I think it is much better to have too many things to do than to be bored, but I have been so so so so busy lately! I'm loving all of it, but there's never any time to reflect on any of it. The only times I really think about all of the amazing stuff I'm doing is on my 25 minute walk to and from campus every day. At first I thought having to walk that far would be annoying but it's one of my favorite parts of the day because I get to think. I'm finally realizing that I'm not going to live here forever, and in about a month I'll be sitting in Minnesota remembering those long walks to SOAS, and thinking how surreal it is that I actually lived in London. And that's kind of sad because I just want to enjoy it now while I can!

Saint Pancras station on Euston Road. I can see it from my window, and walk past it everyday on my way to classes. I decided to take a picture of it a few days ago because I realized that once I'm back in the states, the things I will most want pictures of are the things that I see daily, but those are never the things I think to photograph.

We got our first snow here in London two days ago!  I woke up to a text from my friend Maya who was a little more excited than I was because it doesn't really snow much in England apparently. But the snow hasn't really been sticking, so I've only managed to throw one snowball, at Maya, on our way to class that morning. Clearly some more snow warfare is in order but it might have to wait till Minnesota. In the mean time, student protests are getting intense. Almost everyday there is some kind of action. For the past 10 days students have been occupying our main auditorium hoping to put  pressure on the administration to release a statement condemning the cuts to education. The school filed an injunction making the occupation officially illegal, but it doesn't seem to have had made much of a difference, and students are still camped out there. The latest news is that the administration has finally agreed to enter into negotiations with the students, so i guess the occupation has been successful at least to an extent (I was a little skeptical when I first heard that students were going to occupy their own space..). Some good English musicians: Johnny Flynn and Laura Marling.

I've now been to all of the big markets in London, and the Camden Lock one is definitely my favorite. There crafts for sale there seem to be a little bit more unique than at some of the other markets. And the vibe in Camden Town is just really cool anyway. They actually have a place where you can get the dead skin bitten off of your feet by fish!!

Lottie, Kate and I went to the Hyde park market this weekend! It's a German market, so there is all kinds of delicious sausage and beer for sale, plus waffles with chocolate sauce and hot chocolate with baileys. We did a little holiday shopping, bought some Santa hats that light up, and decorated some gingerbread men. We had to pay to decorate the gingerbread, which was of course intended for a younger audience, but in a moment of extreme maturity we decided to splurge, and ended up having some pretty inappropriately lewd cookies to show for it...

"You say CUT BACK, we say FIGHT BACK!"  "No ifs, not buts, no education cuts!!" "Education for the masses, not just for the ruling classes!" "Fuck fees, education should be free!!"

 

Wednesday, November 10 was the student march and protest against the proposed cuts to education. The Tory/Lib Dem coalition government has proposed cutting education funding by 40%, significantly raising tuition fees for UK students. This is after deputy prime minister Nick Clegg ran on a platform to eliminate university tuition fees all together.

 

 

An estimated 52,000 people showed up in London to protest! This was by far the biggest demonstration I have ever been part of, and I have to ask, would the same kind or resistance ever happen in the U.S.? Do we still believe in the power of our right to assemble? I'm not sure. The feeling of marching through the usually traffic-packed streets with a crowd so big even the double decker red buses and giant delivery trucks stop and wait (and sometimes even honk and cheer in solidarity) was obviously empowering. The chants, marching bands and banners created such an atmosphere of energy and conviction ; it felt like we were part of something real and powerful, and that we could actually mobilize to create a voice to be reckoned with. But then, let's get back to reality: demonstrations rarely have even the slightest bit of influence unless they're accompanied by money or weapons.

This protest did make international headlines, but the violence that occurred at the Conservative HQs was the main focus of all the articles I read. Surely a demonstration of 52,000 people is news worthy on its own; much more news worthy than the 200 or so students who decided to smash some windows. I'm disappointed that such a small fraction of the demonstrators were given so much media attention, as they clearly don't represent that general sentiment of the crowd. I was at 30 Millbank, the Conservative Party's headquarters, when students started gathering outside. At first there was some torch burning and angry chants directed at the Tory Scum, but then the angry chants turned into angry punching of the windows and I decided that violence was not the message I wanted to send and so I left. But part of me wonders if the protests would have gotten much less media coverage if they had been completely peaceful. Maybe some injuries, some thrown eggs, some windows smashed, some arrests are what it takes to get attention. That's a depressing thought.


All of the political experiences I've had in England so far have made me much more hopeful. I think I left the U.S. with a general disenchantment with government. I viewed it as a block to progress rather than a means through which to accomplish progress. This could just be because Northfield isn't the most politically inspiring place. But it could also be due to the fact that, in the midst of economic collapse, it's the tea party that emerges rather than the socialist party. The fact that the only people in the U.S. who are motivated enough to insight revolution seem to be middle aged conservatives who have lost their jobs and livelihoods. Everyone else is just too comfortable to bother. Where are the huge student movements? What happened to the inspired masses who campaigned for Obama a year ago? The November election results were embarrassing to read from London. The number of times I've had to shake my head and agree with my English friends that Americans 'just don't know what they're voting for' is ridiculous. After all, if they did, how could we possibly be voting for less government regulation after the mortgage crisis? How could Sarah Palin possibly have a career in politics? Et cetera, et cetera. But on Wednesday, students from all the major universities in the England were at the protest, some even came from Scotland. That's what democracy looks like.

LONDON!!! There is an epic story involved in my transition from Munich to London, but for the sake of catching up with my real life, I'll have to leave some of the best bits out. Because I've been in London now for 4 weeks (what?!) and I haven't even gotten there in blog life. So after my first Ryan Air flight from what they call the Munich West Airport (it actually took 2 trains and a taxi to get there...definitely NOT in Munich) to Stansted in London (also not really in London...it's a 10 pound/more than an hour journey by train) I found myself in the giant Liverpool Street metro station!! It was so exciting!! I've never been to London before this, and it definitely has a different feel to all of the big cities I've been to in Europe. It's grungier, perhaps, with brick buildings and a kind of cozy feeling. Less overwhelming and glamorous, but wonderful nonetheless.

I had my first meal soon there after. Liverpool Street is a 5 minute walk from the famous Brick Lane neighborhood. Brick Lane used to be the main Indian neighborhood, but has recently gotten fairly pricey and been taken over by wealthy English hipsters. The amazing Indian food remains, though, and the street is lined with the cities best curry stops (interspersed with indie record stores and vintage clothing shops of course). I was with two English guys who had grown up in London, so they picked out an establishment and ordered up a bunch of dishes they knew. London has this reputation for great Indian food, and oh my does it live up to it. Some of the dishes I recognized, and some were completely new to me, but all of the flavors and spices were so much more interesting and delicious than my experiences at Chapti's and Kathmandu. What I've come to realize now though, after 4 weeks in this enormous city, is that one can get ANYTHING here. Literally. Any kind of food one could want is just a (expensive) metro stop away. And that is kind of an overwhelming thought. I don't relax here, ever, because I know there is so much out there in the huge city waiting to be seen! And with so many options for things to do, how am I supposed to choose? I'm not used to so much excitement, Davis and Northfield have their own set of problems, and goodness knows that 'too much to do' is not one of them.

My first 3 days in London were spent at a hostel near London Bridge, on the southern side of the Thames. It was a very nice area, but unfortunately all of the abuse I had subjected my body to at Oktoberfest had finally worn me down and I was sick the whole time. So I actually spent my first weekend in one of the biggest cities in the world in my bed with some books and podcasts. Quite frustrating, but at least I recovered in time to move in to my flat and begin the wonders that are UK freshers week!!

The changing of the guard. They really do still do this twice a day, and people really do watch. Weirdest job ever?

Buckingham Palace. The queen wasn't in though, apparently she doesn't actually spend that much time in London.

St. James's Park, so beautifully English

Munich part two:

In between the joyous drunken celebrations, I visited Dachau. It was the first concentration camp of the Nazi Reich, established on March 22, 1933 and thus served as a model for all subsequent camps. In the 12 years that Dachau was in operation, over 200,000 people were imprisoned and more than 43,000 died.

The gate through which all prisoners entered Dachau. It reads "work sets you free."

On a warm, sunny morning in between visits to the beer tents at Oktoberfest, I got on a train to the site just outside of Munich. As amazing an experience I had at Oktoberfest, my visit to Munich was just as memorable and incredible.

I got to the camp pretty early in the morning and so there were not a lot of people there yet. Dachau is huge, and so the grounds felt vast and completely barren of life. It was probably the eeriest place I've ever been and even looking back at the pictures as I'm posting them now is chilling. I didn't want to pay for a guided tour, so I just walked around on my own with the complimentary map. There is an extensive museum exhibit in what was the maintenance building, and it looked like a pretty nice display. But I skipped that as well because being trapped inside reading was a little sickening to me at the time. I felt like I should walk around and really feel the place.

 

The picture above is of the camp fencing. There are several parts to it. First is the strip of grass that I was standing on to take this picture. Prisoners were shot at for stepping on to it, so sometimes prisoners used it as a way of ending their life. Next is the rock ditch, a electrified barbed-wire fence, and finally the camp wall.

These are the ovens which were used to burn piles of bodies

The shooting range. Prisoners were lined up against the wall. In the foreground is a small ditch, for the blood.

I'm really glad I was able to visit Dachau, and it did make me think about how much freedom I have and how little I usually appreciate that freedom. At the same time, I guess I was assuming that it would be some life-changing, depressing experience. And it was horrifying, but rather than feeling overwhelmed with death, I was more aware of the power of time to heal things. Plants had regrown on top of the ashes (that's not a cliche, the ground was literally black with the ashes from the ovens), and a few miles away, thousands of people had come by choice to Munich this time to partake in the wonderful celebrations of Oktoberfest. While it's obviously very important to think about and remember the Holocaust, I didn't feel guilty going out to that evening for good fun with good friends, because you only live once and so you might as well live as well as you can.

Monica has guilted me into blogging again. I guess I had so much fun at Oktoberfest, combined with pretty terrible internet, so I didn't update while I was in Munchen, and then I got to London and everything got so busy and exciting! So Munchen part one...

I arrived at my hostel at about 3pm to find the floor sticky with beer, two underwear-clad men passed out on their bunks and a third man in the bathroom, vomiting violently. (I'm writing this from London, where I've already started to speak strangely...I just typed  "...in the toilet, chundering violently..." and before realizing what I was doing.) I think this anecdote sums up my three days at Oktoberfest pretty well. The first night, the three drunken guys in my room had napped it off and were ready for round two, so we walked down to the festival with another woman who was in our room.

Oktoberfest is basically a huge fair grounds with lots of beer tents interspersed with rides, but what really makes it an incredible experience is the atmosphere. People of all ages, mostly in amazing lederhausen and dirndles get together to eat delicious Bavarian food, drink lots of beer, and sing and dance and be merry. It's just a giant, drunken, happy celebration

"He doesn't even KNOW what calories ARE! He has that wonderful metabolism and me, I LOOK at food and I get FAT! But here he is trying to give advice on dieting and eating and he doesn't even know what he's TALKING about!"

Yea…compared with Vienna, there were almost no American tourists in Slovenia or Croatia. I didn't realize how much I was enjoying their absence until I got to overhear this lovely conversation while I was trying to enjoy my Sachertorte this afternoon. I was sitting in this really fancy, really delicious bakery, Demel while I was overhearing this woman.. And 'overhear' is the wrong word, the 60 or so woman was, extremely rudely, yelling this conversation to her table. It was so incredibly inappropriate that it was funny, but also disgusting. As a fellow American tourist I have to work so much harder to make a good name for myself among people I meet thanks to women like this one.

 

Vienna is the most beautiful city I have ever been to. I only get to spend 2 days here, but I can tell that I would have a great time for at least another week. There's just so much to see! And all of it is beautiful. I don't usually think much about Austria in my every day life, and so I had forgotten that this has been a very wealthy country for a very long time. And not just wealthy, also very concerned with aesthetics. Rich, image-conscious people have been building huge mansions here for thousands of years! And shopping in expensive shops. And going to the opera and theater. Oh, and eating decadent desserts. Seriously it's probably a good thing I'm only spending 2 days here, because I could eat indefinitely, and have been. I think there's a line in Eat, Pray, Love about having a relationship with your food, and I'm SO understanding that right now. I have been enjoying some of the other decadences though. I went to the opera yesterday!! I'd never been to an opera before, and it was about as comical as I thought it would be, but also kind of beautiful. Everyone was super dressed up, except for me who showed up in ripped jeans…, and was there to listen to these elegant opera singers perform La Boheme reeeeeally passionately. So beautiful, but also funny to think that a few thousand wealthy, sophisticated people are gathered in a theater to listen to a couple singers wail.

Anyway, I guess I should soak up as much sophistication as I can, because I'm headed to Oktoberfest tomorrow, and I'm just guessing it won't be quite as elegant.

My last stop in Croatia was Pula, on the Istrian peninsula. I was only going to go for two nights, but ended up staying three because I was at a great hostel run by the most adorable old lady ever. Gordana was around all the time, making coffee for us, chatting, sharing knowledge about fun places to visit or about politics in former Yugoslavia. Also, I finally found some sun!!! The beaches around Pula are stones (not nearly as good as sand...maybe if the stones were very small pebbles it would be nice, but but stones are just hard and uncomfortable to lie on). They are on the incredible Adriatic sea, though, so they are obviously gorgeous.

Because a lot of the beaches are kind of secluded, they are very popular with naturists. I'd never seen a nude beach before this, but I have now seen my fill of naked people sunning themselves. And not just young, attractive people either. That's kind of what is so awesome about it - old, kind of ugly people freely bare all. So, confession, I tried it! And unfortunately (or maybe fortunately??) I'm too conditioned against public indecency. It was not freeing; lying in the sun naked felt uncomfortable and much less relaxing. My swimsuit will remain on and firmly tied.

I also got to visit the town of Rovinj, a 40min bus ride from Pula. And it was the cutest place I've ever been. It felt a lot like parts of Italy I visited in 2008 - stone streets lined with tall shuttered buildings hung with the day's washing. There were small cats that ran around everywhere, and a huge fishing port, mounds of gelato for sale in every shop, and art galleries hidden between cafes and huge window boxes of flowers. Really, Rovinj is my idea of idilic. But it's also kind of gross. Like, it walking around the streets enjoying ice cream and taking way too many photos, it seems so easy to forget that any thing else in the world exists. Outside this perfect bubble of self-indulgence people are starving or fighting for their lives. So I find myself struggling with a familiar conflict between enjoying life and feeling guilty that my life is so good. Does everyone struggle with this, or are most people just better at having a good time than I am? Anyway, the point is that Rovinj is incredible.

Kind of related to that last thought is the book I just finished reading: The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. It's about inequality and its damaging affects to society, and it's the best, most inspiring book I have read in at least a year, maybe EVER. The authors present all of their research about how much better societies function, in every aspect, when people within a country (not between countries) are more equal. And it just makes so much sense; there's no way you could argue against it unless you are selfish and evil. But the gap between academia and popular thought is so frustrating! Aaaand I'll stop with the tangent, because it would only be remotely interesting if one had read the book.

Next stop: Ljubljana, Slovenia!

So I wrote this post on September 13 but have been too lazy to actually put it up...

 

I haven't had internet, or the connection has been really slow for the last few days which is why I haven't posted in a while. I've been in Zadar and then at Plitvice Lakes National Park, both of which have been fantastic! And once I left the super touristy beach towns, there are many more actual Croatians to be people-watched so I feel like I'm getting a slightly better idea of what Croatians are actually like. First of all, they smoke A LOT and drink A TON of espresso. Not even just coffee, but strong, delicious espresso all day long.
 

 

Zadar old town

They also see to be very friendly. I haven't made much of an effort at speaking Croatian. I've decided that I really don't even know if I'm pronouncing the few words I know - thank you, please, good day - correctly, so it might be less insulting to make it known that I am an english speaker upfront. But regardless, most Croatians have been very helpful and gone out of their way to do nice things for me. The woman in the information station the other day came running out of the office a few minutes after I left to tell me that she had forgotten to mention the place to stay that was just down the road. And the man who's house I stayed in two nights ago had to go to Zagreb for the night, so just left us alone in his house, trusting that we wasn't going to burn it down or something.

The Sea Organ in Zadar - there are pipes under these stairs and the waves push air through them making a really cool sound

Probably the best thing about Croatia is that there is food growing ALL around. You walk down the road and pass at fig trees, walnut trees, plum trees, olive trees, and the occasional almond and apple trees. You could almost get a whole meal just walking around! Most people also seem to grown a bunch of vegetables in little gardens next to their house, but obviously I haven't taken food from them...

I haven't figured out where I'm going to next, somewhere north! Maybe the coast, in an attempt to find warmer weather. Croatia has been surprisingly freezing. But I love this kind of traveling where I can wake up in the morning and catch a train to wherever I feel like.

Yesterday I fulfilled a major life goal: I rode a motorized scooter!! It was way more exhilarating that I thought it would be, and also much scarier. Going fast seems way faster when there's no car door protecting you from the pavement below. But it was also such a movie-perfect moment that I had to keep reminding myself that I WAS actually speeding through the olive tree-lined hills of the Croatian island Hvar, watching the perfectly clear blue water smash against the white stones on the shore below. GAHH!

 

I love it when unexpectedly good things happen. Last night at about 6pm I was all set for a long, boring night of waiting. I had dinner at a vegan, Indian restaurant called Spicy Spices (not very Austrian, I know, but the lack of vegetables in my life is really getting unacceptable). It was pouring rain so wandering around the city, my usual evening plan, was not sounding so appealing. I figured I would just go back to the hostel and surf the web or something until my 1:30 am night train to Croatia. But then luck struck!

 First, I decided to read rather than surf the web. I finished my last book, Animal Dreams, a few days ago, and so bought a new book from the limited English selection in the oldest bookstore in Austria in Altstadt Salzburg. It is called "Watching the English" and is a hilarious ethnographic study of the distinctive aspects of Englishness. Being American is kind of hard in Europe because I feel like the butt of everyone else jokes, so this book is helping me by providing fodder to laugh at someone else for a change. Anyway, I bought a glass of red wine, and lay on a couch listening to the rain and laughing at the English for several hours.

By 11:30, it was time to catch the last bus of the night to the train station. I walked to the stop, but, since I can't read German, hadn't realized that the last stop of the night didn't apply to Saturday night. Oops. But again, luck struck!

A guy walked up, checking the timetable for his train, but realized his train was done for the night as well. I asked him if he could read German, and he explained that I needed to go to a different stop, and it was on his way so he would take me there. I then had one of the most interesting conversations I've ever had with a stranger. He told me he is 24 and he bakes cakes at Tomaselli's, a fancy cafe in Salzburg. He and his brother were from Bavaria, but were both living in Salzburg, he as a pastry chef, his brother as a cook. He had just gotten back from dinner with his brother and brother's girlfriend, where his brother had cooked and he had made dessert. (How adorable is that?!) So we walked through the 500 year old buildings and across the Salzach river and he asked if all Americans thought that Germans were Nazis (apparently he had been asked if he was a Nazi by the last American he met). I asked him what Germans thought of Americans, and he said they thought Americans didn't learn enough history about the world. I don't know if I can deny this…He wasn't really happy making cakes; he felt like he wasn't doing anything important with his life, and asked what I was studying. I gave my now standard answer, which is "Studying the social sciences, but I don't really know what I'm doing with my life, haha." Maybe someday I'll end up making cakes. Then we reached the stop, and wished each other well, and went on our way. I have no idea what his name was but this nice stranger is now forever documented in my travel experience.

I reached the train station around midnight, and was prepared to sit for an hour by myself in the only open building, the Mc Donalds. But wouldn't you know it, luck struck! First I met a man who had just returned to Austria from New Zealand, where he was a chef for Formula 1 racers. He now lives near the the Slovenian border, in Austria, and since I'll be coming back through the country in a few weeks, offered me a place to stay on a lake in the mountains! Then, a few of us in the Micky D's realized that we were all on the same train to Croatia, and so spent the rest of the wait talking about our travels, past and future.

Seven hours later, I stumbled off the train and into sunny Croatia! I walked through the town to the produce market in an old square, where I loaded up on fruits and veggies for the next leg of my trip, and then found a pleasant cafe with patio seating where I had a cappuccino and some kind of Croatian pastry that the waitress recommended (although it was also the most expensive thing on the menu, so I can't be sure if she was recommending it for its taste or its prices).

Now I'm on the train again, riding through the Croatian countryside to the town of Split. I've only been in the country for several hours but I think I already like it.

The last few days, I have succeeded in looking German, and I am now paying for it in foot pain. I've been asked for directions in German 3 times, and been asked several other things but since I don't in fact speak German, I can't be sure what they've been wondering about. When I walk in to shops and hostels, no one thinks twice about what language they should begin with. My secret: German shoes. I noticed the first few days I was here that the most accurate way to pick out Americans from Europeans was by their footwear. And given my Euro-envy, I naturally have worn my German shoes out almost everyday. For the first few days my feet were fine, even happy, because they were cushioned on some high quality leather. But as the kilometers add up, the American tendencies of my feet can be suppressed no longer. They crave the tennis-shoes, which I think they will get tomorrow when I walk up to the Festung Hohensalzburg.

I spent my first days on my own in Heidelberg, which was such a fun place to be. The first thing I bought was a bar of chocolate, and the second was some German tofu. I don't know if it's all the meat I've been eating, but this was some of the most delicious tofu I have ever had. The hostel I stayed at was great and there were plenty of friendly people to hang out with. Since I'm not that aggressively outgoing, I don't usually meet people I don't have to meet. But traveling alone, and especially at hostels, is such a nice atmosphere. I don't even feel forced to strike up awkward conversations - I want to!

One particularly great thing about this hostel was that they had bikes to borrow for free! So on my second day I rode one to the next town along this hill side over looking the river. This is the view of Heidelberg from the bike path across the river:

I also walked all around the altstadt and up to the castle that overlooks the town:

Since my last post...I have become German. Well, almost. I ate blood sausage, sampled the German brew, and purchased some very expensive, very well-made German shoes.

Everything here is so pretty, I really don't understand why the whole world wouldn't live in Europe if they could. I guess the whole language barrier might be a reason I wouldn't move here, but that's why I'm going to London. And having the majority of my friends and family all the way across the ocean would be less than perfect, but if I could hike through vineyards and then have pastry and wine for lunch like I did two days ago everyday, I think it would make up for most of that distance. Hmm, that sentence just before this one is less than perfect; being around people who speak broken English all the time is affecting my own command of the language in a humorous but kind of disturbing way.

So, some highlights from the last few days.

There is this beautiful forest at the end of the street I'm staying on, and I've been going for runs through the trees and flowers and bushes. And eventually I run past a blackberry bush with lots of ripe berries and I have to stop to eat some.

This is the cutest town I have ever been to. I visited it the same day I went walking through beautiful hills terraced with grapes and had pastry and wine for lunch. It was a perfect day, it even rained on and off.