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 Posted November 24th, 2005 at 9:12PM
Today I went to class, which was fairly typical. I stayed up till around two last night, working on a paper. Two down, two to go. I’m doing all right in that area.
And then, at six, we gathered together to go to the Thanksgiving dinner that the study abroad program put together. And, surprisingly, it was very good.
Most people decided to go, so we were a large group. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves, and it was (naturally) free for us. Champagne, two additional drinks, and a five course meal. The food was probably some of the best that I’ve had this semester. I had the ‘vegetarian option’, which usually means “crap alternative for the morons who don’t eat meat”. However, it was good. The appetizer was an odd red cabbage puree dish. The salad was very good, with roasted sunflower seeds and some sort of tasty dressing. The pumpkin soup was very good, much better than the previous bowl I had at another gathering. And then, the main course, which was some sort of mixture of vegetables wrapped up in a flaky crust, with sides of mashed potatoes and dressing. Very good. For dessert we had what everyone brought (we were suppose to bring stuff we made, not too many people did, I abstained altogether).
But regardless of all of this, I was in an odd mood. It was a merry time, lots of laughter, alcohol, pictures, etcetera. But I was still sort of down.
I came back to my room, and was about to just chill out, listen to music, go to bed. But I decided to call someone, and met up with a few people at the bar in our residence (quick aside: I live in a little cluster of buildings which use to be French barracks till 1992, when they were turned into student housing. And there is a bar in one of the buildings, administrated by the college. Only in Germany). Drank a few dollar fifty Becks, had a few laughs.
Oh, and it snowed today. First time that it actually stuck to the ground. I’m in a better mood now. A successful Thanksgiving Day after all.
Posted November 19th, 2005 at 6:41PM
So, more than two weeks ago we departed for a ten day tour of Western Europe. The educational seminars were by and large better than the ones on the other trip, however the hotels (and their continental breakfasts’) were generally worse.
Franktfurt
Paris
Brussels
Luxembourg
Thursday, November 3rd we loaded our crap onto the bus bright and early at 8am. We arrived in Strasbourg an hour and a half later. We had been to Strasbourg several times already, and were only staying for a single presentation, so this was not very exciting. We left Strasbourg for Frankfurt at 11:30, and we arrived in Frankfurt by three. We had a meeting, and then had the rest of the night off.
In Frankfurt we stayed at a youth hostel. But it was probably one of the nicest youth hostels known to man. There were only four beds per room, and it was a generally clean place, with decent furniture, brightly lit, a good shower. And so on.
We only had one night to spend in Frankfurt, so we had to use it wisely. I set off in a group to the area nearby the hostel which supposedly had a lot of restaurants, and also to try some of the “apple wine” that is apparently a local concoction (for the record? It was alright. Nothing I would want to get drunk off of, but a glass or two with dinner? Acceptable). I split off of the main group at the earliest opportunity, and ate at a very good Thai place with a few others. Why Thai? I had not eaten Thai since arriving in Europe; it was a pretty clean, decent-looking establishment; and it was relatively cheap. The restaurants were expensive in Frankfurt.
It was very good Thai.
After that, two of us hooked up with another small group who were going to see a play (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). I was sort of interested, but not entirely in the mood. The price (12 euro from scalpers) was the deciding factor, and I passed on the chance. Instead, I headed into the downtown area with two Americans, and a German that one of them knew. We went to a few bars, drank a few rounds. Generally nothing to write home about. It was a good time though. I got back at around half past eleven though, and all three of my roommates were asleep.
Err… whoops? No, waitasecond. Why the hell were they sleeping so early?
The next morning, Friday the 4th, we packed our stuff onto the bus, then headed to the European Central Bank, where we had a presentation. It was alright. Again — nothing spectacular. I also began feeling sort of rotten this day, something which continued through most of the trip. It had nothing to do with drinking, I believe it was rather the result of a shoddy diet (I ate mostly cheese on baguettes during this trip, because, guess what? The French do not make vegetarian food). Any time I drank coffee, I would get indigestion, and I was generally in a sour mood.
We left Frankfurt at twelve, and arrived in Paris at around eight in the evening. We had the evening free in Paris. Gai Paris, eh? *shrug*
Posted November 15th, 2005 at 5:41PM
I saw the cat in our flat again tonight. I don’t know why he was in, how he got in, or if anyone else knew. But I lured him back into my room and petted him for a few minutes. Eventually he jumped off my lap and walked out of the room. Someone noticed him and chucked him outside.
I’m thinking about bringing him back to the states with me. In my carry-on. Perhaps… A bowling ball bag?
I kid.
Probably.
Posted November 11th, 2005 at 3:17PM
It was only a week, but felt like forever. Spent a day in Strasbourg, a night in Frankfurt. Three nights in Paris, four in Brussels, and then one in Luxembourg City.
I’ll write more later. But I’m damn tired. Exhausted. Mentally. Physically. Emotionally? Eh, not so much.
Posted November 2nd, 2005 at 3:47PM
I’m packing up for the second large trip. We leave tomorrow. Time to finish writing about this one.
Hungary
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Our flight arrived in Tallinn at about 10pm. We had a bus take us to the hotel. Then we went to bed.
The hotel was alright. The room was small but nice enough. The TV programming sucked. I read a little of a Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. book that I had picked up in Prague for the flight. Good reading.
Sunday, October 9th, we were able to sleep in till a decent hour. We ate breakfast (this hotel probably had the worst continental breakfast of all of them, but it was still worthwhile) and then headed out for a city walk at 11am. The hotel was perhaps fifteen minutes from the city center, so it was a good location. The tour itself was very good. The women giving it was entertaining and informative. Throughout most of Estonia’s history, they’ve been ruled by some foreign power – Sweden, Germany, Russia, etcetera. So a lot of the tour centered around this history. Interesting stuff.
Following the walk we had a quick hour break for lunch. I walked around a bit with one girl from the group, eventually had a coffee. Then we all joined back together and took public transportation to Audentes University, where we had a lecture with a professor there, Ivar Raig.
This lecture was memorable, if not particularly useful or worthwhile. Raig is an outspoken eurosceptic who didn’t have too many positive words for the EU. It was mostly odd-ball ranting. Eh.
We got away from him at three thirty, and had the rest of the day off. I walked around the city some more, but since it was Sunday, not much was open. I eventually ate at a place called “The African Restaurant”. All of the servers were cute blonde Estonians, but in the kitchen they had a few Africans. Heh. The food was good, I forget what I got. Also had some sort of African specialty drink. It wasn’t quite tea, and it wasn’t quite coffee. It was enjoyable nonetheless. On the way back to the hotel, I ducked into a liquor store and bought a bottle of cheap and very bad wine. Drank a little and read some more Vonnegut back at the hotel.
Monday, October 10th, we had a little more on our schedule. We ate breakfast and were at the first meeting by ten. Three meetings, they were all pretty decent in hindsight. We also had a tour of the Estonian Parliament building, which was very nice. At six we had a finishing tutorial with one of the tutors. At eight we had the final dinner, which was on the study abroad program’s dime. It was a medieval-themed restaurant. It was fun, the food was alright, the company was better.
Students started splitting, and I ended up being with three or four others, the last to leave. We stepped outside and began to make plans on what to do next, when the people running the program stepped out, and invited us to a bar for a drink, on them. We went to this “white bar”, which was — you guessed it — very white. Walls, seats, lights, bar. Everything was white. And vinyl. This place was the epitome of the phrase “eurotrash”. Anyways, we had a round or two, had fun, and eventually headed back to the hotel. Made it back at eleven or so. Read a bit, drank a little wine, went to bed.
Tuesday, October 11th, we ate breakfast, checked out, and headed for the airport. Our flight departed Tallinn at noon, and we got back to Frankfurt at about one thirty. A bus brought us back to Freiburg, and I was back at my flat by five.
A wirlwind tour of Central and Eastern Europe. Guess you had to be there. I’ve left so much out. But jeez. I’m tired of writing about it by now!
Posted November 1st, 2005 at 2:10PM
The first weekend I was here, I was sitting in my room, at the window, smoking my pipe. I saw a cat outside. All black, good size. Probably wild.
Since then, I’ve seen him occasionally. When it’s nice and warm, he sometimes sits on the little knoll in front of my window. And once in awhile I see him running somewhere else.
Tonight, I stepped out of my room to get a snack in the kitchen, and the door to the hallway was propped open. These hallways are inside the building, but they are unheated, the outside doors are left open, and it’s pretty much “the outside”.
I wondered if the open door was intentional or not (Sometimes you can accidently snag it on the throw rug in front). Before I was able to ask one of my flatmates, however, I saw the cat in our flat. He saw me, and tensed up.
This was my chance! I made a little clucking sound and rubbed my fingers together. He ran up. I petted for about five minutes. Choice! Solid cat, well-fed. Jumps into my lap, purrs.
I went into the kitchen to ask if the door should be open. He said, “yeah,” and then saw the cat that had followed me. “Oh, the cat is in,” he said, “better put him out.”
Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Pff. Anyways, he rounded the cat out, then returned to the kitchen. The cat came back of course. When he did, I cught him and brought him into my room. Spent fifteen minutes, I watched him closely to make sure he wouldn’t start spraying or any other nonsense. He seemed hungry, but I didn’t have anything to give him, and didn’t want my cover blown. I left the window open. Made a few quick motions, he became alarmed. Smart cat. I let him jump out. Perhaps he’ll be able to jump back in someday, although it’s a pretty decent height. In any case, I’ll be sure to have some food on hand for him next time.
I like cats.
Posted October 29th, 2005 at 6:56PM
This trip summary is taking way too long to write. This Thursday, we leave for the second long trip, were we’ll travel throughout Germany, France, and Belgium. A little more local, but still highly anticipated.
Hungary
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Estonia
We got to Prague at about one or two in the afternoon. We checked into our hotel. And it was amazing.
Every set of students got one of the corner rooms. Meaning, it was a suite with a huge balconey.
* large entry room
- roughly double the entire size of your average hotel room (especially in Europe)
- full set of furniture, desk, table, TV, mini fridge
* balconey
- again, about the same size of your average hotel room, went around the corner, scenic overview of Prague
* bedroom
- Comfortable beds, nicely furnished, clean
* one and a half bathrooms!
- in a frigging hotel, we had a crapper, then we had a seperate bathroom with great shower, double sinks, foot washing thing.
This hotel was great. The continental breakfast was only so-so (lots of breads and pastries, no eggs), and it was about a half hour’s walk from the hotel to the city center (and it was uphill), but the hotel was worth it.
Anyways, back to the trip. Adter checking in, we had to leave the hotel for the city tour. Yes, unfortunate at first. But the tour guide was actually very informative and engaging. We got to see a few of the more interesting buildings, and eventually ended up downtown, where we split up.
If you didn’t know much about Prague, like me, you’d be in for a surprise when you got there. Tourist hellhole.
I mean, it wasn’t so bad. But there were a lot of tour groups circulating around during the day. And walking around on the streets you heard more English than any other language. It seemed to be a lot of Brits. The German tourists were in full force also.
Feeding off of the masses of tourists, were tons of tiny, single-aisle stores. They all sold the same things: postcards, Russian dolls (you know, those wood ones), Soviet hats, tacky t-shirts (“CCCP”), shot glasses, other more intricate glasswares, etcetera.
Although, truthfully, I found a diamond in the rough at one place. The guy maintaining the store was obviously a hardcore Russian commie. His hat selection was very good, and in the back of the store he even had full jump suits, complete gas masks, and other sweet Soviet schwag. He seemed well-accustomed to selling military-surplus gear to young idealistic Americans. I bought a really awesome hat, and an extra red star pin. You can never have enough red star pins, trust me.
I contemplated buying a Russian doll for someone (anyone) back home, but the sheer amount of them intimidated me. Every store sold them. Which one would I buy from?
There were also street stalls set up, and they also had some cool stuff. One stall I came across had a lot of very nice metalwork, little knickknacks. I was very tempted to pick up a necklace. I haven’t worn a necklace in probably ten years.
Thursday night I just walked around a lot. Eventually wandered out of the tourist center, into slightly shady parts of town. Still felt safe though. Safer than wandering around Bratislava, at least. Bought a CD (I think it was Prague, might of been Bratislava, doesn’t matter), the new Queens of the Stone Age.
Also checked into a sleazy internet cafe for a quick surf. I seemed to of wandered into some sort of ethnic, African section of town. The guys were smoking hookahs on the ground floor, while a dozen or so computers from the early nineties were hooked in upstairs. I felt dirty after using the keyboard. But the guy running the joint was friendly enough, so hey.
Another thing I noticed about Prague immediately: how every liquor store, bar, gift shop, and convenience store sold absinthe. This is probably partly due to the fact that the Czech Republic produces so much of the stuff, and partly due to the amount of tourists hogging the streets, ready for a taste. So I picked some up Thursday night, a bottle advertising 35mg/kg of thujone, the legal limit in the EU. Walked back to the hotel, drank a glass, watched some TV, went to bed.
Friday, October 7th, we woke up fairly early. Ate breakfast, and then departed for a few meetings. Unmemorable, something about the Czech Republic, or the European Union, or politics. Something like that. They lasted from 9:30am till 5:30pm, with a few short breaks. Then, we were free for the day. But, at seven, there was an opera that we were informed about — La Traviata. After the good ballet in Bratislava, I decided to check out this opera, a steal at 16 euro. It was in Italian, with a teleprompter in the rafters translating to Czech. Suffice to say, I was totally lost during the first act. But during the intermission, I snagged a glance at a summary, and it began to make more sense. In one sentence? Your typical love story. The set was very elaborate, with a revolving center. The singing was great as far as I was concerned, and all it all, it seemed to be a fine opera.
Yeah, I really can’t tell between a good and bad opera. Well, I might pick up if one is completely atrocious, but other than that…
After the opera, I headed back to the hotel. It was nearly 10pm, and since the next day was a Saturday, which we had free, it was decided that tonight would be a good time to par-teh. Especially with such free access to the green fairy. I showered, and showed up at the designated room. First to arrive, last to leave. Spent a lot of time on their balconey, smoking a cigar and talking to a girl.
I downed my bottle of absinthe. I was mixing it with Fanta, and it was damn smooth going down. And once my bottle was done, I started on someone else’s. I guess she either didn’t particularly like it, or had had enough. I didn’t ask why she had offered it.
I won’t begin to try to describe the difference between absinthe and your traditional high-potency alcohol, but it’s there. It’s damn subtle, but there. The problem is, is that people go into it with misconceptions. Expecting to trip. It’s not going to happen. At least as far as EU-legal, cheap absinthe goes.
The party winded down at about three, just as I began to feel a bit nauseous. Passed up a pipe, went back to the hotel room, made out with the toilet a bit. Drank some water, went to sleep.
Saturday, October 8th was a memorable day. I woke up with a unique hangover. My head was clear. My stomach didn’t have that ‘heavy’ feeling that it sometimes gets (especially after a lot of malts). But I felt very sick nonetheless. Almost flu like symptoms? Anyways. Threw up some more. I couldn’t make the noon checkout time, so I had the roommate check in my key card, and I took my time packing up. The maid actually showed up exactly at noon, which was really odd. So I hustled a bit more.
I checked my bag into the luggage room, and then made my way — slowly — out of the hotel. I walked down the hill. My pace was excruciatingly slow. I felt like throwing up some more, but that might of been a bit uncouth in the middle of the sidewalk (I wasn’t in Dublin, afterall). Looking back, it’s actually quite humorous. I made it to a cafe, and ordered a glass of orange juice. Mostly so that I could sit. It was your standard eight or twelve ounces of juice. And it took me a full hour to drink it, tiny sip by tiny sip. The owners had to think that I was an odd character.
After the juice, I felt marginally better. Decided to step up to some food. Walked a little further, found a pub-sort of establishment. It was only two or so in the afternoon, so it was pretty quiet. But packed at the same time. The only seating was at the bar, which was conspicuously vacant. They were busy, so my meal took a while to arrive. I ate slowly, keeping everything down. What a battle.
Eventually had to wander back up to the hotel. I was feeling my oats again by the time we left at five. To get to Tallinn, we were flying. We arrived at the airport, sat around for a bit. Decent-sized airport. At one point, to use up some excess local currency, I bought an ice cream and a soda at one of the stores. Two of my friends were in line ahead of me, buying similar trash. When I got to the front, the girl at the register rang up my items, and then pulled a CD from underneath the counter and surreptitiously handed it to me, saying, “This is a present for you.” I dumbly accepted it without a second thought. Once out of the store, I realized that no one else had gotten one. I looked back at her, smiled.
It was a sampler, of Czech and Slovak lounge music. Not traditional lounge as in Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, but new-age, laid back trance. I guess I just looked like I’d be a bit more into it than my two compadres. Although they are hep looking cats.
I’ve added it to iTunes, and do indeed enjoy it. Thanks random Czech girl who I met for all of two seconds.
Free music rocks.
After this, I ate my ice cream, and then boarded the plane, headed towards Tallinn. It was a smaller plane, Airbus, and our group made up the majority of passengers on board. I switched seats with someone who had a severe case of pre-flight jitters, needed a window seat. Oh, and we actually got a meal. The flight was only three hours. Pleasant surprise.
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