23/4/2010
According to the date above, I missed both of my finals due to volcanic ash... I'll say that again VOLCANIC ASH. That is not something everyone can say! I took off from Sweden yesterday morning, went to the bathroom in Norway, and then took another flight to Dublin... and then a three and a half hour bus ride back to Galway! HOORAY! I really did not know how much I missed Galway until the plane touched down in Dublin.
I was extremely nervous that my flight would be canceled as I sat in the airport watching it snow. I was twitchy after watching ash clouds of doom drift by the apartment in Marsta, Sweden and gloomy news programs the week leading up to my potential return. The plane did not leave on time, but it left!
Norway, or the bit I saw of it, is also like northern Minnesota in that it is covered in pine forests and rocks and cute little red and yellow houses. Very much like Sweden, but don't tell them that!
The view during the flights was most eye opening. Personally, when someone says that I can't go home because a volcano in Iceland is shooting ash into the air, I think they are telling the worst lie ever. But, the haze of ash was there, we flew through it for a while. The ocean also had a film over it that was interrupted by patches of shiny ocean, almost like a skin over the top. I believed all of the warnings and news guys after seeing that. I also engaged in a couple of my thought experiments and freaked myself out during both flights.
This morning I walked around Galway to run some errands and really enjoyed myself.
As I have missed both of my finals, I now have to head over to the college office and prove that I was indeed stuck in Sweden and not playing Xbox with my homeboys... Monday will be interesting to say the least... maybe they can just look in my lungs for ash and the glass pieces it is said to contain?
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Spring break 2010 pt2
20/4/2010
We got up crazy early to catch a taxi to King's Cross for our train to France. The security was interesting as our tickets would not scan, of course. The train ride was great, but I fell asleep for the whole portion under the water. I couldn't tell you what it was like. I woke up to France's beautiful blue sky and little cottages in the countryside. We arrived in Paris and had fairly little trouble finding our hostel.
The view from our hostel window was Sacre Coeur! Very cool. We set our things down, dodged the bracelet con artists, and took in Paris in all of its smoggy glory within two hours of arriving! The church did not allow photography so Joe and I took in the church's beauty while listening to a man constantly scream at those who were entering. blarg.
Paris was all that and more of what London was lacking in its "Londoness"/ "Londosity?" Maybe if America had been colonized by France I would feel differently?
Anywhos, We walked around Monmartre Cemetery and the area of our hostel in the afternoon before grabbing groceries and taking a nap. Then, Robert Langdon called so we met him at the Louvre! The Louvre is simply amazing and jam packed with EVERYTHING. I forgot to look for clues to help Robert out (he was whiney in London anyways). Shucks.
After perusing Raphael, Venus, Sarcophagi, the Hammurabi Code, etc. we went outside for some night time sightseeing! The Louvre was beautiful, and the Champs and Eiffel were light up as well. It was a great first day that is for sure.
We had a day of gardens and parks like in London, but this time we brought baguettes, tarts, and other tasty things with us. We hit up Notre Dame which was beautiful and packed with Canadians and Saint Chappelle which is also known as "The Jewel Box." The windows of Saint Chappelle depict Biblical stories because the church was built to house artifacts of Christianity such as the crown of thorns which was purchased for a huge sum a while ago. The church only housed the items for a short while before they were moved to Notre Dame.
Saint Chappelle
Next we hit up the Pantheon and Foucault's pendulum and the famous people buried in the tomb below it. We tried to fool the entrance guard to get in free, but he caught on. He was a little confused when I handed him my Irish college id and my Minnesota license all with my very French last name on them. The pendulum was very cool and the tombs below were full of interesting people like Alexander Dumas, Emile Zola, Louis Braille, and Victor Hugo!
We visited the Pantheon at 3pm... can you tell?
The Eiffel Tower was as impressive as I had expected even though the lines to go up were outrageous.
From the tower we headed to Napoleon's tomb in the Hotel des Invalides and the war museum there. Napoleon surrounded himself with his brother and best generals and adorned the walls around it with scenes with him at his "visual best" or something to that effect. In other words, Napoleon appeared as a muscular, tall man in every scene.
We took a nap in front of the Hotel Des Invalides and headed back to our ant ridden hostel. We went out onto the Champs that night and did some people watching. On our last day in Paris, we went to the Champs in daylight and climbed the stairs to the top of the Arch de Triomphe to take in the view and watch Lance win the final stage. The next day Joe and I parted ways and I flew to Sweden or shall I say Northern Minnesota!
I am sure my adventures are not over yet so there will be more blogs to come!
We got up crazy early to catch a taxi to King's Cross for our train to France. The security was interesting as our tickets would not scan, of course. The train ride was great, but I fell asleep for the whole portion under the water. I couldn't tell you what it was like. I woke up to France's beautiful blue sky and little cottages in the countryside. We arrived in Paris and had fairly little trouble finding our hostel.
The view from our hostel window was Sacre Coeur! Very cool. We set our things down, dodged the bracelet con artists, and took in Paris in all of its smoggy glory within two hours of arriving! The church did not allow photography so Joe and I took in the church's beauty while listening to a man constantly scream at those who were entering. blarg.
Paris was all that and more of what London was lacking in its "Londoness"/ "Londosity?" Maybe if America had been colonized by France I would feel differently?
Anywhos, We walked around Monmartre Cemetery and the area of our hostel in the afternoon before grabbing groceries and taking a nap. Then, Robert Langdon called so we met him at the Louvre! The Louvre is simply amazing and jam packed with EVERYTHING. I forgot to look for clues to help Robert out (he was whiney in London anyways). Shucks.
After perusing Raphael, Venus, Sarcophagi, the Hammurabi Code, etc. we went outside for some night time sightseeing! The Louvre was beautiful, and the Champs and Eiffel were light up as well. It was a great first day that is for sure.
We had a day of gardens and parks like in London, but this time we brought baguettes, tarts, and other tasty things with us. We hit up Notre Dame which was beautiful and packed with Canadians and Saint Chappelle which is also known as "The Jewel Box." The windows of Saint Chappelle depict Biblical stories because the church was built to house artifacts of Christianity such as the crown of thorns which was purchased for a huge sum a while ago. The church only housed the items for a short while before they were moved to Notre Dame.
Saint Chappelle
Next we hit up the Pantheon and Foucault's pendulum and the famous people buried in the tomb below it. We tried to fool the entrance guard to get in free, but he caught on. He was a little confused when I handed him my Irish college id and my Minnesota license all with my very French last name on them. The pendulum was very cool and the tombs below were full of interesting people like Alexander Dumas, Emile Zola, Louis Braille, and Victor Hugo!
The Eiffel Tower was as impressive as I had expected even though the lines to go up were outrageous.
From the tower we headed to Napoleon's tomb in the Hotel des Invalides and the war museum there. Napoleon surrounded himself with his brother and best generals and adorned the walls around it with scenes with him at his "visual best" or something to that effect. In other words, Napoleon appeared as a muscular, tall man in every scene.
We took a nap in front of the Hotel Des Invalides and headed back to our ant ridden hostel. We went out onto the Champs that night and did some people watching. On our last day in Paris, we went to the Champs in daylight and climbed the stairs to the top of the Arch de Triomphe to take in the view and watch Lance win the final stage. The next day Joe and I parted ways and I flew to Sweden or shall I say Northern Minnesota!
I am sure my adventures are not over yet so there will be more blogs to come!
Spring break 2010 Pt1
20/4/2010
I have a little free time on my hands as I am still grounded in Sweden (... stupid volcano) so I will try to remember my spring break trip in which I went to Derry, London, and Paris.
The day after classes ended I took a bus up to visit Joe in Derry in Northern Ireland before we headed over to London. Although the town has quite a bit of history, it did not take us long to fit all the sites in in under one day. Of course we missed some museums I am sure.
We took a walk around the city walls the afternoon I arrived for a bird's eye view of both the bogside where the catholic community lives and the gated protestant area of town. From the walls we could see the graffitti on both sides, murals, and the damage from the ongoing conflict.
The next day we walked in the bogside and spent some time looking at the murals and the Museum of Free Derry. The museum and surrounding area were definitely moving. We walked right through where Bloody Sunday happened and the wall of the house on which was written "You are now entering Free Derry." It was definitely and experience I will not forget. The protestant area showed many of the same signs of violence as the bogside with graffiti slogans and broken windows etc. but also had curbs painted with red, white, and blue for the Union Jack.
The wall of the house on which "You are now entering Free Derry" and a mural on nearby apartments.
A Protestant mural
We got up nice and early to catch our flight to London and did not have any problems reaching our hostel. This is the best hostel I have EVER stayed in. There was free breakfast, a cheap pub in the basement, a cheap restaraunt, a place for laundry, trunks where you could lock your valuables, and free internet. The hostel also had events pretty regularly and was right on the metro line, close to Abbey Road Studios, and close to parks as well.
We hit up Abbey Road Studios that afternoon before hitting up the park. The building was nothing special, but the wall infront was covered in writing etc. Not too impressive but hey, everything can't live up to your expectations. Hyde park was very nice and had man made ponds where there were tons of birds and cute people feeding them. I still cannot get over the fact that they actually call a kind of cookie a Digestiv... they are definitely tasty, but I get nervous eating tasty things called Digestivs.
We covered London in a couple of days and ground our knee and feet joints into dust. Westminster was amazing as it contains a ton of tombs and beautiful architecture. I kept expecting Robert Langdon to pop out or ask me to him him solve the mysteries of the world. The London Eye was cool and Big Ben as well, but every time we passed a HP site that's all that I could talk about. The HP was most potent at the pedestrian bridge that the dementors twisted.
King's Cross Platform and Joe holding onto the bridge while I shot my Patronus
Besides awkward HP pictures, I made Joe trek to Wimbledon Village and the Wimbledon Tennis Club... !!!!!!!! I am sure I almost passed out a million times. The season was not starting for a few weeks yet so many of the outside courts did not have the painted lines. We did get to visit court number two and centre court which was really fun! The whole place was smaller than I had expected but very fun to walk through anyways.
The whole trip we kept trying to get into King's Cross for some Harry Potter action BUT, we found that the movie actually filmed the scene at platforms four and five as platforms nine and ten are actually in a separate terminal thing. J.K. had forgotten this so they had to film it at different platforms in the main building. We did not get to the spot though because we were running late before we caught the tube train to Paris. I did get pics of the station though which was beautiful.
We tried to watch the changing of the guard, but there were just too many dang people in the way. We were there, but we didn't see jack.
On one of our many accidental detours, we stumbled across the Sherlock Holmes museum, a Sherlock Holmes pub, and frequented the Baker Street metro stop often. London was a winner even though it did not feel what I refer to as "Londony."
ugh, I just looked out the window and saw the whirling ash... barf!
I have a little free time on my hands as I am still grounded in Sweden (... stupid volcano) so I will try to remember my spring break trip in which I went to Derry, London, and Paris.
The day after classes ended I took a bus up to visit Joe in Derry in Northern Ireland before we headed over to London. Although the town has quite a bit of history, it did not take us long to fit all the sites in in under one day. Of course we missed some museums I am sure.
We took a walk around the city walls the afternoon I arrived for a bird's eye view of both the bogside where the catholic community lives and the gated protestant area of town. From the walls we could see the graffitti on both sides, murals, and the damage from the ongoing conflict.
The next day we walked in the bogside and spent some time looking at the murals and the Museum of Free Derry. The museum and surrounding area were definitely moving. We walked right through where Bloody Sunday happened and the wall of the house on which was written "You are now entering Free Derry." It was definitely and experience I will not forget. The protestant area showed many of the same signs of violence as the bogside with graffiti slogans and broken windows etc. but also had curbs painted with red, white, and blue for the Union Jack.
The wall of the house on which "You are now entering Free Derry" and a mural on nearby apartments.
A Protestant muralWe got up nice and early to catch our flight to London and did not have any problems reaching our hostel. This is the best hostel I have EVER stayed in. There was free breakfast, a cheap pub in the basement, a cheap restaraunt, a place for laundry, trunks where you could lock your valuables, and free internet. The hostel also had events pretty regularly and was right on the metro line, close to Abbey Road Studios, and close to parks as well.
We hit up Abbey Road Studios that afternoon before hitting up the park. The building was nothing special, but the wall infront was covered in writing etc. Not too impressive but hey, everything can't live up to your expectations. Hyde park was very nice and had man made ponds where there were tons of birds and cute people feeding them. I still cannot get over the fact that they actually call a kind of cookie a Digestiv... they are definitely tasty, but I get nervous eating tasty things called Digestivs.
We covered London in a couple of days and ground our knee and feet joints into dust. Westminster was amazing as it contains a ton of tombs and beautiful architecture. I kept expecting Robert Langdon to pop out or ask me to him him solve the mysteries of the world. The London Eye was cool and Big Ben as well, but every time we passed a HP site that's all that I could talk about. The HP was most potent at the pedestrian bridge that the dementors twisted.
King's Cross Platform and Joe holding onto the bridge while I shot my Patronus
Besides awkward HP pictures, I made Joe trek to Wimbledon Village and the Wimbledon Tennis Club... !!!!!!!! I am sure I almost passed out a million times. The season was not starting for a few weeks yet so many of the outside courts did not have the painted lines. We did get to visit court number two and centre court which was really fun! The whole place was smaller than I had expected but very fun to walk through anyways.
Wimbledon Center Court
The whole trip we kept trying to get into King's Cross for some Harry Potter action BUT, we found that the movie actually filmed the scene at platforms four and five as platforms nine and ten are actually in a separate terminal thing. J.K. had forgotten this so they had to film it at different platforms in the main building. We did not get to the spot though because we were running late before we caught the tube train to Paris. I did get pics of the station though which was beautiful.
We tried to watch the changing of the guard, but there were just too many dang people in the way. We were there, but we didn't see jack.
On one of our many accidental detours, we stumbled across the Sherlock Holmes museum, a Sherlock Holmes pub, and frequented the Baker Street metro stop often. London was a winner even though it did not feel what I refer to as "Londony."
ugh, I just looked out the window and saw the whirling ash... barf!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
volcano pt deux
18/4/2010
The volcano continues to hinder my studies! My flight on Monday has been cancelled and there are no more flights until Thursday, the day of my second final. I guess the school will have to figure out something for all of us unable to get back. I wonder if I could go to a library here in Sweden and get someone to proxy my exam? Brainstorm.
The volcano continues to hinder my studies! My flight on Monday has been cancelled and there are no more flights until Thursday, the day of my second final. I guess the school will have to figure out something for all of us unable to get back. I wonder if I could go to a library here in Sweden and get someone to proxy my exam? Brainstorm.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Mt. St. ICELAND
16/4/2010
I know I have not written in FOREVER, but here I am! I will sit down with my pictures from Derry/Londonderry, London, and Paris and write an entry, but for now, I will regale you with my Swedish adventures!
On Sunday I left the creepy Paris hostel for Sweden (Skavsta airport to be exact)! The air plane began its decent and all I could think was: HELLO DULUTH, MINNESOTA! Sweden is covered with woods, lakes, and rocks. Further, my friend who is hosting me and I jumped in there car the other day and it still had its SNOW TIRES on! hahhahahahha I felt at home.
Now I say that Sweden looks like northern Minnesota, but the cities do not. Stockholm itself is built on a group of islands and the buildings are gorgeous and resemble castles. Unlike London, Stockholm and the other cities, Sweden actually looks Swedish!
The View from our ferry on the way to the Vasa (seen later on)
I made my friend take me around the city and had a blast. The tourist office with a native was a riot! We walked around the city and headed to the Vasa museum which houses a really old ship that was expensive when it was built and promptly sunk in the harbour. VERY NEAT.
Then we headed over to the Riksdag (Sweden's Parliament) for a tour that examined all the art in the building. I was more interested in the rooms and walking around. It was a long tour and completely in Swedish with a tour guide who could have been Gary Busey's twin!
The Riksdag and Gary Busey or whatever his name was.
The next day, we headed to Sigtuna, the oldest city in Sweden. The city is small but there were tons of old churches with dead guys and rune stones EVERYWHERE. The lakes and area were gorgeous and still had a little ice on them even though the weather was gorgeous!
St. Olof's Church (not St. Olaf!) and also the home of Eric from True Blood
We headed to Upsala, my friends university town, to look around and meet up with some friends. We walked around too tired for our own good and ate a French hot dogs. SO TASTY. Later, we went out to a Nation for a concert which was great! A Nation is like a fraternity club. No one lives in the house, and the Nation organizes events and is in charge of student housing. So, if you like the benefits of a certain Nation, or want to live in their apartments, you pay a membership to join. It was fun, especially since I do not speak Swedish, to see the young crowd in their habitat.
Yesterday I tried to fly back to Galway. But, A VOLCANO ERUPTED IN ICELAND AND SHOT ASH INTO THE AIR SO EVERY PLANE IN EUROPE IS GROUNDED. It felt like I was in Twin Peaks with Pierce Brosnan. I had to take a bus alllllll the way out to the airport and rebook my ticket because no one had any information and because I needed to talk to someone who spoke English. It was a LONG day, but I got to see the sights again!
I am excited to have a couple more days in Sweden, but I have finals next week and none of my materials here with me to study! SCARY. I hope the planes get up and running soon!
I know I have not written in FOREVER, but here I am! I will sit down with my pictures from Derry/Londonderry, London, and Paris and write an entry, but for now, I will regale you with my Swedish adventures!
On Sunday I left the creepy Paris hostel for Sweden (Skavsta airport to be exact)! The air plane began its decent and all I could think was: HELLO DULUTH, MINNESOTA! Sweden is covered with woods, lakes, and rocks. Further, my friend who is hosting me and I jumped in there car the other day and it still had its SNOW TIRES on! hahhahahahha I felt at home.
Now I say that Sweden looks like northern Minnesota, but the cities do not. Stockholm itself is built on a group of islands and the buildings are gorgeous and resemble castles. Unlike London, Stockholm and the other cities, Sweden actually looks Swedish!
The View from our ferry on the way to the Vasa (seen later on)
I made my friend take me around the city and had a blast. The tourist office with a native was a riot! We walked around the city and headed to the Vasa museum which houses a really old ship that was expensive when it was built and promptly sunk in the harbour. VERY NEAT.
Then we headed over to the Riksdag (Sweden's Parliament) for a tour that examined all the art in the building. I was more interested in the rooms and walking around. It was a long tour and completely in Swedish with a tour guide who could have been Gary Busey's twin!
The Riksdag and Gary Busey or whatever his name was.
The next day, we headed to Sigtuna, the oldest city in Sweden. The city is small but there were tons of old churches with dead guys and rune stones EVERYWHERE. The lakes and area were gorgeous and still had a little ice on them even though the weather was gorgeous!
St. Olof's Church (not St. Olaf!) and also the home of Eric from True Blood
We headed to Upsala, my friends university town, to look around and meet up with some friends. We walked around too tired for our own good and ate a French hot dogs. SO TASTY. Later, we went out to a Nation for a concert which was great! A Nation is like a fraternity club. No one lives in the house, and the Nation organizes events and is in charge of student housing. So, if you like the benefits of a certain Nation, or want to live in their apartments, you pay a membership to join. It was fun, especially since I do not speak Swedish, to see the young crowd in their habitat.
Yesterday I tried to fly back to Galway. But, A VOLCANO ERUPTED IN ICELAND AND SHOT ASH INTO THE AIR SO EVERY PLANE IN EUROPE IS GROUNDED. It felt like I was in Twin Peaks with Pierce Brosnan. I had to take a bus alllllll the way out to the airport and rebook my ticket because no one had any information and because I needed to talk to someone who spoke English. It was a LONG day, but I got to see the sights again!
I am excited to have a couple more days in Sweden, but I have finals next week and none of my materials here with me to study! SCARY. I hope the planes get up and running soon!
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