Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Pictures from Germany!
Fishmarket, Hafencity, and Brötchen
Location: Antwerp, Belgium (we're a day early! Can't get off the ship though, because we still have to go to tomorrow's classes.)
Hah! With this last double-post I am now officially caught up with the present. Whew.
–– Hamburg, Day 3: 9/7/13 ––
The entirety of my third day in Germany was devoted to a service visit organized by Semester at Sea which took a group of us to the small town of Dollerup (located up north, near the sea border with Denmark) where we went to a family farm that had been converted into a home for foster children. There were seven kids there, ranging in age from 13 to 20, and we got a chance to meet them and have a tour of the farm before splitting into two groups for the actual service project. One group helped build a soccer goal and played several games with the kids, while the other group (which I was in) donned plastic suits to protect our clothing and began to paint/decorate a large wall with the help of a couple of the foster girls. Most of the kids didn't speak a lot of English, but we generally understood one another, and we all had fun. It was interesting to learn a bit more about the foster care system in Germany, and nice to get out of Hamburg city and into a more rural area. The bus ride there and back took a couple of hours though, so we didn't get to stay as long as many of us would have liked and we still ended up behind schedule in the end.
When I returned to the ship it was a bit too late to go back out into Hamburg (at least to me), and I had made plans to wake up super early and meet a couple girls who were going to the Fishmarket (a Hamburg event which only takes place on Sunday mornings) the next day, so I headed back to my cabin. At that point it occurred to me that I finally had enough time to process my laundry! I had gotten a large load of darks done by the ship a few days earlier, and the experience convinced me that I had better just wash my own laundry in the future (cheaper and safer for the clothes.) I still needed to wash a bunch of lights which couldn't be put into the aforementioned load, so I got out one of the little packets of detergent that I brought from home for just such an occasion and headed for my little bathroom sink with a pile of clothes and a mission.
What I ended up with was a heap of wet (but clean!) clothes and not nearly enough room on the little provided clothes line in my shower to dry them all. So I improvised, and had eventually completely taken over the shower and half of the bathroom with drying clothes. Of course at that point my roommate returned from her trip to Berlin desperately wanting a shower. So I moved everything to hangers in the closet and just kept the closet doors open. This seemed to work pretty well, and now that everything is dried and folded, I am officially proclaiming my laundry venture a success!
...Of course, all this meant that I didn't get to bed until about midnight. Which was a problem because I needed to get up at 4:30am the next morning in order to make it in time to meet the rest of the group heading for the Fishmarket. I'd say sleep is overrated, but I didn't really get any last night because I was up writing a paper, so right now I can attest that sleep is actually quite necessary.
–– Hamburg, Day 4: 9/8/13 ––
My last day in Hamburg! I got up bright and early (though it was still dark) and managed to drag myself out of bed and to the meeting place with an unprecedented three minutes to spare. I was pretty proud of myself; I had half expected to be too tired and to decide to wait and go later by myself. Another of our number actually did just that. But I had my tea in hand and I was ready to make the most of my last morning in Germany. So off we went to go and watch the sunrise over the Fishmarket.
For those who are wondering, the Fishmarket is actually a full-blown street fair with all sorts of things for sale besides just fish. I had received an email from my grandma advising me to try smoked meat as well as some Brötchen, so I set out on a mission to locate one or both of these in the maze of food booths which occupied the nucleus of the market. Smoked meat was pretty prevalent, and I eventually settled on some smoked halibut (who could resist trying some fish while wandering around a Fishmarket, after all!) I really had my eye on the smoked eel after getting a sample and discovering that it was abnormally delicious, but unfortunately all anyone wanted to sell was a whole smoked eel, and I wasn't quite that committed.
I had a little more trouble with the Brötchen, mostly because the word would sometimes appear in conjunction with other words, and I wasn't sure it was the same thing. Also there were often there prices for large quantities but not just for a single roll. I did eventually get one though, and had a thoroughly enjoyable lunch!
Afterwards I headed all the way back to the Hafencity, because I had heard great things about the Miniatur Wunderland and was determined to see it before I left. The miniature train exhibits were marvelous, with painstakingly created terrains that sometimes reaching multiple floor. Mountains, valleys, lakes, and cities spanned wall to wall and ceiling to floor. The place was packed with people, despite how early I arrived. But once you managed to wriggle yourself into a gap in the crowd you could just stand there staring for ages, especially since the lights of the rooms change so that the scenes are always slowly alternating between day and night. The miniature Las Vegas particularly lent itself to the nighttime span, with a full complement of multicolored lights and moving elements. There are, of course, trains moving through every exhibit, but there is also the occasional moving bus, car, or ski lift as well. I will be putting pictures up so that you can see some examples.
With only a few hours to spare before I ought to be heading back to the ship, I indecisively made my toward the spice museum. Now, I'm not really sure what the deal is, but despite wikipedia's assertion that this is the only spice museum in the world (yes, I get all my info from Wikipedia - it's one of the few free sites to visit with the ship's internet, so you use what you've got), there are actually two separate spice museums right near each other on the same street. This time I went into the other museum. It was a cozy inviting little place once you got inside (the outside just looks a bit doubtful), and there are big bags of spices sitting there so that you can feel and smell them. The entire place smelling like heaven. I spent ages there, despite the fact that it was really a very small place. I think that silly spice museum was my favorite place in all of Hamburg––I just wanted to stay in there forever.
Of course I couldn't, and all the spices were making me hungry again, so I headed over to coffee shop housed in this nice big historical building. Did I mention that the warehouse district is full of beautiful brick buildings surrounded by bridges and canals? It was once one of the centers of European trade, and all of the goods were stored and traded right there. Trade still plays a large economic role in Hamburg's economy, but its center has moved to a more modern locale. There is something about those old buildings though, that lends to the entire area a deep sense of soul. I spent an hour sitting in the coffee shop warehouse, sketching my surroundings and munching on what the lady at the counter called a "Hamburger" –– in this case referring to someone/thing which is from Hamburg, rather than a sandwich with a bun. This particular dish was a tasty custard-filled dessert.
Once I had finished with my Hamburger I headed back to the ship. Since then I have been rushing to keep up with all the assignments for my classes and trying to plan what I will be doing while in Belgium!
Thanks for your comments!
Hah! With this last double-post I am now officially caught up with the present. Whew.
–– Hamburg, Day 3: 9/7/13 ––
The entirety of my third day in Germany was devoted to a service visit organized by Semester at Sea which took a group of us to the small town of Dollerup (located up north, near the sea border with Denmark) where we went to a family farm that had been converted into a home for foster children. There were seven kids there, ranging in age from 13 to 20, and we got a chance to meet them and have a tour of the farm before splitting into two groups for the actual service project. One group helped build a soccer goal and played several games with the kids, while the other group (which I was in) donned plastic suits to protect our clothing and began to paint/decorate a large wall with the help of a couple of the foster girls. Most of the kids didn't speak a lot of English, but we generally understood one another, and we all had fun. It was interesting to learn a bit more about the foster care system in Germany, and nice to get out of Hamburg city and into a more rural area. The bus ride there and back took a couple of hours though, so we didn't get to stay as long as many of us would have liked and we still ended up behind schedule in the end.
When I returned to the ship it was a bit too late to go back out into Hamburg (at least to me), and I had made plans to wake up super early and meet a couple girls who were going to the Fishmarket (a Hamburg event which only takes place on Sunday mornings) the next day, so I headed back to my cabin. At that point it occurred to me that I finally had enough time to process my laundry! I had gotten a large load of darks done by the ship a few days earlier, and the experience convinced me that I had better just wash my own laundry in the future (cheaper and safer for the clothes.) I still needed to wash a bunch of lights which couldn't be put into the aforementioned load, so I got out one of the little packets of detergent that I brought from home for just such an occasion and headed for my little bathroom sink with a pile of clothes and a mission.
What I ended up with was a heap of wet (but clean!) clothes and not nearly enough room on the little provided clothes line in my shower to dry them all. So I improvised, and had eventually completely taken over the shower and half of the bathroom with drying clothes. Of course at that point my roommate returned from her trip to Berlin desperately wanting a shower. So I moved everything to hangers in the closet and just kept the closet doors open. This seemed to work pretty well, and now that everything is dried and folded, I am officially proclaiming my laundry venture a success!
...Of course, all this meant that I didn't get to bed until about midnight. Which was a problem because I needed to get up at 4:30am the next morning in order to make it in time to meet the rest of the group heading for the Fishmarket. I'd say sleep is overrated, but I didn't really get any last night because I was up writing a paper, so right now I can attest that sleep is actually quite necessary.
–– Hamburg, Day 4: 9/8/13 ––
My last day in Hamburg! I got up bright and early (though it was still dark) and managed to drag myself out of bed and to the meeting place with an unprecedented three minutes to spare. I was pretty proud of myself; I had half expected to be too tired and to decide to wait and go later by myself. Another of our number actually did just that. But I had my tea in hand and I was ready to make the most of my last morning in Germany. So off we went to go and watch the sunrise over the Fishmarket.
For those who are wondering, the Fishmarket is actually a full-blown street fair with all sorts of things for sale besides just fish. I had received an email from my grandma advising me to try smoked meat as well as some Brötchen, so I set out on a mission to locate one or both of these in the maze of food booths which occupied the nucleus of the market. Smoked meat was pretty prevalent, and I eventually settled on some smoked halibut (who could resist trying some fish while wandering around a Fishmarket, after all!) I really had my eye on the smoked eel after getting a sample and discovering that it was abnormally delicious, but unfortunately all anyone wanted to sell was a whole smoked eel, and I wasn't quite that committed.
I had a little more trouble with the Brötchen, mostly because the word would sometimes appear in conjunction with other words, and I wasn't sure it was the same thing. Also there were often there prices for large quantities but not just for a single roll. I did eventually get one though, and had a thoroughly enjoyable lunch!
Afterwards I headed all the way back to the Hafencity, because I had heard great things about the Miniatur Wunderland and was determined to see it before I left. The miniature train exhibits were marvelous, with painstakingly created terrains that sometimes reaching multiple floor. Mountains, valleys, lakes, and cities spanned wall to wall and ceiling to floor. The place was packed with people, despite how early I arrived. But once you managed to wriggle yourself into a gap in the crowd you could just stand there staring for ages, especially since the lights of the rooms change so that the scenes are always slowly alternating between day and night. The miniature Las Vegas particularly lent itself to the nighttime span, with a full complement of multicolored lights and moving elements. There are, of course, trains moving through every exhibit, but there is also the occasional moving bus, car, or ski lift as well. I will be putting pictures up so that you can see some examples.
With only a few hours to spare before I ought to be heading back to the ship, I indecisively made my toward the spice museum. Now, I'm not really sure what the deal is, but despite wikipedia's assertion that this is the only spice museum in the world (yes, I get all my info from Wikipedia - it's one of the few free sites to visit with the ship's internet, so you use what you've got), there are actually two separate spice museums right near each other on the same street. This time I went into the other museum. It was a cozy inviting little place once you got inside (the outside just looks a bit doubtful), and there are big bags of spices sitting there so that you can feel and smell them. The entire place smelling like heaven. I spent ages there, despite the fact that it was really a very small place. I think that silly spice museum was my favorite place in all of Hamburg––I just wanted to stay in there forever.
Of course I couldn't, and all the spices were making me hungry again, so I headed over to coffee shop housed in this nice big historical building. Did I mention that the warehouse district is full of beautiful brick buildings surrounded by bridges and canals? It was once one of the centers of European trade, and all of the goods were stored and traded right there. Trade still plays a large economic role in Hamburg's economy, but its center has moved to a more modern locale. There is something about those old buildings though, that lends to the entire area a deep sense of soul. I spent an hour sitting in the coffee shop warehouse, sketching my surroundings and munching on what the lady at the counter called a "Hamburger" –– in this case referring to someone/thing which is from Hamburg, rather than a sandwich with a bun. This particular dish was a tasty custard-filled dessert.
Once I had finished with my Hamburger I headed back to the ship. Since then I have been rushing to keep up with all the assignments for my classes and trying to plan what I will be doing while in Belgium!
Thanks for your comments!
A View over Uberseebrucke
Location: Westbound in the North Sea
Here we have the next installment in the Hamburg series! Hopefully I am able to finish before we reach Antwerp.
–– Hamburg, Day 2: 9/6/13 ––
On my second day in Hamburg I decided to forge out on my own and explore the city. I had a few goals in mind as I swiped my ID card and disembarked the ship:
#1) Visit the historic warehouse district to and world's only spice museum, before perhaps going to the "Miniatur Wunderland" (a world famous model train exhibit)
#2) Find sunglasses to replace the ones that broke on me during my first day in England. Also locate some more snacks to bring back to the ship and a little travel sewing kit.
#3) Find a nice cozy place to eat breakfast because I woke up too late for breakfast on the ship.
So armed with my map of Hamburg and a moderately capable sense of direction, I headed down a friendly little tree-lined street toward a small park. Before too long I had found a nice cafe/ice cream parlor and grabbed a delicious breakfast of dubious nutritional value (aka apple pie and rum-flavored ice cream), after which I found myself meandering past St. Michael's Church. I remembered hearing good things about the place the previous day, so I wandered inside.
For a few Euros one can buy a ticket to climb to the top of the tower above the church and look out over Hamburg; for a couple more, one can also explore the crypt beneath the church. This seemed like an interesting way to spend my morning, so I got both. After descending into the moody vaulted crypt and perusing the pictures and objects in the informational displays (not much of the written information was in English), I climbed what turned out to be a massive amount of stairs to get the top of the tower. Surrounding the industrial-looking steps winding up it were numerous metal supports and beams: the climb felt less like being in part of a church and more like being in a factory of some kind. I'm not sure how old that part of the church was––apparently major repairs were needed first after the great fire which swept through Hamburg in the mid 1800s wiping out much of the city, and then again after a bombardment of WWII bombs did pretty much the same thing.
I did eventually reach the top, and took a bunch of what will probably turn out to be entirely uninteresting pictures of the expanse of Hamburg stretching out on all sides. I could even see the M.V. Explorer docked in Uberseebrucke harbor, which was neat.
After that I'm afraid my day gets pretty boring (well, even more so) to recount: I did find a grocery store to purchase snacks, and a sewing kit. The sunglasses took a bit longer, but I prevailed, and I managed to navigate myself back without relying on the map (though I'm pretty sure that was due more to luck rather than any skill on my part.) By the time I reached Hafencity (the old warehouse district) it was 3pm and the spice museum was closing early for a special event. So I hung out for a while in the area before heading back to the ship.
...Which brings us to the highlight of the evening! A few days before, I had signed up for a free SAS "Welcome Reception" which was to be held at a local family's home in Hamburg. I was under the impression that it would be a casual meet-and-greet with some snacks. (I was later looking through upcoming field programs and saw one described as a "Welcome Reception" in Casablanca, and the picture for that definitely showed a casual atmosphere, so I didn't just make that up out of nowhere!)
But nope, as it turns out this was actually a much bigger deal than I had realized. Not only were there students, but there were also some lifelong learners and members of the faculty (including our academic dean, who is a former astronaut, another guy who is a nuclear physicist, and apparently also another man who is in charge of the accounting for Semester at Sea.) Many of the men were wearing suits, and the non-student women were also dressed up. I felt bad that I hadn't known to come in more formal attire, but come to think of it I'm not sure I brought much in that department anyway, so it probably wouldn't have mattered.
The people who were hosting the event had a lovely home and were very nice. The husband (whose name I wish I remembered) is in the tea trading business. It is a family business which he and his brother inherited from their parents, so our hosts were both quite well off; I believe he even owns a tea museum down in the warehouse district. There were two server ladies who brought around glasses of wine and little cups of appetizers while we all hung out and talked. Then we were served a big tasty dinner and some desserts in more cute little cups. It was really great! I haven't quite been to something like that before, and I had a great time. As we left they gave us gifts of tote bags with little boxes of tea from the husband's company, which was also really nice of them. It made me glad that I stayed in Hamburg rather than going to Berlin, which is where most of ship (including my roommate) took off to that morning.
And that concludes Hamburg, Day 2! If you're still around, don't forget to comment :)
Here we have the next installment in the Hamburg series! Hopefully I am able to finish before we reach Antwerp.
–– Hamburg, Day 2: 9/6/13 ––
On my second day in Hamburg I decided to forge out on my own and explore the city. I had a few goals in mind as I swiped my ID card and disembarked the ship:
#1) Visit the historic warehouse district to and world's only spice museum, before perhaps going to the "Miniatur Wunderland" (a world famous model train exhibit)
#2) Find sunglasses to replace the ones that broke on me during my first day in England. Also locate some more snacks to bring back to the ship and a little travel sewing kit.
#3) Find a nice cozy place to eat breakfast because I woke up too late for breakfast on the ship.
So armed with my map of Hamburg and a moderately capable sense of direction, I headed down a friendly little tree-lined street toward a small park. Before too long I had found a nice cafe/ice cream parlor and grabbed a delicious breakfast of dubious nutritional value (aka apple pie and rum-flavored ice cream), after which I found myself meandering past St. Michael's Church. I remembered hearing good things about the place the previous day, so I wandered inside.
For a few Euros one can buy a ticket to climb to the top of the tower above the church and look out over Hamburg; for a couple more, one can also explore the crypt beneath the church. This seemed like an interesting way to spend my morning, so I got both. After descending into the moody vaulted crypt and perusing the pictures and objects in the informational displays (not much of the written information was in English), I climbed what turned out to be a massive amount of stairs to get the top of the tower. Surrounding the industrial-looking steps winding up it were numerous metal supports and beams: the climb felt less like being in part of a church and more like being in a factory of some kind. I'm not sure how old that part of the church was––apparently major repairs were needed first after the great fire which swept through Hamburg in the mid 1800s wiping out much of the city, and then again after a bombardment of WWII bombs did pretty much the same thing.
I did eventually reach the top, and took a bunch of what will probably turn out to be entirely uninteresting pictures of the expanse of Hamburg stretching out on all sides. I could even see the M.V. Explorer docked in Uberseebrucke harbor, which was neat.
After that I'm afraid my day gets pretty boring (well, even more so) to recount: I did find a grocery store to purchase snacks, and a sewing kit. The sunglasses took a bit longer, but I prevailed, and I managed to navigate myself back without relying on the map (though I'm pretty sure that was due more to luck rather than any skill on my part.) By the time I reached Hafencity (the old warehouse district) it was 3pm and the spice museum was closing early for a special event. So I hung out for a while in the area before heading back to the ship.
...Which brings us to the highlight of the evening! A few days before, I had signed up for a free SAS "Welcome Reception" which was to be held at a local family's home in Hamburg. I was under the impression that it would be a casual meet-and-greet with some snacks. (I was later looking through upcoming field programs and saw one described as a "Welcome Reception" in Casablanca, and the picture for that definitely showed a casual atmosphere, so I didn't just make that up out of nowhere!)
But nope, as it turns out this was actually a much bigger deal than I had realized. Not only were there students, but there were also some lifelong learners and members of the faculty (including our academic dean, who is a former astronaut, another guy who is a nuclear physicist, and apparently also another man who is in charge of the accounting for Semester at Sea.) Many of the men were wearing suits, and the non-student women were also dressed up. I felt bad that I hadn't known to come in more formal attire, but come to think of it I'm not sure I brought much in that department anyway, so it probably wouldn't have mattered.
The people who were hosting the event had a lovely home and were very nice. The husband (whose name I wish I remembered) is in the tea trading business. It is a family business which he and his brother inherited from their parents, so our hosts were both quite well off; I believe he even owns a tea museum down in the warehouse district. There were two server ladies who brought around glasses of wine and little cups of appetizers while we all hung out and talked. Then we were served a big tasty dinner and some desserts in more cute little cups. It was really great! I haven't quite been to something like that before, and I had a great time. As we left they gave us gifts of tote bags with little boxes of tea from the husband's company, which was also really nice of them. It made me glad that I stayed in Hamburg rather than going to Berlin, which is where most of ship (including my roommate) took off to that morning.
And that concludes Hamburg, Day 2! If you're still around, don't forget to comment :)
Monday, September 9, 2013
Neuengamme
Location: Westbound in the North Sea
Hey everyone! Long time no post. We are now leaving Hamburg and heading for Antwerp, Belgium; the ship is taking its time, so we should be there in three days. Germany was busy but great - I actually liked it there a lot more than St. Petersburg. Since I have so much to catch up on, I'm going to break this down into the individual days:
–– Hamburg, Day 1: 9/5/13 ––
After staying up fairly late to listen to the entirety of the second installment of "The World According to Boyer" (our Geography professor always presents a vey entertaining overview of the countries we are about to visit) I was tired and without much of a plan for what I would be doing the next morning. My roommate, Emily, was in the same boat. She offered that I tag along with her and some friends who were going to "Find an internet cafe." That sounded pretty good to me, because it meant I wouldn't by traveling by myself and that I could then plan what I was going to do for the next few days.
So that morning I packed my laptop into a little backpack that I brought and set out with Emily and her friends. As it turned out, we were a group of all girls and I made the 13th person. Nobody else had laptops or backpacks. That was when I began to wonder if this internet cafe plan was going to materialize. I wondered that a lot in the coming hours.
We followed people to the nearest metro station, where we had a bit of trouble figuring out which tickets to buy since the English translation button was broken and none of us spoke German. Where were we going? I still wasn't sure! Everyone else in the group was planning to go to Berlin and stay overnight the next day, so we all hopped on the train to the central terminal to figure out how they would go about getting bus tickets for that. On our way, we bumped into another group who were being led by a very speedy old woman to the station to get to the Neuengamme concentration camp, which had been turned into a memorial/museum. Our group decided to follow them (though we lost sight almost immediately, with one of the guys shouting back to us that the stop was "Bergedorf.") What ensued was a very interesting situation during which no single person seemed to know where we were going, but as a group we made it onto the train and then on the bus to Neuengamme with relatively few problems. We then found ourselves winding through a little neighborhood in the outskirts of Hamburg. The houses were lovely, and each was equipped with a cute little garden. We reached our stop and were deposited in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, with a couple residential houses on one side and a corn field on the other. Someone thought that we should walk down the street paralleling the cornfield, so we did.
It was a beautiful warm day with a cool breeze, and the atmosphere seemed so calm and happy walking down the street beside the gently swaying cornfield that by the time we arrived at Neuengamme it began to just seem creepy. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but outwardly there were no signs that tens of thousands of people had been killed there almost 70 years before. I always pictured the world as still being grayer and colder by the Nazi concentration camps, and the juxtaposition was unnerving.
We first walked around the memorial area out front, and then through a little forest to see the warehouses where prisoners were forced to work. We didn't really meet any other people until we we walked across a field (with little wildflowers growing all over it) and into a portion of the camp with informational displays (there were always sections in English), at which point we passed several groups of German schoolchildren who were on field trips to the camp. I think one of the most impacting things I saw at this part of the camp was the book that they kept as a register of all the prisoners. The people's names were right there––Auguste Martin was born the 11th of November, 1906 and was killed on February 2 of 1941. Also written down was the person's ethnicity, the prisoner number that they were given, and a brief description of how they died. Many were not executed outright but died because of the work, the harsh conditions, and their treatment by the guards. Every person's death was recorded so calmly and precisely, with little quotation marks on subsequent lines when a several people all died in the same way and the recorder didn't want to take the time to write it out on each line.
We were there for several hours. We spoke with a man sitting at an information desk in one of the buildings, and he told us that buses left every half an hour from a stop close by (not the one we arrived at) so our group split in half with those wanting to go early leaving half an hour before my group. When my group reached the bus (there are now six of us) we once again managed to get on the right one, and then to the correct train, and we navigated ourselves back toward the center of Hamburg. We spent the rest of the afternoon meandering around and finding food, after which we headed back to the station next to the ship. Note that I have been carrying my laptop with me this entire time.
When we left the original station we headed right across the street (within visual distance of the ship) and found that a little ice cream shop there had free WiFi. Finally! So I was able to get online, and look up what I wanted to do for the next few days while the rest of the group headed back to the ship. (I eventually went back too.)
Well, that's all I've got for day one, and this took long enough that I'd better head to lunch now. Stay tuned for day two!
Hey everyone! Long time no post. We are now leaving Hamburg and heading for Antwerp, Belgium; the ship is taking its time, so we should be there in three days. Germany was busy but great - I actually liked it there a lot more than St. Petersburg. Since I have so much to catch up on, I'm going to break this down into the individual days:
–– Hamburg, Day 1: 9/5/13 ––
After staying up fairly late to listen to the entirety of the second installment of "The World According to Boyer" (our Geography professor always presents a vey entertaining overview of the countries we are about to visit) I was tired and without much of a plan for what I would be doing the next morning. My roommate, Emily, was in the same boat. She offered that I tag along with her and some friends who were going to "Find an internet cafe." That sounded pretty good to me, because it meant I wouldn't by traveling by myself and that I could then plan what I was going to do for the next few days.
So that morning I packed my laptop into a little backpack that I brought and set out with Emily and her friends. As it turned out, we were a group of all girls and I made the 13th person. Nobody else had laptops or backpacks. That was when I began to wonder if this internet cafe plan was going to materialize. I wondered that a lot in the coming hours.
We followed people to the nearest metro station, where we had a bit of trouble figuring out which tickets to buy since the English translation button was broken and none of us spoke German. Where were we going? I still wasn't sure! Everyone else in the group was planning to go to Berlin and stay overnight the next day, so we all hopped on the train to the central terminal to figure out how they would go about getting bus tickets for that. On our way, we bumped into another group who were being led by a very speedy old woman to the station to get to the Neuengamme concentration camp, which had been turned into a memorial/museum. Our group decided to follow them (though we lost sight almost immediately, with one of the guys shouting back to us that the stop was "Bergedorf.") What ensued was a very interesting situation during which no single person seemed to know where we were going, but as a group we made it onto the train and then on the bus to Neuengamme with relatively few problems. We then found ourselves winding through a little neighborhood in the outskirts of Hamburg. The houses were lovely, and each was equipped with a cute little garden. We reached our stop and were deposited in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, with a couple residential houses on one side and a corn field on the other. Someone thought that we should walk down the street paralleling the cornfield, so we did.
It was a beautiful warm day with a cool breeze, and the atmosphere seemed so calm and happy walking down the street beside the gently swaying cornfield that by the time we arrived at Neuengamme it began to just seem creepy. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but outwardly there were no signs that tens of thousands of people had been killed there almost 70 years before. I always pictured the world as still being grayer and colder by the Nazi concentration camps, and the juxtaposition was unnerving.
We first walked around the memorial area out front, and then through a little forest to see the warehouses where prisoners were forced to work. We didn't really meet any other people until we we walked across a field (with little wildflowers growing all over it) and into a portion of the camp with informational displays (there were always sections in English), at which point we passed several groups of German schoolchildren who were on field trips to the camp. I think one of the most impacting things I saw at this part of the camp was the book that they kept as a register of all the prisoners. The people's names were right there––Auguste Martin was born the 11th of November, 1906 and was killed on February 2 of 1941. Also written down was the person's ethnicity, the prisoner number that they were given, and a brief description of how they died. Many were not executed outright but died because of the work, the harsh conditions, and their treatment by the guards. Every person's death was recorded so calmly and precisely, with little quotation marks on subsequent lines when a several people all died in the same way and the recorder didn't want to take the time to write it out on each line.
We were there for several hours. We spoke with a man sitting at an information desk in one of the buildings, and he told us that buses left every half an hour from a stop close by (not the one we arrived at) so our group split in half with those wanting to go early leaving half an hour before my group. When my group reached the bus (there are now six of us) we once again managed to get on the right one, and then to the correct train, and we navigated ourselves back toward the center of Hamburg. We spent the rest of the afternoon meandering around and finding food, after which we headed back to the station next to the ship. Note that I have been carrying my laptop with me this entire time.
When we left the original station we headed right across the street (within visual distance of the ship) and found that a little ice cream shop there had free WiFi. Finally! So I was able to get online, and look up what I wanted to do for the next few days while the rest of the group headed back to the ship. (I eventually went back too.)
Well, that's all I've got for day one, and this took long enough that I'd better head to lunch now. Stay tuned for day two!
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Today is Random Info Day!
Location: Westbound in the Kiel Canal
Hey everyone! I'm always surprised to hear how many people are encountering my blog - it's pretty cool to know I'm being thought of. Anyhow, the ship has left the Baltic Sea and is now cruising along the Kiel Canal, which is a much more direct route to our next port of call in Hamburg, Germany, than going all the way up and around Denmark. It's really neat being able to look out the window and see bits of Germany flitting by, and of course everyone's really excited to arrive in Hamburg and start exploring tomorrow.
So since I haven't been doing much besides classes over the last couple of days, I'm going to use this blog post to reflect on some interesting observations that I never got around to posting about St. Petersburg, and to write some general stuff about life on the MV Explorer!
As you may remember reading, the ship was docked at St. Petersburg's Vasilyevsky Island, along the north side of the Neva River. Apparently the main docks for ships are more to the southwest, and we were lucky to be where we were, because it was much closer to the city center. We were actually positioned right by an ordinary street; there weren't docks or anything, so a little pontoon boat with the Russian customs officials was set up between us and the shore, and every time we wanted to get on or off the ship we had to have our passports and Russian visas inspected by them (yes, I had to get a Russian visa before I came! The whole process took about six weeks, because I had to get visas for Ghana and Brazil as well. I didn't get my visas and passport back until about a week before getting on my series of planes bound for England, but I have spoken with people who didn't receive their's until the day they were scheduled to leave. That had to be pretty nerve-wracking.) We were not the only ones there though––a much larger cruise ship called Silver Whisper was situated close by. The folks onboard were very interested to hear about Semester at Sea and what our floating campus was up to.
Anyhow, there were some aspects of the city of St. Petersburg which I found surprising, and some that were quite normal. They drive on the same side of the road that we do in the US, the crosswalks are similar, and the people walking along the streets are pretty much just people going about their day. The weather was also normal––not super hot, but also not cold at all during the day. Traffic can be a bit crazy, and it's apparently common practice to park wherever you feel like (there were cars pulled all the way up on the sidewalk, and our bus on the first day had to stop several times because people had just gotten out and left their cars in the middle of the road.) While walking along the sidewalk it's very common to hear grumpy drivers honking at one another. We were warned to be super careful when crossing the street, but there were crosswalks that have signs lit up detailing how many seconds you have to cross, and as long as you kept looking for cars anyway (they have the right of way, not you) then it really wasn't a problem.
What was a bit of a problem was the smoking. People smoked on the streets, and in the coffee shops and restaurants. There are cigarette butts everywhere on the ground in St. Petersburg. Our tour guide would be showing us areas where cobblestone was still there from the 18th century, and we would look down and see cigarettes in all the crevices. On a lighter note, can you guess what else were everywhere you looked in St. Petersburg? Weddings! I am not joking; it was a widespread phenomenon. One of my teachers was talking about watching brides lined up on the street waiting for their turn to go into the cathedral. One would come out to tumultuous applause by their crowd of family and friends, and then one would slip in, and then another would come out to be met by another crowd. It was fascinating. Once I was walking down a back street with two other girls and we saw a well-dressed group packed onto a patch of green grass in between the street and a strip of temporary blue fencing (I think they were doing construction next door.) As we were walking by on the other side of the street, there was a woman with tears in her eyes standing on a podium speaking in very heartfelt Russian to the group, and when she stopped the bride and groom kissed and the entire crowd (as well as those of us on the other side of the street) started cheering. It was touching and very strange at the same time.
Also a bit strange were the fishermen. Sprinkled along the Neva right in the middle of the city were rows of fishermen who never seemed to catch anything, but stood there hour after hour just the same. I heard that unemployment was not a big problem in Russia, and that there are jobs (and therefor opportunities to make money and buy food) available for those who want them, so I'm really not sure what motivated those individuals.
I think that covers all that I can remember wanting to say about St. Petersburg, so now to talk a little bit about life on the ship! First of all, my grandma was curious about what they're feeding us, so this next paragraph is about pretty much all you never wanted to know about dining on the M.V. Explorer!
We have three and a half meals served each day. Breakfast, which is early enough that I have only made it there about half of the time, usually consists of fruit, pastries, eggs, and bacon which to me more resembles ham. They also like to mix it up a bit and have biscuits and gravy or cream of wheat. Lunch and dinner are pretty similar, with the usual assortment of salad, rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, and whichever meat they decide to serve (70% of the time it is fish.) There is also always soup, some type of dessert, and the ingredients to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That last task is a bit of a challenge, because the peanut butter and the jelly are both in these big tubs and all they give you to spread them with are these awkward implements that resemble pie servers. I have only braved the peanut butter and jelly sandwich once. Finally, there is a snack time in the evening during which they have tasty little sandwiches and desserts that you can munch on. Of course, if you miss any of these fine dining opportunities you are on your own. The only things available 24/7 are the fixings for coffee or tea, which can be a bit a hit or miss affair in terms of that beverage being hot as opposed to sort of lukewarm.
Or, of course, you can go to one of two places where you can spend more money to buy food! Which I think is nuts, so I don't really have much to say on that topic. Not sure why anyone would pay $6 for a smoothie when they already paid tens of thousands of dollars for the voyage. It gets a bit difficult though if you've missed a meal and start thinking those muffins look really tasty, which is why I actually went on a quest in St. Petersburg to find a supermarket where I could hopefully get something resembling instant noodles. I was successful! I actually managed to acquire a decent armload of food/snacks (everything sealed and single-serve, so that I would be allowed to bring it back on the ship), but I think I may get some more in Hamburg so I don't have stoop to buying expensive ship food on the way to Belgium.
Granted, I just paid $6 to get my laundry done, so maybe I shouldn't be snubbing the folks who broke down and bought a kit-kat bar. The laundry people aren't very nice to clothes here, and I think I may try hand-washing my clothes in the sink in the future. Oh well, live and learn.
To wrap up this lengthy monologue, did everyone know that this ship is actually one of the fastest ships of its kind in the world? It is capable of traveling at 28 knots (32mph), which is apparently very good for a cruise ship. But we have been moving along at a snail's pace for the last few days, because we are in the unique position of needing more days at sea to facilitate (dun dun dun).... classes! I kind of wonder if our captain is a little bummed out at having to move so slowly, but the teachers already have their work cut out for them trying to keep a strain of thought going in a class that may meet anywhere from every other day to not for seven days because of the odd times we spend in port (we have ten straight days of no classes when we reach Portugal, Spain, and Morocco because the ports are so close together.)
So you know that whole not wanting to miss meals thing? Well it's dinner time! So hopefully I'll be blogging about my experiences in Hamburg soon, but don't be surprised if I'm too busy to update for a few days. Love you all!
Hey everyone! I'm always surprised to hear how many people are encountering my blog - it's pretty cool to know I'm being thought of. Anyhow, the ship has left the Baltic Sea and is now cruising along the Kiel Canal, which is a much more direct route to our next port of call in Hamburg, Germany, than going all the way up and around Denmark. It's really neat being able to look out the window and see bits of Germany flitting by, and of course everyone's really excited to arrive in Hamburg and start exploring tomorrow.
So since I haven't been doing much besides classes over the last couple of days, I'm going to use this blog post to reflect on some interesting observations that I never got around to posting about St. Petersburg, and to write some general stuff about life on the MV Explorer!
As you may remember reading, the ship was docked at St. Petersburg's Vasilyevsky Island, along the north side of the Neva River. Apparently the main docks for ships are more to the southwest, and we were lucky to be where we were, because it was much closer to the city center. We were actually positioned right by an ordinary street; there weren't docks or anything, so a little pontoon boat with the Russian customs officials was set up between us and the shore, and every time we wanted to get on or off the ship we had to have our passports and Russian visas inspected by them (yes, I had to get a Russian visa before I came! The whole process took about six weeks, because I had to get visas for Ghana and Brazil as well. I didn't get my visas and passport back until about a week before getting on my series of planes bound for England, but I have spoken with people who didn't receive their's until the day they were scheduled to leave. That had to be pretty nerve-wracking.) We were not the only ones there though––a much larger cruise ship called Silver Whisper was situated close by. The folks onboard were very interested to hear about Semester at Sea and what our floating campus was up to.
Anyhow, there were some aspects of the city of St. Petersburg which I found surprising, and some that were quite normal. They drive on the same side of the road that we do in the US, the crosswalks are similar, and the people walking along the streets are pretty much just people going about their day. The weather was also normal––not super hot, but also not cold at all during the day. Traffic can be a bit crazy, and it's apparently common practice to park wherever you feel like (there were cars pulled all the way up on the sidewalk, and our bus on the first day had to stop several times because people had just gotten out and left their cars in the middle of the road.) While walking along the sidewalk it's very common to hear grumpy drivers honking at one another. We were warned to be super careful when crossing the street, but there were crosswalks that have signs lit up detailing how many seconds you have to cross, and as long as you kept looking for cars anyway (they have the right of way, not you) then it really wasn't a problem.
What was a bit of a problem was the smoking. People smoked on the streets, and in the coffee shops and restaurants. There are cigarette butts everywhere on the ground in St. Petersburg. Our tour guide would be showing us areas where cobblestone was still there from the 18th century, and we would look down and see cigarettes in all the crevices. On a lighter note, can you guess what else were everywhere you looked in St. Petersburg? Weddings! I am not joking; it was a widespread phenomenon. One of my teachers was talking about watching brides lined up on the street waiting for their turn to go into the cathedral. One would come out to tumultuous applause by their crowd of family and friends, and then one would slip in, and then another would come out to be met by another crowd. It was fascinating. Once I was walking down a back street with two other girls and we saw a well-dressed group packed onto a patch of green grass in between the street and a strip of temporary blue fencing (I think they were doing construction next door.) As we were walking by on the other side of the street, there was a woman with tears in her eyes standing on a podium speaking in very heartfelt Russian to the group, and when she stopped the bride and groom kissed and the entire crowd (as well as those of us on the other side of the street) started cheering. It was touching and very strange at the same time.
Also a bit strange were the fishermen. Sprinkled along the Neva right in the middle of the city were rows of fishermen who never seemed to catch anything, but stood there hour after hour just the same. I heard that unemployment was not a big problem in Russia, and that there are jobs (and therefor opportunities to make money and buy food) available for those who want them, so I'm really not sure what motivated those individuals.
I think that covers all that I can remember wanting to say about St. Petersburg, so now to talk a little bit about life on the ship! First of all, my grandma was curious about what they're feeding us, so this next paragraph is about pretty much all you never wanted to know about dining on the M.V. Explorer!
We have three and a half meals served each day. Breakfast, which is early enough that I have only made it there about half of the time, usually consists of fruit, pastries, eggs, and bacon which to me more resembles ham. They also like to mix it up a bit and have biscuits and gravy or cream of wheat. Lunch and dinner are pretty similar, with the usual assortment of salad, rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, and whichever meat they decide to serve (70% of the time it is fish.) There is also always soup, some type of dessert, and the ingredients to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That last task is a bit of a challenge, because the peanut butter and the jelly are both in these big tubs and all they give you to spread them with are these awkward implements that resemble pie servers. I have only braved the peanut butter and jelly sandwich once. Finally, there is a snack time in the evening during which they have tasty little sandwiches and desserts that you can munch on. Of course, if you miss any of these fine dining opportunities you are on your own. The only things available 24/7 are the fixings for coffee or tea, which can be a bit a hit or miss affair in terms of that beverage being hot as opposed to sort of lukewarm.
Or, of course, you can go to one of two places where you can spend more money to buy food! Which I think is nuts, so I don't really have much to say on that topic. Not sure why anyone would pay $6 for a smoothie when they already paid tens of thousands of dollars for the voyage. It gets a bit difficult though if you've missed a meal and start thinking those muffins look really tasty, which is why I actually went on a quest in St. Petersburg to find a supermarket where I could hopefully get something resembling instant noodles. I was successful! I actually managed to acquire a decent armload of food/snacks (everything sealed and single-serve, so that I would be allowed to bring it back on the ship), but I think I may get some more in Hamburg so I don't have stoop to buying expensive ship food on the way to Belgium.
Granted, I just paid $6 to get my laundry done, so maybe I shouldn't be snubbing the folks who broke down and bought a kit-kat bar. The laundry people aren't very nice to clothes here, and I think I may try hand-washing my clothes in the sink in the future. Oh well, live and learn.
To wrap up this lengthy monologue, did everyone know that this ship is actually one of the fastest ships of its kind in the world? It is capable of traveling at 28 knots (32mph), which is apparently very good for a cruise ship. But we have been moving along at a snail's pace for the last few days, because we are in the unique position of needing more days at sea to facilitate (dun dun dun).... classes! I kind of wonder if our captain is a little bummed out at having to move so slowly, but the teachers already have their work cut out for them trying to keep a strain of thought going in a class that may meet anywhere from every other day to not for seven days because of the odd times we spend in port (we have ten straight days of no classes when we reach Portugal, Spain, and Morocco because the ports are so close together.)
So you know that whole not wanting to miss meals thing? Well it's dinner time! So hopefully I'll be blogging about my experiences in Hamburg soon, but don't be surprised if I'm too busy to update for a few days. Love you all!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Pirozhki!
Location: in the Gulf of Finland, just north of Estonia
I am back at sea!
Yesterday was my official final day in St. Petersburg. At approximately 20:00 the ship pulled an impressive u-turn in the Neva river and we headed back out to sea the way we had come in. Now we are cruising at 11.2 knots and heading for Hamburg, Germany, where we will arrive in approximately three days (on the 5th.) There has already been an hour time change, so I am now only 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time!
So on the morning of my final day in St. Petersburg I was on yet another field program (I did a bunch in the first port, but I really think it was the best way to see everything!) in which I went with a group of about 20 students to a Dacha community in a forested area just outside of St. Petersburg. Dachas are these little country houses which many Russian families use as summer houses. This practice was especially popular in the Soviet Era, when Dacha plots were given out to families from the nearby city. After the fall of the Soviet Union, those who had received a Dacha were allowed, with only minimum paperwork, to keep and own properties (in Soviet times, nobody was really allowed to own anything - everything belonged to everyone and was equal.)
Anyhow, our big moose of a bus passed through the forest of Russian white birch trees and successfully navigated the little streets of the Dacha community (I think it was called a Camarova? But that is probably very misspelled) and pulled up to the houses that would be hosting us for tea. I went with a larger group to the Dacha of a woman called Katya, who was really nice and spoke great English. She showed us around her home and told us lots of stories about her family, her life, and the history of the Dacha Community she lives in. Katya's parents-in-law were living in the original Dacha built back in the Communist era, and she and her husband were living in a new house with electrical and running water that they had constructed so that they could live there year-round. That was where she served us tea, pirogi, and snacks (after two shots of vodka each to welcome us. Which means that I got my chance to try some vodka after all - in a SAS sponsored trip!)
We learned that Katya belongs to a family of actors (her husband's nephew is Mikhail Boyarsky, who is very famous in Russia), that her father fought in World War II, and that her grandfather was a priest who was shot and killed by authorities who weren't thrilled with religion at the time. Katya has actually written a book about her family history, so she was very knowledgable and fun to listen to. She served us traditional black Russian tea (yes, there is tea that's grown in Russia!) and tasty snacks along with it, including filled pastries called pirozhki. The ones she served us were baked by her mother-in-law and had potatoes that she bought from a neighbor and mushrooms that her husband went out and collected from the forest behind the house. It was pretty awesome. Actually, I think that that whole visit was the neatest thing that I did while in Russia.
So the bus returned, and I headed off to spend my remaining rubles before getting on the ship for the final time. I had budgeted pretty well, so I didn't have a ton of rubles left. What I did less well was to go to a souvenir shop to spend the last 290 (about $10), so I came back having spent almost double that - but with a lovely scarf! Come on, who doesn't want to reply to "Hey, where did you get that scarf?" with "Oh, you know - St. Petersburg, Russia." Am I right?
...Anyway, now it is the following morning and I need to get my butt in gear and head to class! I have World Literature, and then lunch, and then Medical Anthropology.
Thanks for your comments, and have a great night! (I think it's midnight for you now.)
I am back at sea!
Yesterday was my official final day in St. Petersburg. At approximately 20:00 the ship pulled an impressive u-turn in the Neva river and we headed back out to sea the way we had come in. Now we are cruising at 11.2 knots and heading for Hamburg, Germany, where we will arrive in approximately three days (on the 5th.) There has already been an hour time change, so I am now only 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time!
So on the morning of my final day in St. Petersburg I was on yet another field program (I did a bunch in the first port, but I really think it was the best way to see everything!) in which I went with a group of about 20 students to a Dacha community in a forested area just outside of St. Petersburg. Dachas are these little country houses which many Russian families use as summer houses. This practice was especially popular in the Soviet Era, when Dacha plots were given out to families from the nearby city. After the fall of the Soviet Union, those who had received a Dacha were allowed, with only minimum paperwork, to keep and own properties (in Soviet times, nobody was really allowed to own anything - everything belonged to everyone and was equal.)
Anyhow, our big moose of a bus passed through the forest of Russian white birch trees and successfully navigated the little streets of the Dacha community (I think it was called a Camarova? But that is probably very misspelled) and pulled up to the houses that would be hosting us for tea. I went with a larger group to the Dacha of a woman called Katya, who was really nice and spoke great English. She showed us around her home and told us lots of stories about her family, her life, and the history of the Dacha Community she lives in. Katya's parents-in-law were living in the original Dacha built back in the Communist era, and she and her husband were living in a new house with electrical and running water that they had constructed so that they could live there year-round. That was where she served us tea, pirogi, and snacks (after two shots of vodka each to welcome us. Which means that I got my chance to try some vodka after all - in a SAS sponsored trip!)
We learned that Katya belongs to a family of actors (her husband's nephew is Mikhail Boyarsky, who is very famous in Russia), that her father fought in World War II, and that her grandfather was a priest who was shot and killed by authorities who weren't thrilled with religion at the time. Katya has actually written a book about her family history, so she was very knowledgable and fun to listen to. She served us traditional black Russian tea (yes, there is tea that's grown in Russia!) and tasty snacks along with it, including filled pastries called pirozhki. The ones she served us were baked by her mother-in-law and had potatoes that she bought from a neighbor and mushrooms that her husband went out and collected from the forest behind the house. It was pretty awesome. Actually, I think that that whole visit was the neatest thing that I did while in Russia.
So the bus returned, and I headed off to spend my remaining rubles before getting on the ship for the final time. I had budgeted pretty well, so I didn't have a ton of rubles left. What I did less well was to go to a souvenir shop to spend the last 290 (about $10), so I came back having spent almost double that - but with a lovely scarf! Come on, who doesn't want to reply to "Hey, where did you get that scarf?" with "Oh, you know - St. Petersburg, Russia." Am I right?
...Anyway, now it is the following morning and I need to get my butt in gear and head to class! I have World Literature, and then lunch, and then Medical Anthropology.
Thanks for your comments, and have a great night! (I think it's midnight for you now.)
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