Museums and Meerkats

This past week involved visiting many museums and some very curious meerkats, but it began with an adventure packed Monday! I began the day by procuring a UK sim card and phone number. Along the way I passed the Charles Dickens Museum, which is located in the only remaining home of Dickens. I also walked down Drury Lane and through Trafalgar Square to reach the Strand (Unfortunately, I have not yet found the muffin man!). My destination for the day was the Tate Modern  located on the South Bank. Before reaching the Tate Modern though, I stumbled upon some fantastic finds such as Twinnings Tea Shop, the location of the London's first tea room, opened in 1706, Fleet Street (no demon barbers that I saw...), and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub which I will have to visit in the near future.

Twinnings Tea Shop

After crossing Blackfriars Bridge and walking a few blocks, I arrived at the Tate Modern, a museum full of modern art galleries and the home of Monet's Water Lilies. I spent a few hours in the Tate Modern finding all sorts of interesting artwork, many painted, but others made out of thick felt or metal...There was even one piece made of different colored books posted to a canvas. Following a lovely day in the Tate, I walked down the South Bank to see Shakespeare's Globe and the London Bridge, which is no longer falling down! Headed for some dinner, I walked across the Millennium Footbridge, towards Saint Paul's Cathedral, and began the walk back to Camden along the Victoria Embankment. Although, on the way I ran into the "Invisible Man" street performer! Pictures from the day following:

Water Lilies

Lots of THICK Felt (an Untitled Piece by Robert Morris)

The Globe Theater

Millennium Bridge with St. Pauls in the Background

The Invisible Man

Victoria Embankment

The Tate Modern was the first museum of the week with two more to follow. Friday, I discovered that the National Portrait Gallery would be open late for visitors and a friend and I decided to go down to check out the galleries that were open. We spent most of the night looking at the BP 2011 Portrait Award Gallery, which held a fantastic display of modern talent and styles ranging the gamut from classical to hyper-realism. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, but the exhibit was phenomenal.

Clock in the British Museum

The next day was spent almost exclusively at the British Museum...five hours of entertainment in their galleries of Horology, European History, Viking Relics, Assyrian and Sassanian antiquities, Egyptology, Japanese Culture, Korean Pottery, Chinese Pottery, and a special exhibit on Australian Paintings.

While in the gallery of Korean Pottery, I discovered a porcelain water dropper shaped like a carp...sounds riveting doesn't it? Well, the label next to the porcelain described that according to popular Korean legend, if a carp was able to leap up the "Dragon Falls" he would turn into a dragon himself. This legend was used to encourage scholars in pursuit of their studies.

The Carp

Once the British Museum closed, I made my way to Saint James' Park to enjoy the outdoors and search for the pelicans (which I did eventually find).

Lion Attacking a Bull (Achaemenid empire)

Saint James' Park

 

Pelicans!!

 

Paper Airplane Poetry

Sunday it was actually warm outside and I made plans with Dawn, a graduate student also at the Petrie Museum, to go down to two festivals, one at Southbank and the other at Greenwich. Entering Southbank, we found a display of paper airplanes and poetry written by children posted near to the arts center. The display creatively recorded some of the children reciting their poetry and played the audio while people walked around and read the poetry. Additionally, Southbank proved to have a few street performers as well as some sand-sculptors making some pretty impressive structures!

Sing Me A Song, You're the Piano Sand!

Petting the Meerkat

The Greenwich festival is where the meerkats come in!  We arrived in Greenwich to find that an event called "The Meerkats Massive" had begun. Three actors had dressed up and were running around the fair like meerkats...curiously approaching fair-goers and occasionally gathering together to pop-up as if they were exiting their burrows. Of course I had to get a picture, but accidentally knocked one in his meerkat nose, and he began to run away!
 

Wait, Come Back!

The weekend concluded with a trip past the Royal Naval Academy into sGreenwich Park and up to the Royal Observatory, the location of the prime meridian and an absolutely breathtaking view of the city of London. There was also a clock which told Greenwich Mean Time.

Dawn and Me at the Greenwich Mean Clock ( I don't  think I was quite ready for this picture)

London

  
Can't wait to see what this week brings!! Fourth of July weekend is being spent in Amsterdam with some fantastic family friends...Wish me luck!

The London Photographic Scavenger Hunt

You may have seen the side bar of the blog entitled "London Photographic Scavenger Hunt." Thanks to many friends and their many requests, I have started a scavenger hunt! So far the list is small, but I need more items to find. Feel free to comment or send me a message and I will add your request to the list. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, I will have found them all!

These items can be anything, they do not have to be distinctively English. SO...let the games begin!!

London: The First Two-ish Weeks

My arrival in London began by saying goodbye to our wonderful tour group, heading through customs, and beginning a hour long ride on the Tube to Russel Square Station. After emerging like a mole from the London Underground and traveling two blocks, I arrived at Tavistock Square to see my new accommodations in Connaught Hall. The room is large enough for one person and is comfortable. Although, my first surprise in London was a sign above my in-room-sink that reads "not drinking water." Luckily, the hall provides an electric kettle for each room so that water can be boiled to safety! Despite the potentially hazardous water, my location could be no better! My internship at the Petrie Museum at UCL is only a five minute walk and, as I am located in central London about two blocks away from the British Museum, I am able to walk virtually anywhere my feet and my brolly (umbrella) will take me.

My Room

That being said my adventures so far have included two weekends of exploring the city. The first weekend, I took a walk around the area in which I live. At the end of my walk I discovered the British Museum and visited the first floor seeing an Easter Island head, the Rosetta Stone, and some fossils found by Mary Anning (She sells sea shells by the seashore!). The next day I wanted to see just how far it would take to get to some of the most iconic sites of London so I went on a long walk that took me through Covent Garden, to Trafalgar Square, along the Victoria Embankment on the Thames, across the Waterloo Bridge to the London Eye, back across the Thames via the Westminster Bridge, near Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and finally, I concluded my walking tour by walking past Leicester Square and Covent Garden again. Phew! On my was back, I stopped for coffee in the Covent Garden Market and entertained some 6 year old British children who were eating inside a small cafe. I was sitting outside of the cafe so they would knock on the glass, hide, and laugh when I tried to find them. When I left the children, I found a quintet playing a few classical pieces and stayed to listen to them until going back to Connaught Hall for the night.

St. Martin-in-the-Fields

My typical work week is Tuesday through Friday, so that first Monday I discovered free lunchtime concerts performed by students from the Royal College of Music at Saint Martin-in-the-Fields. After the concert, I went to an orientation for my internship and concluded my day by walking to St. Pancras and King's Cross Station (Yes, I did see platform 9 3/4).

My first official week of work started at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology last Monday and the experience so far has been wonderful. I have been given some real responsibilities and am getting to know some great people! Up until now I have been working on a few different tasks that include creating a Volunteer Handbook, researching for the curators of both the Petrie Museum and the Grant Museum of Zoology for a project that they want to launch about "Sounds of the Hunter and the Hunted," looking at artifacts and primary source material on African/Egyptian hair combs for an exhibit being developed at the Fitzwilliam Museum. I have also been helping to develop "Pop-Up" sessions, where an author of a book concerning Egypt is brought in to talk to various school groups.

The work has been a lot of fun and I am learning new things everyday about how a museum runs works internally and with the public.


Throughout my first full week in London I joined a local orchestra and went to read in Regent's Park, which had some beautiful flowers! The orchestra which I joined, the Blackfriars Sinfonia, is composed of members of all ages who gather to in Christ Church to practice some sight-reading every Tuesday night. A few symphonic pieces are chosen and the orchestra works on them until 9pm when a few members shuffle a few feet over to the local pub for a few drinks before heading home.

Flowers in Regent's Park

My second weekend was spent visiting a few museums and Hyde Park. Saturday I went out to the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) with a few new friends. Unfortunately, I forgot my SD card, but pictures will be coming soon!! The Natural History Museum was absolutely amazing. Not only was the collection on display vastly diverse and in such wonderful condition, but I have never seen material interpreted in a more engaging way. We spent two hours in the museum before grabbing lunch and only saw three full exhibits. Most exciting, was the Diplotocus showcased in the entryway to the museum, which was a complete cast made from "Dippy the Dinosaur" in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History. He made me feel right at home! The V&A was also a treat to visit. We were unable to see everything in the V&A, but we did see sculpture from the Medieval and Renaissance periods, a photography exhibition, and an exhibition on the material culture of Asia....There were some pretty awesome katanas, armor, and ceramics!

St. Patrick's

 Sunday morning was spent at Saint Patrick's in Soho, a church where they sing traditional mass parts as well as contemporary music for worship. All in all it was a fairly normal Catholic mass. However, communion was more of a free-for-all! After grocery shopping and some lunch. I walked my way over to Hyde Park to spend a day out in the rare sunshine. I walked all around the Serpentine and found the Albert memorial (it's HUGE!), Royal Albert Hall (where many of the Proms performances will be held), and the Peter Pan sculpture. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon!

 More to come on this past week :O) (Hopefully the next entry won't be so long!)

Didactic Squirrel on the Peter Pan Sculpture

Hyde Park

A Fan-Tastic Trip Around Europe!

FAN-TASTIC!

I know that anything I write to describe our European adventure won't do it justice, but I will start by saying that it was fantastic! The trip took us by plane, train, and bus to a total of eleven cities: London, Paris, Riems, Heidelberg, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Brno, Prague, Dresden, and Berlin. While we only spent one or two days in each city, we made the most of our time. Each city had its own atmosphere and I wish that we had a longer time to explore everything that each city had to offer. Oh well, I guess that is an adventure for another time! 

To avoid too many tedious details I will pick a few photos from each city with some fun facts and stories. Ready, set, go!

Our Route

London: The City of Fish and Chips, the Queen's Guard, and Jet Lag

Double Decker Bus

My initial flight to London was indefinitely delayed causing me to spend 6 extra hours in the Pittsburgh airport and rebook a flight through Boston. But, after a rough start, I finally arrived! Because I had to drop some luggage off at the Petrie Museum, I was guided around the city by a man named David who was shadowing our tour director (who was also named David).

Changing of the Guard at Windsor Castle

Despite the pouring rain, he gave me a wonderful personal tour of London before meeting up with the rest of the tour group. While in London, we saw all of the major tourist attractions: Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Covent  Garden, Westminster Abby, Windsor Castle and many more. 

We also had a chance to ride the London Eye and get some great views of the city (although I felt bad for the poor English couple that got stuck in the car with our entire tour group- not quite the romantic date that they had in mind). 

The first night that we were there the group decided to take a gruesome "Jack the Ripper" tour where we enjoyed a very dodgy guide in a trench coat. 

Of course we had a dinners of both Bangers & Mash and Fish & Chips!





Paris: The City of the Eiffel Tower, Gargantuan Museums, and the Best Carbs You Will Ever Taste

The Louvre

The Eiffel Tower from Montmartre

Upon arriving in Paris, we ordered an early lunch before heading across the street to the Louvre, where we were given three free hours. While I know that the Louvre is the largest museum in the world, I was not prepared for its gargantuan size! (I could have camped out there for weeks and still not seen everything.) So, we made a game plan and were able to see some of the Louvre's best known pieces: Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo. We also took a close look at the section of Dutch painters in order to see two Vermeer paintings on display (two out of only thirty four in existence!). As we were leaving I found my first fan in the giftshop, a print of the "Lady and the Unicorn" tapestry! Dinner that night was awesome..some sort of flat pizza called "flam," from the Alsace region of France. Afterward, we got a view of the Eiffel Tower and went up to its first platform via an incline. We also took a boat ride on the Seine River and watched the city's lights reflect in the water. When the boat ride was finished, we discovered that the Eiffel Tower had been lit up for the night and watched it sparkle.

Our next day in Paris was spent touring Versailles, visiting Notre Dame Cathedral, and walking around on top of Montmartre, which gave us a beautiful view of the city and access to some fantastic gelato and crepes. Riding the metro back to our hotel was quite eventful as the group was followed by a very persistent accordion player who knew how to hustle tourists for money.

The fifth day, on our way to Heidelberg, we stopped for lunch in Riems, a city in the Champagne region of France. The city was so much more relaxed and charming than Paris and we found a bakery that smelled like heaven!! I bought the most delicious baguettes I have ever tasted (triple chocolate and white chocolate) 

Heavenly Baguettes

Heidelberg: The City with the Most Charm (and a Monkey!)

Heidelberg

As we crossed into Germany on our tour bus the landscape out the window became significantly more wooded and we arrived at a quaint hotel on the outskirts of Heidelberg. The setting was so comfortable and the air was crisp with the smell of pine and budding flowers.

In exploring the city the next day we visited Heidelberg Schloss (castle), the Old Town, and the Studenkarzer. Not only was it exciting to walk around the ruins of Heidelberg Schloss, but inside the castle is the world's largest wine barrel, which used to hold up to 58,000 gallons of wine at one time!

Bridge Monkey

When in the Old Town we stopped at the entrance to Heidelberg bridge, guarded by a brass monkey, and walked across before given free time. In our free time, we went to see the graffiti of the Studenkrazer, or student prison, where university students would be imprisoned for anywhere from 5 days to 3 months for offenses such as dueling! Lunch was found a tasty bar called Grey Stones where we shared our first schnitzel experience.








Munich: "Viva La Deutschland"

Munich began on a solemn note as we went to see the museum at Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp to open in Germany. While being at the camp was a difficult experience, it was interesting to see a German interpretation of the events that occurred at the concentration camp. The museum's approach was to follow the "Prisoner's Path" in respect of those who had been brutalized in the camp throughout WWII.

The Hofbrauhaus

After a heavy morning we were taken to an open air market for lunch. Afterward, we began to learn the game of "Find the Free Bathroom." Unlike London and Paris, for the remainder of our trip, the use of most public bathrooms required at least 50 euro. (Although it was possible to find the free bathrooms if you looked really hard!
In the market our guide, David, showed us the rathaus glockenspiel constructed on the side of town hall. The mechanized people on the clock moved around and at the end (as David imitated for us) a little owl came out and went "tweet, tweet!"

The evening was spent at the original Hofbrauhaus, a Bavarian brewery where many of the patrons in attendance still wore the traditional lederhosen. I enjoyed 1/3 of a Radler, a drink that is half beer, half sprite (which the Germans call "lemonade"), with Erin and Jen. The glass steins at the Hofbrauhaus were as big as my head! While there we also enjoyed the band of accordion, trumpets, and tubas which played traditional drinking and dancing songs. After watching a grandmother and her granddaughter dance, Erin and I decided to join in the dancing and it was not long before we were dancing with a local German! When leaving the Hofbrauhaus, Jeremy, one of the two male members of the group who had had a little too much to drink, shouted "Viva La Deutschland!" (I think he needs to brush up on his German...)





 Salzburg: The City of The Sound of Music, Mozart, and No Kangaroos

Foothills of the Alps

We traveled to Vienna via Salzburg where we saw Mirabell Park and St. Peter's Cemetery, two locations where the Sound of Music was filmed. Walking around we also went to see a few Catholic cathedrals. As we visited them we saw a various celebrations for the Feast of the Assumption. One of the mass celebrations involved a full organ, choir, and orchestra in the choir loft playing traditional mass parts. This was incredible! We also walked past Mozart's birthplace, a tall yellow house in the center of town. Lunch that day was a gigantic and delicious pretzel covered in cheese. While many shops were closed for the Feast of the Assumption, there were some tents and souvenir shops still open in the city's market.  Everywhere we went there were two tourist traps: 1) Mozart Chocolate- a tasty ball of chocolate filled with nougat and marzipan and sold in a violin shaped box. 2) Kangaroo Road Signs- there were amazing road signs with the silhouette of a Kangaroo that said "No Kangaroos in Austria"
Upon our departure from Salzburg, our fantastic bus driver Jan decided to make a diversion to the town of Mondsee so that the group could see the Church of Mondsee, the church where Maria and Captain von Trap married. While in Mondsee we also took pictures of the very foggy foothills of the Alps before heading off to Vienna.


  
Vienna: The City of Music and Unexpected Surprises Involving the Police

Opera Toilets

We arrived in Vienna in the evening and departed the bus for a walking tour of the city. Our first stop: the "Opera Toilets," a public restroom near the Vienna Opera House that plays classical music and is decorated like a theater (No, it was not free). The visit soon turned into the "Phantom of the Opera Toilet" when Jeremy, discovered an unconscious man lying in the bathroom...soon after a bunch of Viennese authorities and an ambulance arrived on the scene and ushered everyone out of the "Opera Toilets.

Our exciting introduction to Vienna aside, we arrived at the best hotel of our trip! It was a blaring yellow and green building that looked...well, less than inviting. But our room was awesome! I had three rooms, a small kitchenette, and a loft bedroom with a sunroof. When we weren't in our fantastic hotel, we were taking guided tours around Vienna, seeing St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Hapsburg Palaces, and an architectural wonder built by Hundertwasser. In our free time we weaseled our way into two museums, the Hapsburg Treasury Museum and the Museum of Ancient Musical Instruments, for free. In the Treasury Museum we saw the royal jewels, church relics (like a piece of the crucifix), and a unicorn's horn (which was actually a NARWHAL horn). In the Museum of Ancient Musical Instruments we saw some great instruments and original manuscripts written by Beethoven, Strauss, and Brahms.   

Grrr...

Right before we were supposed to meet up with the group it began to pour. Trying to stay dry, Jen, Erin, and I all huddled under my one person umbrella and shuffled two blocks to St. Stephen's...people were pointing and laughing, so I hope we provided some quality entertainment!

That evening a few members of our group went to the Kursalon concert hall to enjoy a night of Mozart and Strauss. The ensemble, which included an orchestra, piano, vocalists, and dancers, played waltzes, symphonies,and excerpts from a variety of operas. Champagne was provided during intermission and at the end of the concert the entire audience began clapping in unison so the ensemble performed two more encore pieces! 



Brno and Prague: Cities of Ridiculous Amounts of Czech Crowns, Marionettes, and Defenestrations 

Charles Bridge

On the way to Prague, the group stopped in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Our first stop: a cash machine. Unlike the other cities on our trip, the Czech Republic did not accept Euros so we each had to withdraw about 600 Czech Crowns (1 US dollar is equivalent to about 17 Czech Crowns). In Brno we walked into the catacombs of a cappucin monastery where we saw some well preserved mummified monks! We also ate our lunch in the town square where we enjoyed listening to a few high school aged bands play music from James Bond. After a few hours on our tour bus we arrived in the lovely city of Prague and took a walking tour to see the astronomical clock, the Jewish quarter, and the Charles Bridge. That night we had one of the best deserts on the trip, pound cake and chocolate icing rolled into a pinwheel pastry.

Window of Defenestration

The next day brought a trip to St. Vitus and Prague Castle, the largest castle complex in Europe and the site of the multiple Defenestrations of Prague (the act of throwing someone out of a window!). Even though photography wasn't allowed, I couldn't resist taking just one picture of the window. Our lunch was held on a boat which took us up and down the beautiful Vltava River! In our free time, we walked around the shops near the astronomical clock and I bought a cylindrical pastry, that it seemed like every child had been walking around with...it was tasty! 

Ahoy there!

  

Dresden: The City of the Minnow People...? 

Swimming in Formation

Our lunch stop before arriving at our final destination, Berlin, was Dresden. We were able to see the outside of the opera house, the Zwinger Palace, and the Albertinum, but unfortunately they were all closed on Mondays. Consequently, we spent a calm afternoon in a park behind Zwinger Palace. While Jen and Erin napped under the trees, I took pictures of ducks on the lake before I saw the "minnow people." There was some sort of sychronized swimming going on and there were all of these people with shaved heads wearing minnow hats and moving in formation with each other like they were a school of fish!

Berlin: The City of the Brandenburg Gate, Ampelmann, the East Side Gallery, and a Farewell to Europe

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

We arrived in Berlin in the evening just in time for the rain! Despite the rain, we waited out the storm to take a walking tour of the city. We walked to the Brandenburg Gate, past many of the museums on the Under von Linden, and to the TV Tower. Our tour gave us time to experience the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenman. Out of all of the memorials that we saw throughout our trip this memorial was the most evocative and poignant. It was constructed out of 2,711 concrete blocks set up in a huge open air square. Visitors to the memorial are able to walk through the memorial and we all found that the space was deeper than any of us had perceived. Just the vast space that the memorial encompasses causes a tense anxiety. Every once in a while, a concrete block would be notably missing from the pattern and we felt displaced. I wouldn't call the experience enjoyable, but this is one memorial that I am glad to have seen.

Ampelmann!

The next day was spent on a bus tour of Berlin, where we learned about Ampelmann, a symbol of the integration between East and West Germany. Ampelmann, the traffic man, was a crossing light in East Germany that they East Germans refused to get rid off after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today, Ampelmann is all over the city and there are even stores dedicated to him! We ended our tour at Checkpoint Charlie and its museum. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the Pergamon Museum of Antiquities, which housed materials and structures from the ancient worlds of Rome, Greece, and the Middle East. It was such an extensive and unique collection! Our final evening was spend walking the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, and seeing "Test the Rest" and "The Kiss" amongst many others.   

East Side Gallery

Our trip around Europe was a fantastic adventure and the experience of a lifetime! We learned so much and there is still so much yet to see. I am so blessed to be able to travel with such a wonderful group of people and have so many supportive family members and friends at home. I love you all!! If you want any more stories or pictures let me know and I will do my best to get them to you.

Next stop LONDON (again)! Updates coming soon!

The Long Flight

Off to London today! This should be the longest flight of my life- leaving Pittsburgh at 1pm and arriving in London at 7:40am. The next two weeks I will be traveling to London, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Heidelberg, Munich, and Berlin...hopefully by the time I fly out of Berlin some of the volcanic ash will have cleared up!

Here are my rules of travel communication: I will have access to facebook and email...also I can receive texts free of charge, but I will not be able to respond to them.

I will post when I can!