Budapest and Munich

Since my internship at TAIT Stage Technologies ended I have been working on my end of semester papers, exams, and doing a little more traveling.  I am currently writing this from a train going to Cardiff for the day, but the past two weekends have also been filled of travel.  Two weekends ago I went to Budapest and I just got back from Munich this past weekend. 

In Budapest we signed up for a hop-on hop-off tour so we could learn about the city while traveling through it.  We took a free walking tour and went to the baths.  We also went into the Budapest Central Synagogue.  It is the largest synagogue in Europe and where Herzel had his bar mitzvah.  We could not take any food in because it was Passover, and for the same reason I had a lot of food in my bag so I had to take it all out even though it was all KP.  Traveling on Passover turned out to be fairly difficult but luckily Budapest is well known for their goulash, a chametz free stew.  Needless to say, I ate a lot of goulash.  The baths that we went to were quite crowded but surprisingly clean.  The naturally heated pools were cool but were not what I had imagined.  I was picturing something more historical but it seemed as though the baths were just a series of relatively modern pools. 

We primarily went to Munich for Springfest, the smaller springtime version of Octoberfest but made a full trip out of it.  The first day we were there we took a free walking tour of the city where we learned about the history of Munich and walked through the old city.  After that we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp for a very hallowing experience the day before Erev Yom Hashoah.  It was hard to be there but it I am glad I was able to see the spot of this dark part of history.  I definitely will keep the memory of this camp with me for a very long time. 

The following day we went to Springfest.  I rode a rollercoaster, drank some German beer, ate a pretzel and had an all beef sausage (it took a while to find one).  We had a lot of fun at the carnival and I think it would be a lot of fun to go back at some point, but maybe with lederhosen.  I am lucky the actual stores were closed on Sunday because otherwise I may have impulsively bought lederhosen.  I probably wouldn’t, but the leather shorts could be good shorts to wear in the shop. 

We are now off to Cardiff and I have a test to study for but I probably have 2-3 more posts left, Cardiff, Amsterdam, and a wrap up…maybe. 

-Drew

PICTURES: https://goo.gl/photos/BhdwbJ7vu4tKyD7ZA

Just Some Pictures

https://goo.gl/photos/WeZzragd7R8d4uzy8

Richmond and Central London

Although I haven’t traveled out of London, I have had two quite productive and exciting weekends the past two weeks.  Two weeks ago, after Alison left, my friend and I ventured out to Richmond on Sunday.  We were looking for a cute English countryside town that we could reach easily.  However, no place like that exists so we settled for something pretty close, Richmond.  Richmond is on the water, has some cute streets, some nice café’s and is home to the largest royal park, Richmond Park.  We walked down by the water, stopped in a market, drank some tea.  The first place we went for tea was not really a tea spot, but it had windows overlooking the water so it made for a great afternoon sit.  However, later on in our exploration of Richmond, as we were walking towards the park, we saw some lights strung over an awning in the distance.  We could tell it was a nice little hut but were not sure what it was beyond that.  To much excitement, we saw it was a tiny café.  Even though we had pretty much just finished drinking tea at another place, we could not pass up the opportunity to drink tea at this hidden gem of a café.  We also thought it would be appropriate to have a scone and cream.  We sat on the little patio, the café provided blankets and hot water packs since it was fairly chilly out. 

In the end, there was not much to do in Richmond, but I am really glad to have gotten out of central London for a day and explored some new parts. 

This past weekend I did stay in Central London.  On Saturday my friends Amanda, Ben, Brennan, and Sam came in on CMU’s spring break.  On Saturday we went on the London eye and hung out for a while.  The goal was to keep everyone awake for as long as possible to try and get over the inevitable jet lag.  Saturday night Rebecca Shapiro was in town so we had a Fernwood Cove Reunion.  Jess, Rosie, Rebecca and some other counselors who I did not know all met up and we went to dinner and to a few pubs to hang out and talk about camp.  I of course got sad that I would not be going back again this summer, but it was great to see some familiar faces that I had not seen in a while.  On Sunday, another FCer joined the group.  The world famous Gez took Rebecca, her boyfriend, Jess, my CMU friends and me on a tour through London.  We started at Buckingham Palace for changing of the guard and got to hear about the ceremony from someone who had been in it quite a few times.  We then moved on to see some other smaller guard changing ceremonies which turned into a full walking tour of London, including the obligatory stop for Cadbury (and Krispy Kreme).   It was quite interesting to hear about London from a London resident (although Gez does not currently live in London) who is simply interested in his City as opposed to a tour guide or professor who is trying to cram a lot of information into a sprint through the city.  Gez showed us and explained about the Royal Mail and the boxes, he talked about why certain guards were assigned certain jobs, and he pointed out some interesting historical locations.  We ended the day with a big late lunch at Nando’s and then we all went our separate ways.  It was quite a full, exciting, and fun day and I think my friends really enjoyed their authentic tour. 

Tomorrow I leave for Stockholm for the weekend.  I will write about that when I return.  Stay tuned for my experience in the world’s largest IKEA. 

-Drew

PICTURES HERE 

Paris

Although Paris deserves a really long post, I really only have time for a short one relative to how much we did.  

When classes and finals ended on February 21, I was done with the first half of my semester abroad.  Although I was not actually half way through the time that I have over here, the part of the semester where I have class every day was over and the part where I will be working at my internship was going to begin, but first, Paris with Alison.   

Alison arrived Tuesday night and then Wednesday morning we went to the train station to catch the Eurostar to Paris.  We got in during the early afternoon, and started right off with the Louvre.  We saw the Mona Lisa, as one does, as well as Napoleons Coronation, which I always thought was called Napoleon Crowning Josephine.  Either way, for some reason, that is one of my favourite paintings.  But as cool as it was to see priceless, beautiful works of art, the highlight of our Louvre visit might have been the window washing robot that cleans the iconic Louvre glass pyramid.   The next day we took a walking tour down the Seine which started at Notre Dame and went all around ending about a fifteen minute walk away from the Arc De Triomphe.  I know it was a fifteen minute walk, because we walked it.  It did take us a little longer than 15 minutes but that is only because we stopped at a famous Macarons shop, and it was a good stop.  I only had a small bit of one, but they were a good choice.  After we made it to the Arc, looked around and took some pictures, we ventured on to the Eiffel Tower.  We had planned to go up since we figured that if we went up, we could catch the view in the daylight and then wait a little and see the lit up Paris.  However, due to the winds, the summit was not open so we decided to wait for a different day.  But I got a crepe, we saw tourists being scammed (using some hidden ball game), and we got a beautiful up close view of the Eiffel tower lit up at night.  That night we went to our second bistro of the trip and I got my second steak frites.   

Friday was Versailles day.  The weather was a bit temperamental, but once we got inside the sky cleared up.  The palace was beautiful.  I did not remember much of it at all from when I was five, but you could sense the history and see the beautiful artefacts.  The best part about Versailles, I thought, wasn’t even in the Palace, it was way out deep in the property where Mary Antoinette built a little village.  There was a beautiful old hamlet, huge fields, and even live animals.  I had no clue that was there and I am glad we stumbled upon it.   

NEXT: On Saturday we toured through a few museums and saw some beautiful and widely famous pieces of art from Monet, Van Gough, and Picasso, to name a few.  We also found our way into Notre Dame and ended the evening at the Sacré-Cœur where we got a beautiful view of the Paris skyline at night.   

Our last day in Paris we went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, I got escargot, and we made our way back to London on the train.   

Food: Crepes–A lot; Steak Frites—Twice; Salmon tartar—Surprisingly good; A really great veal dish—Maybe my favourite; Lamb—A tad small, but really good as well; Roasted Chicken—Not my favourite but we were also rushing to the train station; Escargot—Great as usual; Lots of baguette bread and Pain au raisin and Pain au chocolate

-Drew

LINK TO PHOTOS (https://goo.gl/photos/3HrzxsXyvdZDwbLbA)

Edinburgh

It has been quite a while since I last posted and a lot has happened (that’s why I haven’t posted).  I have been to Edinburgh, Paris, starting work at TAIT Stage Technologies and yesterday I went to Richmond in London.  I’ll pretty much write a post about each of these individually and start with Edinburgh through the end of classes. 

On Friday, February 10 I took a train with my friend Josh to Edinburgh.  It was about a four-hour train, and door to door it was a little slower than air travel, but showing up to the airport three minutes before take-off might not have worked as well as showing up to the train station three minutes before departure.  Although that was not the plan and was pretty stressful, we made it onto the train with enough time to walk away from the door before the train started to move.  After a much-needed sigh of relief, we found some secluded seats, made ourselves comfortable and had a very peaceful and relaxed journey to Edinburgh.  If you can’t tell, I really like traveling by train.  It is calmer than planes, more spacious, had less security and restrictions, had better views (usually), and more food options.

When we arrived we realized that the hostel we had booked was right across from the station so we took the long trek to check in and meet our friends who flew in earlier in the day.  That day we went to Edinburgh Castle, saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, the dungeons, and living quarters.  We then found the Tartan department store that had tartan versions of everything you could think of, except shirts, and I love plaid shirts.  But there were scarves, shoes, hats, gloves, bagpipes, pants.  And the size of the building was incredible.  You walk into a fairly small store, go down a flight of stairs and you walk out into a three-story underground tartan wonderland. 

We went to some bars, one was called Frankenstein, so we had to go (even though it wasn’t Young Frankenstein).  But in the basement of Frankenstein they played a bunch of Frankie Valli and other similar genre songs, so I was very pleased.

The next day we went on a tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness.  We had a boat tour on Loch Ness and didn’t see any monster which was very disappointing.  (This is where my memory is fading more, but hopefully pictures make up for that). 

When we came back from Edinburgh we jumped right into a very stressful week.  All our end of semester papers were assigned and due that week and the next so there was not much time to see anything, but I did manage to get to Amaluna, a touring Cirque Du Soleil, where I met with the assistant Technical Director.  Additionally, in order to get out of my room for work, I went to some great study spaces the Molly found for me.  First, I spent a day at the National Art Museum in the Victoria and Albert Museum.  It was cool to casually walk past priceless artifacts on my way to the bathroom.  The second day I went to the Imperial College Library and studied next to some London students.  The next day I went to study in the park in front of the Peter Pan statue.  This brought my stressful week to a close and it was time to move onto the next part of the semester, “spring” break and the internship phase. 

-Drew