Winter Voyage: Part 6 of 8: Switzerland

As I mentioned, our time in Zurich was also much more dominated by hanging out with Swiss than by going on tours or to museums. The only tour we took was the one led by our host Kimbal, again a friend of Caitlin's. Although he didn't have much to say about the sights, it was great just to walk around and see it all. This is one of the most expensive streets (in the world??):

It was lined with Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, and austere Swiss banks. Under our feet here were tons of Swiss gold (clockwise from top-left: Caitlin, Ivy, me):

We made it a point to at least try to see or experience Swiss clocks, Swiss banks, Swiss cheese, Swiss knives, and Swiss chocolate:

This is the lake:

Our last night there Kimbal invited a bunch of his friends over and we had cheese fondue and hung out. We put in a solid, though unsuccessful, effort to get his friend Merlin to yodel for us. It was a fun experience, but it was really too big of a group for us to really connect, I think. In any case it wasn't quite as socially fulfilling as Dublin was.

All in all Zurich was really beautiful. It was also astonishingly clean and orderly. And I loved so many products in the supermarkets (specifically the yogurts and chocolates). Downside? Everything was SO EXPENSIVE. We were so lucky to be able to stay in someone's home here.

Our way out was a train to Italy. We passed through some really beautiful scenery with mountains, lakes, and villages. Next stop? PASTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winter Voyage: Part 5 of 8: Ireland

Upon going to Dublin we parted ways from Emily and met up with Caitlin. This was also where we were dropping Jon off for him to begin his semester studying abroad in Ireland. At this point our style of touring changed significantly. From this point on there was much less sight-seeing and museum-visiting and much more getting in contact with locals and local scenes. This change was partially due to the fact that Jon, the driving force of traditional tourism, was distracted and getting ready to live in Dublin. It was also due to the fact that Caitlin knows people EVERYWHERE. She was president of the exchange club at her high school and is generally a beast at networking so we hung out with a lot of locals from this point on. Of course, on the one hand it would have been nice to have had something of a balance between touring and local experiences for all the countries. But this was a really great time at any rate.

So we spent a lot of time there with a group of Irishmen who were friends of Caitlin's friend. They all went by there last names or some nickname of their last name or a totally random nickname. Caitlin's friend was "Mulls" and his gang included Freely, Foley, and "Snacks" (who happened to be snack-sized). There were others as well but I don't remember their names. Our first night there we hung out with about twice these many people at Snack's house and then went out to a club that played dangerously loud rock. It was a fun scene and Mull's friends were fantastic. The second night we wanted to go out again but our group was drastically reduced due to interfering schedules and people not feeling up for it. So it was me, Caitlin, Freely, and Foley. And another guy who we lost track of for most of the time. It was so much fun. Freely is one of the most charismatic people I've ever met, and seems to embody Irishness in every word and gesture. He even danced jigs at the club we went to. Foley was super sweet and interesting. We started off at a bar called Flannery's (of course). Even though there wasn't a dance floor there was music and Caitlin and I danced the whole time. We couldn't really talk anyway cause it was so loud. Then we went to a club called Coppers. It was crazy inside. I've been in places that were equally crowded (I was consistently in contact with someone or other on all sides :P), but this was different. I've heard tales of Irish drinking habits, but the experience went beyond my expectations. The entire crowd in which I was inextricably enmeshed was swaying the whole time, sometimes together and sometimes in conflicting directions. This made it a bit difficult to dance, but Caitlin and I wouldn't let something like that stop us. And Freely and Foley were great about making sure we weren't taken down by the waves of people. They were such great party partners. They watched out for us, but weren't hitting on us or anything which made everything feel totally comfortable and safe.

Here are some pictures from the bit that we did walk around:

We didn't make it to the Leprechaun Museum. Jon refused :(

Here is Trinity College, where the Book of Kells is (some of my favorite images from Celtic-Christian art). It has a really lovely campus and atmosphere:

Coppers!! (the club):

One of the most exciting things about being in Dublin was that it's an English speaking country. It's amazing how nice it is to be able to specify what you want when buying something, to be able to keep up a conversation with the cab driver, to be able to fully understand directions. However, that doesn't mean we were speaking the same language. Irish accents are ridiculous. And moreover WONDERFUL. And it's not just the vowels and consonants that are different, it's also the music of the language and the slang. The way they say "heart" I swear has several syllables more than when Americans say it. Some things were starting to rub off on us halfway through our time there, although someone told me I sounded like a robot when I tried to imitate it [:[

The last day we had to say goodbye to Jon. It was really sad and I think he was pretty nervous. But it's a great city and hopefully it was the right choice for him.

So, that was supposed to be the last day, but then our flight got cancelled (due to Aer Lingus strikes) and the airline payed our stay at a fancy hotel, dinner and breakfast included. Although it felt like wasted time, we rested and slept a whole lot and I actually think it did us a lot of good.

Winter Voyage: Part 4 of 8: Austria

Austria was the only country where we visited two cities. We started off in Vienna. This was another really lovely city, overwhelmed with beautiful architecture. Also, it started snowing the day we got there, which was fun. This is St. Stephen's Church (it was sooo gorgeous inside and out):

This is the palace (with Emily in the foreground):

We split off for some of the museum-going. Ivy and I went to the Leopold Museum where there was a special exhibit on Klimt. Although I had seen his work before without realizing it, I had never heard of him. I loved it. I really liked how some of his works had really realistic faces on very abstract backgrounds. You can see some of his works here: http://www.iklimt.com/index.html. There was some other art I really liked at this museum, like Schiele. http://www.leopoldmuseum.org/text_en.php?nav=1&id=1.

The next day we went to the music museum which was SO COOL. They covered many different aspects of music. There was a section about the biological bases of hearing and the physical bases of sound, a section on composition, and a section on important Viennese composers (Mozart et. al.). And it was really interactive, so there were sections where you could compose your own "piece" using random sounds, including urban sounds, the sounds of pen on paper, and sneezes. There was even a station where you could conduct the orchestra on a screen with an electronic baton.

Appropriately, that night we went to a Strauss/Mozart concert. It was a cheap concert targeting tourists primarily, but that was honestly perfect for us. It was short, the pieces were short, and there was a bit of opera and dance as well as simple chamber music pieces. I didn't think the dancers were that great, but I thought the musicians were quite good, especially considering the casual setting. The venue was an old very Viennese building, the performance in a big, well-lit room with lots of flowery high-relief molding.

The last museum we went to in Vienna was the Freud Museum. It was in his actual house/place of work. It actually wasn't that great of a museum, unfortunately. It was interesting to see so many artifacts from his life (letters, pictures, and random things like toiletries), but the museum was more biographical than descriptive of his ideas. At the end there was, however, a room with tons of books by and about him. It would have been nice to have been able to spend more time in that library.

While in Vienna we got gelato basically every night. No regrets. We got it at a great gelateria run by flirtatious Italians. I also really enjoyed the DELICIOUS bread rolls and an amazing broccoli gratin I got the first night :DDD

Our last day in Austria we decided to rent a car and drive to Linz (famous for Linzer torts). Linz is right on the Danube:

Our first stop here was to the Ars Electronica Center which was SO INCREDIBLE. O my god there was some unbelievable technology. We started off in a 3D astronomy show that was super realistic. There was a floor on cities with databases for basically anything you would want to know. There were also build-your-own-city interactive stations. There was another floor that more directly covered technology and science. There was this thing (I don't really know how to call it) made up of hanging white plastic ferns and lights. As you moved between the hanging vines they would sense the movement and the ferns would uncoil (to create a slight breeze) and lights would turn on. There was a whole section on eye movement and what it can tell you about the attention of the person. There were activities to show you how your eyes moved when reading or looking at a picture. And while reading the instructions/explanations for the activity the text would scroll automatically according to your eye movement!! Omg, so amazing. http://new.aec.at/news/

After that Ivy and Jon went to explore the churches around the center while Emily and I took a special tram up the hill to Postlingerplatz. There was a church at the top:

and an impressive view:

It was really cold here so we stopped in a cafe and enjoyed some tea. Then we all met back up, had some real Austrian dinner (delicious dumplings for me!!! some with bacon!!!!!) and headed back to Vienna.

Winter Voyage: Part 3 of 8: Hungary

Hungary was lovely. Honestly I think it was my favorite city from this trip in terms of urban aesthetics at least. There was so much beautiful architecture everywhere, all these creative and intricate details on most of the buildings. Often there were very different styles applied to buildings that were right next to each other. We went to a square where one building was Romanesque, one was Baroque, and one had a Gothic part and a Renaissance part. Other than that, even the buildings on regular streets were beautifully decorated. This was one detail I especially liked:

We took a walking tour that was a nice way to get around even though it wasn't nearly as informative or interesting as the tour of Berlin. Budapest actually used to be two cities: Buda and Pest. Go figure. Even though they are technically part of the same city they are separated by the Danube and apparently there is rivalry between the two sections.

Below is a big square we visited on the tour. All the statues were stylistic in a really cool way and represented important figures in the founding and development of the nation:

While there we visited these baths that are apparently a big thing, and not just for tourists but also for locals. I think they used to be just natural hot springs until an official bathhouse developed around them, using geothermal energy to heat the water. It was really lovely. There was this one really big bath outside (below) and inside there were a whole bunch of smaller baths at different temperatures. There were some that I think also used special water. It smelled awful special at any rate. The boys got professional massages as well. It was really nice to relax here for a bit. We also met a group of students from all over who had actually been on the flight to Budapest from Berlin with us. It turned out that they were all studying abroad in Berlin and had come here for the weekend. We wanted to meet up with them that night but somehow it didn't work out. This is the big outdoor bath:

While in Budapest we visited the Museum of Terror. This wasn't as rough as the tour of the concentration camp was but it was along the same lines. It focused on atrocities experienced by the Hungarian community that were committed by Nazis as well as by the Soviets after WWII. It was a very creatively designed museum, totally unique, but so long and in-depth that it was hard to really take advantage of all the given information. Plus it was real depressing.

Our last day there we visited the Parliament. This is it next to the Danube:

Apparently it's the world's biggest government building after the Pentagon. It was really impressive. We could only go in with a tour but the English tours were sold out so we went with the Spanish tour. So I was the only one who understood what was going on, but no one was bugged about it. The interior was incredibly ornate with a lot of gold-leafing. Apparently the leaves of gold were so fine that they would melt if the artisans picked them up, so they had to rub there hands on their faces in order to create a static force to move the leaves.

In other news, we ate Mexican food at least three times. It wasn't great in Mexican-food terms, but it still scratched the itch. We went out clubbing a couple times as well. One place we went to played old jazz and rock and was quite fun for me, apparently not as much for the others. We also visited Morrison II which had two dance floors and karaoke. We sang a little Backstreet Boys, some Little Mermaid. All in all it was a good time.

Winter Voyage: Part 2 of 8: Germany

We got out of the Berlin airport coming from Istanbul and headed straight into a cab driven by a Turk. Our first stop after settling into the hostel? The local kebap imbiss for a döner sandwich. We joked that we spoke as much Turkish as any other language while we were in Berlin. Makes sense considering there are more Turks in Berlin than in any other city other than Istanbul.

I think our time here was particularly educational, at least in academic terms. We took a walking tour led by dry-humored Brit. It included all kinds of interesting facts about the Nazi period and WWII in general as well as the division. We also went to the National Museum that had an exhibit on Hitler and the Third Reich. It was all fascinating, not to mention chilling and depressing. I hadn't thought much about pre-WWII Hitler and his rise to power. There were many more attempts to assassinate him than I was aware of. Underground in this picture is where his bunker was:

After he killed himself his body was cremated and flushed down the toilet, and a parking lot built over his place of death to show disrespect.

The tour also talked a lot about East Germany and the wall. It all brought back high school German class, reading stories and watching movies about the period. Tiny pieces of the wall were sold in every tourist shop. The wall used to stand along this street:

These are just other sites from the city:

This is the memorial to the Jewish Holocaust victims:

While in Germany we took a day trip and tour to Sachsenhaus, a concentration camp near Berlin. Just the tour was a nightmare. I knew that the atrocities committed in such places had to be far beyond what I could imagine. But even the distance past my imagination that it extended was beyond my comprehension. I'm really struggling with the fact that people can do such things to other people. It was in fact so psychologically damaging for the Nazi workers at the camp to follow the gruesome orders of their authorities that measures were taken to minimize the contact that executioners had with the targeted prisoners. The tour guide gave us plenty of details about what went on, but I won't share any more here.

Here is a view from the entrance. The walls on the sides and the pillar-monument in the middle were added by the East German government:

I'm going to drastically shift gears now, which isn't to disrespect the gravity of everything above but just to leave whoever is reading this on a lighter note. We went out a few times while in Berlin. The first night we went to the party district and ended up following a group of rambunctious Brits to a club that could have been in the US. I had a blast at least. Also, our friend and fellow exchange student from Koc lives in Berlin. She invited us to her house with some of her friends and they made us a traditional German meal. The next night we went out to a really chill bar with her. Another night Ivy, Emily and I met up with Caitlin and her boyfriend (who were in Berlin briefly on the way to Prague) at a bar called Sandmann. Sandmann can only be described as Bohemian. There was a live band playing some sort of blues or jazz. There was also a pirate: scarf around his head like a headband; shoulder-length hair; scruffy facial hair; dangly earring; vest.... He even had a tattoo of sparrows on his arm. This was a serious Johnny Depp fan we were dealing with. We chatted with a group including a Mexican, and Brazilian, and a Portuguese guy. They recommended that the next day we go to Das Edelweiss. It took us forever to find it, but it was so legit. There was a really good band playing all different kinds of jazz. It was in this really vintage room, screaming slinky European 1920s from the wallpaper to the furniture. The old-school Euro combined interestingly with a powerful sense of Berkeley, California, evident in the jazz, the social diversity, and the air's unmistakeable aroma.

Overall, Berlin was quite different than I expected. I think that this is largely because of the lack of crowds that I normally associate with important cities. It was really exciting to experience some of the changes from Istanbul, though, especially the public atmosphere and the food. In terms of public atmosphere I mean that it was nice that as a girl I felt more comfortable going out dressed up and all. And by food I mean that WE ATE THAI FOOD. And I am absolutely smitten with German bakeries and yogurt. So by sacrificing the intense bustle I've experienced in Istanbul so far Berlin actually made itself quite cozy and livable (not that I mind the bustle ;) ).

Winter Voyage: Part 1 of 8: Eat,... Eat, Eat

Part 1 of 8. I know it sounds like this was a trip of Odyssean proportions. That's how it felt, at least. We traveled through six countries in three weeks :P I'm breaking the trip up into a post per country just for organization sake, I hope that doesn't make it hard to find the order.

We traveled to 7 cities in six countries:

• Berlin, Germany
• Budapest, Hungary
• Vienna, Austria
• Linz, Austria
• Dublin, Ireland
• Zurich, Switzerland
• Milan, Italy

Here's a visual (H is also A, where we began in Istanbul):

Ivy and I were the only ones who went through this exact and entire itinerary. Others came and went. Jonathan Kaeppeler was with us until Dublin, where he is now studying abroad; Tim was with us through Hungary; Emily was with us through Austria; and Caitlin joined us in Dublin and stayed on til the end. This means that the social dynamics changed a whole lot throughout. Sometimes they were quite stressful :(. But on the whole it was a an incredible trip. I learned so much about EVERYTHING. And I never until now really understood how long a three week period is. It's looooong. It seems like we were on the road forever and I haven't been in Istanbul for a lifetime. I'll get the posts up as soon as possible :D

Love

Big Changes

So, if I had stuck to the original plan I would be leaving Istanbul tomorrow. It's comforting to know that I'm definitely not ready to go back. I've traveled so much throughout out my entire life, but my interactions with foreign countries have always been relatively superficial specifically because of the shortness of the stay. I keep feeling like this is really my opportunity to engage with a country in a much more profound way.

I'm staying on, along with Ivy, Caitlin, Emily, Susannah, Tim, Sydney, Tyler, and Juliayn (I hope I didn't miss anyone on that list :P). But... everyone else is leaving. Or has left. Or will leave in the upcoming few days. The past week has been really rough. Last night Kathryn, one of my closest friends here, left. I have a really hard with this kind of thing. It's especially hard in this context because we all live all over the US and who knows when and how we'll all be able to see each other again. Plus, one thing I really tend to miss isn't just individuals but group dynamics. So even if I get to see a couple of my friends again it, of course, won't be the same and that's something I'm really sad about. I really feel like we had exceptional group dynamics this semester.

I don't think anyone from the program follows this blog, but I still want to wish happy travels to everyone who's going home! I will miss all of you.