An Adventure Through Music

Music is life. Some of you may have noticed that all of my blog titles were also song titles. Generally, either the song lyrics, mood or the title or both corresponded to an aspect of what I was writing about.
So in case any of you were wondering, here are the songs that I used at blog titles...all sixty-five of them.

Blog Song Title Playlist:

1. Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring – Traffic
2. Something Sort of Grandish – Finian's Rainbow
3. Old Man Waltz – Calexico
4. Walk It Out – Unk
5. Circles in the Sand – Fly By Night
6. Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head – Gorillaz
7. Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
8. A New Way To Say Hooray – Shpongle
9. Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell – The Flaming Lips
10. Love & Some Verses – Iron & Wine
11. Just Another Night – Cat Stevens
12. Down By The Water – The Decemberists
13. Walking Far From Home – Iron & Wine
14. Bridge Over Troubles Water – Simon & Garfunkel
15. Words – Train
16. Denglisch – Wise Guys
17. Es Fliegt Gleich Alles In Die Luft – Wise Guys
18. Mechanical Breakdown – Tripping Daisy
19. We Speak No Americano – Yolanda Be Cool and Dcup
20. Do, Make, Say, Think – Do, Make, Say, Think
21. Beautiful City – Godspell
22. Quando Quando, Quando – Fergie
23. London Calling – The Clash
24. Too Marvelous for Words – Billie Holiday
25. London Telecommunicating – The Polish Ambassadors
26. Postcards from Italy – Beirut
27. Play That Funky Music – John Brown
28. A Medly: For Sentimental Reasons, Tenderly, Autumn Leaves – Natalie Cole
29. November Has Come – Gorillaz
30. Old Friends/Bookends – Simon & Garfunkel
31. Hurly/Burly – Man Man
32. Float On – Modest Mouse
33. Art Is Hard – Cursive
34. A Call From The Vatican – Nine
35. Off To The Races – The Mystery of Edwin Drood
36. Don't Get Lost in Heaven – Gorillaz
37. Cosmik Debris – Frank Zappa
38. Naked As We Came – Iron & Wine
39. Long Way From Home – The Heavy
40. Mambo Italiano – Dean Martin
41. Musetta's Waltz – La Boheme
42. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Johnny Mathis
43. Academia – Sia
44. My Head Feels Like A Frisbee – Shpongle
45. Che Finalone – Cirque Du Soleil's Corteo
46. All We Have Is Now – The Flaming Lips
47. Pressure Zone – Beck
48. Two Thousand Places – The Polyphonic Spree
49. Paris Holds The Key To Your Heart – Anastasia
50. Main Title: An American In Paris, 'S Wonderful, I Got Rhythm – George Gershwin
51. Holland – Sufjan Stevens
52. God Bless The Child – Billie Holiday
53. Vincent (Starry Starry Night) – Don Mclean
54. Train Song – Tom Waits
55. Dickes B – Seeed
56. Deutschland – Die Prinzen
57. Hallo Berlin! – Wise Guys
58. Feed Me! – Little Shop of Horrors
59. You're My Excuse To Travel – Baths
60. La Vie Boheme – Rent
61. I Hear My Train A Comin' – Jimmi Hendrix
62. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Judy Garland
63. Monkeys Uptown – Iron & Wine
64. Fasten Your Seatbelt – Pendulum
65. Homecoming – Kanye West

28: December 2011: Homecoming

My last day in Florence was a lot of running around. Martha went to the Uffizi and then boarded a train back home--it was a great short and sweet visit. Joe and I ran around town, seeing the last of the sights and buying the last few buys. All that running around yesterday broke my body down a little more than I could handle so today was a fair amount of gritting my teeth and bearing it. Needless to say, I will be grateful to be back in the states and sleep for several hours, or days. 

I must now get to packing--well, unpacking and then repacking. 

To any prospective ACM-ers or anyone interesting in traveling or studying abroad, please feel free to ask me any questions at all! My email address (at least for the next two years) is fmayer@knox.edu

Ciao everyone and thank you for reading about my adventures. 

And thus, the whirligig of time brings in his revenges...

27. December 2011: Fasten Your Seatbelts

Today was incredibly busy in the best of ways. We got an early start when my alarm didn't go off and I woke up at 7:15 am to realize that my darling friend Martha had arrived in Florence exactly an hour ago. I pulled on a pair of pants and a coat and ran across the street to the train station, wandered around to no avail, returned to the hotel, then ran back to the station and finally found her. Luckily, I had a hotel bed I could give her for a couple of hours while I ate breakfast and felt guilty and then continued to have an amazing day.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember that Martha was a German exchange student during my senior year of high school. She's only here in Florence for a day and a half but we certainly fit the optimum amount of Italy in the first day. After we woke Martha back up (overnight trains are never restful) we climbed to the top of the Duomo and saw an amazing view of the city.

It was absolutely incredible and the day was perfect. From there, we headed to the Boboli Gardens where we wandered and had some fun.

Then we saw the Galleria dell'Costume in the Palazzo Pitti, wandered through the Gallera dell'Academia and debated the facial expression of the David. I have been convinced that Michelangelo's statue depicts David before he has slain Goliath because of his determined and slightly scared facial expression. We talked about the history of the statue and I was excited to pass on my recently learned art history knowledge. Then I got to give my final presentation again when we saw the Chapel of the Magi in the Palazzo de' Medici--Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes are just as powerful as ever for me.
We checked Martha into a hostel, then headed (exhausted) to apertifo at a local bar. Apertifo is a great invention--you pay for a cocktail or a glass of wine and then get an all-you-can-eat buffet of gourmet Italian food. It was delicious. We lost track of time talking, catching up and having a great time. Tomorrow, we will show Martha the Uffizi and then...well...who knows what tomorrow may bring? My last day in Italy...we've come full circle, eh? Buone sera.

26. December 2011: Monkeys Uptown

I hope all of my beautiful readers had a wonderful Christmas or at least celebrated the winter solstice to your satisfaction. We ended up following a bit of a different tradition than I am used to because the Chinese restaurant was pretty much the only one open that you didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for. We were sitting next to another American couple--one of which was wearing an Appalachian State football shirt which prompted me to start a conversation (one of my most beautiful cousins is an App State alum).
Anyways, today is another holiday in Italy so once again, we didn't get to do too much. The Uffizi, to our surprise, was open so we sneaked in to see some Botticelli. I acted as tour guide with my one-person tour group. It was a lot of fun.
Then, a glorious (almost apocalyptic) sunset...this photo is unedited

We wandered through the city and had a delicious gnocchi-filled meal before heading to bed to get rid of this sicky sicky bug once and for all.

25. December 2011: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Buon Natale!

Joyeux Noël!

Gelukkig kerstfeest!

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Veselé Vánoce!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

And God bless us, everyone.

24. December 2011: Hear My Train A Comin'

We awoke this morning still very sick but determined to make it through some more of Prague before boarding the train again. We made it halfway up Petrin Hill to see a beautiful view of the city before realizing that our time in Prague was nearly up.

On our way back to the station, we stumbled upon the John Lennon Wall. It doesn't have any historical significance, it's just a wall that people continuously color with Lennon and Beatles-inspired graffiti. Today, it is a symbol of peace and love. It was a cool sight to stumble upon, for sure.

Finally, we boarded the train to Vienna and watched the sun set over the Czech countryside on Christmas Eve--one of those images that a photo can never capture.

We changed trains in Vienna and found a Halal market still open on Christmas Eve (possibly the only business in all of Austria that was still open) and rode overnight to Florence.

23. December 2011: La Vie Boheme

Ahh Prague. Well, Joseph and I are both sick--some nasty cold bug, but we did the best we could under the circumstances. And the circumstances were a little more complicated than that even...the Czech president, Vaclav Havel, died on Sunday and today was his funeral service so there were many things shut down. Not to mention, masses of people watching the funeral on a jumbo-tron. Did I mention that the funeral was held in the Prague Castle? My number one place to visit in Prague, sigh. And of course, tomorrow is Christmas Eve which is when the Czech hold their Christmas celebrations so most things will be closed then too. Ahh timing is everything. Oh well, we still got a taste of the Czech culture and the city. We actually ended up walking around most of the city in a day--Prague is pretty small. We started out heading through Wenceslas Square and ending up in Prague Square where we saw the Astronomical Clock and another Christmas Market.

Did I mention there was a petting zoo at this Christmas Market? Check out our reactions:

We then made it to the Dvorak concert hall along the river, then walked across a different bridge to look at the Charles Bridge from afar. We did eventually walk across the Charles Bridge--did you know that it's supposedly made out of eggs? How interesting. I wonder where that legend comes from.

Then we got a beautiful view of Prague from above.

We wandered around looking for the Castle but couldn't get past the security of the funeral, then across the Charles Bridge and through the Jewish Quarter. We're heading to bed early tonight though in hopes that we can wake up refreshed and healthy and get in a few more sights before we leave in the afternoon.
And if I don't get a chance to post while I'm on the train back to Italy...Merry Christmas, everyone!

22. December 2011: You're My Excuse To Travel

We have arrived safely in Prague. Thank goodness it's slightly warmer. The feel of the city is very odd. I like it and for the most part people are friendly (with the exception of everyone that works in the train station) but I feel like I always have to be on edge. We had a conversation with a Bulgarian man working at the local Christmas market who told us how "disastrous" his food experiences in Italy were and then pointed us towards some good restaurants. Ultimately, though, it was a long day of travel and we have the shortest time here in Prague so tomorrow will be a long day of walking and sightseeing.

the view from our Hotel (that's the National Museum right off of Wenceslas Square)

We got a free beer on arrival at the hotel.

There are too many consonants in that word...but I recognize those smoking chimneys!

First "traditional" Czech meal: roast beef and Carlsbad dumplings. Plus really really really good Pilsner.

21. December 2011: Feed Me!

Strange occurrence to have two posts in one day but this dinner definitely merits a post of its own. Possibly the best dinner I've ever had. Something I love about German food is that it's pretty much all comfort food; carbs, meat and beer. What could get any better than that? So of course, I was on a quest for great wienerschnitzel this time. The last time I was in Germany was nine years ago with my family and we traveled through Germany, Austria and Switzerland looking for the best brezeln (I think we decided on Austria, right?). Anyways, I didn't get wienerschnitzel but I did get schweinerschnitzel. The difference is just that instead of the traditional breaded veal, you get breaded pork instead. It's not the tradition, but it was DELICIOUS. Sehr lecker.

 A great beer--dark weissbier that has a nice sweetness to it.

SCHWEINEWURST! Mit kartoffeln und champignon. Sehr sehr sehr sehr lecker.

Am letzten--a heavier weissbier. Also good but I preferred the first one.

21. December 2011: Hallo Berlin!

 The Mozart-Hadyn-Beethoven Denkmal

Tiergarten im Winter

Neues Museum

Judische Denkmal -- a very well done exhibit, possibly the best Holocaust memorial I've ever seen. Simple, to the point, but striking at the same time.

Tonight we shall wienerschnitzel and tomorrow we shall be in the Czech Republic!
Auf Widersehen und Dobry Den!

20. December 2011: Deutschland

It was snowing this morning!!!

 True words on the Eastern Berlin Wall

 Reminded me of Botticelli's Primavera

 Yes.

 Abstraction on the Wall

 No man's land

So stark und doch verletzbar
Das Volk, der Mensch
Der Wald, Der Baum

So strong and yet so vulnerable

  the crowd, the person

The forest, the tree

Checkpoint Charlie

Some of the original Berlin Wall

Where the Berlin Wall stood

Potsdamer Platz--the center of contemporary Berlin

The famous Sony Center ceiling

The Brandenburger Tor on the first night of Hannukah

19. December 2011: Dickes B

A Weihnachtsmarkt in Alexanderplatz

Fernsehturm

Hedwigskirche--construction modeled after the Pantheon in Rome

Berliner Rathaus

BRANDENBURGER TOR!

Reichstag/Bundestag

Judische und Homosexuelle Denkmal: Feld der Stele

Weihnachtsmarkt neben der Franzoesische Dom

18. December 2011: Train Song

Today was unexciting and the blog post is merely to let you know that we have reached Berlin safe and sound. By the time we got there, it was dark already but when we set out to search for dinner, I realized that our hotel is practically on top of the Fernsehturm and it was light up beautifully against the night sky.
For dinner, we went traditional German (Bayerisch, funnily enough, but at least we're in the right country now)--weisswurst, brezeln und weissbier. Tomorrow: BERLIN!

17. December 2011: Vincent (Starry Starry Night)

Iamsterdam

In front of the Van Gogh Museum (AMAZING EXPERIENCE!) I love looking at more modern art after a semester of Renaissance...

wandering in Vondelpark with a hippie child

stumbled upon some Dutch folk occupying a bank...pretty intense.

16. December 2011: God Bless The Child

The Anne Frank Huis

across the canal from the Anne Frank House. Supposedly, one of these houses is the dream house of David Sedaris (see Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim)

 the Westkirche

amazing Amsterdam graffiti