The Dalmatian Coast with Lindsay, Jen and Rachel: beautiful land, gorgeous water, sunny days, friendly people - now we know what the fuss is all about! [View Full Entry]

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The update from Marine Station Stareso in Calvi, Corsica: We left Vienna on the 18th of June, driving first through the vineyards south of Vienna, then winding through the Alps into Italy, straight across the breadth of Italy through fields of sunflowers and pinon trees, and to the coast. About nine hours after starting out, that delicious salty sea breeze hit us. We took an overnight ferry from Savona, Italy to Bastia, Corsica. We drove across the rough terrain of Corsica to Calvi, a terracotta-roofed town, and then off down a dirt road poking out onto a penninsula. The road got [View Full Entry]

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As I'm procrastinating from studying anyway, I'll take the opportunity to write about my amazing trip to Switzerland over the Pentecost holidays. Heck yes, we got off from school for Pentecost! As it should be. So I jetted off to visit my dear friend Ms. Buffington in la Suisse. Trip there went fine except -- so ironic -- i accidently had a Swiss Army Knife in my backpack, left there from a hiking trip a few weekends ago, and (I quote the guard security guard who manhandled me), "You can't bring a knife to Switzerland!" Haha. Likely a ploy to get [View Full Entry]

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I couldn't think of a better title, so i stole this one from a tshirt. Here are some of my photos from Prague. So, now that I have had some time to proess my time in Prague, I'll add a note to try to sum up my thoughts. After a day of "Prague Spring" - by which i mean, fresh grass, trees by the castle laden with flowers, enjoying views from the Charles Bridge and lounging in the sun in the old square, I was pretty enamoured with the city. The town is rife with history and legend which is interesting, [View Full Entry]

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Murano is an island in the venice archipelago that is famous for its glass artistry. Glass-making is still the major industry and the island is lined with studios and boutiques. We went in to see a memorable demonstration. The glass artist was making how he makes a vase from the molten glass. Then the announcer said, "and now the master will make a leeeeetle glass horse." And he did! He took a lump of glass, pulled one way, twisted another, et voila! standing there was this tiny glass horse, rearing up on two legs with it's mane blowing out behind it! [View Full Entry]

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After spending hours lost in in the shadows of grand but crumbly buildings, in mazes of narrow streets always dead-ending at (uncrossable) canals of still, dark green water, and being surrounded by pidgeons and the suffocating smiles or ceramic carneval masks, I decided: Venice is creepy. Or possibly romantic, judging by the numbers of American honeymooners/vacationing couples - but i thought it was one of the creepiest places I've ever been. My photos don't do justice to the creepiness because I only took pictures when the sun was out - but with overcast weather, people stalking around in coats, gonolas creeping [View Full Entry]

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Bled... sounds vaguely forbidding and things looked a little dark at first. Took a very early train to the nearest station, which is only 4km away from the lake, and my guidbook just said to "take one of the frequent buses" for the last leg. This was a cheap but unfortunately impossible plan, as there were no commuter buses, least not on a Sunday in April. After looking around for said buses we decided to just split a cab with two Aussies who also wanted to get to the lake. We arrived... it was a little grey and a little cold, [View Full Entry]

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Again, getting to the Adriatic seemed easy enough - we bought a ticket from one city to another, on a direct train. But somehow, in a mix of Slovenian and Italian, we were directed off the train, put on a bus, and driven around the countryside. I went to the driver to try to make sure we were still going to Koper, but suddenly the English, so ubiquitous in Ljubljana, was gone. Lindsay, who had previously loved the sound and happy cadence of Slovenian (after French and German, "It's phonetic! It's like Spanish!"), could only comment after trying to save my [View Full Entry]

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Starving, we pounced on the first friendly-looking restaurant. Meal du jour? Fillet of Foal! Yummmmmy. I have never seen a horse dish, but Lindsay told me this is apparently a delicacy in Switzerland as well. This spurred way to many "so hungry i could eat a horse" comments and jokes that all the big dogs we saw were really just small horses, hiding from the cooks. Instead of fillet of foal or a nice horse burger, we settled for big salads and delicious coffees in a sunny square by the river. Another time we got - don't laugh, because it was [View Full Entry]

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But which border is the question? :) Not towards the spring break strongholds of Cancun or Rocky Point, but - Slovenia! Lindsay and I are going to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, hopefully to be followed by some sunshine on the Istrian coast, and then over the Adriatic to Italy for a few days in Venice. First stop - before leaving Austria - Graz, a beautiful town in the south. The day we left, we had coffee with my roommate, and she had lots of good recommendations of stuff to do and see. We had trouble getting out of Vienna, just [View Full Entry]

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