Home to...Dublin

For the past three nights, I've been living the good life in Dublin. My definition of "the good life" may be different from what you think it means, or what you think it means to me, so I'll explain a little further. Because this is the end of my trip, and I've been staying in hostels or on people's couches for the past six weeks, I decided to treat myself to a hotel room. A hotel room! The first night, I barricaded myself in this room and turned on the TV. Disappointed? If it makes anyone feel better (myself included), I'll have you all know that I actually went for a run around the area that same night, and the familiarity of the area hit me like a brick wall. My dad and I took a trip here last year for my birthday, and everything I remember from the trip still corresponds perfectly with the actual city! This helped rationalize my need for isolation in privacy and free me to roam around the city to find amazing coffee shops to write in--thanks Kara for the Cake Cafe recommendation!

Sure, this lifestyle would get a tad lonely, but the combination of desperately needing my own space and knowing that Erin would get here in a few days leveled out being an absolute bum quite nicely. To be fair, I have walked around some and I have visited to the National Gallery and James Joyce Centre, but that's nothing like what I've done in past cities, or what I will do when Erin joins me TODAY! We're meeting up at the airport this afternoon, immediately heading to the bar, then to Cork for two nights, back to Dublin for two more, and then I'm on my flight home...with a 17 hour layover in Madrid. Yes, guys, the countdown to my return has begun. It's a really complicated string of emotions involved here, that got even more complicated after last night.
 
So last night, guess who showed up to Dublin? My Australian friend, Amy! How appropriate is it that we met in Munich when we were both starting out our trips, again in Amsterdam in the midst of traveling issues, and now again at the end when we are both well-worn travelers? Last night, we first met up at the restaurant, Cornucopia, and then traveled over to the Stag's Head bar, and then to the Ha' Penny Bridge pub. The first bar we went to is one of the most famous in Dublin and is one of the last that remains in the style of long bars all Irish bars used to have. The second, is one of those bars in the party district of Dublin, Temple Bar area, where the majority of people there are tourists. This was seen in its extreme case last night on the eve of St. Patrick's Day and at the comedy show Amy and I decided to attend.


Picture this scene: four Irish comedians have to go on stage in front of a multicultural group, where a sizable portion doesn't even speak English fluently and even those that do won't understand the culturally Irish jokes that they are used to making. They also realize that they are on stage in front of a bunch of tourists who have made the trek to enjoy a holiday that is associated with Ireland, but is not celebrated here to the extant it is everywhere else in the world. How awkward is this situation? Queue the stereotypes. Normally the American stereotype and typical America jokes don't affect me that much; I'm usually able to recognize that I reflect this stereotype very little apart from my accent. However, being surrounded by Americans that invite the jokes and perpetuate this stereotype was an entirely different situation. For example, one girl was rude, interrupted the comics and was overly pro-America; the other was studying politics and claimed she was going to run for presidency. C'mon guys. Give me a break here.

Not Irish, Finnish

The comedians may have gone a little far, Amy even said so, but I really couldn't blame them. It just seems like the world keeps taking everything from the Irish: their land, their identity and now their holiday? Just seems a little rough to me, which would also help explain their incredible drive to revive their language. One comic actually started doing his routine in Irish in front of everyone just to prove a point. The way I see last night was just a mutual abuse of cultures where every stereotype was reinforced and the jokes justified. One thing this trip has definitely given me is a new appreciation of America and some sort of patriotism that was not there before leaving the States. But with this is a new found frustration at how America portrays itself to the world--probably because now, instead of seeing myself as outside the cracks at the USA, I find myself dead center. Hence, the increased complication in my feelings about returning to the good ole US of A.

Well, Happy St. Pat's Day! I'll be running off to Cork with Erin in about 4 hours!



All This, and For What?

Looing into the Catholic side from the Protestant side

I guess it isn't too surprising that Belfast reminds me a lot of Berlin. It isn't the prettiest of cities, it has a ton of graffiti and artwork throughout it, and it has a wall. But in Belfast, unlike Berlin, the wall still exists and is still in use. Yes, the wall that separates the Catholic and Protestant communities still have their gates open throughout the day and closed during the night even though "the Troubles" have ended. In fact, about 60% of residents said they would prefer the wall to stay up because they feel safer that way. There are even cab companies that service one side and refuse to cross the border. Unlike Berlin, seeing the propaganda murals and the Peace Wall really hit me hard. It is so clear that even though Belfast is the safest it has ever been, the conflict has not entirely been resolved. Can we all remember that nothing was even resolved until 5 years ago? That is AFTER 9/11. It's still the present. How unimaginable is that? And, as my cabbie to my hostel said, neither side is satisified. Everyone just wanted peace.

The first full day in Belfast, I went on a Black Taxi Tour. A guide took me and three other travelers on a tour of the more "dodgey" parts of the city and spoke to us about the conflict. We went to one of the main Protestant areas, saw the part of the Catholic side that was burned down and even signed a part of the wall that was commisioned to be brightly decorated. This tour was exactly what I wanted to see in Belfast. Belfast was one of the first cities I knew I had to visit on this trip. Having visited Dublin last year and hearing about what had been going on, I knew that I couldn't pass it up. It has been so worth it. It's just so jarring that this separation can still be occuring and in Europe, in the UK.

A great example of how ignorant people may be about this situation is a  girl from New York who was on the tour. First of all, she just started her year of traveling, and started it in Belfast. She asked me questions the entire time about traveling alone and how it has been for me. I told her the truth about it being difficult and lonely and advised her to courchsurf. She responded that she thinks she may just go home and that couchsurfing is unsafe so she won't be botherered with it. Then she asked me to take several pictures of her smiling in front of Protestanct militant propaganda, just before asking how the conflict started and how long it's been going on. The most jarring part of her ignorance was asking our tour how people could possibly differentiate between someon who is Catholic and who is Protestant. That's sort of the point--you can't. Except that it goes far deeper than that, all the way to British loyalty or Irish nationalism.

I think my cabbie and tour guide both said it best by saying, "All this, and for what?"

The St. George's Market

Fitting in With Foul Weather

As much as I try to fight it, it seams like my favorite cities have the worst weather. Chicago speaks for itself, Amsterdam is known for its grey skies, London's pastey landscape of people couldn't be because they ever see sun, and Edinburgh has a beautiful, green landscape that is fueled by its daily rain. Yes, DAILY rain. Who knew that Chciago's weather isn't as bad as it could be. Seriously though, Scotland was relatively warm when I got there. The next day, it was rainy and cold. The next morning, there was snow. And the following day, it hailed. Twice. But despite all of this horribly disgusting weather, I am considering Edinburgh as a city to move to next year, probably not, but maybe.

Although the weather is comparable, the landscape of Chicago is nothing next to Edinburgh. It is hilly, picturesque and filled with castels and old buildings--also GREAT cemetaries. That just sounded incredibly creepy, but they do. The most well known is Greyfriars and is the home of one of the most haunted mausoleums in Europe. The guys from Ghost Adventures should really check this out, although this ghost may take them down. I'm pretty sure I got a bruise from being there--jus' sayin'. This is also the cemetary from which J.K. Rowling took some names for her characters; perhaps Tom Riddle and McGonagall sound familiar? Greyfriars was a common place for J.K. to walk around while she had writers block while working at the cafe she frequented. It's called the Elephant House and is very condusive to writing (got 3 pages of the THESIS done there. Woohoooo!).

The Holyrood Abbey ruins

My visit to Edinburgh was probably one of my more relaxed visits to a city, and it was the best place to do it. Edinburgh has a low key feel to it anyway. In fact, everything I really did I just sort of happened upon. For example, who knew there was a vegetarian haggis (really it's just oats and spices), or a vegetarian restaurant in Scotland or a shop dedicated to baked potatos with any topping you could think of putting on them (I had vegetable curry on mine). While in Edinburgh, I followed the free tour around the city, then saw the Scottish Parliament, the Holyrood Palace, Queen's Gallery, and most importantly, went to the Scottish Storytelling Centre!

Scottish Parliament

One night, as I was walking to a pub to dinner and comedy, that really just turned into soup and a Scottish beer, I came across this center andnoticed they were having an event the next night. These open mic events are only once a month. so it was incredibly lucky that it happened to be the right time of month, and that I happened to have noticed the poster the night before. It was FANTASTIC. The storytellers were incredible performers, and the original poetry and songs were out of this world. This event, not only won my heart for Edinburgh, but was also a great reminder for how great an opportunity this trip has been to see what's out there, and to just remember and appreciate the little things. One thing is for sure: I'm going to check out if there are any type of groups doing this sort of thing in Chicago. If anyone wants to come with me, let me know!

The Haunted Section!!

Other side of Greyfriars

That Place and the Other One

Walking towards King's College Chapel, Cambridge

The past four or so days, I visited two of the most highly acclaimed universities in the world: Oxford and Cambridge. I had the idea to add them to my trip as early back as Paris to hopefully spark some motivation to make some headway on my THESIS. Despite being surrounded by brilliant minds and architecture commissioned by kings (most likely Henry VIII), there was not much headway on my paper. However, not all way lost. I got to see the amazing architecture of the colleges, find some pretty quaint coffee shops, and learned about a completely different school system.

DID YOU KNOW, that Oxford and Cambridge follow the same college system?


Dining Hall of Exeter College, Oxford



Basically, students who wish to attend the university apply to one college directly. You decide which college to apply to, not necessarily based on which discipline you'd like to study, but by who is a fellow at that college, the prestige of the specific college/how wealthy it is/location of the college within the town and university, and on that college's own traditions and legislation. Pretty much, each college is the dorm/dining hall/tutorials and life of the student. The only time you ever need to leave is when you have a (non-mandatory) lecture scheduled elsewhere. AND, the entire year is a progression towards a final exam at the end of the year. The first two are really just to get to the next year, and your thrd is the one that determines the status of your graduation--whether you are a first, a first second, second second or third. I don't know if this description really helped anyone understand the British system, but I thnk it gets the point across that it is completely different than what we have in the States.



View from the cafe I found in Oxford



Oxford was a pretty touristy place overall. There were tour options to go on themed tours such as Harry Potter, Alice and Wonderland, Inspector Morse, Ghost tour, J.R. Tolkein among others celebrating the esteemed alumni of the university. They even had a red tourist bus driving around, which I didn't expect to see, but I guess it makes sense. While I was there, I also found a very nice coffee shop I had high tea at--ginger cake with lemon icing with black tea. It was a lovely little spot that looked out on a library in a middle of a quad surrounded by colleges. While I was there, a big regada between the colleges was going on too--although I didn't attend the races, I did purchase an Oxford crew sweatshirt. Close enough?



Girton College, Cambridge



Of the two schools, Cambridge was my favorite. This status may have been earned by the fact I actually stayed at a college! Thank you couchsurfers for getting me in contact with Tim, the nice Cambridge student who let me live in his room the past two nights. He showed me around Girton and pretty much gave me the inside scoop on life there. Although Girton is one of the poorer colleges that only became affiliated with the University in around the 1940s (originally established as a woman's college) it is now a part of the University and is very modest. Especially when you compare it to King's or Trinity. Those are the two oldest colleges (I think) and were both established by either King Henry VIII or some royalty. While I didn't get to really explore the city centre much in Cambridge, I DID get to eat at the dining hall and talk to crazed students worried over their status in the housing lottery.



Walking into Clare College from the river





Interesting fact: Oxford was afraid that they would have to close down when the Bubonic Plague swept through Europe. Where did they think of moving? Cambridge of course! They even bought the main market square of Cambridge, and still own it. Buy anything in that square and the profits go to "that Other Place." Hilarious.



Hostel Free is the Way to Be

Yes, early on in my trip I was very pro-hostel. It is a great way to meet people, there are so many fun things to do through a hostel's services: sometimes breakfast is included in the very cheap room fee and so on. The sentiment begins to change when there are a few too many late night roommates who think it's a good idea to turn on all the lights and continue the night, well morning, at 5 am when everyone else is trying to sleep. Or when you realize that all the people you are constantly meeting you will never see or speak to again. Everything begins to feel entirely superficial. Or when you realize that everyone you are exposed to are mostly Australian and rarely local (in most cases, the hostels are even staffed by travelers who never want to leave). What exactly happens when all of these disenchantments begins to slowly creep up on you? You start to hate hostel and begin to want to end your trip early. But instead, you stick with it and begin to surf couches. At least, that's what happened in my case.

Let me tell you, this is the BEST decision anyone could ever make while traveling. Couchsurfing (couchsurfing.org) actually solves every problem I had with traveling. My hatred of the general mass of people found in hostels is eliminateed when you really only come home to the person, or few people, who live(s) in the apartment you're crashing in. Because the amount of people are limited, the connection you can form with that person is more concrete and you can potentially get back into contact with him/her because you inevitably have to exchange contact information. And they actually live in the city so they can offer information that you otherwise wouldn't have access to. The only downside, is that sometimes you have to go back to hostels because you can't find anyone that can host you in a reasonable location in the city you are visiting (ie. right now in Oxford).

London was the first time I couchsurfed. First, I was able to have a flashback to the high school days with Melissa when I crashed at her apartment my first two nights in London. It was fun to relive how absolutely insane I was in high school, and I get a personal tour of Parliament (along with some crazy stories of the MP she's interning with). The next three nights I crashed at an apartment owned by a Londoner who happens to be an alum of the University of Chicago. What a small world, eh? I got my own key and everything. So convienient. 

I spent the most amount of time in London so far--five nights versus the usual two, three or four. It was amazing (even though my top 2 are still Paris and Amsterdam). I went to some open air markets, had GREAT ethnic food, went to the Apsley House, Parliament, the Globe, the Tower of London, London Bridge, walked through Tate Modern, the British Museum and saw The King's Speech. AND I managed to get about 6 pages written for my THESIS. Mmmm productivity.

The British Museum actually blew my mind. That is by far the most amazing museum I have ever been in. Sorry, Louvre, but it's true. Too bad that the majority of its acquisitions were products of imperialism and really only remain there because Britain refuses to give them back. Actually, when I did the guided audio tour of the Parthenon sculptures, the concluding remarks spent a good five minutes rationalizing why they haven't been returned to Athens. Apparently, it is better for the world to be able to see the sculptures "in context" with the history that affected their creation and the resulting art that followed surrounding them. I may have been the only one laughing through the audio tour. Typical. That happened at Westminster too (thank you Jeremy Irons for leading me through the Abby).

Amsterdam: My Unexpected Favorite

I am absolutely in love with Amsterdam. Minus the fact that it is known for being dreary, among other things it's famous for, it has completely charmed me. As I mentioned before in my Australain friends post, I would drop everything and move there in an instant. I guess that really isn't saying much since I would pretty much move anywhere I've visited so far anyway. Regardless, it was a great place to host my emotional turnaround following Berlin and Copenhagen.

First of all, Amsterdam is super relaxed. I guess judged on the amount of Amsterdam's coffee shops, that is to be expected. But more than that, the canals, bridges and winding alleyways make it impossible not to feel calm. My favorite day in this city was when I just wandering towards the Anne Frank house and got lost walking down a street along a canal. I didn't even care if I was absolutely lost and maybe wouldn't make it to the museum, the sights along the water were worth it. I even found this AMAZING little high tea cafe that I returned to after going through the Anne Frank House.

Second, Amsterdam has so much to do. The amount of museums in Amsterdam has got to be disproportional to the size of the city. While I was there, I managed to go to the Van Gogh Museum and, obviously, the Anne Frank House. Both were outstanding, and were incredibly easy to walk to, even though I got lost to both. The layout of the city actually reminded me a lot of Venice. Each little turn of the road meant that it was a new street. Crossing a bridge means a new street, and pretty much anything you do, you will have to consult your map a few times to figure out how many streets you have been on until you finally realize where you are. It's confusing, but I really like it.

Finally, the fries are out of this world. Throughout Europe, kebabs are a huge thing. This means a constant supply of falafel because they are always the last stores to close. Waffles and pretzels have also been very common since hitting Germany. However, in Amsterdam, it is ALL about the fries. There are shops selling fries everywhere with a variety of toping. The most popular are sweet mayo and then mayo. There is also ketchup. Actually, there is another topping named "American sauce." I tried ordering it just because, but the incredibly nice worker who was serving Amy and me shook his head. Apparently, American sauce is really not good. Figures.

Coming to Terms with Copenhagen

Don't get me wrong, Copenhagen was beautiful. It was also one of the first cities on my initial draft of my Eurotrip just because it represents my Danish heritage (25% represent!). Unfortunately, my visit to Copenhagen aligned with my brief stint with traveler's disenchantment. To be fair, my entrance to the city was marked by a horrible experience with my hostel roommates in Berlin, and then the stark hostel in Denmark that didn't provide much for the solo traveler. Despite this shift in mood, I manage to pull through, thanks to a lot of moral support from good friends who are usually on gchat or bbm. AND I stopped staying in hostels (more to come on this in my next post on London).

That first car contains the Queen!

It took me until Copenhagen to realize that traveling alone is, well, lonely. It's actually incredibly difficult to experience amazing things everyday and not have a way to share it with people effectively. Sure, this blog helps, but it is SO much more satisfactory to have someone there with you to laugh at or stand in awe of the events and monuments you come across. This is why my highlights of the trip so far, beyond just my favorite cities, have to be when I met up with someone. The whirlwind Paris adventure with Gabby, the nightmarish art show with Katie and seeing British Parliament with Melissa, to only name a few.

The Danes love their bikes.

Looking past my mental instability, Copenhagen was nice. I managed to force myself to go to Christianborg Slot (burned down twice by the way, crazy Danes), the Danish Art and Design Museum, to visit the Little Mermaid Statue, and managed to see the Queen. Yes, the Queen. It was one of those "why is everyone standing outside watching the guards march around?" moments that ended with a car procession and a waving monarch. So I'd say it was overall quite successful.

Another thing that is little known about Copenhagen (at least I didn't know about it until the Alternative Pub Crawl in Berlin) is that there is a section of Copenhagen that has tried to separate itself from Denmark. This section is known as Christiania. Christiania declared itself a separate State is only three main rules to follow: no violence, no hard drugs and another one that I cannot remember and Wikipedia isn't helping me find... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania). It used to have an open cannibis trade, but that was ended in the early 2000s. What it is now is pretty much the remains of what was a successful hippie commune that squatted a former military center. Crazy, right? Another rule in Christiania? No photos. Which is why I only have a picture of me underneath the official entrance as proof that I was there. This visit was a great way to continue the alternative tour of Berlin, but also contributed to the weird feeling I got from both of these cities.