Rome (March 10 to March 11)

There are two types of domestic trains in Italy, regional and Eurostar Italia. Both can bring you to the italian destinations you want, but 'regional' is slow train and Eurostar Italia is fast train. If you take the fast train, you have to reserve seat beforehand and pay 15 euro reservation fee per person even you have a train pass. If choose to go for the slow train, no reservation is needed but have to tolerate 6 to 7 hour ride from Venice to Rome instead of 3 hour in fast train. To save time, we chose to pay for the reservation.

There is a Chinese proverb means 'every road can reach Rome' (條條大路通羅馬). It is really true. You can come across people of different nationalities in Rome, Chinese, Afrians, Turkish, Indians....... They are not tourists but residents.

The monuments in Rome are very grand and well preserved. Every church has its special pieces inside like Moses statues, the Holy stairs, la bocca dell'verita, the Holy chain....... Bascillia di San Pietro of the Vatican City is gorgeous!!! It is the largest church in the world!!

Rome is really an exciting city. Safety was a probelm but it looks better now because policemen are everywhere.

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“I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)

“[T]o talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Venice (March 9)

How did we go from Prague to Venice?? 15 hour train ride! The design of the so called 'couchette car' of the train is really stupid. In a space not larger than a cargo lift, how can six people sleep? Even that six people can manage to sleep on the couchettes, where should the luggage place? We stayed with three italian students and an US girl in one of the couchette cabins. With all the luggage, no spare space for us to move at all. Six of us decided to sleep on seats finally. What a special experience, but never again!!

Venice, "Venezia" in Italian, is so small that one day walking tour is enough. We started from Murano (needed to take a water bus to reach there), then went back to the train station, took another water bus to Piazza di San Marco. From the Piazza, we walked througt all the small streets ("via" in Italian) and felt like submerged in an ancient city. Get yourself lost in Venice streets, this is the best way to have a close look of Venice.

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“I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)

“[T]o talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Prague (March 6 to March 8)

Prague was the core place of my Europe trip because I attended the scientific conference here. The conference, as usual, was boring but I learnt new things and got new inputs to my research project for sure. And eight participants took my A4-size copies of my poster, out of my expectation!!

Prague is truly a beautiful city. Luckily, the weather in Prague in the days we visited was very nice so we could see the magnificent panorama of Prague from Prague Castle. (Go to my online album to have a look!) To have the closest look of Prague, what to do is just walk, no bus, metro or tram. We started walking from the Prague Castle, then St Nichole Church, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square.......... There are so many attractions to visit but I advice you don't try to skip anyone of them. They are all beautiful!! We bought "Prague Card" to assess most of the attractions.

Prague was also an important city in the history of Classical music. Mozart, my favorite composer, visited Prague several times in his late life and composed three important and grand pieces: Don Giovanni, 'Prague' Symphony and La clemenza di Tito. Mozart liked Prague very much because of the success of his music. Another important composers who are related closely to Prague are Dvorak and Smetana. Both of them are the pioneer of Nationalistic music. Symphonic poem cycle 'My Country' is the national music of Czech.

We watched "The Magic Flute", opera by Mozart, in the Prague State Opera House on March 7. This was the first time to watch opera in Europe.

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“I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)

“[T]o talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Salzburg (Mar 3 to Mar 5) Munich (May 5)

Salzburg, the city of Mozart. Truely, I can find the face of Mozart everywhere. I like the taste of European small town like Salzburg. Everywhere is easily accessible. We bought 'Salzburg Card' which allowed us to visit most of the tourist attractions and travel on bus free of charge. The weather was not so good, it snowed heavily. But we went up a snow mountain when it snowed. So excited!! I highly recommend Salzburg to you all!!

Because we had to catch the flight to Prague, we visited Munich again. We tried the world most famous Scheweinshaxe ("German Pig Knuckle"), DELICIOUS!!! It tasted much better than the one of King Lugwid. Do you know how much was it? It only costed us 2.99 euro!!!
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“I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)

“[T]o talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Munich (Feb 28 - Mar 1) Vienna (Mar 2)

Alright........finally, i can go online without any cost in hostel.........

Munich is a nice city. Many good food to eat. It is a well-discipline and safe city. I felt very comfortable there. It snowed unexpectedly on Mar 1. There are three main churches in Munich. The exterior of them is not good-looking at all, but the interior is stunning beautiful. Theatinerkirche (Theatiner Church St. Cajetan) is a good example. From outside, its exterior has no difference with a ruined house, but when you enter it, extremely beautiful with very fine sculpture!!!!

Vienna, the city of music. To be frank, i barely felt the atmoshpere of music in Vienna. But palaces are very grand and worth visiting though (I mean take some photos outside them), especially the Parliment building.

The hostels we stayed in these few days belong to the same company, Wombat City Hostel. I highly recommend the Wombat's hostels because the rooms are nice, the location is good and the staff is friendly. Remember to book the wombat hostels of Munich and Vienna together if you visit thes two places becuase you can get a 'Wombat Cheque' which offer you a free breakfast after it is stamped. The breakfast is great and can feed you whole day!!!
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“I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)

“[T]o talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.” --- W. A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)