Porto, Portugal

10/14/09 - 10/16/09

I flew to Portugal for a couple days on a cheap Ryanair flight, and it was sooo nice to be in good weather again! Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, and it's situated on a river at the point where it runs into the Atlantic.

Portugal felt somewhat similar to Spain, and I got away with using my horrible Spanish. One could tell that the country prides itself on having a distinct culture, though, and the atmosphere definitely had its own Portuguese flavor. I can't really put it into words, but it was lovely!

The hostel was one of my favorites thus far. It's in an old three-story house with large ceilings and wooden floors. I woke up the first morning to the cutest kitten coming to cuddle with me - turned out (thankfully) to be the hostel's resident!

Also, northern Portugal is much more affordable than anywhere else I've been in Western Europe. The Big Mac meal was almost the same price as it is in the US!

Bergamo, Italy

10/11/09

For my last night on this trip I decided to stay in a smaller town called Bergamo, Italy. (It also happens to be where the cheap airport is located!) I spent the day walking around their old city center and taking in the authentic Italian atmosphere.

I did not get a picture, but I also have to say that even though it was the fifth time I had eaten pizza in three days, my pizza in Bergamo was the best I've ever had. Yum!

Lugano, Switzerland

10/10/09 - waaaaaay after the fact

After finding out that it can be quite challenging to get a train out of Italy without reservations, I finally crossed the border and made it to the land of watches and sketchy tax-free bank accounts.

I spent the day and night in beautiful Lugano - it's a city on a lake with the Alps in the distant background. The city center was full of typical Europeanness - beautiful churches, sidewalk cafes on a large, picturesque plaza, parks everywhere.

This is me studying by the lake:

Berlin, Germany (I know, I'm out of order!)

10/08/09

I totally forgot to mention the awesome museum I went to in Berlin - it's called the Ddr Museum, and it's dedicated to showing how life was really like in Communist East Germany. They have all kinds of hands-on exhibits. It somewhat reminded me of the Communist Museum in Prague, but I actually think that this museum in Berlin felt more honest in its portrayal of communism. Here they didn't seem to have an agenda - they made fun of the ridiculousness, but were sure to point out when things had a positive slant too. It definitely wasn't pro-Communist, but the Prague museum had felt very anti-Communist. Does that make sense?

Anyway, they had a section with a car from the era - the Trabant. Apparently it had only two cylinders.

They also had a model house that you could go through - they had a living room, bathroom and kitchen. It didn't feel so much Communist as it did just 1960s. The kitchen had a sign that explained that women were equal to men officially under the regime, and they could hold jobs and whatnot. They were still tied to traditional gender roles, though, so basically they would work the same hours as their husband but then when they came home they had to do all the housework, childcare and cooking. Hmmmm...not so different from modern US surveys...

They had "collective potty breaks" in kindergarten...every kid sat on a toilet all in a row, and no one could get up until the last one was done. This was supposed to "socialize" them, but at least one criminologist has blamed this practice for the extreme right-wing political trend they see in some adults who grew up in that era.

The best part of the museum, though, was the exhibit on vacations. Since the citizens of East Germany were very restricted in their travel, they could only go to other Communist countries. With these limited options, an interesting phenomenon developed - just about every vacation spot became a nudist spot! They had all these photos of smiling East Berliners totally in the buff - playing beach volleyball, follicking in the ocean, having picnics. Old people, kids, everyone - there were several family photos. It was hilarious! The Communist government tried to curb this exhibitionism, but to no avail - it's theorized that this was one way people under Communism were able to really liberate themselves from under the rigid rules.

I wanted to take pictures of the exhibit itself, but felt really awkward taking photos of naked people in pictures. I did snap a quick picture of the diarama with naked dolls, though -

Milan, Italy - I made a friend!!

10/09/09

I met Fabricio while eating gelato at a gelateria and he invited me to eat dinner with him at his pizzeria down the street. So Italian and a lot of fun!! He has been making pizza for many years, and this past May he opened his own pizzeria - he is very proud of it!

Milan, Italy - Cathedral

10/09/09

I visited the two most famous Milanese sites - the Cathedral (Duomo) and the Victor Emmanuel II Galleria. The first was beautiful - here it is in all its glory:

Inside the galleria there's a tile mosaic of a bull in the middle of the floor. Apparently legend says that it's good luck to "spin on a bull's balls." No joke. So now everyone takes a spin, and certain nether regions of the poor animal have been worn down to the cement. I took a spin, but I had way more fun watching the older Asian tourists in suits having their turn...

I think my favorite part of the afternoon was when an old man asked me (in Italian) if I needed help while I was looking lost with my map, and when I answered that I don't know Italian he switched to English. (It's hard to find northern Italians who speak English.) He then offered to walk me to my destination since it was on the way to the cinema. I asked him how he knows English, and he said that it's his third language - he was an interpreter for the war, so he knew Italian and German. He said that when they figured out the British were coming, he taught himself English at night. He then learned French, Spanish, Russian, Latin and Greek...isn't that crazy!??! He was really delightful to talk to, especially considering it was my first time talking to a veteran of WWII on the other side. (No picture of him, I'm afraid.)

Milan, Italy

10/09/09

Milan - the city of fashion. Like whoa did I stick out like a sore thumb. I took a stroll down the street of the fancy shops. My tourbook listed 15 different brands that had stores there - I had heard of three (Chanel, Fendi, and Versace.) I didn't go in to any...I had that scene in Pretty Women in my head where she goes into Rodeo Drive stores wearing hooker clothes and the shopkeepers refused to wait on her. Just substitute hooker clothes for traveling American t-shirts and sneakers, and I'm there. Only unfortunately I wouldn't be able to come back the next day in fancy clothes with lots of shopping bags and say "Remember me? You won't wait on me yesterday. Big mistake."

This woman has just parked her Vespa - what she's wearing is typical Milan.

This guy, though, rocked the best mullet I have seen yet...I think he was a tourist, though, judging by his camera.

Berlin, Germany

I'm here in Berlin writing this blog in realtime...I probably shouldn't be, though, because I'm tired (up at 2AM for the airport shuttle at 3AM), cold (it's been raining all day) and bit homesick. I think I've been traveling too much...That's me at Brandenburg Gate.

Berlin's good, fine, fantastic, fabulous...you know, the usual. Here are some pictures. Maybe I'll freshen this entry up later.

Remainder of the Wall... Me at Checkpoint Charlie







On the left is a holocaust memorial to the killed Jews...it was really moving.

More London, England

10/01/09 - 10/05/09

Ben's family and I went to a play at Shakespeare's Globe Theater. It's so cool - it's an exact replica on pretty much the same spot that Shakespeare would have his plays performed. Or something like that.

The show wasn't Shakespeare, though (fine with me - that gave me more of a chance to actually understand it.) It was a new play about Thomas Paine and the American Revolution. Now I know how painful it must be for Brits to hear American actors fake English accents...their American accents were awful. To top it off, about halfway through Ben and I both realized why the guy playing Thomas Jefferson sounded so familiar...he was imitating Will Ferrel doing George Bush! Somehow that just seemed blasphemous.

Ben's mom, sister and I also wandering around Chinatown while Ben was at a soccer game.

On my afternoon to myself I found the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum...awesome!! There was a wonderful "History of Medicine" exhibit. Here are some old enema tools: and doesn't this look like I was really in an OR?

London, England

10/01/09 - 10/05/09
Ben and I flew to London (only 50 minute flight from Weeze, the airport nearest us!) on Thursday afternoon to meet up with his sister and mom. His mom rented a cute little flat (that's British for apartment!) right near the center of the city.

This was my first time in London, and I have to admit that I wasn't very excited. Whenever I thought of London I would think of people with incoherent accents and bad teeth sweeping chimneys in the rain. Not exactly a place to be...

I was wrong!! London is fabulous:) The streets are filled with history and culture. Every Londoner we spoke to was extremely helpful and polite, although I had to say "excuse me?" many times because I couldn't understand them. As you walk around the city you can see shops and restaurants with stuff from all around the world. I realized that something I have been missing in Nijmegen is diversity! Yes, there are ethnic minorities in the Netherlands, but the population feels much more homogenous than in the UK or the US. (It's kinda boring to be in a place where everyone looks alike, not to mention very difficult for someone with face blindness...)

We had a great time. Ben's family was wonderful company (although it made me miss my family even more.) We went to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Covent Garden Market, and Trafalgar Square. It was incredible! I also made it to the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, and Hyde Park to see Princess Diana's memorial.

I even ate fish and chips!

Krakow, Poland - The Food

9/24/09 - 9/26/09

One disappointment I have to mention, though. As soon as we arrived I pulled Ben into a milk bar (remnant of Communist Poland where they would have really cheap food for the workers) and ordered pierogies. Now, anyone who knows me knows just how obsessed I am about pierogies. When they came out, they were covered in a strange white sauce. I should've been suspicious, but I eagerly took a bite...only to practically spit it out. It was AWFUL!! It was some weird sweet pierogi filled with nasty condensed milk or something...I couldn't stomach it. I had my hopes up so high that all the pierogies in Poland would be amazing.

I gave them two more tries throughout the trip (and since learned that "ruskie" meant potato and cheese, the kind I was looking for) but they didn't get too much better. (One place advertized "potatoes fried with onions" but instead I got boiled pierogies with French-fried onions...not quite the same.)

Ben didn't mess with the pierogies and stuck with KFC.

In a conversation with a Polish college student on the bus (he was wearing a Pittsburgh shirt because he studied at State College for a semester!) I got the best piece of advice - I told him about my food experiences, and he said "well, you should have known that no one would make pierogies as good as your grandma!"

So true.