PFisher

Well, I'm back in Maastricht after a thrilling two and a half week trip through Europe. I am busy uploading pictures and unpacking, then packing again, so writing for the present will have to wait. I may get to start writing about where I went tomorrow, we'll see. In the meantime, I present you with a list of museums that I went to and something that I learned about each city that I have been to. Vienna- Hofburg Imperial Apartments, Kunsthistorisches Museum, St. Stephen's Cathedral, town center Prague- Castle Museum, Castle Quarter, Jewish Quarter, 4 synagogues, classical concert Dublin- Temple Bar, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church, Dublinia, Trinity College, Chester Beatty Library, Grafton Street, National Museum London- Victoria and Albert Museum, Imperial War Museum, Westminster Church, Shakespeare's Globe, St. Martin-in-the-Field Church, Westminster Abbey, Palace of We ... read more

Well, today was an interesting day. I got to sleep in today as opposed to yesterday, I got up at 5:30 AM instead of 5 AM. The head of the family who I am staying with works at a secondary school, and I got to go to school with him and sit in on a class. I also saw mechanical workrooms, other schoolrooms, and offices. After that, we went to Ravensburg and he led me on a tour of the town. We saw the town hall, churches, upper and lower towns, and lots of other things. Evidently Ravensburg was tied heavily to trade, connecting the Mediterranean, Russia, and Western Europe. When the Reformation came around, the town was so split over which denomination would be in charge that they required their mayors to switch off, so ... read more

Aachen was the city to explore on today’s schedule, with the cathedral as the target and getting a haircut also on the to-do list. I have no pictures of the haircut, but lots of cathedral pictures! First was the haircut. My professor recommended the place, and since I needed a haircut, I went to go check it out. While my hair is rather shorter than I am used to now, it is certainly neater than it was before, and already feels better with less hair in the heat today. Next was getting the cathedral, which was amazingly simple and fast. The cathedral was amazing, but the experience of visiting it was kind of disappointing, as you will shortly figure out. The site itself is a World Heritage site, which gives you some idea of its importance, ... read more

Today was quite crazy, as I saw nine museums in one day. Unfortunately, that meant I could not stay more than an hour and a half at any of them, and some I could have easily spent twice that time looking at various artifacts and talking with the staff. This was a busier day even than days in Rome, so this may be a long post. The day opened with getting up at 7:30, much to the dismay of the other three guys sleeping in the room (I was in a four-bed hostel-type accommodation there- single rooms were too expensive). I hope they got back to sleep eventually, but I wanted to make the first boat of the day over to where the museums were, and the boat leaves at 8:30. After a hurried breakfast I ... read more

A brief word on food in Europe probably should be said. My first introduction to buying food in another language (other than Spanish) was on one of the first days I was here. We had to stock up on food for four days because the stores would be closed all weekend and Monday for a holiday, so we had to get food fast, with no time to figure out what we were actually buying. It actually worked out quite well, with some things being recognizable, but other things I just had to buy and hope it was moderately close to what I wanted to get. Some things are sort of close to what you intended to get, such as this peanut-butter type stuff. I think it is actually some sort of chocolatized-hazelnut-milk spread, which is ... read more