Misty Mountains: Italy Adventures I

The first part of my Spring Break was spent in Northern Italy! This was my second time in Italy, I went last year for spring break as well, but this time I was visiting some new cities with new friends- and then a trip to see some old, familiar faces.

 

As our plane was landing in Bergamo, Milan the first things I noticed were the mountains.  Huge, rolling mountains, covered in green trees with mist swirling around. Mysterious and beautiful. I was excited to be back in Italy.

I went to stay with my roommate Ily in her University town of Padova along with two other Erasmus students in our group: Jafar from Tajikistan and Rovshen from Turkmenistan. One of the very first things we did in Italy? Get a coffee! Granted, this was half because we were in Italy, and half because we had gotten maybe three or four hours of sleep and then spent the whole of the morning travelling and were dragging just a bit!

Morning mountains as we sipped our coffee

 

I visited five different cities in Italy: Brescia, Verona, Venice, Padova and Milan again. Each has a very different feel to it and their own sort of appeal.

Day one was Verona! Verona is an adorable little town, most well known for its connection to Romeo and Juliet. We generally just meandered around the town, discovering things as we came upon them such as Romeo’s house, a beautiful view of the river and the ever-famous balcony in Juliet’s house. Juliet’s house is the main attraction in Verona, and very nearly the only one (minus the Castello, but I’ll get here later). The outside greets you with a small plaque:

A small tunnel then takes the throngs of visitors into Juliet’s courtyard. The walls of the tunnel are completely covered over with writing- every kind of love note possible, couples’ graffiti, and hearts created using every color and all writing materials possible. Inside the tiny courtyard lies an iron gate covered with locks declaring couples’ love, and just to the right is a statue of Juliet, just beneath her balcony. If you feel like paying, you can go up to the balcony, but I’m a cheap and poor college student who didn’t care, so I settle for taking pictures. I loved the statue. Somehow the sculptor showed how young and naïve Juliet was, hopeful and in love. Poor Juliet however, gets molested by tourists on a regular bases because it’s supposedly good luck. Besides Casa di Guilietta, we got our first gelato of Italy in Verona! Always one of my favorite things about Italy. The other features of Verona are the arena that’s not really worth paying to go into, and the Castello. The most exciting part of the 1355 Castelvecchio is the bridge behind it, which goes over the river, providing a beautiful view of the city and the castle. We also randomly found a plaque for Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, our neighborhood in Brussels on the town hall in Verona. Strange. Verona was sweet, but we were dying by the end of the day from having carried our heavy backpacks around all day (mine was filled for two weeks of traveling). Since it was our first night in Italy, we ordered pizza for dinner! Delicious of course.

Juliet's balcony

Locks declaring people's love 

Juliet!

Verona, main square (arena in the background)

The arena- they are converting it into a theatre/stage area

Sweet buildings in Verona. I love Italian architecture

1st Gelato!!!

View of the city from the Castello Bridge

Proof that I was in Verona. Castello behind me!

Day two was Venice: the floating city. It was interesting for me to visit Venice after having already seen Amsterdam and Bruges now, two other big canal cities. Well Venice takes the canal bit to a whole new level. Venice is filled with criss-crossing narrow streets, alleys and canals- so to get around you can either walk, or use a boat! Note that I said nothing about cars- this was what my Italian friend pointed out to me. Later in the day it started to rain, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, we got to see Venice in all types of weather that day. But what was especially incredible in this floating city was how quiet it was. You could literally listen to the rainfall. We realized it was because there were no cars. The difference of having no cars in a city is incredible, then there’s just the falling of rain and gliding of gondolas in the canals. That was one of my favorite moments in Venice. It’s a beautiful city, turquoise water everywhere and gleaming black, luxurious gondolas. We took bets on how expensive a gondola ride was- I got the closest at 50€, turns out it was 80€! Not exactly in our budget. After seeing the famous Piazza San Marco and the impressive Rialto Bridge, we did lots of wandering around the city, and discovered a free museum! Even better for me- it was an exhibit on Antonio Vivaldi and making violins!

So my inner orchestra geek came out. I was fascinated. I’ve played numerous Vivaldi concertos over the years, and had no idea that he lived and worked for years in Venice! It was pretty cool to learn about the history of the city a bit, and how it used to be a huge musical capital of the world; apparently people came from miles around to hear the musicians in Venice. This was definitely highlight number two for me in Venice. Venice is an extremely touristy city (you can buy masks and Murano glass anywhere there), but when you get more towards the edges, towards the sea, things calm down. I loved seeing all the boats coming and going in the bigger canals of the city. That’s about all for Venice, but now I really want to see the movie “The Tourist” again and point out all the places I’ve been!

Photo tour of Venice:

The Rialto Bridge, close to Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco! Never go here if you hate pigeons.

Gondolas by the sea

They literally lined most canals, like they do here

I loved how houses went right into the water- even their steps!

Vivaldi exhibit!

Beautiful Venezia

Over Halfway

Clearly it's been a while since my last post, and while I apologize for the crazy delay, there have been some...interesting complications. First of all, I am, and have been for the past four weeks, laptopless. Alas, tis a tragic existence, and it also made a whole lot of things a lot more difficult like registering for classes next fall at McDaniel, making sure I got housing at McDaniel, general online schoolwork and papers, and of course, being able to blog! The plus side is that for two of those four weeks I was romping around Italy and France, and for the other two weeks... well I've been dong a whole lot of reading for class, and realizing what generous, caring friends I have.

With so much that has happened, I don't want to bore you with one ridiculously long post, and I also have no access to any of my pictures at the moment from my trips, so I'll divide up spring break and this week into three different posts, and elaborate on those shenanigans later! For now, suffice to say that I'm over halfway done with my study abroad in Brussels! A really strange and crazy fact for me to acknowledge.

I've come to realize that while my French, primarily my speaking and reading skills, have improved a lot, in order to really master the language I need more time! A year would better, several even more so; you really have to immerse yourself in a language, studying it, being forced to use new vocabulary and make conversation, in order to really become fluent. That being said, I did get a little too excited the other day when I spontaneously used an adverbial pronoun in a sentence. As soon as I realized it, my French-Canadian friends cracked up at how happy I was. It's the little things in learning a language.

Saint-Louis, my University here, has a very different system regarding its final exams than McDaniel College does. It's more similar to my studies in Glasgow, but here I'm taking a whole lot more classes and I still have no idea when nearly any of my exams are. This would be one thing I really don't like about the system at Saint-Louis: they don't tell you your exams dates until the end of April. Thus, travel plans and flight tickets are rather tricky to make.

So with the lack of a computer in my room, I have actually been to the library! In all honesty, I've been terrified of working in the library. I was never sure of how the system worked (you're supposed to leave your student ID card at the desk when you go in, but since mine was stolen with my wallet, I've just been sneakily going in...), and there are not a whole lot of computers to use or any printers, so I generally avoided it. Plus there was some rule about no backpacks. However, now I seriously needed the computers, so I entered the library! It's pretty small, and divided a bit strangely in some sort of labyrinth of stairs and levels between real floors. Floors are separated by department, so law books are all together, social sciences are separate as is philosophy. That makes is sound a whole lot easier to navigate than it is- its all kinds of easy to get lost! Despite the limited number of computers (I think there are maybe ten total spread out throughout the library), I've always been able to get on one, and struggle through typing English on the French keyboard.

Essentially, the entire group of Erasmus students has been buckling down a bit this week, realizing that we did nearly no studying over spring break, and really have to get on it now! It was nice to come back 'home' to Moulin (what we call our house), and slowly have it fill up again with friends exchanging stories of trips all over from Moscow to the south of Spain. I think we all realized that we missed each other over the break, and it was so nice to get back into our routine of cooking dinner and eating together, talking in a mixture of languages as usual. Since I just got back from France, I've been in the habit of only talking in French (I'll get into that more on my France post), so it's been easy to converse with people in French. That being said, I was talking French straight for a week, with no English at all. So the day after I came back I was craving being able to speak English with a native speaker from home. Unfortunately, this hasn't exactly worked out (see how this no computer problem extends on so many levels?), so I'm waiting to finally Skype with my family and friends for the first time in over a month next week!

I mentioned that I've been discovering how kind my friends are in the past couple weeks, and it's absolutely true. Everyone has been so generous and helpful to me here since things got rather messed up with not having any money with my debit card being stolen and no computer. People have been loaning me money, lending their computers for a few hours, and even making me dinner on occasion. The friendships I've made in the past studying abroad, and these ones now really become strong ties for life. Being thrust into another culture really brings you together, making a pretty unique bond. So a thank you to everybody that has been helping me, or checking in on me. It's good to be back in familiar Brussels again, (despite our schizophrenic weather of sunshine and rain) and get back in the routine of classes and the occasional drink out in a pub with friends.

Halfway over. I'm going to miss the people here.

An interesting sort of week

This week has been two sided. Ups and downs, seeing both sides of Brussels, the good and the bad. We'll start with the good to cheer everybody up.

It's been beautiful outside! Literally all week the weather has been stunning- warm with sunshine and blue skies, sprinkled with a few puffy clouds. I love waking up in the morning to sunlight beaming through my wooden blinds. This means we've constantly been outside, enjoying the weather in Jardin Botanique right next to us, Parc Cinquantnaire, or even outside on the picnic table in the courtyard connecting the Erasmus student houses. This courtyard is also, unfortuantely, an extra parking lot (we still have no idea who for, maybe the hospital next door). So when we're out reading and eating on the picnic table, we also get a lot of strange looks, or "Bonjour!"s from complete strangers.

This past Friday night, I had the chance to attend a free concert! Last week, I picked up a flyer from MIM about "Nocturnes," a series of free concerts being put on throught March by the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. This week was my first change to actually go now that I knew it existed, and I was pretty excited. It was classical music, not everybody's cup of tea, but as I've been in an orchestra for most of my life and have now played violin for some twelve years, I can say that I definitely appreciate it! I went alone, since the other Erasmus students were either busy or not interested, running out of my last class of the day (which ends at 7pm on a Friday. ick.) to catch the pre-metro. I had already looked at the way and written down directions, but the easiest way to find the Conservatoire- find the Manneken Pis! This incredibly, weirdly famous statue of a small boy peeing is really not that impressive, but tourists flock to it all the time, and it serves as a good landmark. I found the building the concert was supposed to be in...and couldn't get in. Miraculously somebody inside buzzed me in, so I was able to open the door and sneak in the back of the auditorium as the show had already started.

It was fantastic. Mostly comprised of young people, the concert that night was exclusively Mozart. Three long pieces, one including two solo violins and one with a solo piano, were the entirety of the concert and the place was packed. I was really lucky just to get a chair. Plus we had a surprise visit by Mozart himself which was pretty hilarious. It's beautiful though, the French language, especially hear in a monologue performance. Now I want to go see a show in French! The evening was a great reminder of how many things there are to do in Bruxelles if you just keep an eye out.

So the concert was really fun, beautifully played and now I want my violin again. But onto the second fun thing of this week- I got to go see a movie! I may be one of the millions of people that have read The Hunger Games...and yes, I was pretty excited to see the movie. In Bruxelles, right next to the Atomium, is a massive cinema called Kinepolis which has every movie realised around that time, in every version. Thus, being in Belgium, you can see the movie in Flemish, French, or in the original version with subtitles. I'm a fan of originals myself, so that's what we went for, getting pretty decent tickets that only cost about $9 with a student pass. The theater was massive. Absolutely massive, and there weren't even that many people- probably because it was the original, English version of the film. Despite being the original version of the film, there were both Dutch and French subtitles the entire time. Usually I have a thing against subtitles, but since the screen was so huge, these were subtle and easy to ignore. Another strange thing about going to the movies in Brussels, there was an intermission! I was totally confused. I was all caught up in the movie, wondering what would happen next and suddenly... a ten minute intermission. Odd. I enjoyed the movie, plus, on the way out we all got a free Coke zero, and I'm definitely a fan of free stuff!

This however, unfortunately lead to the bad part of my week. First of all my laptop is still in the shop, so this week has been an interesting combination of using the schools computers and borrowing my wonderful friends' computers! Second, despite my being exceedingly careful, my wallet and phone was stole out of my purse on the way home from the movies. Put a bit of a damper on my evening, and the life lesson is always have your bag or purse in front of you. Unfortunately, quite a few people here have had things stolen- purses, phones, coats and now me with my wallet- all in different situations. Luckily I managed to get in contact with my family and through them my bank to cancel my debit card, so that's all taken care of. A hassel, but luckily nothing too important was in there than can't be replaced.

To end on a positive note- spring break is here! And tomorrow, or this evening depending on how you look at it, I leave for Italy! I can't wait to visit some new, beautiful cities, as well as meet up with some old friends from Glasgow. After Italy, I'm heading out to the Loire Valley in France, a beautiful stretch of the Loire River known for its beautiful châteaux. So there you have it: a topsy-turvey sort of week, but with the promise of Spring Break!

Spring! Oh yeah…studying

Finally, some of Belgium’s nastier weather has passed and for once we’ve been getting warm weather and sunshine all week! Warm weather for us equal being in the 50s and 60s (˚F).  It has been absolutely glorious. I’m convinced my Dad brought the good weather with him. It was wonderful to have him here for a bit, and having a visitor of my own let me get to see even more of Bruxelles.

Meeting up with my Dad for dinner meant that I was out in the city center in the evening now, and Bruxelles comes to life. Especially because of the nice weather, restaurants have their tables and chairs outside filled with people having a drink or eating, chatting away and watching the world pass by. I love the atmosphere. If you go to la Grand Place, ancient, soaring buildings surround the large square, lit up with a variety of greens and yellows. People are everywhere, taking pictures, playing guitar, eating or admiring artwork. This is the heart of Bruxelles; turn down a seemingly small street called Rue de la Bouchers, all of a sudden every building becomes a bustling restaurant. Light and music spill out onto the cobblestoned streets, as dinning couples laugh and waiters attempt to beckon you in using five different languages. “Espagnol?? No? Français? English?”

Suffice to say I had some pretty nice meals that week, making me feel like I not only saw more of Brussels, but tasted it too! (try the Flemish beef stew. It’s delicious) Moules, or mussels are also an extremely famous Belgian dish, but they aren’t really in season yet, so I’m waiting on that.

In addition to going to Bruges and meeting up for tasty meals, my Dad and I also explored the city a bit on Sunday morning. Apparently all morning, everyday, there is a massive flea market close to Porte D’Halle. Essentially, you can buy anything and everything ever created by man there, from paintings to old keys, clothes and Africa carvings. A fun fact that my Dad told me- if any of you saw the new Tintin movie, this is the market scene from the very beginning of the film! A tribute to Hergé, the Belgian creator of Tintin. It was fun to walk around an explore, stop a grab a coffee in one of the tens of little brasseries and meander more in Brussels.

Porte D'Halle- yes we have a random castle in the middle of Brussels

The market!

Apparently, Brussels is market central on Sundays, and everywhere  we went we discovered more and more stalls. Plus, I got to show my Dad some of the cool sites- le Grand Sablon a beautiful church, MIM, and the view of the city from Place Royal. I have also discovered where to get an amazing fruit smoothie in Brussels- right next to MIM (Musée d’Instruments Musicales). My Dad left after that lovely afternoon, but it was great to see him for a while!

More markets!

Inside le Grand Sablon- absolutely beautiful building

Since the warm weather has finally arrived, we've been taking full advantage and eating outside in out little courtyard and soaking up some sunshine in Parc Cinquantnaire. The entire city has come out, shopping, eating ice cream, going to the park as well to play frisbee or just lay on the grass with friends and chat. In the last two weeks, I feel like I'm getting more of an appreciation for Brussels. I am also realizing how much work I have to do, and have been ramping up my studying portion as well!

In other fun news, my laptop has decided, all on its own, to become more energy efficient. This translates as no longer back-lighting my screen. Which has led to me getting very creative in trying to see the screen (hint: the perfect angle of sunlight is the key here). All this means that I have to take my poor computer into the Apple Store here, and hopefully communicate what my problem is in French, and that I shouldn’t have to pay for it since I have Apple Care!! Luckily, I’ve conveniently planned this so I’ll be in Amsterdam whilst they are working on my computer, so I won’t need it. Wish me luck!

Romantic Pandas? Bruges

Not so very far from Brussels, in the Flemish portion of Belgium lies a small town called Bruges. If you have heard of any other city in Belgium besides Brussels, it was probably this one: ancient and picturesque Bruges dates back to the 9^th century. Buildings are still standing from dates as ancient as the 12^th century, and the entire town is interlaced with several rings of canals all criss-crossed by  tens of low stone bridges.

While Bruges is definitely beautiful, the day was made even better due to the fact that my Dad was with me! He happened to have a business trip to Brussels, and we got to spend all of Saturday together. Thus, the plan for our day: go to Bruges! We took the train in, the easiest way to get around in Belgium, and definitely started off the day right with a delicious hot chocolate. (I think I’m going to start a new policy that every time I go somewhere new by train in Belgium, I will get a hot chocolate. Always delicious in train stations for some reason…)

While we didn’t have the most beautiful of days, it being cloudy and gray, it was still a decent temperature and it didn’t rain all day! Our plan for the day was essentially to wander around the city at will, exploring whatever we stumbled upon. Since the train station brought us close to a park, we started there! Minnewater, or the Lake of Love, is a beautiful lake framed by trees on all sides, and a beautiful bridge and random medieval tower. I was a big fan of the tower and bridge, but unfortunately I couldn’t climb up inside it.  Follow the water and you reach Begijnhof. Within that name you discover what Begijnhof used to be- a monastery for women of the Béguine order. Béguines were women who had been widowed, but preferred to respect and maintain their marital vows living a peaceful, single and protect life in a community of other women. No Béguines live there now, but a few nuns do- thus the quiet nature of the monastery is maintained amongst the whitewashed buildings surrounding a courtyard full of slanted trees and yellow daffodils.

Fun fact about Bruges- not only are there swans everywhere (four of which can eat a grown man in 10 minutes according to our tour guide), but there are horses everywhere! No, not just galloping loose all over the city, but drawing carriages over the cobblestones. A very popular way to tour the city, touristy as it may be. The other fun way to tour the city? By boat! Bruges is kind of like a northern-European version of Venice (though I haven’t been to Venice yet), so I convinced my Dad to go on a boat tour with me! It was really cool to see the city by boat, gliding underneath centuries old bridges only four feet high and see the buildings meeting the water up close. We were a bit chilly after the boat tour, and set off in search of a café.

Never, fear, Bruges is also bursting with food. There are literally hundreds of pubs, waterside restaurants, tearooms and cafés. The trick is finding one not close to the main tourist centers where things get real expensive, real fast. True to being a Belgian town, there were friteries (fries-shops), waffle-shops and chocolateries everywhere. Literally everywhere. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much chocolate in such a small area in such a short amount of time. Chocolate chickens, bunnies and eggs for Easter anyone?

The best part about Bruges was just exploring- coming across an antiques market along the canal, finding beautiful courtyards and a tower that looked like it belonged to Rapunzel. There are quite a few art museums, but we weren’t really in the museum mood, and so checked out the cool architecture and then moved on. There is also a super-famous Michelangelo sculpture in Bruges- the Madonna with Child, housed inside the Church of Our Lady, a building with extremely eclectic architecture since is took 200 years to build!

Looked like Rapunzel's tower to me!

We also visited the Choco-Story Museum, which is supposed to tell the story of chocolate since the Mayans. Complete with Lego dioramas.  While they have a lot of cool artifacts, and I loved watching the demonstration of how to make pralines, the famous filled Belgian chocolates, it’s really not worth it. Go watch ‘Chocolat’ instead and then do some research. It’ll be a lot more entertaining and cheaper!

The main square in Bruges is crowned by the Belfort, an extremely tall bell tower, which you can climb if you’re up for 366 steps. It over looks the Markt, the main square, full of restaurants and shops, just like the Burg and Vismarkt (fish market that still sell some fish in the mornings).  

Belfort

The Markt

We also visited the city brewery on our way out of the city- unfortunately the last tour was at 5pm, so we didn’t get to tour the brewery. When my Dad asked the ticket guy what he recommended to do instead, his reply was, “Have a beer. That’s fun.” So we did, going to the brewery tavern and trying the local beer.

All in all, an extremely beautiful little town, full of restaurants, museums and chocolateries! Being in Flanders, our French didn’t really help a whole lot that day, and English was our communication language of choice. Two last random facts before finishing off:

1.     1. Dragon Benches! Take a look at the benches in the city if you ever go to Bruges. The railings holding up the seats are actually all swirly dragons. I enjoyed it.

2.     2. You’re probably wondering why I called the post Romantic Pandas. While Bruges is a very romantic city… the real reason is that we discovered this sign:

My Dad promptly said, “Look! The romantic panda hotel!” I laughed so hard I cried. So there’s Bruges for you! Home of the Romantic pandas- and some very beautiful canals!

Me in front of one of the many canals!

Berlin!

In lieu of not being able to come up with a catchy title, here's my intro:

So 3 Canadians, a French guy and an American walked into a bar. True story. Although we would make a brilliant joke (if somebody can think of one starting like that, more power to ya), this was also the fun jumble of people I went to Berlin with this weekend! Which, ironically, meant that despite being in Germany, I spoke French more often than I might do in Brussels. It was actually great practice for me, plus I finally managed to convince them that I wasn't offended when they corrected me, but that they should in fact do it more. I know I make mistakes, so better to fix them now than after a year of saying something wrong!

I never really planned on going to Germany, and Berlin certainly wasn't on my radar, but when some friends said they were going and did I want to come- why not? Suddenly everyone I met started telling me how cool Berlin was, and I started to get excited about our trip! 

We stayed for a total of three whole days (four nights), and I could have easily spent a week there, most of it just in the museums. Berlin has some incredible, world-class museums, some worthy of a day each! Pergamon had to be my favorite- it contained entire building! Walk in, and you are immediately confronted with the grand Pergamon Alter, transported all the way from Turkey to Berlin in its entirety. All of a sudden I was in ancient Greece, climbing the alter steps and seeing friezes with the battle of the gods and giants. In the next room I traveled to the Roman Empire with this incredible three-story market gate, which in turn lead to Babylon through the lapis lazuli blue Ishtar Gate. There were numerous artifacts and several other structures transported to the museum. It was incredible and I highly recommend going if you're ever in Berlin.

Pergamon Alter! 

Market Gate, Pergamon Museum

Ishtar Gate from Babylon! (also Pergamon Museum)

Next we stopped in another amazing museum that is part of Berlin’s ‘Museum Island,’ quite literally, an island in the middle of the city full of museums. The Neues Museum- also known as the Egyptian Museum for me, because it was full of Egyptian art and artifacts, plus the extremely famous bust of Nefertiti, and an incredible papyrus library. My obsession with hieroglyphics may have come out quite a bit…

Bridges leading to Museum Island

To understand Berlin, know that it is a pretty massive city, divided into multiple districts, each with their own center. While we did an impressive amount of walking, the metro and train system was essential to getting around the city quickly. Fun fact about Berlin: everybody walks around with an open bottle of beer. On the street, on the metro, and at any time of day whether it is 4am or 10am. Seemed like a substitute for water!

Over the course of the three days that we were there, we explored and visited quite a bit, so I’m just going to give you some of the highlights and impressions of the city. Berlin is absolutely full of history, from its creation up until modern day after the Cold War. So I decided to take a free walking tour of the city and learn all of that first hand. The tour was incredible (Sandeman’s newEurope if you’re interested, they’re in other cities too), in the space of some three and a half or four hours, I got a few hundred years of really interesting history that suddenly gave meaning to all the buildings, plazas and monuments around me. Things like the fact that Berlin was (and still is) a swamp, never meant to be a big city, and thus big pink and blue pipes are still all over the city today, carrying out water and natural gas from underground. This is also why Berlin doesn’t smell all that great.

In fact, we learned that most of Berlin is less than 60 years old- over 90% of its buildings were destroyed around WWII. And going along with the after effects of WWII, you naturally come to the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. Let me tell you, the Berlin Wall is actually rather small. It wasn’t the size that mattered as much as the fact that it went up overnight, cutting off access to West Berlin, and also the creation of the ‘death strip’ just around the wall. The Death strip was essentially the expanse between the Berlin wall, and another wall put up by the Soviets, full of guards, lights, sand and wire- all essentially screaming “You can’t get through!” I won’t bore you with all the history details; suffice to say that I saw where Einstein gave lectures, where the famous Nazi book burning took place and the Holocaust memorial plus a great deal more.

Berlin Wall East Side Gallery- a long stretch of the wall that artists from all over have painted

Proof that I was in Berlin- in front of the Wall

The Holocaust memorial, or the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe is a very unique creation. A massive square full of concrete columns raised to various heights that look eerily like coffins. Perhaps the most striking aspect for me was that it had rained earlier that day. Water droplets clung to the sides of the columns, sparking like diamonds or tears. That’s the image that stuck with me- the glistening tears of those murdered in the Holocaust.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Standing inside the memorial

Raindrops or Tears?

Both underneath that memorial, at also at the Jewish Museum in the city, you get an emotionally heavy, but extremely worthwhile experience, making the lives of those swept up in the Holocaust vivid and no longer a nameless number.

Jewish Museum- really cool architecture as well

To move on to a lighter subject, I also saw the only château in Berlin! Charlottenburg Palace, built for King Friedrich Wilhelm I. While we couldn’t actually go inside by the time we arrived, the castle grounds are home to some incredibly beautiful gardens, plus small lake with swans. Definitely worth a walk through if you are there.

Charlottenburg Palace

Palace Gardens- Swans! 

We did try both the famous Berlin currywurst and a pretzel while we were there; both were pretty good, though I’m not a big fan of curry. The food I much preferred was rather this incredible Vietnamese place that we ate at- very limited menu where everything was delicious! I also tried a Spezzi, a mix of orange Fanta and Coke, which is actually a lot better than it sounds.

At night, the city comes to life even more. The weather happened to be beautiful while we were there, making the evening perfect for strolling along outside and people watching from an outdoor terrace. Everything in the city is lit up, and people meander from shops to restaurants and bars. I’m pretty sure the city never sleeps- the metro doesn’t anyway!

There’s Berlin for you, in a manner that doesn’t do the city justice because there is so much more to see and do! A city full of history, people and brilliant museums.

Brandenburger Tor, one of the most distinct landmarks in Berlin in the background- plus a free rose that we all got that day!

Museum Night Fever!!

Since I'm now into my second month of living in Brussels, I'm starting to love the city more. These past few days have been fantastic: the weather has gotten warmer (in the 50˚s F now guys! Minus Monday, when it snowed all morning.), the feeling of spring is in the air, I've eaten some really delicious food that my fellow Erasmus students have made from their countries, watched a 6 Nations Rugby match in a lovely Irish pub and... went to Museum Night Fever!

Yes it was actually called that. Last Saturday night, nearly all the museums in Brussels- 24 of them- stayed open until 2am! It only cost 9€, and we got to visit all the museums we could manage, with free bus transportation between them. All in all, a pretty sweet deal. The atmosphere of the night was incredible. We had seen posters for quite a few weeks now, bright splashes of green advertising the event. Suddenly the city just sprang to life- hundreds of people were out and about, milling around Place Royale, inside the museums, and on the buses. It was a mix of every kind of person- international students like us (we heard plenty of English), parents with their kids, and loads of Belgians just out for the night. It was a warm and clear night, the kind that we haven’t had in quite a while, filling everybody with energy and excitement.

I should also mention that while the museums were incredible, they went one step further and had live concerts, dances and artwork all over the place! Much of this live artwork involved people posing or being ancient characters- more on that in a second.

We managed to squeeze in five museums total, and didn’t have nearly enough time in some of them. First up was Jardin Botanique, right next to where we live. With this first stop we noticed this tall illuminated cone that changed colors, marking the location as participating in Museum Night Fever. From that first cone on, it became our quest to take a picture with every cone we saw. Jardin Botanique doesn’t really have a whole lot of the ‘Botanical Garden’ bit going on, it’s more often used as a concert venue (every night actually) and exhibition room. We passed a few palm trees, and some adorable gold fish, and then saw a photo and painting exhibition with theme of “desert.” The paintings were pretty cool, especially since they were painted on glass fiber, which I’ve never seen as a medium before. There was also this artsy performance by a group of school kids, making desert sounds, acting things out and speaking a bit of desert poetry. It was…interesting.

Our first light cone 

Jardin Botanique, all lit up

After we finally found out where the bus left from, our next stop was BOZAR, a museum playing with the French name for Fine arts “Beaux arts.” Only we couldn’t find the entrance. So we ended up underground instead. Logical eh?

We found the Coudenberg! This underground museum, if it can be called that, explored the ancient Palais de Bruxelles, the old Royal Palace. It was an incredible walk under the city through these ruins of a forgotten palace. And this particular night, they had placed actors all throughout the chambers. Some were story tellers (and exceedingly creepy with finger puppets), others read monologues, impersonating the castle’s ancient inhabitants and I even came across three guys at a birthday party, one eloquently explaining the merits of plastic cups. One of the funniest and weirdest things in the ruins however, had to be the swimmer-ducks. We were just walking along some ancient underground passage way when these two people, in a tight, red jumpsuit, wearing yellow flippers, goggles and a swim cap waddled in, arms in wing position and occasionally quacking. All the while with the most neutral of expressions on their faces. I still have no idea what that was about… more live art perhaps?

in the Coudenberg!

There also happened to be a Red Bull car, giving away free Red Bull? This mean it was time for a group photo

From the Codenberg, we went back and found BOZAR, which was playing host to concerts and dance performances throughout the night. We only caught the tail end of one of the concerts, but there were groups from all over the world. Instead, we saw a photography exhibit by CY Twombly and a really neat painting exhibit by Per Kirkeby. I’m not usually a fan of modern art, but this guy was very interesting. The more you looked at a piece, the more images you picked out.

Main hall of BOZAR, filled with band equipment

Natural History Museum was next up, and while the dinos were very exciting, I was far more fascinated by the dancing. For amongst the dinos, music soared, followed perfectly by a group of tango dancers. I’ve never seen people tango right in front of me before- and these guys were incredible. It’s amazing how the man can lead with the subtlest of movements or pressures and the woman can follow with ease. It looked like they were reading each others’ minds. Now I really want to learn how to tango.

Last museum: MIM- Musical Instruments Museum. After a quick and exceedingly delicious brownie snack (Green Kitchen, Place Royale, get a brownie!), we got in the fast-moving queue for MIM. After a mandatory coat check, we were given headphones and let loose to explore the museum! Inside were loads of really cool instruments from all over the world and all different periods of history. Plus, you could plug in your headphones near each display and hear what they sound like! MIM is also just a gorgeous building- Art Nouveau style, with an incredible view of the Brussels from the top floor.

As we walked back home that night, my friends and I concluded that we had had a fantastic night out. Museums, brownies and a warm night, what more could we want?