The Last Leg: Budapest to Southampton

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I was left with two weeks ahead of me with no plans – as long as I was in Brussels by the end of August for my cousins’ wedding I could do whatever I wanted. It’s a great feeling being free like that – with the time to go wherever you want. One of my university friends was heading to Vienna in Austria and so I decided to go and join him.

And I’m so glad I did – Vienna must be one of the most spectacular cities in the world. Every building is an architectural masterpiece. For me the most amazing building there has to be Stephansdom Cathedral - this immense cathedral is jaw-dropping on both the outside and inside. But whichever way you look your eyes encounter towering churches, colossal museums, grand houses, not to mention the hundreds of fountains and statues of famous musicians and artists. We hired out some bikes, and spent the day taking in all the sights – topping it off with a nap in one of Vienna’s huge parks. The buildings are as equally amazing at night when they are all lit up. We stumbled across a huge screen where they were playing opera, with loads of food and drink stalls around. It was my first real taste of Europe after being away for so long, and I was enjoying it! Although always waiting for the green man to cross the road was beginning to drive me a bit crazy, especially after living in Saigon!

After Vienna, I decided to head over to Prague for a couple of days. I met some cool French girls and we spent a couple of days exploring the city, going up to the castle, and relaxing in parks. Unfortunately all the tourist attractions in Prague are quite expensive (well in relation to the cost of everything else), so we didn’t really go inside anything. One interesting place we saw was the Old Jewish cemetery – this tightly packed cemetery has up to 12 layers of bodies on each grave, as they ran out of space and couldn’t buy any more land. The result is a higgledy-piggedly graveyard with tombstones placed almost on top of each other. There are many amazing buildings in Prague, but I think seeing Vienna just before had raised the bar so high it was impossible to beat! My favourite thing about Prague has to be the food and drink. The beer is just top notch – after being deprived of good beer for the last year and a half in Asia it was really going down well! And the food is so hearty – you can’t beat a huge plate of roast pork with dumplings and cabbage washed down with a beer. One time I tried to order a fillet of beef with cranberries but was quickly told I couldn’t have that as only women eat that kind of thing - I should have something more manly like meat and dumplings instead!

I decided to continue east to Berlin, as I’m really interested by the history there and had heard that it was a cool place to visit as well. I’d been on a few of the free walking tours around other cities in Europe and they’re a bit of a mixed bag with some good and some bad ones. The one in Berlin however was very good – the tour guide was a history teacher who really knew his stuff, and made it both interesting and thought-provoking. We started off at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, just south of the imposing Brandenburg Gate. You’re greeted by a field of concrete blocks of differing heights, and try as you might, you can find nothing to explain the meaning of it. Peter Eisenman, the architect, has left it up to the visitor to find their own symbolism. For me it resembles a cemetery, with each gravestone representing thousands more. The architect has mentioned in the past that one of his favourite places is the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague that I mentioned earlier, and there are definitely parallels with the varying heights of the concrete blocks, and the way that the Jewish cemetery is so uneven. Walking between the blocks completely cuts off your diagonal vision, which for me represented narrow-mindedness and not being able to see or understand things that are different to your own ideas or values. Underneath the memorial is a harrowing museum containing stories and personal letters of some of the Jews that suffered at the hands of the Nazis. It is really quite difficult to grasp the inhumanity of it all. When 6 million people are murdered it is hard to empathise due to the enormity of it – details get lost in the numbers. This museum takes the stories of a few and reconnects you, engages you in their suffering. When your mind multiplies the stories of these few to the numbers of those killed the effect really brings it home. It is hard to imagine that something like this could ever happen again, but if we are not careful it is quite possible, particularly in this economic climate when people tend to vote more at the extremes. A good example is the rise of the extreme-right in Greece at the moment. This memorial is an important reminder of what can happen.

We also visited the Topography of Terror – the site of the headquarters of the feared Gestapo and the SS. The buildings have been demolished – the site has been purposely reduced to rubble. The only thing that stands there is a ‘documentation centre’ that has some pretty horrendous photos of the horrors that the Nazis committed. The site of the famous Nazi book burning, Bebelplatz, was also an interesting place to visit. In May 1933 20,000 books were burnt by the Nazis outside the Humboldt Univeristy. A quote by the poet Heinrich Heine can be found on a plaque in the square, which translated into English reads: ‘Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people’. He wrote that in 1821 – quite a prophecy.

Berlin is also of course famous for its role in the Cold War. Deep in Eastern Germany, Berlin was split into British, French, American and Soviet sectors. People could move freely between the sectors, but as the quality of life was so much better in West Berlin, people tended to flock there from the East. So the Soviets came up with a clever plan – build a wall on Soviet soil around West Berlin. Built on their own soil, and supposedly built to protect their border much like other countries – there wasn’t much the Allies could do. Some segments of the wall are still standing today, most notably in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg where the wall has many paintings by artists from all over the world. Perhaps the most famous one is of the then Soviet leader Brezhnev french-kissing the East German President Honecker. It’s quite a striking image – apparently Brezhnev used it as an intimidation tactic, although Margaret Thatcher used to avoid it by leaning backwards, and Fidel Castro would just light a cigar before meeting him. Kreuzberg is also great for a night out – there are hipsters left right and centre walking round with boomboxes, bars and clubs in warehouses covered in graffiti, and open-mic outside on the street. Plenty of atmosphere!

My next stop was to meet up with one of my Danish friends in Copenhagen. It was nice to spend a few days hanging out with some of her friends and family, and she took me all over the city. I had always pictured Copenhagen as being full of skyscrapers but I couldn’t have been more wrong – everything is very low-rise, and along with the many parks there gives it a really pleasant open feel. One interesting place we went to was Christianshavm. This is kind of the hippy centre of Copenhagen, and there are loads of stalls where they quite openly sell marijuana and mushrooms (hard drugs are strictly off-limits). Apparently the police generally turn a blind eye as it means that drugs can be contained within one area of the city. I was amazed at the quality of life in Denmark – for example the food everywhere is incredible. In England if I took a sample of ten sandwich shops, maybe two or three would be top-quality. In Copenhagen it would be seven or eight. The focus there seems to be on quality – the open-faced sandwiches (smørrebrød) are pieces of artwork, with the different ingredients arranged meticulously on top. Having said that, everything was really expensive – my trip had been getting progressively more expensive the further West I came, not something my bank balance was enjoying! Another interesting thing in Danish culture is the concept of hygge. They put a huge importance on spending quality time with their close friends and family, no TV or phones – just eating, drinking and talking in a cosy environment. I really liked the idea of it, and I think it’s something we need more of in England!

My final stop was Brussels for my cousins wedding. She was getting married to a Rwandan guy whom she met when she worked out there, and they now live in Brussels together. It was a fantastic wedding, with the Rwandan ceremony (or gusaba) taking place first in the morning. The father of the groom and a Rwandan representative for my cousin then argued back and forth about whether she was still available, and if he was good enough for her, and then went on to ask if anyone in the room knew any reasons why they shouldn't get married. One guy from the Rwandan Embassy stood up and said that there might be visa problems, but then eventually revealed that they had been sorted. Of course, this was all just for fun and to honour traditions, but it went on for ages! Then they had to discuss the dowry, or how many cows the grooms family would offer the brides family. In this case they settled on a few bottles of wine, as I don’t think my uncle has much need for cows! There was plenty of Rwandan dancing and food that followed which was great. The traditional ceremony was in the afternoon, and the reception in the evening with loads of African music. It was great fun, and really great to see all my family again after almost two years away from them! It was a fitting way to end my trip, watching two very different cultures embracing each other and having fun.

I drove back to my parents home in Southampton with my family the following day, bringing an end to my travels. My original plan had been to get from Asia to England by land and sea, but due to time and safety constraints couldn’t make it happen – however I managed to get from the south of Iran back to England overland which is a significant chunk and something that I’m proud of!

Travelling back overland from East to West has been fantastic. Watching how people, landscapes, languages and cultures interact, merge and change as you travel is fascinating – something that you don’t witness when you fly long-distance. For the past two years the world has been my classroom. I’ve learnt more in these two years than I could possibly have imagined. I’ve been educated by people from all walks of life – every day I felt like I was learning something new. I want to take these things I’ve learnt from different cultures and try and implement them to better myself as a person. Whether it’s the kindness and hospitality of those I met in the Middle-East, the respect of the Koreans, the determination of the Vietnamese, the stress-free life of the Laotians, or even the hygge of the Danish. I’ve learnt that 99.9% of people in the world are the same; we all want the same things in life – happiness, health, security, friends and family. Different cultures mean we try and achieve it in different ways, but we’re all looking for the same result.

I’d like to thank everyone I’ve met along the way; you’ve made this trip very special. And thanks for reading these blogs, I’m sure they can be a bit long and tedious but I hope they’ve provided a bit of interest at least! I’m now about to start a civil engineering job in Bristol as it’s time for me to begin my career. But the good thing about engineering is that it is a very international job – so hopefully it won’t be long before I’m out there again! Until next time...

Love Ross x

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Thanks for blogging your two years abroad...
and I look forward to many more. I too am a civil engineer...you are right that it allows one to have jobs all over the world...I did.

[Ross Parker]

Thanks, that's reassuring to know!