in eastern europe

I fly to Krakow with Cait in about 11 hours. 3 nights there before heading to Prague for 3 more. Next, back to London for about 2 days - 2 days at work (one of which will be until late because of a lecture at the British Museum at 6PM), before leaving for Normandy on Saturday the 10th for the weekend...whew!! Don't wait up, bastards!!

Departed Dublin

***Check out the links on the right for pictures!! It takes too long to upload crap on this site***

Well, I got the afternoon off work today because my boss wasn't feeling too well. Cait and I returned from Dublin yesterday, walked in the door around 8 after beginning the journey around 2...fun. We didn't have to go through customs though, which was nice. The other group of 4 that we traveled with left later in the evening - they ended up with a 70 minute plane delay, getting them in around 12:30 to stansted airport, where they spent some time in customs, missed the last stansted express train, took a bus to baker street and had a longer hike home...walked in around 2:30AM....so I'm glad Cait and I left earlier!!

Anywho, our last two days in Dublin following my last blog entry were spectacular. Following my last blog post, where I said we'll, "... be taking it easy tonight," we proceeded to...take it hard? That doesn't sound right at all...but you get the idea. We went out to a bar just around the corner, since we were pretty tired from our long day of self-guided touring. Expecting a relaxed atmospere to enjoy a beer or two before bed we went in. The Celt, it was called, and upon opening the door Irish folk songs backed by an acoustic guitar blared in our ears - we knew this was the place to be. This bar was north of the Liffey river, away from the Temple Bar area - meaning away from all the touristy areas. This place was packed with Irish lads and lasses just having a good time, so we grabbed a pint and joined the fun. A group of guys were jumping, singing, and clapping with the music and these 5 guys were soon to become our new best friends for the night. Smithy, Brenan, Thomas, Larry, and I can't remember the other guys name at the moment. Anyway, when they encouraged us to sing along, we claimed we couldn't since most of us didn't know the lyrics, to which Brenan responded - "Tha' doesn't matteh, lads - we don' know'em eithah! Jus' clap yer hands an' pretend like ye do!" And so we did. They bought us drinks, taught us songs, shot the shit, and danced and screamed with us until late. For anyone familiar with the Simpsons, they thought I looked like Hank Scorpio with my reddish beard, so Hank was my new name, as we traded Simpsons references for much of the night. Brenan wrote me an email yesterday saying that if we ever come back he'd be sure to "party properly" with us...I can only imagine what means after our night out.

Anyway, the next day our friend Lynn from UR flew in from Rome after finding a cheap flight. So Cait, Lynn, and yours truly took a day tour to Newgrange, a neolithic site that predates the pyramids and stonehenge by 500 years and 1000 years, respectively. It is a burial mound/ritual building (oldest building in the world, though nobody knows its true purpose) that is built precisely so that on the winter solstice, a beam of light shines of a narrow passsageway and illuminates a room containing three small chambers with neolithic art carved on all of the stone. The cross-shaped end chamber has a corbelled roof built entirely of loose stone - it has stood completely intact and waterproof for over 5000 years. The sun crept out during our time at Newgrange, giving us some amazing shots of the surrounding countryside, as well as the Newgrange mound itself. We also stopped by a graveyard with some celtic crosses and a monastary from the 11th century. Always fun. We came back, relaxed, and had a chill evening before enjoying our last day roaming the city, seeing St. Patricks Cathedral, and navigating our way accross town through backstreets that brought us by a group of about 30 men in an alley with parakeets in cages mounted on a building side...you're right, what the fuck? All in all, Dublin and Ireland fucking rocked.

Now its time to do some laundary and clean before our trip to Krakow and Prague on Thursday, then home for a long day of work (lecture at the British museum in the evening) before heading to Normandy. So long kids!

I'm from Dublin!! (SNL skit from mike meyers)

Well, I'm sitting at our hostel in Dublin. 6 of us made the trek to Stansted airport via the train, then took a Ryan Air flight to Dublin. Cait and I arrived earlier in the day, since our boss is quite laid back about our work schedule. We took the 747 city bus from the airport and navigated our way to our cheap hostel. After dumping our worthless luggage in our 8 person room, we took our valuables (passport + wallet) and hit the city. We wondered a bit in our area, passing Polish markets and loads of touristy shops. We made our way South across the Liffey river over to the Temple Bar area, containing loads of pubs, a few bars, and some other watering holes. As we made our way into shops, we noticed right away - - the people here really are much nicer!! Customs, Museum staff, shop keepers, waiters, random people on the street - everyone is quick to make small talk with a smile, and its quite refreshing.
Anywho, we grabbed a pint of Guinness and headed back to our hostel to meet our other 4 traveling companions from London - their bus driver had dropped them off directly at the hostel, deviating from the route (once again, nice folks here). We then ate at The Bank, a beautiful pub with spectacular sausage and posh architecture. Soon after we found ourselves in a pub called Tea on Quays ('keys'), crammed in with tons people enjoying a pint while shaking to two Irish folk musicians on a guitar and fiddle - just fucking awesome. After crashing hard, we did a self guided walking tour of the city before ending up at the Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery (founded in 1780), where we had a spectacular tour guide and learned why Irish Whiskey is the best whiskey (they distill it three times, plus essentially created whiskey itself). Yours truly was picked as a volunteer...which consisted of trying 5 different kinds of whiskeys following the tour (resulting in about 4 shots) and choosing the best. Fucking awesome. We then buzzed our way around town for 'shopping' before grabbing a 'Boxty' at a local pub. Then I had some cognac. It was a good day. Tonight we'll be taking it easy, but most likely that will still involve a pint or two.
A day trip to the country tomorrow and then a crazy market on sunday before leaving that afternoon. This place has got to be the best stop so far. The people here make you feel right at home. Pictures when we get back.

Bloody hell!

Mmmm boy!!!

Hi people!! It's been a spell, I know. But things have been crazy!! A couple of all nighters for papers I had due, enjoying the Van Gogh museum and decriminalized prostitution in Amsterdam, clonking around in authentic clogs from Holland, and relaxing at the 2000 year old Roman baths. See? Fun stuff, I told you. Oh yea, and Canterbury was in there...a place called Bruges in Belgium, Leeds castle (complete with a bush maze!! oooooh!) and many many many hours on a coach bus to get places...probaby the best part.

So, Amsterdam. Upon dropping our things off at the hotel (contained a restaurant and bar, rooms that had a slight aroma of weed, and a prime location only 20 minutes away on the train...sweet for going out at night.....*cough*) We then were escorted to the Central Station area where we took a glass topped canal tour (some other kids on our tour had already hit up a coffee shop to partake in the decriminalized, prerolled marijuana cigarettes). It was an ok tour, and I actually had minor flashbacks when I stopped there for a night with Dad and Dave many many years ago during a trip to Switzerland (I recall paying for a toilet and being accosted by the attendent in Dutch). Got to know the architecture of the area and see a nice overview of the city. Next was a walking tour around some shoppy areas and the red light district. As you get closer to the famed red light district, you notice the red lights and scantily clad females standing infront of glowing glass doors. I must say, there is a noticable difference between the prostitues on border of the district in comparison to the heart, and I'm sure there's a noticable change in price too, but I wouldn't know about that...anyway. The coffee shops were packed and the Belgian beer was well stocked and cheap at the pubs too, making the night quite enjoyable, until it came time to get home on train. The train stopped running at midnight, and at 11:55, none of us could remember the exact train to take and where. When we decided to vouch for a cab, we were ripped off as Americans (being told it'd be about 14 euros total, this drive was requesting a flat rate of 35 euros...each...). So we ran back to the train, took our chances on the 1 euro fare + not knowing hte language, and miraculously found ourselves back at our hotel by 12:30. The next day involved a tour of a clog factory and cheese factory...not much more needs to be said there, besides the fact that wooden shoes are fucking sweet. We saw a few historic windmills too...joy! Back in the city we visited the Van Gogh museum and saw how the artist progressed over the course of his career - quite incredible to see famed works of art feet infront of your face after having only viewed them in books. Dinner included a Belgian Waffle stuffed with mustard and chicken (delicious) and a relaxed night under the influence at our hotel bar, as the red light district and cab rides were not something I wished to experience again.

On the way back from Amsterdam (on a bus...hours and hours to Calais in France, where we take a ferry to Dover, then 2 more hours back home...joy...the best part were the 12 year-old FSU kids in our tour group that couldn't shut up) we stopped at a lame "chocolate factory" with shitty chocloate, some of which came in the shape of a male's genitals - that didn't make it taste any better. We then stopped by an alcohol outlet store, where I stocked up on cheap Belgian beer before hitting the border (yes you can bring it back without a hassle). We also stopped at a Belgian city named Bruges. It's an historic city, with loads of medieval architecture, amazing waffles, a church belltower climbable by foot, a Michelangelo sculpture, and just a quaint feel!! Anyway, the hour ferry ride accross the channel was nice - met a British man that took a group of grammar school kids to Disney Euro and ordered a gin & tonic in french (the little bit I remember from high school, and the bartender appreciated it...I think).

Overall, Amsterdam = a bit overrated. Bruges = "the venice of northern Europe" and 6 hour bus rides with immature kids from FSU = fucking horrible.

Canterbury!! Well, the famed cathederal where Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered during mass was.....open only for a service, so no pictures!! That was worth it. The town was nothing special. Better chocolate than that place in Belgium though (lotta free samples). I was interested in a pair of cheap shoes that Cait pointed out last second "hey, those are two different colors." Saved me £8 and from looking like a jackass. Canterbury = at least the trip only cost £10...it was a decent day get-a-way.

Leeds castle - not too shabby. Very pretty manor that has existed since 1119 AD and is in spectacular condition. Not a lot of relics from the past, but still great to walk through and all around the historic grounds - it was beseiged in the 14th century, sweet!! There were also loads of exotic birds on the premises and a hedge maze. A few of us guys competed against the ladies. As males have a better inate sense of direction as proven by studies conducted the United States Army, we won significantly - I had time to shave.

Bath England! The Romas were there about 2000 years ago and built some incredible bath structures over some hot springs in the area. Some of the finest they ever built!! It was a very popular get-a-way spot for all types of Romans, some looking for healing in its sacred, mystical waters, and others looking for a better run of luck in life, or just to put a hex on someone they didn't like. Very fascinating. The rest of the town contained "Georgian Architecture," similar to stuff you might have seen in the United States during the 18th century, only it was made out of stone. Our tour guide insisted on pointing out allllllll the stoned up windows in buildings on our drive out of the town, as a tax was put on windows in England back in the day. I'm telling you now, once you've seen one stoned window, you've seen them all.

This weekend I'll be horseback riding in the countryside of Wales, waking up to a 3 course Welsh breakfast, and enjoying Cardiff and other areas. Fuck yea!! Dublin as well, later this month, then Prague, Krakow, and Normandy over my spring break. Quite excited, as I love my WWII European theatre.

Classes have been going well. The NYU kids we go to class with are quite pretentious though. The difference from being back at UR in class compared to here was apparent right away. They don't have any original thoughts, avoid making direct direct statements that might disagree with the professor, or ANYone for that matter, and love preceeding their statements with, "Well, I think this might be it, but I'm not quite sure, but I just wanna say..." I stopped bothering with bullshit small talk with them before class as it is pretty...ugh. I talked with one girl all about the grade inflation and cheating at NYU. "Whatever it takes to get into Harvard Law, right?!" she concluded......right.

Now, my work at the Palestine Exploration Fund. Awesome. I've been delving into un-archived maps, addressing research questions from random parties, and pouring tea for our board members!! We had a lecture at the British Museum last week. Cait and I brought snacks and wine over for the post-lecture refreshments. After the hour lecture on the affects of rainfall on the palestine area over the past 4000 years and its role in the future, Cait and I schmoozed and shot the shit with a bunch of historians and archaeologists that specialize on "The Levant," or Palestine, or The Near Middle East, whatever you wanna call it. Cait and I received an amazing private tour from one of the curators at the British Musuem on the Seige of Lachish (cited in the Bible) and saw the only two historical artifacts that back up the mythical Kingdom of Judea from the Bible, mentioned by the Assyrians. Sweet. It's been going well.

So, pictures to come when I find the time to upload, but I had to update with the amazing time I've been having here. Oh, I went to a service at St. Pauls Cathedral. Incredible inside. Long service with a lot of singing that you can't really make out, but amazing inside. Like any cathedral here. Fun London hangouts have included the London Zoo, hookah bars, the Ye Olde Cock Tavern, and the East European History Library. Anyway, until next time, kids, thanks for reading!!

Lets Get Bizaaayy!!!

So as I write this, our bratwurst is soaking in 3 liters of simmering Stella Artois beer and onions. I just finished chopping carrots which will soon become caramelized as well. Our seasoned potatoes are in the oven as well, and Cait is whipping up a batch of her mom's deviled eggs with Mindy. It's my birthday dinner! We're going all out. Should be a fun evening. Earlier today Cait took me out to Camden Market for a mini-shopping spree on her bill as part of my b-day. Didn't get much. Some jeans, a vintage t-shirt from 1985 which I haggled down £3 because I told the guy I was born in '85, and a mousepad created from recycled computer chips. Cait got some earrings made from the same material, just to wear when we go investigate the London club scene high on E, of course, because those are usually the kind of people into it.

Anyway, this last week has had its fun twists and turns...like when I went to work on Tuesday and Cait's Mac was frozen, meaning she couldn't do any work. After fooling around with it, I determined the only solution to induce a restart was by unplugging it. So, I found the cord in back and pulled it out. About a second and a half later all the lights went out and an alarm began to buzz in another room. Yep!! We spent the next hour navigating around with cellphone and iPod light, playing with the circuit board before calling an "engineer" to solve the problem. We went out for coffee, came back, still no power. A productive day at work while our boss was in Jerusalem giving a lecture!! We realized that the wiring below the computer was nuts...3 power cords, one plugged into another...it turned out the mother-board on the computer was completely shot. That computer is out of use at the moment. Classes have been entertaining enough - - these NYU kids are a bit over the top though, asking pointless questions that have been answered during the lecture or one could easily deduce with the provided information. I'm probably just being an ass, but there is just a noticable difference from classes at UR, which is interesting. On a separate note, a friend of mine from 1st-3rd grade named Samer ended up being in my Politics of the Middle East class...small world. I still have to hang out with my RA from sophomore year who is here as well, and another girl I knew from Jacksonville who's studying abroad here.

Last weekend was the Thames festival as well, which I think I mentioned before. The second night consisted of fireworks following a parade of dancers and musicians from all over the world. Needless to say it was packed, and three of us were lucky enough to wedge a spot on the Embankment along the river for a front row seet. My favorite character was a costumed character from a London Theatre group, who looked like a crazed axe murderer wearing a chef's apron...then for the picture with him he suddenly raised his apron to reveal a bit more cloth on the costume that protruded from his crotch. Most enjoyable!!! Tomorrow we head out to Leeds and Canterbury for the day. Finally making the pilgrimmage to visit ol' Tom Becket. Amsterdam is in a week too. A few of us have also been planning trips to other places during our time here. Dublin, Prague, Krakow, Rome, Greece...the last two which will be the hardest to save money for. Oh well. All worth it in the end.

I've finally started to run here too, since Regents park is pretty much our backyard. My first run there was only supposed to be 20ish minutes, but it turned into 45 minutes when I got lost. Eventually found my way back thanks to the BT Tower in the distance (its about 3 blocks from our flat). But I ran past some incredible homes, some of which had their own security forces armed with automatic weapons. I was sore for 2 days, despite stretching.

Anyway, I'll post some pics fromt the festival a little later. Gotta get back to the kitchen and help out. Oh, and it still hasn't rained here yet. =)

Work + Play

I'll start with describing these pics a bit. The first contains the butt of the Globe during our walk along the Thames. Next is us in front of Buckingham Palace and the Queen Victoria Memorial. The next is of Southwark (pronounced "Suth-ick") bridge with the Feast on the Bridge happening. After that we have yours truly at the hole-in-the-wall that is my work (it's better inside :) And then we have Cait and I at a club for a friends birthday...mmmmmm.

Well, the internship is finally happening. I've been sorting through 136 year old maps of the Middle East, mainly from what is now Israel, Syria and Jordan. I'm just verifying the information (the date, who did the surveying, the information on the map, condition of it, what areas it shows, and what other maps you can look at of a nearby area). Then I put it on the computer. Fun stuff. We'll have more to do in the coming weeks, as I only have to put the info on the computer after going through each individual map. There are some amazing maps of what is now the Gaza strip and, of course, Jerusalem. The PEF was the first major documentation of the Holy Land. They cover everything too...elevation, land features, buildings, even trees, wells, cisterns, ancient burial sites, vineyards, "ancient roman roads,"...some get incredibly detailed with amazing shading. I'll try to snag some copies of good maps to post. Anyway, its basic now, but once our supervisor gets back from a conference in Jerusalem, we'll be able to talk more about other tasks on top of our archival stuff (since we're just the bitch interns...but at least the hours are flexible and we get free tea).

Classes seem interesting too. Three hours, though. The Eastern Europe Politics class was still a bit of an intro session, just talking about the term "eastern europe" and what we associate with, why we call it that, blah blah. Just kinda basic discussion topics. They have an entire library here, though, with all sorts of records about the area, though - biggest in the world. It'll make paper writing easy. Politics of the Middle East kicked off with Egypt as the top topic. Just lecture for now though. All in good time.

So, today we hit up the River Thames festival (goes all weekend). Woke up around 8AM (on a Saturday, mind you) and started off at Buckingham Palace, since it was the last day of the summer palace tours. Amazing. Just amazing. No pictures inside, however, but just amazing. The detail and opulence were just mindblowing. Even the paneling bordering the doors...there were leaves going up the side, and each leaf was gold, with the stem and veins clearly visibile on each one. The special display was Queen Elizabeth's Wedding. They had the dress, wedding gifts, jewlery, all of it. Incredibly opulent as well, of course. Anyway, after that we made our way to the Thames and walked along it for a while. They had tango lessons going on, japanese street music, music performances by people from all over the world, art displays, every kind of food imaginable, a closed bridge covered with sand (Feast on the Bridge) and tons of people (at least 50 people touched my butt inadvertantly)...madness! We ended at Borough Market, which is a more upscale street market. It's where experts go to find the finest wine, cider, cheese (from Cheshire, where the Chesebro name originates, which is why it may be pronounced "Chez-bro!"), bread, meaet, and baked goods. Oh, and it has yet to rain since we've been here - the weather today was sunny and around 70. Perfect! We were going non-stop rom 8:30 AM until about 3:30. Then we passed the fuck out when we got back.

Tomorrow is Sunday, so we're going to The Church. Not church, The Church. It's a pub only open on Sundays. Awesome. Also the festival continues tomorrow, and we'll see fireworks in the evening. Anyway, clubs tonight. Got to rest up.

Internship

This morning Cait and I went and met our boss over at the PEF. It's
down this narrow, quaint (I've been using that word a lot since I've
been here since everything is so historic) street calledMaryleborne
Lane, with charming cafes and restaurants. Our place of work is a bit
of a hole-in-the-wall though, but its packed with loads of historical
stuff from "The Levant," or Palestine and "The Middle East." After
giving us a brief history of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Felicity
told us that we'd be documenting 19th Century photographs and maps from
the area, taken and drawn by these Victorian men with a keen interest
in the area. We go in tomorrow for more formal training. I'm excited
though, as many of these photos and maps come with descriptions written
at the same time.

Interesting facts about PEF - They pioneered the field of archeology (rather than "historical geography" or engineering, as were the fields of many of the first acheologists), as it didn't formally exist as a field or a term at the time, putting into practice many of its fundamentals.
- While they were looking for items in such a holy region, they went in with more scientific goals, while many before them had a spade in one hand, and a bible in the other, leading to many false findings and bias.
- Since they began in 1865, they had access to many holy sites after schmoozing with the Ottoman Empire, many of which have been off limits ever since, so their findings are incredibly valued.

Anyway, time to do some cleaning and read for class tomorrow.

******Be sure to check the post below this one since my internet was out, and scroll to other past posts to check out more pictures + a video from speakers corner!! - - - Until next time, kids!