mom has talked about, and hear Marko's perspective about how the city is now. It's gives me a faint idea of what it might have been like growing up in a Communist city in former Yugoslavia.

City Square

Largest church in Eastern Europe

Two girls praying

Notice the dates these people were buried here, waayy before America even existed.

We ended up at a WWI museum, where I touched actual weapons used by soldiers nearly a century ago. Makes you reflect a bit.

Century-old guitar that just looked cool

Nice park near the city center

Full-gallop

I thought this guy had an interesting shape about him.

Here are some pics from the "Stone Gate," a place that once was an entrance to the city when it was fortified. Now, you can go and light a candle (for a small fee, of course), and pray for someone to get over a sickness. Apparently it works; the plaques on the walls are people thanking this place for healing a loved one.







We ventured up to above the older part of the city, with many houses probably 100+ years old. This is the part of Zagreb that's been slow to "modernize."

For hundreds of years this cannon is fired at noontime

Very cool roof on a church

My mom's old high school, now apparently a museum

I noticed this sign as we were heading home. That's just funny: