Barcelona, Spain

Hello from 2014!

I have to admit I have been absolutely terrible with my final update. I have been meaning to write of my travels in Barcelona, and I think it's finally the time to do it! So, here goes:

I traveled from the Beauvais airport outside of Paris to the main airport in Barcelona. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the inside, but it had many windows, and was close to the ocean.

I got a chance to visit La Sagrada Familia, Güell park, and got to see the main square in Barcelona, as well as travel along the subway lines. It was an interesting infrastructure, since it was so modern and it was relatively new compared with other major metropolitan counterparts.

La Sagrada Familia (the holy family), has been under construction for over 100 years, and its completion is still years away.

I also got to see a huge water fountain display in front of the National Museum of Art of Catalunya. The fountain is called the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc. The show went on for about 30 min as the sun set.

There was no direct subway line to get to Güell park, so I had to take the scenic route.

Great view, to the left is the ocean.

Also ran into some street artists:

It was strange seeing things in two languages: Spanish and Catalonian. Catalonian sounds very similar to Spanish, but the locals know Spanish. They were also very friendly when I navigated the streets to find Güell park.

Now, I had some trouble gathering my thoughts on Barcelona because I had just an awful host from couchsurfing. I will get that out of the way so it doesn't affect the negativity of this beautiful city. All I will say about it is be very careful of who your host is, and don't be afraid of asking too many questions. I was very uncomfortable in the situation I was put in, and it limited the things I had planned to do in Barcelona. If I had known things were going to be as badly as they were, I would've stayed in a hostel. If you're interested in more info about it, please feel free to contact me and we can discuss it.

Quick Addendum to my adventures in Italy

Hello fellow readers!

I know- it's been a while. Again. Anyway, I just wanted to update with a quick flashback I had a few weeks ago. A picture popped up on reddit.com that made me have a flashback:

It was a flashback of a small detail from when I was in Rome last summer: I went to a church behind the museum of national history, and there was a guy holding the door open with a basket filled with donations. I was under the impression he was with the church, so I dropped a euro into it. After a while, the man leaves with the basket down the steps and doesn't come back. After a while, I realized that everyone who gave to him had probably been duped. Anyway, here's the picture and the can of coke that triggered the memory. After I left the church I bought a can of coke to save myself from the impending doom of a caffeine headache; I bought it from a man with a small cooler of cokes next to the church. Lesson here is: be aware and don't get duped! 

Le petit Louvre

Hello everyone!
For this post, I will be writing about my adventures in Paris, France.

I arrived at the Paris-Beuvais airport, which is about an hour north of Paris. There was a shuttle that takes you to and from the city for 15 euros each way, so it's a good airport to fly if you're trying to save a lot of money. I bought my round trip tickets once I arrived, and i'm glad I did since on the way back I was cutting it close on time and the lines were getting really long, even at 5 am when I left.

I loved Paris. I stayed with a host from couchsurfing, and they had a very very small apartment- it was so small, the whole floor had to share a toilet (there were maybe 5 apartments). I would say the room was 15x15 ft. I got to try fresh french bread (amazing), bought a 2 liter bottle of Evian for less than a euro, and did a lot of sightseeing/riding the metro.

I think that was one of my favorite parts of traveling- to ride on public transportation. I forgot to mention it in my Rome entry, but Rome only has 2 subway lines. They do have many buses that can take you everywhere though.

Anyway- i'd heard that in Paris, you are no more than 800 ft from a metro station. I didn't measure, but it was a lifesaver to see a metro station while thinking you were lost. They were very common and the lines were easy to follow. On the first day I went to the catacombs- I did plan on being a super tourist and go everywhere. However, I was not aware that the following day would be a national holiday, and the catacombs would be closed. So, I spent waiting in line- for 4 HOURS. Why did I wait so long? Well, at hour 2 I thought it would only take another hour, and by the 3rd hour I was really close anyway, so I stuck it out and went in. The catacombs are a series of underground tunnels in Paris, about 2 miles in length. They only let 100 people in at a time, so wait time can be very long. Some other fellow 'mericans were standing in line behind me, and were kind enough to hold my spot for me while I went to the bathroom and got something to eat. I should mention the situation of how/what I got to eat. Firstly, my french is terrible. It was easy to get by in Italy because spanish ~ italian. Almost. But they're very similar. French however is a bit more difficult for me. In writing, I can understand some of it, but when someone speaks to me in french, they usually get a blank stare from me. I was trying to order some sort of sandwich/bread at a bakery, and after multiple attempts in french to order it, the kind cashier just switched over to english. I guess it's the standard go-to language for non-french speakers.

So back to the catacombs- in the 1700s, the Parisian cemeteries started overfilling with bodies, so they dug up the older bodies and put them in the catacombs. There are millions of human remains there, and it was a little eerie passing by them. It was also a crime to touch any of the human remains.

Fun stuff. After the first few thousand skeletons, I got used to them. It was pretty cool and i'm glad I stuck it out. There actually some other fellow 'mericans who were leaving the next day, a dad was offering 50 euros for two people to give up their spot in line. They were later in line, but not sure if they made it in. When I entered, there was an hour left before they closed the catacombs, so I made it a bit before the cut off. After the catacombs, it was already later in the day. I made a bee line to the Eiffel tower. To be honest, I thought it would just be another big landmark and I didn't know why people made such a huge deal about it. When I got to the metro stop, big EIFFEL TOWER signs were up at the metro station so no one would miss Paris' main icon. When I got there, I was greeted by this:

This tower is absolutely huge. You don't really know what it is until you see it in person. I was take aback at how huge and a feat of engineering it was. I'd learned that when it was first put up, they wanted to take it down after the world fair was over. Persistance paid off and it's now one of the modern marvels of the world.

There was some construction going on as you can see here, they were working on building a glass platform on one of the levels. It's scheduled to be complete in 2013.

I also went to the Arc de Triumph. Little known fact: you have to actually pay to go underneath it, i think it was 10 euros. For about ten minutes, I was trying to figure out how to cross the street to get to it.  Doesn't work that way; there's an underground tunnel to get there. Afterwards I went to the Moulin Rouge, it was just like that movie, except more realistic.

PROTIP: around a lot of these tourist attractions if you get hungry but don't want to spend a ton of money on food, wander off for a few streets and you'll usually find a grocery store. I found local and typical food for a LOT less than if i'd eaten out. I can also take whatever food and enjoy it near whatever monument. A typical grocery meal in Paris cost about 3 euros with a drink.

That night, just for the hell of it, I went to go see the eiffel tower at night:

The next day I had to stay with another host. Luckily, the host worked in a hotel VERY close to the eiffel tower- about a 10 min walk. It was awesome, since it was so close to everything. The host was very kind and told me the best places to go. My previous host was very helpful as well, and let me know what stops I had to get off on for what attraction. He lived a few steps away from a meto station, so I was surprised to only walk a few steps and arrive at the hotel. Under the metro (think the El layout) there was some sort of market that day. The sold food, clothes, iphone accessories, but no souvenirs.

That day, I went to the Louvre. My goodness, I had never overdosed on art before. There was art about everything, from every period, from pretty much everyone. The main attraction there was the Mona Lisa. Here's how the crowds lined up to see it:

and here she is:

As I mentioned before, that day was a national holiday. I forget what it was, but it had to do with Mary's (mother of Jesus) birthday. I went to Notre Dame and was surprised then had an enlightenment as to why they were having mass in the middle of the week, along with a religious procession.

Afterwards, I went to the Sacre Cour (Sacred Heart). I didn't go all the way up because at that point, I was really tired from walking around all day.

Nearby there was a chocolate shop:

Awesome. After that, I meant to visit the famous cemetery where The Who singer was buried, bur I fell asleep and missed the stop on the metro. I went back to my host's place and took a nap until late evening. However, I forgot that it was a national holiday so most of the restaurants were closed. So, I went out for chinese food.

That night I went to go see the eiffel tower again because I could. It was great, they had a light show, but I missed it at the times it was scheduled. After I long touristy day, I went to sleep and got ready for my next adventure in Barcelona.

Until next time!

New Year

Hello!
So I promised to make a post long ago about my travels after leaving Lüneburg. I have finally graduated, so I have no excuse to not write about it! Sorry for the delay.

Let me begin with beautiful Italy:
I arrived in Pisa on a friday, after moving out earlier in the day from Lüneburg. Thankfully I had a place to keep my stuff while I was away with my friend Tricia. Almost immediately after driving up with her boyfriend Olli, he dropped me off at the Hamburg train station and had a quick lunch with Tricia there since she works nearby. I left from the Lübeck airport airport using Ryanair. Overall, Ryanair was a pretty good way to travel from one location to another, aside from my mishap in Poland.
Anyway, I arrived in Pisa and met my host from couchsurfing there. He didn't speak any english, but we managed to communicate with me speaking spanish, interesting experience. It was very easy to get around in Rome since the languages are very similar when you speak in basic terms like: "how much is this?" or "Where is the bathroom". Italian is a beautiful language, I think that's what made my experience in Italy a lot smoother and more wonderful. I should mention the interesting thing that happened once I got off the airplane was that there was a German shepherd sitting off to the side as the passengers came out. He immediately jumped up and starting sniffing people. It didn't hit me until I went by that the dog was sniffing for drugs. That was a creative way of catching anyone that carried drugs.

My host lived about 5 min walking distance from the airport. We spent the night talking about all sorts of things, one of them was how he feels Italy wants to be a more politically progressive state, but since the Vatican is right at the center of it, they're pretty much pinned down by it. It was an observation that never really hit me, but it made so much sense. He made me some pasta and bought some wine for the occasion; honestly it was some of the best wine i'd ever had. But he said that it was ok, there was better available. I'm not shocked to hear that from a country that's best known for its wine.

The next morning I was able to explore Pisa. There were of course the main attractions, the plaza that has the leaning tower:






As you can see, there were people posing with the tower, and I thought it was a little ridiculous. Nothing screamed "tourist" liks a stupid pose like that. As you can tell, i'm not a fan. So, I just took a picture with a normal pose in front of the tower. Funny enough, the people that took the picture for me were also American tourists, they were in Pisa along with a basketball team from the University of Tennesse I believe.

I'm already pretty tan there from just walking there a few hours. It was very sunny and beautiful in Pisa. I had a Calzone while there, the food is on a different and delicious level there too. I mainly walked around in Pisa and did some sightseeing. I also had gelato, very fitting since it was really hot as well. Really hot, I have no idea why I wore black. 

While walking around, I ran into this mural:

I forget the artist, but it was quite a surprise running into it.

Later on I caught a train that went from Pisa to Rome, the ticket was about 19 euros, it was relatively cheap. I arrived late in the day to Rome so I had to do my sightseeing the next day. Rome was different than any city i'd ever been in. It's so old, that the old parts of it have been covered up with the new metropolitan parts of Rome. It's also really big, if you've ever been to Houston, it's kind of like that in terms that it's expanded, but it's still easy to walk around. On my first day, I saw the colosseum, circo maximo, some old roman ruins (not overrun by cats! I saw very few stray cats). It was amazing to walk through ruins that had stood for thousands of years.

I stayed in a camping area about an hour away from the center of the city. It was 10 euros/night, but I also slept in a tent, which wasn't a big deal. Safety wasn't an issue either, I felt rather safe walking around, while taking the necessary precautions of course.

The other awesome thing about Rome is that they have water fountains everywhere- so I didn't spend anything on bottled water. I just carried my trusty nalgene along with me.

I walked along pretty much the old center of Rome, and I ran into a museum that was dedicated to Italian immigrants. Some of the things they had on display would be unbelievable today:

It's sad to think that there was such a big wave of active hostility towards immigrants. Moving along though, I also went to the trevi fountain, HUGE tourist crowd there, it was difficult to find someone to take a picture and get in front of the fountain, but I managed it:

Walking around Rome was tiring, but also inspiring; to think other greats lived and worked in this same city was just mind-blowing. For lunch, I went into a restaurant and had some lasagna, although it was great, they charged extra for the bread and do not include tip, so if you plan to sit down somewhere, be prepared to pay a little more for a meal.

The next day I went to the Vatican, which also had huge crowds. I sent my mom a post card from the Vatican City and she got it a few days after I arrived in the US. Unfortunately both the vatican and the colosseum had intimidating lines, so I didn't even try to get into either. In every city, I get a map so I can map a walking route. I was killing time to catch my next flight, and I almost missed a huge landmark: the pantheon! Quite embarrassing, but I did managed to see it. There were so many people inside, but it is still considered a place of worship, so the workers kept shushing everyone very often.

I was in Rome for about 3 days, I left in the late afternoon to catch my flight to Paris, which i'll write about in the next segment.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Hello everyone!
I have not kept my promise in updating...I apologize! I finally have a chance to sit down and write down my overdue thoughts. Settling back in America has brought many challenges, finding a job is one of them. As much as i'd like someone to hire me immediately, I have learned it takes time and patience to hear back from a potential employer.
Anyway, as promised:
A little over a month ago (weekend of August 3-5th), I was in Copenhagen, Denmark with my friend Tricia. We took the train up, which took about 4 hours. It was a little frustrating at first, because it was an actual Danish train, the signs said "Kan være reserviert" which translates to "could be reserved." This never would happen on German trains, since you either reserve it or you don't. Honestly, I didn't expect to be wowed by Copenhagen, but I was. It had so much history with it, and it was a pedestrian city. We stayed in a hostel that wasn't too far of a walk from the train station. On a side note, Copenhagen had some of the best and nicest underground trains i've seen. They were wide and told you the estimated time to get somewhere. They were also very colorful. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of one. Sorry!
Some of the highlights of Copenhagen was the weather...it was so nice while there (unlike this 95˚ weather in Houston). There was a really cool moat that we went through when we followed a marked path on the maps we got.

There was also a castle we went by, that housed the royal family of Denmark. They, like Buckingham palace had guards that stood completely still. We arrived during the changing of the guards, and it was very peculiar.

And of course, the little mermaid statue:

It was put there in the 1940s I believe, and has become a must-see when visiting Copenhagen. Copenhagen was the home of Hans Christian Andersen. The story of the little mermaid is actually a sad one; in short, she saved a prince from drowning at sea, left him at a temple, and another princess took the credit for saving him. Long version, short summary, scroll down.

My friend and I also took a canal/harbor tour of Copenhagen, and we got to see a lot from the water. I learned that Andersen had an apartment in Nyhavn (New port):

They also had a peculiarly interesting dessert: churro with ice cream:

We also spent a lot of time at the National museum of Denmark. They had all sorts of neat things dealing with excavations around Denmark. (Fun fact, Copenhagen is actually on an island). One of the exhibits that I liked was dealing with more modern events, they had things from the last 100 years in one exhibit. It was a blast from the past, they had walkmans, nintendos, old tvs, old chairs, things like that. Another thing that I liked was that there were the remains of a viking ship.
We also visited an area of town called Christiana. It's a hippy town where they have a "green light district." Marijuana is illegal in Denmark, but the police have sort of turned from the Christiana, because it's safer to know where you can get it rather than dealing with violence of drug turf wars.

One of the highlights of my trip is that I finally met a good friend of mine in person. I'm glad I could finally put a face to someone I had been talking to for years!

Copenhagen was a fun city, especially during the summer because the days are longer. Denmark uses the Kroner, so I had to exchange my euros there. I recommend doing it beforehand, because the rates at exchange houses are a little ridiculous, they also take a business approach to exchanging money.

Well, those were my adventures in Copenhagen. Coming up soon: details about my mini Eurotrip!

Back in America

Hello everyone!
I have returned back to America and seem to have gotten over jet-lag. It's been incredibly hot in Houston and I had to go back to school on Monday. It's my last semester, and I hope it's a smooth one.
If you're in the Houston area and a student at UH, I will be giving a presentation about my study abroad in Germany. It's also an information session on available scholarships and programs for study abroad.

I arrived in Houston at around 6:30pm local time last thursday. My body thought it was 1:30am, so I was very tired coming out of the airport. The process getting through customs went smoothly coming in. In Germany, I did have to explain to passport control why I stayed in Germany for so long. Coming in, they weren't as worried, but going out is when they sort of grill you. When I went to my departure date, I had to go into a sort of holding cell. Once you went in, you couldn't go out...which is something I discovered when I wanted to get some bread at a bakery. The planes were all a little early, and I even got upgraded a class going from Heathrow to Houston. It was nice, a little extra room, nicer food, and more concern about how the passengers were doing. Nicer headphones too, albeit they were used.

So I have been reintroduced into American culture again, something that feels a lot more different than I originally expected. I think it'll take some time to get used to it. It is a difficult transition, since being introduced into something new and being introduced to the old routine can be quite boring.

That's my update for now. I will write about my trips perhaps later today or tomorrow.

Goodbye, Germany

Hi everyone,
I am currently at a friend's place pretty much waiting for my flight back to Houston tomorrow morning. I leave at 11:15 am local time and arrive in Houston around 6:45 pm CST. So I essentially travel for 7 hours. Kidding, I will be traveling for a total of 12 hrs. Europe, especially Germany has been great. I am very sad to leave, and it's been a great experience living in another country. It's time to get back to my regular life in Houston, finish up, and graduate in December. It's very late here now in Germany (12:55), but I will update on my trip once I return home. I hope the jet lag won't last very long.

Until then,
Melissa

Quick update!

Hello everyone!
This is a very quick update- I am officially moving away from beautiful Lüneburg tomorrow afternoon. I then head to Pisa, Rome, Paris, and Barcelona. I will be back in Germany next Saturday, staying with a friend, then returning to the US on August 23rd.

Starting tomorrow until next saturday, I will have very limited internet access, maybe it's a good thing to be separated for a while from the internet. I have tons to do today and tomorrow- including saying good bye to friends, cleaning my room, and reflecting on my stay here.

I promise to write about Copenhagen in more detail later on. It was a great city and it deserves its own post with more details.

Until next time!

Die Zeit and this weekend

Hello everyone!!!
At the present moment, I feel very tired; today I finished my second and last paper that i'll ever have to write in Germany for class. I have two final exams coming up next week, but I'm going to take it easy this weekend.

This weekend, i'm headed to beautiful Copenhagen, Denmark! Every person i've talked to has said that Copenhagen is so beautiful...and I hope to be caught in its charm as well. It's my last full week in Lüneburg, a little over a week traveling through europe, a few days in Hamburg, then back home on the 23rd. This summer has flown by extremely quickly. I think it may have to do with having a set schedule for the most of the summer and of course, having a lot of fun.

This afternoon I went on an excursion to Die Zeit- a newspaper based in Hamburg. We spoke to the editor there, not quite sure of what department. He was very well educated and gave an opinion about newspapers- that newspapers should report, not change the opinions of its readers. Die Zeit comes out once a week and is apparently a very tough paper to read through since they use big words, and they aim to educate their readers. They were kind enough to give us all a free copy of this week's edition, along with cookies, water, tea, and coffee. I felt like we were very welcomed into the environment. Fun fact for today- the editor did his dissertation on the judicial system used by the Irish Republican Army. I was very curious to know what he had discovered. He told me, in short, that he tried to answer the question, was the IRA's approach to justice the right way to approach problems? The answer is no. The IRA had to influence the police because the police were afraid of entering certain neighborhoods. The methods the IRA used for "justice" were the same tactics used by a mafia.

Other things that were asked were if humanity is really all alike- yes. We may all come from different backgrounds, but the same types of people exist in each society. Germany selling tanks to Saudi Arabia and potentially Qatar are not a very good move on Germany's part. An online edition and a print edition of a newspaper are very different. Germany has one major political think tank, the editor wished it was more like the US where there exist so many, with a variety of opinions. Journalists at Die Zeit use a wide variety of resources to write their articles. Sometimes lawyers want to become journalist (ie the editor we talked with).

Until next time!

Kloster Lüne

I just realized I didn't write about my trip to the Lüne convent (Kloster). Last Wednesday I went to a convent that was built in the 1300s. It was originally built in the 1100s, but it burnt down and was rebuilt again. It was a hot afternoon (it's back to being chilly now, though. I joke around and say it's a nice day...for autumn).

The building was very cool though, I think there is still a convent there. It has a very long history; it was originally a Catholic convent, but had to be forcibly converted to a protestant one, although they nuns didn't convert without a fight. When they first had services in the newly converted church, the nuns would sing songs in Latin so loud, that the assembly could not hear the preacher. Nuns mostly came from affluential families, since families a long time ago would have a number of children, usually the youngest daughter would be promised to the convent, in order to guarantee some sort of salvation for the family. Therefore, whatever the daughter would inherit would be given to the convent. This made convents very wealthy. Nuns were not allowed to keep very many things. They had to live a very simple and religious life. Very early on, nuns were not allowed to speak during meal times, so they made up a sign language in order to communicate with each other, which I thought was clever.

During WWII, a bomb had gone off near the convent where they had a bridge. The Germans bombed it, in hoped of stopping the allies. However, the bomb also destroyed a lot of the original stained glass windows. Some of them have been restored, but they have been moved to a safer location of the convent. The whole convent used to be covered with stained glass. The convent was also well known for its stitchwork, and some projects would take up to a year and a half to complete. They were beautiful pieces, threaded using a fishbone. The nuns also may have had a hard time completing their work, since their main source of light came from stained windows.

A house was built in the convent especially for King George I, since when he visited the abbey, there was no place for him to stay. He died before the house was completed.

Their sleeping quarters were also very small. If you think college dorms are small, I think the nuns who lived in convent accommodations would gladly trade with any college student. They were really small, maybe 3 meters by 4 meters, with a window. Later on, they were allowed to decorate their rooms and even have servants, this all was allowed after the reformation.

I remember that two German idioms came from the convent life. One of them goes along the lines of "You can finally see the dog" which means you're left with nothing. Nuns were allowed to keep their belongings in a chest, which had a dog at the bottom of the chest. When they finally "saw the dog"- that means that they were left with nothing in the chest.

The one I do remember ist "halt die klappe" - which means to "shut up." It originates from when the nuns had to be in a waiting room before they had to sing hymns. While they were waiting, they had these sections on the wall, where they could lean against and rest while they waited to go to the choir balcony. Later on, drop down seats were added. When they would be too loud, they would drop down their seats and be quiet.

The convent also had a very valuable painting- apparently sough after by many art museums. It was painted by a friend of Martin Luther, and it was when Jesus was brought down from the cross. The artists had drawn himself into the scene, which included Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Mary's Mother, Joseph, and Mary's sister.

We were not allowed to take many pictures of the convent, but these are the ones I was able to take:

Until next time!