Category: Europe

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Europe France Study Abroad

Paris: Everything I Dreamed It Would Be And More

Five days was not enough.  I fell completely in love with the city.  It was vibrant and gorgeous, and for the first time since coming to Europe I could actually communicate properly with people in their native language.  I never thought I would be excited at being able to read advertisements and other signs on the street…

Strangely enough, though, there was a little culture shock.  When I first got on the train it struck me as so inconvenient that I would have to put my ticket in the machine, since in Denmark they just assume you’ve paid.  I realized I’ve lost my ability to jaywalk.  And, as I walked by a shop, someone who worked there said “Bonjour!” and it took me an absurd amount of time to respond since Danish people would probably rather vote for a Republican than talk to a stranger on the street just to say Hi. (yes I’m totally exaggerating no Dane would ever vote for a Republican)

My first day I went to the Louvre and wandered around until I reached my daily art limit.  Then I walked through the city along the Seine and soaked up the beauty of the city.  That night, Kelcy took me to the Eiffel Tower to see the lights as they sparkled and L’Arc de Triomphe, and I could barely contain my excitement at seeing the two most iconic monuments in Paris.

The next morning, Kelcy had to go to class and so I met up with Chen He, my friend from Northwestern.  We went to some of the less touristy spots, like a taxidermy shop/museum (“Do you like dead animals?”) and France’s oldest library!  It was great to get to see some places I wouldn’t have necessarily explored on my own, and after that I met up with my Impressionism class.  We went to the Opera Garnier and got a tour of that, which was beautiful.  I wish I would have been able to see a show there!

After that, we had free time, and I had my most successful encounter in French to date.  I went to one of the really nice department stores, and went to the bookstore part because I decided I wanted another book in French.  In the mystery section, I found Agatha Christie, and figured I could get And Then There Were None.  Except it wasn’t called that, so I had to ask a sales assistant, which meant I had to give a few details of the plot so that he could tell me what the French name was.  Dix Petits Nègres, if you’re interested.  Political correctness is not Europe’s strong suit.

The next day we got a sightseeing tour and then headed to Versailles!  It was beautiful, but honestly after seeing the palaces in Russia I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be.  The Hall of Mirrors was cool, and I think the gardens would be amazing if they had flowers (that’s the struggle of visiting during November….) but overall, most of the rooms seemed fairly normal.  Later that night, I went back to the Louvre and finally saw the Mona Lisa.

The art didn’t stop there, because our next morning started with Musée de l’Orangerie, which had Monet’s water lilies, followed by Musée d’Orsay with most well known impressionist works.  It was pretty awesome to see art where I knew the pieces and their context, and impressionism is my favorite movement (based on my very limited knowledge of art).  This was followed by more free time, in which I went with a friend to the catacombs.  I’ve now seen more bones than I ever expected to, although the basement part of Hamlet’s castle was actually far creepier.  It was definitely worth the visit though!

The final highlight of the trip was our Seine dinner cruise.  Everyone got dressed up and we had three hours of floating down the Seine, with a three course meal and quite a bit of free wine.  The views were lovely, as was the company and the alcohol.  Afterwards, Alanna and I went to find a bar to experience Parisian nightlife and we ended up finding a wine bar!  The atmosphere was relaxed and the bartender recommended a very good light red wine.  We felt very classy and French, and he even gave us a 3 euro discount at the end of the night so that was exciting.  (But also confusing.)

My last morning, I went to part of the mass at Notre Dame.  The music and stained glass windows were very beautiful.  After I left, I went to L’Arc de Triomphe again to climb it, which had amazing views of the city.  I took a lot of selfies.  When I got down again, Kelcy took me to Shakespeare and Company and then I spent the rest of my time wandering around the Latin Quarter before meeting up with my class once more to head to the airport.

Everyone says Parisians are rude, that they’re the New Yorkers of Europe.  Having never been to New York, I can’t really make that comparison, but the Parisians I interacted with were not rude.  I usually spoke to them in French, and they apparently deemed it acceptable.  In fact, the one person I talked to who switched to English asked me in French first if we should switch to English (which was great since I was getting directions).

Overall, it was a fantastic five days.  Paris is my favorite place I’ve ever been to, and I know I’ll be back.

À bientôt, Paris.  Je t’adore.

Categories
Europe Poland Study Abroad

Krakow: A Visit To Auschwitz

I’m in Copenhagen for about 12 hours in between my two trips.

My past four days were spent in Krakow, with my class on Auschwitz.  Krakow was beautiful.  The first day we did a walking tour covering the main square, the castle, and several important churches.  The city is charming, since it retains many of its original buildings with very little modern architecture.  On our second day, we toured the Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, as well as Schindler’s Factory, which has been turned into a museum about life in Krakow during WW2.  Certain aspects that they spoke about in the museum resonated with stories I remember hearing from my grandma about her experiences during that time period, like the women who married soldiers in their absence and the food rationing. I also got to see the full Schindler’s list, which was pretty cool since I’ve read the book and seen the movie.  We also went to the area that became the Jewish ghetto during WW2 and saw a part of the original wall, which was built to imitate Jewish gravestones.  Our last day in Krakow was also Polish Independence Day, so there were flags and parades happening all over the city.

On Monday, we spent the entire day at Auschwitz and Birkenau, which was an incredibly moving experience.  After having read memoirs of survivors of those camps, I appreciated being able to put them into context.  A few of the more emotional places in the camp:

1. One of the exhibitions includes the objects confiscated by Nazis, such as eyeglasses, shoes, and suitcases.  Along with that, there are two tons of human hair, which came from approximately 40,000 people.  Those rooms really impressed upon me the scale of lives that were taken in these camps.

2. We went in the crematorium in Auschwitz 1, which was not destroyed as those at Birkenau were.  Here, there were visible scratches on the walls where people struggled to escape that gas chambers.

3. Images of children being led to the crematoriums.  Approximately a quarter of the victims in the camp were children.

4. In the sauna, where prisoners were initially showered and shaved before entering camp, there is an exhibition with the family photos from the victims that had been confiscated upon their arrival.  It’s easy to hear the massive numbers of deaths and lose some of the human aspect of the Holocaust.  In this area, you can see the life before WW2, with weddings and children and happiness, and it puts a series of faces on the victims.

5. The image of a field is actually the site of the largest mass grave in Europe.  There are an estimated 200,000 people buried there.  The ground we stood on was uneven, and in some areas there were ashes on the surface.  Now, it seems peaceful and beautiful; it’s difficult to believe that such horrific acts of violence were committed there.

In general, Auschwitz and Birkenau were in beautiful locations.  In some areas, they seemed too picturesque, knowing the genocide that was committed there.  It seems like the location should match the level of evil that existed there; I expected it to be more gloomy, not sunny with fall foliage.

Auschwitz and Birkenau are such important places in our world history.  This trip was intense during some parts, but I’m so glad I was able to visit and have this experience.

Categories
Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Kronborg Castle: Dramatic Reenactments of Hamlet

Today’s adventure was to Helsingør to see Hamlet’s castle!

Ok, technically it’s called Kronborg.  But you can get a tour with a man in tights who’s pretending to be Horatio and loosely reenacts the whole play, so…. Paige and I signed up for that one based on a recommendation from our friend Emmy.  Which was pretty great.  The phrases “to be or not to be” and “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” were both uttered, and at one point he pulled a skull out of the vent and waved it around.  If you ever go, definitely do this tour.

We also went into the creepy basement section where we saw a statue of Holger the Dane, who is supposedly the great defender of Denmark.  At times, we used our iPhone flashlights because they didn’t really have a whole lot of lights down there… and when we came back up one of the employees looked at us and said, “You survived!”  …..thanks.  Really comforting.

I’ve crossed off another Denmark bucket list trip!  I can’t believe I have less than 40 days left in this wonderful country.  Next week is another travel break, so I’m headed to Kraków, Poland and Paris, France.  Details to come.

Hej hej!

Categories
Europe Finland Study Abroad

Helsinki: Saunas, All Saints Day, and Kraft Mac & Cheese

If you’d asked me what my expectations were for this city, I’m not sure what I would have said.  Probably cold, a bit like a smaller St. Petersburg.  Helsinki, however, surpassed all of my expectations.

My first view of the city was from the airplane, and the whole area simply seemed to simply glitter.  After Sarah and I checked into our hostel, we went into the city center in hopes of going to an ice bar, which had unfortunately gone out of business.  Instead, we went to a couple of other bars and got a feel for the city.  The area where we were reminded me of Michigan Avenue, but instead of one street it was pretty much the entire downtown.  Everything was well lit, beautiful, and clean!  Of course, it should also come as no surprise that it was also an incredibly expensive city.  More so than Copenhagen, even.  One thing that was surprising: how many Finns dressed up for Halloween.  The whole city seemed to come alive while we were out, and a good portion of the people out were wearing some form of costume.

Most of the next day was spent doing an unofficial walking tour of Helsinki, which was perfect because although it was cold, the sun was shining!  We went to three churches, the market square, a park, and the Kappeli restaurant, as well as a place that sold delicious cupcakes.

For the early evening, we went to the sauna.  The first one we tried was unfortunately closed, because All Saint’s Day is apparently a big thing in Finland and so most of the stores were closed.  The second one we tried, however, was a success!  This was my first sauna experience, so I’m glad that it was in a place renowned for them.  Sarah and I pretty clearly marked ourselves as Americans by wearing bathing suits, but otherwise we even did the thing where we doused ourselves in cold water in between sessions in the sauna part.  I completely understand the appeal, it was incredibly relaxing!  It made the chill of the night feel much better.

In our day’s travels, we had found some Kraft brand mac and cheese, and did the very American thing and bought it to make in the hostel that night.  Unfortunately, because of the whole All Saint’s Day thing, the regular grocery stores were closed.  We did find a kiosk place that wasn’t closed, and even managed to find milk and butter by using our Danish skills applied to the Swedish words on the labels.  Often, things in Finland are also labeled in Swedish and Russian.  While buying it, the woman behind the counter spoke to us only in Finnish and we responded with “kiitos,” the only Finnish word we know (aka thanks, pronounced key-toes).  Turned out the milk had a bit of a vanilla taste and the butter was strange too, but through the power of Kraft our dinner was still delicious.

Sunday was pretty rainy, so after walking into the city center, we spent the rest of our time doing primarily indoor activities, like going to the National Museum and looking at Stockmann, which is a giant and gorgeous department store that was kind of like a mall in and of itself and was already decorated for Christmas.  It was strange to see Christmas trees lit up already, with the season fully under way.  It doesn’t get to that magnitude in the US until after Thanksgiving.

If anyone out there is considering going to this city, or Finland in general, I highly recommend it.  Kiitos, Helsinki.

Categories
Europe Germany Study Abroad

Bavaria: The Family I Never Knew I Had

After Romania, I traveled to Munich (via Copenhagen) to meet up with my German family!  Quick background: shortly after WW2, a portion of my family moved to the US (I think somehow as refugees but it’s a bit unclear), and so the part of the family I met is my dad’s father’s family.  I believe I met my second cousin once removed, but since my United States family is so tiny I really don’t know the terms very well.

Regardless of our technical relation, Gerhard and Marina were so welcoming to me!  The first night we stayed in Passau, which is right near the Austrian border.  I was exhausted from the hiking trip, so I went to bed early the first night and tried to get up reasonably early for the next day.  We went into Austria for an hour, where I ordered a pastry without knowing what was in it that luckily turned out to be pretty delicious.  Then we went to a different part of the Austrian border and did a little hiking around at an area that used to be an old castle.  For the rest of the day, we walked around Passau, and they took me to a concert with the world’s largest cathedral organ.  Then we drove to Weißenhorn that night, and Gerhard and Marina even put me up in a hotel since the apartment was too small to have my room.

The next morning, we went to Neuschwanstein!  Seeing this castle was pretty much on my all time bucket list.  The inside was pretty strange though, which is how it goes when you have an insane king I would imagine.  One room was pretty much entirely swan motifs, and there was an artificial cave that he had added because he really liked an opera!

When we got back to Weißenhorn, we had dinner with the whole family.  It was basically me and eleven Germans, with only four speaking English.  Thus it was definitely the most acutely I’ve felt the whole language barrier thing.  But despite my confusion, being at a family dinner was so lovely.  It’s a much nicer atmosphere than sitting in my dorm.  If it’s appropriate to apply a Danish word to an interaction between Germans and an American, I would describe it as hyggeligt.  After dinner, we went to Ulm and walked around for a while.  We also tried to get ice cream before realizing that 9pm on a Saturday in late October is not a particularly popular time for this craving, but we did find some at an owl themed café back in Weißenhorn!

On Sunday, we went back to Ulm so that Gerhard and I could climb the world’s highest church tower, the Münster.  Sadly, it was pretty foggy, so the views weren’t as cool… apparently on clear days you can see the Alps from the top!  We spent the rest of the day walking around Munich before my flight.  I got a beer and a pretzel in the Hofbrauhaus, which feels like pretty much the epitome of German stereotypes.

The whole weekend was incredible.  The German side of my family was so welcoming, and I had so much fun wandering around Bavaria with them.  I’m so glad that we managed to reconnect, and look forward to staying in contact with them.  I would love to try to come back and visit again!

I leave for Helsinki in two days, so look for those pictures next week.  Vi ses!

Categories
Europe Romania Study Abroad

Transylvania: Mountain Climbing and Dracula’s Castle

On Monday, we spent all day climbing mountains.  At first, it was just fairly normal (albeit a bit steep) forest trails.  Then at one point we got to a clearing and we were taking a break, drinking some water, and all of that.  We looked up towards the top of the peak and saw people rock climbing, and someone commented that it looked hard or something to that effect.  Our guide turned to us, confused, and said, “That’s the route we’re doing.”  And indeed, it was essentially just rock climbing without a harness.  The holds were good, but it was honestly pretty terrifying at parts.  One moment, in particular, I was going across a narrow section where the wind was howling, holding onto a cable that was not quite as tightly attached as I thought it was and I experienced the scariest moment of my life.  We got to the top of three mountains, including the second highest one in Romania.  After six and a half hours, we made it back to our cabin, and I felt incredibly accomplished.

Had I known exactly what we would be doing, I’m not sure if I would have done this trip, considering I’m not a particularly outdoorsy person and, although I’m in decent shape, I’m really not that athletic if we’re being perfectly honest.  But despite all of that, it was totally worth it.  The views were unbelievable, and I got to have an amazing experience in a part of the world I had never imagined I would even go.

The next morning, we hiked back down to the base of the mountain and returned to civilization.  We had a night tour of the historic part of Sibiu, which was awesome.  Our guides told us about a tower that another town wanted to copy and make higher, and so the other town sent a few people to come measure it with a rope.  The people from Sibiu found out about it, got them drunk, and cut a meter off of their rope.  And so there is another tower in Romania that looks the exact same but is a meter shorter.  Our guides also took us to a Scottish themed bar that had American and British newspaper articles lining the walls…

For our last full day, we went to a fortified church, where I think I may have found the gravestone of a very distant relation (it was an Austro-Hungarian soldier with my great grandmother’s maiden name who died in WW1, so it’s completely possible).  In the afternoon, we went to Bran’s Castle, perhaps more commonly known as Dracula’s castle!  Highlight: the secret staircase going from the first to the third floor.  All I want in life is to have a secret area in my home.

The next morning we got up before dawn so that we could have a three hour bus ride to the airport, and then I spent the rest of the day traveling from Bucharest to Copenhagen and then Copenhagen to Munich.  Those pictures will come later though 🙂

Hej hej!

Categories
Europe Romania Study Abroad

Transylvania: A Reflection

Hello again!  It’s been nine busy days of traveling, and I’m back in Copenhagen for… the next few days at least.  This past week will take multiple blog posts to describe, because I went to three countries and took over 500 photos and did a lot of things!

My week started in Romania, with a DIS hiking trip to Transylvania for six days.  After a three hour bus ride from Bucharest to Transylvania, we started out at Peles Castle, which was very beautiful.  They had separate rooms to greet important people from different nationalities, and there was a ton of intricate woodwork and stained glass inside.  We also had a night tour of the city of Brasov!  Our guides, Vlad and Stefan, were awesome and knew so much history of the places we saw.  A few initial impressions of Romania:

1. Stray dogs.  It’s a big problem in Romania.  They’re everywhere.

2. It’s kind of like taking a trip into the past.  It seems that a lot of the people we saw are farmers, and I saw quite a few cows and sheep during our bus rides.  A lot of the buildings we saw outside of the cities were fairly run down, although parts of Sibiu (and I would assume Brasov) have modern or at least recently updated buildings.

3.  The roads are a bit rough.  At one point we hit a pot hole that was enough to launch a few people into the air.  I experienced more turbulence on our buses than I’ve ever felt in a plane.

The next morning we headed up to the Rasnov citadel!  It was cool to see the medieval defense systems, and our guide told us about how they poured boiling oil on people and shut other people between walls.  The views from the hill of Rasnov were stunning.  In the afternoon, we started our hike into the Carpathians, which was through the forest and fairly steep.  For the next two days we stayed at a cabin with no running water, so it was a bit out of my comfort zone!  However, due to the volume of pictures I took, the hiking portion will be continued on the next post….

Categories
Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Tivoli at Halloween and the Crown Jewels

This weekend Kelcy came to Copenhagen!

Her flight got in pretty late on Thursday night, but the next day we still got up early because I had to go to class.  After some pastries, I dropped Kelcy off at the museum and we met up again after criminology to go to Tivoli!  It just reopened for Halloween season, so everything was decorated with pumpkins.  We went a bunch of rides, including one that went upside down super slowly (and I don’t think either of us recommend that one because it made us pretty dizzy).  We also got shouted at in Danish at the upside down ride because we were supposed to empty our pockets.  Seeing as that is not a phrase I had encountered before, I was unable to translate this time.  In general though now I’m at the point where when people speak to me in Danish I usually can tell what they want me to do, so that was a pretty exciting realization.

Saturday was basically an informal walking tour covering most of Copenhagen.  We went inside Rosenborg Castle (which used to be the summer castle for the royals) and got to see the crown jewels and some other gorgeous artifacts.  Then we stopped by the Little Mermaid, Nyhavn, the sidewalk trampolines, Amalienborg, Christianborg, the old stock exchange (which, fun fact, the Danes tried to put crocodile statues on but no one knew what a crocodile looked like and so they look pretty weird and everyone just calls them dragons) and walked down Strøget.  As the day progressed I realized that I’ve learned quite a bit of history about Copenhagen, so it was exciting to put that to use and tell someone else about my favorite sites.

Kelcy, I know you read this, so thanks for coming to visit me!  It was great to see you again.  And we’ll be reunited in a month in Paris 🙂

Hej hej!

Categories
Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Sculptures, Suburbs, and Christiania (again)

A few things I’ve done in Copenhagen since getting back from Russia:

1. Met my visiting family- they live in this gorgeous suburb called Holte and back up to a lake.  Having dinner at their house was great, although it was unfortunately scheduled the evening I got back from Russia so I was proud of myself for not falling asleep at their table.  They’re really nice though!  They made me a Danish dinner (for those of you who have seen me eat, I did better than one might expect) and then told me about their grandkids and the classic car convention they went to.  They even lit a fire, so it was very hyggeligt (a Danish word meaning cozy, more or less).

2. Went to the sculpture museum- whoever designs museums in Denmark needs to get a new job because I swear they’re all mazes.  It’s free on Sundays so I went in and wandered around for a long time.  I snickered to myself throughout most of my exploration because at some point during my Russia trip we talked about some author who’s friend wasn’t very…well endowed… so the two of them went to an art museum and the author pointed out that all the statues were smaller so it was fine.  I of course forgot this story until I was in the museum.  It made looking at the art more entertaining though….

3. Toured Christiania- I’ve mentioned Christiania before because I went one day with a few friends, but this time I went with my Danish class and got a guided tour from someone who had lived there for around 15 years I think.  Quick recap: it was founded in the 70s by a bunch of homeless hippies and is now pretty much just a communist society in the middle of the city.  You can build a house and live there but you don’t own it.  They’re big on street art, a sense of community, and nature/gardening.  Part of the reason that it’s well known is Pusher Street, which sells marijuana.  Since I’m from Denver this doesn’t seem like as big a deal to me, but it is still illegal in Denmark so you’re not allowed to take pictures.  Also something we talked about in Danish class is that there was a court case a few years back against the state over the land that Christiania is on, and the state won which means Christiania had to buy the land from the state.  They sold “people’s stocks” and so some Danish people put in money to finance Christiania, and now Christiania owns the land that it’s on.  It’s a pretty fascinating area!

Hej hej 🙂

Categories
Europe Russia Study Abroad

St. Petersburg, Pt 2: Reflecting on Russia

On Wednesday we got some free time in the morning, so my friends and I went to an island in the city and did some souvenir shopping.  Since everything in Russia is so cheap, particularly when compared to Copenhagen, I actually ended up buying a lot more souvenirs than I expected.  In the afternoon, we got to hang out with some Russian students!  Our teacher put us into groups, and my group ended up being four American students and four Russian students.  I ended up talking to a student who was actually from Crimea, and she told me how her Ukranian passport isn’t truly valid anymore and how the time zone in Crimea was changed when they became Russian.  It’s a lot different hearing the ways that it impacted people who lived there beyond what we hear on the news.  Our group ended up going to a modern art exhibit and then we went to one of their apartments for dinner.  Spending time with them made me feel like less of a tourist, and I really appreciated that experience.

The next day we did another tour of the city, but this one was focused on getting away from the touristy spots.  My favorite part of this tour was going to a communal apartment.  It was clear that it had been designed for the nobility, but during communism each apartment was divided and each family would get a room.  There were fifteen people living in the apartment we saw, and they all shared the kitchen and bathroom.  It would be like living in a dorm for the rest of your life.  This was the first point where I really felt that I was in the former Soviet Union.

We also stopped into a special Russian type of bar and learned the “real” way to take a shot, which means breathing out, drinking it all, eating a bit of pickle, and then breathing out.  Oh, and did I mention it was 11 am?

Afterwards we had one more touristy visit, which was going to the Church of Spilt Blood.  It was where Alexander II was assassinated.  It was absolutely gorgeous, both inside and out, and it seemed like the quintessential Russian church with its colorful domes!

A few other thoughts on my week in Russia:

1. The water quality- in St. Petersburg, you can’t drink the water from the tap.  They even recommend making sure to not accidentally swallow the water when brushing your teeth.  Apparently some of the pipes are back from when the city was founded, and they’ve also had problems with parasites.  This is the first place I’ve ever been where the tap water isn’t safe, which made me realize that I was really in Russia.

2. Language barrier- Not only was it the first place with unsafe tap water for me, it was also the first with a real language barrier.  The only places I’ve been to this point are the USA, Canada, and Denmark.  Denmark has a language barrier in theory but I’ve only met one person who didn’t speak almost flawless English.  Russian has a new alphabet and language, and many of them don’t speak English.  Even at the airport I had an experience where the security person was trying to convey that I didn’t need to take off my shoes, but she spoke no English and I spoke no Russian so it took a while to communicate.  This was my first taste of the language barrier and I’m sure it will not be my last, but it was definitely exacerbated by the different alphabet in Russia.

3. Russia as a separate place from Europe- during our Dostoevsky tour our tour guide told us that he “gambled in Europe but not Russia” and I found that distinction very telling.  St. Petersburg, in a lot of ways, does look European, with the facades and the canals; this makes sense considering it was designed to look like the rest of Europe.  Then there are more subtle differences, such as the domed churches and wide open streets, and as you get out from the city center it becomes so different from anywhere I’ve seen with the communist buildings.  Granted, I haven’t been to many European cities, so it might be even more interesting to think about the differences after I’ve seen a few more.

I definitely want to go back to Russia at some point later in my life, to see Moscow and to cross off a real bucket list goal of seeing real Russian ballet.  Nevertheless, I am incredibly happy that I got to go with DIS to St. Petersburg.  They made it easy to get a visa, navigate the city, and experience Russian culture, and they handled all of the logistics.  Even with questionable water quality, cold winds, and difficult interactions with Russian shopkeepers, it was an amazing experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.