Kirsten's Here!

Some of you might know that my sister, Kirsten, is over here visiting me at the moment. Of course she knew she wouldn’t find me entertaining enough so she planned a little trip for us. A day after her arrival in surprisingly warm and sunny London we took off for Krakow, Poland. It was cold and raining when we arrived which would prove to be something of a meteorological constant for the balance of our time on the Continent. Our first full day in Poland was occupied by a trip out to Oswiecim (Auschwitz) where we visited the famous concentration/extermination camp. Aside from getting a glimpse of Eastern Europe, this was the real reason for going so far afield. The weather was fittingly dreary and it was hard to imagine what it must have been like to work in pyjama-like uniforms while emaciated from a starvation diet. The living conditions were atrocious and much of what our guide said was poignant. It is frightening to think that many of the guards working at these camps were ordinary people with families and children of their own. How anyone thought it acceptable to send hundreds of thousands (well, millions actually) callously to their deaths is beyond me. I think what struck me most about the place was the efficiency of the entire “Final Solution”. This was not an act of passion, it was not a crime of war in the traditional sense of the word (in fact the establishment of the legal crime of ‘genocide’ came about as a direct result of the Holocaust) rather it was clinical and systematic. Jews and other ‘Undesirables’ were processed, passed from hometown, to centralized ghettos, then on to transit camps and then finally to their final destinations. Once there they were either killed immediately or given a reprieve and used as free labour until they died of starvation or disease. Their belongings were confiscated and redistributed to Germans, their hair was shorn and woven into fabric, their gold teeth were extracted after their deaths, and so on. Such premeditated and wholesale slaughter boggles the mind.

Krakow itself has a charming Old Town which we explored but the rain and cold made things a little tricky. There’s certainly some interesting architecture and a definite shift between the Old and new(er) town. Honestly, Kirst and I spent most of our time trying to stay dry and warm. We took a rather uncomfortable night train to Prague which is a beautiful city. It is delightful and oh so photogenic. It was still cold and we were even surprised by a short snowstorm. We managed to have a good time and despite Kirst getting sick and injuring her knee, we saw most of what we had hoped to.

Krakow Castle (Wawel)

Prague

Charles Bridge, Prague

Prague

A night train and a (COLD!) day in Krakow later we were on a plane for Edinburgh. After a short night we boarded a micro bus for a tour of the Highlands and the Isle of Skye (should you ever decide to do the same we recommend Rabbie’s Tours…great value for money, excellent guides, etc.). It was nice to just sit and be taken care of. I think I know understand the appeal of cruises and all-inclusive resorts…though I must admit I still turn my nose up at them. The first day was a drive north-west through the Highlands, stopping to see Hamish, the odd loch, passing by Ben Nevis (Britain’s highest mountain), some castles, and lots and lots of sheep. It rained (SURPRISE!) most of the day but we were safely tucked away in a warm bus getting a running commentary on the scenery, landmarks, and associated history/geography/geology/etc. That night we made it to Portree (the capital of Skye) and stayed in a nice little hostel with a view of the bay and of the mountains in the distance. The next day we drove around Skye and were blessed with awesome weather and clear views. The pace of life on Skye is what you might expect out of a rural area (which was refreshing after having been in London for the last few months) and driving around in the sunshine, taking pictures of stunning cliffs and snow-capped mountains was really very pleasant. We spent the night in Portree again before heading back to Edinburgh via Loch Ness (no sight of Nessie).

Neist Point, the Westernmost part of Skye. The lighthouse is now a B&B. The parking lot's near where I took the picture...

The view from our hostel in Skye

Eilean Donan Castle

Scottish Shortbread (and me looking like an idiot)

We spent a couple of days poking around Edinburgh before heading back to London and I must say I love the place. The architecture is rather cold and imposing (which I liked) and the people are warm. The historic bits are relatively small which made for some nice walking along the Royal Mile and surrounding areas. The castle is impressive, perched on its volcanic plug and the steep streets make for a nice amount of variety and for great vistas out over the city and to the Firth of Forth.

The view from the front door of our Hostel in Edinburgh...(it's Edinburgh Castle in case you were wondering)

On our way down from Edinburgh we stopped to visit some family friends we met in Strasbourg when we were young and had a few lovely hours with them.

Now we’re back in the centre of the universe planning out the next leg of our travels (a quick dash over to Strasbourg and maybe to Geneva for Kirst). After that I’m on my way back to Canada for a few days (the opportunity arose in the form of cheap flights as did the motive in the form of…well, I’ll save that for later.) =)

Lent Term in 1000 words or less.

Hi folks. I realize it’s been a LONG time since my last post and while I don’t suffer from the delusion that any of you wait for my next post with bated breath I still feel a little badly for having disappeared for so long. So just to put your minds at ease, I’m alive and well. Lent Term (um, Spring Term in Canada) has flown by disturbingly quickly and I’ve been struggling to keep up. Here’s a little summary of the last couple of months.

Just as people were getting settled into their post-Christmas routine we were hit by what I call the ‘Great Blizzard of 2009’ (in reverence for the ‘Really Great Blizzard of 2007’ when I was stranded at the U of S, etc, etc, etc.) It started snowing so I took a picture to make a kind of gag post…something along the lines of ‘Look! We got snow here too!”


In the end I think we got 7 inches of snow in the course of an evening which is more than London has seen since the early 60s. The city ground to a halt as public transit was closed down. The city was super ill-equipped to deal with the snow so while there were a few salt/gravel spreading trucks careening around, there wasn’t a snow plough to be seen. Something like 30% of Londoners didn’t even try to get to work the next day. Schools (including mine) were shut down and whoever had managed to make it in was sent home early as snow clouds were rolling in once again. I guess the British economy lost something like a billion Pounds Sterling (roughly $C 2 billion) for every day of the ‘crisis’. It was nice to walk around the next day and seeing kids (not to mention my Asian, African, etc. classmates) who had never seen snow before running around and making snowmen, snow angels, having snowball fights, etc. etc. etc. It was almost a carnival atmosphere and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many Londoners smiling in the streets!

City Hall and the Thames

Bundled up with hot chocolate and a fire in my IBM 'hearth'

OK, enough with the weather…it’s not like most of you aren’t used to snow! I guess it was just telling as I stood there waiting for a bus (that never came…yes, I got stranded this time too…sigh) to see cars struggle to drive by. The drivers really didn’t know what to do with themselves and most of them had 6 or 7 inches of snow covering the whole vehicle except for the arcs made by the windshield wipers.

A couple weeks after the snow had melted, Kendal, Heath (a friend of ours from church who’s doing a Master’s in War Studies), and I went on a day trip to Oxford. The ‘real’ purpose was to attend a couple lectures (one by the former head of MI6 –James Bond works for MI6– and the other by a US military officer who literally wrote the book on Counter-insurgency), both of which were excellent. The fringe benefit was to get to wander around a historic and beautiful city. Oxford is the English-speaking world’s oldest university (I think it celebrated 800 years recently) and almost anybody who’s anybody in the UK went there…that is, if they didn’t go to the LSE… =)

The city was amazing and as a student it almost felt like treading on hallowed ground…a little corny, but true. It’s a lovely and storied place with amazing architecture and a distinctive flavour but by the end of day I felt a little bit like a fish in a tank, always bumping into the edges, or something we’d just seen a few hours earlier. And it was full of rich kids. The last event we went to was attended by a bunch of ruddy cheeked boys wearing tailored suits and school ties. Quintessentially British. And a little envy inducing. I mean, it is Oxford after all!

All Souls' College where one of the lectures was held.

Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford

"The Old School" I'm not too sure what this was but since it was in Oxford I can only conclude it must be 'The' original old school.

Christ Church College of Harry Potter fliming location fame.

One more incident and I’ll wrap up. A couple of weeks ago I went to a lecture given at Westminster Palace (of Big Ben and Houses of Parliament fame…and where I happen to be sitting again at the moment…). I have to be honest, I wasn’t really as interested in the topic of the lecture as I was in the venue. Anyhow, after the event I got to chatting with a fellow who’d also been in attendance. It came up that he works for RUSI (the Royal United Services Institute –Britain’s ‘Think Tank of the Year’. It specializes in military affairs and deals closely with the UK Ministry of Defence which just happens to be its next-door neighbour.) I told him I was just about to submit an application for an internship there. He asked which department I wanted to work for and I told him “Military Sciences”, to which he answered “I do the intern hiring for that department, drop by my office for a chat tomorrow.” Well, that ‘chat’ turned out to be an interview and I’m now happy to report that I have an internship lined up for the summer/fall. In addition to the regular internship grind (‘file this’, ‘photocopy that’) it sounds as though I’m going to be able to do some really interesting work in a field in which I’m very interested. It could only be better it were a paid internship…or a full time salaried job!

Well, that about brings us up to the present. The term is in its dying days and my sister gets here on Friday to visit me and to take a spin around the continent. I’ll post again with pictures and stories when we get back.

Pond Hopping

Well, some of you asked me for a peek at the woman behind the camera in my posting “Day at the Beach” so here you have it:



This is Kendal who I met very shortly after arriving in the UK. We met at church but soon realized we’d both served missions in Argentina (in different places and at different times) and that we were both going to be studying at the LSE.

Anyhow, Kendal’s from a town in Virginia about 3 hours out of Washington and she invited me to spend some time there over the holidays. We managed to find me a cheap flight so a week after getting back from Belgium I boarded a plane for DC. I must say that it felt weird to be back in North America since I wasn’t planning on hopping the Pond for some time yet.

I was able to meet nearly all of Kendal’s family (as they were all home for Christmas) and felt very welcome…though I must admit I felt a little out of place and overwhelmed by all the grandchildren running around. In any event I enjoyed myself and was able to relax for a few days in a charming little town in the Shenandoah Valley. Really a beautiful place.



I also got to try my hand at rock climbing for the first time: something I’d always wanted to do but never had the chance to.

Since both of our flights left from DC, Kendal and I were able to spend a few hours in the capital (something else I’d always wanted to do but hadn’t had the chance to). The weather was crumby and we didn’t have quite as much time as we’d hoped (it got dark surprisingly early) but we managed to see the big things. I also got to wander around the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (both locations) which is something I’ve been reading about since I was a kid.

(The Capitol. Notice the stands being set up for the Presidential Inauguration in front of the building.)

(Honest Abe in his Memorial)

(The Vietnam Veterans Memorial)

(Smithsonian)

Now I’m back in London and a couple of weeks into a new term. I still feel overwhelmed and wish I could slow time a little but I’ve got things sorted out (for the most part) and am getting into the swing of things at school, at church, etc. I'm starting to feel like part of the Ward and have resigned myself to the fact that academic brilliance will continue to elude me...probably permanently! =)

Christmas on the Continent

This Christmas I went on a jaunt to the continent with a friend of mine from Saskatoon. Brennan arrived in London where we spent a day seeing the sights and meeting with friends. The next day we took a flight to “Florence” and landed at:

Go RyanAir!

The obligatory (corny) shot...

Anyhow, we spent the afternoon in Pisa, seeing the leaning tower, being enchanted by the architecture, and eating some scrumptious (if overpriced) food. It quickly became apparent that my travelling companion’s motives for coming to Europe were more gastronomic than anything else. More on that later. That evening we took the train to Rome where we staying in a hostel near the main train station…an area not nearly as charming as it looks on Google Earth.

The next morning we took another train to Naples where the promise of stunning Mediterranean scenery faded as the sky filled with clouds as our train moved further south. I was looking forward to seeing Mt. Vesuvius (think Pompei) but it was hidden by the low-lying clouds. Naples is probably the most intense place I’ve yet been. It’s simply overwhelming to the sense. As per Brennan’s food fetish we looked for a couple of good, authentic pizzerias (the food was invented in Naples) and ended up getting lost time and again in a warren’s nest of narrow streets flanked by fall apartment buildings. Those of you following the news may be aware that Naples’ garbage collection workers went on strike for the better part of a year. While the mounds of trash where gone, the leftovers weren’t and the residual rubbish only added to the flavour of the city. Plethoras of scooters mixed with centuries-old buildings and drying laundry hanging between them to create an aura that must be experienced to be understood.

The street got narrower and the buildings got taller further down the street. I didn't think to take another picture then...I was too busy trying not to get 'smooshed' between a car and a wall!

The pizza was simple and very good (and cheap!) and we eventually managed to bumble our way back to the train station in time to get confused by the notoriously unreliable transport schedules. We made it back to Rome that evening after a slightly stressful episode trying (unsuccessfully) to get to Pompei before dark.

Brennan's reaction to authentic Italian pizza.

The next day saw Brennan and I trying to do the impossible. The saying goes that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but we did try to see it all in that amount of time. We started with the Vatican (the world’s smallest sovereign state) where we explored St. Peter’s Basilica before climbing to the top of the dome where we drank in a splendid panorama of the city. We wanted to see the Vatican museums (including the Sistine Chapel) but the admission price was a little steep and we were running short on time so we waved goodbye to the Pope and headed for the Pantheon (formerly a Roman temple to their gods, now a Catholic church…the place has a higher concentration of churches than Utah!) which had the largest dome in the world at the time of its construction.

Brennan's opinion of his mid-morning/pre-Vatican snack sandwich.

From the base of the dome of St. Peter's.

Climbing to the top of the dome.

The panoramic view from the top (sorry for the resolution...I borrowed this from Wikipedia)

There were some guys dressed up as legionnaires outside charging exorbitant fees (like everyone else in Italy…but I digress) to have their pictures taken. I got them on the move from behind…not a great picture but the price was right.

Pantheon

"Legionnaires"

From the Pantheon we wound our way past the monument to Vittorio Emanuele onto the Via dei Fori Imperiali which leads to the Coliseum and is lined by ancient ruins, including Trajan’s Column and the Roman Forum (where we picked our way through what used to the be heart of Rome). The sun set and we ate (pizza, yet again! But it was good so no complaints from this guy!) before heading on to look for some open access sights like the Spanish Steps (I’m really not sure what makes them so famous but I climbed them and was reminded of the area around Sacre Coeur in Paris. Maybe that’s why.) and the Trevi Fountain. We didn’t manage to find the latter before our time ran out so I suppose I’ll never make it back to Rome (legend has it that tossing a coin into the fountain guarantees one’s return to the city).

Roman Forum. (The green triangle at the bottom is the edge of the Temple of the Vestal Virgins)

Forum (again)

Pizza (again)

We took a sleeper train from Rome that night and arrived in Venice the next morning…at 5:30. We waited in the open air terminal for 4 hours until Brennan’s former classmate Alex came to get us. I NEARLY FROZE. It was pretty miserable as there was nowhere to go to warm up at that hour and the metal benches in the station all angled downward to stop people like me from catching their beauty sleep. All was forgotten when Alex took us out for hot chocolate and then guided us around the city. I really liked Venice. I had imagined it with more water and fewer streets but was pleasantly surprised to find that all the streets were for pedestrians wich made for a very enjoyable tour. We were lucky as a week or so before our arrival the city had been flooded to about 3 feet above street level but everything had dried out by the time we arrived. Any dreams of renting a gondola, however, were dashed when we found out the going rate was 100+ Euros.

After a relaxing day in Venice the three of us boarded (yet another) train bound for Udine, Alex’s hometown. North East of Venice and a stone’s throw away from both Austria and Slovenia, Udine stood in stark contrast to most of what we’d seen so far in Italy…it was spotless.

Udine

l-r: Yours truly, Alex, Brennan

Villach, Austria

We stayed a couple of days, taking a day trip to Austria to see the Alps up close and to wander through the Christmas markets, before waving goodbye to Alex, Udine, and Italy. We did something very uncharacteristic and left Udine on schedule and left ourselves plenty of time to arrive at Venice’s Marco Polo airport. This is where Brennan’s ‘bad travel chi’ kicked in. Through some travel delays, some poor decisions on my part and mostly through some bad signs and a less-than-cooperative shuttle bus driver, we missed our pre-booked flight to Brussels. Several seething hours, a few hundred Euros and a couple of Lufthansa flights later we arrived in Belgium.

Beligan Waffle in it's natural environment

We stayed in Leuven (just outside of Brussels, where Brennan did his Master’s) with a couple (Patrick and Montserrat) with whom Brennan had lived. They were very friendly, excellent hosts and great company. We spent much of our time in Leuven meeting with Brennan’s friends or wandering around the city. We spent Christmas Eve (the big event in Europe…and, it seems, most of the non-North American world) at Patrick’s parents’ house where we were warmly welcomed along with Montserrat’s Mexican cousin and his Mexican friend. We had a lovely evening where conversation flowed freely in English, French, Dutch, and Spanish. Definitely an ideal Christmas away from home!

Christmas Eve at Patrick's parents' home.

Patrick, Montserrat, Brennan, Skinny White Guy

Christmas day was a low-key affair since Patrick was away with his extended family. Brennan, Montserrat and I went to a Catholic mass given in Dutch and Spanish. After a brief tour of the university we went ‘home’ to make a Christmas lunch of quesadillas (3 Mexicans + 2 Canadians = Unorthodox celebrations).

Brussels

Boxing Day (not a big deal over here) saw us packing up and going for a quick tour of downtown Brussels before boarding the Eurostar to return to London. Despite all the adventures, sights, and food we’d taken in I felt good to be home (well, ‘London home’) and realized how much I’ve grown to love this city in the brief time I’ve been here. It’s going to be tough to leave when the time comes!