Malmo, Sweden

Berlin again

Ich ein Berliner

I stayed in East Berlin. My trip to Berlin was quite the experience and very memorable.

The Wall

The Reichstag
The old Luftwafte building, former East Berlin government building and current tax department, all very scary.

Site of Checkpoint Charlie

This building is not as old as it looks. The tower on the right is an old Soviet building that wasn't very popular.

Day trip to Dresden

Dresden, Germany
After Prague, I took a short trip to Dresden on my way to Berlin. I met 3 South Koreans on the train ride. They were heading to Berlin but thought they had to get off in Dresden and switch trains. Before we stopped I told them that the train went all the way to Berlin and they should stay on it and they realized they were wrong. It probably saved them about 3 hours. They thanked me and then wanted to take some pictures with me. It wasn't strange, just different but they were really nice and shared their snacks with me.

Dresden was heavily bombed in a raid at the end of WWII and most of the city burned. You can see the black on the cathedrals and other buildings as a result of the fires. The pedestrian mall from the train station to the downtown historic district was lined with new buildings and there was a lot of construction. You can tell that there was not a massive rebuilding effort after WWII by the Soviets. Most of the buildings have been built since the fall of communism.

From across the Elba River.

Augustus
This palace was called Zwinger. It was huge and beautiful. You could see all of the buildings from the top walkways.

Inside Zwinger.

Cathedral with statue of Martin Luther. The Cathedral dome collapsed during the bombing raid and was replaced in the 1990s.

Beyond the Iron Curtain

I left Wien for Praha (Prague), Czech Republic. This is my first trip inside the old Soviet Union. You could see the difference.

When I left the train station, there was a full rainbow in the sky.

Kafka statue in the Jewish Quarter.

The Charles Bridge.

Looking over Praha.

Looking up at the cathedral.

The John Lennon Wall. When Lennon was shot people wrote on this wall. The police painted over the writings. It became a symbol of free expersion in the struggle against the Soviet regime because people would continue to write on the wall everyday for years and everyday the police would paint over it.

Charles Bridge.

A parade that appeared out of nowhere. It wasn't very big and our tour guide didn't even know why there was a parade.

The town center was very impressive.

Vienna, Austria

Belevedere. This was probably the most impressive building in Vienna.

St. Stephen's Cathedral

After leaving the volunteer camp, I had a quick stopover in Venezia (Venice) before taking a night train to Wien (Vienna), Austria. Vienna is a beautiful city. St. Stephens Cathedral in the city centre and the Belvedere were the highlights. St. Stephens is the largest cathedral I’ve ever seen, larger than Notre Dame in France. Just around the corner was Mozart’s apartment. Wien was the home of many notable composers.

I’ve seen hundreds of street performers during my traveling but the best was in Wien. I rarely stop to watch any performers. Just a few blocks from St. Stephens Cathedral on the pedestrian walkway a young woman was playing a piano that had been rolled out into the middle of the street. She was excellent and had drawn a huge crowd. I spent about an hour of my first day in Wien under the palace gate because it was rainy very hard. It wasn’t bad because I could see the entire court yard and buildings around the city. Then the batteries in my camera died.

Here are some pictures from Vienna, it was a beautiful city.

Parliament Building

Me

Lower Belevedere

Verona, Italy

The arena in Verona.

I went with some friends to Verona for a day trip. There wasn’t too much to see in Verona. At the city center is an arena that is hundreds of years old. We also crossed a medieval bridge. The highlight of the trip was seeing Juliet’s balcony. The balcony was part of a house owned by a family with a name similar to Capulet. An Italian writer originally used the balcony and name in a story before Shakespeare ripped it off for his famous balcony scene. It’s considered good luck to touch the right breast of Juliet, so I am now a lucky person.

However, the day before I was bitten by a bug and it began to swell. By the end of the day I could barely walk. The following day I could not do any work because of the pain in my leg and I had to go to the first aid tent. I survived and the next day was able to work again.

The day in Verona was also one of the hottest during my time in Italy. I believe it was well over 100 or in the high 30s. We stopped at the river to cool down. Perhaps the polluted water infected my leg, we'll never know.

Juliet's balcony.

The walls were covered with writing. People use gum to stick messages to the wall proclaiming their love for someone. It was a very interesting place. Just so you know in the pic below, Gulce is not touching the wall.

Getting lucky.

Venezia, Italy

On our first day off from the volunteer camp a group went on a day trip to Venezia (Venice). It was crowded with too many tourists and really expensive, besides that it was beautiful. Here are some pictures.
We went to the top of the tower to gets a great view of the city.

Me on the famous bridge.

One of many canals in Venice

At San Marco Piazza

Gondola traffic on the canal. We went on a Gondola ride through the canals and it was great. Now I can say that I've done that.

Piazza San Marco again. Lots of people and pigeons.

Famous bridge.