Freedom from Want

Yesterday was not Thanksgiving. Not in London, anyway, where everyone just went on with their daily lives without any indication that the last Thursday in November was anything special. It's a bit strange not being at home on a major holiday like Thanksgiving. Sure, I've done it before. When I was in high school I was out of the country traveling with my family for more than one Independence Day. Thanksgiving's different, though. It's a big deal at my house, so it's weird missing it.

In order to keep up with the American spirit, however, my friend who lives across the hall roasted a turkey and invited me to join him in a Thanksgiving party. Ten of us American students gathered around a way-too-small kitchen table. We all shared what we were thankful for and feasted on the best turkey amateur college students can make. It wasn't home, but it was close. I suppose this isn't all that unique. Anyone who migrates to another country seems to want to keep the traditions of their homeland alive, which is why we hear about holidays like Chinese New Year.

I called home via video chat, where all my relatives gathered around a computer where it was Thanksgiving and updated me on what was going on in Connecticut. It made me happy that Thanksgiving was the only major holiday I'd me missing while in London.

These past couple of weeks I've been enjoying London. I went to see Oliver, the musical based on Oliver Twist. I rode the bus over to Portobello Road Market and ate enough really good food to keep me full all day.

It's been cold, by London's standards. It doesn't get below freezing that often in London, even in the middle of winter, but it's November and it's been well below freezing at night. There's talk of snow in the next few days.

I don't want to leave London in three weeks because everything's nice here and I like the city. But I want my American holidays back.

I Tend to Think of Myself as a One-Man Wolf Pack

The train from Prague to Berlin passed through really pretty countryside. Through the Czech Republic it followed a river, and occasionally the route would pass a picturesque little village with brightly colored houses built into the side of a hill. After crossing the German border, the train pulled away from the river and passed fields and more old, pretty houses. But this was not Berlin. Berlin was something different.

Berlin Holocaust Memorial. It's abstract, but it certainly feels eerie when you're walking amongst all these stones.

The British can stop complaining about how hard World War II was on their country. Berlin was leveled. Razed. Completely destroyed. Almost everything in the German capital was built in the last few decades, since 90% of the buildings in central Berlin were destroyed during World War II. It's the closest to the Far East I'll get for a while, with Berlin's glass office buildings and new cityscape, so the part of me that wanted to study abroad in Hong Kong is temporarily at ease. But Berlin is more than endless new developments that have gone up since the war. Determined to learn the history of this city, I took a free walking tour that was advertised in the hostel. The story of Berlin is really interesting. There are odd diagonal brick strips in the streets where the Berlin Wall stood just 25 years ago. The Holocaust Memorial is a rather abstract piece of art that is designed simply to make viewers remember Germany's terrible past.

Close-up of the art on the Berlin Wall's East Side Gallery

All around are reminders that Berlin has endured a tough past, through Hitler's Third Reich and the Soviet occupation of East Berlin. The East Side Gallery is the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall still standing, and it's decorated with paintings from artists from around the world.

The Reichstag, home of the German Parliament. It was built in 1894 but was destroyed by a fire in 1933. It wasn't restored until after Germany was re-unified, but it re-opened in 1999 to hold the German government.

Berlin was nice, but I would have liked to see older parts of Germany. There was art everywhere: In stores, on the sidewalk, and even in this odd sculpture market I walked into on my first night there that sold strange sculptures and jewelry. The city was clean and the people were friendly. And I didn't go into one of Berlin's famous techno raves once, not that I wanted to anyway, because this city had so much more to offer.

The final stop on my fall break tour was Paris. It's cliche and I've done it before, but that's part of the appeal. The first time I went to Paris, I was thirteen. I didn't like it. Maybe because it was the first place I had ever been where English wasn't widely spoken, maybe because it's just what I expected and nothing more, but I remembered hating Paris and I wanted to see if my opinion would change if I saw it again. Things looked bleak as my plane landed in a cold rainstorm.

Musee d'Orsay, an art museum converted from what used to be a train station.

I liked Paris, though. Didn't love it, but it was pretty and people were friendlier to tourists than I remember. My hostel was located right near the Sacre Coeur, a large cathedral set up on a hill with sweeping views of Paris. I went to the museums, of course, but the one painting I wanted to see in the Louvre, Portrait de l'artiste sous les traits d'un moqueur, was not there. Does it look familiar? The museums were a good way to escape the cold and rain that hung around Paris during my stay, but for the brief dry moments I was able to walk around, climb the Eiffel Tower, and eat some crepes.

The Eiffel Tower poking through the Paris rooftops at night. It shines a bright beacon into the sky.

By the end of the trip, I was exhausted and ready to head back to London and sleep in my own bed instead of a hostel, but I was glad that I had gone to Paris. Mostly, I was anxious to just spend time with people again after traveling solo for so long. Paris was better than I thought it would be, even though it was far from the best place I'd seen all week (Still Vienna). I'm ready for more London now, though. I love this city.

Like a Rolling Stone

Vienna's City Hall.

"Do you know where the nearest docking station is?"
A man had spotted my Vienna Citybike, which I had rented with the municipal bike sharing program, and he seemed unfamiliar with this part of town. I was stopped in front of the Vienna City Hall to take a picture of the building, struggling to use the handlebars of the bike as a tripod. It was around 9:30 on a Saturday night.
"No, I'm not from here, sorry," I replied, wondering how he knew I didn't speak German.
"Ah, so you're not a Wiener. Welcome," the man replied in English, but with an Austrian accent that hinted that English was not his first language. No, I'm not a Wiener, but I wish I was. Vienna is a fantastic city. My desire to live there is apparently reflected in the happiness of the Viennese, as the city frequently tops quality of life surveys conducted to compare cities around the world. All the buildings are beautiful, the people are friendly, and the city is lively during the day and at night. Even on Sunday, when all the stores are closed, the people of Vienna come out to walk their dogs (Because, it seems, everyone in Europe has a dog) or grab coffee on Kärntner Straße, Vienna's main shopping street.

Mozart lived here!

The colorful roof and sharp spires of Stephansdom

It's a fun city to walk around in, taking in the frankfurter stands and pretty mosaic patterns on the buildings and the giant museums and palaces that take up quite a bit of space in this culturally rich city. Vienna is home to one of the world's oldest Ferris Wheels, the Wiener Riesenrad. Hofburg Palace, home of the president of Austria and former home of the Hofburg Emperors, is enormous. The palace has been the Austrian government headquarters for over 700 years. Stephansdom is a giant cathedral right in the center of Vienna with a very colorful roof. Vienna's beautiful sights and lively people just might make it the best place I've been so far on this trip.

Prague is a long train ride from Vienna. Four hours after racing through the dark Czech countryside, however, the city lights were glowing out the window, and I knew I was close.

Typical Prague street in the old part of town.

Prague gets a lot of hype. Both professional travel writers and just regular adventurers sharing experiences online call its beauty almost fairytale-like and encourage others to see this great city, which, like Budapest, but to more of an extreme, has quickly become a colorful tourist destination after being part of the USSR for so many years. People I met in the Vienna hostel all agreed that Prague is very beautiful, one backpacker even called it her favorite destination in Europe.

The Prague Astronomical Clock, made in 1410, was considered cutting-edge technology when it was built. Now I can't even figure out how to use it.

Without a doubt, Prague is beautiful. Old Town Square is home to a 500-year-old, still-functioning clock that I still haven't figured out how to read and the old town hall and a church, all of which are pretty. The Prague Castle offers magnificent views of the city from across the river, in a similar fashion to Budapest.

Prague castle up on the hill.

It's all really pretty, with the small streets and red roofs and vendors selling food cooked over an open charcoal fire in the square, but I don't think it's the best place in Europe. Souvenir shops dominate many of the streets in the Old Town section, and tourists don't feel as welcome here as they do in Vienna. Prague is nice, Prague is pretty, but Prague just isn't as good as everyone says it is. And the exchange rate of 17 Czech Koruna to 1 US Dollar makes for some tough math.

Go East, Young Man, and See Another Country

It's Christmas time already in London. Without Thanksgiving setting the boundary between the rest of the year and Christmas, the lights go up and the sales start right after Halloween's done. And it was even warmer in London this week than it's been in a month.

A tram stops in front of the short-distance train station in Budapest.

It's fall break, so I have over a week to escape this madness. NYU in London dorms are empty and everyone's off traveling around Europe. My first stop was Budapest in Hungary. Budapest was a part of the USSR until 20 years ago, and it shows. On the train ride into the city from the airport, I rolled by Budapest's ugly suburbs. Block after block of poured concrete buildings lined the streets, a reminder of a tense time in history that didn't happen all that long ago.

Budapest's city center is very different from the suburbs. It's very beautiful, with colorful buildings and the famous narrow Chain Bridge near the large and elaborate Hungarian Parliament building. Budapest is divided into Buda, on the western side of the Danube river, and Pest on the east. Pest is where the city center is, but in Buda there is the Castle, a neighborhood that sits on top of a steep hill that offers great views of the entire city below.

View from the castle in Buda.

Street with colorful houses near the castle in Budapest.

The Budapest hostel is the best hostel I've stayed in so far, partly because of its intimate setting in a small 100-year-old apartment building and partly because of the people I met there. On the first evening, I met Mohamed, a man in his late 20s who had been invited to Europe (I can't remember which city) for a major peace talk conference that his friend was helping organize. Mohamed said that as he was planning his trip to the conference, he decided that he might as well take three months off from work and travel more. He had been everywhere, born in Syria, raised in The Hague, and currently living in Detroit when he's not traveling Asia, South America, or Europe. He had tried all sorts of jobs after college and hasn't really found anything he likes yet, but he said that all the jobs he's had have provided interesting experiences and insights on the way people live. He sounded like he had experienced more in the last fifteen years that many people experience in a lifetime. Now THAT'S living! Back at the hostel, I met Seth, a Toronto native, just a couple of years older than me, who had come to travel Europe for sailing competitions. Seth was seated talking with a few students my age from Slovakia who were visiting Budapest for a few days on a long weekend, and a couple of Swiss men in their thirties. Seth was talkative, fitting the 'friendly Canadian' stereotype, and everyone else was responding in English at various skill levels. When someone asked where the time zone jumped an hour forward when traveling east, Seth proudly announced, "The man who invented time zones was Canadian!" complete with a small fist pump of pride. The Slovakians instantly refuted this, insisting that time zones were a product of Magellan's expedition around the world, obviously a European idea. I had always thought time zones were conceived as a way of keeping American railroads running on the same schedule in the 1800s. The proceeding argument did not reach any conclusions, except I did realize that each area of the world has its own version of history and, while the phrase "history is written by the winners" is tossed around a lot, one culture's view of who the winner is might differ from another's.

Sex and French Fries

Brussels: Dessert forever!

Brussels from Atomium

Waffles. So many waffles with chocolate and strawberries and Nutella whipped cream. As soon as I arrived in Brussels on Thursday night, I was anxious to eat some good food. Brussels is one of those places that shuts down early, though, so the only place open was one lone counter that looked like it served a local brand of fast food. Belgium is famous for its frites, or French Fries, which ended up being the perfect food to eat at midnight after a long Eurostar train trip from London. These were some good fries, oily and hot and perfect. The Belgians take pride in the fact that, despite the misnomer, French Fries were invented in their country. Gift shops stocked shirts and aprons that say "It is a Belgian invention, so we shall call it 'French Fries'" with a picture of a cone full of fries, because frites are served in a paper cone in Belgium. The next afternoon, I had a real Belgian Waffle from an upscale cafe near the Grand Palace. This was no ordinary waffle. It was warm and not too sweet and just plain delicious, with chocolate dripping down the sides.

Atomium

There are other things to do in Brussels besides eat, of course. Atomium is located on the edge of the city, the remains of the 1958 Expo, the first World's Fair after World War II. It's a really cool structure, designed to look like giant atoms. The inside is an exhibit on the world's fair, with models of all the old pavilions Everything looks very 1950s, with the futurist look.

Brussels' Grand Palace. We couldn't go in because it was closed for a special event.

Mannequin Pis is one of the most famous landmarks in Brussels. Yeah, it's a statue of a kid peeing.

The European Union headquarters are in Brussels, but by the time I arrived at the EU Parliament building the last (and only) tour had already passed. The presence of all of these important government buildings makes Brussels feel like Washington DC, as my friend who was traveling with me noticed. As well as having all the government buildings, Brussels also closes down really early, just like Washington. Shops began closing down for the night at 5:00, and by 8:00 the city is eerily quiet. We passed very few people on the way back to the hostel. Everyone in the city appeared to be sleeping all the time.

Brussels has great food and it's nice, but it feels empty and boring for tourists. It'd be a nice place to live, but I'm not sure I want to visit there.

Amsterdam: Prostitutes, marijuana, and really beautiful canals
I'm hesitant to write that I should have studied abroad in Amsterdam. Almost a year ago, when I was deciding on where to study abroad, I had narrowed my options down to Amsterdam and London, and eventually chose London. Amsterdam was so nice that, for a second or two, I though I might have picked the wrong city. I arrived after midnight after a three-hour ride in on the train from Brussels. The city was still filled with energy, and I got a milkshake from Febo, a fast food place that sells hamburgers from vending machines.

Amsterdam's canals were really pretty.

Amsterdam looks way better during the day, though. The trees that lined the canals all had yellow leaves, since it's the end of October. All the buildings are pretty. Houseboats are parked alongside the canals. My friends and I rented bikes and pedaled slowly along the canals. It was more leisurely than the London and New York biking I've done, since Amsterdam moves at a more casual pace. The museums all had huge lines stretching out of them, but we found enough to do without seeing Anne Frank's house and waiting line. We ate pancakes for lunch, which the Dutch put meat or cheese or vegetables in and eat as a meal. I quickly realized that there is much more to Amsterdam than the vices it's famous for, and it's really a nice place even for people like myself who don't like to indulge in the drugs they sell at the Magic Mushroom Gallery, although 'free samples' signs next to lines of mind-altering powders for snorting are certainly not an everyday sight. And this is all just normal for the people of Amsterdam, who, it seemed, rarely indulged in drugs or prostitutes.

The place where we got pancakes for lunch

The red light district at night is definitely something unique. Sure, there are other red light districts in Europe, in places like Brussels and Frankfurt, but none get as much hype as the one in Amsterdam. Groups of rowdier American 20-something males cheered on a friend who had dared to step inside one of the blacklight-illuminated doors and paid for a session with one of Amsterdam's famed prostitutes. Smoke poured from the coffee shops, which are more famous for serving up marijuana than serving coffee. The area was filled with other tourists, but it was a slice of Amsterdam's liberal, honest culture.

The houses all looked like this!

The language barrier in Amsterdam was smaller than the language barrier in London. When one of the students in the SHINE classroom asks me to use the 'loo,' it sometimes takes me a minute to translate the phrase from Cockney to American. In Amsterdam, every single person I encountered spoke English, and the accent was easier to understand. The Dutch were very friendly, and I did not feel like I was being treated like a tourist, as I did in Italy and Spain.

When it was time to go to the train station, which had the most bikes I'd ever seen parked in front of it (one guidebook estimated that there are about 7,000 bikes parked there on most days), I almost didn't want to head back to London. The train back was the only time I saw the Dutch countryside during the day. It really is filled with tulip fields and windmills, but the tulips aren't in bloom on Halloween. Amsterdam is one of the more interesting places I've been. It's famous for its hedonism like Las Vegas, but it has the charm of San Francisco and the anything-goes attitude of New York. Beautiful, lively, and edgy, Amsterdam is like no other place on earth.