Paestum, Ercolano, e Napoli...for real!

Studio project=finished, as of Sunday night, and our review was yesterday. It was so-so...the jurors were kind of tough and the beginning and softened a bit as the afternoon went on (or perhaps the projects just got better and better), and of course I happened to be numero uno to present. But ah well, a little humbling (especially during Lent) can't hurt, right?

But anyway, as promised I can now write about what I did last weekend, which was take a class trip to the Campagnia region of Italy--we went to Paestum, Ercolano, and Napoli. We left Thursday morning at 6:45 am. Why so early? Well, we had to get down to near Paestum in time for our reservation to visit...a buffalo mozzarella farm and factory! On the way we drove past Monte Cassino! Drove past as in, saw it up way up on a mountain, but still. Anyway, "Buffalo mozzarella" is an Italian thing that I've been eating all year, but never really made the connection that it might have something to do with buffalos. I sure learned last Thursday--the place we went made the mozzarella totally on site, every step from milking the buffalo (actually they milk themselves; there's a station in their living area with a robotic milker, and they can go whenever they want), to the final products--mostly cheese, but they also make pudding and yogurt. Everything there is organic, and only sold on site. While we were there lots of locals came to buy cheese. We tried some too, of course, and it was delicious. Apparently buffalo milk has more protein than cow milk...and also lots more fat. And it has natural preservatives, so everything keeps for a few days without being refrigerated.

After that slightly random and not architectural at all side trip, we went to Paestum. There are some Greek temples there that were built at various times, so it illustrates really well the development of the Doric Order. It also started POURING while we walking around, so we quickly took refuge in a museum and spent the rest of the afternoon there, before getting back on the bus and heading to Salerno.

We spent the night in Salerno, but in the morning headed straight to Ercolano (Herculaneum in English). Our hotel was right along the coast, so I was going to go running by the water in the morning, except that when I woke up it was hailing. My plans quickly changed. Luckily by the time we left for the day it was bright and sunny--crazy Italian weather. Ercolano was just a short drive away, so we were able to spend most of the morning and afternoon there. It's like a smaller and less well-known version of Pompeii--like Pompeii, it was buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, and was discovered by accident almost entirely preserved. It's preserved a little differently than Pompeii, though, because it was buried in mud, while Pompeii was buried in ash. That means in Ercolano some traces of wood still remain, and 2nd floors on some of the buildings, while those things are gone in Pompeii. It was really incredible to see such a complete ancient city, and think about the people who used to live there...and Mt. Vesuvius is HUGE. I guess I forgot that it's still there...and still active, in fact. The last time it erupted was 1944, but it's overdue to do it again. Luckily, it didn't while we were there, and apparently there'll be about a week's notice before it does.

We headed to Napoli that night. Napoli is where pizza originated, and I believe I ate it for every meal (except breakfasts) while we were there. It was cheap, and delicious. The crust was thin, like all Italian pizza, but somehow still managed to be fluffy. Imo's just might not be the same when I get back...:-) Anyway, the architecture stuff in Napoli was cool too. It's a very layered city, literally--it's partly at the base of a mountain and partly spreads up the side up the side of it. It was under control of the Spanish for awhile, which is evident in street names like "Via Toledo". It's also right along the coast, just like Salerno, and still in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius.

We were in Napoli Friday night, all of Saturday, and Sunday morning, and then Sunday afternoon headed back to Rome! And like I mentioned in my last post, from that moment til the next Sunday night I was working pretty hard on my project.

I didn't take very many pictures during the trip, except for tons and tons of Mt. Vesuvius from various angles...not quite sure why I took so many, actually. But here's a pretty cool one from a castle up on that mountain in Napoli:


Mt. Vesuvius is the snow-capped one on the right.


Wednesday, of course, was Ash Wednesday. Apparently the North American College here in Rome organizes something during Lent called "Station Churches", which means that every day they have mass at 7 am in English in a different church around Rome. I was maybe going to go to that on Ash Wednesday, but due to a combination of factors (1. I had been up til 4 the night before, and 7 am was just a little too early and 2. I decided I'd like to go to an Italian mass) I went to Il Gesu at a more reasonable hour instead, and I discovered that the Italians have a slightly different tradition about the ashes: they don't make a cross on your forehead, they sprinkle them in your hair. It was interesting. So I didn't have black mark on my forehead all day, I just looked like I had a patch of gray hair, haha.

I've been to the station mass a couple times since then, though, and it's always really cool. There are lots of people there--lots of priests and seminarians, but other various English speaking Catholics who happen to be in Rome, too, like lots of study abroad students. It's kind of surprising how many people I know who go, actually. On Saturday I went by myself, and had to stand in the back because all the seats were taken when I got there. And from my spot back there I saw a couple of other archies (who had gotten there earlier than I), the priest who teaches our theology class, two of the seminarians who help out with our program, a seminarian who graduated from ND last year, and my friend Chris who's studying here in Rome this semester. I'm used to going to mass and seeing people I know, but I'm not used to that happening when I go to a random church in Rome...

Anyway, the station churches are a good thing to do for Lent--sacrifice a little sleep and make a mini-pilgrimage every day. But if I go to them every day then I won't be able to go to Italian masses at all, and I've grown rather fond of those. In fact, when I go to an English mass I've started hearing the Italian words in my head for some parts of it. So I'll probably alternate between the two.

For the next couple weeks I won't really have a chance to do either, actually--we're leaving for Sicily on Friday! And then the week after that is Spring Break, and I'm going to Greece with three other archies. We're hoping for warm temperatures in both places:-)

Paestum, Ercolano, e Napoli...coming soon!

Last weekend we went on a class trip to Paestum, Ercolano, and Napoli. I didn't mention anything about it on here before I left, mostly because it totally snuck up on me--I was still in "we just got back from Christmas break" mode, and suddenly we were leaving again. But despite that, it was a great trip, as our field trips usually are. And of course I'll write about it all eventually. Unfortunately, though, I don't have time right now--I have a project due next Sunday, so crunch time is rapidly approaching. AND, real life is getting in the way too--I have to fill out my taxes, financial aid forms, a job application, not to mention run 17 miles this afternoon...but I'm hoping to have most of the forms done by today or tomorrow. And then after that when I need a break from drafting, perhaps I'll blog in more detail. So, stay tuned! :-)

And I'll leave you with this fun fact: before this weekend, the last time it snowed in Rome with any significant accumulation was 1986. Then, it snowed last Thursday--but we missed it! And it was all melted by the time we got back...

The Ponte Milvio

This morning I went running, and ended up at the Ponte Milvio. History buffs (I'm thinking of you, Dad) may recognize this name as the location of a pretty important battle between Constantine and Maxentius in 312 AD. Constantine won, and attributed the victory to divine intervention--he had a vision of a cross in the sky right before the battle. So he decided to tolerate Christianity in the Roman Empire, instead of persecuting all the Christians--not a bad idea, if you ask me. It's pretty awesome to stand there and ponder all that.

Another reason the Ponte Milvio was significant this morning is that it turns out it's just over 4 miles away from where I live. That was perfect for an 8 mile out-and-back route. Why did I want to run 8 miles this morning? Because I couldn't think of anything else to do with my class-free morning? Umm, not quite. The real answer is...I'm training for a marathon! There's one here in Rome on March 21st. My friend Evan decided he'd like to train for it, and somehow managed to talk a whole group of us archies, including myself, into training for it too. We're half way through week 2 of training! If you're a serious runner AND good at math you're probably adding up the numbers and saying "but Caroline, don't you need more than 8 weeks to train for a marathon?" The answer I have is: I hope not. :-) We drastically adapted a 16 week program we found online, and it's going alright so far.

In other exciting recent news, I learned the other day that one of my favorite saints, St. Josemaria Escriva, is buried here in Rome!!! I'm not sure why I didn't know that earlier, and hopefully I'll get a chance to go visit that church soon. Perhaps I could make it a stop along a run one of these days...

La Corsa di Miguel

Last weekend was the first I had spent entirely in Rome for awhile--it was nice! Saturday was very relaxing; I slept in and even had time to watch a movie in the afternoon. We watched Gladiator, because it's set in Rome, and well, we live in Rome...it was really cool, because it showed everything reconstructed and in use that we see in ruins now, like the Colosseum. And, it's an entertaining story. (I won't say good, because it's mostly about revenge...but it does have themes of self-sacrifice and courage, too. And like I said, it's entertaining).

Then, on Saturday afternoon I also found out about a 10K happening the next morning. My friend Evan had seen a poster for it while he was running earlier in the day. He decided to try to get a group together to do it, so 4 of us ended up journeying a little ways up north the next morning for the race. It was called "La Corsa di Miguel". The Miguel it's referring to is somebody named Miguel Sanchez. We looked him up on the website to try to find out why a race in Rome was named after him, but didn't have much luck. We learned that's he was an Argentinian runner born in the 1950s, but didn't see any connections to Italy...also, the English translation wasn't the best. It included great lines like, "His day was infinite. 
alarm clock with an apple, head coach, train, work, again
training, night school to complete those studies
who had not finished." So amusing, but not entirely informative.

Anyway, the race itself was good. We got a pre-race packet of things, typical of races like that, that included a long sleeve T-shirt, a poster...and a cookbook. Definitely the most random thing I've ever gotten from a race. But pretty awesome! Mine has recipes for "pane, pizze, e focacce." And it's even hardbacked, and in Italian so they're authentic recipes...I'm pretty excited about it:-)

The course was almost entirely flat, I felt pretty good while I was running and was able to finish strong, so it was an enjoyable run. My time was decent considering my training was minimal to non-existant...haha.

Well, that was the excitement of the weekend! Now it's back to another week of work. But really, life is still pretty relaxed right now, since we're still just getting in to the semester. I'll enjoy it while it lasts. Happy feast of St.s Timothy and Titus!

In Case I Sparked Your Curiosity Too...

So, in my last post I talked about Coptic Christians in Egypt a little bit, but couldn't give a very clear explanation of how they're different from Roman Catholics...luckily, my dad is both a faithful reader and more knowledgeable than I. He sent me an email this morning that clears things up a bit, and I thought I'd share it in case any other readers have experienced sleepless nights due to my inability to fully explain the situation previously--hope this helps! :-)

They [Coptic Christians] are the successors of the Monophysites, although some of them claim in modern times that their ancestors in the 400's were misunderstood by the Greeks and the Latins. In 451, at the Council of Chalcedon, the assembled Fathers (except the Monophysites, who dissented) decreed that Christ was one person in two natures; the Copts' ancestors avowed that Christ was one person and only had one nature. (Some unfortunate--in retrospect--turns of phrase by the great St. Athanasius against the Arians in the 300's gave their theory plausibility.) The Catholic summaries that are taught in high school and college classes in my experience say that the Copts believe that Christ only has a human nature. I think the modern Copts say that is incorrect; what they believe is that Christ has a mixed nature, both divine and human but mixed together. They call it, “miaphysite.” Still, I think they object even now to the formula of Pope Leo's Tome that was adopted at Chalcedon, especially the phrases, “two natures . . . without confusion . . .”.

The Copts are referred to, along with a few other old, old objectors to the councils, as “Oriental Orthodox.” The regular Orthodox use the term “Chalcedonian Orthodox” when needed to clarify that they follow Chalcedon unlike the heretical Oriental Orthodox.

In the modern world, the Copts have been holding conferences with the Orthodox to see if the differences can be bridged, similar to Catholic conferences with other churches. It's interesting that some Orthodox and Copts say the Copts were misunderstood, that their understanding of “miaphysitism” may actually be faithful to the truth, and that the Orthodox and Copts may re-unite. It appears that the Copts and Orthodox are closer in liturgy and ethos than are the Catholics and Orthodox, so who knows? And the Blessed Mother seems to appear visibly to the Copts in apparitions just as she does to Orthodox and Catholics. See these sites: http://www.zeitun-eg.org/ and http://egypt.suite101.com/article.cfm/apparition_of_virgin_mary_appears_in_cairo_egypt. Our Church says the Orthodox represent true local churches. I'm not sure about the Oriental Orthodox because of their heresies about the nature of Christ. Seems like they can't be too far wrong, though, if the Blessed Mother is actually appearing to them.

Thanks Dad!

Winter Break Adventures Part Egypt

Ciao from Roma! I got back on Sunday, and will actually be here for awhile now. So this is the last of my Christmas Break traveling posts, but possibly one of the most exciting, because I was just in...Africa! A new continent! To be fair, Egypt doesn't feel much like I imagine "Africa" would be. In food, religion, and culture, it's very Middle East-ish.

But anyway, we left Rome on Tuesday around noon-ish. We were flying on Alitalia, which is a real airline, unlike the budget airlines we usually travel on. We were hoping this meant we'd get a free beverage and maybe even a snack. Turns out, we got a whole meal! It was awesome. When we got to the airport in Cairo we were met by a representative from Pack2Egypt, our tour company. We rode back to the hotel in a big van and got out first taste of Cairo traffic. I think it can be best summed up in this way, using the words of Paul (the tour guy): "Sometimes there are lanes painted on the roads. These are for decoration." It was actually quite terrifying. But we eventually made it to the hotel (after getting in a small accident, we just rear-ended somebody, no big deal...), and settled in. The 11 of us Notre Dame students ended up coming on two different flights, because one group booked later, and I was in the group that arrived to Egypt first. So we waited for the other group to get to the hotel, and then all went out to get dinner at a nearby restaurant recommended by Paul. It was funny--even though part of the menu was in English, we still had no idea what a lot of the foods were. I ended up getting a sandwich, but some people were adventurous: Evan got pigeon soup, and a few of the other girls got something that was like hummus but a little different (we found out later that it was hummus+eggplant, called ba baganog, pronounced sort of like "ba baganoosh", and I'm not sure about either the spelling or the pronunciation, ha). We also got complimentary baskets of pita bread!

The next day, we woke up early to start our tour with our tour guide, named Mina. He was with us the whole week. We started by going to Memphis, the old capital of Egypt. There's not that much to see there, mostly just some statues, including a gigantic one of Rameses II.


It used to be standing, of course, but he broke at the knees...

We went to a place called Saqqara next. It has the first stone structure ever, designed by the first architect ever. Pretty cool.

The next location on our agenda was Giza, which has the 3 great pyramids and the sphinx. We stopped at a few places along the way, including a huge store where they make rugs and tapestries by hand out of cotton, silk, and/or wool. We got to see the process, and it's incredible--they're on huge looms and made of thousands of tiny knots.


They sit there all day every day and tie knots--incredible patience.

We also got lunch at a cute little Egyptian restaurant. The best part was the fresh baked pita bread (literally right out of the oven), which we ate with hummus and more ba baganog.

After that, we went to the pyramids! These are the ones you probably picture when you think "pyramids". I was surprised by how close they are to the city--I guess I always pictured them out in the middle of nowhere. I suppose they used to be, but then the city expanded...now they're kind of in between the dessert and the city, so there's still plenty of sand around. Enough to be able to go on a camel ride, which we did! It was fantastic.


A bit cheesy perhaps, but awesome nonetheless:-)

We also saw the sphinx, but the site was just about to close when we got there, so we didn't get to spend too much time marveling.


But we had time to snap a few pics!

That night (Wednesday), we took an over night train to Luxor. (Fun fact: Luxor is south of Cairo, but the area is called Upper Egypt, because it's upstream on the Nile, which flows from south to north. A bit mind-boggling for those of us who grew up right next to the south-flowing Mississippi...). We had sleeper cars on the train, which was a neat experience. Oh, and we got served TWO meals! Dinner right after we got on, around 8:30 pm, and breakfast at 4 am...because we got to Luxor around 5 am. We went to our hotel, but we couldn't get into our rooms, since check in wasn't til much later. We waited in the lobby for a bit and then started our tour just after 6 am.

We went to the Valley of the Kings first, where lots of Pharaohs are buried. The location was breathtaking. It's in the desert and in the mountains. The color of the sand/rocks (a light yellow...I guess "sand" colored, haha) was very dramatic against the bright blue cloudless sky. King Tut's tomb is there, but you have to pay a lot extra to go in, so we didn't. We went into the tombs of Rameses I, III, and IX. The treasures and the mummies are all gone, but you can still see the sequence of spaces and the pictures painted on the walls.

Queen Hatsheput's temple was next. She was the first female pharaoh. This structure is pretty memorable-looking, so one of the things I clearly remember learning about last year in History. At the time, though, I don't think I ever dreamed I would actually be there some day...this was also one of the most powerful places we went, I think. While we were there it was easy to imagine how much solemnity and magnificence the procession to entomb the queen must have had. The only thing I've seen that could maybe compare is the procession at JPII's funeral. And the Egyptians were so focused on death and the after-life that they must have made these processions pretty darn impressive, and that's probably an understatement. And really, it's impressive that they believed so strongly in resurrection. How did they know? Was there revelation involved, or did their beliefs just come from an impressive natural ability to discern some Truth? I'd like to learn more about how their religion developed, I guess, and how that timeline relates the Old Testament timeline...


Originally I think it was all painted, so it stood out from the mountain it's built into...but I kind of like the way it blends in.

We went to the Valley of the Queens next. Same idea as the Valley of the Kings, just less important people were buried there--like some queens and princes.

By this point, we felt like we had been sightseeing for a pretty long time, but it was only 11 am. That was all we had on the schedule for the day, though, so we headed back to the hotel, stopping on the way to see a couple more huge statues. At first we weren't sure what we would do with ourselves for the rest of the day, but we figured it out when we got back to the hotel--we realized it was more like a resort. It had a couple of outdoor swimming pools, lots of beach chairs, and overlooked the Nile. Needless to say, we had quite a nice and relaxing afternoon. And of course I went swimming, even though the water was actually freezing--I couldn't pass up the chance to swim outside in January. That afternoon and evening was the most relaxing I've done while traveling in awhile--it actually felt like a real vacation:-)


The view from the back of the hotel--that's the Nile! And those mountains that you can sort of see on the other side are the ones the Valleys of the Kings and Queens are in.

We continued our vacation like experience the next day by sleeping in more than usual. I did get up and go for a run, though. I went out on the main street for a little bit, but I then I realized I felt really uncomfortable--I got lots of stares, and some comments (mostly things like "Nice! Nice exercise!"). And I guess I did look totally out of place--I'm white, I'm a girl and I wasn't all covered up, and I was running. All three are kind of unusual. It's interesting how standards can be so drastically different from place to place. I think in general I dress pretty modestly, but not by Middle-Eastern standards I suppose. I sensed that pretty quickly, and even started to feel slightly indecent that Egyptian men could (gasp!) see my hair. So anyway, running just made it worse, and I quickly decided to go back to the hotel and do laps around the large outdoor swimming pool complex thing instead. That turned out to be much better.

Then, after a delicious complimentary breakfast at the hotel we started sightseeing again! We went to the Karnak temple and the Luxor temple. Both were huge pilgrimage sites for ancient Egyptians back in the day, but of course they're both in ruins now. That made me wonder if someday people would come to places like St. Peter's and walk around the ruins and talk about how Catholics from all over the world used to come there...and then I immediately thought "wait, Catholicism is never going to die out...so St. Peters will never be in ruins". Unless something drastic happens, I suppose, like the Popes pack off to Avignon again permanently or something. But it was a neat moment of remembering that the Church will go on forever, unlike religions that worship false gods.

At the entrance to the Luxor temple, there's an obelisk on one side, and an empty base on the other side. There used to be another obelisk there, too, but turns out that that's the one that's now in Paris! And I saw it when I was there! It was pretty crazy to make that connection. All the Egyptian obelisks in Rome must have come from specific spots in Egypt too...


To be honest, the obelisks look better in Egypt than anywhere else. Egyptian art and architecture always look a bit funny to me in museums and things, but they look just right in context in Egypt.

Our last activity in Luxor was taking a faluka ride (a kind of sailboat) on the Nile. It was very peaceful, and the sun was setting as we were out there, so it was beautiful.


This is a sweet picture, and also shows what a faluka looks like!

That night, we took another overnight train back to Cairo, and arrived just as ridiculously early. Luckily, we were able to get into a couple of rooms in the hotel, and so could take short naps before actually starting the day.

We saw the Egyptian museum first. The highlight of that was all of the treasures found in King Tut's tomb. We also went to a Coptic Christian Church. From what I gathered, the Coptic Christians are sort of like a branch of Catholicism--they have mostly all of the same beliefs, like Real Presence and everything, but they also have their own Pope. Sketch. I wikipedia-ed it last night to find out a little more, and it seems that the main difference in their beliefs from Roman Catholicism has to do with the hypostatic union--they have a little bit of a different understanding of Jesus' two natures. I didn't quite understand what specifically they believe about it, though. We also went to another church, with something called the Holy Crypt--apparently the Holy Family stayed there for a few days during the Flight to Egypt! So cool. Finally, we visited a mosque. It was very beautiful.

After that, we went to the bazaar, which is a giant market. It was actually quite stressful, because all the shop keepers try very hard to persuade you to buy things. In fact, I was afraid to look at anything too closely, because they take that as a sign that you're interested in purchasing and double their efforts. Not very conducive to shopping, if you ask me. The fear of being hassled was quite a deterent, in fact. But there were lots of cool bags and scarves and things, from what I saw out of the corners of my eye, ha.

For dinner that night we went back to the restaurant we had been to the first day, and realized how much we had learned that week, because this time we felt much more knowledgable about the menu.

The next day was Sunday. Our flight left at 5:20 pm and didn't get into Rome til about 8, meaning we had to find a mass to go to in Cairo. We finally ended up with the name and address of a Roman Catholic Church that was supposedly not too far away, a hand drawn map from one of the guys at the hotel reception desk, and word from a website last updated in 2004 that there was an 11 am English mass there. We handed the map to a taxi driver, and he was able to get to the right neighborhood easily, but didn't know where the church was. He also couldn't read English, so had to stop to ask somebody if they knew what street we were supposed to be going to. We passed a building that looked like a church and had a cross on it, which meant it at least wasn't a mosque, and so we got out there. It turned out to be a Coptic Church, though...but luckily there was a guy standing outside who spoke English and was able to direct us the right way. We sort of got lost on the way and had to ask for directions again, but we eventually made it to the right church at about 11:20. We walked in and immediately realized two things: one, mass was in French, not English, and two: it must have started late...because the first reading was just starting, so we didn't even miss that much. God is good. There were definitely times when I was afraid we were going to have to miss mass for the week, which possibly wouldn't have been a sin considering the circumstances. I'm not completely sure, because I decided not to fully discern that until we had exhausted every possibility trying to get there, and if it didn't work think about it more then. But luckily, it did. Lots of little things went right, leading me to believe that it definitely wasn't all luck:-) He wanted us at mass just as badly as I wanted to be there.

We had a few hours between mass and when we had to leave for the airport, so we walked around and went to a grocery store to spend our last Egyptian pounds. Then we went to the airport and flew back!

At that point break was almost officially over...we started classes the next day, which by now was yesterday. I'm pretty excited about my classes. My studio professor is new this semester, and she's a young woman who actually just graduated from the ND grad school architecture program a few years ago. She's incredibly friendly and approachable, and I think she knows a lot, too. We're doing another palazzo project for the first half of the semester, and then a villa project after that! It's been a little rough getting used to actually going to class again...but I'm sure it'll feel familiar soon enough. And it's good to be back in Rome!

Winter Break Adventures Part Tre

Amsterdam

Our flight arrived in Amsterdam late in the evening on Tuesday, January 4th. We took a train to the city center, and got pizza in the train station for dinner. It was from a place called "New York Pizza" and it was American style pizza--the first time I've had that since I came to Europe! It was good. (This company's slogan was pretty funny, too. It was --Matt and Laura, don't read this part-- "Damn Tasty". We were amused. You can get away with a bit more in Europe, I suppose. And of course we then made jokes about "Amster-dam Tasty"). After that, we went to our hostel. It took us longer than it should have to find it...also, there was snow on the ground! It was the first time I had walked through it all year. There were four other archies staying in the same hostel who had arrived a day earlier, so we saw them when we got there, talked for a bit, and went to bed.

In the morning we went to Anne Frank's house--where she and her family hid for two years before being discovered by the Nazis. It's a museum now, and a very good one. It was informative and had an easy to follow sequence. And it was very powerful. With the subject matter it'd be hard not to be, but I still think it was done exceptionally well. First you walk through the downstairs rooms, where her father's store was, and eventually make your way up to the annex, the hiding place. There's no furniture, because it was confiscated during the raid on the house. Otto Frank, Anne's father, was the only survivor from the family. He was the one who pushed for Anne's diary to be published, and he set up the museum, and didn't want any of the furniture put back. But there are still little reminders of the family. The newspapers clippings and pictures that Anne pasted on her walls are still there, and there are pencil lines on the wall marking the children's growth during the years they were there. At the end, there's a short video clip of Otto talking about how he felt when he read the diary for the first time, and why he set up the museum there--he wants people to learn from their story, and not let anything like that happen ever again. Like I said, it was powerful. Here's the outside of the house:


The annex is behind there but of course you can't see it from the front.

In the afternoon, we went to a Van Gogh museum. It was a bit overpriced, but cool. Unfortunately, Starry Night, which is one of the few Van Gogh paintings I would actually recognize, was NOT there. But oh well. That was basically all the sightseeing we did that day...it was cool to be with the other archies, though. They all left early the next morning, but Katie and I were there all day again.

In the morning we took a tram a little outside the city center to the De Dageraad housing, which of course is something we learned about in history last year. It's just a bunch of residential buildings, mostly, but the brickwork is really cool--there are some unusual shapes and curves and things.

In the afternoon, we went on a free walking tour of the city. It was very cool--literally. In fact, it started snowing pretty hard right at the end of the tour. So when it was over, we went to a cafe and had hot chocolate to warm up:-) We also found a really neat little restaurant for dinner that night. We had delicious burgers and french fries with mayo. And, there was a 33% student discount! Huge.

We left early the next morning to start a pretty long day of traveling. Our final destination was Berlin, but for some reason (probably cheaper prices), we flew first through...

Geneva

Which of course, is in Switzerland. We had about a 4 hour layover, so we decided to go into town for bit. The Alps made a dramatic backdrop for the city. We walked around for a little while and tried to find lunch, but unfortunately none of the shops we went to accepted credit cards. Switzerland is on the Franc, not the Euro, so we couldn't use our regular money, and we didn't want to withdraw a bunch of Francs that we wouldn't use. So eventually we ended up just going back to the airport and getting food there, where they DID take credit cards. But I'm still glad we went to the city--if nothing else, it was nice to get some fresh air and exercise to break up the long periods of sitting on a plane.


Switzerland!

Our second flight, to Berlin, went smoothly as scheduled, luckily. A bunch of other flights on the same airline were actually canceled that day, due to what we think was some sort of strike. But ours wasn't affected at all....

Berlin

When we got to Berlin, we found the train station at the airport just fine, and we knew what street we had to get to and everything...but for some reason, when we first looked at the Berlin metro map, it completely mystified us. I don't know what it was--maybe just seeing so many words and street names in German. Anyway, we must have looked seriously lost and confused, because the guy behind us in line asked if we needed help. We said "sure," and explained our situation. It turned out that this guy's friend happened to be going to the exact same street, and kindly offered to show us the way. It ALSO turned out that both of these guys were on the Berlin volleyball team, coming back from some sort of tournament in Switzerland (they won their match). They were extremely generous in offering their assistance and making sure we got exactly where we needed to go, and I'm pretty sure they've gained a lifelong team supporter:-)

After we checked in to our hostel, we headed out to find dinner (searching for food is a very common, and sort of time consuming, traveling activity). We ended up at a place that was sort of like the Applebees of Berlin, I think. They had lots of different types of food--Italian, Mexican, even American. I got a quesadilla; it was amazing! It was pretty darn cold in Berlin, so we walked straight back to the hostel afterwards and relaxed for the rest of the night.

We woke up early and went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum. We spent a really long time there, because there were tons of things to look at and read. Large parts of the museum were dedicated to different stories of how people escaped from the East side of the Wall to the West side. They ranged from hiding in cars, to digging tunnels, even to building hot air balloons. The creativity and determination of people on both sides of the Wall to fight for freedom was pretty evident, and pretty inspiring.


This is a replica of the actual checkpoint--I took the picture from one of the museum windows, which is why it's an aerial view.

We went on another free walking tour that afternoon. On the way from the museum to where it started we discovered a sweet grocery store where we were able to get huge cheap sandwiches for lunch, and we bought some German chocolate too:-)

The tour started at the Brandenburg gate:



The tour was really long, about 4 hours altogether...because there's so much to see in Berlin. There's all the WWII stuff, of course. We saw a Holocaust memorial, right in the center of the city. Our tour guide was excellent, and pointed that that's a pretty impressive thing for Berlin to do--they have a monument about one of the things they're most ashamed about as a city. Usually monuments celebrate proud moments...but not this one. We also saw the site of Hitler's bunker. It's under a parking lot, and only marked with one small sign. They don't want to give him any more credit than he deserves.

One of other main things that the tour focused on was, of course, the Wall. Here's a picture of one of the longest remaining sections:


There were actually two walls--the inner wall and the outer wall. The space between them was called the "death zone", because it was completely empty, and the border guards were told to shoot to kill.

Being in Berlin was really fascinating because all the history is so recent. People who are just a few years older than me would remember when the Wall was still standing, and then when it fell and all that. That's pretty incredible to think about. And it's evident that the city is definitely still recovering from everything that's happened to it. For one thing, everything there is pretty cheap--good for us tourists, but kind of sad because it means the city in general is poor right now. And there are huge holes in the urban fabric of the city where buildings are missing because they were bombed. But I think I have faith in the Berliners to be able to accomplish this rebuilding--they're strong. They've been through alot. They united to help bring down the Wall, and they'll unite to make their city great again. Somehow in the short time I was there I think I managed to develop a sense of attachment and fondness for the city and the people who live in it...it was definitely one of my favorite places.

After the tour we had another delicious dinner, including trying a German beer. It was alright...but not as good as Belgian beer. We then went back to the hostel and packed up for the last time, because the next morning we had an early flight back to Rome! As I mentioned at the very beginning of all this blogging, it was really good to get back. It was an amazing trip overall, though. We packed quite a lot into those two weeks, and I think I doubled the number of countries I've been to in my life. And believe it or not, even after all that, I'm not done traveling for the break just yet...in fact, I'm leaving for Egypt tomorrow morning! There's a group of 11 of us going, and hopefully it will be just as awesome as this last trip was! And of course, I'll blog when I get back. Pray for continued safe travels for all of us!