The MikeCam

My rotten brother is spending a week in Washington doing all kinds of exciting things while I sit at home! Yesterday he visited the National Gallery, the Supreme Court, and got to try first-hand experience at being a pollster. Today he went to the Capitol and got to watch in person, from the gallery, as the Senate debated the amendment banning flag desecration. Tonight, he went to see a show at the Kennedy center. He’s staying in the dorms at Georgetown with a group of other kids his age and is getting to meet with congresspeople, lobbyists, pollsters, visit the White House, and more. I am intensely jealous, but I’m also incredibly proud of him for doing this.

Plus he’s gotten to know one of the chaperones, an intern at the White House who may be able to get us a tour of the West Wing!

Hi Dad, thanks for your e-mail. Hope you all had a happy Easter at Baba’s; I bet she cooked a great dinner. We spent Easter morning in Vienna getting up bright and early to see the Vienna Boys’ Choir. They were terrific, but they only perform as part of a Sunday Catholic mass and, as we got the free standing area tickets, it was a rather long couple hours.

Prague was a very old-looking and pretty city, as many of its buildings are quite well preserved. We spent a lot of time walking around downtown and Monday night we went to a black light theatre show. There are several of these around town and it looked kind of gimmicky to me, but Brian and Kody thought it looked worthwhile so we checked it out. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a pretty silly, tourist-trap show in a small theatre. The following night, however, we went to the fabulous State Opera and saw a good production of Anton Dvorak’s “Rusalka” (think Disney’s The Little Mermaid without the happy ending). We also decided to spring for box seats — as they were only $24!! That was definitely a worthwhile part of the experience and, although the production had a few flaws, it was still a very solid, lavish, professional show, and made for a terrific night.

Today we took the five-hour train to Berlin and arrived at our hostel this afternoon. This hostel is definitely the funkiest and biggest hostel we’ve been in. With 905 beds, it’s the largest in Germany (it’s sister hostel in London is also the largest in the UK), and it’s sci-fi theme lends a slick ambience. It’s quite clean as well, which is always nice. It sounds like there’s going to be a lot to do and see in Berlin, I only wish we had more time. We pretty much lost the whole day today due to travelling. It might just be lately, because we’re all getting tired after a non-stop month, but I wish we could have gotten an earlier train and had the better part of the day to make the most of our stay. It’s really kind of frustrating when I think that it cuts off nearly a third of our visit and that (as our trip draws to a close..) I won’t be able to afford to visit all these places again any time soon. I mean, I guess I just want to cram more in than they do and go at a more strenuous pace, but I can’t go out and start seeing things on my own because I’ll probably just wind up seeing the same things with them all over again the next day. Anyway, hopefully we’ll get to walk all through the downtown, see the Brandenburg gate, the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Jewish museum, the Reichstag, maybe the film museum, and maybe a classical music concert if it’s affordable.

I’ve also started to look into plane tickets home and I’m doing my best to try and find something really cheap. The best confirmed seat I can find is for $420, which is too much. I’m trying to find out how I can get last-minute seats, as the airline companies don’t do standby anymore. A site called air-tech.com has deals with certain airlines and offers a $219 Western Europe to Northeast U.S. ticket. They tell you availability of flights each week and when one comes up that you want, you tell them. There are also things called “bucket shops,” which receive last-minute tickets from airlines, but I don’t know where or how to find those yet. I’ll research more once I get back to Leeds. Anyway, I hope everyone’s well, and I’ll talk to you in five days!

Love,
Michael

Hi Dad, we checked up on the flooding again today and, as it turns out, there is flooding not only in the Czech. Republic, but in Hungary and Austria as well, the next two countries we are going to before Prague. From what I’ve read, however, floodwaters are receding in the Czech. Republic and they plan to start dismantling precautionary flood barriers in Prague today. In the articles about Austria, there is no mention of Vienna, so it seems the floods are not threatening that city. In Hungary, the Danube is very high in Budapest, but still at an acceptable level and has started receding. Brian also spoke to a friend of his that is visiting there right now and she says everything is fine. So far, then, it seems we’ve lucked out and can continue our trip as planned.

I’m currently in Bucharest at the moment, having arrived yesterday afternoon. Our day in Venice was kind of a wash-out, as it drizzled all day and downright poured the morning we left. Still, it was cool to see the canals; I’ve certainly never seen a city like it. The hostel was also by far the best of our trip — it was actually a three-star hotel on Lido that only cost us 20 euros each for a three-bed room (so 60 euros a night in total). Piazza San Marco and the Basilica di San Marco were nice to see as well, but other than that Venice didn’t impress me a great deal, perhaps because of the abysmal weather.

On a side note, I’m really pleased with how much Italian I’ve picked up and could understand. I learned the few key phrases in Kody’s guidebook and that, combined with Italian’s similarity to Spanish, allowed me to check into the hotel in Venice with a receptionist that spoke only Italian. In Romania the story is different, although Romanian is surprisingly similar to other Romance languages. It sounds Slavik when I hear it spoken, but it has strong Latin roots. Actually, I don’t know if I mentioned this yet, but I’m thinking of picking up a degree in Spanish, as I’ve discovered that I only need three semesters to complete it (and I’ll be mostly done with my theatre degree by the end of the next school year). One of the components is two semesters of Portuguese — or Romanian.

Anyway, we haven’t gotten to see much of Bucharest yet, but so far it certainly lives up to the image of a post-communist Eastern European state — grey block buildings, old beat-up cars, and a 1:3 exchange rate. Today we’ll go see the infamous gigantic parliament building and some other sights and tonight possibly go see the opera, a concert, or the Ballet de Madrid, as it is in town and tickets for everything are incredibly cheap in terms of dollars. Tomorrow we may take a trip out to the countryside to Transylvania or somewhere thereabouts.

Love,
Michael

I did not receive your e-mail about the flooding until now, because I am only checking my Leeds account regularly while I am travelling. Also, your e-mail has no contents other than “Love Dad,” was there a link? All I find on the BBC and CNN are articles from last week saying there was flooding in the southern Czech Republic and that Prague is bracing for the possibility of floods. Also, I found an article saying bird flu had been found in a swan 93 miles south of Prague (the flooding is 120 miles south of Prage). We’ll keep checking for news on the area over the next week or so and make a decision about whether to skip it as we get closer.

Last night we met up with my friend Renee and a couple of her friends. We all walked up to the Piazella Michelangelo together to view Florence at night. It was beautiful, and we sat, chatting, drinking wine, and enjoying the view for an hour or two before heading back to the hostel to rest our weary legs. Today we didn’t do a lot in terms of sightseeing — for some reason EVERYTHING had incredibly huge lines: the Galleria della Academia (has Michelangelo’s David), the Uffizi, and the Duomo (good thing we went inside yesterday when there was no line). Instead, we went to a big weekly outdoor market in the morning — they had food and lots of cheap clothing. Afterwards we walked along the Arno and found a nice Gelateria on the south side of the river, the side away from the main touristy area of the Duomo and such. We went and stood in line for a little while at the Galleria della Academia before deciding that we’d rather spend two hours seeing more of Florence instead of waiting to see the David, so we went and wandered through the outdoor market stalls outside the Mercato Centrale. Kody and I bought leather (buffalo skin) jackets. It was a rather expensive purchase, but the jackets are terrific, seem very high quality, and, if they live up to our assessment of them, were a great deal. I get nervous about spending a lot of money like this without shopping around a lot, but hopefully I made the right choice. Next we’re headed out to find a gelateria, then probably call it an early night so we can get up on time tomorrow to catch our train to Venice.

Love,
Michael

Hi Dad,
I’m in Florence and there’s no internet at the hostel again, but it’s still a pretty nice place. The three of us have a room to ourselves, three beds and plenty of space. We got a 9:14 train from Roma Termini, arriving Firenze Santa Maria Novella at 1pm. Our hostel is a five-minute walk from the station and about 10-15 minutes from the Duomo and downtown.

After dropping our stuff off, we grabbed lunch from a pizzeria near the Mercato Centrale, wandered through the myriad of stalls outside the market, and headed to the Duomo. Next, we met up with a friend of mine from high school, Renee, who’s studying here in Florence for the semester. It was terrific to see her, we chatted for a bit, she recommended some places to go, and then she headed off to class and left us to explore. We’re planning to meet up again later tonight. After parting with Renee, we went downtown to the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, walked across it over the Fiume (river) Arno and walked along the river to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a park on a hill with a gorgeous view of the city and surrounding countryside. Finally, we headed back into town and found a nice little restaurant for dinner.

Tomorrow, we plan to go to a big weekly Tuesday-morning market that Renee told us of, go back to the Duomo in order to climb to the top (we didn’t today because Brian had left his camera behind and mine was running out of battery), visit the Galleria della Academia to see Michelangelo’s David, visit the Galleria degli Uffizi to peruse some art and an exhibit on the mind of Leonardo da Vinci, and possibly visit the Giardino di Boboli, apparently a very beautiful garden park. The following morning we are off to Venice at 9:30 and then to Bucharest the morning after that. I can’t believe we’re only a week and a half into our trip and still have three weeks to go, it feels like much longer. I’m having a blast, though, and I’m particularly looking forward to Bucharest and eastern Europe, to see how different it is.

Hope everyone at home is well, and love you all very much,
Michael

Hello everyone! It’s Michael, your favorite grandson/nephew/cousin/brother/son, travelling abroad in Europe. Firstly, I’m sorry I can’t write you all personal letters, but we don’t have internet access in our hostel, so I’m at a pay-by-the-hour internet cafe down the street. That aside, I’m just writing to say hello, that I hope you’re all well, and that I’m having a terrific time travelling!

As you might remember me mentioning, because Leeds has a month-long Easter break, a few friends of mine from ASU and I planned a trip spanning eleven cities and nine countries for that time, so that we could get a taste of Europe. Last month I made a few weekend trips as well, to London, Manchester, and then Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day weekend. We started off this big trip, however, with flying to Paris a week ago, where we saw most all of the major sights — the Eiffel tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and Sacre Couer. We stayed at the flat of a high school friend of Brian’s (one of the friends I’m travelling with). Not only was it a terrific place with enough beds for all of us, but it was right downtown, only a couple blocks from the Louvre! We really lucked out in this respect, particularly because we wound up getting stuck in Paris for an extra day when our flight got cancelled due to the massive protests against new labor legislation.

After Paris, we flew to Barcelona, where we really missed that extra day once we got out in the beautifully sunny, warm weather. We enjoyed it while we could, though, visiting La Sagrada Familia, the Barcelona cathedral, a fresh food market, wandering around downtown, watching the street performers, and walking along the beach. We even passed Drew Carrey and a camera crew on our way out of the market — he was apparently filming a show for the Travel Channel!

On Friday, we got up incredibly early (4am!) to catch our flight to Rome. Once there, we had a little nap, and then took a walk to the Forum and the Colosseum. That night, we went to Piazza Navona, a beautiful plaza ringed with great restaurants and gelaterias. We splurged a bit and had a delicious Italian meal at one of the restaurants with a really charming and dynamic waiter. Finally, we wandered about some more, enjoyed some gelato (Italian ice cream is AMAZING!), walked by the Pantheon, and walked back to the hostel for an early night. Although lacking in cleanliness and amenities such as internet access, the one thing I have to say about our hostel is that the location is superb. It’s right down the street from the bus station and Termini rail station and within walking distance of everything important in Rome. Yesterday we went to Vatican City and spent the day visiting the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. The line to get into the museum and Sistine Chapel took us about 40 minutes, while St. Peter’s was about 20. Not bad for those sights — I think we came at the perfect time of year to beat the big crowds and still get the weather (warm and sunny!). It was still a long day, though, so we were worn out by the evening. We had dinner at a more inexpensive restaurant and then found a bar to settle down and watch the Barcelona v. Real Madrid match. Today, we’re getting some laundry done, writing home, and then heading off to see a few more sights.

I’m out of time now, so I have to run, but I hope you’re all well and I love you very much!!
Michael

Hi Baba! Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know I’m off travelling across Europe and enjoying my Easter break. I’m travelling with a couple of my friends from the dorms at ASU last year, Kody and Brian. We flew out to Paris last Friday, arrived in Barcelona yesterday, and tomorrow morning we fly to Rome!

Barcelona was beautifully warm and sunny today, around 70 degrees; I even got a slight sunburn. Since I was here in December, I took the guys downtown and we went to the big market off the Ramblas (the big commercial street in Barcelona). We picked up some fresh baguettes, meat, and strawberries for lunch and on the way out ran into a celebrity! This is actually the second famous actor we’ve seen in our travels — outside Sacre Couer in Paris we saw a woman named Famke Janssen that acted in the recent X-men and X2 films as well as Goldeneye, a James Bond film. The person we saw today was Drew Carrey, creator of sitcom the Drew Carrey show and host of the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway. We were on our way out and he walked in followed by a cameraman and sound technician; he said he was doing a show for the Travel Channel.

After that, we walked down to the ocean, sat and ate lunch on the edge of the harbor, went on to visit the Barcelona cathedral, walked along the beach a bit, and sat and had dinner at a restaurant nearby. We have to be up really early (4am!) in order to get to our flight in the morning, so I’m going to head off to sleep now. Hope you’re well and talk to you soon!

Lots of love,
Michael

I’ve gotten into the habit of writing home whenever I can while travelling, to let my family know I’m fine and what I’ve been up to. Since I don´t have time for two write-ups, I’m going to post my letters to home here…

Hi Dad,
Just wanted to let you know I arrived safe and sound in Barcelona earlier today. Didn’t encounter any protests yesterday, just a lot of police in riot gear. Apparently all the rioting happened at the Place de la Republique in the evening, while we were elsewhere. Today, we visited la Familia Sagrada and I climbed it for the second time, this time for the photos. After that, we spent a few hours in the Parc Guell, and I got to see more of it than I had previously. It’s a beautiful place with a terrifice view of the city. I also saw an amazing bird, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. It was bigger than a pigeon, but shaped similarly, had a dark body, and a strange patchwork of color on its wings, almost like a quilt. When its wings were spread, the color was even more pronounced. After a lot of waiting and chasing I finally managed to snap a couple shots, which I’ll put up when I have a chance. For now, I’m off to bed, in anticipation of an early morning and a full day tomorrow before heading off to Rome early the following morning.

Lots of love,
Michael