Wednesday, 02 August 2006

Europe Post No. 3
7-13-2006: All for a piece of paper
Wow. Jordan has a Masters, after all the waiting. If only the ceremony could have been someplace a little cooler, like outside the spaceship building. I even saw the parchment. The University is amazing. We didn't see any of the famous Yorkshire bunnies Jordan talked about, but there were TONS of mallard ducks. If York ever had to choose a mascot, I'd call them the York Mallards. There are geese, too. Canada geese and these weird brown geese with orange bills that make funny sounds. It's a sort of honk, but loud and raucous. And the swans. Lots of mute swans, and yes, black swans. After walking around, I decided I liked the Quiet Place best, where the hedges are huge and all funny shaped. I could spend hours in there, in thought, prayer, or whatever. It's deliciously inspiring.

Speaking of delicious, we visited the Rose and Crown, another pub! The waitress was cute with spiky hair and made me extremely happy when she arrived with an Aussie Burger. It was extremely tasty-ground beef, cheese, fried egg, English bacon, and the list goes on. Add some chips and I'm stuffed. But the most exciting part of the night for me still was to come-my first taste and half-pint of an alcoholic beverage (gasp?). Having tasted two beers, I selected a Strongbow Cider. It had an edge, but it was still tasty and I finished it. Ye Old Starre Inn now holds another distinction. Besides dating from the 17th Century, it is the location where I first had a drink.

Now we're in Scotland; Edinburgh, specifically. Within 20 minutes of leaving the train station, we found a man playing a set of bagpipes on the corner. As I write, we've digested an hour-long bus tour of the city, including the Royal Mile and both the Old and New City. Did you know, Edinburgh has an elevated portion where all the roads are actually bridges? If they cracked through, you'd fall close to three stories. The style reminded me a little of how Venice, Italy is (mostly) all buildings and canals. Anyway, we're planning on an excursion to St. Andrews. And Jordan just thumped me into the wall so that I'd write that we're visiting Edinburgh Castle, too. Yay, more buses...

Oh yes, and our accommodations, the Tankard House, are are deliciously quiet along the cobblestone road. And the owner, David, rocks.

7-14-2006: Bus = HATE
We and British mass transit have a love-hate relationship. We want to love it and it largely hates us.
We took a rousing tour of Edinburgh Castle, including locations such as Mons Meg (the largest medieval-Renaissance cannon bigger than me with a 2-mile range), St. Margaret's Chapel, and the Scottish royal artifacts (the crown jewels and the Stone of Destiny). After that, we took our trip to St. Andrews.

The golf course was our destination and it was beautiful, as I expected. However, it did surprise me that it has a beach right there. Being so hot, I wanted to go swimming but unfortunately couldn't get there. I was a little sad. Anyway, Dad got his hats, a golf towel, and I took some more pictures of the British flora. I'm not sure what it is about them, but every last one of the Britons have a thumb greener than the Hulk.

Ask anyone in the family how getting back was, and the answers may range from "challenging" to "everything but impossible." To return to Edinburgh first requires a bus ride from St. Andrews itself to a neighboring little hamlet called Leuchars. Considering our record already, we didn't expect particularly good fortune. We ended up waiting almost 25 minutes for a bus and almost walked to the station. I just hope the Germans and Austrians are a little kinder to us.

Well, now I must sleep if I can. I'm sharing a room with three snoring people and a constantly-running fan from the bathroom. Shoot, where are my earplugs? Ah yes, there they are!
Good night. Germany awaits us...

7-15-2006 : Sprechen sie Englisch?
Well, we are in Deutschland. Everyone in the family has talked so much about visiting this country and now, we are finally here. It's a little hard to believe it. The airport definitely treated us well-a bus shuttle drove us from the airplane to baggage claim & customs, which didn't take long at all. The Germans definitely believe in efficiency.

Jordan's German classes from North Park are now being put to work nearly three years later. He calls it "caveman German," something akin to "I speak little German, you help, ugh!" Regardless of how bad or good it may be, it along with his sense of direction have successfully taken us to the hotel and ordered dinner at a wurst stand. I won't complain, although I am missing hearing people speak English everywhere.

The accommodations are both good and bad. The place is called the Hotel Pension Austriana. What a pension is exactly beats me, but it seems to be somewhat of a cross between a bed & breakfast and a full-fledged hotel. Anyway, it's located in an what seems to be an old German house with REALLY creaky floors. It's a bit noisy when you walk, but it's kind of charming in a weird way. Unfortunately, it doesn't have A/C, which seems to be a pattern in Europe. It's really unhelpful in this hotter weather, which is a bit stifling.

German cuisine, however, is really tasty. A nice wienerwurst, some pommes frites (with mayonnaise? hmm, not bad), and Coca-Cola in the glass bottles (Hey Alex, Sara! It's awesome!) make a decent dinner. Oh, added bonus: there's a computer in rezeption and we can use it. I wish it wasn't slower than our old family dinosaur, but it gets the job done. Now we can stay in touch!

7-16-2006: Bells are ringing!
I hear churchbells! If only I could be in church this morning... unfortunately, my nice clothes are still pretty icky from Jordan's graduation, so I couldn't go nicely dressed anyway, which is a must in Germany. The große frühstück at the cafe was really delicious. It was my first time eating a soft-boiled egg in an egg cup, which just goes to show how sheltered or American (or maybe both) I am. Luckily, I knew exactly what to do in terms of how to eat one. Thank you, Mr. Humphries. And bread... so much delicious German breads... yum!

After Dad and Jordan haggled with Frau Schafer in a mixture of German and English over train tickets at the Hauptbahnhof, we finally were off to go sight-seeing. First on the agenda was the Brandenburg Gate, the famous pillared place from the old Berlin Wall. Jordan and I took tons of pictures, some serious and others not really serious, and then explored the other side. We found the Tiergarten, so we hid in the shade. Then we explored the Straße des 17 Juni and accidentally found the memorial to Soviet WWII soldiers. I got a really sweet shot of it with its red flowers.

The Haus der Checkpoint Charlie was incredible. The stories of East Berliners are unbelievable. Two families made probably the most daring escape by constructing a hot-air balloon by hand and flying over the wall in the middle of the night. These tales seem so far away to Americans, who haven't felt a war's effects on its soil since the Civil War. We also took a look at the border between the American and East German zones. The picture of the East German soldier was a bit chilling.
Well, after listening to Mom fight with the sink, sleep awaits me. Gute nacht!

Comments(1)

yay for traveling is right! I've always wanted to go to Europe. Glad your having a good time.
strummingalong