All Roads Lead to... - Nov 10-12

Early Thursday morning our whole program woke up and loaded our things onto the bus for our trip to Rome. I slept for the first half of the ride and entertained myself for the second half with a book and my iPod. All in all I think it took about four hours. As we got into the city we ate some bag lunches and shortly thereafter stopped at our hotel to put away our things. I shared a room with my normal roommates. After a short break at the hotel we all reassembled in front and started walking toward the Vatican. Our hotel was really well located in an area that was equidistant from the Vatican to the east and the Coliseum area to the west, which made it relatively convenient. Unlike many of the cities I’ve gone to Rome is a bit spread out and has the world’s worst subway so there is a little bit more walking involved.

We approached from the front of St Peter’s Basilica and then cut off to the side to follow the giant wall around to the entrance to the Vatican museums. We went inside, got through security and started exploring the museums. As expected they had a rather extensive collection of ancient statues that were lost and then rediscovered in Rome. We also toured around the Rafael Rooms (spending time specifically on the School of Athens) and then the Sistine Chapel.  I didn’t remember this from the first time, but this time I noticed that in the Sistine Chapel the painted figures surrounding the biblical scenes actually look 3D when you see them in real life from the right angle. It actually makes the entire ceiling much more impressive in real life.

I’d seen all of this stuff before, but it had a much more specific significance due to both my art history class and the knowledge I have picked up in Europe. This semester has, more than anything else, helped to give me some context for art, architecture, and history that I didn’t have before. It has also helped me to be able to actually determine what is going on in a painting or sculpture without being given its full history.

After the museums we made our way to St Peter’s and after waiting in line for a little bit we went inside. It was very grand inside and included some really good statues including La Pietà by Michelangelo. After wondering around there for a bit we headed around and paid to climb the dome. It was 551 dizzying, disorienting steps, but eventually we made it to the top after spiraling staircases and long stairs around the perimeter with slanted walls. We had a view of the entire city and it was a little bit cramped and precarious feeling up there.

Once we gathered back at the base a group of us went to Piazza Navona (I was of course once again the navigator) near our hotel and got some gelato. Then after hanging out there for a while we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. I had planned to go with my roommates to find some Korean food, but the group grew to be too large and the walk too far so I grabbed (literally in one case) a few people and we staged a secession. Instead of a 40-minute walk for Korean we had a 5 minute walk for Chinese. At this point we were all excited for some non-Italian food so it was a nice meal. Afterward we walked around and explored various dessert options for a while until we decided to go see the Pantheon. 

We took some pictures in front of it and then went to see the Trevi Fountain. Once we arrived we found the remainder of the group from which we had separated and rejoined them. We all hung out there by the fountain for a while until we eventually all headed back to the hotel.

The next day we woke up and had a decent breakfast in the hotel before heading off with the group to the Capitoline Hill, one of the original seven hills of Rome from which we derive our word ‘capital’. 

This hill was the citadel of ancient Rome and home to the ancient Tabularium and the Temple of Jupiter. During the medieval period it became the seat of power in Rome and fell under papal control. The Piazza del Campidoglio at the top was designed by Michaelangelo during the Renaissance and still serves as a civic center of Rome today. At the top of the hill we met a tour guide who took us on a nice lengthy guided tour of the Roman Forum.

We spent several hours starting with the legendary founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus and working our way through the centuries and emperors of the Roman empire. Luckily for us, in Rome when they wanted to build something new they didn’t demolish buildings and monuments, they simply covered them up with dirt, raising the street level and starting over. This process is well represented in the Forum where we can see the literal layers of time. The lower levels stop mostly around the 1^st century and Julius Caesar’s time I believe (though older layers still exist below them). You can also see many buildings that were remodeled and repurposed. The only reason many temples survived raids on Pagan structures is because they were converted into churches. Accordingly we can see modifications in many of the buildings like medieval brick adjustments added to ancient stone.  The other really interesting thing about seeing the ancient pieces in the Forum is that we see the things from which Renaissance artists and architects (that we have studies at length) took their classical ideas. Many 15^th century churches in Florence and the rest of Italy share common features like the triangular pediment purely based off converted Roman Temples. In class we’ve studied how certain artists took Roman designs like the triumphal arch and designed them into buildings, so it was cool to see the sources and inspiration for so much architecture now that I have an appreciation for it.

Of note, while we were ascending the Palatine Hill towards the end of the tour we observed 11:11 on 11/11/11, which was very exciting. We all made wishes and whatnot. We finally ended the tour in front of the Coliseum where we were given a brief profile of the whole gladiator scene. After the tour most of us headed into the Coliseum to take a quick look around. 

It’s actually a bit of a shame how deteriorated and gutted the Coliseum is. If it hadn’t been picked apart for iron and stone then it might actually be a bit more impressive and while it is still a very cool monument it could be so much better. Tis sad. After the Coliseum most of us grabbed lunch and afterward I wondered around the city with Ali and Morgan. We passed Hadrian’s Column and then headed back toward our hotel and saw the Spanish Steps, which actually are not very impressive since they’re just stairs. Then we meandered back toward the hotel passing the Trevi fountain and looking in stores and scoping out places for dinner. We also got some gelato that was less than great. During our wondering we found ourselves ending up back on the same street a couple of times and then eventually straightened ourselves out and found the hotel.

I wasted a bit of time at the hotel and later met back up with a group to go to dinner. After scoping for a while we settled on a nice little place where I ended up with spicy spaghetti of sorts. After dinner we went back to the hotel and some of us hung out in our room for a while. A little later we went to a bar and had a drink after which I returned and went to bed.

The next day we checked our bags at the hotel before breakfast and I headed out with a small group to see the Mouth of Truth. For those that are rusty on what that is, perhaps this picture from “Roman Holiday” will jog your memory. 

We walked along the Tiber for a little ways and then turned off into a piazza and found it. We took our obligatory pictures and then left to go see Circus Maximus. 

We knew it was basically a big field, but we went anyway and once we arrived we sat there for like an hour because I think we were all a bit tired.  Eventually we got ourselves up and went to have lunch. I had a very nice pizza. After lunch most of our program went on a guided tour to Villa Borghese. I stayed behind and decided to get a haircut. So I walked around and chose the first open place I saw. I went in, they said “cut?”  said “si”, showed them a picture, and let them do the rest. Very thrilling. After my haircut I went back to the hotel and we got on the bus and after picking up the people at the Villa Borhese we headed back to Sesto.

Rome is a pretty interesting city because it is very divided in many different ways. While a city like Florence has a pretty concentrated history of significance, Rome is much more broad. Many of the important things in Florence and other cities can roughly be attributed to a given time period. Florence was pivotal during the Renaissance while somewhere like Berlin is filled with 20^th century history. Roman history is much older and more complex and it is reflected in the nature of the city. While in Florence we can walk around and see tons of buildings that were build in the 14^3th to 15^th centuries, in Rome you have buildings that were built a century BC, medieval buildings, and buildings from the Renaissance. Furthermore due to Rome’s place as seat of the Catholic Church for so many centuries we get an influx of ideas that were not prevalent other places in Italy like Gothic and Baroque architecture.  The city itself is literally stratified into levels based on the age of some of the monuments because all of Rome is built on top of filled in layers of ancient Rome. When archeologists finally got interested in history in the 19^th century they had to dig down to uncover all the ancient ruins that had previously been buried and built over. Rome’s long reaching history and changing importance from the center of ancient power to the center of the Catholic Church to the center of modern Italian government has given it a very mis-matched geography and appearance that makes it pretty unique. 

The rain in Spain... - Nov 4-7

Well I started the morning off with a nice and early 5:00am taxi to the Florence with Allison (Shulhof not FitzGerald), DeDe, and Laura. From there we caught the bus to Pisa and from there, the plane to Barcelona. Well, technically Girona and from there we got another hour-long bus to Barcelona. Then we walked to our hostel. As usual the flight was 2 hours long, but the door-to-door time was closer to 7 hours.  Our hostel was called Gothic Point and it was located very centrally.

After checking into our room the first thing we did was head over to a restaurant we’d passed on the way to the hostel. It was called Princess 23 I believe and it had some really good food. We tried to start things off with a Spanish twist and got a selection of tapas, some paella, some nachos (not Spanish) and sangria. The meal was an excellent beginning and definitely made up for the so-so weather we’d had so far. Apparently Barcelona has 340 days of sun each year and we were not there for them. But it wasn’t that bad, just a bit drizzly so we headed out to explore the city. We stopped first by an old Cathedral that had parts from the Roman Empire in the 400s, but was otherwise Gothic. Unfortunately it was under construction and not as pretty as it could have been.

After that we walked up to Plaça de Catalunya, which was a big wet square with fountains and rather devoid of people due to the weather. From there we walked down La Ramblas, which is a touristy, little famous street. 

Though it was touristy it was nice until about 8 o’clock when people came out and started pushing for their bars or clubs. It was super annoying to deter someone every four to five feet. “No we don’t want to go”, “Maybe later”, “We’re not hungry” and hissing like a cat were all forms of responses we used that night. But while it was still day we found a really nice food market off La Ramblas that had EVERYTHING. It had whole stands devoted to eggs, dried fruit, chocolate, and gummy candies not to mention fish, meat, vegetables, fruits and who knows what else. 

We continued down La Ramblas and saw a memorial column thingy dedicated to Columbus, then we explored the marina and the beach, as it got darker and rainier. Eventually we headed back to the hostel to seek shelter.

We signed up to do a dinner/show thing with our hostel that included tapas and flamenco dancing. This was our first mistake. Perhaps it should have been obvious, but the food was not good and the flamenco arguably worse. The musicians had no rhythm or talent and I’m fairly certain the guitarist was drunk. The dancer was very pretty, but made this face the whole time like she had stepped in something nasty/was watching someone be murdered. Not great, but afterwards we headed to a bar and sat for a while. We had a couple drinks. I successfully took my first shot without choking or spilling it all over my face (Yes!) and we relaxed there for a while. Eventually we headed back to the hostel and then out to find some sort of club. We made our way into the basement of this one bar where people were dancing and it was alright.

Note about the Spanish. They are crazy. They don’t eat until 9 and they don’t go out until 1. I could not cope. I want to be coming back at 1 not getting started. Regardless I made a noble effort and we were out until about 2:45-3. I’m rather proud.

The next morning we began with a free walking tour of the city provided by our hostel that luckily turned out much better than the flamenco. We took the Gaudi tour, which basically led us around to all of Gaudi’s famous sites. For those unfamiliar, Antoni Gaudi was a Spanish Catalan architect around the turn of the twentieth century. He had a highly distinctive and individual style and worked largely in Barcelona. The first building on the tour was the Palau Guëll. 

Guëll was a friend and commissioner of Gaudi’s work and therefore had a somewhat long lasting relationship with him. The palace is a renovated building that was made very nice with distinctive wrought iron gates and decorations. We next hopped on the metro and headed to Casa Batllò, which is a beautiful colorful house that Gaudi designed. 

It’s covered in a full color spectrum of mosaic tiles and bone-like columns and balconies. Some think that he was inspired by the Venetian Carnival and that is why it is so colorful and has balconies shaped like skulls’ masks. The guide also said that the roof and chimney represent the story of St. George (a patron saint of Barcelona) and the Dragon with the chimney representing the hilt of a sword and the tiles of the roof standing in for scales. We then saw the nearby Casa Mila also called La Pedrera (cliff).  Then we once again used the subway to ride up to Sagrada Familia, which is perhaps Barcelona’s most famous landmark.

Sagrada Familia is this giant cathedral with 3 different façades all representing different aspects of Jesus’ life.  It is also the one of the longest continuous construction projects ever since it was begun in 1882 and is still not done. Gaudi spent the last years of his life trying to complete the designs once it became clear that construction would outlast him designed it. It is unique it its combination of Gothic and Art Nouveau forms. It makes use of many classic gothic features like it’s massive spires, arches and ornate statue-worked façades, but does them in a more updated and modern way. The three façades of the building represent the nativity, the gory, and the passion of Jesus. The Nativity façade was the first façade that was largely completed during Gaudi’s life.

 It depicts many scenes from the Bible around the time of Jesus’ birth and is especially remarkable for the life-like statues of people and animals adorning the front. Apparently Gaudi used real animals to make molds. This entire side looks a bit like either a drip sandcastle or a building that a dragon started melting with it’s fire breath, but didn’t finish. It is highly intricate and ornate. It also faces the rising sun. The Passion façade, facing the setting sun, depicts scenes dealing with the Passion and tells the entire story from Last Supper to Resurrection.

 It was done after Gaudi’s death during the 70s and 80s and was made with a much cleaner angular style. It is very rigid and almost like cubism in some ways. I actually liked this side best; I thought the style was very unique for a cathedral, but very dramatic and striking all the same. The final side, the Glory façade was only begun in 2002 so was not nearly ready for me to actually determine what it looked like. Overall I liked the church a lot if not just for it’s uniqueness.

Gaudi’s architecture in general came as a bit of a breath of fresh air after living and breathing traditional gothic and classical churches across Europe. I think we were all able to appreciate it for its uniqueness and the way it challenged convention.

After the tour our little group headed north to Parc Guëll, which is a neat little park on a hill with great views of the city. Gaudi also designed it also so there was a little bit of a fantasy feeling to the park. After hanging out in the park we headed back into the city and met up with Katherine, a friend from Duke who is studying in Madrid. We all rested in the hostel for a little while and then went back out to shop around for souvenirs etcetera. After a bit we met up with Karen who was also studying in Madrid and went to dinner and walked around some.

We planned to go out again that night, but going back to the hostel to change accidentally turned into lets take naps which then turned into let’s sleep.

So the next day Allison and DeDe left early to catch their flight out. Laura and I decided to stay to get an extra day in the city (and because we found a 7 Euro flight back early Monday morning, yes they do exist.) So Laura, Katherine and I got breakfast and then walked around and made  plans. We even stopped at a museum of chocolate where the tickets were chocolate bars!  It basically told the history of the Spanish and cholocate in South America, chocolate trivia, and the process of making chocolate and had a bunch of chocolate sculptures. Afterwards we met up with Karen for an early-ish lunch at the 4 Gats (4 Cats) a restaurant that was apparently frequented by Picasso during his early years. I ordered this cool little Spanishy ravioli type thing with truffle and vinegar sauces, and it was quite tasty. Then after lunch the four of us walked around Parc del Citudella and found this really pretty waterfall/fountain and a giant mammoth statue.

We then walked down toward the beach where we were treated to the only 15 minutes of perfect weather the whole trip complete with a rainbow over the ocean. From there we headed back into the city and split apart from Katherine and Karen who had to return to Madrid. Then Laura and I spent some time walking around the city. We stumbled upon the Santa Maria del Mare Cathedral, which was done in a light stone that made it look very Mediterranean and castle-like. After that we did some shopping and then went to see the Picasso Museum. I’m not the biggest fan of some of Picasso’s later work, but the museum actually showed a really long evolution of his work from childhood doodles to street art, to more typical portraits, landscapes, and sketches, to his signature style. I really liked a lot of his more impressionist-ish artwork and some of his sketches.

After that we needed to devise a plan. As I mentioned before Laura and I had a flight early Monday morning. The problem was, this flight was at 6 and the airport was over an hour outside of the city. Including arriving the necessary amount of time before the flight, all this all boiled down to the fact that we needed to leave the city on a bus at 3:30am. Naturally it would be silly to pay for another night at the hostel when we would hardly get to sleep, so we had to find a way to stay up late. We decided that we should go see a movie since that would suck 2+ hours out of our evening and make things easier.

So first we walked around for a good half hour scoping out dinner places (not including a brief sit in at a Mass in Santa Maria del Mare) and it was a good thing that we held off until 8:30 because we eventually we found this great restaurant. It was called Casa Delfin (which means Dolphin House) and we had our favorite Spanish meal there. We first split an appetizer of these fried artichoke hearts with a tasty sauce, then we got some sort of potatoes and then I think some meat and a half bottle of a Spanish wine. It was really good and we were glad to end our Spanish meals there. After that we made our way down to the theatre where they were playing movies in their original language (with subtitles) and bought tickets to see Tree of Life with Brad Pitt. The movie was very artistic and symbolic and told it’s story in an a-sequential way that was very strange. Though it is the story of a family in the 50s there were many shots of things like waterfalls, volcanoes, outer space, planets, dinosaurs, and microorganisms. When we left the theater we were like “uh….”, but after looking back I’ve kinda started to understand the symbolism and strange mechanisms of film and now I really like it. Regardless, it was a great way to fill over 2 hours of our rather long evening and we left the theatre after midnight.

From there we got back to the hostel and waited in the lobby of our hostel for a couple hours until it was time to leave. I believe I fell asleep a couple times during this portion (though it was a fitful anticipatory sleep) and when it was finally time we grabbed our things and walked to the bus station a few blocks away. We arrived at around 3:15 and boarded the bus. Then I once again fell asleep until we arrived at the airport. Once there we went through security and then sat at a table at McDonalds to wait for our flight where I once again fell asleep (Props to Laura for being awake and studying through all of this). One I woke up we had some McDonalds breakfast and then boarded our flight where I…you guessed it fell asleep. When we arrived a couple hours later we got on the train from Pisa back to Florence and I didn’t fall asleep and let Laura sleep instead. Then we caught the bus from Florence to our Villa and walked in a little after 10, just in time to get ready for my class at 11:30.

I think after navigating around the city the whole time I’m officially a pro map-reader, since I seem to always end up being the one in front with the map wherever we go. I really liked Barcelona even though it was my first city with less than ideal weather. I thought it was a very cool city and things like Gaudi and the Beach made it different from the other places I’ve been.  Also it was interesting because while we were there I realized that I have picked up enough Spanish through osmosis throughout my life that I can actually manage to ask the important things and know some vocab. It was very exciting. It is important to note that they do speak Catalan, but I think everyone also speaks Spanish so we used that to communicate. Generally Laura knew enough Spanish to get us where we needed to be and when we met up with Katherine and Karen they were pros. But I was very proud of my minute amount of knowledge of Spanish. It was definitely less foreign than German. 

Knight of the Living Dead - Oct 28 & 29

Al and I woke up early the next day and finished assembling all of the necessities for our first day of intense London sight seeing. Two days really isn’t all that much to spend in such a big and historical city, but I was determined to do my best. We gathered our helmets, keys to bikes, oyster cards for the tube and buses, and various layers and maps and were ready to go. We got out the door at an impressive 9am-ish and used a bus/tube combo to get from the flat to Tower Hill where we began our day at the Tower of London. We got in just after opening so things were relatively uncrowded. We took advantage of this and immediately set off to see the Crown Jewels since I remember having to wait in a long line and shuffle through the crowded exhibition on a previous visit. We were able to walk right in and see all of the pieces without fighting everyone for a view. The intricacy and preciousness of the pieces was really very remarkable. The jewels were enormous and it was also a good way to get a bit of the monarchical history of England/Britain. 

After that we wandered back down to the entrance to start our tour with the Yeoman Warder (Beefeater). I’d done this before, but now that I’ve actually had some proper history and context at school it was a bit more real and interesting to hear. There were quite a few successions that were made clear on the tour and the rather ancient history of the tower was also good to know. After ending the tour in the Chapel, Al and I headed to the White Tower to walk through the exhibits (On the way we got to watch the Tower ravens being hilarious and like chasing people down, whilst hopping). We quickly did a tour of the various armors and weapons before deciding to move on.

We left the Tower and headed along the Thames a bit to get a good view of the Tower Bridge so that we could check that off of Al’s list. 

Then we grabbed some Barclay’s Bikes and rode over to St. Paul’s. Not gonna lie Al was a bit nervous and had some minor biking issues, but we worked them out. J By that time the weather had actually warmed up to the point that we were shedding down to our base layers. What kind of British weather is in the mid 60s during the last 2 days of October? 

After snapping a couple pics of St Paul’s we walked across the Millennium Bridge and into Tate Modern where we went to the top floor café. We had a really tasty lunch. After that we took a leisurely walk along the Thames and through the South Bank area. Once we arrived at the London Eye we crossed a Bridge and proceeded to walk on towards Parliament. Once we’d taken a couple of pics with Big Ben we turned the corner and went into Westminster Abbey. Once inside we followed an audio guide tour led by Jeromy Irons and spent some time wondering the abbey. We both really liked the tour.

After we left the Tower we walked up a ways and saw Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column. Unfortunately we were no longer allowed to climb the lions, so we headed to the tube and rode back towards the flat. We briefly looked around King’s Road on the way back to the flat and stopped for some delicious desserts (I had two cookies with cream in the middle). Once we got back we rested for a bit and eventually Uncle Tim and Aunt Jill got home. We had some leftovers from the previous night and after dinner we headed out on the bikes to the Victoria and Albert museum for their once-a-month late night event. Inside we saw an awesome exhibit devoted to making stuff. It had all kinds of cool inventions and gadgets and crafty-creative things. Then we toured around some of the various exhibits like the Japanese exhibit. After a bit more touring we all got tired and headed back to the flat.

The next day we left on the bikes and headed toward Hyde Park. Our arrival there marked great successes both in my navigational skills and Al’s bike riding skills. We entered near the south west corner in what I believe was actually Kensington Park and quickly saw the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial both built by Queen Victoria. We then continued through the park and out the other side where we parked the bikes and proceeded to walk over to Portabello Road. Once we arrived at the markets on Portabello Road it was so crowded. We were supposed to meet up with some Duke folks, but when my phone failed to work I decided to leave it to a chance run in. Luckily we eventually ran into Maggie and Katherine and shopped around with them for a while. Later we serendipitously met up with all of my other friends when we converged by chance in one spot. We talked for a few minutes and I was able to say hey to all of them before we split up to attend our various other activities.

After getting some awesome marshmallow and nutella crepes Al and I got back on the bikes and traced a new root through Hyde Park. After a few minutes of bike parking confusion we set a course for the movie theatre where we saw The Lion King in 3D. It was awesome and I’m really glad I got to see it since I missed it in the states. Afterwards Al got some frozen yogurt and we met up with Aunt Jill. We were subsequently swept up in a whirl of Halloween preparations and plans that lasted through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. The idea for our costumes spun out of Al's similarity to Kate Middleton which we naturally Halloween-ified by making her a zombie. Aunt Jill gave Al her wedding dress and we used some tool to make the veil and then some hose to make the lacey sleeves. It naturally followed then that I was to be a zombie William so I used a collection of Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim's clothes to craft my outfit. We decided Aun Jill would be Beatrice because her fascinator upstaged the whole wedding and was therefore necessary, so I whipped one up out of cardboard. And then of course, the royal wedding wouldn't be complete without the Queen, and the part could go to none other than the only native Brit among us: Uncle Tim. (I would like to add here that though reluctant at first, Uncle Tim quickly embraced the role and made the evening by staying in character with every stranger and insisting on being called Your Majesty.) We spent a lot of time preparing our hilarious zombie royal wedding costumes and eventually headed out to dinner at a pub.

We met up with Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim’s friends Keith, Guy, and John and went to a thing that I’m still not sure how to describe. It was in this large house like building where there was plastic all over the walls and bars and everyone was in costume. Then we were all able to go into different rooms where they had different entertaining things. One room had (bad) comedy, another had a dance floor and beat boxers, one had a little interactive theatre skit-like thing that simulated a séance. There was also one room with people wearing plastic suits standing in a roped off area covered with plastic and random things like balls, a xylophone, a bucket of water, flour, confetti. These people would stand at a table on each side of the square, get the audience to roll some dice then proceed to do something strange. One man acted like a dog. One woman continued to stick her head in a bucket of water. They all ran around in a circle with their hands over their head while some sound went off. It was very bizarre and we left quickly. After looking around the building for a couple of hours and getting many praises on our royal Halloween costumes we packed it up and took a cab home. We stopped by Buckingham Palace on the way to take some in-character pictures and then headed back to the flat to get ready to leave early the next morning.

East What-lands? - Oct 25-27

The next day we got up nice and early after packing and cleaning the night before and walked to the train station where we took a train to the airport and flew to London. Once we arrived at Luton airport outside of London, after picking up a quick lunch from the airport, we said goodbye to Uncle Tim who headed into London and Aunt Jill and I rented a car to drive to the East Midlands.

What are the East Midlands? Why are we going there? These are but a few of the questions I found myself asking. The East Midlands is an area generally north and east-ish of London that covers several counties. The reason for our visit was a bit complicated. On the one hand it was an excuse to take me to see a new area of England, on the other it was a job for Aunt Jill that involved her touring around the various attractions in the area. Aunt Jill would be filming little snippets in various locations for the airline that was in charge of the trip.

So with that in mind, we picked up our rental car, and after figuring out the GPS (or sat nav as they are called in the UK) we set off. During the drive I began my brief career as a personal assistant to Aunt Jill who was relying heavily on social media and email for the job. Over the course of the hour and a half drive I helped to respond to her emails and tweets while navigating as she drove. The time passed quickly and we soon arrived at the Raddison Blue (spelling?) hotel near the East Midlands airport. The hotel was a brand new, three-day-old business luxury hotel that Aunt Jill was checking out for her future website on eco-luxury hotels. I got my own room and it was quite nice. I did however have a rather unfortunate surprise when I turned on the television. As soon as I clicked the power button, sound came blasting from somewhere off to my right. I was very surprised and quickly muted the television but found that the loud sounds continued to emanate from a vaguely rightish area. I scampered around the room checking in cabinets and behind the dresser trying to locate the source before eventually locating a dial under my bathroom sink. The knob was all the way up since it had never been used and gave me quite the little comical surprise, and I still wonder why you’d want the TV sounds in your bathroom.

After checking in, we jumped back in the car to start another hour+ journey to an area of Derbyshire where we met a fellow named Andrew Wright to film a little piece for a company he has that films guided walks through Britain. To do this we walked through a little hilly trail in Britain’s Peak District while occasionally stopping to film us walking. We also did one piece for the airline while we were there.

The walk was actually really nice. We had good weather even though the sun had begun to set by the time we finished.  We begun with a really pretty river-side path through a valley and then turn up hill and crossed several hillside pastures. We saw many cows and sheep some of which we tried to befriend. Eventually we finished up and headed back to the hotel for the evening. That night we had a really nice dinner in the hotel restaurant before going off to bed.

The next day we had begun with a trip to Nottingham Castle. Yes, the Nottingham Castle as in Robin Hood. Exciting right?...Nope. It wasn’t. We went there to film another segment, but we were very disappointed by the castle. The outer walls were original from the 12^th century, but inside the old castle had been covered by a 17^th century mansion that had a lame museum and that was pretty much it. There was also a field and some gardens, but otherwise nothing. It was a bit of a disappointment. After that we had lunch at the Nottingham Contemporary art museum then we headed to Attenborough National Park, which is a wildlife reserve. There was a lot of waterfowl and some very nice lakes and wetlands. It was a nice walk, but not terribly exciting. I did however have a rather intimidating encounter with a very large swan.

That evening Aunt Jill and I got food at a theatre in Nottingham and afterward we saw a show by Beck called The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. I should say we kinda saw the show because we left after act 1. It wasn’t excruciating, but we were just not very into it. It was an allegory of Hitler’s rise to power shown through a 1920s story of Chicago gangsters. Could have been cool, but it wasn’t so we headed back to the hotel.

The next day we headed to Leicester to see a National Space Museum. We were skeptical about a British space museum, but it was actually very cool and I enjoyed myself. They had cool informational exhibits about the planets and the space race in addition to some rockets and cool simulator games. After that we had an awesome lunch at an Indian Restaurant (apparently Leicester has a surprisingly substantial Asian population). And then we finished up the rest of the filming and begun the three or so hour drive into London.  

We arrived at the flat shortly after Al who had come to spend a weekend in London, and after a nice tapas dinner prepared by Uncle Tim, we finished the evening relaxing in the flat and preparing for the next day. 

Willkommen a Berlin - Oct 21-24

Now that I am in Germany I have found that I am both blessed and cursed, you see, I have blonde hair. On the plus side this means that in Germany I no longer stick out as an obvious tourist wherever I go. However this also means that people think I can speak German and I can’t. Before I left Italy someone already started talking to me in German and I just had to be like, uhhhh...English. So yes this is a problem. This is basically my first time being in a country where I don’t speak the language. (Amsterdam doesn’t count since somehow everyone always spoke English. It is very different and it makes me realize how much Italian I take for granted. Even if I don’t understand everything in Italian I never struggle to express myself or understand someone else. The only thing I know how to say in German is “Kein ghegenstein aus dem fenster verfen”, which means “don’t throw stuff out of this window” and has very limited application. I also just learned “Ich spreche kien Deutsch” (I don’t speak German) since I decided I’ll be using it a lot.

But yeah as a general rule in Germany there were far more occurrences where I stood there stupidly trying to figure out how to respond to someone who had spoken German. Not that it was a problem, just a trend. However as I headed from the airport to catch a train into Berlin I found that my Italian reflexes were kicking in annoyingly. I would respond to people with “grazie” instead of  “danke” or try to speak Italian to them, which was fairly useless. Regardless I managed to get myself on the train and arrived at the station near where we stayed at around 6 Friday evening. Signs of winter were very apparent. Not only was it significantly colder than Italy, but being outside and further north emphasized the fact that the sun was going down early.

I walked 10-15 minutes to get to the building where we stayed in East Berlin. I buzzed in and then began to walk up the stairs looking for the name that I saw on the buzzer. Unfortunately I kept walking up the stairs, all the way to the top. After 6 floors with bags my legs and lungs were quite spent and I literally tripped over the last step and crashed to the ground, where I laid for a few seconds to catch my breath. Luckily only Uncle Tim saw. I entered the apartment and found it to be a very nice and spacious home that we were staying in. Since Aunt Jill is all travel-savvy, she had arranged for a home swap. So instead of staying in a hotel and paying they merely traded homes for the weekend with a British couple in Germany. The owner of the apartment was an architect and had lots of architecture books that came in handy later as Aunt Jill continued her quest to educate me in the ways of the world.

After settling in and bundling up, the three of us headed out to get dinner. Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim had previously made reservations at a cool little restaurant called Cookies Cream. And although, there were neither cookies nor cream, the restaurant was quite good and had a cool collection of vegetarian dishes. I had a really nice appetizer with some sort of biscuit on smashed potatoes with veggies and truffle flavoring and then I cot some sort of beetroot and lemon dish for an entre. It was here where we began what would eventually become one of the themes of our trip: bad service. I don’t know if this is a thing in Germany or some sort of curse that we had on us, but everywhere we ate had poor service with the exception of one bar. At this particular place we waited forever for food and our waiter never checked in on us. So the meal was quite long.

Afterwards we on our way back to a train station (to get back to our apartment) we walked down an avenue toward the Brandenburg Gates which were lit up with crazy colors and quite cool to see at night. Then we walked a bit further toward the Holocaust Memorial (officially the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe). The memorial is basically a series of rectangular stone columns of differing heights with about two feet between them placed over a large square area. The stones range from a foot high to something near 20 feet.  As you proceed into the maze of columns it’s supposed to give you the feeling of sinking in to the ground and being somewhat isolated. You can catch fleeting glimpses of strangers elsewhere in the memorial as you pass between columns, but it is always fleeting and quick. It’s very intentionally disorienting and domineering and it definitely carries more symbolic and tangible significance than a statue memorial would. After that we headed back to the apartment to get some sleep for the next day.

The next morning was really sunny and nice, even if it was cold. We ate breakfast from the groceries that Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim had kindly purchased before I left and then popped out to the square right beside our apartment where there was a Saturday morning market. We got some fresh vegetables and other ingredients for dinner that night (I was in charge of dinner), then proceeded to the bike shop across the square where it took FOREVER to get 2 bikes for Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim (I borrowed one from the owners of the apartment). Then we popped back into the flat to drop off the food and adjust our layers before heading back out to bike toward the historical center of Berlin. We were staying in the part of the city that was formerly East Berlin. Now the east of the city is a much more artsy and youthful kinda area. As we headed west to the center we passed a bunch of cool buildings and architecture in the Kreuzberg area before we eventually ended up in a park with a cool little café place and some seats outside. We decided to park our bikes and grab lunch. The lunch here was kind of breakfast-y, but it was really good. I had some really thick blueberry pancakes that were awesome. Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim enjoyed their food as well and we ended with a delicious fresh pretzel. While the waiter was friendly and the food was good we were once again treated with rather poor service. It was a constant battle of trying to flag down waiters and get their attention.

After that we headed to the south of the city center to a Modern art museum called the Berlinishe Gallerie. It was a nice museum with some cool installations and photography in addition to more typical painting and sculpture. Additionally it wasn’t too big so I didn’t get tired or bored, as I am liable to do lately. I think that the museum-going over several consecutive months has started to numb me towards them and stole my patience.

After the gallery we cycled around the city some more. We rode around the Jewish Museum which was a neat building with cool architecture, then we passed by Checkpoint Charlie and some important German buildings that I can’t remember the name of. Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim filled me in on some of the history that they had learned on their previous trip and eventually we wound up by the Holocaust Memorial around sunset. We went into the museum beneath it. The museum below continued the column themed architecture of the square above in cool ways and led us through several rooms that gave detail about the rise of Nazi concentration camps and the details of lives individuals and families.

After that we headed home on the bikes, stopping at a little grocery story on the way. Once we got to the apartment we began to get things together for dinner. I was in charge of the meal, but I had a lot of help from Aunt Hill and Uncle Tim. We ended up with a veggie enchilada with tons of spices and vegetables. It was acceptable. After dinner we just settled in for the night and planned the next day.

We begun the next day back on the bikes with aching butts. We first stopped by the DDR/GDR (Deutch/German Democratic Republic) Museum, which detailed the lives of those in East Berlin during the Cold War. They had a wide range of artifacts and information about daily life and the way people were expected to behave. It was interesting to learn about the side that I hadn’t heard as much about. After that museum we biked passed the Reichstag (German Parliament) and into the Tiergarten (a large park).

We biked through the park for a while and explored. After seeing a tall Prussian victory column we found a little lodge restaurant where we had great food, but continued the trend of awful service, or as I should call it, no service. A while after we ordered our food our waiter brought over Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim’s plates. I patiently waited for mine for another 25 minutes before eventually devouring it (without the ketchup I had asked for twice). After that we re-bundled up and headed back in to the park to ride around more. After stopping briefly to climb a tree, we headed out of the park. I honestly can’t remember if we did anything else that day, but we ended up having some German franks (hotdogs) for dinner and going to a bar.

The next day began with a really nice breakfast on the top of the Reichstag.

The meal was really good and had about 1000 components. Afterwards we climbed the dome.

Once we’d finished with the Reichstag we all took out bikes onto the metro and rode to the nearby town of Potsdam. In Potsdam we stopped first at a little café for a bit and then we explored the Sansoucci Palace and Gardens.

Potsdam was full of Palaces and pretty things to look at so we toiled away a few hours there.  At one point we realized that Aunt Jill and I had lost our jackets so poor Uncle Tim had to race up a massive hill on the bike to go get them. That night we attempted to make some German tasting food. We had schnitzel, potatoes and sour kraut, but I’m not sure how authentic it ended up being.

Even though the weather was cold I had plenty of layers so I still hold that bikes are my favorite way to see a city.  We were able to see so much more. Though admittedly the cobblestones weren’t fun on the bikes.  I really like Berlin because it is so rich in important 20^th century history. From the world wars to the Cold War, there was a lot happening here and the evidence is everywhere. Furthermore the division into east and west appears to have created a slight dual culture/vibe in the city that remains today. The buildings are different and as Aunt Jill pointed out, the east is a bit more artsy and charismatic. On the whole Germany was really great. It was very different from other cities I’ve been to and it was nice to get some exposure to a bit more recent history as opposed to the Renaissance that we’ve seen in Florence.