Belgium

Belgium is a great place and Antwerp was a perfect city for our port. We were fortunate enough in Antwerp to have a superb docking place right downtown. It’s a fun city to walk around in with lots of shopping, delicious food, and beautiful buildings. I spent the first day wondering around Antwerp with a couple of friends, and then later went off to see Ruben’s house and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Ruben’s house was neat although there has been so much great art on this trip that I have become a bit desensitized and I am feeling less and less excited about religious paintings and icons. Not that it was a big draw for me in the first place, but I was enjoying them more initially. The Museum of Contemporary Art was also a bit of a disappointment. It was mostly conceptual art which I often don’t understand.

Antwerp, Belgium

The next day I went to Gent and Bruge with Laura the art history professor, another RD and her partner. It was a lot of fun. July 21 is Belgium’s Independence Day so there were a lot of festivals and parties. We stayed in Gent for only a couple hours, just long enough to see the Gent Altarpiece which Laura demanded we all see. It was very impressive. Painted by Jon Van Eyck and his brother in the 1500’s the style is very detailed and realistic. There is also debate about which part Jon did and which part his brother did. Either way it’s impressive. After a lunch of mussels and beer we took the train to the charming town of Bruge. Laura and I went to enjoy some art work at a Cathedral and then I left Laura at the Memling Museum because I was just too tired to enjoy it. I wondered around on my own and had a delicious waffle with chocolate poured over it, although it was so rich it gave me a stomach ache. Later on we all met up and wondered around some more before dinner and caught the final train back to the ship in Antwerp.

The train station in Antwerp - on the way to Gent and Bruge

Me eating delicious mussels in Gent

On the third morning I took a 2-hour train to Amsterdam on my own. I spent the day by myself in Amsterdam and had a great time (don’t worry mom even though I was traveling alone no one attacked me). J First I took the tram to the Van Gogh museum. Van Gogh is from The Netherlands and they have a gorgeous museum dedicated to his work and other work from the same time period. I spend nearly 3 hours in the museum and really enjoyed it. This was quite refreshing considering I was getting so tired of museums. I think part of it is that I like Van Gogh’s work more than the 15th and 16th century oil paintings which we keep seeing so much of. I might have to breeze through those in the Lourve (oh yeah, by the way, we are skipping London due to the bombings and going to France instead). After the museum and lunch I wondered around the many shops in Amsterdam, did a little shopping and made my way to Anne Frank’s house.

Anne Frank’s House was amazing. It was not what I expected. It’s been a while since I read her diary, but the place was bigger and more urban than I expected. Her family and four others lived there for two years and shortly before the war ended. Someone leaked their existence and the Nazis caught them. Everyone except the father died in the concentration camp only one month before liberation. It was very powerful and sad to see Anne Frank’s house and museum only a few days after visiting Auschwitz. It helped me appreciate more fully what they went through.

Anne Frank's House

Belgium is a wonderful place. I enjoyed the mixture of traveling by myself and with friends. I am looking forward to France and seeing Sarah!

Semester at Sea Olympics

July 17, 2005

The Olympics are a tradition with Semester at Sea. Classes are canceled for the day and the eight Seas compete in various games ranging from the hot dog eating contest to the talent show. A Sea is similar to a Hall on a land based campus – in our case a group of cabins in a certain section of the ship that join together in a proud union. I am proud to say I am the Resident Director for the Bering Sea (in case you as geographically ignorant as I was I will spare you the embarrassment of having to pull out an atlas and tell you the Bering Sea is between Alaska and Russia). The motivation for the competition is that the winning Sea gets to be the first Sea off the ship when we return to the States. This means first to catch their planes and first to see their family and friends who are greeting them on the dock. We were awesome and got first place in the Spirit contest, first in Trivia, second in the synchronized swim contest, and more. It was an awesome day! Overall, we fared very well in our Olympic escapades and took third place! We were really excited about third because we didn’t want to be first off the ship because then we would just be standing on the dock while everyone else was still getting to hug and say goodbye on board. But, anyway, it’s not about the competition – it’s about the camaraderie, the smiles, the laugher, and the memories (although I know my soccer-playing buds in Madison would debate me on this one).

Synchronized Swim Competition

Big Hair Contest

Bering Sea Rocks the Boat!!

The Orange Pass

The Tug-o-war

Poland

Poland is a gorgeous country, much more impressive than I expected. We docked in Gdnask, a very quaint active city in northern Poland. I spent the first day in Gdansk wandering around and seeing the sights with a couple friends.

me in Gdansk, Poland

Gdansk, Poland

Wednesday night we hopped an overnight train to Krakow. Since it was a Wednesday night the train wasn’t very busy and we were able to each lay down on our own bench and I was actually able to sleep rather well (thanks to my trusty earplugs – never leave home without them). We arrived in Krakow first thing in the morning and three of us rushed over to catch the train to Auschwitz. We spent the day in Auschwitz and the larger concentration camp called Auschwitz II. The day was filled with a mix of emotions – one minute I would feel tears in my eyes just thinking about the magnitude of evil and horrors that happened within the concentration camps and all of Europe during those years and then a bit later I would forget where I was and think I was just wondering around another historical museum. I think what amazed me the most was how well planned and thought out the Nazi’s were in their attempt to exterminate Jews, gays, and others. They went to great efforts to hide what they were doing and to make the prisoners initially think they were going someplace good. I have a couple photos of the camp here.

barbed wire fence at Auschawitz

After the long day at the concentration camps we went back to Krakow and joined our other friends at an apartment flat we rented for the night. It was in a beautiful, suburban area of town and the house was gorgeous. We didn’t quite know what to expect since we made the reservation on-line and we were so pleased. The family who owns the house lives on the top floor and rents out the first floor. We invited them down for dinner and had a fabulous time. One of our friends is from Italy and was very excited to cook us an authentic Italian meal. We were equally (if not more) excited to eat it and enjoyed it immensely. It was delicious. However, the best part was talking to our new Polish friends. The wife and two kids (aged 18 and 10) joined us for dinner and we asked them many questions about Poland, the fall of communism, and compared Polish and American life. They were very thankful about the fall of communism however, pointed out that not everyone was. In Russia we talked with many people who were not very happy about it. She said it was because if you are lazy then communism is much preferable because you will always have enough money to eat and live. However, that’s it. If you have any ambitions you can not pursue them. I imagine some of the difference between the feelings of the Russians and the Poles is that the Poles have a much better infrastructure than the Russians. The rails, the roads, the phones, everything was similar to the rest of Western Europe and very modern.

me on top of a church in Poland

The next morning we slowly woke up and after photos, goodbyes, and email exchanges with our new friends we headed into Krakow. We spent the day the wonderful city of Krakow. It’s a fun, beautiful place. I went off on my own for a bit and went to St. Mary’s Cathedral, Cloth Hall, and did some shopping. We all met up for a yummy dinner and then took the overnight train back to Gdansk. The overnight train back was not near as pleasant as they way. It was very crowded and we almost didn’t even get a seat. However, we did have to sit up most of the night and that was rather miserable. I didn’t sleep much and as soon as I got to the ship took a shower and fell asleep.

I woke up around noon in time to join three students for a trip to Sopot, a beach town that was 15 minutes by train north of Gdansk. We had a great time. We layed around on the beach and then before we left jumped on this really cool bungy-trampoline thing. We were doing flips and bouncing about 20 feet in the air. I loved it!

me flipping on the bungy-trampoline thing

I had a great time in Poland! It’s a beautiful country. The people are friendly, the streets are clean, and the food is cheap and good. I think it is still a bit of an undiscovered gem in Europe, but it won’t be for long.

Russia

St. Petersburg, Russia greeted us with a beautiful, blue sky and warm, sunny weather. For a city that only gets a few days of sun each year we were really lucky that every day was gorgeous. Our ship was parked in the Neva River about 5km from town so we did a lot of walking, which I enjoyed. The city is beautiful and very different from what I expected. The first morning I went on a bus tour of the city and to the Hermitage. The Hermitage is an enormous museum on par with the Louvre in France. Walking through every part of Hermitage would cover 27 miles! If you spent one minute looking at every piece in their collection it would take over 11 years! (These are the types of useless tidbits you pick up on guided tours). I started on a guided tour and then branched out on my own. It was amazing. There isn’t even any Russian art in it – that is all housed in the Russian Museum (which I didn’t make it to). I saw two Da Vinci’s, Michelangelo, Picasso, Monet, and much more.


The Interior of the Hermitage

I’ve always viewed Russia as a poorer country and while there are many people living in poverty I was shocked at the riches – the Hermitage, the palaces, the ornate churches, and the beautiful architecture. Although many of the places look wonderful on the outside and then when you wonder into the alleys between the buildings it is falling apart, however still beautiful in the way old brick can be.

In Russia the women are very fashionable in a 1980’s type of way and wear a lot of mini skirts and high heels. It’s rather amazing because the streets are often cobblestone or cracked up concrete. They also have these floor mats at many doorways that have holes just big enough for a high heel. Of course being less practiced at heels than the Russians, when I was leaving the ballet I got my heel stuck in one of the mat holes and then while trying to pull it out the other got stuck and then got it stuck for a third time and finally just walked out barefoot and laughing. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only American that had this problem.

The second day I spent time in St. Petersburg wondering around and visited the Church on Spilled Blood, which was incredible and is what I picture when I think of Russia.

the interior of the Church on Spilled Blood

The third night I traveled to Moscow with Semester at Sea. I was one of three trip leaders for the 93 participants. The experience was pretty crazy only because we were traveling with so many people, it was like herding cats. We had a few Russian tour guides with us – one was fabulous and the rest were only okay. Since we are not used to trains most of us didn’t sleep much on the way to Moscow. The day we spent in Moscow was very busy seeing the Kremlin and various other sights. By 11am I had probably had 30 people complain to me about something – always something I could do nothing about – the toilets, the tour guide, the bus, the heat, the itinerary, you name it people complained to me. Finally, I told them all to keep their negative thoughts to their selves that I wanted to enjoy the day and would not be able to if everyone complained to me. Well, then everyone had to come up and apologize to me which usually went something like this, “Amy, I am so sorry I was complaining to you. I didn’t realize you were getting so many complaints. It’s just that my camera ran out of batteries and I want to go back to the bus to get more. Do you know how much longer we’ll be at the Kremlin?” The whininess in their voice increasing with every word. What can you do? What I don’t understand is why would someone travel via a second class, overnight train in Russia and expect the Holiday Inn? You would think people would understand what they are getting into or at least just go with the flow, even if they have never been to Russia. Geez, very few Americans even get the privilege of traveling to Russia. The elitism of some of the students is my biggest frustration here. I think maybe some people are just never happy, no matter what they are doing or where they are. Those are the people I struggle with the most. Granted this particular trip was difficult because it was so structured. All of us were craving some free time to just wonder around Moscow. Finally, before dinner we had about 45 minutes in Red Square, which relaxed people a bit. Then we went to the Moscow circus, which was a highlight for me. It was excellent! Unfortunately, there were no trapeze flyers even though the bars were hanging. That was a disappointment, but a minor one. On the train ride home everyone slept very soundly. We were so tired after our busy day. Moscow is a beautiful city and much cleaner than St. Petersburg. I would love to go back and be able to explore more.

St. Basil in the Red Square in Moscow

Me in Red Square

Russia is an interesting country. It is an enormous country spanning 13 time zones and dwarfing the U.S. With the end of communism in 1991 the Russians have experienced so much change. Many people we talked with said they preferred communism over the current situation. I think part of this is because they do not have the infrastructure that we have in the States. There are very few roads outside of the cities, many people are very poor, and the police are corrupt and can be paid off easily. One example of their lack of infrastructure is their phone system. There are pay phones throughout the city, but you can only use a phone card from the company that owns the phone. Imagine if you had an MCI calling card, but could only find AT&T pay phones. You would be out of luck. It might not be so bad if phone cards were readily available, but no one I knew could ever figure out where the phone cards were sold. I imagine it will take at least 20 years for the infrastructure to match western Europe and the U.S.

Norway

Norway is a country that I had never considered visiting, but now that I have been here I am so glad to have come. It is gorgeous. The first day I wondered around to churches and museums with Laura, the art history professor. It was great because she would tell me the history of some of the old art work. We also saw several of Edvard Munch’s work that was great.
On day two I wanted to travel up to see some glacier mountains so I met up with Patrick, the Semester at Sea photographer and we hopped a train to a town called Flam. Once there we felt it was going to be too complicated to travel that far north so we decided to do some hiking around Flam and stay over night. We took the train back uphill and hiked down about 11km. It was gorgeous. We saw so many waterfalls I lost count. We stayed in a hotel and in the morning took a ferry to the next town over and hiked up to a waterfall and around some farmland.

The cute sheep!

One of the amazing things about Norway is their public access law. There are no trespassing laws and you can walk anywhere including on private property. We didn’t have to worry about someone calling the cops or pulling out a shotgun on us. Of course you have to be respectful and not trample their gardens, etc. We ended up talking with a couple of University students who were working in the field of the local agriculture college. They were picking weeds in a large garden. They had a great system where they would set the tractor at a very low speed, line it up on the row and then lay on this trailer designed just for this purpose. It seemed to be a very efficient system.

Just outside our hotel room

Today I walked around Bergen and visited the Fantoft Stave church that was rebuilt a few years ago. It was burned down by a satanic cult group in 1992. The original church dated back to the 11th century and so it was very sad to lose it to such an awful act of violence. It was rebuilt using the same tools and methods used back then. The unique thing about the entirely wooden church is that there are no nails. Everything is constructed to fit perfectly together without the addition of nails. In a few places where nails were necessary wooden ones were used.
On my way back to the ship I walked through the town center. There were a lot of street musicians and people selling things. I stumbled across three American Indian musicians playing in the street, quite ironic in Norway. It was especially funny to look over and see the Enthnomusicologist Professor and talk to her. Of course she was appalled.

Iceland II

From 6/28/05
Tomorrow we’ll be in Norway and then have to start paying for internet service. Semester at Sea follows the typical University model where faculty and students get more privileges than staff - in this case they get 200 minutes free internet whereas staff get only 100 minutes free until the end of the voyage in August. This was a bit of a surprise to me since we didn’t know about this ahead of time. At $.40/ minute the difference is only $40/person. I am just continually surprised what organizations do that may seem small, but communicate a clear message to their employees about how they view them. So I don’t know how much I’ll be posting between now and August, but hopefully enough to keep you all updated and entertained. Anyway, enough of my bitterness and on to the exciting things….

My third day in Iceland was rather uneventful until the evening. Reykjavík is known for their night life, so of course we had to experience it. At home my typical bedtime is 10:30pm so when the clubs at home are just picking up around 11pm I can barely stay awake. In Reykjavík no one really goes out until 1am, which is shortly after sunset. So on Saturday I went out with the other RDs around midnight. There was a dance at Café Reykjavik which was a fundraiser for the upcoming gay pride event so we went there. Well at midnight we stopped by and about three people were there, so we went to another bar called Café Solon for about an hour. When we returned to Café Reykjavik at 1am things were just starting to pick up. If I had been in the States I would have been exhausted, but since it doesn’t get dark all night the light plays tricks on your body. We stayed out until almost 4am and had a blast! I was rather fascinated by the whole thing. I barely felt tired and got up the next day at 8:30am. In fact if anything I felt energized and excited. The other different thing is that in a club in the States it is always very dark with few windows, but this place had big windows on both sides and the skylight was pouring in. The music they played was very diverse and included Dolly Parton, ABBA, Bon Jovi, rap, hard rock, and even heavy metal. It was actually a great mix with lots of American music and some Icelandic music. Everyone was dancing and seemed more carefree than in the States, less concerned about how other people were viewing them. It was quite refreshing.

My final day in Iceland involved a trip to the infamous Blue Lagoon. It is basically a section of a river that has been converted to a large hot tub heated by a geothermal power plant. It didn’t really seem like my thing, but everyone was raving about it so I decided to go check it out. Well, it was overrated, but still enjoyable. Here is a photo…

Iceland is a gorgeous country with friendly, proud locals. I am so glad I went and I would definitely go back. I have a feeling the Glacier lagoon (see previous post) is an experience that will be hard to top in any country.