Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Billy Collins, with animation
I stumbled across some of his poetry on YouTube; here's one of my favorites.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Backpacking Home
After three months of pasta, new types of courses, 12 countries, and immersion in countries where the best I could often hope for was to pick out single words in other languages, I'm back in the States.
After the conclusion of my academic program on April 24th, I packed up my belongings in three cases: my checked bag, my carry-on, and a small backpack. The first two were to remain in Firenze until it was time for me to depart from Europe. The third would accompany me as I traveled through Western and Central Europe (Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany again, France, Belgium, the Netherlands).
It's really quite amazing how being forced to live out of a backpack, along with a short time span, can force an individual to pursue certain actions. For example, I decided against spending the night in hostels or hotels, opting instead to remain on sleeper trains. By doing so, I could explore a location for a full day, head to a train station, sleep, and arise in an entirely different nation. It also meant that shaving would be a luxury, as the water from faucets on sleeper trains is less than desirable and would likely have dire consequences if mixed with razor burn. Second, sleeper trains don't include showers. Enough said.
High points of my backpacking experience were numerous, but a few particularly stand out in my mind:
1) Time in Germany with Sue, Sebastian, and Sue's family. Sue was an exchange student while Brittany was in high school, and her hometown is located in southern Germany. We stayed at her home for a weekend, eating well-cooked German meals and enjoying breakfasts on a porch overlooking a valley in which gliders noiselessly circled, riding the drafts of a warm spring time morning.
2) Vienna with Billy and Petra; Billy (a link to his blog is on the right) was a friend of ours from the Firenze program; his girlfriend Petra was studying in Vienna for a few weeks after the conclusion of our semester. We met up with them in Vienna, and they pointed out some interesting tidbits about the often stunning architecture present in Austria.
3) Krakow. I had low expectations for my 3/4 homeland, expectations that were diminished primarily by the opinions of Americans traveling or residing in Germany. Those expectations were wonderfully exceeded by a city that was surprisingly clean, with a low number of tourists, a large number of backpackers, and enough churches and walking paths to occupy an entire day (which, if not for a visit to Auschwitz, they would have accomplished). The cheap prices of basic goods in Poland also can't be beat.
4) Paris. Say what you will about the French, but I do believe that they have the best large city in Europe, at least from what I've seen. I wasn't overly impressed by London, which is a somewhat blasphemous statement for an American student to make, but Paris has everything London does, yet it offers more fun and excitement. Plus, it's more beautiful, extravagant, and clean than the British cultural center. London has the National Gallery and the Tate; Paris has the Louvre. London has Big Ben; Paris has the Eiffel Tower. And so on and so forth...
Thoughts on some of the other locations I visited:
1) My visit to Auschwitz was not as emotionally challenging as I expected - it felt more like a ghost town than the terrible facility that we read about in horror. There were three primary death camps set up by the Germans, along with 40 subcamps, in the area; the first of which, the most famous of the three and the one that I decided to visit, was nearly completely destroyed by the Nazis as the Allied marches placed the camps in imminent danger of being located and documented. This resulted in the camp being nearly completely dismantled in certain portions (for example, the gas chambers no longer contained the infamous shower heads). Auschwitz II, which was larger and located up the road from Auschwitz I, is supposedly much larger and emotionally charging. This isn't to say that Auschwitz is not worth a visit. Rather, it's probably a good idea to spend an hour or two at the first camp and then follow this visit with a trip to Auschwitz II. I missed out on the second camp, and I regret not being able to see it.
2) Prague had a nice international feel to it, with more European tourists floating around the town than there were Czechs. They were very few Americans. Even so, it still felt as if the city had sold-out, ever so slightly, to tourism and lost some of its charm (this charm was still present in Krakow, and visiting the latter city back-to-back with Prague made this evident).
3) Belgium and the Netherlands were OK to look at, but we didn't really do all that much in either one (commuted through one, slept in the other).
It's nearly 2 AM and I'm tired. Goodnight.
After the conclusion of my academic program on April 24th, I packed up my belongings in three cases: my checked bag, my carry-on, and a small backpack. The first two were to remain in Firenze until it was time for me to depart from Europe. The third would accompany me as I traveled through Western and Central Europe (Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany again, France, Belgium, the Netherlands).
It's really quite amazing how being forced to live out of a backpack, along with a short time span, can force an individual to pursue certain actions. For example, I decided against spending the night in hostels or hotels, opting instead to remain on sleeper trains. By doing so, I could explore a location for a full day, head to a train station, sleep, and arise in an entirely different nation. It also meant that shaving would be a luxury, as the water from faucets on sleeper trains is less than desirable and would likely have dire consequences if mixed with razor burn. Second, sleeper trains don't include showers. Enough said.
High points of my backpacking experience were numerous, but a few particularly stand out in my mind:
1) Time in Germany with Sue, Sebastian, and Sue's family. Sue was an exchange student while Brittany was in high school, and her hometown is located in southern Germany. We stayed at her home for a weekend, eating well-cooked German meals and enjoying breakfasts on a porch overlooking a valley in which gliders noiselessly circled, riding the drafts of a warm spring time morning.
2) Vienna with Billy and Petra; Billy (a link to his blog is on the right) was a friend of ours from the Firenze program; his girlfriend Petra was studying in Vienna for a few weeks after the conclusion of our semester. We met up with them in Vienna, and they pointed out some interesting tidbits about the often stunning architecture present in Austria.
3) Krakow. I had low expectations for my 3/4 homeland, expectations that were diminished primarily by the opinions of Americans traveling or residing in Germany. Those expectations were wonderfully exceeded by a city that was surprisingly clean, with a low number of tourists, a large number of backpackers, and enough churches and walking paths to occupy an entire day (which, if not for a visit to Auschwitz, they would have accomplished). The cheap prices of basic goods in Poland also can't be beat.
4) Paris. Say what you will about the French, but I do believe that they have the best large city in Europe, at least from what I've seen. I wasn't overly impressed by London, which is a somewhat blasphemous statement for an American student to make, but Paris has everything London does, yet it offers more fun and excitement. Plus, it's more beautiful, extravagant, and clean than the British cultural center. London has the National Gallery and the Tate; Paris has the Louvre. London has Big Ben; Paris has the Eiffel Tower. And so on and so forth...
Thoughts on some of the other locations I visited:
1) My visit to Auschwitz was not as emotionally challenging as I expected - it felt more like a ghost town than the terrible facility that we read about in horror. There were three primary death camps set up by the Germans, along with 40 subcamps, in the area; the first of which, the most famous of the three and the one that I decided to visit, was nearly completely destroyed by the Nazis as the Allied marches placed the camps in imminent danger of being located and documented. This resulted in the camp being nearly completely dismantled in certain portions (for example, the gas chambers no longer contained the infamous shower heads). Auschwitz II, which was larger and located up the road from Auschwitz I, is supposedly much larger and emotionally charging. This isn't to say that Auschwitz is not worth a visit. Rather, it's probably a good idea to spend an hour or two at the first camp and then follow this visit with a trip to Auschwitz II. I missed out on the second camp, and I regret not being able to see it.
2) Prague had a nice international feel to it, with more European tourists floating around the town than there were Czechs. They were very few Americans. Even so, it still felt as if the city had sold-out, ever so slightly, to tourism and lost some of its charm (this charm was still present in Krakow, and visiting the latter city back-to-back with Prague made this evident).
3) Belgium and the Netherlands were OK to look at, but we didn't really do all that much in either one (commuted through one, slept in the other).
It's nearly 2 AM and I'm tired. Goodnight.
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