Going Solo

Here's a crash course in my last weekish.

Tuesday morning I said goodbye to Berlin in the dark and flew to Paris. Paris is NOT romantic (ignore those who say otherwise) - after less than an hour I was sick of the smell, and the people are so rude! But I had a blast visiting the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Pantheon copy, and eating crepes and croissants in their homeland.

A little after 3pm I cashed in my remaining Euros and jumped on board the Eurostar train for London. My godmother Jacqui and her niece Justine met me at the station, and I got my first taste of London since a little after my 3rd birthday.

In the few days I've been here, my adventure has included the Globe Theatre, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum (fantastic displays of Egyptian Mummies and THE Rosetta Stone!), the Science Museum (where I found some Darwin to take home), Borough Market (Turkish Delight in 100 flavours), St Paul's, Hyde Park (squirrels!), Millenium Bridge (the one that collapses in the latest Harry Potter movie), London Bridge, Billy Elliot (most amazing show ever - the boy flies) and a stack of other little (and probably not so little) things that I can't remember.

Thursday was the day I Monopolised London - with James in tow I visited nearly every site on the Monopoly board. Yes we took pictures. Bet you never knew that Vine Street is a tiny 10-address back alley (it's all loading docks) near Regent Street. The day was a great, cheap introduction to London and the tube system that I'd highly recommend to everyone. I apologise to anyone who has to deal with the 50 or so in-jokes we accumulated throughout the day.

Off to see Greenwich tomorrow, then Warwick and Stratford-Upon-Avon as an overnight trip Tuesday and Wednesday. Then on Wednesday comes the coolest of them all - Phantom at the London Maj. YAY!

Hugs to all - I miss you and Perth (but not the heat).

Ciao!
Svenii

Everyone keeps telling me to come back to Berlin in springtime, and I'm starting to appreciate why. The sky is white and grey, the paths are grey, the roads are black, the ground is white, the trees are white, any birds or animals that are out are grey and black... the colour scheme is rather bland.

On the upside, I've experienced some amazing stuff. I've seen the world's tallest dinosaur skeleton, walked the longest portion of the Berlin wall still standing, visited the town where my grandfather grew up, watched birds walk on water (ok, they were cheating, it was ice), successfully navigated a complicated train system and mastered enough of the language to order coffee/hot chocolate and a pastry.

The most moving experience so far was standing in a snow blizzard this evening watching lights play in a very modern tower, which stands next to the tower of the Berlin Cathedral. Bombed in WWII, the tower is nicknamed the "Broken Tooth" thanks to the chunk missing at the top. I found it rather touching that, despite being beheaded, it still stands taller than the modern replacement tower next to it, and it still stands.

I'm impersonating my mother, which is a little scary - she is well known for finishing Christmas shopping in March (ok, maybe closer to October, but I've NEVER known her to need use of the Christmas Eve extended trading hours), and I've already bought birthday presents for Mum (June) and Declan (August). Slight flaw in plan - Dad (May) is first, but my suitcase doesn't have a present for him. Yet.

I had the nicest drink for lunch today. After craving fresh juice for days, I found a juice cocktail bar. Here's what I put in mine: fresh orange, pineapple and peach juices, ginger, mint, one shot watermelon liqueur. BEST. DRINK. EVER. Now I need to find said watermelon liqueur to take home. Yes Mum, I ate a real meal with my drink, it was only one standard drink and I was extra careful around traffic for the rest of the day. Please don't panic.

I had planned to visit the Pergamon Museum today, home of a bunch of Archaeological cool stuff pinched from the Middle East some years ago, but they've been closed all week to install a brand new temporary exhibit. It opens at 10am tomorrow - guess who's going? That'd be me! I'm more interested in their permanent stuff, which Martin taught us about during ARCY1102 last semester, but the special display will be an added (and FREE) bonus.

If anyone wants to get in my super good books, I've decided I want to own copies of Charles Darwin's works after seeing a huge museum room full of originals of his notes and original ideas. If anyone sees old editions in second hand bookstores, I'll pay for them and you can be my best friend forever.

Scariest moment in Berlin: The HUGE banner (at least 6sqm) in the Darwin room of the Natural History Museum, covered in size 6 font of the letters ACGT (biology students should now understand where this is going). These letters are the most basic components of DNA - huge number of the things, with an overlay that read "this is 0.0004% of the human genome". I feel complicated and insignificant all at once.

Whilst I've loved the trip so far, I'm looking forward to arriving in London in a few days where people won't look at me like I'm completely ignorant when I speak English. I hope. I feel guilty when I can't spout perfect sentences in the local language, but at the same time that's half the adventure.

Off to find more adventure-type stuff... be prepared to not hear the end of this for a very long time.

Ciao!
Svenii

After being isolated from an internet connection for over a week, I'm back in touch with the world. The week basically went like this:

Bus to Vigo di Fassa
Skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski eat sleep for six days (seven nights)
Bus to Venice
Fly to Berlin

Skiing was AWESOME!!!! The slopes were great, the weather was fantastic, and the views were breathtaking. I really enjoyed being on my own, responsible for me, taking things at my pace and generally having a blast. To top it all off, I only stacked it twice, and once was because a kid crashed coming off a ski lift and I had nowhere to swerve to. Assumption: I didn't forget how to stay upright whilst sliding on frozen water. A HUGE thankyou to my parents for the world's coolest birthday present.

Slight downside to living in the Italian Alps for a week - I seemed to be eating red meat for lunch and both courses of dinner every day. And now I'm in Germany. I need some variety!!!!

I spent today going for a long walk around the Berlin central park (think King's Park, but bigger and covered in snow and deer and foxes, with a frozen river), visiting the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his kid out the window, taking pictures of local landmarks, climbing the dome on top of the federal parliament building for some spectacular views, and hanging out in a local coffee shop with a 700mL mug of caramel hot chocolate whilst people-watching. Tomorrow I'm undecided as to which museums to visit - Natural History, Pergamon, Egyptology, Musical Instruments, Medical History... I'm buying a three day €6 pass to cover them all, I just don't know where to start.

Dad: I should have brought my toe socks to Berlin so they could say hi to the pedestrian lights - they are so cute! What's your shoe size?
Flick: I'm keeping a list of notes for you in my Moleskine as I see cool places, things to do and think of travel tips. It all depends on the time of year you're here, but hopefully something will be useful.
Everyone else: For six out of the seven nights I was in Vigo, BBC news said Perth was the hottest place in the world. I hope all Perthies are ok - I was in a place that was 60 degrees colder :D

Ciao... from Germany,
Svenii

Yesterday was officially amazing.

I went to the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology here in Bolzano, which catalogues the history of people in the local area from the Mesolithic (about 15000 years ago) until the reformations and introduction of Christianity from 600-900CE (or AD to non-history-type-people). The exhibits were all really good, and included a piece of local Roman road, complete with cart tracks worn into the stone and a mile marker.

But, of course, what I (and most others there) was there for was the second floor - the Copper Age. Which had a tiiiiiiiiiny sign detailing what the Copper Age was and what it meant for the area, and then a HUUUUUGE sign that read "Otzi: the man in the ice" in about 10 languages. No surprises then that nearly the whole floor was devoted to the world's oldest humid mummy, with only a small corner dedicated to other local finds.

It was a fantastic experience finally seeing all the artefacts that I spent so long studying in depth last semester, and standing less than a metre away from the body that I know so much about. To think that a little over three years ago I was sitting in Ancient History watching a video about this guy, thinking how cool it would be to study something like that, and here I am, in the town where some of the people who recovered him live, having studied him and now also having seen him in the flesh. Note to all struggling in life - your wildest dreams really can come true. Not all of them, but sometimes life is on your side and provides the most amazing of experiences.

Anyway, I'm off to see what else this fascinating alpine town has to offer a tourist such as myself.

Ciao a tutti!
Svenii

Hi folks

Just a quick one to say Florence has been awesome, except for the temporary (I hope) passing of my beloved computer, Artemis.

Spent the day in Siena - hilly, slopy, amazing town with dozens of cool churches. It was a top of 5 degrees with only patchy clouds. Fantastic!

Off to Bolzano tomorrow morning to meet Otzi and his mates - I can't wait!

Thinking of you all, and wishing you a safe summer.

Ciao!
Svenii