Fall break videos!

These are videos from the trip I just went on for fall break. Athens, Santorini, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Ireland. Pretty crazy.
This is a view from a hill in the middle of Athens. Athens is enormous, I had no idea. It looked like a city you would see in South America, like maybe Rio or something. There were 10 story apartments everywhere you could see, 360 degrees around. They went up the hills and everything. It was pretty sweet.

This is of St. Peter's square and the Vatican. It was huge.

Next is inside the Vatican in a room called the map room. There were so many paintings in it that they filled up the entire ceiling. And out the windows was the Vatican gardens where the Pope hangs from time to time.

This is inside St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world. It was enormous. At the end is Michaelangelo's 2nd most famous statue.

Next is from a Roma soccer game. We sat in the Roma Hooligans section which was a fairly poor choice. Scary at times. Roma was playing poorly and the Italians were getting very angry with them. Luckily they tied the game so we made it out alive.

Francesco Totti fires in a free kick seen here. He helped beat the USA at the world cup. I have a great dislike for him. Everyone in the whole stadium loved him. Even though I think he's a whiney bitch (which he is), it was a cool free kick. Watch the flares light up.

This is me in front of the Colosseum.

Venice was definitely the best place we went. It was incredible. No cars because the streets were water! And this is the view from outside our window where we stayed. We got really lucky to stay in that place. I really want to go back to Venice, except it is the most expensive place I've ever been.

Sparta Prague vs. Slavia Prague: 0-0 insanity

So a couple weeks ago I went to a Sparta Prague game where they played the crappy Scottish team Hearts (videos can be seen below). While there, fierce riot police were in full effect at all times and the entirety of the Scottish contingent were caged off in one corner of the stadium. When I say cage, I mean there was an actual cage in front of them and all around them. Also, there was a net over them so no foreign objects could be hucked on to the field. There was even a buffer zone of a whole section of seats that were purposely not sold to any fans so no one could sit close to them.
We wanted to sit with the Sparta Hooligans but the guy who sold us tickets said he wouldn't sell them to us for our own safety haha. We sat with other home fans and even we were caged in, although not as tightly as the Scots were.

SO, the following week the two Prague teams played each other and we were all in attendance. Before the game started there had already been fights outside the stadium and we had been told that the Sparta-Slavia rivalry was as intense as it gets. There was a whole line of riot police that stretched around the stadium. They were in full gear and looked like stormtroopers, it was very intimidating. Some were on horses and even the horses had mask-helmet type things on.


We ended up sitting next to the Slavia hooligans and we should have known what was going to transpire after we saw the sign hanging next to their fan club banner which read "Fans of Alcohol".

Amazingly, the Slavia Hooligans were very well prepared for the match. They had expertly coreographed cheers and fire displays.

However, the Sparta Hooligans didn't have time for pre-conceived antics and chose to just riot. Their favorite ruckus tactic was to try to break down the gate that held them in. Then when the riot police would come, snipers from up top would throw firecrackers and flares down on the advancing cops. At first we thought the police were shooting at them from the loud pops but we soon realized what was going on.

We quickly learned of the Slavia fans affinity for fire. They had several different displays they put up during the game, all using fire as the main theme.

This dude decided to just dip a Sparta flag in lighter fluid and burn it.

Then at the end of the game, things got a little crazy. We were about to leave when a huge fire erupted right below us from the Slavia fans. Two dudes were running around the bottom of the stands and they were lighting things on fire. They were lighting what appeared to be huge buckets of gasoline strategically placed along the edge of the rows.
They lit quite a few and an enormous inferno ensued.



A little while into it, the smoke got so thick you could barely see what was in front of you. Unfortunately I could still see these idiots.

Luckily we felt our way out to the waiting army of riot police. It was an all around crazy game and an awesome experience. Oh, and the game ended in a 0-0 tie. It was a pretty boring game. Luckily I wasn't watching it on tv. And I like Sparta better. Their fans are crazier and they have better cheers.

Here is a picture of me and my new lady. Her name is Clara. She is from Napa, CA. We hang out quite a bit.

Videos and Pics!

Here are some more videos but they are pretty random.
First is my friend Beem drinking some absinth. He can't breath at first. yummy.

This is a Church in some small town. The Czech's know how to do their churches right.

This is a video from the Sparta Prague vs. Slavia Prague game. My friend was wearing a Sparta shirt to one of our usual bars and they wouldn't let him in. No Sparta fans allowed. It's a VERY heated rivalry.

This is from Auschwitz. Pretty nuts.

Polish cover band singing Lionel Richie's classic "Hello". Turn the volume up and enjoy.

Sparta vs. Hearts game. These are the Hearts fans. They wore kilts and had a dude who played bagpipes.

Oktoberfest!

Soccer

Sparta Praha vs. Hearts (Scottish team) on thursday in UEFA Cup action. Here are a couple little videos. More later on this craziness.

Brno

Some pics of Prague and our weekend trip east to Brno. The east is so Communist-era looking that it was kind of depressing. I liked taking pics of the huge communist tenament apartment buildings that are still everywhere. They're basically projects. ok, here you go. http://wsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041941&id=27201193

Post Time!

Ok here goes. I got some time before the party starts to type a little something. I'll try to explain all that has happened, overview style. First we flew for something like 14 hours to London. London was very cool, but very expensive. The first night I went out with my new friends who go to Puget Sound. We decided to go to Picadilly Circus on the subway and then walk around from there. So, we got of, hooked a right and walked for a while. We stopped at a spot called "the Freedom Bar", ordered a couple drinks and took a seat. It was noticed in quick succession by all that there were not any ladies to be found at the Freedom bar. I guess the dudes making out in the back should've tipped us off. Needless to say, we bounced out quick. Apparently we had wandered into Soho, the notorious gay district of London. Woops. We made our way out of Soho and ended up at some bar near the Circus. It was pretty fun and we met some nice English ladies. One thing lead to another and they decided we should go to their house. I obliged and we took a taxi to their flat, which was pretty awesome. At around 6 am, i finally wised up (sobered up as well) and decided to leave cuz although they were nice and english, they were not worth it. My friend didnt agree so I left a man behind. It was a good time tho. So that was the first night.
Next morning we had a London tour at 8 am. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it haha. Instead my new friends and I did our own tour after some more rest. It included all the necessary London sights like Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, etc. Then, we had a to make one important detour, Arsenal's new soccer stadium. It was glorious. I bought a jersey. It made my day. We partied again, got in at 5 and had to fly out at 8. I didnt sleep. That was London. A lot more happened, like eating corn pizza which is what they love to do here. But unfortunately, it is now time to head out for the night. I will post another thrilling account of my travels asap. As for now, chau everyone.

School

Some pics so far - http://wsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039920&id=27201193 . And this is a video i took of my school. It's really nice, right next to everything. I live on the top of the hill by the castle. More stuff later.

whew

I finally made it. All is well so far, for the most part. I've been travelling for about a week straight. I didn't sleep for a stretch of about 3 days. Way too much going on, it's been a whirlwind. Prague is pretty crazy. Definitely feels like another world unlike England and Germany. I'll write more later.

8 days

So I am leaving in 8 days. I can't wait. And right now I'm not even nervous at all. That's weird because I think I should be. I probably will be when I get on the plane, though. But I got my tickets and my insurance stuff so I'm ready to go. Except I don't speak any Czech, which could cause some hang-ups. But it should be fine. The total air time I will log next week is just a little over 15 hours. Hopefully I will be able to handle that and the massive 9-hour time change with some class. I'm worried because, believe it or not, I tend to get a little cranky on occasion. And since I am traveling with a group of people, I'm going to need to watch myself. And in most groups of people, often there is that one - that person who is oil to my water. Therefore I need to identify and stay away. And for their sake, they had better do the same. Also, I am trying to figure out if I should get hammered before or on the plane so I can sleep it off on the ride. I'm still not convinced that it's a good idea, though. It might just make things worse. It could make things more fun, but it also leads to forgetfulness and I like to be highly aware at all times. So that idea might be out. I guess I'll just take some NyQuil or something. Oh well, minor details. I'm pumped. I wanna leave. And the word 'abbreviate' sure is long for what it means....

Zach Galifianakis

World Cup

As a whole, the French pretty much suck. Like sexy midfielder Franck Ribery, pictured below. The rest of their soccer team, however, does not suck. That is because they have the coolest, hippest and greatest player ever - Mr. Thierry Henry. With tomorrow's World Cup semifinal looming, I am predicting a French victory. Henry will score an unprecedented nine-trick leading France to a 9-2 thrashing of Portugal. And Portugal will score two only because Henry can't play every position. He took out Brazil, so putting up 9 against Portugal should not be a problem.
(That's him!)