My Flatmate Lives in a Hamlet

     I've been wanting to write a post with that title for months now and with my time here in England racing to an end I figured now was the time. The past 6 months I've done a lot of traveling around Europe and in England, which has been the focus of most of my posts. But where I called home was Ainsty Flat D2 Garrowby Way. When I arrived in York, it was dark and rainy. I had no idea where I was living, what my room would be like, if it had a bathroom, how many people I was living with or who I was living with. Similarly, the people I was to live with had no idea I was coming or who I was. One of my flatmates even thought I was German at first! At least we were all in the same boat. Surprisingly, I really wasn't too concerned. I'd just had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's in Germany and was feeling ready for my next adventure.
   Within the first few days, I met my new flatmates and, as we all learned, I was American and the four of them were British. And yes, one of them does live in a hamlet! At first I was a bit overwhelmed as they all knew each other already (and the campus and the country!). Week by week though I started spending a bit more time in the kitchen hanging out with them. By the end of my time, I had to force myself to get out of the kitchen to go study. I learned so much about British culture, words, food, and holidays and I taught them a bit about American culture as well. More than that though, I had a place to call home... friends to eat ice cream out of the tub with and to help me with spider infestations at 1am.  I couldn't have asked for a better place to call home and better group of people to call family here. Unfortunately, each of them has left for home already and I find myself in our kitchen already missing them. My time in England wouldn't have been the same without you. This is not a goodbye, just a see you in a few years. Most of all, Millie, Martha, Olivia, and Megan, thank you. I am so grateful to have met you and while America may be far, the pilgrims made it and so I'm sure with a Boeing-747 so can you.

My British Family 

     I've been lucky enough to travel to 12 different countries in the past year, but the most amazing part of my journey has been the people I've met along the way, many of whom I met on the Camino and then got to visit over Christmas break, spring break, and summer. To everyone who I've been lucky to meet, walk the Camino with, live with, visit, and travel with: you are always welcome to visit me America. I hope to see you all again one day. Thank you for being a part of my year.
     And for those of you at home who I said goodbye to last summer, I'm coming home tomorrow! A year older, a year wiser? We have a year's worth of missed holidays, birthdays, hikes, hugs, and laughs to make up for.

Last Trip of the Year

     I've just returned to York for the last time this year. I spent the past 4 days exploring Belgium. The first day I was in Brussels by myself and went on a lovely free walking tour. I learned lots of random things about food and beer on my tour, such as that there are actually 2 kinds of waffles! The Brussels waffle is crispier and not too sweet and thus you can put loads of sugary toppings on it. The Liege waffle is sweet itself and so you don't put toppings on it. I also learned that fries were invented in Belgium. There was a little fishing village that would catch and fry fish as their main food, but one year it was too cold and the lake froze over so they couldn't fish. Instead, they cut up potatoes in the shape of fish and fried them... and that's how we get fries (according to random Belgian tour guide). Pralines were also invented in Belgium when a doctor decided to coat medicine in chocolate to make it go down easier, then his son/someone I can't remember had the idea to replace the pills with cream. In just 2 short steps they managed to go from a pill to a chocolate dessert.
     Their sugary specialties are not only their specialties, but more like their dietary staples. Brussels was a cool city, but I wasn't too keen on the food options. Basically every block has a waffle place, a Belgian fries place, a chocolate shop, and ice cream. As you all know, I love all of those things and have quite a sweet tooth (I have eaten ice cream for breakfast before... Steamboat Kutandara 2009). Even so, I also do need real food and like eating healthy as well, so dining in Belgium was a tad limited as everywhere you turn all you can find are waffles! I did love my hostel though. In the picture below you can see that the beds were kind of like little wooden caves that you crawled in. Inside, there were even shelves for your stuff and a light. When you left you put your stuff inside and slid the door shut and locked it.
     My second day I went to Bruge which is in the Dutch speaking part (really makes no different to me since I can only say about 5 words in both French and Dutch). The town was so pretty. I went on a boat tour and got to see so many different styles of buildings. Apparently, Bruge was once the richest city in Europe, and it was also once the poorest city in Europe. Now it's doing pretty well with the flocks of tourists. In the afternoon, I took a quick train to the beach in Oostende. I had imagined myself laying on the beach in the sun, but alas it was a bit too cold, so I just enjoyed a long beach walk.
     The next day it was time to go to Antwerp to meet up with Danielle and some of her exchange friends. We had some Thai food and then walked around in some direction I don't remember. They'd been there before so sort of knew their way around. We made a valiant attempt to go to the American Food Store, which requires a walk, a tram and a walk since it's in some odd suburb, but it was closed. Guess I'll just have to wait a week to get American food. We went back to Liege in the French speaking part where Danielle lives and I stayed in a nice hotel in the city. Unfortunately, it ended up a not so pleasant experience since 2 guys tried to get to my room at 1 a.m. (apparently they were incapable of reading numbers or using their brains and thus scared the living daylights out of me). Thankfully the day improved once I met up with Danielle and her friend Emma in the morning. We walked down this 1k long market and then had Chinese food from a mini Chinese festival in the main square. I had sushi and lychee juice! We took the bus up to the citadel and took in the views while eating animal crackers (technically not animal crackers as they were letter shaped). Belgium is an odd place I must say, but it made for a good last adventure (and a waffle dinner of course) and best of all, seeing Danielle again. Thankfully, soon we'll both be home and I won't have to go all the way to Belgium to see her (though the one hour flight for £15 from Manchester was pretty convenient).

Neat hostel bed in Brussels

The beach at Oostende 

 Me and Danielle in Liege

Summer in Poland

     Since about March, my friend Wendy and I had been planning to take a trip together to Poland. Finally, I finished my last exam and it was time to take off to celebrate by exploring Warsaw and Krakow. I was lucky enough to have a few Polish friends to give me loads of recommendations. My Polish flatmate even taught me some Polish, so I was all set to say things like "hello", "goodbye" "please", "thank you", and "I don't speak Polish" (the most important of them all). These are the basic phrases I try to get down for each country I visit, and they usually end up coming quite in handy.
    We started off in Warsaw, which was a fairly sizable city, but we could get most places walking still. Since most of it was burned to the ground in WWII, the city actually has a really modern feel. There are loads of skyscrapers, highways, and shopping malls surrounding the landmark Palace of Culture and Science. The building was a "gift" from the Soviet Union, so it's a bit controversial in that while the building is pretty cool, it's also from the country that controlled Poland until about 1989 and has historically been seen as their enemy. While impressive, my favorite part of that area was actually a crosswalk that was painted to look like a piano keyboard! Another one of my favorite things was the University of Warsaw library which has a cool exterior with giant copper panels with passages in different languages carved onto them. It also has an amazing rooftop garden where we had a lovely picnic. We also visited Old Town, which has some cute narrow streets, squares, colorful old buildings, and wonderfully touristy restaurants. While in Warsaw we tried to do some sampling of Polish food. We tried pierogi, which is typically a savory dumpling filled with meat or potato, but we went for the strawberry! We also tried zapiekanka, which is a food you can get from food carts that is essentially half an open baguette with cheese and mushroom.
     After a few days in Warsaw, we took the train to Krakow. Since Krakow wasn't damaged as much in the war, it has a much more old historic feel with most things centered around the main square in old town. The first day we explored Krakow and went to an underground museum beneath the main square. Around dinner time, we went to a chocolate café and I had an iced chocolate and some mystery truffles (the menu was only in Polish so I just looked at the pictures and picked a few). We may have ruined our appetite for dinner a tad, but it was worth it. We also explored Kazimierz which is the area of town that was historically the Jewish Quarter. Now it's quite a happening part of town with lots of new hipster food places. There are some synagogues and the old Jewish cemetery as well, which has gotten quite overgrown but now there's a lot of refurbishment work happening. One evening, we went to a special restaurant with Jewish food and Klezmer music (though we just went for dessert and the music). While 100% touristy, the music was actually amazing. I'd been wanting to see Klezmer music for quite some time actually after seeing a presentation at Grinnell about its revival in Poland.
   We also took some day trips from Krakow. We went to Wieliczka, which is famous for its massive salt mine that even has chapels, statues, and ballrooms inside. It is altogether 9 underground levels. After a three hour tour, we'd only seen 1% of the mine. We also went to Zakopane, which was a cute little mountain town sort of similar to Estes Park. It's well-known for its oscypek, which is a special kind of smoked sheep cheese shaped like christmas ornaments. Our last day trip was to the concentration camp Auschwitz in the town of Osvięcim. It was certainly a very erie and somber place to visit, but I'm also very glad to have had the opportunity to visit there. I was also amazed to see how many people from so many different countries take the time out of their vacation to visit such a place.
     I didn't have any idea what Poland would be like, but it turned out to be the best place to celebrate the end of exams. There was absolutely so much to do there and I hope to go back one day and visit new cities and also go back to Warsaw and Krakow again. After returning to home sweet York, it was time to get a move on with my very last assignment... a 3500 word essay for my archaeology class. Somehow I managed and I've just turned it in (hence I've now got time to write another obscenely long blog post), so I've officially finished my 3rd year. Tomorrow I'm off to Belgium for a weekend of well, who really knows, but I think I'll go relax on the beach and then I'm going over to Liége to see my now brilliantly-french-speaking little sis.

View of the piano crosswalk from the top of the Palace of Culture and Science 

Climbing the flying pink horse in front of the national library

Zapiekanka snack time 

My first time to a cat café

23 plaques - each written in a language spoken by the Jews

Aldi Society

    It's time for me to tell you a bit about one of my favorite places in England: Aldi. Aldi is such a beautifully simple two syllable name. Easy to spell, easy to say, and even better to visit. Aldi is a supermarket chain that has basically mind-blowingly low prices, super odd organization, and great finds every time.

     While in Europe, I've become quite a fan of grocery stores anywhere and everywhere, because, well, what's not to like about an organized room full of food? That said, grocery shopping and cooking is not always a looked forward part of adulthood as you have to actually take the time to go buy the food, then bring the food home, then cook the food. I've been to many a grocery store, and Aldi is the one that tops them all. While I may seem a bit over-enthusiastic about a budget grocery store, I obviously am not alone in my love for Aldi. 

     Most recently, the Aldi Society was founded by it's three core members, myself, Millie, and Olivia. Previously, Millie and Olivia were generally online shoppers at Sainsbury's, which is convenient because food is delivered right to your door. But believe it or not, even with the 30 minute walk to and from Aldi, they were still converted to Aldi devotees. Our main activities involve a weekly trip to Aldi. Prior to the trip, you may hear things like "I'm so excited about our trip to Aldi today" or "Oh my gosh guys can we just go to Aldi right now". Since it's a bit of a walk there, we suit up with our empty backpacks and walk through the fields and army barracks till Aldi is within sight. You really never know what new things you might find. You can get snap pea crisps, a whole pot of yogurt for 45p, organic mushrooms that are cheaper than the nonorganic ones, 6 bananas for 69p, a box of tropical fruit popsicles for 99p. They even have hummus. What's not to love? It just never ends. The store's not too big that you feel overwhelmed, but it is easy to get thrown off by the organization, or lack thereof. You'll find lightbulbs by the frozen fruit or eggs by the kitchen roll. It's easy to feel overwhelmed at first by the nonstandard supermarket experience, but once you get the hang of it, it's always an experience to look forward to. 

     Arriving home from Aldi is a bit like coming home from a good vacation. You sit down and breath a sign of relief as you take your heavy bag off your shoulders. You bask in all the lovely foods you've brought home and look forward to eating them. Then, you realize you have to get back into reality, reorganize your refrigerator shelf, and wait until the next trip to Aldi.  

Testimonials: 

"Aldi is love. Aldi is life." - Millie (S. England)

"I thought I'd discovered heaven on earth. Turns out, it's a place called Aldi". -Olivia (N. England)

"It's always a good day when you go to Aldi". -Briannah (W. America)

Society photos: 

Strawberries left behind on some cleaning spray

Lightbulbs above the frozen fruit

Member Millie taking a break to contemplate her shop

The Aldi Society leaves you with these parting words of wisdom: 

     "Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves."  

  

De Vuelta en Salamanca

      Last weekend I returned to Salamanca, Spain for the weekend to visit the incredible city that was my home last semester. In some ways nothing had changed, but on the other hand, it seemed like everything had changed. Even though I'd already lived there for 5 months, in my weekend there, I got to see new places and meet new people. I also got to stay with my host family and visit some of my favorite places (i.e. La Croissantería).

Change is inevitable...

1. The butcher shop, Hipercarne, on the Villamayor (street I'd walk home on) is now a Vodaphone. The fast food pizza place next to McDonald's is now an ice cream place. 
2. My neighborhood is the best neighborhood in the world because it is filled with amazing street art. But they tore down the building that had my favorite painting on it... :( 
3. Goodbye favorite painting, but hello new installations made out of bike tires and miniature gardens made by school children. 
4. Sara's door (i.e. Villamayor 40). My best friend Sara lived a few blocks down the street from me and would always be waiting for me outside her door to walk into town together. They'd been doing construction on the interior of her building previously, but now the door is completely different! 
5. In the plaza between the cathedrals and linguistics department, there's a new Henry Moore sculpture exhibit. 
6. My host mom has another dog. While she was mostly very friendly, she also was very protective and did not like it when I was home alone and tried to do outrageous activities like peel an orange or pour myself a glass of water. 
7. There's a vegan tapas bar! And get this... Spaniards (including my host family) actually go to it. The tapas were incredible and we even went there twice. 
8. There's a new statue with a digital screen counting down the days and hours till the 800th anniversary of the university (in 2018).
9. My friends are gone... Walking around the city made me miss the people who made the place so special. Most of them have scattered across the world to their homes in America, Germany, and New Zealand. It was odd to walk down my street and know that Sara would never be waiting for me there again. I'd never walk to the croissantería with Áine again. I wished more than anything they could've all been there too, but time brings change and we all had new places to go and homes to return to.  

Some things never change...

1. LA CROISSANTERÍA PARÍS. Did I mention that I love the Croissantería? Well the first time I went over the weekend, the person working there was someone I'd never seen. The second time I went (to buy 3 croissants for the road) the owner who is usually working was there and he recognized me! He remembered me and my friend coming in every Monday and Wednesday afternoon after class. 
2. The study abroad center is still filled with all the lovely staff and professors. It was nice to see them all again and see that things are still happening as usual there. 
3. The Plaza Mayor is still looking grand as ever, and the ice cream places have reopened for spring. 
4. The cathedrals are still standing and looking a bit more lively with tulips in front. 
5. The days in Spain are still somehow way longer than elsewhere. You don't eat lunch till 2:30pm, so it's as if you have an entire day before lunch. Then, you don't eat dinner till 9:30pm, so the day just keeps going and going! 
6. There's still some holiday at least once a week. Saturday was the 'Day of the Book', which, naturally, celebrates books. There was a nice outdoor market in the Plaza Mayor filled with books from every local bookshop. 
7. All the buildings from the 15th century are still so much the same that they are using Salamanca as the setting for a new American TV series, "Still Star Crossed". Over the weekend they were setting up for filming to make Salamanca look like Verona. One of the streets was entirely covered in sand and they had old market stands set up. On Monday they started filming and they had lots of horses, riders in armor, extras wearing clothes from the period, and trucks filled with swords to be used as props. Now just to wait for the show to be released.

     Obviously in my time living there I had enough of a routine that I noticed even the slightest changes upon returning. Even with all I got to do last semester, there were still many new adventures over the weekend. In Salamanca, there's a cupcake shop run by a woman from California and I finally went there! I had an amazing carrot cake cupcake and spoke in English for a while with the owner. Not only was the cupcake delicious, but it was nice to have some homemade "American" food and speak with someone with the same language and accent as me... filled my carrot cake and American accent void all in one. I also got to meet my host mom's best friend, Lola. I felt like I knew her already since she and my host mom were on the phone with each other practically every day! As it turns out, she is also a bit of a linguistics nerd, which of course meant we somehow ended up talking about case marking systems in various languages. 

     When I left Salamanca in December I knew I'd be returning to visit sometime in Spring. I knew it truly only was an Hasta Luego ('Until Later') as they say in Spain instead of goodbye. This time I left knowing that it may well be a very long time till I return. I hope it's still just hasta luego as I know Salamanca, the people I met there, and my Spanish host family will always hold a very special place in my heart. 

Hasta Luego Salamanca 

Back at IES Abroad

New installations in the neighborhood

Trekking down the sand covered street

Me and my host mom exploring the market

Me and Lola ready for filming!

Spring tulips at the cathedrals

Me, Mom, Sheep, and Chips

     For the last week and a half of break, my mom came to visit and we traveled all around Ireland, Northern Ireland, and London. We started off with a tour of the west coast of Ireland. We spent our first night in Glaway, which has a nice downtown pedestrian area. Ireland has loads of sheep so they make a lot of sweaters. We basically ate some dinner and went in about 10 sweater shops. My mom and I used to not be such great shopping buddies, but now I think our team shopping skills have shaped up quite nicely. Perhaps a day full of cute sheep was helpful to group shopping. The next day we went to the Cliffs of Moher, which are absolutely gorgeous. To my mom's dismay, we were unable to find a puffin, but we did see lots of other cool birds. We took some postcard worthy photos and then headed off to see the Blarney Castle. The castle is most well known for the Blarney stone, which is a stone that gives you the gift of eloquent speech for 7 years. You've got to climb up to the top of the castle and then lay on your back and hold onto a bar and hoist yourself up to kiss the stone. Let's hope the legend is true and both of us have got 7 years of eloquence to look forwards to. If anything, the adventure worked up my mom's appetite for chips (i.e. french fries) and she became an instant fan. We continued our little Irish adventure by going around the Dingle Peninsula. We saw the beehive huts, which are stone huts thought to be built in the 12th century. On the other end of the historic timeline, we saw where they are filming the new Star Wars! On the way back to Dublin we stopped at Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall. Barack Obama's great-great-great grandfather was from Moneygall and immigrated to the US, so Obama went there to visit in 2011 and naturally the town needed to name a giant rest stop gas station the "Barack Obama Plaza". After embracing our American-ness for a tiny bit, it was back to Dublin. The next day we had a free day and decided to go to Kilmainham Gaol which is a former prison. The British kept many members of the IRA there. After the 1916 uprising some of the main leaders were jailed and then executed there. It is only visitable by guided tour and they were all booked, but we got super lucky and got on the waiting list and eventually got to go on one. The tour was definitely worth the wait and one of the best guided tours we'd been on.

     The next day we said goodbye to the Republic of Ireland and went to Northern Ireland, the 6 counties that remain part of the UK, thus we also made the currency change to pounds and adjusted our ears to the strong northern Irish accent. We did the Black Taxi Tour of west Belfast, which was fascinating. The taxi driver takes you to the neighborhood where there is still a wall up between the British (Protestant) side and the Irish (Catholic) side. Each side looks so distinct, with different flags and political murals. They still close the gate each evening. Conflict in Northern Ireland ended in the 1990s, but they think that it's best to leave the wall up for now as the conflict is still so fresh and they don't want to cause any conflict. On a lighter note, Belfast is also known for being the building site of the Titanic, so we went to the "Titanic Experience" and learned a lot about the building and saw the port where it was constructed. We also ventured all the way north to see the Giant's Causeway which is a rock formation of hexagonal basalt pillars that is leftover from volcanic tectonic occurrences millions of years ago (that's about the extent of my geological knowledge). The legend about the giant who built it is way cooler, but I'll tell that part to you in person (since my horrible story telling skills are at least slightly more comical in person).

     Then it was time to return to my temporary home country of England and experience London. Neither of us had ever explored London, so we were both ready for an adventure. We went on one of those super touristy (but pretty great) hop on hop off busses. We stopped for a bit to see some Van Gogh at the National Gallery and the changing of the cavalry guard. We of course saw the London Eye, Big Ben, the Tower Bridge (which is the really impressive one that people, including myself, usually think is London Bridge), and the Tower of London. We took a river cruise on the Thames back towards the center and then went on a guided tour of the House of Parliament, which was incredible. You can't take pictures, but the inside was so ornately decorated and full of odd traditions and history. The next day we took a day trip out to Stonehenge with my friend Shanaz who is studying abroad in London. I honestly thought Stonehenge would just be super touristy, but it was actually really peaceful and impressive. And there were sheep... always adds to the scenery. On our night out in London we went to the theater to see Billy Elliot. To quote an anonymous reviewer "If I was in London again, I'd just go to the theater every night, that's it". 

The Cliffs of Moher

Kissing the Blarney Stone

Visiting the Wall on the Black Taxi Tour 

Me and Shanaz at Stonehenge

An Irish Easter

     One of the fun things about being abroad for a year is getting to celebrate holidays in different ways and in different places. There’s also new holidays to be celebrated, such as Pancake Day, an English holiday where you eat pancakes! Anyways, for Easter weekend I was in Dublin visiting my friend from home Maggie who lives there now. I hadn’t seen her in a year and had never seen her new home, so I was super excited. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday she and I were madly playing bass and baritone to Mhondoro together and now she’s married and living in Dublin and I’m studying in York. I’ll admit I was worried that both of us had become all serious, but that was definitely not the case and we quickly returned to our silly ways. We spent a lot of time walking around and letting me see the sights of Dublin. Being the amazing host and friend she is, Maggie made sure to take me to the best ice cream place, Murphy’s. We took a day trip up to Howth to see the seaside and eat at this incredible restaurant that has beds that you can sit on to eat your meal. Naturally, we spent a good 4 hours sitting in bed eating lunch and drinking wine. Then, it was time to prepare ourselves for our Easter celebrations, which had three main components. 1) Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for me, and chocolate soy popsicles for her 2) Watching Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix 3) Making paper bunny ears for the large mushroom we discovered creeping through the floorboards (it has since been removed, R.I.P). Other than our fabulous little Easter celebration, that weekend was also the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, which was an Irish rebellion against British rule. Though it failed, after many more rebellions a few years the later, the Irish finally gained independence from the UK. Maggie and I tried to go see a bit of the parade for it but it was way too crowded to see, but a fun and historic experience nonetheless. Then, we took the train down to Cork to visit there for a bit, since her husband there for the weekend. Cork is the next biggest city in Ireland but it is still way smaller than Dublin. We drove to Kinsale, a costal town with gorgeous cliffs, beaches, and ports. Afterwards, Maggie and I speedily made our way to the train station to head back home to Dublin. I wish the weekend could’ve been longer, but it was time for Maggie to go back to work and me to meet up with meet up with my mom and continue my travels.

Castles and Flower Ice Cream

     My Hungarian adventures began with a train ride from Vienna to Sopron to Szombathely where my Camino friend Timi was waiting for me. Though traveling alone is fun, it is also such a great feeling to know that someone will be waiting for you when you step off the train. Since we were in Szombathely, we figured we'd walk around there a bit and have dinner. I prepared myself for the new language by learning how to say "I don't speak Hungarian" in Hungarian. As we drove to her hometown, Sümeg, I attempted to memorize the names of her parents, 3 sisters and 3 brothers. I actually managed to learn all their names. Her family was so wonderful and welcoming. Her parents and youngest siblings don't speak any English, but we still had fun at meals with the help of Timi's translations and me trying to learn some Hungarian phrases. My pronunciation (or lack thereof) is usually good comic relief for everyone. Over the weekend, we visited the castle in Sümeg, which is the central landmark of town and absolutely gorgeous. And once you are in the castle, it's not even just a boring abandoned castle. They've got drawbridge demonstrations, chickens and ducks, games, a blacksmith, and a café. Timi's sister used to be a guide there, so we had fun letting her show us around. Their brother works at the castle and he showed me how to shoot a bow and arrow. Definitely the best castle I've been to! In the afternoon we went to a horse show (mostly put on for the tourists staying at the hotel at the base of the castle). It was so freaking awesome. Many of the riders were professionals and really impressive. They had to do crazy hard tasks like shooting a bow and arrow while riding a horse or catching rings on a sword while riding. On the first day of spring, we went hiking in the mountains filled with bear's garlic (a lovely vegetable I'd never heard of but that they eat in Austria and Hungary). We also visited lake Balaton and soaked up the lakeside sun. I wish I could've had more time in the beautiful Hungarian countryside and with Timi, but it was time I to continue my adventure.
     I survived a four hour bus ride to Budapest and after a couple unwary minutes of being on the wrong road I eventually found my hostel. The next morning I walked down Margit Island, which is some huge island in the Danube that people go running and walking on. I just spent some time walking around the Pest side of the river (Buda and Pest used to be two different cities separated by the river). In the afternoon, I met up for coffee with Roland, my trip leader from a group trip to Romania. It was cool to meet up with him after 5 years. Made me realize that 5 years seem to have flown by. At the same time, so much has happened and changed in 5 years that it feels sort of far away too. Anyways... On the second day, I rode the yellow metro line, the oldest metro in Europe. The rest of the day was filled with lots of eating. I met up with another friend from the Camino for lunch and then went to a confectionary for tejberisz (rice pudding). I spent the rest of the day walking around the Buda side of the river, which is on a hillside with a beautiful view of the rest of the city. My final and most lasting impression of Budapest, may however be the flower shaped ice cream.

Life in the Castle 

Livin' on the edge at Lake Balaton 

Heaven in an ice cream cone 

Austria

     I'm just finishing up my week in Austria and thought for a change I'd not procrastinate on my blog. I'll admit my real reason for coming to Austria was to fulfill my childhood dream of going on The Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg. My camino friend Steffi took the weekend off to come spend the weekend with me in Salzburg! Though Salzburg is small, it's super nice and got lots to do. We visited the Hohensalzburg (a medieval fortress), Mozart's birth house museum, Mozart's living house museum, some cathedral, some gardens, some grocery stores. On the Sound of Music Tour we saw the setting for the backyard of the Trapp family house, the house they used as the exterior of the house, the church for the wedding seen, and of course the gazebo. Afterwards, we ate Kaiserschmarn for dinner. I thought this was a dinner food... turns out it's a dessert, but we were both entirely content each ordering it as our main dish. Kaiserschmarrn is a traditional Austrian food that is sort of like chopped up french toast/biscuit with a plum jam sauce, which makes for a fabulous dessert or dinner! 

     After Salzburg, I headed up to Linz for one night. I didn't know much about Linz before I went, and I still don't know much about Linz, but they have a famous tart called Linzer Torte that comes from there. So, naturally, I found the original Linzer Torte café and ordered myself some Linzer Torte and managed to do so in German (mind you some menu pointing was involved). Next, I went to Graz, the second biggest city... which really is not that big. Austria is mostly smaller villages and even though Graz is the second biggest city, Vienna is about six times bigger than Graz. Graz widened my ice cream horizons as I tried both Pumpkin Seed Ice Cream and Poppy Seed Ice Cream. Both amazing! It's a shame Ben & Jerry's has not realized this yet, especially considering they've already resorted to putting potato chips in ice cream to create new flavors. 

     Vienna!!!!!!! Yesterday I arrived by bus and found my pension only to be slightly frustrated that no one was there, so I went for a wander to the grocery store. When I came back a lovely old man answered and showed me around in a very funny mix of German and English. He introduced me multiple times to Berry, Bibbi and Bubbi. Berry is a dog (the kind that are long and short with big floppy ears and lots of fur) and Bibbi and Bubbi are birds. Berry just likes to bark at strangers, so we haven't bonded yet. Today was "see everything you possibly can in Vienna" day. I walked around the whole entire historic downtown. Every other building is some architecturally impressive statue, park, church, palace, library, museum, etc. Most things I just enjoyed from the outside, but I did go inside the National Library and the Opera House, which were interesting. Following Viennese tradition, in the Opera House they have a different show each day of the week, so one performer may have to be simultaneously remembering and performing 3 shows. They also have to rebuild the stage each day for that night's show! After seeing the Opera House, I made the long trek to the Schönbrunn Palace, which was the summer home for many emperors. It seems like it would take them an entire summer just to find their way around the enormous palace! 

    Tomorrow I'm off to Hungary to visit my camino friend Timi. Auf wiedersehen Austria! 

Kaiserschmarrn 

Gazebo from The Sound of Music

"Tea is Life" - Martha Ceuppens

     This fabulous quote was uttered last night by my very own British (more specifically Cheshire) flatmate. Since that'd be a great title for my first blog post in England, I decided it was time to actually make that post. I'm here at the University of York, which is in the north of England... which also means there are some crazy Northern English accents, well not everyone since people at the uni are from all over. It took me a while to get the hang of understanding them and to be honest, I still don't always understand. Other than understanding loads of different accents, I also have to watch my word choice. My first week I was ordering something at a cafe from the display and unknowingly called a flapjack an oatmeal square. Flapjacks, for those who are not British, are essentially oatmeal squares... kind of like the shape of a brownie but with oats and nuts or fruit depending on the flavor. Among other things, pants here means underwear (trousers = pants). What they call jam is what we call jelly, what they call jelly is what we call Jello. Chips are what we call french fries, what we call chips they call crisps. This must just be a weird university thing, but a class is called a module. But, the actual instance of the class is called a lecture if it's a lecture, or a seminar, practical, tutorial or workshop (basically just having 4 different words for what seems to be just a small group session). British English is also so wordy, particularly their signs, my goodness... the opposite of concise and direct to say the least. I can't complain though, because even in their wordiness, most people are very helpful and polite.
     On that note, and before getting lost in vocabulary rants, I've got 3 modules right now: Conversation Analysis, Syntax, and The Structure of Hebrew. They are all linguistics, just as I like it, and also pretty different from each other. Hebrew is about 15 people, so it's kind of similar to what I was used to at Grinnell. Syntax is about a 60 person lecture plus a 20 person smaller seminar. Last time I took syntax was 2 years ago, so I have to do some digging in the depths of my brain for background knowledge sometimes. The year is divided into 3 terms and I'm here for Spring and Summer term. My linguistics modules run over the course of those two terms, and then my last module, some random archaeology one, doesn't start until third term.
     I have a lot of free time since the contact hours for my classes are really limited. I've gone through some phases... the running every morning phase (that ended), the let's sleep in everyday phase (that ended), the let's get up at 8 a.m. everyday phase (that ended), and the let's learn German phase (that's where I'm at now). Thankfully, I've found a few more consistent and reasonable pastimes. Every other Sunday I go hiking with the outdoor society and basically trudge through mud and past sheep in various English hillsides. I also sometimes go into town to have tea and scones, explore different restaurants, and be touristy. This week is the viking festival, so I've gone on a historic walking tour of the city, a viking vocabulary lecture (yeah I'm a nerd I know), and this weekend is the finale, which I think is some sort of viking reenactment. I've done some traveling so far: Leeds and Oxford. The covered market in Oxford is incredible and you must try the pies and the cookies there. Then there's the usual studying in the library, going grocery shopping and eating like a proper college student. To those who doubted my cooking abilities, I can officially say I've been cooking for myself since January 4th and am still alive. I even made my first omelette!

 Visiting the York Minster with Anita and Mira

Me and Jenny in Oxford

 

Winter Break - Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg

     The last weeks in Spain were filled with a few too many exams and papers, all accompanied by croissants of course, but in the end, we all survived. After having 3 final exams in one day, the last one ending at 9pm, I had a final ice cream with Anika and said goodbye till June. With no time to lose, Sara and I left Salamanca at 7am for Madrid. We were completely wiped out to say the least, and thus decided to just spend the day relaxing in our hotel (watching Friends, drinking tea, successfully avoiding eating the minibar snacks... usual hotel room pastimes). In the evening, we set out for the big city to see El Rey León (The Lion King). We had been planning this for over a month and despite being completely drained from our Spanish semester, we excitedly readied ourselves for our final Spanish adventure of the year. Seeing the Lion King has been one of my dreams, so I was just about freaking out. Sara and I, being the talented adventurers we are, somehow accidentally entered the theater before everyone else and the cast was warming up on stage. We scampered out and realized that we were supposed to wait a bit longer. Showtime.... let's just say the show was absolutely gorgeous and amazing and wow it definitely fulfilled all my Lion King dreams. When it ended, I just wanted to hit the repeat button. We made it back to our hotel and slept a lovely 13 hours. Unfortunately, morning meant saying goodbye to Sara. Despite the watery eyes of goodbye, I was excited for my stay in the Netherlands.
     I arrived in the Eindhoven airport wearing my santa hat so that my friend Wouter could find me (amongst the throngs of people at the tiny airport... not really). It was so nice to be back with a friend from the Camino. He let me be a tourist and see Zaans Schaans and Amsterdam. Don't worry, I saw windmills, wooden shoes, and the red light district. We also visited the Anne Frank museum which was very interesting. We finished the day off with all you can eat sushi. Wow. The next days we did a bit more local sightseeing and relaxing. We ate pancakes, hamburgers, stroopwafelen, and chocolates. I fell in love with the sheep on the Dutch countryside. I watched Despicable Me 1 and 2, so now I'm minutely more caught up on popular culture. We even made a day trip to visit Danielle! I didn't think I would see her until spring, but then I realized I was literally 1.5 hours away from her. We drove to Olne, Belgium to pick her up and then went to Maastricht, Holland and tried many Dutch foods at the christmas market (herring, oliebollen, pea soup). Then, we made our way to Liége, Belgium, so that Danielle could show us around her city. I did indeed eat a Belgian waffle. The christmas market was absolutely packed with people, but we escaped the crowds by going on the ferris wheel. Then, we had some hot wine (quite odd, and lovely, to share a drink with the little sister for the first time) and escaped the city in search of Belgian fries. On the way back to Danielle's house, we stopped at a shop for fries (and frikandel).  Oh also, Danielle speaks French absolutely brilliantly, it is beautiful. After chatting with her host family for a bit, we said goodbye and headed back to the Netherlands.
     It was time to meet up with my other Camino friend, Judith, in Utrecht. Wouter and I drove there in the morning and I managed not to drive him completely insane in our daily parking the car adventure. The three of us had a lovely Camino reunion lunch before we had to say goodbye to Wouter. Judith and I spent the rest of the day romping around Utrecht and accomplishing quite a lot in a single afternoon. We visited the Camino de Santiago information office just because no pilgrim can resist anything to do with the Camino. We climbed the Dom Tower, which is 465 steps. Since Judith was a history major and used to be a Dom Tower tour guide, she was the most knowledgable personal guide ever. We also ate super hipster dutch yogurt. I found Celestial Seasonings tea in an organic food shop and barely contained my excitement. We finished the day off with baking christmas cookies, which, might I say, were absolute perfection, then making falafel pita for dinner and indulging in some Gilmore Girls. Judith so kindly woke up early in the morning to walk me to the train station. After running to various platforms (the train changed platforms twice) and another goodbye, I was off to Germany.
      Phil, my friend from college who is from Germany, was flying home for Christmas and we planned for me to take a train arriving around the same time as his flight. Downsides to not having a phone... when your train gets delayed 90 minutes and you have no way to contact the person meeting you at the train station. In the end, we managed. Thanks to some airport WiFi, Phil found me and we took a train from Frankfurt to Türkismüle, where his dad picked us up at the train station. I spent Christmas and New Year's Eve with Phil and his family in the tiny town of Gusenburg. I do not speak any German, which meant I was pretty clueless and awkward most of the time, but that did not prevent me from having a lovely winter break with Phil, his sister, and parents. I got to go to a German christmas market in Trier, where I had glühwein (hot wine) and flammkuchen (some kind of flat bread pizza thing). And yes, there were many white twinkly lights, just as I had wished for. Christmas in Germany is kind of a three-day affair. Christmas eve we had a family lunch (and we had Schnitzel!), went to church, and then opened presents in the evening. Christmas morning we slept in and had lunch together and then went to Phil's Grandma's house for the afternoon. For me, it was a bit of a long afternoon, since I didn't understand a single thing, but there were yummy cakes and even thought I didn't understand them, the people were all nice. The day after christmas is also a holiday, the 2nd day of christmas, but I don't actually remember what we did. Ah, perhaps it was hiking day. Nope, it was Phil and Briannah go to Traben-Trarbach day. In that valley town, they have a very unique and elaborate christmas market where there are about 4-6 markets that are all underground in wine cellars. That of course entailed me gawking at beautiful crafts and eating lots of amazing food. Hiking day was the day to follow... We went hiking with another family on a forest path in the area. It ended up being about a 5 hour hike, which was a bit longer than I had imagined, but it was so nice to go walking again. The other family was also really friendly so it ended up being a good time. Phil's dog Sydney, and the other family's dog, succeeded in becoming entirely covered in mud, and we also ended up pretty muddy too. We attempted to de-mud ourselves and the dogs before piling into the car to eat turkish food (which for me meant eating an entire pizza).
       Though the tiny town of Gusenburg is lovely, we did do some venturing out. One day Phil and I drove to Luxembourg. What an odd place, well the city at least, because that's what we visited. Like any true city, finding parking is a small nightmare. On the bright side, when you do finally find yourself parked, it is a truly relieving feeling. The city is full of extremely expensive shops (like Gucci, Louis Vitton etc.). There are clothing stores called "Swimming Pool" and "Honey Mustard". It's as if they just chose the first English word that they found in the dictionary. We ate some authentic Luxembourg Chinese buffet for lunch. Since it was cold and rainy and I, as always, was craving ice cream, we found a café that had ice cream. The city is an interesting mix of old historic Europe with super weird modern architecture with banking and real estate offices. They also have an odd mix of languages, as they speak French as well as Luxembourgish (a dialect of German very similar to the dialect they speak in Phil's region), but they can't really decide which language to put signs and menus in, so sometimes it is both or sometimes just one. I understand neither, so nothing much changed for me.
     New Year's Eve day we made our way to Frankfurt to meet up with my Camino friend Steffi, who came from Freiburg to meet us. Of course it was again a cold and rainy day, but that didn't stop us from finding ourselves Italian food. Just to bring back the Camino days, I ate an entire Hawaiian pizza. We spent most of the afternoon reminiscing about our adventures and being nostalgic about life on the Camino. Though it goes without being said, ice cream was acquired. While an all to short visit, it was nice to see Steffi on my last day of 2015 and make plans to meet up again in Spring. Since Phil and I had some time, we decided to take the train to Mainz before going home for the night. Mainz was pretty dead quiet since it was New Year's Eve and everything was closed. Nonetheless, we did find a sort of classy hipster restaurant that was open and we went for drinks and dessert. Having enjoyed our vegan apple raisin dessert (don't judge, it actually was really good), we headed home. Back at home, we had some more food and drinks. At 11:30, "Dinner for One" came on TV. It is a fabulous British comedy skit from the 90s (or something) that is extremely popular in Germany and everyone watches it on New Year's Eve. Then, as the credits to this random British skit rolled, I attempted to quickly eat 12 grapes (a Spanish tradition), drink champagne and run outside for fireworks. The whole town lights fireworks in the street in front of their houses. And so began 2016. Clearly 2015 had tired me out, and I slept till just past 2pm. Tomorrow, I fly to England to start the next chapter of my study abroad.

Netherlands

 Belgium

Germany

Luxembourg