lykke-til-lille-bjorn

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

I am home again! I have more to do yet to fit back into life in Minnesota and I have more people to see again but I'm happy to be back.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

London - British Museum After the National Museum, I walked through Leicaster Square and through a bit of Oxford Street. I made a stop at Primark, a renown cheap department store, before heading to the British Museum. I had expected more European history here but there was a lot of Ancient history instead, namely Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Assyrian. They did have other exhibits too, such as on Asia and there was a small temporary one one Communist money. It was meant to go over how it was used, since a basis of Communism is the abolishment of currency but no Communist government has ever done so. One of the most notable things there was the Rosetta Stone. Lots of people were looking at it when I got there but I managed to get a picture. The writing on it is very small but that's good because it allowed enough writing to be able to have enough for translation. After the museum, I got my bag from my friend and headed back to my hostel. After repacking them a bit to fit my souvenirs and such, I am really hoping they are within weight limit haha. Tomorrow is my flight home. 11 hours of flying but I have a lot waiting for me when I get back.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

London - National Museum My next stop was to tour around the National Museum. There was a lot of artwork. I was surprised at how much Italian and Dutch art they had, but I also can't really think of any famous English painters off the top of my head. Maybe Bansky. I got to see some Monets and Van Goghs, which I was pretty excited about. There was also a small exhibit on Leondaro, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Just one more and it could have been the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles exhibit.

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London - Westminster Remember how a few posts ago I said that every place I visit is under construction? Well, it's not like I wanted to see Big Ben anyways. The scaffolding is where the money is at. After going around the square for a bit, I walked over to St James park where I ate some lunch and looked at Buckingham Palace from a distance. The park was huge and full of birds but a lot of tourists were taking pictures of the squirrels haha.

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London - Tower Bridge My hostel is close to the Tower Bridge so I decided to walk there first. It was kind of a drizzly day and I forgot to grab my umbrella before I left but it lightened up later. I had intended to go to a Christmas market on the other side of the river but it was all closed. I did get to peek at the London Bridge though.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

The White Cliffs of Dover Today I passed through Belgium and France and took the ferry to Dover. I got to watch Jurassic Park on the bus and it was a surprisingly relaxing ride. When we got to border control before the ferry, the French side was easy enough. The English side had a bunch of questions and what not. When I told the guy that I was from Minnesota and had been in Europe for several months, he leaned over and said in his accented voice "and you're missing the Viking's path to the Superbowl?" Once in London, I checked into my hostel and said goodbye to the tour group. Several of us were staying at the hostel for the night but a bunch were also heading separate ways. Tomorrow I get to explore London a bit more. The day after, I will be catching my flight home to the States. I'm a bit nervous, as I always am, and I'm very excited.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

Amsterdam - Dinner Cruise Dinner went pretty well. We had Indonesian/Filipino food like spiced beef and chicken and rice. There was also toppings like spicy nuts and cucumber which I also tried on the rice but I had already eaten them before I had the chance to take a picture with the right lighting haha. I was sitting with the bus driver of the trip. We had some interesting conversation with general history topics and such. This was actually his last trip with the company because he wanted time with his family. He'd been doing the trips for several years and said that this was one of the best groups he'd had. He had a lot to say about the history of Europe and of Amsterdam. I really enjoyed talking with him even though he originally insisted that I should go sit with some other people of the group rather than 'a grumpy old bus driver'. After the cruise, we were going across the road and we were part way across before our guide yelled 'TRAM!'. It was just in front of us and after standing like a deer in headlights, the bus driver grabbed my hand and ran with me across the road. Never forget about the trams in Amsterdam! The group went bar hopping since this is the last night of the tour, but I had a drink on the boat and decided that I was okay. I went back to the hostel and I'm going to have some restful alone time until my roommates come back.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

Amsterdam - I AMsterdam After I left the museum, there was a pretty noticable crowd of people around the sign on the other side. So, I decided I should get a picture with the landmark. Of course, you had to move through plenty of people doing the same thing. It almost felt like a spy going through a lasered room. After that, I walked over to Fedo to grab something to munch on. I got what appeared to be a really thick mozzarella stick but the inside was actually a really thick cheesy ragout. I also got a waffle from the store next door, which was pretty good too. Tonight, my tour has a dinner cruise through the canals arranged for us. I'm super excited for it but I also know that it kind of marks the end of the tour. Tomorrow, we head to London and are done. I still have time to go through London, but I leave Monday afternoon. It's so close and so far away.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

Amsterdam - Rijksmuseum My next stop was to a museum, which is actually a pretty big one. It also has a bigger price tag, which is sad, but I figured that if I was going to see one museum, it might as well be the big one. They had several cool artists, such as Van Gogh and Rembrandt. I had thought that the Night Watch was in the Louvre but it was actually here, so I got to look at that. There was also some Dutch history woven into some exhibits, telling what was happening at that time and focusing on Dutch artists, although there were some that weren't. The building itself is beautiful and has intricate designs on the ceilings and walls. The Great Hall portion has stained glass and tiled floors as well as a grand staircase. There is also a library that has two spiral staircases that go up four floors.

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Amsterdam - Wandering There was a bike tour offered for today, but as I'm not that bike confident, at least not in the city where they seemed to have been born on bikes, I decided to wander a bit. I went towards an open marketplace and the walk there was nice and pretty, even if it was kind of cold out. The market place was full of cool vendors, like those selling cheese, nuts, stroop waffles, fish, flowers, and clothes. The flowers were amazingly cheap and I wanted to buy them all, but they probably won't last long enough to bring home and I'm not sure of the customs policies on tulips. After the marketplace, I stopped into a grocery store to grab something to snack on and something to drink. I settled down at a park to crack open a beer. I was quickly reminded how much I dislike beer. But it was for the experience and I had a vanilla coke to wash it down with. There were a lot of ducks and such to keep me company. When I went to open up my bag of hard candy, they swarmed me looking for food. Unfortunately, candy is not exactly a bird-safe food, so I had to shoo them away.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

Amsterdam - Walking Tour After checking in, we were let loose to get dinner. There's a fast food place called Fedo that has a vending machine-style way to get food. Items are placed in boxes, you put in coins, and you get the food. Of course, all items are placed in there as they are freshly made. I ended up choosing McDonald's for dinner. Did you know I haven't had fast food since coming to Europe? I've always bought from the grocery store or a sit-down restaraunt. I kind of missed the fries. After eating, we went on a walking tour through some of the main shopping streets. Our guide explained that there are a lot of interesting features about the architecture. All of the buildings are tall and narrow because the land was expensive and tall was viewed as trendier. Since they're all so slim, the buildings have hooks at the top for pulley systems to bring furniture and such up and through the large windows. Some houses are leaning forward, to help with pulling things up, and other are leaning other directions because of how the land has shifted, since Amsterdam is on a swamp. The church pictured is actually in a funny place. It's right in the middle of the red light district. It was built to 'help convert and purify' the ladies and men who hung around the area but it ultimately didn't help much. The red light district has a strict no-photo policy, and since I didn't want to end up in the canal, I chose to keep my phone in my pocket. There are a lot of canals in Amsterdam, and also a lot of bikes. You have to be very careful about where you walk so you don't get run over by them, a car, or the tram.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

Amsterdam - Cheese and Clogs On the way to Amsterdam, I said goodbye to Germany with another delicious pretzel. I greeted Amsterdam with cheese. Just before Amsterdam, we stopped at a farmhouse. We were shown how clogs are made and given some history about them and the different styles. Then we moved to where they make cheese! There was a lot of cheese. In the giftshop section, they had us try every variety - Onion and chive, wild onion, whiskey, smoked, truffle, peppered, a bunch of other ones, and of course original gouda. It was a bad idea to let us loose. A bunch of people got cheese vaccumpacked to bring home. I debated on how often I would actually wear clogs to justify buying them. I decided that boots were just fine for me in the end.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

Berlin - Christmas Markets So on my wandering, I found four separate Christmas markets set up. There was so many neat things to see. For lunch I got a bratwurst which was cooked over coals and it was really, really good. They had a lot of people selling christmas ornaments, candied nuts, gingerbread, knitted items, and other crafted things. There was fair rides in some places and one had an ice skating rink in the center. After I had enough of my wandering, I went to a supermarket to grab some things for dinner and took the S-Bane back to my hostel.

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Berlin - Wandering After finishing the tour at Checkpoint Charlie, I went a block over to the Topography of Terror, where they had the longest section of the outer wall, the side that was against the West, and parts of the foundation of key Nazi government buildings. Inside they explained about the rise of power and the Nazi regime. One thing that struck me was the photo of the SS guards laughing and joking together. These were ordinary people who worked and were a part of this entire scheme but they also had fun and laughed. It puts into perspective how gray some areas were in terms of being 'good or bad'. After the exhibit, I did some more walking around, where I saw some cool buildings and some awesome Christmas Markets which I will be talking about next.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

Berlin - Third Reich Walking Tour Today, I started out with a walking tour that went through a lot of the main sites of Berlin, each relating to the formation and reign of the Third Reich. We started at the Parliament building, which was where our guide explained how Hitler became chancellor and about the burning of Parliamant that helped fuel anti-foreigner and anti-communist distrust and the passing of laws that allowed the Nazi Party to arrest any opposition. Then we moved to the monument for the Romani people who died in the Holocaust. The black pool is meant to reflect the sky and the black triangle in the center is the marker that was used in concentration camps for the Romani. Then we moved to the Jewish people's memorial, which is a little disconcerting to walk through but it leaves room for abstract thought about it. While we were talking about it, a brown fox was hopping around on top of the memorial. I wasn't able to get a picture of it before it got down though. Close to the memorial is the car park where Hitler's bunker used to be. The memorial for his victims span a whole city block and his deathplace is left unmarked. The next building is the only Nazi building left, simply because it was one of the few buildings that was usable after WW2. It is now the Ministry of Finance. The next spot is the replica of Checkpoint Charlie, which is where foreigners could cross into East Germany and where a 20 tank faceoff occured. There were some actors playing US soldiers and a member of my group complained that they were supposed to be soldiers but they were smiling. I had to break it to her that they were supposed to be American soldiers, not the Kings Guard. And of course, they were actors.

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Berlin - First Night So, on our arrival we had a driving tour through Berlin, which gave me some basis of where I was and what I wanted to take a look at later. Once we got to the hostel to check in, we had dinner. They served us spaetzle and schintzel and pretzels. The pretzels were awesome. They were big like soft pretzels but crispy on the outside. Afterwards, we got apple strudel for dessert and afterdinner shots again.

[lykke-til-lille-bjorn]

Dresden After leaving Prague, we had a bus ride ahead of us. Halfway through, we took a break in Dresden for a quick walking tour and lunch. The city was nearly destroyed after bombings in WWII, which left a black mark over a lot of the remaining buildings. The church was rebuilt after being in rubble and they tried to put bricks that survived into the places they believed they belonged, which is the black parts. After walking, I went by myself to a little antique cafe that had a lovely look to it. I ordered a breaded pork cutlet and it came with french fries. That's what it said on the english section of the menu but I thought it wouldn't be like the fries at home. They did season them differently though.