Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

Year: 2012 (page 12 of 14)

Spring Break Part III: Traveling through Athens

March 26, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Our travel plans for the day consisted of taking a train from Rome to the airport, catching a flight to Athens, a nine hour layover (during which we would explore the city for a few hours), and then ferrying overnight to Crete.  For me, the most noticeable transition between Italy and Greece was the language difference.  I’m not at all fluent in Italian, but Italian being one of the Romance languages I was surprised how easy it was to pick up the general idea of what someone was saying, even if I couldn’t understand word for word.  Similarly, I could read enough Italian to get where I wanted to go and pronounce enough to say “thank you” and order food without much difficulty.

In Greece, it was the complete opposite.  Without obvious social cues it was almost impossible to understand speech.  As for reading, there are different ways of writing Greek.  There are the Greek characters, and then there is the English transliteration.  Even the English version was very difficult to pronounce.  Being so different, I was surprised how hard it was to even remember phrases.  I don’t think I was able to remember how to say “thank you” for longer than 15 minutes.

Acropolis and Parthenon

 

Acropolis

Athens itself was less than impressive.  Granted, my negative impression may have partially been due to the icy wind and threatening rainclouds, but I’m glad a whole day wasn’t spent in Athens.  Also, one has to factor in the economic difficulties Greece is currently undergoing.  Even though it was offseason for tourists, the city was very dirty in comparison to others, especially Venice.  After our first Greek lunch we only had time to visit one major site, but we found the Parthenon was both closed and covered in scaffolding.  However, the top of Philopappou Hill gave us a fantastic view for miles around the city.

Some of the best memories from Athens were of the countless stray dogs throughout the city.  I expected them to be somewhat unfriendly and constantly attempting to steal food, but this wasn’t the case.  All you had to do was treat them nicely – pet and sit with them for a while – and they would follow you around like guards, barking at and scaring off the aggressive beggars and street vendors that would try to approach you.  Then, at the end of their territory, they would nudge you one last time as if to say “bye” and sadly watch you walk away.

 

Leaving Athens

As darkness started to cover Athens, we arrived at our ferry and boarded for the nine hour ride to the last destination of spring break:  Crete!

 

 

Missed an earlier part?  Look at Part I or Part II

Also, see more photos on Picasa or follow me on Twitter!

St. Peter's Basilica

Spring Break Part II: Rome

March 25, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Colosseum

The second segment of my spring break was spent in Rome, Italy.  Barring a little difficulty with Eurail passes, the train ride from Venice to Rome was a wonderful transition.  The hills of northern Italy around Florence made for a gorgeous train ride south towards Rome.

Because we didn’t have long in Rome, we attempted to hit as many major sites as we could in the time we had.  One of the nearest sites to our hostel was the Colosseum.  Although we never actually went inside, we spent a lot of time in the area taking pictures (and learning about tourist traps).

From the Colosseum the road leads north past the extensive Roman Forum to the Piazza Venezia.  And from there (after a quick stop for more gelato) another short walk to the Trevi Fountain.  Although most of the city was far from crowded during early March, the fountain was crawling with people.  While many were tourists (one couple was having their wedding photos taken), you could easily tell this was a hotspot for pickpockets as unsuspecting tourists turned their backs towards the fountain and threw a few cents over their shoulder.  However, as with all big cities if you pay attention and watch each others’ backs there is little to worry about.

St. Peter's Basilica

During our only full day in Rome we caught a bus to Vatican City.  After staying in St. Peter’s Square for a while, we proceeded to enter St. Peter’s Basilica.  Our afternoon arrival was perfect timing; rays of sunlight were perfectly displayed across the altar.  The entire cathedral is filled with centuries of art.  Every carving and ornately painted ceiling is worth admiring.  Deeper into the Basilica is a wall remembering the entire line of popes starting with St. Peter and ending with the current Pope Benedict XVI.  The bus route taking us back to the main part of Rome ran along side the River Tiber and went through several other famous sites.

After a last true Italian dinner, it was an early night in preparation for our 4:30 awakening to catch a flight to the next stop on our itinerary…

 

Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

 

 

Missed Part I?  Check out:  http://blogs.valpo.edu/studyabroad/2012/03/21/spring-break-part-i-venice/

Look at more photos on Picasa at:  https://plus.google.com/photos/112463823006344854498/albums?banner=pwa

Follow me on Twitter at:  https://twitter.com/#!/CambridgeUKJohn

 

 

Let this one play through.

March 25, 2012 / / 0 Comments

One of the things I miss most about home is my computer. More specifically, I miss my computer because my computer is hooked up to a pair of high quality monitor speakers. The clarity of sound which these speakers create is unmatched by the headphones I brought along with me to Cambridge, and none of the speakers at the center come within a mile of their quality. At home, I like to spend a few hours browsing through blogs and discovering new music. It’s nice to discover a new band, and then find that you’ve stumbled onto a blog that posts music from tons of different artists who are extremely similar. Best of all, most of the music is independent and released for free. So, I can get loads of free music legally.

This is a stall in the Cambridge market which I frequent quite often. And, just to let you know, these pictures have little to do with this blog post other than the fact that they were taken in Cambridge.

The trouble with gathering a music collection in this way is that no one is likely to have heard of a band who has only six hundred views on YouTube and maybe a website. Combine this with the fact that I rarely decide to commit each artist’s name to memory, and when I’m asked, “What kind of music do you like?” I’m left stammering, “Well, electronic, but not techno. Kind of folk, but also jazz. Like – what’s the band’s name, I just found them today – like… Well, the songs use lush synths; echoey stuff.” I know how to find what I like, but I discard it all so easily that I have trouble sharing the music with anyone else. Add on top of this the fact that I’m one who enjoys little to no background music when I’m speaking with people – despite the fact that most of the music I enjoy fades easily into the background – and the opportunities for sharing music shrink even lower.

Parker's Piece is a large field near the city centre which I pass on the way to my once a week class at Anglia Ruskin University.

Enjoying music that fades into the background means that it can be hard to share my musical tastes with people because the best experience of this type of music comes when one allows oneself to be completely enveloped by it. For this to happen between multiple people, a large degree of intimacy has to have been already established, because the music, if focused on, requires the people to embark on a journey together in which they drop nearly everything but the raw emotions the music evokes. Depending on what each person is going through, the emotions that arise may be completely different for each person. Sharing this type of music feels akin to meeting someone for the first time and asking them to divulge their innermost thoughts and feelings.

After an intense staring contest, the wax man and I had a heart to heart.

I spoke with a friend from home last night. She wanted to know all about my trip and what had happened so far. Despite being here for a few months, I felt unable to explain to her what had been happening to me so far. Each time I recounted an event to her, I felt as if something was lacking behind what I said. I wasn’t able to completely capture the experience and the way it made me feel. Now I know why.

Studying abroad has been like living within one of those echoey, jazz-folk-electronic songs I enjoy so much. To get everything out of this experience, I’ve had to completely drop everything: culture, home turf, and friends – to name a few. So, when my friend from home asked me to describe my experience, I felt as if a song had been interrupted. The experience isn’t over yet. And, while I could put the song on pause to stop and recount the ways Europe has affected me so far, this is a song I’d rather listen to all the way through.

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View from Rialto Bridge

Spring Break Part I: Venice

March 21, 2012 / / 0 Comments

 

Venetian Sunset

First stop of my spring break:  Venice, Italy.  This beautiful city was the perfect place for the group of us traveling together to start our trip to mainland Europe.  Being a very popular city for tourism, the language barrier is pretty minimal compared to a lot of other places.  Also, the city is on an island, meaning that it is impossible to get too lost while wandering around.  Everything in Venice is within easy walking distance, meaning we never had to deal with potentially confusing public transportation.

Gondola Ride

The Grand Canal winds through the main part of Venice with many other canals interlacing throughout the city.  The local Venetians use boats like most American use cars.  In fact, most houses in Venice have two doors, one with an entrance onto the street and another door opening to a canal.  Due to the water bound nature of the city “the thing” do to while in Venice is go on a gondola ride.  In order to keep the cost of our ride down we didn’t go on a very long one, but we spent over half an hour gliding along the back canals of Venice (which included going by Marco Polo’s house).  The countless bridges throughout the city are very scenic, but few have ramps, making transport difficult for those with strollers or wheelchairs.

Venice has several notable sights that tourists from all over the world come to visit like Rialto Bridge and St. Mark’s Square.  Rialto Bridge was very crowded, but the views of the Grand Canal from the top were amazing.  St. Mark’s Square was great to see both at night and during the day.

View from Rialto Bridge

I enjoyed going to both locations, especially St. Mark’s, but my favorite place in Venice was the walkway along the waterside.  Of course, there are hordes of street vendors attempting to sell just about everything a tourist could be tempted to buy in every popular location.  But because I was traveling during the offseason, most of the others along the waterside were just other tourists like myself looking for a scenic escape from the main part of the city.

 

Besides its canals, Venice is also captivating for others reasons such as its famous glassware, carnival masks, and real Italian food.  I loved the pizza and pasta, but the real treasure of Venice:  gelato!

Ponte della Costituzione

Missed a blog or want to see what else is going on in Cambridge?  Check out: http://blogs.valpo.edu/studyabroad/category/cambridge-england/

Look at more photos on Picasa at:  https://plus.google.com/photos/112463823006344854498/albums?banner=pwa

Follow me on Twitter at:  https://twitter.com/#!/CambridgeUKJohn

 

Brandenberg Gate

Hodgepodge Berlin

March 15, 2012 / / 0 Comments

For our second class trip, we went to Berlin for five days and though it may seem like a long time, we barely skimmed the surface of everything the city has to offer. Germany’s capital, Berlin is known for so many different things. From its history dating back to the 1700’s to the more modern history with being the capital of Nazi Germany and the airlift during the Cold War, Berlin has seen a lot of changes throughout time. With all these changes has come a very unique and lively atmosphere of the city.

Brandenburg Gate

Ampelmännchen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wasn’t sure what to expect when going to Berlin. I had heard about all the different sites to see but whatever preconceived notions I had before going where blown away once we arrived. The city is filled with so many different types of people and interests. On one block, you can  see people who are going to see the newest performance on one of Berlin’s many of stages, history buffs staring at buildings from World War Two, families taking their kids to the zoo, and  shoppers taking full advantage of the open  air markets. With this hodgepodge of a interests, it was hard to choose where to start digging in to the city. We wandered around the markets, toured the famous museums, climbed up a cathedral to have the perfect view of the city, and peopled watched by the Brandenburg Gate.

And then came Berlin at night. If I thought there was too many options during the day, the night was even worse. No offense to Valpo, but every night there are always theater performances, ballets, Jazz lounges, sports bars, and  crazy dance clubs. It was definitely not an issue of what is there to do, but which one to choose from. We tried to experience all the different types of nightlife by going to the clubs, bars, and a musical performance.

Berlin Cathedral

Berlin has definitely made my top ten of my favorite cities. Berlin has definitely kept up with the modern times but doesn’t forget its past. Even coming back exhausted from sensory overload, Berlin still had more to see. I think that even spending years in that city, there would still be more to see. This just gives me another reason to go back to Berlin in the future.

 

Check out more of my pictures from Berlin, as well as the rest of my study abroad trip at https://plus.google.com/photos/113496106333285759017/albums?banner=pwa

 

The Stone Monastery and Jatiel

March 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Recently, I had the opportunity to go to Monesterio de Piedra (named after the surrounding river) in southern Aragon and a small pueblo named Jatiel about an hour outside of Zaragoza.

The monastery is located in southern Aragon in the mountains. The drive to get there was interesting because we were constantly weaving up, around, and through the mountains. Other than the city of Calatayud (21,000 in population), there aren’t really many other signs of life for the 90+ minute bus ride.

Destroyed during the Spanish Civil War and never repaired.

What really attracts tourists to the monastery isn’t so much the building itself, but the national park surrounding it. There are a significant number of waterfalls in the park as well as caves and great views of the Spanish countryside. We took the main trail around the park which took a few hours, ate at a restaurant at the front of the park, and then toured the monastery. This took up all but a half hour of our time before the bus came to pick us up. I’m not really the type to go hiking but I really enjoyed myself and I suspect nature aficionados could spend a few days there.

I also visited a very small pueblo about an hour outside of Zaragoza called “Jatiel.” The town has a population of around 50 people. I learned that the people were encouraged to move from the pueblos to the cities during the Franco regime so there are a number of ghost towns in Spain even smaller than Jatiel. I was able to go because my host sister invited me to go with her boyfriend and their friends and since I’m here to learn more about the Spanish language and culture, I couldn’t say no even if I had wanted to.

The area around the city is extremely dry and I would say a kind of semi-desert. The dirt is a reddish-brown and there are quite a few rock formations on the outskirts of the town. There really wasn’t much to do in the town other than take pictures and take in the fresh air and open space but I really enjoyed myself since I hadn’t had a break from city life since I came here.

With these two trips under my belt, I’ve really begun to take notice of how stunning the Spanish countryside is. Zaragoza is a flat city and you can never really see anything outside of the city because of the tall buildings. Going on these two trips was a good way to experience a different side of Spain that I hadn’t yet had the chance to see.

A farmhouse on the outskirts of the pueblo

If you’d like to hear more about my day-to-day experiences, you can follow me on Twitter.

If you’d like to see more pictures (which I would recommend since I recently uploaded almost 600), check out my Picasa web albums here.

I’ll be writing a blog over Lisbon, Portugal soon which you can view the photos I took (nearly 300) now. Tomorrow I’m heading to London so lots of traveling the last two weeks.

Thanks for reading and until next time!

 

UK Attractions

March 8, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Having been overseas for eight weeks now I’ve had the chance to do quite a bit of traveling around Britain.  So, on the eve of my Spring Break I thought I would catch up with a quick blog on some of the locations I’ve visited on the island:

 

Bath

The first thing you notice when entering Bath is the uniform architecture throughout the city.  Nearly every street is worth taking a few pictures of.  The city is home to several notable sites, including the Royal Crescent, the Jane Austen Centre, Bath Abbey, and the Royal Victoria Park.  And of course, the famous Roman baths.  Although this was the first time I encountered large numbers of tourists at a site, I was still able to enjoy the experience of walking through the ancient location.  The picture is of the hot spring that is the source of all the water.  By the time it flows into the main baths the water will be cool enough to comfortably bathe in.

 

 

Castles

No trip to through Europe would be complete without a few castles, and the photo below is of Warwick Castle, which is the first one I visited in Britain.  In spite of the rather touristy nature of the castle today, it is still easy to comprehend the original nature of its location.  The castle is situated on the top of a hill and is defensible from all sides.  From the top of the castle you can see for miles, even in England’s typically foggy weather.  One of my favorite attractions from this location was watching the falconer’s birds dive at up to 200 mph.

 

 

Stonehenge

Although Stonehenge is set in a lonely location between two highways and surrounded by fields, it is one of the world’s most famous sites for a reason.  The stones weigh between 4 and 40 tons each, and come from many miles away.  Also, Stonehenge is oriented to frame the rising sun during the summer solstice and the setting sun during the winter solstice.  The weather was abnormally cold and windy when I visited Stonehenge (you can see the snow), but this kept a lot of other tourists indoors, leading to several good pictures of the site.  While tourists are now confined to the path surrounding Stonehenge, there are actually several other places in Britain that are similar, one or two of which I plan to stop at before the end of the semester.

 

 

 

Missed a blog or want to see what else is going on in Cambridge?  Check out:  http://blogs.valpo.edu/studyabroad/category/cambridge-england/

See more photos on Picasa at:  https://plus.google.com/photos/112463823006344854498/albums?banner=pwa

Follow me on Twitter at:  https://twitter.com/#!/CambridgeUKJohn

 

Fasnet Festivities

March 7, 2012 / / 0 Comments

For the past couple of weeks, we have been seeing people dressed in old wooden costumes, jingling bells and making ruckus while walking down the street. For us, American tourists, we were very confused by this scene. We were even more confused when the people around us didn’t stop and gawk at the people in masks and the shenanigans they were up to. This confusion was a common occurrence for a few weeks until we finally found the answer we were looking for: Carnival.

Wooden Mask of a Federahannes

Carnival has been a tradition in Germany dating back to the Middle Ages. In German it is called Fasnet. Fasnet starts during Epiphany and progresses through February up until Ash Wednesday and when Lent begins. The last few days are when the fools (the carnival characters) really go all out. There are parades where the characters either give candy to the kids singing the traditional songs, or they tease the audience if they aren’t dressed in costume or if they are American college students studying abroad. The tradition of the characters goes back to the guilds and range from mischievous Federahannes to the friendly Gschell. These characters all line up for a parade and are accompanied with local bands and the festival continues throughout the day.

Federahannes teasing the crowd

As a class, we went to Fasnet in Rottweil, where we were definitely exposed to this unknown tradition. When we first arrived, we ate a good old traditional lunch that consisted of a bratwurst and mulled wine. We watched as the parade started to get into formation and made our way to the front of the crowd. For the first half of the parade, we attempted to learn the song that the crowd sang in order to get candy. Finally after several attempts and having various Germans teach us the song, we started to sing. By the end of the parade, we had collected various German candies along with having our hair messed with, feathers in our face, and thoroughly teased. I definitely enjoyed Fasnet and being able to see how this town could take a break from their lives and just have a great fun filled day.

Passing out candy to kids

 

 

 

 

 

Check out more of my pictures from Fasnet at https://plus.google.com/photos/113496106333285759017/albums?banner=pwa

 

Outskirts of Cambridge

Getting Around in the UK

March 3, 2012 / / 1 Comment

The narrow streets of Cambridge

One of the largest adjustments I’ve had to make coming to the UK has been losing the independence that came from owning my own car.  However, this has given me the chance to explore many of the ways locals travel around Britain.

There are a surprisingly large number of cars in the UK.  However, driving really isn’t optimal.  This is especially true in old medieval towns like Cambridge that have very narrow (and often stone) streets.  These have enough difficulty handling the flow of bikers and walkers, much less cars.

Chances are, most long distances you would travel by car in the States can be traveled by bus, taxi, or train here.  Most journeys of over several hours are traveled by train.  While rail tickets aren’t necessarily cheap, there are many available departure times to nearly every destination.  From Cambridge, it is possible to get anywhere in Britain within one day of travel.  Trains are easy to use, clean, and relatively comfortable.

If your journey is shorter than about two hours taxis and buses are often used.  Taxis are far more convenient, but an all-day bus pass to anywhere in or around Cambridge costs half of what a taxi ride across the city would.  Besides having to plan your trip within the bus schedule, they can be rather confusing in general.  To start with, bus schedules aren’t easy to read, but finding one can be just as hard.  Many bus stops have had their schedules stolen, and because the locals don’t need a schedule another one simply isn’t put up.  On top of this, most cities have two bus companies, and as easy as it might seem it can be difficult to get the schedule, ticket, and bus to all match.

 

Outskirts of Cambridge

Within cities the majority of people prefer to transport themselves and not pay.  Bicycles are most common and all European cities have an army of them.  Nearly every single road has a lane specifically for bicyclists.  Due to the large number, having proper warning lights is taken very seriously.  I’ve seen several cyclists pulled over by policemen for having a missing light.

Wandering around Girton

If you don’t have a bicycle, then you are left walking alongside the majority of others.  Conveniently, most European cities are compact and it’s not too far to most locations (however, it’s not considered a long walk unless it’s at least 45 minutes!).  Personally, I like walking because it gives you a chance to take pictures and notice things you normally wouldn’t.  The main thing to remember when walking is that there is a hierarchy.  Vehicles have a lane, bicycles have a lane, and those walking have the sidewalk.  And if you venture into a lane that’s not yours you had better watch out because bicyclists will hit you and cars won’t slow down until they absolutely have to.  The fact that cars drive on the left side of the road isn’t a huge problem if you take the time to think, but if you’re traveling to Britain expect to have several near accidents in the first few weeks!

 

Missed a blog or want to see what else is going on in Cambridge?  Take a look at:  http://blogs.valpo.edu/studyabroad/category/cambridge-england/

Take a look at my photo albums on Picasa at:  https://plus.google.com/photos/112463823006344854498/albums?banner=pwa

Follow me on Twitter at:  https://twitter.com/#!/CambridgeUKJohn

 

Time Flies When You’re Havin’ Fun!

February 28, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The past ten days have been filled with many adventures for me that it is crazy to think that February is almost over!  Though I’ve been enjoying (mostly) all of my experiences here, it is hard to believe that Spring Break is just around the corner.  Hopefully I will get the opportunity for many more exciting trips during my ten days off, but until then, I’m still reminiscing on my adventures of late.

Two weekends ago some of my friends and I took a little camping excursion to a campsite about an hour outside of Windhoek.  We were so excited to get out of the house for a bit.  After loading up on lots of food and water and grabbing our trusty, rusty tent, we were ready to go.  When we got there, we set up our tent and got everything situated.  The campsite was beautiful and sat right in the valley of some small mountains.  The weather was perfect and so we decided to take the hiking trail up the mountain.

I hadn’t been feeling too well in the morning, but I figured it would pass with time and water.  Well, as we started climbing up the mountain, I started to feel sicker with each step.  At about the half-way point I could hardly take 10 steps without having to stop.  It was awful.  My poor friend Helena waited and walked with me the whole way.  This supposed thirty-minute hike to the top ended up taking two hours.  When I finally got to the top, well, I actually did get sick, but after I let it all out, my stomach felt a whole lot better.  The view was beautiful and I was happy to be at the top.  When we finally made it down, everyone else was waiting for us and we were able to enjoy the res of our weekend cooking out and sleeping under the stars.

View from the top!

The following week we only had three days of classes because Thursday morning we left for the coast! Shortened weeks are always wonderful and when you top if off with a trip to Swakopmund, you can’t get much better than that!  We arrived in Swakop Thursday afternoon and spend the day touring the cities and the surrounding townships.  Friday we did the same in Walvis Bay all while soaking up the beautiful African sun.  During those two days we visited a Kindergarten, an informal settlement, met with a small business owner, watched a male singing group perform, ate dinner on a pier, toured NAMPORT, went to a halfway house for orphans and vulnerable children, saw pelicans in a lagoon, climbed Dune 7 (the third largest dune in the world!) picnicked on the beach, and swam in the ocean!!  It was one of the most fun “learning experiences” I’d ever had.

Climbing Dune 7!

Saturday was a free day and we were able to do whatever we wanted to during the day.  While skydiving was my first choice, I was quickly outvoted and had no one to go with.  So, I decided to go dune quading in the Namib Desert with everyone else.  I was not disappointed for long; IT WAS INCREDIBLE! We were out on the dunes for about 3 hours – half was spent 4-wheeling at up to 60 mph and the other half was spent sand boarding, basically sledding down the dunes.   Though it was not fun climbing up all the time, the view and the experience was so worth it.

Even though my past few weekends have been full of adventures, I am still so looking forward to the rural homestay in the north next week, our time in Etosha State Park, and spring break!  Then I only have one more month in this beautiful continent!  Time sure flies when you’re having fun!

X-TREME SPORTS! right before 4-wheeling on the dunes!

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