Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Where have you been?
Since everyone has been traveling lately, please send us a few paragraphs of where you have been and what those places have done for you (made you feel happy/homesick? had excellent food? reminded you of a place back home? been an completely new experience?) Have you seen anything/anyone that is a direct connection to home? Sometimes we travel to a far away place and see--our neighbor, an old middle school friend, a person wearing a t-shirt from our high school.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I just got back from my two week long study break. The first part of the break my boyfriend came. We took a 7 hour bus to berlin for the weekend. We went to all the main toursit atractions like the berlin wall, check point charlie and the reichstag. The one activity that effected me the most was going on a 6 hour tour of Sachsenhausen concentraion camp. During most of the tour it didnt feel like we were in a real concentraion camp. It really hit me when we got to the extermination rooms. Seeing this camp made the holocaust and all the horrible things that were done during that period that much more real to me
ReplyDeleteWhen we came back to Copenhagen my parents, sister, her boyfriend and my cousin came to visit me. We stay 3 days in copenhagen. Before they came I had not really been to any of the toursit attraction around Copenhagen. It was great to experience my city from a new perspective and with my family and boyfriend. We climbed up to the top of our saviors church in Christianhavn. It is the tallest view of the city. You climb about 400 steps, and part of them are outside going up in a spiral. It got a little scary up there. I also took my family to the free State Christiania. This is a little town in Christianhavn where weed is sold. It is not part of the EU so the people who live there dont pay taxes. I think my dad really liked learning about the people who live there, we kept walking away and talking to all the people. One night for dinner we went to Restaurant Geist. It was very expensive and had fairly small plates. Most of the food was on the bizarre side. We had heart, raz ox, olive ice cream and cotton candy. I would say it was some of the best food I have ever had though.
On thursday my boyfriend left and my family and I started are crazy tour of Europe. First me went to Krakow Poland. I am polish on my fathers side of the family. We had a list of people who used to live in Poland but we never got a chance to look into where they were living and if they were still in Poland. I really enjoyed the food they had there. It reminded me of the holidays at home. For Christmas eve my grandmother makes perogies and for easter she makes borscht. That is basically the only things that i ate while in Poland.
Next we went to Paris France. I took french for 7 years so it was pretty cool to be able to read posters and things throughout the city. I could sort of understand people but I dont really rememeber how to speak, I havent taken it is a year so I am pretty rusty. My most favorite part of the trip was going on top of the eiffel tower. My sister, mother and I all got a glass of champagne and drank it at the summit. It was an experience I will remember forever. Partly becasue they champge was so epensive and partly becasue it is something i know I will probably never do again.
Finally the last place my family and I went was London. While there we stayed in Camden. It was a very cool town. As you walked down the street you would see all kinds of stores and people wearing all different kinds of outfits. It seemed like the place where all the kids would live and hang out. It was very sad when my parents left, I am very close with them. I was also very excited to get back to copenhagen especailly beacuse i had one last trip to go on.
Me and my friends steph and Alex went on a party cruise to Oslo. It lasted a weekend. There were people from all different study abroad programs in Copenhagen. Me met a bunch of boys from Germany and Portugal. It was really good to meet some more friends that we can hang out with while in Copenhagen. My faviorite part of Oslo was probably the Murals in the parliament building. They were in every room and they all told a different story about Oslo and the Country of Norweig.
All of my travels were great but copenhagen has really become my home and I am very happy to be back
Since I've been in Copenhagen, I have done a ton of traveling: Hamburg, Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam, Prague, Berlin, Rome, London and Southampton, where I went to visit my family (my maternal grandmother is from England).
ReplyDeleteHowever, by far my two favorite places were Rome and Prague, simply because they were so different from any other city I had been to. Instead of tall, metal, modern skyscrapers, like we have back home and what I saw in Berlin, Brussels, and London, the cities are filled with small winding streets, lined with old, historic buildings that have been standing for hundreds of years. The cities were also too beautiful to be true, each building a wok of art. In Prague, I often felt as if I was living in a fairy tale or in Disney World, because of the magnificent architecture and multitude of churches. I'd never heard anything about Prague before, and, upon arriving, I was simply blown away by how cool it was.
Rome, on the other hand, I had heard a ton about, and was the one place in the world I had to go to. I was not disappointed. What amazed me the most was the ruins and artwork that is just in the city. For instance, as you walk down the tiny streets, some only wide enough for 3 people to squeeze through, and pass by tourist shops and restaurants, you could find yourself passing a magnificently detailed fountain that is hundreds of years old, or the ruins of a temple that is thousands of years old from the Roman Empire. In Rome, you don't have to seek out the history; its just there! While there, I also managed to find a taste of home: not only did I travel there with three other Loyola girls (we were on a school trip!) but I also happened to run into some Loyola students from the Leuven program! It was nice to chat with them about Loyola and what was going on back home!
But the place I've felt most at home since I've been here was during my two trips to England. As I mentioned earlier, my grandmother is from England, and so most of her sisters and brothers and their children and grandchildren still live there. I've been there a few times before to visit family, and, since I am in Europe already, decided to go there in February for a weekend, as well as spend the second week of my travel break there, during which my parents and brother came over. While it helped my homesickness to be around family and to be someplace familiar, it was also because of the fact that, in my opinion, England is, out of any other European country, the most similar to America. Besides speaking the same language and the obvious historical ties, the English are openly friendly and welcoming like Americans, (most Europeans are friendly, but not outwardly) eat similar foods, and even carry some American brands. Often, during my stay in England last week, I often felt like I was at home! As much as I love Copenhagen, as well as the many other places I've seen in Europe, England will always be like a home away from home for me and hold a special place in my heart.
One of the perks of the Leuven program are the trips that our director Dr. Hughes takes us on. for Spring Break all 16 "Leuvenites" and I went to Rome and Florence for 10 days, with Dr. Hughes and his wife Sue. This past summer I went on a cruise with my family, on July 4th the ship docked for the day while we explored the ancient city of Rome. That day I left the city feeling it had not met some of my expectations. I am thrilled to say on my second trip to Rome this past month it exceeded my expectations. I had expected Rome to be a city of power, wealth, antiquity and Italian cooking.
ReplyDeleteRome is a city of layers, layers that I could not even begin to peel back in one short July day. Fortunately with the aid and knowledge of a professor with a Ph.D. in Italian history who had once lived in the city for a year I saw the city with new eyes. The week we spent in Rome I can truthfully say was one of my favorite trips I have taken this year.
Rome is city full of the shops up-to-date with the highest fashion, clubs full of well dressed Italians swaying on their high heels to current and hip music. Yet on the way to one of these trendy nightclubs, you might pass one of the oldest Jesuit churches, where St. Ignatius Loyola himself is buried. As you peel back the layers of nightlife and leisure you find yourself in a city older than you can possibly imagine.
Monuments to the Great Roman Empire still stand among the modern buildings of the city. For example, one beautifully sunny day we began a day below street level to explore the Forum. The Forum has been excavated, so it now stands at the original ground level of Rome thousands of years ago, meters under the level of the cosmopolitan street below. We spent the morning learning about the ruins, our afternoon break picnicking on the ground Julius Caesar walked on and the afternoon in the Colosseum.
One of my favorite days was when we went into the tombs under the Vatican. Ancient pagan family resenting places exist under St. Peter's Basilica protected by the Swiss Guard and numerous airlocks. Among these tombs in the presumed burial ground of St. Peter himself. It's really something incredible to see thousands of years of history that had been forgotten until 50 years ago, while above us thousands of people flocked to the Vatican during Holy Week.
But what is a city really without the people who are in it? Three of my friends from high school are studying in Rome, and many of my friends from Loyola are too. Exploring the incredible city was only made better by the company I was able to do it with. WIth Easter approaching in a few days I was thrilled to reunite with some of my oldest friends who I havent seen since the summer. It made me a little nostalgic and little excited to go home, but the excitement of exploring a new city perpetuates my desire to stay in Europe forever.
I guess some cities need a second chance to surprise you.
Italy and Italian food has always had a major place in my heart, I honestly believed that I would study abroad in Florence or Rome not Belgium. Therefore also being a member of the Leuven program, I could not wait to go back to Italy with my group after visiting Milan and Venice this winter. First stop on our spring break tour was Rome, I expected to be overwhelmed by it but the number of sites and amount of history to learn. Though it was a completely new experience totally different from Northern Italy. I was happy there! However it also had a slight connection to my summer home for two reasons, the cobblestones. I used to stumbling through the cobblestones streets every summer so it was the strangest piece of luck when I ran into my neighbor from the summertime in the streets of Rome. It meant the world to have that little piece of home it was more happiness for me.
ReplyDeleteWhile I expected to like Florence better then Rome,I have to say it was the complete opposite. Florence just did not have much to see and experience. I was just underwhelmed with it. While I definitely got my fill of Italian coffee, gelato and food; I feel like there is still so much more to see in Rome which I did not have the chance yet.
My final stop in the last month was my planned piece of home. I flew to Barcelona to meet my parents and two younger siblings. Barcelona was beautiful and colorful, it just seemed like such a happy place to be made even better by the fact that I surrounded by my family. As much as I travel and while there are places I would return to in a heart beat while others i would not. I still would trade going there in the first place for anything, traveling is eye opening, thought provoking and incredible. It is a truly unique experience seeing as many places as I have being here for a year.
Like Caroline and Steffi, I recently returned from and incredible trip to Italy, guided by the incomparable Dr. Hughes and his wife Sue. I honestly don't think I will ever be able to plan a trip the way that they do, I've been spoiled by their attention to detail and knowledge of so many different cities. In the ten days I was in Italy I fell in love with the cities we visited, especially Rome. I have decided I need to move to Italy for a year so I can learn to speak Italian, cook, and spend endless hours exploring the hundreds of churches and museums that speak to me as an art history major.
ReplyDeleteThe best part of my break came after Italy, when I met up with my family in Den Haag, the second largest city in the Netherlands. I was born in Den Haag and had never been back, so meeting up with my family, who I had not seen in seven months in a city that has so much meaning in my life was very emotional.Our first full day together we rented bikes and rode over to my parents old neighborhood. I got to see the house we lived in and even meet some of their friends from that time in their lives. It was a little overwhelming and my mom and I both ended up crying, which my dad could not understand at all.
After two days in the Hague we took the train to Brussels and I got the chance to show my family around my adopted country. It was really cool to take them to all of my favorite places and share some of the incredible experiences that I have had over the past eight months with them.
I do not usually get homesick, but in the weeks leading up to seeing my family I was feeling a little family-sick. I loved that even after being away for so long, when we finally reunited it felt like almost no time had passed. In the last eight months I have visited 19 countries, seen some of the most amazing sights in the world, and still one favorite memories from my time abroad is piling onto the bed in one of our hotel rooms with my family to watch Wall-E and eat friets for dinner.
I am glad that I have had the opportunity to travel the world, but as my time abroad is winding down I am looking forward to heading home. I am glad that I choose to stay for a year because a semester would not have been enough time for me. Even with all the travel I have gotten to do this year there are still so many place I want to go. I look forward to my future adventures and hope that they will be more successful because of all that I have learned this year.
For the two week Fall/Easter (Spring if I were back home) Break a bunch of us flew to the South Island, grabbed two giant camper vans, and drove around the entire island. While the North Island has a fairly dense population and a pretty metropolitan feel, the South Island was a lot more spread out and rural. It actually reminded me a lot of where I live in way way upstate New York near the Adirondacks.
ReplyDeleteThe scenery on the South Island would have been worth the trip alone. Driving along the coast we were constantly flanked by endless jagged mountains to one side and the furiously rolling blue ocean on the other. The color of the water was always amazing. It wasn't just incredibly clear and delicious looking. It had a bluish green tint to it as a result of minerals that had been ground into it when it was glacial ice over millions of years. With the ever present mix of ferns and palms curiously interspersed with pines, the drive itself was an amazing experience owing to the breathtaking landscape.
We stopped in a number of little towns throughout the island and each one had its own unique vibe and lure. In Franz Josef I was surrounded by snow covered peaks in every direction like I was in the basin of a giant mountain playpen. While there I climbed through the towns signature glacier and drank the freshest and most delicious water I have ever tasted right out of a rushing glacial stream. In the tiny coastal town of Wanaka we perused through a jade store and rode mountain bikes around the lake with yellow fall foliage swirling out of the trees, over us, and onto the water.
Stopping to grab pizza, fish and chips, or ice cream was always an awesome experience in these little towns because most of the shops are privately owned and the families are passionate about there business. In one town I walked into a shop to get some ice cream and only when I sat down to eat it did I realize the ice cream shop had a running movie theater in the back playing all the latest blockbusters. What was even more surprising was that this tiny, easily overlooked, movie theater was actually the first fully HD and 3D movie theater in the entire country. It wasn't even a franchise or anything. The theater was owned and completely run by the town itself. I found it incredible that they could bring something so cutting edge and "big time" to this tiny town and still manage to keep it simple and completely in the interests of the town.
Most of the South Island had this "small town" feel to it and I loved it. Over the course of our trip I keep making fun of my friends for constantly saying how they could imagine spending the rest of their lives in every town we pass through. On the South Island I had to swallow my pride and give in to my own hypocrisy. I could imagine myself spending the rest of my life in any one of those towns and dying a very happy man.
(Ryan)
I just got back from visiting the South Island in New Zealand as well, except I went with my family so I had a bit of a different experience than Ryan. (No camper vans for me!) Before coming to New Zealand, Alaska had been my favorite place that I had ever been. The South Island truly reminded me of Alaska, which I loved. I remember seeing mountains everywhere you turn, and it is the same in the South Island. We drove four hours to Milford Sound, where the drive in itself was absolutely worth it. Our car weaved around windy roads, which looked so incredibly small in comparison to the giant mountains in the surroundings. I was also fortunate enough to see the mountains in a whole different way than driving through them - on a super small plane. We did a Lord of the Rings tour, and since our plane was so small, our pilot and guide was able to swerve up and down while getting up close and personal to the mountains. I would have agree with Ryan and say that I could honestly spend the rest of my life in one of the towns in the South Island and be very happy.
ReplyDeleteErin