Cisk!! (Chisk)

Malta:
I arrived in Malta at 1030pm Tuesday night and was greeted by warm weather, blue seas, and two of my favorite Maltese ladies! After reminising with Noella and Patty, and meeting Trever (Noella's boyfriend) we all went to a bar on the Mediterranean Sea and met up with Rachelle and Alex (Rachelle's Tennessee boyfriend that is studying in Russia at the moment). Even though it was dark outside the Malta atmosphere was still amazing. We had fun time joking around and catching up before we headed home.
I forgot to mention that I got to meet Patty's family. They made me feel right at home by feeding me and giving me my first Maltese beer...Cisk!
Malta Day 1:
We all went to the Maltese island of Gozo. ( There are three main islands to Malta: Malta, Camino, and Gozo) We went to some beautiful coastal sites that most people enjoy going to(e.g. Azure Window, Fungus Rock). After the normal touristy places we headed off road. We went to Wied Ghasri, which was a secret cove off the beaten path. It was completely concealed and breath-taking. Then we moved on to lunch where we all had maltese bread and some gooood ravioli. Then we did what everyone thinks a Maltese person does.... go to the beach and relax! The beach was called Hondoq Ir-Rummien and it could not have been any clearer or bluer. It was quite cold, but oh so refreshing. After about a 30 minute nap on the beach we headed for ice cream and then to a sports bar for the biggest futbol matches of the year (Manchester United vs Barcelona) which took place in Rome. Man Utd lost but it was still an amazing day overall.
Malta Day 2:
We started by going to the Mnajdra temples, which are the oldes free standing structures in the world. Not to mention they are on a sloping plain down to the sea. In the backdrop of these temples was a huge rock island that is said to be surrounded by hammerhead sharks. I am choosing to believe it, because it makes the island even better. From the temples, we headed to the Malta capitol of Valletta, where we looked around at shops and scenic views and had lunch. Then we moved on to the best beach I have ever seen (Riviera). It is sunk down way below the road so that you feel completely concealed, while huge mountains with wildflowers surround you to the back and sides creating a frame for a true Maltese sunset over the Mediterranean Sea! I would go back just to see that sunset again... but even more for my amazing friends! After the beach we went back and showered and headed out for a couple more drinks. Not a late night since we had to get up at 550am to get me to the airport.
Malta was amazing and I encourage everyone to go at least once in their life. I know that this will not be the only trip I make to Malta. Thank you to Noella and Trever for driving non stop basically so that I could see as much as possible. And thank you to the girls for allowing me to come and enjoy Malta. I will miss you incredibly.

Now that I am back in Rome for the day, I have already gone to see the Coliseum, however, I have yet to meet up with Laura, Katie, or Schimmenti. I think today it will be a preparation day for my trip home tomorrow. Nothing big.
See you all soon
I love and miss you all,
Clint

Winding Down in Rome...impossible!

Ok, yesterday we went to several places including the American Academy and Tempieto before going to St. Peter's Sqaure, the Vatican and the Vatican Museum which included the Sistine Chapel. AMAZING!!! That's all I can say about it! There was an interesting site as we were walking up to the square...a completely naked, very overweight woman was just sitting on a lamp post! Luckily for me, Clint caught a glimpse and warned us not to look! Haha The group kinda split up while in the musuem and it ended up that Laura, Elizabeth, Josh, and I stuck together and after we left we went to St. Ignazio, got the best gelato in Rome, went by a coffee place which supposedly has the best coffee in the world and then went back to the hotel to get ready for our last dinner as a group (minus Clint because he left us for Malta!). We ate at an absolutely amazing restaurant called Ristorante Otello and ate soooo much! It was sooooo good! After that we went to the Trevi Fountain so the ones leaving could make a wish and throw coins into it.
This morning 4 people left for home, so Laura, Scott, Josh and I are the only ones left. Laura and I slept in this morning and it felt wonderful! We are going to just chill out today and enjoy the championship game activities and do a little shopping :) We're going to meet up with another UT student who is studying independently here to watch the game. It should be fun, but we have been warned that these soccer fans are crazy! Tomorrow and Friday Laura and I plan on meeting up with another Professor from UT and he's going to show us around as much as he can and then we'll leave early Saturday morning to go to Frankfurt for about 24 hours, then we'll be on our way to the good ole USA! I don't want to leave here, but I am ready to be back something a little familiar and have more than just a few outfits to choose from each morning! Haha!
Can't wait for all of you to see our pictures when we get back!

Little Brother Woes

I believe Katie left off on our free day.

We all decided to go to Venice, however it was all at different times. I went with Becca and Josh and we were supposed to meet up with everyone else at 2, but only Scott showed up. The funny thing is that throughout the course of the day we ended up finding everyone randomly. The crazy part about that is that Venice has had the highest amount of tourists since we have been here. Everywhere you look, everywhere you walk there are tourists.(not all of them smell or look good as well). But Venice was still a blast. Becca, Josh, Scott, and I all ended up going on a Gondola ride before we found the girls, who then went on a gondola ride themselves. Both rides were around 5pm so it was a perfect time of day. Then we all met up on the coast, which sounds funny since the whole city is built on water. We had dinner overlooking the coast of Venice at Sunset ( not a bad way to leave the city). We then hustled back to the train station to realize that all the trains were not running on Sunday except for one that was an hour and a half later... so we saw a little more of Venice at night time.
The next day we traveled to Rome. We took one that group photo in Vicenza and then departed for Padua. We had to switch trains in Padua to get to Rome. The train to Rome was about 4 hours long which didnt seem as bad to me as it did to others. That was our last big train ride for the trip, now the only train rides were the ones to and from the Airports to go home. That night 5-6 of us went to the forum and to the Coliseum for night pictures... it was amazing.
Today we have gone all around Rome, literally. I cant even begin to describe all the places we saw today, but we are not done yet. Some of us our about to go meet up with another UT professor that is over here for research.
Tomorrow is the Vatican!!! and then Malta for me!!!
In reference to the title, I am a jerk cause i was unable to tell my sister happy birthday on her birthday on Saturday... hopefully she will forgive me.

And the big huge European Soccer Championship Game is Tuesday, so lets hope no one gets hurt while the crazy soccer fans are here.ù

Love and Miss you all,
Clint

Thank goodness for Gelato!

Ok, I think Clint left off the day before we went to Padua. Padua is a University town in Northern Italy, but there wasn't much activity going on there. Our Professor gave us the morning off, so we arrived early afternoon in Padua. Non-tourist Italian cities have a siesta from around lunch time til about 4 or 4:30, so the town was pretty dead. We were all very tired, including Professor Schimmenti and it was extremely hot, so we only saw San Antonio and the Scrovigni Chapel with no sketch assignments and came back to Vicenza. Yesterday we went to Verona and I gave an amazing presentation at the Castelvecchio :) We also studied a few piazzas and did a quick sketch assignment before coming back to Vicenza. We have met some architecture students from Mississippi State, so we've met up with them a couple nights to hang out. Today, we went to Venice and I loved it! The heat was pretty unbearable so it was hard walking around as much as we did. There is apparently a heat wave going through right now, and it has made things much more tiring! Tonight most of us walked up to the overlook over Vicenza to watch the sunset, which was gorgeous as you would expect! Tomorrow is a free day for us (Finally!!) and I think we are all probably going to go back to Venice and ride in a Gondola and a few other things we missed today. We are very, very, very tired tonight, so I think we're going to grab a quick supper, do laundry and go to bed.

Internet Cafe's are hard to find.. but Gelato isn't!

Hey there everybody. Sorry about not writing. We have been going and going! In our first hotel we had a computer with internet access thats how i was able to post the first time, but since then it has been few and far between to find a cafe'. Right now I am in Vicenza, Italy, which is in Northern Italy close to Venice. It is our first full day here and like all the other cities it is abbsolutely amazing.

Continuing from the last blog. We made it to Pisa which only really had the tower along with the other 3 buildings that go with it. The tower is really freaking tilted. I didn't go up in it, but still had a blast while were there. Just to give you an understanding we go to cities or landmarks are spend a few hours there so that we can sketch and understand them better. It usually takes that entire time to sketch what we need to. Don't get me wrong we still have a ton of fun. Nothing really happened in Pisa though.

Then we left Florence, but not after seeing the most amazing view! It truly has been the highlight of my entire trip and I cannot wait to share photos! You'll just have to wait.
We left Florence for Bologna which was on our way up to Como. Bologna was interesting. We were only there for about 3-4 hours and we had a sketch assignment. It had a beautiful piazza which is where we stayed the entire time.

Como!! Majestic! It truly was one of the most beautiful cities we have been to. It is a small little town that is surrounded by mountains. It also has a lake which is what also makes it famous. The whole town is just quaint and very non-tourist, which was nice. I had to give my speech on the monument i was given before i left..... i was brilliant as usual. We were in Como for 2 nights and the hotel was not as good as the Florence one, but the guys room ended up having the largest terrace in the whole place that looked onto the Duomo. We also went up to the top of one of the mountains and ate dinner at sunset. Then took some more pictures from there.... I still feel that the Florence view was the best though.

While in Como we also took a day trip to Milan, which was larger than most cities at least in scale. It still was not as touristy as Florence. The Duomo was really humbling. We got to go up on top of the church and view over the whole city.They were having mass while we were there and it truly was spiritual just being in this space.

After Como we left for Vicenza which was about a 3 hour train ride. Which the train rides have been great. I have been getting my best sleep on the trains. I still have been coughing at night, however the wine has been helping. Vicenza is definitly not a touristy town, however, it has most of the works done by Palladio, who is one of the most influential architects in history. Literally there is a masterpiece on every street.

Well there is the best I can do in 30 minutes. I will post again by Sunday while we are still here since i know where this cafe' is at.

I love you and miss you.

Clint

P.s. Gelato is a staple in my life right now. I have not gone one day without it. I thought you would like that Dad. Right now Tiramisu is my favorite.

P.s.s Sorry bout the pictures, but you all will have to see these when i get back. I should be a professional photographer.

Hello Europe!

First off... yes mom I made it and I am okay. It was a brutal trip over here, but I made it. After leaving Nashville at 10am I made it to Philidelphia with great ease. The flight was great except for our very long-winded male flight attendant (which by the way he used to be the number 1 high school principal in the State of Florida.... don't know what happened that would make you end up as a flight attendant, but o well). Philidelphia was cool... thats about it about Philidelphia. The flight to Milan, Italy, as exciting as that sounds, was awful. The good thing was that I got the whole middle section of my row to myself, however, I still could not fall asleep. I did not get any sleep on that entire 8 hour flight that arrived in Milan at 530am. They also played some movie called 'Inkheart' with Brendan Frasier that was gosh awful. But I made it... thank the Lord. Milan was a completely different ball of worms. First off, they speak a different language. Not very helpful benefit when you have no one else with you to be lost with you. Eventually I made it to the right gate after following another couple throughout the entire airport. I did sleep on the one hour flight to Rome which did help out.
Ok enough about flights, sorry to bore you all. Then I arrived....ROME! Didn't see one bit of it...at least not yet. We all found each other at the Train station and headed onward to Florence. It was definitely a full day of travel, because the train ride was another hour and a half trip, but I could not have been happier, because I was finally talking to English speaking people. Once we got to Florence my jaw dropped. This place is unbelievable! We are staying in one of the most amazing little hotels that is right off an avenue that deadends into the Duomo! We are literally 5 minutes from one of the most influential pieces of Architecture in history! That sounds really nerdy, but anyone would be awestruck by its beauty. We then took a nap and got together for an evening stroll through Florence. Florence, Italy + Sunset = Unimaginable beauty! I could not believe the scenes that ever little alleyway and road led to. Every road you walk down leads to something that takes your breath away.
Today was our first sketching day, which definitely showed most of us that we need a little more practice, but it was a great day anyway. The highlight was climing the 414 steps to the top of the Camponile Tower and looking out over Florence. By the way we will post pictures as soon as we can. Oh and my camera is awesome. I can zoom clear across the whole city and still get a clear picture.
A couple of side notes: Tomorrow we are going to Pisa for the morning and then spending our last night in Florence before we head up to Como on Saturday.
Sorry about this long blog, but this is my first and it entailed a lot of info.
I'm not sure who will blog next, we are still figuring it all out. But please comment if you have any suggestions for us.
Oh and the weather has been perfect

Till next time
Love, Clint

On Italian Soil!

So, we have made it to Italy and have had our first Italian meal! So far everything is going great and we are all super excited about being here and experiencing everything this country has to offer! Our hotel is very, very, very nice!

Laura and I went to Berlin last weekend and went to a soccer match at Olympic Stadium along with Lauren, Kim, and her sister, Alli. The stadium is amazing and the game was even better. The attendance was a little over 71,000, so not as many people as a UT football game. The only difference is when the game is over all 71,000 drunk people are on the same train leaving. Take that many drunk people and confine them in an overpacked train and things get a little crazy! After the game we went to see part of the Berlin wall which is still standing and ate and then went to bed. We were all so tired and knew we had a full day ahead of us on Sunday we decided to get a good night of sleep. Our hostel was surprisingly ery nice and we all slept like babies.

Sunday we got up bright and early to go to the Reichstag (German Parliament building) so we could avoid standing in a long line. The building is really nice and has a pretty new addition to it by Norman Foster. It was really neat and we took lots of pictures. After that we grabbed some lunch at a bakery and went on a walking tour of Berlin. We saw tons of historic things, including the Brandenburg Gate, where the Hitler bunkers were once located, the location where the burning of the books took place, and the "Dangle Baby Hotel" (where Micheal Jackson dangled the baby over the balcony). It was a great trip and I think we made the best of the time we had there. We by no means saw everything there was to see in Berlin, but it is so big there is just no way to fit all that in the less than 2 days.

Monday we did a few last things around Weimar, but it rained the whole day so we were not able to do a whole lot. Tuesday morning we got up and went to the underground caves of Weimar with Alli, but they were not as impressive as we had hoped. Laura and I then packed and left for Frankfurt Hahn. We spent the night there and got up at 3:45 this morning to catch our flight to Rome. Everything went smoothly and were glad to see Clint and everyone else in the Rome Termini!