As always you can find pictures of lovely Barcelona on my Picasa: Barcelona
Before launching into this post, now that I've posted a few times, I'm interested in hearing some reader feedback. Since the difference between a blog and a journal is that a blog is read by others, it matters what people want to read as much as does what I want to write. I'd like to know how I can improve what I'm currently doing now (other than actually posting these things as they happen) and what you like already. Are the posts too long? Too short? Are there things I gloss over you'd like to hear more about? Are there things I ramble on about that you don't care about? Should I post more frequently and have shorter posts (for example, dedicate posts to weekly events that might only require a paragraph) or should I stick with mostly weekly updates or emphasis on travel weekends? Would pictures in the actual body of the blog (as originally promised) help or is Picasa enough? Leave a comment on this thread to let me know how you feel.
On to Barcelona! Nothing interesting to report about the flight over except that since I got there earlier than I expected, I had it in my mind the whole time that I was early, so after a few things took longer than expected, I was shocked that I almost missed my flight, which was at 5:40, and I got to the gate at 5:35. No biggie.
I do hate travel though. Cheap airlines are great for the wallet, but they take forever when you factor in the hour or so to and from each airport to the city center. By the time I get to my destination I don't want to do much of anything, which is why it was good that I was traveling on a Thursday night this time and didn't have to do anything. One huge difference I noticed immediately was that people don't speak much English here, and if they do, they pretend they don't. My initial impression of Barcelona wasn't quite favorable (this is becoming a theme isn't it?) due to people giving me conflicting instructions for how to get to the metro and me wandering around sketchy neighborhoods at night with people hanging around on corners and nobody knowing the answers to my questions. Spanish would have come in handy here... In any event once I found the metro and met Ally and checked into my hostel, I felt like I knew what I was doing a little more, but Barcelona is much bigger than Munich. My hostel was incredibly hippie, which was awesome. It was also very clean and I got the two bed room to myself.
Friday out of habit I wore my coat, but this was a bad call - it was actually warm bordering on hot (compared to what we're used to) in Barcelona! Quite a change from London which, if not cold, is certainly chilly. Ally began by taking me to the main square, Placa de Catalunya, which is very large and yet somehow very charming. Seems like the kind of place I'd like to go and sit and read a book or people watch. Or pigeon watch. Plenty of them.
Running down to the beach from the Placa de Catalunya is La Rambla, essentially the main touristy street. There are living statues and street performers all up and down it, and lots of shopping and that kind of thing. The coolest thing on La Rambla though is the Boqueria, the large market. The layout kind of reminded me a little bit of the Farmer's Market back in Allentown, or the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, but obviously more exotic and varied. So many unique and delicious-looking foods. Everything from very fresh seafood, interesting fruits, and huge legs of meat to smoothies and candies. If I ever get back to Barcelona, this is one place I'd like to spend more time and sample a variety of interesting foods. Octopus is one I'd like to give a chance.
Reaching the end of La Rambla, we walked along the beach, which was very exciting to be doing in February. As you can see in the pictures, the sand is darker than most beaches in the eastern US - though not like the black volcanic sand of places like the Canary Islands. The water is definitely still too cold for swimming though. I'm constantly amazed by how blue the Mediterranean is, although it's not as clear as the Caribbean. There was a kind of jungle gym made of rope on the beach which Ally says is usually swamped with kids, but there was nobody on it, so we climbed around on that for a bit. These are the kinds of random things I would have had no idea about had I just been exploring alone as in Munich - it's good to have a guide who knows the place reasonably well!
After some more exploring and then lunch (tortilla de patatas! doesn't sound anywhere near as good as it really is!), we went to Parc Guell, a park designed by Antoni Gaudi, the artist associated with Barcelona. Gaudi was an artist/architect in the early part of the 20th century and belonged to the art nouveau school of art. His works were one of the big reasons I wanted to come to Barcelona in the first place. He was inspired primarily by nature and natural forms, so his art always feels rather organic. He uses a lot of curvy lines and vivid colors as well. Describing his work won't really give an accurate impression of it though, you should check the pictures of the park. I honestly feel it's one of the most unique, if not the most unique, parks I've ever been to and just feels like a lovely place to spend a day or sit and do some work.
After this was what I'd been waiting for for a long time. The Sagrada Familia - the cathedral of all cathedrals. Also from the mind of Antoni Gaudi, the Sagrada Familia was begun at the tail end of the 19th century, and was consecrated in 2010. The inside is mostly finished (although I suspect they will add more stained glass), but there are 10 more towers they're adding, the biggest of which is almost twice as large as the existing ones. They hope to finish by 2026, the centennial of Gaudi's death. There will be 12 smaller towers for the Apostles, 4 for the Evangelists, 1 for Mary and the biggest one for Jesus. The pictures can give you some impression of how majestic and unique the church is from the exterior to the magnificent interior, but no picture can convey the effect of the stained glass. I swear to you I have never seen anything like it - the colors are more vivid than any colors I've ever seen, especially when there is light coming through the glass. The light also creates an ambient rainbow of colors in the air on whichever side the light is coming from. If, as I suspect, they plan to add more stained glass, the effect will be that of having Mass under a forest canopy at sunset. The columns and ceiling are meant to be reminiscent of trees so this seems entirely appropriate. Be warned again, you will be amazed by the pictures, but they don't capture even half of the vividness of the colors of that glass. I plan to return after 2026 when the whole building is finished. If the church is magnificent now, I can't even imagine what it will look like then. It's the kind of place you have an emotional reaction just being in. St. Peter's is beautiful but in an almost intimidating way. This just feels natural, graceful, beautiful. Every image in there is meant not to draw attention to the prowess of the artist, but to some aspect of the faith. The sculptures and images immediately recall the Bible verses they are meant to represent, unlike some religious sculptures which are seen without any real association of their meaning. The effect is of architecture and religion coming together in both a symbolic and real way to become part of the act of worship itself.
Ally then took me up Passeig de Gracia a little bit, pointing out one of the two houses on the street that Gaudi designed, to which I later returned. We got pizza and empanadas, and then some gelato - which just made me miss Italy more. While Ally went back to rest for an hour or two, I wandered around the Corte Inglese, which is essentially a very large department store. It's the size of some malls but it's just one store. It was interesting to see the different kinds of things they had, but the prices were pretty extreme in most cases. I particularly enjoyed walking through the movie section and seeing which titles had been translated into Spanish. I even picked up some guidebooks in the book section about the States - so I got to read about the US in a language which I mostly don't speak. It was very existential. When we met up again, Ally introduced me to her friend Hildy and we all went to a bar called Oveja Negra, where you can buy 3.5 litres of sangria for 20 euros. As there were only 3 of us, we figured this was a bit overkill, so we just got a pitcher. The shots bar after that was one of the most interesting concepts I've seen. They have a board with some 200 or 300 different kinds of shots listed - but only the name, so it's a surprise what you're getting. For example, the Harry Potter has a few different kinds of liquor which they then light on fire, making it hot. The Willy Wonka is chocolate based, and so on. It was jam packed so we didn't stay very long.
Saturday we went to Montjuic to start the day. I'd thought that Parc Guell had a good view of the city, but it seemed like every time we went up another level on Montjuic the view just got more incredible. I enjoyed sitting and watching the guitarist in front of the Catalan art museum with the view of the city framed behind him. I probably could have done that for an hour, but we had things to see. Climbing further, we got to the Olympic stadium and the Olympic Torch from the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona. That was crazy cool, even though I'm not as hugely into the Olympics as some people, because you think of the kind of athletes who competed on that very ground and the kind of spectacle that would have been there just 19 years ago. The stadium was actually built in 1936, but Barcelona lost the bid for those games due to the Spanish Civil War. The coolest thing about being on that hill might have been the fact that it honestly felt like the movie Hercules.
We took the bus from there farther up the mountain to the castle at the top. From up there, you can see absolutely the entire city. I've also never seen the sea from that high up before - it just seems to stretch on forever. I was hit with so many new and amazing sights in just one morning/early afternoon that it was hard to take it all in. I've never been in an Olympic stadium or on Olympic grounds before (although I could have in Munich) and adding that to the various views and architecture of the morning, and how nice it was that day, it was a thoroughly enjoyable first part of the day.
We met Hildy for lunch at a Mexican place which had incredible quesadillas and margaritas. We strolled through the Gothic quarter, which is essentially the old city - original Barcelona. It felt the most Italian of anything I saw there, almost Venice without canals as Ally said. There was another smaller market there, selling honey, cheese, jams, and olives - all of which are apparently Barcelonian specialties. I picked up a sampler of 4 different kinds of honey.
After a little while longer, at around 6:30 or 7, Ally went back to shower and eat with her host family, so I went to check out one of the Gaudi houses - the Casa Batlló, also known as the House of Bones locally, due to the appearance of the external facade. I chose to tour this one because it was the closer of the two and I loved the facade. Truly it was a really awesome house inside and I think more houses should be designed according to some of these principles, uniting form, concept, and design and pioneering both structure and color at the same time. The blue light well in the middle would have been even more magnificent had it been daytime. Much of the allure of the house was its use of natural light, so it was a bit of a shame that I was there at the end of the day, but it was still an amazing tour. Consider me a big Gaudi fan.
The highlight of the rest of the night was the salsa club we went to, which is definitely the coolest dance club I've been to. I think the place was technically a bar, not a club, but everyone there was dancing, and even though it wasn't a huge place, it was full but not horribly crowded. Perfect atmosphere. Would have loved to stay there all night.
Not really much happened today. After I checked out and packed up and went to Mass (at the Sagrada Familia, but in the lower level since they seem to want to have the upper level open for tourists all day), we explored the Parc de la Ciutadella, which Ally had not yet been to, so we were both equally impressed. Not far from this was the Arc de Triomf, which is the only triumphal arch I've seen that is built out of red brick rather than some form of stone. It made a very different impression than the stone arches - warmer perhaps, and more modern.
That just about recaps the main stuff. Obviously it's hard to sum up the general impression of the city and what the experience means for each individual, but I found the city to be varied and vibrant, with lots of beautiful architecture, lovely weather, beautiful views, and many parks. Yet it is also a big city, and though smaller than London, it feels larger sometimes due to the size of its streets and the busy traffic. I would highly recommend going to Barcelona if you have not been, and I hope to get back someday, as I know there is much that I missed. 2026, here I come!
Random thoughts and observations:
-As if it weren't bad enough that I know very little Spanish, throw in the fact that most signs here are in Catalan.
-Elsewhere in Western Europe, 75% of people you encounter will speak OK to very good English, and another 10% will speak enough to understand what you want. In Barcelona, either almost nobody speaks any English or they pretend they don't.
-My brief observations, corroborated by Ally who actually lives there, is that Barcelonians are a bit rude.
-What I wouldn't give to live along the Mediterranean...
-The streets are significantly larger than in London. London doesn't really have 6 lane roads, but all the major ones here are very busy and very wide.
-The blocks have cut corners, which opens up every square, but makes walking in a straight line down a road really annoying and disorienting.
-I can't figure out why Gaudi hasn't been more imitated by architects and artists alike. All of his work is sheer brilliance, and none of it overdone or gaudy (no pun intended!).
-There are a ton of street performers and street musicians in Barcelona, most of them very good. It'd be interesting to tour Barcelonian music just through these guys.
-Didn't get a chance to have any paella or see any flamenco which was somewhat disappointing.
-The very act of studying abroad is such a valuable life experience. You learn so much about yourself and the world around you, and sometimes the most important benefits and the ways you grow the most are the ones which are intangible.
-There are a lot of parks and green spaces in Barcelona, which is very nice - especially when there are actually leaves and green things in those spaces, such as palm trees!
-Euros seem so much more tolerable when you're used to pounds.
-There is a much higher proportion of people with dreadlocks in Barcelona than anywhere else I've been. Also, they have a number of skateboarders and rollerbladers there.
-Being abroad does make you miss America. It's always nice to be humbled and to see that our way isn't the only way, and it's also good to put into perspective the ways in which we do things better/more efficiently etc (bathroom cleanliness for example, and actually having drinking fountains around), and the ways in which we lag behind (architecture, art and real culture for example). But it still brings out your national pride in a way that isn't triggered when you live there all the time.
-I don't think I've seen so many incredible vistas in one weekend in my life.
22 February 2011
16 February 2011
Colgate buys my beer: Life in Belgium
This is part 2 of my attempt to catch up on my blog before leaving for Barcelona tomorrow. Before I launch into our history group's trip to Belgium, I want to briefly mention a few of the events from last week. Pictures here: Week of Feb 7-13
Last Tuesday was our walking tour (component of our History of London class) of Westminster Abbey. I'll try to give a few details from this, since we aren't allowed to take pictures inside. My initial impression was that it was just another cathedral, which is not to take anything away from the beauty of the cathedrals over here, but I was not expecting the kind of history there is inside. The audio guide tour was very helpful, and I was amazed at the number of rulers, writers, politicians, and scientists were buried or entombed in the church somewhere. The beauty of the interior itself is of a simple Gothic variety, but the side wings and chapels contain some incredible sculpture and monuments. The Abbey is more than just a church or coronation chamber - it's almost a history book of the important people in British history. From the tomb of Edward the Confessor, who started work on the Abbey, to the tomb of Elizabeth I and onward, you can see a line of British monarchy. In the Poet's Corner, there is a mixture of poets/writers who are actually buried there (like Chaucer) and monuments or plaques to those who aren't. This area is essentially a "who's who" in British literary history. Musicians have a place here as well. Monuments elsewhere in the church commemorate politicians, leaders, generals, organizations (including one in the arcade around the cloisters to the SOE!), noted monks and abbots from when the Abbey was still a monastery, and scientists such as Newton and Darwin, both of whom are buried there.
Thursday night, we went to Benihana so as to introduce Alex to Japanese hibachi, but what we discovered was that the prices were insane and the portions and quality not quite as good as A1 back home in the Lehigh Valley (which in my experience remains the best Japanese restaurant I have eaten at -- A-town people know).
On to Belgium. Waking up at 5 on Friday morning was almost certainly the only bad thing about this trip, so it was good to get that out of the way first. The best part of the bus ride to Ypres was going through the Chunnel. I assumed that there was a road that ran alongside the tracks but what actually happens is cars and busses are loaded onto a carrier car on a train and the train carries you through to the other side. Definitely a very different experience, and the maneuver the driver pulled off to get us in there was pretty cool too.
Ypres (Ieper to the Flemish, "wipers" to British people who don't want to try) is a Medieval town which had to be mostly rebuilt after WWI, as the Allies "defended it to death." Much of the most brutal fighting in Belgium during WWI happened right in this area - Flanders fields, as John McCrae's famous poem immortalized them. We toured the "In Flanders Fields" museum located in Cloth Hall, the largest non-religious Gothic structure in Europe if I remember correctly. This museum featured a lot of wartime artifacts, but provided a ton of useful background knowledge regarding the actual impact of the war on this area. My knowledge of WWI is and has been somewhat vague and mostly from the American side of things. The history presented in the museum was essential for me understanding what I was to see later in the day.
At lunch, and at all future meals on the trip, our primary goals were to 1) try something new or a local specialty, 2) order one of the most expensive things on the menu. The reason for this is because Colgate was paying for all our meals, including however much beer we decided to order - and Belgian beer is the best. 3 of us had Flemish rabbit, which surprised me with how delicious it was. I've never had rabbit before, but everything about the preparation of this was great, from the sauce to how tender and flavorful it was. The Tongerlo blond beer I had is a little less sweet than Leffe and a little more complex in its flavoring, but otherwise somewhat similar.
At around 3 we began our 3 hour tour of battlefields and graveyards. The tour guide we had really knew her stuff and was able to convey it very clearly and in a manner that was never boring. As we drove from place to place, she pointed out features of the countryside we would not have noticed, for example why certain positions were more strategic than others. She indicated where the front lines of the Germans and the Allies were and showed points of furthest advance for both sides. We saw the facilities used as a kind of hospital due to their location somewhat back from the front line. She also took us through the graveyards and explained what the headstones told about each soldier killed. Most of the dead were our age - 20, 21, 22, 23. I think that might have been what hit home the most. You can hear figures about how many people died, but then you look at the endless rows of headstones in the endless cemeteries in the area, and you realize that if we had lived 100 years ago, this could have been us. People with names, families, futures - now just another headstone in a row of thousands just like it. There was one headstone in the first cemetery of a soldier who was only 15. The youngest in any of the cemeteries was 14. In the Second World War, they had to dig up many of the smaller German cemeteries and move the dead to the main German cemetery, and thus in a rather small square plot of land (see picture), there are 20,000 bodies in a mass grave, half of the bodies in the cemetery, but without a headstone. In the largest Allied cemetery, there are 30,000 bodies. There really isn't anything quite like this area in the US, even at Gettysburg. We in the States cannot fathom the idea that in Britain, only 30 villages did not lose a single soldier in WWI. And the featurelessness of the land really drives home how pointless it was, a mile here or there. And all the people dead due to pointless charges, trench foot, poor ammunition or supplies, insufficient medical staff, or technology which was built for an earlier style of warfare. The somber atmosphere of the afternoon could only be broken by the obnoxious group of middle schoolers who were going to all the same sites we were and who seemed to be completely missing the point. I can't imagine even my own middle school class showing quite as little respect for the dead as these kids were.
Back in the center of Ypres, we all went to dinner at a place called Vivaldi (the middle school kids showed up shortly after - still can't believe it!), which seemed to be imitating a trendy NYC restaurant. Again, the hunt for the most expensive dish on the menu! Unfortunately, they only have mussels in the summer (come on! this is a Belgian specialty!), so I got a Flemish beefstew which was also incredible, and a Belgian chocolate mousse for dessert. The beer I got was really good, but one of the students in our group managed to get 4 drinks during the course of dinner - no idea how, since we had some time constraints. Kudos to him though - we all seemed bent on exacting a little payback on Colgate for the absurd amounts we have to pay to go there.
The last event of the evening was Last Post at the Menin Gate - essentially a tribute every evening at 8 to the dead of WWI. I got separated from the group on the way back and wandered around looking for everyone until I luckily chanced upon Mike, Jessie, and Gillian and we went to one of the pubs in the square. But we missed out on the stories we heard from the rest of the group the next day - just ask Dr. B.
Colgate also came through in a big way on our hotel. Thank you rich Colgate parents who would complain if we ended up in a hostel! I still think we should have traveled to Bruges after the tour though, since Bruges is bigger and has a lot more to do. As it was, we only got to Bruges around 10:30 or 11 the next day and had to leave at 3. This was particularly sad because the place with 300 different beers opened at 4.
As a group, we all climbed the top of the bell tower in Bruges, all 366 stairs (remember, the Duomo in Florence has 470 or so, so this was not bad) in a spiral staircase which got narrower and steeper the farther we went up. As we had a couple people in our group who are more afraid of heights than I am, this was not the best experience for them. It was a big cloudy and foggy so we couldn't see as far as you usually can at the top of those towers, but Bruges is beautiful enough that it didn't matter that much. The way down (as always) was the worst part, and I'm not sure how they can expect to have two way traffic on these stairs, but we all got down safely.
Brendan and I wandered looking for somewhere to eat before settling on a French place with very French waiters. French attitude and everything. He had style though. The mussels were a bit on the expensive side, but with 15 euros toward lunch from Colgate, I didn't mind. As you can see in the photo, the pot of mussels was pretty huge and they were ridiculously good.
In the little remaining time, we searched for a good chocolatier. The place we settled on was called Pralinique and it had the best-looking array of chocolates and truffles. At Godiva in NYC, I got 3 or 4 truffles for $8.50 one time. Here, for a 375g box (approx. 20 pieces), I paid €6.90 (approx $10). I also picked up 3 large chocolate bars (dark, milk, and white) for a total of €9, so I could use my credit card there. Only Belgian chocolate in Belgium is really Belgian chocolate I learned, as the ingredients they use would not keep for international sale and inventory in American stores. Everyone needs to try the real stuff.
Sunday, back in London, was pretty low key except for dinner with Profs Dudden and Coyle and Prof Coyle's wife, which was a lot of fun. Monday was exhausting. Both English and History groups did our walking tour together since our tour was down the Thames to Greenwich. The river cruise enabled me to see London in a way I wouldn't have otherwise, and the guy with the amusing accent was very entertaining, but it was cold and windy and long. Once in Greenwich, we did a ton more walking, but we had a fantastic view of London. This point on the hill by the Royal Observatory has always been used as a defensive position because you can see miles in every direction. Even in WWII, it was used as an anti-air position against the German luftwaffe. The rest of the time we spent walking to see more WWII defensive positions and standing on the Prime Meridian, straddling the hemispheres. The play that night was Vernon God Little, a play which you'd really have to see to understand why it was good, so I won't even try to explain it. Pictures for Monday are here: Thames and Greenwich
I believe this makes me caught up now, so that's all until I'm back from Barcelona this weekend.
Random thoughts and observations:
-For all the French I've taken, there are still a few words here and there when I try to read a long passage that I'm not familiar with, or a few words/phrases used idiomatically, all of which completely render the overall meaning largely incomprehensible to me despite knowing 90-95% of the words.
-On a related note, every time I tried to speak French to someone, I'm not entirely sure they even knew I was speaking French. I have a long way to go...
-People bother me who go "aww" when you eat an animal that isn't beef, poultry, or pork. The implication is that these animals are ok to eat, but eating deer, lamb, or rabbit is somehow cruel. There really is no difference. Either get over it or become a vegetarian if it bothers you that badly.
-Driving through Belgium drove home why the area is called the "Low Countries." It is almost entirely flat, and as it had recently rained, the fields were muddy and there were puddles everywhere.
-Somehow in the rush to do things, I completely neglected to have a real Belgian waffle. Sadness.
-You know that Bruges is a beautiful city if it's still beautiful when it's cloudy and rainy out.
-There's just something interesting about watching a horse and carriage drive down a cobblestone road, closely followed by a bus.
-The Prime Meridian runs down the vertical length of the Earth, yet people will wait in line just to get their picture taken next to a landmark at one point along the Meridian. Yes, I was one of those people.
Last Tuesday was our walking tour (component of our History of London class) of Westminster Abbey. I'll try to give a few details from this, since we aren't allowed to take pictures inside. My initial impression was that it was just another cathedral, which is not to take anything away from the beauty of the cathedrals over here, but I was not expecting the kind of history there is inside. The audio guide tour was very helpful, and I was amazed at the number of rulers, writers, politicians, and scientists were buried or entombed in the church somewhere. The beauty of the interior itself is of a simple Gothic variety, but the side wings and chapels contain some incredible sculpture and monuments. The Abbey is more than just a church or coronation chamber - it's almost a history book of the important people in British history. From the tomb of Edward the Confessor, who started work on the Abbey, to the tomb of Elizabeth I and onward, you can see a line of British monarchy. In the Poet's Corner, there is a mixture of poets/writers who are actually buried there (like Chaucer) and monuments or plaques to those who aren't. This area is essentially a "who's who" in British literary history. Musicians have a place here as well. Monuments elsewhere in the church commemorate politicians, leaders, generals, organizations (including one in the arcade around the cloisters to the SOE!), noted monks and abbots from when the Abbey was still a monastery, and scientists such as Newton and Darwin, both of whom are buried there.
Thursday night, we went to Benihana so as to introduce Alex to Japanese hibachi, but what we discovered was that the prices were insane and the portions and quality not quite as good as A1 back home in the Lehigh Valley (which in my experience remains the best Japanese restaurant I have eaten at -- A-town people know).
On to Belgium. Waking up at 5 on Friday morning was almost certainly the only bad thing about this trip, so it was good to get that out of the way first. The best part of the bus ride to Ypres was going through the Chunnel. I assumed that there was a road that ran alongside the tracks but what actually happens is cars and busses are loaded onto a carrier car on a train and the train carries you through to the other side. Definitely a very different experience, and the maneuver the driver pulled off to get us in there was pretty cool too.
Ypres (Ieper to the Flemish, "wipers" to British people who don't want to try) is a Medieval town which had to be mostly rebuilt after WWI, as the Allies "defended it to death." Much of the most brutal fighting in Belgium during WWI happened right in this area - Flanders fields, as John McCrae's famous poem immortalized them. We toured the "In Flanders Fields" museum located in Cloth Hall, the largest non-religious Gothic structure in Europe if I remember correctly. This museum featured a lot of wartime artifacts, but provided a ton of useful background knowledge regarding the actual impact of the war on this area. My knowledge of WWI is and has been somewhat vague and mostly from the American side of things. The history presented in the museum was essential for me understanding what I was to see later in the day.
At lunch, and at all future meals on the trip, our primary goals were to 1) try something new or a local specialty, 2) order one of the most expensive things on the menu. The reason for this is because Colgate was paying for all our meals, including however much beer we decided to order - and Belgian beer is the best. 3 of us had Flemish rabbit, which surprised me with how delicious it was. I've never had rabbit before, but everything about the preparation of this was great, from the sauce to how tender and flavorful it was. The Tongerlo blond beer I had is a little less sweet than Leffe and a little more complex in its flavoring, but otherwise somewhat similar.
At around 3 we began our 3 hour tour of battlefields and graveyards. The tour guide we had really knew her stuff and was able to convey it very clearly and in a manner that was never boring. As we drove from place to place, she pointed out features of the countryside we would not have noticed, for example why certain positions were more strategic than others. She indicated where the front lines of the Germans and the Allies were and showed points of furthest advance for both sides. We saw the facilities used as a kind of hospital due to their location somewhat back from the front line. She also took us through the graveyards and explained what the headstones told about each soldier killed. Most of the dead were our age - 20, 21, 22, 23. I think that might have been what hit home the most. You can hear figures about how many people died, but then you look at the endless rows of headstones in the endless cemeteries in the area, and you realize that if we had lived 100 years ago, this could have been us. People with names, families, futures - now just another headstone in a row of thousands just like it. There was one headstone in the first cemetery of a soldier who was only 15. The youngest in any of the cemeteries was 14. In the Second World War, they had to dig up many of the smaller German cemeteries and move the dead to the main German cemetery, and thus in a rather small square plot of land (see picture), there are 20,000 bodies in a mass grave, half of the bodies in the cemetery, but without a headstone. In the largest Allied cemetery, there are 30,000 bodies. There really isn't anything quite like this area in the US, even at Gettysburg. We in the States cannot fathom the idea that in Britain, only 30 villages did not lose a single soldier in WWI. And the featurelessness of the land really drives home how pointless it was, a mile here or there. And all the people dead due to pointless charges, trench foot, poor ammunition or supplies, insufficient medical staff, or technology which was built for an earlier style of warfare. The somber atmosphere of the afternoon could only be broken by the obnoxious group of middle schoolers who were going to all the same sites we were and who seemed to be completely missing the point. I can't imagine even my own middle school class showing quite as little respect for the dead as these kids were.
Back in the center of Ypres, we all went to dinner at a place called Vivaldi (the middle school kids showed up shortly after - still can't believe it!), which seemed to be imitating a trendy NYC restaurant. Again, the hunt for the most expensive dish on the menu! Unfortunately, they only have mussels in the summer (come on! this is a Belgian specialty!), so I got a Flemish beefstew which was also incredible, and a Belgian chocolate mousse for dessert. The beer I got was really good, but one of the students in our group managed to get 4 drinks during the course of dinner - no idea how, since we had some time constraints. Kudos to him though - we all seemed bent on exacting a little payback on Colgate for the absurd amounts we have to pay to go there.
The last event of the evening was Last Post at the Menin Gate - essentially a tribute every evening at 8 to the dead of WWI. I got separated from the group on the way back and wandered around looking for everyone until I luckily chanced upon Mike, Jessie, and Gillian and we went to one of the pubs in the square. But we missed out on the stories we heard from the rest of the group the next day - just ask Dr. B.
Colgate also came through in a big way on our hotel. Thank you rich Colgate parents who would complain if we ended up in a hostel! I still think we should have traveled to Bruges after the tour though, since Bruges is bigger and has a lot more to do. As it was, we only got to Bruges around 10:30 or 11 the next day and had to leave at 3. This was particularly sad because the place with 300 different beers opened at 4.
As a group, we all climbed the top of the bell tower in Bruges, all 366 stairs (remember, the Duomo in Florence has 470 or so, so this was not bad) in a spiral staircase which got narrower and steeper the farther we went up. As we had a couple people in our group who are more afraid of heights than I am, this was not the best experience for them. It was a big cloudy and foggy so we couldn't see as far as you usually can at the top of those towers, but Bruges is beautiful enough that it didn't matter that much. The way down (as always) was the worst part, and I'm not sure how they can expect to have two way traffic on these stairs, but we all got down safely.
Brendan and I wandered looking for somewhere to eat before settling on a French place with very French waiters. French attitude and everything. He had style though. The mussels were a bit on the expensive side, but with 15 euros toward lunch from Colgate, I didn't mind. As you can see in the photo, the pot of mussels was pretty huge and they were ridiculously good.
In the little remaining time, we searched for a good chocolatier. The place we settled on was called Pralinique and it had the best-looking array of chocolates and truffles. At Godiva in NYC, I got 3 or 4 truffles for $8.50 one time. Here, for a 375g box (approx. 20 pieces), I paid €6.90 (approx $10). I also picked up 3 large chocolate bars (dark, milk, and white) for a total of €9, so I could use my credit card there. Only Belgian chocolate in Belgium is really Belgian chocolate I learned, as the ingredients they use would not keep for international sale and inventory in American stores. Everyone needs to try the real stuff.
Sunday, back in London, was pretty low key except for dinner with Profs Dudden and Coyle and Prof Coyle's wife, which was a lot of fun. Monday was exhausting. Both English and History groups did our walking tour together since our tour was down the Thames to Greenwich. The river cruise enabled me to see London in a way I wouldn't have otherwise, and the guy with the amusing accent was very entertaining, but it was cold and windy and long. Once in Greenwich, we did a ton more walking, but we had a fantastic view of London. This point on the hill by the Royal Observatory has always been used as a defensive position because you can see miles in every direction. Even in WWII, it was used as an anti-air position against the German luftwaffe. The rest of the time we spent walking to see more WWII defensive positions and standing on the Prime Meridian, straddling the hemispheres. The play that night was Vernon God Little, a play which you'd really have to see to understand why it was good, so I won't even try to explain it. Pictures for Monday are here: Thames and Greenwich
I believe this makes me caught up now, so that's all until I'm back from Barcelona this weekend.
Random thoughts and observations:
-For all the French I've taken, there are still a few words here and there when I try to read a long passage that I'm not familiar with, or a few words/phrases used idiomatically, all of which completely render the overall meaning largely incomprehensible to me despite knowing 90-95% of the words.
-On a related note, every time I tried to speak French to someone, I'm not entirely sure they even knew I was speaking French. I have a long way to go...
-People bother me who go "aww" when you eat an animal that isn't beef, poultry, or pork. The implication is that these animals are ok to eat, but eating deer, lamb, or rabbit is somehow cruel. There really is no difference. Either get over it or become a vegetarian if it bothers you that badly.
-Driving through Belgium drove home why the area is called the "Low Countries." It is almost entirely flat, and as it had recently rained, the fields were muddy and there were puddles everywhere.
-Somehow in the rush to do things, I completely neglected to have a real Belgian waffle. Sadness.
-You know that Bruges is a beautiful city if it's still beautiful when it's cloudy and rainy out.
-There's just something interesting about watching a horse and carriage drive down a cobblestone road, closely followed by a bus.
-The Prime Meridian runs down the vertical length of the Earth, yet people will wait in line just to get their picture taken next to a landmark at one point along the Meridian. Yes, I was one of those people.
Munich to my ears
I promise I'll catch up soon, Munich was just a daunting post to write up in an otherwise busy week. Pictures, as always can be seen on Picasa: Munich. This trip was from February 4-6.
Much of the Munich experience can actually be summed up in that album, since I won't bore you with lengthy descriptions of the profusion of fabulous museums I got to see that weekend, but suffice it to say that Munich is incredible for lovers of art and history. However, first interesting event occurred before I even set foot out of London.
My flight to Munich was out of an airport about an hour to an hour and a half outside of London, so I needed to take an easybus to get there. My easybus ticket was for 4am, and any later than that meant a good chance I wouldn't make the flight. The bus left from WAY across town, and the tube is closed at that hour, so I printed instructions for how to take the city bus system there. Just as I was going to get on the bus, I discovered my Oyster card (pay-as-you-go transit card for London) had insufficient funds. In a tube station, I could top it up, but not at a bus stop. Individual bus tickets are 2.20 and I only had £2 on me. Before I could beg 20p off someone, the bus pulled away, leaving me stunned and at a loss for what to do for a moment. Casting about for some way to get there (walking was out of the question at this point, as it would almost certainly take too long to get there), I booked it down to Trafalgar Square, which my directions had indicated to be a place where I'd need to change busses anyway. Grabbing £40 from an ATM on the way just so I'd have some cash just in case, I made it to the square and proceeded to look around for the stop that had the required bus to where I needed to go. Unfortunately, it's a large square, and none of the 5 or 6 stops I found by walking around mentioned my route. Cabs are everywhere during the day, but I couldn't find a single one for five minutes, until finally I managed to flag one down. The cabbie was very friendly, and I made the bus on time, but it put me down £18 (roughly $30) for want of 20 pence. One more transportation lesson learned, at a price.
The rest of the trip there went off without a hitch. Once there and once checked into the hostel and all that, I wandered into the town center with my newly acquired small guidebook (I had NO idea what there was to see in Munich!). Being a grey day at this point, I wasn't overly excited by anything I saw, partly from being tired from traveling as well, but the main square Marienplatz was pretty impressive. Having watched the mechanical figurines on the bell tower of the old city hall building move to the music of the carillon (see video), I was torn between thinking there was too much to do for the time I had and that there wasn't enough. The former of course turned out to be true, but at this point I hadn't read the guide too closely. Food was an adventure, as all the menus outside restaurants were in German, and I don't know a word of German. Menus inside almost anywhere were available in English, but this didn't help me decide if I wanted to eat there, and I had no way of knowing which places were overpriced and touristy and which places were actually authentic. The main cathedral, Frauenkirche, had one of its famous bell towers under renovation and covered in scaffolding, proving that February is the time in all these cities that renovations are done in preparation for tourist season. Depressed at this point and underwhelmed at first by the main "tourist attractions" in the center of town, I finally found a restaurant. The takeaway from this experience was that sauerkraut (which I HATE in the States) is actually not half-bad in Germany - although I couldn't eat a whole plate of it.
The rest of the day got much better, especially as the sun came out. I took the next step toward becoming a professional cathedral bell-tower climber by climbing to the top of Peterskirche, a much less dangerous experience than Rye. Although, despite trying not to think of it, it was the cathedral that was probably the most terrifying to be on top of once up there. There was a walkway around the belltower, and it had a grate around it, but that's IT. Were that thin metal cage not around the walkway, you could just step off the edge of the relatively narrow walkway to your death. But the view is tremendous, and you can see the Alps in the distance, though apparently not as well as in October during the time of the hot, dry winds.
The Victuelienmarkt, the big open-air market in Munich was the most amazing of its kind that I have seen, even more so than in Venice. The amount of cheese was particularly notable, and I had not previously associated Germany with cheese. I wanted very much to buy some sort of cheese or meat or wine in the market to try something assuredly fresh, local, and authentic, but I didn't know much about what they were selling and my Germany, as previously mentioned, is nonexistent. Good biergarten there though. The group of British students talking nearby demonstrated to me that American students aren't the only ones ignorant of other cultures and prone to stereotyping.
The rest of the day was spent doing a lot of exploring, much of which can be seen in the pictures. I saw the Cuvilliés theater, part of the Residence Museum (the former residence of the Wittelsbach dynasty). The ticket for the three parts of the Musuem was good for several days so I determined to come back the following day to see the rest of the Residence. Exploring further northward, I spent time walking through the English Garden, which is simply beautiful, despite the thick layer of slush remaining on the ground there from the snow of a few days earlier. Again, more exploring followed for the rest of the night. Upon returning to the hostel, I was pleased to discover that I had the entire 6 bed hostel to myself that night.
The next day I dedicated primarily to museums. The German Museum (Deutches Museum) is almost certainly the most fantastic science museum I've ever seen. There are 6 floors, and 80+ rooms with exhibits on everything from shipbuilding to tunneling to nanotechnology, musical instruments, paper making, physics, etc. I was impressed not merely with the quality of their artifacts and exhibits, but with the balance they struck with some hands-on exhibits, particularly in the nanotechnology and biotechnology area. True lovers of science will adore this museum. My only regret is that I had such limited time to explore. One really needs at least 2 days to do it right, and I only had 2-3 hours. I moved on from there to the Residence Museum, which used a different part of the brain and therefore was not overwhelming. Unfortunately, it didn't use different legs, and by the time I was done marveling at the beautiful architecture, art, and interior decorating, I had been standing or walking for the entire day.
To take a quick break without having to sit down for dinner yet (I still hoped to get to another museum before it closed), I stopped in a café called the Luitpold, which contained a delicious-looking array of pastries and desserts, a cappucino bar, and a regular bar. I decided that I wanted to get a small dessert to keep me from being starving until 8, which is when I wanted to eat. The lady behind the table told me to sit down and they would bring me my dessert. Noting the lack of seating inside, I saw an area in another room outside the café (but still indoors) that I was not sure was part of the café, so I asked a guy at the cappucino side of the bar. My strategy in Munich to this point was to simply say "Hi" (an easy way of announcing that what followed would be in English) and then to start talking in English, since most people here spoke at least some English, rather than having to ask if they spoke English each time I talked to someone. However, smartass behind the counter stops me mid-question and says "I believe the question you want to ask is do I speak English?" - in perfect English. I apologized and was a bit flustered, but later I was pretty miffed about this, as he was just being an ass for the sake of being an ass. Sorry dude for assuming you're intelligent enough to know more than one language, or for assuming that you, like everyone else in Munich, speaks enough English to get by. Not to mention that he obviously DID know English. My bad for not asking his permission to speak my language in his country.
I will note, however, that everyone to this point had been exceedingly welcoming and friendly. In any event, the museum I wanted to go to was closed, so I headed straight to the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous (and touristy!) beer hall in the world. The atmosphere is great there, and I'd love to go back with other people sometime since it really is a social hall. The guys who ended up sitting at my table spoke almost no English, so we didn't really have much to say to each other. However, the sauerbraten was excellent and so was the beer - a full litre mug plunked down on my table full of Hofbrau dunkel.
The other anecdote from the weekend came that night. When I returned to the room, I noticed that I no longer had the room to myself, but that there were 5 backpacking-type packs scattered about the room, and I think a pair of skis as well. After spending an hour or so with the crappy internet trying to upload pictures, I gave up and went to bed. Probably a couple hours later I was awakened by five very rowdy and drunk Irishmen, likely in their mid-twenties. I'd been hoping for that hostel ideal of camaraderie among travelers and meeting new people on the road and all that, but instead I was greeted by these Irish guys talking amongst themselves about "the American" (I was pretending to be still asleep) and about whether they should go through his stuff. One of them commented that he'd like some new music and that they should hook their iPods up to my computer to see what I had. Another was deliberating about erasing the pictures from my camera. Wishing I'd locked everything up before going to bed, I simply hoped and prayed they were just drunkenly rambling. Fortunately they were, and nothing of mine ended up being stolen or tampered with, but their loud talking (and one guy's snoring) kept me up half the night. Probably one of the worst night's sleep I've ever had.
The following day I went to church at St. Michael's, whose female choir sang a beautiful mass setting, the name of which escapes me right now. I had time then to visit the last part of the Residence Museum, the treasury, which contains some truly amazing pieces ranging from crowns and royal swords to crystal and gems and altarpieces. The pictures don't really capture the true shininess of these things (SHINY!). Immediately after this, I departed Munich, but I do hope to get back one day. I'd seen but a fraction of the German Museum, and missed completely their three notable art museums. Additionally, I never got to the Olympic village, which was a bit farther away, as well as the Nymphenburg Palace, which looks to be an entire day in itself. This doesn't include the fact that there are some fantastic lakes nearby, the Neuschwanstein castle, and Dachau concentration camp - all within an hour or two from Munich.
To close, I experienced on the flight home the most profound homesickness I may have ever felt in my life, perhaps due to being farther from anybody I knew than I'd ever been. I missed not just my family and loved ones, but people I wasn't even that close to back in high school, simply because they were emblematic of a life more familiar and comfortable than the tumultuous last few weeks have been. Additionally, returning to London felt like returning home in a way. I guess that was the first indication that I'd settled into the London routine well.
Random Thoughts and Observations:
-Munich is kind of the Florence of Germany. The comparison isn't exact, and Munich is a bit bigger, but there are a number of striking similarities aesthetically.
-Everyone speaks English rather well in Munich until around 5pm on Saturday, at which point everyone promptly is rendered incapable of speaking more than a few words in English and acting offended that you cannot speak German. A very strange phenomenon.
-I certainly won't extrapolate beyond what I've seen and experienced, but as for myself and everyone I've talked to so far, I've not seen an Irish student or young person under 30 who isn't an absolute raging asshole. This is coming from someone with substantial Irish heritage, mind you.
-I can walk by bakeries at home without a second thought, but every bakery or patisserie so far in Europe contains approximately 300 items I want to eat immediately.
-It is very difficult to see a city more than superficially when only there for a weekend, or to know what restaurants are geared toward tourists and which ones are not. Is there an authentic experience for the short-term traveler?
-Bavarian girls are some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in my life. In possibly related news, there are huge numbers of happy-looking couples wandering everywhere in Munich, a refreshing sight for a Colgate student, where it is refreshing to see even one couple holding hands.
-US cities/towns are always improved by sunny days of course, but the contrast between how beautiful/charming a European city or town looks when it is cloudy and rainy versus when it is sunny is astounding. This has been true of everywhere I've been so far, as every trip I've made has started out cloudy and become sunny. London is an exception, as the city seems to have been built for cloudy days. It facilitates a certain pleasant melancholy which seems somehow appropriate.
Much of the Munich experience can actually be summed up in that album, since I won't bore you with lengthy descriptions of the profusion of fabulous museums I got to see that weekend, but suffice it to say that Munich is incredible for lovers of art and history. However, first interesting event occurred before I even set foot out of London.
My flight to Munich was out of an airport about an hour to an hour and a half outside of London, so I needed to take an easybus to get there. My easybus ticket was for 4am, and any later than that meant a good chance I wouldn't make the flight. The bus left from WAY across town, and the tube is closed at that hour, so I printed instructions for how to take the city bus system there. Just as I was going to get on the bus, I discovered my Oyster card (pay-as-you-go transit card for London) had insufficient funds. In a tube station, I could top it up, but not at a bus stop. Individual bus tickets are 2.20 and I only had £2 on me. Before I could beg 20p off someone, the bus pulled away, leaving me stunned and at a loss for what to do for a moment. Casting about for some way to get there (walking was out of the question at this point, as it would almost certainly take too long to get there), I booked it down to Trafalgar Square, which my directions had indicated to be a place where I'd need to change busses anyway. Grabbing £40 from an ATM on the way just so I'd have some cash just in case, I made it to the square and proceeded to look around for the stop that had the required bus to where I needed to go. Unfortunately, it's a large square, and none of the 5 or 6 stops I found by walking around mentioned my route. Cabs are everywhere during the day, but I couldn't find a single one for five minutes, until finally I managed to flag one down. The cabbie was very friendly, and I made the bus on time, but it put me down £18 (roughly $30) for want of 20 pence. One more transportation lesson learned, at a price.
The rest of the trip there went off without a hitch. Once there and once checked into the hostel and all that, I wandered into the town center with my newly acquired small guidebook (I had NO idea what there was to see in Munich!). Being a grey day at this point, I wasn't overly excited by anything I saw, partly from being tired from traveling as well, but the main square Marienplatz was pretty impressive. Having watched the mechanical figurines on the bell tower of the old city hall building move to the music of the carillon (see video), I was torn between thinking there was too much to do for the time I had and that there wasn't enough. The former of course turned out to be true, but at this point I hadn't read the guide too closely. Food was an adventure, as all the menus outside restaurants were in German, and I don't know a word of German. Menus inside almost anywhere were available in English, but this didn't help me decide if I wanted to eat there, and I had no way of knowing which places were overpriced and touristy and which places were actually authentic. The main cathedral, Frauenkirche, had one of its famous bell towers under renovation and covered in scaffolding, proving that February is the time in all these cities that renovations are done in preparation for tourist season. Depressed at this point and underwhelmed at first by the main "tourist attractions" in the center of town, I finally found a restaurant. The takeaway from this experience was that sauerkraut (which I HATE in the States) is actually not half-bad in Germany - although I couldn't eat a whole plate of it.
The rest of the day got much better, especially as the sun came out. I took the next step toward becoming a professional cathedral bell-tower climber by climbing to the top of Peterskirche, a much less dangerous experience than Rye. Although, despite trying not to think of it, it was the cathedral that was probably the most terrifying to be on top of once up there. There was a walkway around the belltower, and it had a grate around it, but that's IT. Were that thin metal cage not around the walkway, you could just step off the edge of the relatively narrow walkway to your death. But the view is tremendous, and you can see the Alps in the distance, though apparently not as well as in October during the time of the hot, dry winds.
The Victuelienmarkt, the big open-air market in Munich was the most amazing of its kind that I have seen, even more so than in Venice. The amount of cheese was particularly notable, and I had not previously associated Germany with cheese. I wanted very much to buy some sort of cheese or meat or wine in the market to try something assuredly fresh, local, and authentic, but I didn't know much about what they were selling and my Germany, as previously mentioned, is nonexistent. Good biergarten there though. The group of British students talking nearby demonstrated to me that American students aren't the only ones ignorant of other cultures and prone to stereotyping.
The rest of the day was spent doing a lot of exploring, much of which can be seen in the pictures. I saw the Cuvilliés theater, part of the Residence Museum (the former residence of the Wittelsbach dynasty). The ticket for the three parts of the Musuem was good for several days so I determined to come back the following day to see the rest of the Residence. Exploring further northward, I spent time walking through the English Garden, which is simply beautiful, despite the thick layer of slush remaining on the ground there from the snow of a few days earlier. Again, more exploring followed for the rest of the night. Upon returning to the hostel, I was pleased to discover that I had the entire 6 bed hostel to myself that night.
The next day I dedicated primarily to museums. The German Museum (Deutches Museum) is almost certainly the most fantastic science museum I've ever seen. There are 6 floors, and 80+ rooms with exhibits on everything from shipbuilding to tunneling to nanotechnology, musical instruments, paper making, physics, etc. I was impressed not merely with the quality of their artifacts and exhibits, but with the balance they struck with some hands-on exhibits, particularly in the nanotechnology and biotechnology area. True lovers of science will adore this museum. My only regret is that I had such limited time to explore. One really needs at least 2 days to do it right, and I only had 2-3 hours. I moved on from there to the Residence Museum, which used a different part of the brain and therefore was not overwhelming. Unfortunately, it didn't use different legs, and by the time I was done marveling at the beautiful architecture, art, and interior decorating, I had been standing or walking for the entire day.
To take a quick break without having to sit down for dinner yet (I still hoped to get to another museum before it closed), I stopped in a café called the Luitpold, which contained a delicious-looking array of pastries and desserts, a cappucino bar, and a regular bar. I decided that I wanted to get a small dessert to keep me from being starving until 8, which is when I wanted to eat. The lady behind the table told me to sit down and they would bring me my dessert. Noting the lack of seating inside, I saw an area in another room outside the café (but still indoors) that I was not sure was part of the café, so I asked a guy at the cappucino side of the bar. My strategy in Munich to this point was to simply say "Hi" (an easy way of announcing that what followed would be in English) and then to start talking in English, since most people here spoke at least some English, rather than having to ask if they spoke English each time I talked to someone. However, smartass behind the counter stops me mid-question and says "I believe the question you want to ask is do I speak English?" - in perfect English. I apologized and was a bit flustered, but later I was pretty miffed about this, as he was just being an ass for the sake of being an ass. Sorry dude for assuming you're intelligent enough to know more than one language, or for assuming that you, like everyone else in Munich, speaks enough English to get by. Not to mention that he obviously DID know English. My bad for not asking his permission to speak my language in his country.
I will note, however, that everyone to this point had been exceedingly welcoming and friendly. In any event, the museum I wanted to go to was closed, so I headed straight to the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous (and touristy!) beer hall in the world. The atmosphere is great there, and I'd love to go back with other people sometime since it really is a social hall. The guys who ended up sitting at my table spoke almost no English, so we didn't really have much to say to each other. However, the sauerbraten was excellent and so was the beer - a full litre mug plunked down on my table full of Hofbrau dunkel.
The other anecdote from the weekend came that night. When I returned to the room, I noticed that I no longer had the room to myself, but that there were 5 backpacking-type packs scattered about the room, and I think a pair of skis as well. After spending an hour or so with the crappy internet trying to upload pictures, I gave up and went to bed. Probably a couple hours later I was awakened by five very rowdy and drunk Irishmen, likely in their mid-twenties. I'd been hoping for that hostel ideal of camaraderie among travelers and meeting new people on the road and all that, but instead I was greeted by these Irish guys talking amongst themselves about "the American" (I was pretending to be still asleep) and about whether they should go through his stuff. One of them commented that he'd like some new music and that they should hook their iPods up to my computer to see what I had. Another was deliberating about erasing the pictures from my camera. Wishing I'd locked everything up before going to bed, I simply hoped and prayed they were just drunkenly rambling. Fortunately they were, and nothing of mine ended up being stolen or tampered with, but their loud talking (and one guy's snoring) kept me up half the night. Probably one of the worst night's sleep I've ever had.
The following day I went to church at St. Michael's, whose female choir sang a beautiful mass setting, the name of which escapes me right now. I had time then to visit the last part of the Residence Museum, the treasury, which contains some truly amazing pieces ranging from crowns and royal swords to crystal and gems and altarpieces. The pictures don't really capture the true shininess of these things (SHINY!). Immediately after this, I departed Munich, but I do hope to get back one day. I'd seen but a fraction of the German Museum, and missed completely their three notable art museums. Additionally, I never got to the Olympic village, which was a bit farther away, as well as the Nymphenburg Palace, which looks to be an entire day in itself. This doesn't include the fact that there are some fantastic lakes nearby, the Neuschwanstein castle, and Dachau concentration camp - all within an hour or two from Munich.
To close, I experienced on the flight home the most profound homesickness I may have ever felt in my life, perhaps due to being farther from anybody I knew than I'd ever been. I missed not just my family and loved ones, but people I wasn't even that close to back in high school, simply because they were emblematic of a life more familiar and comfortable than the tumultuous last few weeks have been. Additionally, returning to London felt like returning home in a way. I guess that was the first indication that I'd settled into the London routine well.
Random Thoughts and Observations:
-Munich is kind of the Florence of Germany. The comparison isn't exact, and Munich is a bit bigger, but there are a number of striking similarities aesthetically.
-Everyone speaks English rather well in Munich until around 5pm on Saturday, at which point everyone promptly is rendered incapable of speaking more than a few words in English and acting offended that you cannot speak German. A very strange phenomenon.
-I certainly won't extrapolate beyond what I've seen and experienced, but as for myself and everyone I've talked to so far, I've not seen an Irish student or young person under 30 who isn't an absolute raging asshole. This is coming from someone with substantial Irish heritage, mind you.
-I can walk by bakeries at home without a second thought, but every bakery or patisserie so far in Europe contains approximately 300 items I want to eat immediately.
-It is very difficult to see a city more than superficially when only there for a weekend, or to know what restaurants are geared toward tourists and which ones are not. Is there an authentic experience for the short-term traveler?
-Bavarian girls are some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in my life. In possibly related news, there are huge numbers of happy-looking couples wandering everywhere in Munich, a refreshing sight for a Colgate student, where it is refreshing to see even one couple holding hands.
-US cities/towns are always improved by sunny days of course, but the contrast between how beautiful/charming a European city or town looks when it is cloudy and rainy versus when it is sunny is astounding. This has been true of everywhere I've been so far, as every trip I've made has started out cloudy and become sunny. London is an exception, as the city seems to have been built for cloudy days. It facilitates a certain pleasant melancholy which seems somehow appropriate.
06 February 2011
Rye & Cheshire Cheese
Wow it is easy to get behind on this. I'm forcing myself to get these posts done now or I never will. Before I can even get to the post from this weekend, I need to write about last weekend and last week. I'll try to hit just the highlights.
So last weekend we knew we wanted to stay in London for most of the weekend, but thought it might be a good opportunity for a day trip within the UK. I consulted my book that I got for Christmas, entitled "Best Day Trips From London" (or something to that effect) and we determined that the only two trips that were viable financially and timewise were Dover and Rye, both coastal cities along the Channel. The description of Rye in the book sounded particularly enticing, so we decided Friday night that we'd go on Saturday (yay spontaneity!). After issues with the train site (somehow mine and Niko's visa cards just didn't work??) we booked and headed to the small Medieval town Saturday morning.
My first thoughts were that we might have made a bad call and wasted our £33, as it was a relatively marshy area and the day was cold and grey (like 99% of days here in the UK). But the town proved to be quite charming, especially once the sun came out for a bit. Here I get to recount my own personal experience from the trip. Within the main church in town, St. Mary's, is a bell tower advertised to have the best view of Rye. Like everything else in town worth seeing, it cost an extra few pounds, but having seen enough brilliant views from towers and domes in my life before to know it'd be worth my time and money. Now there are two phobias that I have that are only activated under certain circumstances - fear of heights and tight spaces. For example, I'm not afraid of heights on roller coasters or on top of tall buildings or in a plane because I know I'm under controlled circumstances. It's only if it's up to me to get back down that I get worried. That said, I started climbing the tightest corridors you can imagine (if it's a tight squeeze for me, it's too small!!) and eventually got to the main dome with all the bells. At this point it got significantly damper (bats? I didn't look) and more cavernous, and there was nobody up there with me. The stairs became ladder-stairs (you can see what I mean in the pictures). About midway up the very last one, right in the middle of the huge cavernous space, I suddenly became very dizzyingly aware of how high I was, and how bad one missed step or weak bit of wood would be. I stood for a minute frozen to the spot and then decided I needed to go on or the whole climb and my money would be wasted. So I forced myself to the top, to a narrow walkway, which I didn't have the presence of mind to photograph, which did NOT seem stable. As I tentatively creaked my way toward the window and noticed that you really couldn't get much of a view like I thought you could, I decided it was time to turn back. In retrospect, I'm quite sure the wood would have held me, but this was not my most rational moment. Looking back down the ladder and realizing that I'd have to go down forward or backward, I panicked and realized I didn't think I could make myself do either. I had to sit up there and take deep breaths for a full minute before I could slowly make my way down one step at a time. Easily most terrifying experience of the day.
We found a relatively small castle which was nevertheless cool to explore, until we were told we needed to actually pay for entry and we had already entered. The tea room was great, and any combination of smoked salmon and cheese is awesome. The rest of the afternoon involved a lot of walking around the quaint cobbled streets of the town and taking in the very anti-London experience. We were ready to leave around 3:30 but the first bus out wasn't until 5:30. Therefore, we did what any self-respecting British person does in such a situation. HIT THE PUB! (as if we needed any excuse). The pub Niko found when he disappeared without telling us where he was going with a dead cell phone turned out to have a pretty spacious room with two big screen TVs and a pool table. After a while of sipping our Guinesses and me pretending to care about football/soccer/whocares, we ended up engaging with some locals who were playing pool or sitting next to us. One guy offered us pickled onions, which I tried to refuse but he already had it on a toothpick for me. I retract my earlier statement; that might have been the most terrifying experience of the day. I may have just found a new least favorite food.
Saturday night I went clubbing with Sarah, Ruchi, and Kate. Sarah's friend Eli was supposed to meet us at a club in Camden but was going to be a little late, so advised that we hang around a bar for a bit first. Camden=sketchy (or is it fake sketchy? I can't tell yet). After a few overpriced and crowded bars, we hit the jackpot - The World's End, which bills itself as "Probably the biggest bar in the world". It just might be. My impression of the place would have been far more favorable had the guy not charged me for the *individual ingredients* of a white russian without telling me until he already made it. This was only mildly offset by the fact that the club we went to was free admission and was pretty awesome.
Still, the most eventful moment of that night was on the walk back. Guys kept creeping on the girls I was with, which meant I had to threaten them off. Except that the one drunk guy didn't really want to be threatened away so much and tried to get me to engage with him, but I kept walking until he spun me around and wound up to knock me out before storming away. Not sure if he was just talking tough or if his friend stopped him, but we weren't hanging around to find out. Time to take Niko's advice and roll deep. 2 drunk guys vs. me isn't odds I like.
Our first walking tour on Monday was great. Our professor is both interesting and very funny, in that British way. She took us to the Temple Church, which was built by the Templars in the late 1100s, early 1200s. It was the only building in the area to remain mostly unscathed during the Blitz. The ceiling of the Round was bombed in, but easily rebuilt. The area around it still felt older and more Dickens-y than anywhere else we've been so far, so it's surprising that so much was rebuilt or partially rebuilt since 1945. They used mostly the same bricks and such and adhered to existing building structuers when possible, but yeah, not quite the same. After the tour, Brendan and I bumped into Jessie and our professor in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, which is the single coolest pub I've been to so far. The place feels like it hasn't changed in 200 years, with 3 levels of low lighting and stone. Both the beer and the food is reasonably priced and delicious. I've complained about how expensive food here is, but for 5.50 you can get a cottage pie that is crazy good.
That night we saw "The Woman in Black," but I won't give too much away since this is a play that you need to see if you haven't seen it. It perfectly balances the two kinds of scary that exist in a horror story: the more immediate jump-out-at-you scary, which is very present tense and no longer seems frightening hours later, as well as the more sinister and lasting creepy which comes from a twist, particularly at the end which is just so inherently spine-tingling that you can't get it out of your mind for days. Very entertaining and expertly done with very few materials and only 2 cast members.
Tuesday and Wednesday stuff probably happened.
Thursday night we ate in Chinatown for Chinese New Year. American Chinese food is very inauthentic. I've learned this from Alex, who has introduced us to many legit Chinese foods (dim sum ftw) and attempted to teach me how to use chopsticks. I think I should honestly give up on this one.
So that's it till tomorrow, I'll post about my Munich experiences.
Random thoughts and observations:
-Rye was built for hobbits. Every door is about 2 feet too small for me.
-Pub with a professor?? Awesome!
-75% of girls in London wear the exact same thing - some variety of very short skirt (often covered by their coat) with tights (not even the opaque leggings Colgate ladies prefer). May I remind you the temperature has been hovering near freezing. Classy ladies.
-Niko will talk to anyone about anything. 30 seconds in line at Sainsbury's (grocery store) and he's chatting up the lady about American driver's licenses. Incredible!
-Best London pubs so far: 1) Ye Olde Chesire Cheese, 2) Lamb and Flag, 3) Jerusalem Tavern
-Still not sure how I feel about British beer, particular the traditional "bitters" that are everywhere
So last weekend we knew we wanted to stay in London for most of the weekend, but thought it might be a good opportunity for a day trip within the UK. I consulted my book that I got for Christmas, entitled "Best Day Trips From London" (or something to that effect) and we determined that the only two trips that were viable financially and timewise were Dover and Rye, both coastal cities along the Channel. The description of Rye in the book sounded particularly enticing, so we decided Friday night that we'd go on Saturday (yay spontaneity!). After issues with the train site (somehow mine and Niko's visa cards just didn't work??) we booked and headed to the small Medieval town Saturday morning.
My first thoughts were that we might have made a bad call and wasted our £33, as it was a relatively marshy area and the day was cold and grey (like 99% of days here in the UK). But the town proved to be quite charming, especially once the sun came out for a bit. Here I get to recount my own personal experience from the trip. Within the main church in town, St. Mary's, is a bell tower advertised to have the best view of Rye. Like everything else in town worth seeing, it cost an extra few pounds, but having seen enough brilliant views from towers and domes in my life before to know it'd be worth my time and money. Now there are two phobias that I have that are only activated under certain circumstances - fear of heights and tight spaces. For example, I'm not afraid of heights on roller coasters or on top of tall buildings or in a plane because I know I'm under controlled circumstances. It's only if it's up to me to get back down that I get worried. That said, I started climbing the tightest corridors you can imagine (if it's a tight squeeze for me, it's too small!!) and eventually got to the main dome with all the bells. At this point it got significantly damper (bats? I didn't look) and more cavernous, and there was nobody up there with me. The stairs became ladder-stairs (you can see what I mean in the pictures). About midway up the very last one, right in the middle of the huge cavernous space, I suddenly became very dizzyingly aware of how high I was, and how bad one missed step or weak bit of wood would be. I stood for a minute frozen to the spot and then decided I needed to go on or the whole climb and my money would be wasted. So I forced myself to the top, to a narrow walkway, which I didn't have the presence of mind to photograph, which did NOT seem stable. As I tentatively creaked my way toward the window and noticed that you really couldn't get much of a view like I thought you could, I decided it was time to turn back. In retrospect, I'm quite sure the wood would have held me, but this was not my most rational moment. Looking back down the ladder and realizing that I'd have to go down forward or backward, I panicked and realized I didn't think I could make myself do either. I had to sit up there and take deep breaths for a full minute before I could slowly make my way down one step at a time. Easily most terrifying experience of the day.
We found a relatively small castle which was nevertheless cool to explore, until we were told we needed to actually pay for entry and we had already entered. The tea room was great, and any combination of smoked salmon and cheese is awesome. The rest of the afternoon involved a lot of walking around the quaint cobbled streets of the town and taking in the very anti-London experience. We were ready to leave around 3:30 but the first bus out wasn't until 5:30. Therefore, we did what any self-respecting British person does in such a situation. HIT THE PUB! (as if we needed any excuse). The pub Niko found when he disappeared without telling us where he was going with a dead cell phone turned out to have a pretty spacious room with two big screen TVs and a pool table. After a while of sipping our Guinesses and me pretending to care about football/soccer/whocares, we ended up engaging with some locals who were playing pool or sitting next to us. One guy offered us pickled onions, which I tried to refuse but he already had it on a toothpick for me. I retract my earlier statement; that might have been the most terrifying experience of the day. I may have just found a new least favorite food.
Saturday night I went clubbing with Sarah, Ruchi, and Kate. Sarah's friend Eli was supposed to meet us at a club in Camden but was going to be a little late, so advised that we hang around a bar for a bit first. Camden=sketchy (or is it fake sketchy? I can't tell yet). After a few overpriced and crowded bars, we hit the jackpot - The World's End, which bills itself as "Probably the biggest bar in the world". It just might be. My impression of the place would have been far more favorable had the guy not charged me for the *individual ingredients* of a white russian without telling me until he already made it. This was only mildly offset by the fact that the club we went to was free admission and was pretty awesome.
Still, the most eventful moment of that night was on the walk back. Guys kept creeping on the girls I was with, which meant I had to threaten them off. Except that the one drunk guy didn't really want to be threatened away so much and tried to get me to engage with him, but I kept walking until he spun me around and wound up to knock me out before storming away. Not sure if he was just talking tough or if his friend stopped him, but we weren't hanging around to find out. Time to take Niko's advice and roll deep. 2 drunk guys vs. me isn't odds I like.
Our first walking tour on Monday was great. Our professor is both interesting and very funny, in that British way. She took us to the Temple Church, which was built by the Templars in the late 1100s, early 1200s. It was the only building in the area to remain mostly unscathed during the Blitz. The ceiling of the Round was bombed in, but easily rebuilt. The area around it still felt older and more Dickens-y than anywhere else we've been so far, so it's surprising that so much was rebuilt or partially rebuilt since 1945. They used mostly the same bricks and such and adhered to existing building structuers when possible, but yeah, not quite the same. After the tour, Brendan and I bumped into Jessie and our professor in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, which is the single coolest pub I've been to so far. The place feels like it hasn't changed in 200 years, with 3 levels of low lighting and stone. Both the beer and the food is reasonably priced and delicious. I've complained about how expensive food here is, but for 5.50 you can get a cottage pie that is crazy good.
That night we saw "The Woman in Black," but I won't give too much away since this is a play that you need to see if you haven't seen it. It perfectly balances the two kinds of scary that exist in a horror story: the more immediate jump-out-at-you scary, which is very present tense and no longer seems frightening hours later, as well as the more sinister and lasting creepy which comes from a twist, particularly at the end which is just so inherently spine-tingling that you can't get it out of your mind for days. Very entertaining and expertly done with very few materials and only 2 cast members.
Tuesday and Wednesday stuff probably happened.
Thursday night we ate in Chinatown for Chinese New Year. American Chinese food is very inauthentic. I've learned this from Alex, who has introduced us to many legit Chinese foods (dim sum ftw) and attempted to teach me how to use chopsticks. I think I should honestly give up on this one.
So that's it till tomorrow, I'll post about my Munich experiences.
Random thoughts and observations:
-Rye was built for hobbits. Every door is about 2 feet too small for me.
-Pub with a professor?? Awesome!
-75% of girls in London wear the exact same thing - some variety of very short skirt (often covered by their coat) with tights (not even the opaque leggings Colgate ladies prefer). May I remind you the temperature has been hovering near freezing. Classy ladies.
-Niko will talk to anyone about anything. 30 seconds in line at Sainsbury's (grocery store) and he's chatting up the lady about American driver's licenses. Incredible!
-Best London pubs so far: 1) Ye Olde Chesire Cheese, 2) Lamb and Flag, 3) Jerusalem Tavern
-Still not sure how I feel about British beer, particular the traditional "bitters" that are everywhere
27 January 2011
"You must be somewhere in London..."
'Ello mates! My first week in sunny London is nearly over and I'd hoped to blog before this, but life has been really busy and I've been really lazy/tired/jetlagged any time I've had a moment, but I hope to post more updates in the future.
First thing's first -- I'm keeping all my pictures worth sharing on my Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/107203954419147686908/), and it's a public site so you can look at them any time you want, and I'll keep a slideshow running on the side of this page. When applicable, and particularly on my travels, I'll include some important pics within the body of these posts. I probably won't do that in this one because it's going to be enough just to recap the last week without being long-winded and boring.
London has struck me in a different way every day since my arrival. At times it feels like an entirely different world, at times it feels like just another city (a less crowded, smelly, congested, and noisy NYC), and at times I feel the weight of its history pressing down on my shoulders. But often the latter occasions are mixed in some combination with a sense of surrealism. When I see the site when Charles Dickens lived and wrote some of his novels and it's on a modern street with a Starbucks just down the way, or when I stand next to the Globe Theater and look across the river and see a vibrant skyline, it just seems like an exhibit almost. The past and the present in Rome coexist, but the present is often filtered in the terms that the past dictates, and nods to its cultural and historical heritage. In London, the present dominates but makes space to honor its past. It's very atypical as far as European cities are concerned, and I was slightly disillusioned with it on Saturday, but I'm settling into it nicely and coming to appreciate it for what it is, not for what I wanted it to be, or for what it was 100-200 years ago.
That said, I've really enjoyed exploring the city. Adjusting my expectations has really been the biggest thing, as the city is so different from my only previous major European city experience (Rome - the other Italian cities I was in were much smaller and I wasn't really expecting anything like them anyway). The other big one was having to look right then left when crossing the street. There's a ton to see and do here, and the numerous parks located in the city squares will be lovely in a couple months.
The currency exchange is horrible, and prices in London are high enough to begin with. There's no such thing as a cheap meal unless you want to eat McDonalds or Subway, and in those cases, what's the point of traveling? Mostly we've been buying groceries at the store and making food in the flat. Brendan (and his brother, when he was here that first weekend) are very adept at making food (which I am not) and we've had some great meals for comparatively cheap. Speaking of food, the stereotype of British food as being awful couldn't be more wrong. I have not seen A SINGLE meat pie in the time I've been here. Sure there's fish & chips, but how can you go wrong there? No, but London has one of the most diverse range of cuisine and enticing-looking restaurants I've seen. Indian food, Italian food, Mexican food, Chinese food, burgers, pizza, seafood, French food -- you name it, it's here, and it's probably good. The only reason for not eating at more of these places so far is the prices. As an example, I was looking around the other night for a cheap dinner, since I'd already spent £7.50 at lunch (approx $11.50) and I don't want to blow all my money at the beginning of the trip. I hoped to find a 2 or 3 pound piece of pizza or a 4-5 pound sandwich maybe. However, those restaurants that were still open (everything closes down way earlier than in the States here, and the idea of a 24/7 establishment is uncommon outside tiny and somewhat sketchy grocery stores) had similar price ranges: £4-6 for an appetizer, £8-10 for a light dinner, £11-15 for a full entree. So for a small dinner, or even for fish and chips, I'd end up paying anywhere from $12-20 at every meal. So for a Quiznos-level sandwich, I'm paying TGI Fridays or Olive Garden prices, and that's if I'm lucky. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but that's been my biggest complaint so far.
For those of you interested in landmarks, I've managed to get around to a number of them so far, even if I just have seen them from the outside. The first day we walked down Oxford Street (big shopping street) and surrounding streets before crossing through the park to Buckingham Palace, heading onward to Trafalgar Square (briefly), walking down Whitehall (stopping for a car emerging from Downing Place), and arriving at Parliament. We then walked along the Thames, passed the London Eye, saw parts of the theater district, and returned up the Strand. On my own, I made a trip to see St. Paul's at night, as well as Fleet Street (not even a plaque to Sweeney, I'm afraid) and the Old Bailey. Monday night we crossed the Millennium Bridge (one of the coolest things of the trip so far) and saw the Globe Theater from the outside (we'll be seeing Hamlet there later this year). But there's still so much to do, as I haven't even got inside St. Paul's yet, or seen Westminster Abbey or Westminster Cathedral. We haven't been to a single museum yet, despite the British Museum being a 3 minute walk away.
Which is another point. Our location is fantastic. Bedford Place is a rather short walk from a great many desirable locations. Russell Square is the largest such square in London, Bloomsbury Square (which also connects to Bedford Pl) was the home of the Bloomsbury Group, which included notables like Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, and Vanessa Bell. We're 3-5 minutes from the University of London, and UCL is right beyond that. Tottenham Court Rd, Oxford Street, Kingsway, Southampton Row, etc are all large roads nearby with almost anything one would need on them, so we don't have to go more than 5-10 minutes walk from the flat if we need something. Our flat is reasonably good, and certainly better than Colgate housing, and my flatmates are great too.
I don't have much to report on classes yet, as I've had only one apiece, but they seem like they will be very interesting. Being in the archives on Tuesday was amazing too. Handling real documents from 1945 bring home the fact that what we're doing is real history, not just regurgitating some other author's thoughts. My project is exciting me more every day, I just don't know how I can do it justice, given the amount of sources I still need to locate, and the fact that two of my classes also want me to write a short paper.
Not all is fun and games here though. From walking all day for 4 straight days in brand new shoes, I managed to do something to one of my tendons/joints/ligaments (no idea which) in my left knee which has rendered it very painful to do much walking at all. I've got a brace on it now and am hitting it with ibuprofen to bring down any inflammation. I'm also going to transition back into my old shoes until the pain goes away and then break into the new shoes more slowly. Hopefully this won't be too debilitating, as I want to plan a day trip this weekend. I feel like any weekend where we don't already have some trip scheduled should be a ripe opportunity for a longer trip, but I don't have the time or energy to make those kinds of plans on short notice, and I feel like I should at least use two of the three days to see some of the major things in this city and to immerse myself more in the culture. As my classes are not with British students, I am still rather at a loss at how to break the Colgate Bubble™ since British students reportedly will not randomly interact with an American in a pub.
Nevertheless my brain is overwhelmed with plans as I try to figure out what to do each day. The days are busy, which makes things harder to do, but I still want to try to figure out how to get to more shows and concerts here, and to see more museums and galleries. My travel plans also include (though I will likely not get to all of them) trips to France (Paris, Normandy, miscellaneous chateaux, Aix-en-Provence, and locations in the Riviera); Spain (Barcelona, Andalucia, Seville); Germany (Munich, Berlin, somewhere in Bavaria); Vienna, Prague, Norway, Moscow, and Istanbul. With 8 open weekends (some of which I'll want to spend actually getting to know the city I'm in) and a total of about 14 days dedicated to extensive trips between spring break and post-term, we'll see how much of this I can do, especially after London steals all my money.
Well, that's all for now; future posts will deal with more specific things rather than general impressions. I'll keep the pictures updated on an even more regular basis. Till then, Cheers!
First thing's first -- I'm keeping all my pictures worth sharing on my Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/107203954419147686908/), and it's a public site so you can look at them any time you want, and I'll keep a slideshow running on the side of this page. When applicable, and particularly on my travels, I'll include some important pics within the body of these posts. I probably won't do that in this one because it's going to be enough just to recap the last week without being long-winded and boring.
London has struck me in a different way every day since my arrival. At times it feels like an entirely different world, at times it feels like just another city (a less crowded, smelly, congested, and noisy NYC), and at times I feel the weight of its history pressing down on my shoulders. But often the latter occasions are mixed in some combination with a sense of surrealism. When I see the site when Charles Dickens lived and wrote some of his novels and it's on a modern street with a Starbucks just down the way, or when I stand next to the Globe Theater and look across the river and see a vibrant skyline, it just seems like an exhibit almost. The past and the present in Rome coexist, but the present is often filtered in the terms that the past dictates, and nods to its cultural and historical heritage. In London, the present dominates but makes space to honor its past. It's very atypical as far as European cities are concerned, and I was slightly disillusioned with it on Saturday, but I'm settling into it nicely and coming to appreciate it for what it is, not for what I wanted it to be, or for what it was 100-200 years ago.
That said, I've really enjoyed exploring the city. Adjusting my expectations has really been the biggest thing, as the city is so different from my only previous major European city experience (Rome - the other Italian cities I was in were much smaller and I wasn't really expecting anything like them anyway). The other big one was having to look right then left when crossing the street. There's a ton to see and do here, and the numerous parks located in the city squares will be lovely in a couple months.
The currency exchange is horrible, and prices in London are high enough to begin with. There's no such thing as a cheap meal unless you want to eat McDonalds or Subway, and in those cases, what's the point of traveling? Mostly we've been buying groceries at the store and making food in the flat. Brendan (and his brother, when he was here that first weekend) are very adept at making food (which I am not) and we've had some great meals for comparatively cheap. Speaking of food, the stereotype of British food as being awful couldn't be more wrong. I have not seen A SINGLE meat pie in the time I've been here. Sure there's fish & chips, but how can you go wrong there? No, but London has one of the most diverse range of cuisine and enticing-looking restaurants I've seen. Indian food, Italian food, Mexican food, Chinese food, burgers, pizza, seafood, French food -- you name it, it's here, and it's probably good. The only reason for not eating at more of these places so far is the prices. As an example, I was looking around the other night for a cheap dinner, since I'd already spent £7.50 at lunch (approx $11.50) and I don't want to blow all my money at the beginning of the trip. I hoped to find a 2 or 3 pound piece of pizza or a 4-5 pound sandwich maybe. However, those restaurants that were still open (everything closes down way earlier than in the States here, and the idea of a 24/7 establishment is uncommon outside tiny and somewhat sketchy grocery stores) had similar price ranges: £4-6 for an appetizer, £8-10 for a light dinner, £11-15 for a full entree. So for a small dinner, or even for fish and chips, I'd end up paying anywhere from $12-20 at every meal. So for a Quiznos-level sandwich, I'm paying TGI Fridays or Olive Garden prices, and that's if I'm lucky. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but that's been my biggest complaint so far.
For those of you interested in landmarks, I've managed to get around to a number of them so far, even if I just have seen them from the outside. The first day we walked down Oxford Street (big shopping street) and surrounding streets before crossing through the park to Buckingham Palace, heading onward to Trafalgar Square (briefly), walking down Whitehall (stopping for a car emerging from Downing Place), and arriving at Parliament. We then walked along the Thames, passed the London Eye, saw parts of the theater district, and returned up the Strand. On my own, I made a trip to see St. Paul's at night, as well as Fleet Street (not even a plaque to Sweeney, I'm afraid) and the Old Bailey. Monday night we crossed the Millennium Bridge (one of the coolest things of the trip so far) and saw the Globe Theater from the outside (we'll be seeing Hamlet there later this year). But there's still so much to do, as I haven't even got inside St. Paul's yet, or seen Westminster Abbey or Westminster Cathedral. We haven't been to a single museum yet, despite the British Museum being a 3 minute walk away.
Which is another point. Our location is fantastic. Bedford Place is a rather short walk from a great many desirable locations. Russell Square is the largest such square in London, Bloomsbury Square (which also connects to Bedford Pl) was the home of the Bloomsbury Group, which included notables like Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, and Vanessa Bell. We're 3-5 minutes from the University of London, and UCL is right beyond that. Tottenham Court Rd, Oxford Street, Kingsway, Southampton Row, etc are all large roads nearby with almost anything one would need on them, so we don't have to go more than 5-10 minutes walk from the flat if we need something. Our flat is reasonably good, and certainly better than Colgate housing, and my flatmates are great too.
I don't have much to report on classes yet, as I've had only one apiece, but they seem like they will be very interesting. Being in the archives on Tuesday was amazing too. Handling real documents from 1945 bring home the fact that what we're doing is real history, not just regurgitating some other author's thoughts. My project is exciting me more every day, I just don't know how I can do it justice, given the amount of sources I still need to locate, and the fact that two of my classes also want me to write a short paper.
Not all is fun and games here though. From walking all day for 4 straight days in brand new shoes, I managed to do something to one of my tendons/joints/ligaments (no idea which) in my left knee which has rendered it very painful to do much walking at all. I've got a brace on it now and am hitting it with ibuprofen to bring down any inflammation. I'm also going to transition back into my old shoes until the pain goes away and then break into the new shoes more slowly. Hopefully this won't be too debilitating, as I want to plan a day trip this weekend. I feel like any weekend where we don't already have some trip scheduled should be a ripe opportunity for a longer trip, but I don't have the time or energy to make those kinds of plans on short notice, and I feel like I should at least use two of the three days to see some of the major things in this city and to immerse myself more in the culture. As my classes are not with British students, I am still rather at a loss at how to break the Colgate Bubble™ since British students reportedly will not randomly interact with an American in a pub.
Nevertheless my brain is overwhelmed with plans as I try to figure out what to do each day. The days are busy, which makes things harder to do, but I still want to try to figure out how to get to more shows and concerts here, and to see more museums and galleries. My travel plans also include (though I will likely not get to all of them) trips to France (Paris, Normandy, miscellaneous chateaux, Aix-en-Provence, and locations in the Riviera); Spain (Barcelona, Andalucia, Seville); Germany (Munich, Berlin, somewhere in Bavaria); Vienna, Prague, Norway, Moscow, and Istanbul. With 8 open weekends (some of which I'll want to spend actually getting to know the city I'm in) and a total of about 14 days dedicated to extensive trips between spring break and post-term, we'll see how much of this I can do, especially after London steals all my money.
Well, that's all for now; future posts will deal with more specific things rather than general impressions. I'll keep the pictures updated on an even more regular basis. Till then, Cheers!
20 January 2011
In a Newark state of mind.
First thing's first. Flying stresses me out. Usually to varying degrees, but especially when I don't know what's going on. I'm sitting here in the bar at Newark because the food court was too noisy, and I'm just starting to calm down a bit. My flight is for 9:15pm EST tonight, but I had to get here at 2:30 today. Which of course means that the guys at the Virgin Atlantic desk would not actually be a the desk till 5. And I learned that connecting to the wireless network here means spending $8 as well. As if I haven't spent enough money in the last few days getting ready for this trip...wonder if I'll have any left by the time I get there. They haven't started charging yet for security I guess, so there's one thing. I just get to choose between being violated physically or visually. Fun times.
So here I am waiting to even be able to check my bags, and they'll probably charge me an arm and a leg to check both of them. Travel days are the worst. Future entries should be much happier...
So here I am waiting to even be able to check my bags, and they'll probably charge me an arm and a leg to check both of them. Travel days are the worst. Future entries should be much happier...
19 January 2011
45 hours to go...
If you're reading this, you are probably mostly interested in my travel stories and pictures, which I obviously have none of yet, but I'll also be attempting to get down my thoughts of what life is like in a abroad and my attempts to navigate a largely unfamiliar situation both alone and with others. Thanks for taking the time to follow me on this blog; I will do my best to keep it regularly updated.
I write this as I sit numbly staring at piles of clothing, books, toiletries, and other items through which I will have to sort tonight and tomorrow in order to pick those few lucky winners which will be able to fit into my two big suitcases Thursday night. The thought that I will be leaving the country for 4 months hasn't really sunk in yet. It still feels like a vacation, or like going to school, which is close enough that anything I forget or need can be obtained from home if necessary. But now...these two suitcases (and 1 backpack) will contain my life for 4 months. There's no going back, no forgetting anything. Buying thigns over there is certainly possible, but more expensive. It just seems so unreal.
I can't say that my two trips to Italy have prepared me that much for the coming weeks. Sure, knowing what to expect from Europe is one thing, but this is very different. I'm very excited, but my excitement has been masked by my frantic race to get things done and to buy things. Getting big enough suitcases, getting passable pants and shoes for England, getting adapters, getting guide books (and having major issues with Barnes & Noble online - don't shop with them!), and trying still to cram in as much last-minute USA-based non-archival source research as possible. There will be time to do some over there, but they say it's more difficult to get the books.
Yes...there will be time, there will be time. For a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions. 45 hours to go. Then goodbye USA until late May. I will miss everyone I leave behind.
I write this as I sit numbly staring at piles of clothing, books, toiletries, and other items through which I will have to sort tonight and tomorrow in order to pick those few lucky winners which will be able to fit into my two big suitcases Thursday night. The thought that I will be leaving the country for 4 months hasn't really sunk in yet. It still feels like a vacation, or like going to school, which is close enough that anything I forget or need can be obtained from home if necessary. But now...these two suitcases (and 1 backpack) will contain my life for 4 months. There's no going back, no forgetting anything. Buying thigns over there is certainly possible, but more expensive. It just seems so unreal.
I can't say that my two trips to Italy have prepared me that much for the coming weeks. Sure, knowing what to expect from Europe is one thing, but this is very different. I'm very excited, but my excitement has been masked by my frantic race to get things done and to buy things. Getting big enough suitcases, getting passable pants and shoes for England, getting adapters, getting guide books (and having major issues with Barnes & Noble online - don't shop with them!), and trying still to cram in as much last-minute USA-based non-archival source research as possible. There will be time to do some over there, but they say it's more difficult to get the books.
Yes...there will be time, there will be time. For a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions. 45 hours to go. Then goodbye USA until late May. I will miss everyone I leave behind.
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