Florence, Italy

EPISODE VI: FIRENZE (Part I)
My friend Kelli Howard (KHo) met us at the train station that morning (Wednesday) and we got settled at her place. After that, we hit the town. We grabbed some lunch where a nice, small Italian man forced us into his nice, small restaurant. Then, we hit the inside of the Duomo and made our way to the Science Museum where Katie and Joe geeked out a lot, where as I only mildly geeked out. I'm sure there was gelato that day as well as plenty of exploration.

Joe in the Duomo; Florence, Italy

The Ceiling of the Duomo; Florence, Italy

Katie, Joe and Galileo; Florence, Italy

That night, my friends Meg and Springer were taking the train into Florence from Bologna. After miscommunication or whatever, we ended up at the train station over an hour early. Thus, we filled the time and our stomachs with home, sweet home — McDonald's.


EPISODE VII: "KETCHUP IS NOT FREE!"
We got our food and went upstairs to eat it. Oh, I forgot salt and ketchup! So I go back down and ask the man, "Can I get some salt and ketchup?"

"KETCHUP IS NOT FREE!"

... Okay?

"Ten cents!!"

I threw him a fifty cent coin and asked for five. I get back upstairs and generously share my .10 ketchup with my siblings and KHo. After our meal, three ketchups remained unopened. We still have some time to kill, so I decided to have a little fun. I brought the three remaining ketchups to the counter.

"I have three ketchups left over..."

"Yes?"

"Well, I didn't use them, so I'd like to give them back."

"...Okay...?"

"So, can I get my money back?"

"What?"

"I didn't use these, so I'd like to return them and get my money back."

"Do you have your receipt?"

"No. I was never given a receipt. I only bought five ketchups."

"Well, you can't return anything with out a receipt."

"No one ever gave me a receipt when I bought the five ketchups."

I felt I was making progress.

All during this argument, some young Italian woman McDonald's worker was saying in Italian, "Just give him the damn thirty cents!" — At least that's what I translated it to.

After a while back and forth with this Italian idiot, he called over the non-English speaking manager. I explained to him (through the employee) that I bought five ketchups — with no receipt issued — and would like to return the three unused ones for my thirty cents.

He was confused.

The employee was angry.

The woman was still telling him to give my money.

And I was thoroughly amused.

Finally, the employee drew the final line — "You cannot return your ketchups without a receipt!"

I threw the ketchups across the counter. "Fine! Take 'em!"

Best thirty cents I ever spent.


EPISODE VIII: FIRENZE (Part II)
Thursday morning, we got up semi-early and walked over to the Academia to wait in line to see Michelangelo's David. Throughout the wait, people kept trying to sell us junk like art prints or sunglasses. There was a black man in line in front of us and some guy kept trying to sell him this African print. "Dude, I'm from New York. I've never been to Africa..." Meanwhile, Katie is standing right there going, "I'm from Africa..."

American-African, Katie Meier in sunglasses from a man who was trying to pawn them off on her outside the Academia; Florence, Italy

The wait for the Academia wasn't too bad. We got in and when you turn the corner and see David at the end of the hall, it's really magnificent. He's huge and beautiful. It's amazing that he was carved from a piece of stone. Simply magnificent. You're not supposed to take photos, so we tried to sneak some, but there were so many other tourists just busting out their cameras like nothing and even using flash. So, I joined in ... no flash though. I sport shot him and got some good ones.

Michelangelo's David

After the Academia, we went back to the Duomo and climbed to the top of the cupola. There was a warning sign — "There is no lift!" It was cool. Tight staircase crawling up there but the view of Florence from the top of the Duomo was awesome.

Joey and Me at the top of the Duomo, Florence

Looking down on Florence (Photo by Joe)

Me on the climb down from the Cupola

The rest of the day involved lunch, gelato, Santa Croce plaza (didn't go into the church though), email and bought some €1.00 boxed wine and met KHo (who unfortunately had class) near the River Arno.


EPISODE IX: BOX OF WINE
We (Springer, KHo and the Meiers) hiked up a little hill that over looked the whole city of Florence. We cracked a few boxes of wine and watched the sun set of over the Tuscan hills.

Meier siblings overlooking the city of Florence
Florence, Italy and the Arno River

The Duomo

Tuscan hills

Ciao, Sun!

After drinking wine on the hill, we moved on to drinking wine in Kelli's apartment. All wined up, we moved on again to a restaurant called Zaza's where we drank more wine. Food was good too. After dinner, we ended back up at Kelli's for — more wine!! I wasn't feeling well (Joe bought cigars) and Katie fell asleep on the couch, so Joe went out with Springer, KHo and her roommates Michelle and Mailynn to a bar.

Katie and Joe on the walk home from Zaza's

I think this is a good time to mention our train to Rome left at 6am the next morning. Yeah. Morning unfortunately came early for everyone.

Now before I move on to Rome and the annoying train ride there, I must first write of our near brush with death.

EPISODE X: THE ASSASSIN
You know in movies when someone gets assassinated and then there's a flashback montage where they realize the assassin was everywhere that they had been and if only they had noticed the assassin following them around the city this entire time, someone would still be alive?

Well.

The post middle-aged Austrian man from the train (Episode V) was out to assassinate the Meier kids.

We first saw the Austrian man in Florence on the street in a very non-touristy part of town near Kelli's house. Strange, no?

Then, we saw him again at the Academia when were there to see David. Yes, a touristy spot, however, the lines are very long all the time and they only allow so many people into the Academia at a time.

The third time we saw him, we were at the top of the Duomo in a very tight, enclosed space.

Coincidence? I think not.

The only way we avoided our imminent death was by announcing out loud that we were going to Santa Croce church and then going back on our plans.

We only narrowly escaped Florence with our lives.

The Train

EPISODE V: THE TRAIN
It was around midnight, I believe when we boarded the train in Kufstein. We were very confused as to what car we were supposed to be in and none of the people working on the train spoke English. One man looked at our ticket and gestured that we needed to go two cars down. Eventually we found our train car and inside it, our six-man booth. Inside the booth was one man involved with his laptop and then a creeper reading a book.

Now this creeper was no ordinary stranger danger — he was extraordinary. He was wearing a women's peasant tunic as well as a long skirt. Oh, and don't forget the long greasy hair pulled back with a red scrunchie. We sat uncomfortably in our seats with our new friends and tried to sleep. Well—Katie and Joe tried to sleep. I tried not to. See, I was sitting across from creeper stranger danger and I felt like he was watching me sleep. Very uncomfortable. But it wasn't long before he got off the train and we had the little booth to ourselves. And it was even shorter before we were joined by a post middle aged Austrian man.

He entered our cabin and said "hello" in many different languages. Tired, confused and disoriented, we said "hello" back in English.

"Ah, English is the best for you, yes?"

"Yeah, English is the best," we replied back.

He chatted with us for a little bit. He sure was awfully chipper for being an old man in the middle of the night. Pretty soon, we all attempted to get to sleep in the uncomfortable upright seats. (Except me — I got to lay across three seats!) When we woke, we were somewhere in Italy. The Austrian Man talked some more and it came up that he thought we were Swedish. Why? No idea. So, all this time, he thought we were speaking English as a common second language. But no. Just dumb Americans. A few more hours later, we arrived in Florence.

Sachrang, Germany & Kufstein, Austria

EPISODE III: OMA'S
On Monday evening, Joe's friend Drew came back to Munich to pick us up and we drove out of Munich about an hour to his grandmother (Oma's) house in a little town called Sachrang. There, we met Oma and she made us a drink of beer and lemonade (really more like Sprite). She said that it was a drink that Germans would enjoy after exercising since it was refreshing and well, it was beer. After that, we hit the hay.

The next morning, we woke up to this:


It snowed! Katie was pretty excited cause she hadn't seen snow for probably two years. It had snowed all night and then it didn't stop the entire day. After breakfast, Joe and Drew shoveled the entire driveway. We had a pretty relaxing Tuesday in Sachrang and Drew drove us around a bit to a neighboring town called Aschau. We got some really good gelato in Aschau. Leave it to the Americans to get ice cream when it's snowing outside. Drew also took us across the border into Kufstein, Austria (only about 10 minutes from Sachrang) and we bought train tickets to Florence that left at midnight.

We had a late lunch of different meat and cheese with bread. It was really good. The Germans know where it's at. Then Oma made us a really good dinner that night of meat and dumplings. It was delicious and filling. After dinner, it was snowing so much, that Drew drove us back to Kufstein to wait for the train there before the snow got too deep to drive. But before we could get out of the driveway, we had to shovel again. So much snow...

Meier kids outside Oma's house; Sachrang, Germany

EPISODE IV: THE BOLERO OF KUFSTEIN
So there we were. In Kufstein, Austria at some bar called The Bolero across the street from the bahnhof (train station) for a good three or four hours waiting for our night train to Florence. We had to endure a terrible jukebox of the same songs playing over and over included multiple songs from the musical Grease, "I've Had the Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing, and "Scheisse, Scheisse, Baby" — a German version of Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice, Baby."

Me, having the time of my life in The Bolero; Kufstein, Austria

Joe enjoying those summer nights at The Bolero; Kufstein, Austria

Those few hours in Kufstein sure racked up quite a tab (around €30). Then we walked back to the bahnhof around 11:00pm I think to make sure we didn't miss the train to Florence. Killing some time, I walked down the road a bit to take pictures of the castle in Kufstein. It was pretty cool at night.

Kufstein Castle, Austria

And thus, we boarded the train for Florence. The train ride is its own story in itself, so we'll save that for the next installment of the Meier Sibling Axis of Evil Tour. Until then,

Dachau, Munich

Morning accidentally came too early and we fumbled out of my apartment and took a taxi up to the airport to fly out to Munich. I walk on the plane and it was rockin' like there was turbulence, except we were still at the gate. It wasn't a huge deal except that I didn't know it it was the plane or me that was wobbly. I fell asleep before we took off and didn't wake up until we landed in Munich. I'm pretty sure everyone on that flight was hungover. But it was good to finally be in Munich.

Matt Meier or Ted Kaczynski?

EPISODE I: EXTREME DORITOS
We took a train into the city and met Joe's friend Drew and he hung out with us that afternoon. The four of us decided to take the train to Dachau Concentration Camp. So, we're waiting in the Hauptbahnhof Central Station waiting for the next train to Dachau and Joe decides to find a bathroom. He leaves and we're waiting and waiting. And the train is coming. And he's still gone. And we're still waiting. And the train came. And just as it's about to pull away, Joe shows up. But it was too late. The train left us in Munich. Best part is — Joe never found a bathroom.

So, we had twenty minutes to kill before the next train showed up. We decided to make some sandwiches right there in the dirty subway stop. But there were no places to sit where we were, but there were plenty of seats across the tracks on the other side of the platform. Of course, there was no way to get to them. Unless you're Meiers. When the next train showed up we got on, walked through, and out on the other side. We sat down, made our lunch (complete with Extreme Doritos!) while all the German people standing on the other side looked at us like we were the stupidest Americans they'd ever seen.

As the Dachau train was approaching, Joe decides to take a picture of Katie, Drew and I. I was a little edgy that he'd make us miss that train too. (Hence my concern).
But we made it on the train and to Dachau. We explored the concentration camp for a few hours. It was really cool. I don't know what else to say about it, so I'll just post some photos to say it for me.

Front Entrance to Dachau

Hallway in the Barracks

Original Crematorium

After Dachau, we just went back to our hostel (The Wombat — Probably the best hostel in the world) and had dinner and our free "welcome" beer in the "WomBar." Katie and Joe played pool and hung out there all night and I was so exhausted that I went up to bed. Which leads to...

EPISODE II: THE AUSSIES
After I went to bed, Katie and Joe started playing pool with Ceara and Tiernan, another brother/sister duo from Australia who lived in London. They were there with their friend Nick and another guy from New Zealand that randomly joined up with them named Mark. (Or Spikey Mikey, or Sparky Marky, or any combination of the previous). The six of them hung out that night in the WomBar and made plans to meet for breakfast and hang out during the day (Monday).

After breakfast, all seven of us walked to Marienplatz to see the Rathaus-Glockenspiel go off. It's a huge clock in the platz that has little people that move around like a giant cuckoo clock, I suppose. It was pretty cool cause it was built in 1908.

We left Marienplatz to see the Jagd-und Fischereimuseum (Hunting & Fishing Taxidermy Museum) for some reason. It was completely random, but apparently this was all planned out the night before over Jäger shots.

After the museum, we wandered to the Viktualienmarkt. And man, oh man. Ceara bought some salami sticks that were so good. And Katie bought a brick of cheese and Tiernan cut it with a giant display knife that was outside the cheese shop. We walked around the outdoor market and we all bought food—bread, sliced meat, Turkish spread stuff; found a picnic table and had a little lunchtime snack with our Aussie friends. It was really cool to hang out and share everything.

We had our good German food and now it was time for good German beer. The Aussies took us to the Hofbräuhaus for one liter steins of beer. I had a giant pretzel with my stein and we invented a game of flipping coasters onto the tops of our steins. I got 18 on my stein. I won.

Tiernan, Ceara, Joe, Katie, Matt
Mark, Nick at the Hofbräuhaus, Munich

After one or two beers, we rushed out because Ceara, Tiernan and Nick had to catch their flight, but even still, Ceara was insistant on Jäger bombs for everyone. So we hurried back to the Wombat so they could get their luggage and over to the Hauptbahnhof (train station). We found a bar there, but they didn't have any Jäger. So Sparkey Marky bought us all a shot of Bailey's, Kahlua & Rum. We made Ceara play us a quick song on her guitar — and then they were off back to London and Mark was off wherever the wind blew him.

We were back to three.

St. Patrick's Festival!

Sorry for such a delay. A week with the Meier siblings is not an easy recovery.

Joe flew in on the 16th and us three got to bum around the city a little bit, hit a pub or two, but eventually the jet-lag got the best of Joe and we got an early night.

Meier kids at the Palace Bar; Dublin, Ireland

Good thing too. Saturday morning, we all woke up, made breakfast and headed into town for the parade. Despite giant green hats in my face, I got a pretty good view of the parade as I schooched my way to the front of the crowd. The parade was very colorful and theatrical. It was really fun to watch. A lot better than all the parades in Great Falls! (Sorry the pictures are so small. If you click them though, they'll get bigger. A lot bigger.)

Giant Puppet in the Parade

A flock of flying nuns!

Flags

Not sure what a fish has to do with St. Patrick, but I'll take it.

Giant, looming eyes...

No St. Patrick's Day is complete without a Drag Queen singing "I Need Hero!"
This colorful woman couldn't fit through a door.

Brother was in the back...

Boats and giant Dutch people?

Yes, the Irish are this white.

This puppet guy was really cool.Cool horse ... things.

After the parade, we wandered to a Burger King for lunch and then ended up in the middle of a céilí (Irish Street Dance). There was a live band and hundreds of young people in the street just dancin' up a storm. It was a lot of fun. We danced at the céilí until it was over and ended up walking back to UCD, pub-hopping the way home. We ended up at a pub called Kiely's in Donnybrook for most of the night. It was great craic as the Irish say.

Meier kids, St. Patrick's Day at Kiely's; Dublin, Ireland

That's about all for St. Patrick's Day. We got home pretty late and had a rather early morning leaving the country. But that's another blog for another day when I don't have an essay I should be writing.

Until then,
Matt

Harlaxton & London

Katie is here!

On Thursday morning, I left Dublin for London and made my way out to Harlaxton to see UE's manor and everyone who is there for the semester for a few hours before they had to leave for Lake District. After they left, we went out on the town in Grantham.

Harlaxton Manor


Friday, Springer and I made our way into London and walked around the Theatre District for most of the afternoon and that night went to a play called The Woman in Black. That was really cool. It was a thriller with two guys and it was really good.

Saturday, we got up semi-early and went to TKTS and scored tickets to the matinee of Cabaret and I bought a ticket to Phantom that night. Both shows were phenomenal. For Cabaret, we had really good seats, so that was cool, but for Phantom I was in the very last row of the top balcony, but I still enjoyed the show.

Sunday morning, I got up really early and made my way to Heathrow airport to pick up Katie who was flying in from Zambia. It was so good to see her! But I think she got shorter in the past year and a half. So, we bummed around the city for a while visiting McDonalds, The National Gallery and the sites...

London Eye

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

And the Tower Bridge

Sunday afternoon, we got tickets to The Lion King and that was really cool. I really enjoyed it. It was definitely a theatrical experience not to be missed. After the matinee, we met up with Springer and Meg and we all got some Italian food for dinner.

Monday, we got up and just kinda bummed around London a bit more and met up again with Springer and hit Shakespeare's Globe and Pizza Hut. (Buffet for 4.99!) We killed some more time around the city and made it up to Gatwick Airport and had a picnic of Orange Juice, Dr. Pepper, Vita-Snacks and Gummi Colas before our late flight back to Dublin.

We didn't get back to my apartment til about midnight and we made some Hoops (Bad Euro Spaghettios) and hit the sack. We were so exhausted from all the travel, walking with huge bads and train problems. Today, we're getting our fill of internet and going grocery shopping at Tesco later. We might be going to Galway this week, but I guess it depends when Joe comes in on Friday.

More Meier Adventures to come...