Milano - Firenze

I have been having a lovely time in Italy for the last 5 days time has been flying. Alexis and I have been eating well and are safe. I have taken photos but I did not bring my computer so I cannot upload them. Love and Christmas cheer to all!

Headed to Italy!

I just finished my final for Cognitive Neuroscience, and I am now packing for my next adventure to Italy. I still have two papers to write to finish the semester, because of my early exit option, but I am going to have to finish those in the new year. It was VERY challenging studying for my final today because I was so excited about leaving for Italy. I am a bit nervous as this is the longest trip I have ever planned for myself, but I am sure everything will work out. I am really excited about getting to see all sorts of beautiful and historic places.

I'll do my best to take lots of photos and keep a good journal but I may not have too much time for blogging. We shall see.

Itinerary

Bergamo-18th
We fly into an airport very close to here so we are going to explore what we hear is a charming town.

Milan 19th-21st
Maybe I'll do some shopping. I hear the city is uber-fashionable.

Florence 21st-23rd
The city where the past is present.

Rome 24th-25th
Christmas in Rome! I'll be sending my love to California, and I know you all will be sending it to me.

Sorrento 26th-30th
Elena Shelton recommended this beautiful bed and breakfast that is in a small town very close to Naples and Pompeii.

Venice - 31st-2nd
New Year 2011 in Venice!

Bologna 3rd-5th

Berlin

With school work pending, but traveling sounding ever more enticing Paul and I headed to Berlin last weekend. I had started hearing about Berlin this summer from the Ristig's who had travelled there and taken a biking tour during the World Cup. It is also reknown for it's nightlife, as well it should be, as I found out. Paul and I ended up doing so much that we didn't get a lot of sleep but we had a lot of fun.

These are the metro cars and how we got to and from everywhere we went. They are clean, timely and efficient (very german).
This sideways picture that I can't fix for some silly reason is a picture of a prodestant church that was built in the 1980's next to a church that was destroyed in WWII. We didn't get to go inside because it was closed but it has these beautiful blue/purple windows that are supposed to be gorgeous from the inside. It was pretty to see it from the outside. There was a christmas market outside this building which was a funny juxtaposition of old german culture with this modern structure.
Below and above are some pictures of some of the grafitti that we saw. The above picture was taken in the art squat in the middle of Berlin. The one below was taken in a district of Berlin that had the best falafel. We went indoor rock climbing inside of the building below. It was quite fun. I think I'd like to start doing some of that.

This is the Holocaust Memorial. I was really impressed and moved by it. It's hard to tell here but it extends a full city block. They are simply huge blocks and you walk down into them and very quickly they are over your head. While walking through them it was easy to feel lost and overwhelmed which I believe was the artists intent. I thought it was an excellent memorial.
Nom nom. Currywurst is the specialty in Berlin. It's a fried sausage with a curry coating on the outside. I didn't get a picture of our best meal, at a christmas market, but we had several very hearty german meals.
Here we are at Checkpoint Charlie. Lots of interesting history here about the cold war. Berlin really was at the forefront of political wartime negotiations for decades. Fascinating now that it has returned to peacetime to see how the lines are still drawn in the east v. the west.

Look at all the ice in the river. This is a picture of museum island. Berlin is quite impressive with all of it's museums. Our tour guide told us that Berlin has more museums than London and Paris combined. I never really thought of the Germans as a very cultural people but they certainly are. We went to the Pergamon Museum which is right behind the archeology museum pictured. There was huge gate of Ishtar, goddess of love and war, that was in what is now Iraq but was taken by German colonialists. I usually think of Britian and France as the main colonial powers but Germany and Holland were also important colonists.
-First snow in Utrecht-

This was the first day it snowed. In about a half an hour the whole city went from it's normal colors to being covered in white. It was a magical transition!

Christmas Markets in Aachen

The next bright but cold morning my housemates came and picked me up in Eersel. Alina, my housemate from Germany, has a tiny little disel Ford which all five of us squeezed into and drove the 45 minutes across the boarder to the city of Aachen.

Parker, who is quite a history buff, told me a bit about the city before I left his house. It's main claim to fame was that it was the home to Charlamagne. It was also the first German city that the allies captured. We went because it is home to a beautiful christmas market. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from these markets but the German students, Alina and Paula, said that they were something not to be missed.

As soon as I stepped out of the car in Germany I realized that I had delayed getting a coat for too long and that buying a coat was a neccessity of the day. After dropping our stuff off at the hostel around 2 we went to the markets. We looked through a bunch of stalls, and then I saw a coat shop. I went and bought a new coat, which it looks like I will be wearing for the rest of winter. As the first snow covered the roads and bike paths today in Utrecht. It is a kind of magical transition to see everything get covered by snow. My entire landscape changed as I walked from the IND to pick up my residence papers and back to the bus. Quite extraordinary.

Warm Mulled wine warms you up. In this picture I'm wearing my new coat and gloves. You can't see it in this picture but the gloves have these cute little buttons on the side that are very chic.
Nick bought a sausage at one of the food vendors. There were also numerous other types of sausages, warm chestnuts, fried fish, and lots of other delectable goodies. The market was quite crowded, but you can see the market stalls on the left and the big historic cathedral in the background.

Here are Alina and Paula with traditional german gingerbread. This is at dinner, where we spent the rest of the night since it was so cold outside and we didn't want to have to walk around when it was so cold. After dark all the lights came on. Lovely!
Mmm. Candied almonds.

Here's another shot of the Christmas decorations with the Dom in the background.
This is the bookstore where we had tea because it was freezing out!
We caught the very end of a puppet show.
Breakfast at the German bakery.

Driving home in Alina's car. I didn't know that Europeans drove American cars, but they do!

A Visit with Family

Friday afternoon I went to visit Parker Brophy and family in Eindhoven. We had planned to have Thanksgiving dinner together but that ended up not working out. This is due to the fact that Parker never received the email I sent him, accepting his lovely invitation, and because I made plans Saturday night when it turned out he was having Thanksgiving.

I throughly enjoyed my evening with him and Susan who are both incredably sweet and very interesting people. Parker picked up in Eindhoven where he had to drop something off at the accountant. While he was in the office, Millie and Bart, told me about their trip to the U.K. They liked the Edinborough castle the best because of the old cannons that they fire at 1 pm on certain days. Later, Susan told me more about how they had seen Hadrian's wall. I hadn't heard anything about the wall, but the next time I am in Europe I am going to make sure I get to see it. This journey is already packed with the gills with things I still need to do.

Once we arrived at their adorable home in Eersel, right off the market square, I was immediately shown around the garden accompanied by Bart, Millie and Hughie. It is a very nice backyard, although rather chilly, with a chestnut, apple and walnut tree.

We had the first real snow the night that I slept there.

Toms Family
Bart and Millie at the playground down the street

We went for a walk and there was snow. Bart is used to it, he says, since it gets cold in Colorado too.
Millie ( Marion) is already an accomplished Dutch cyclist. She is currently looking for more friends and trying to learn the language.

Praha

"Never let schooling interfere with your education" - M. Twain

-School-

After another week of procrastination, on numerous fronts, not just my blogging, I am finally catching up with all the work that I have left undone. Perhaps unluckily for you all, my blogging responsibilities fall in the middle of my list of priorities rather than at the top. Luckily, for me, I have been taking Twain's quote more seriously than I often do. Since I have been rather frustrated with the schooling system here, I have been spending time exploring more of my interests.

I am finished with my old classes and have just started my new courses. In my opinion courses aren't the fun part of studying abroad, but the work they entail still has to be finished. This block starts now and finishes in the end of January. Since I am leaving early, I have to do the work for these courses in a more condensed period. I will also have to write one ten page and one 5 page paper over winter break ( or at some point before then).

-Prague- Praha-

I have gotten to do a bit of weekend travelling to Prague. After finishing our school work many of the Californians headed to Prague. I was on the same flight as the American boys (Paul, Alex, Dave and Ronald). Kristyne and Camille had travelled there earlier as they had fewer end of block obligations. It seems all the Californian students had been told by numerous sources that Prague was one city that we simply had to visit. I must say that we were curious to find out exactly why.

After getting a bit lost out of the train station. I found my hostel. This is a picture of the entry hallway. It reminded me a bit of the Berkeley Student Co-ops. The Hostel was upstairs in Praha 1. It was close enough to old town and once I found it the first time it was easy to find again.

That night, after flying in relatively late, several of us went out looking for dinner. While it was around 10:30 almost every place to eat dinner was closed. This seemed strange to me, since in many southern european countries, dinner doesn't start until 9. In the Czech capital though, they do not dine late. We ended up eating stand sausages and warm mulled wine. It was quite a hearty and nice meal for a rainy night.

The next morning I was determined to see what exactly made Prague so special. So, I got up early, had a pastry (that looked surprisingly like a doughnut filled with nuetella) and some tea. Below is what I saw walking around that day.

Main Square- Sculpture of a hertic

River and Saint Charles Bridge in the background.

That night I went to see a Prague speciality called black light theatre. I saw Faust by Goethe. The production did not have any dialogue and was about an hour in length. The way they represented the play was quite comical. Black light theatre means the use of black lights to obscure certain things and highlight others. Some of the costumes were very florescent and they could make it seem as though puppets were flying through space. I couldn't take pictures of the performance and it is rather difficult to describe so, here's a video of a different production. It should give you some idea of what I saw.

That night, after spending forever, trying to meet up with Kristyne we ended up eating a at a little cafe and I ran to my production.

Saturday morning we all headed out to check out the Lennon Wall. Here are some pictures from that excursion and what we found along the way.

After fooling around in the fall leaves and enjoying the relatively nice weather (we saw some blue sky) we decided to head up the hill overlooking the city.

Petřín Lookout Tower

On Sunday before our flight left, I spent some time in the old Jewish quarter of the city and visited the Franz Kafka museum. I don't have any exciting pictures to share from either of those places, but both were very interesting.