La greve!

Hi everyone,

This is not an incredibly glamorous post, mais bon, it's what happened today. No long-term trip to Paris would be complete without a strike. Today I proudly experienced my first (and only) Paris train strike. At least they are nice enough to announce it ahead of time. Plus it is now illegal to totally cut off train service. In 2007, they had a ridiculous amount of strikes, and everyone started getting worried about what that meant for national security, not to mention the economy, so now there is a mandatory minimum service, thank g-d. And since they announce it ahead of time, you do have time to prepare. This morning I got a nice good look at my local train station when I waited an hour and 15 minutes for my train to class. I only had to wait about 45 minutes on my way home, and overall, it was just something interesting that I'm glad I experienced.

Normandy and Brittany

Hi guys,

Sorry it's been so long. Things have been picking up since the end of the semester is quickly approaching.

This past weekend I went on a school trip to Normandy and Brittany. If you're scratching your head at the mention of those places, check out a map. They're both regions in Western France on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We started the trip in a strange island-castle-church called Mont St. Michel. It's essentially this monastery that was built on top of this huge granite island almost on the coast. It's very impressive, like so many other French buildings. It was a little overcast that day, but still very interesting. Of course, it was a little touristy, but it really wasn't too bad.

Then we headed to a little town called St. Malo for the night. It's a marine city within a medieval wall. Unfortunately it was raining, so it was a little hard to do much exploring, but I did find a great dinner. Normandy and Brittany are known for their crepes and cider, so that's what I had. It's always so nice to go outside of Paris because the prices get so so so much cheaper.

The next day (Sunday the 8th) we headed back towards Paris with some pit stops along the way. We visited the American Cemetery in Paris at Omaha Beach, for all of you WWII buffs. It was really neat to see the beach where the Allied troops landed near the end of the war. The cemetery is beautiful, so of course that was beautiful to see. Also May 8th is the anniversary of the end of the war, so there was a nice little ceremony to commemorate that. There were tons of American vets there visiting.

Mont St. Michel

Crepe dinner with smoked salmon and cider

Omaha Beach

The cemetery

Spring Break Part 3: Berlin

Hi guys,

I've broken up Spring Break into seeeveral posts because there's so much info. Keep scrolling down if you haven't read in a while! This one is only about Berlin, but Amsterdam is in the post before this.

Berlin:

My trip to Berlin was very much a whirlwind. Because I booked really cheap tickets, my flight times were a little funky, and I was in Berlin essentially only for one day. It was only one day, but I really saw a ton of stuff, if I do say so. Berlin is a big city, but I found it really nice to walk around in, minus the literally freezing weather. For Spring Break, I knew I was going even further north, but I figured because it is the middle of April, my medium jacket would be warm enough. Oh no. Not at all in Berlin. The whole day I was wishing so badly that I had thought to at least bring gloves, but it was worth it to visit this very cool city. I just wish I had looked at the weather a little more carefully. I think it was about 45 degrees F and lightly raining the whole day. Fun!

I started the day off by taking the train all the way out to Saschenhausen concentration camp. It was very interesting because the train ride out there reminded me very much of the woods in movies about Germany during WWII, like Inglorious Basterds. I’m not sure where that movie was filmed, but it sure looked like it. Luckily, there were plenty of school groups going there, so after I got off the train, I just followed them there. Unfortunately, they were mostly loud, rude, and disrespectful, but what can you do? It blew my mind that teachers/tour guides wouldn’t tell these kids to stop playing around and laughing really loudly at a place like that, but maybe it’s a cultural thing… But in any case, it was a really interesting visit. I’ve wanted to visit a camp for a very long time, so it was so nice to finally get to go. I actually learned some things about the Holocaust, which surprised me. This camp did have some Jewish prisoners, but there were also a lot of Roma and Sinti (gypsies) and political prisoners. There was a ton of information presented, but I’m pretty sure that all the original buildings were destroyed in the mid 1950s because they were structurally unsound, but some of them have been recreated. There is an execution trench where prisoners were forced to execute each other. There were actually remnants of cremation ovens left over. The building around them had been destroyed, but you can still see the ovens. They were rather small actually. Originally at this camp, bodies were shipped out, but when the death toll started to mount as a result of increasingly crowded and unhealthy living conditions, the Nazis got concerned about the town finding out about the increase? That’s what the museum said, although that doesn’t really make any sense. Anyways, in the mean time, they brought in mobile gassing trucks (much like China today) and finally built an in-house crematorium. The infirmary is still there. Originally, they did “autopsies”, and the tables and all the furniture are still there. Of course, they did their perverse medical experiments there as well. Very chilling. The most surprisingly part of the whole visit was the brothel wing of the infirmary. A few years after the camp opened, the officers decided they would like a brothel there. I thought that the Nazis did not rape prisoners because they were so concerned with race, but apparently not. The brothel was also used as an incentive to make prisoners work harder, but the Jewish male prisoners weren’t allowed to use it.

Speaking of labor, one of the weird things that the Nazis made the prisoners do was to test leather-substitute shoes. The Nazis designed faux-leather shoes, and in order to test the soles, they would make prisoners wear very heavy backpacks and run around a track all day. The track is still there.

Like I said earlier, most of the buildings were destroyed in the 50s, but replicas were rebuilt. A barrack was rebuilt, but after the Israeli PM visited in 1992, an arson attack nearly burnt it down. You can still see the charred wood.

After the camp, I headed back in to the center of Berlin. I started with the Brandenburg Gate, the famous German landmark. As I was coming out of the Metro station, there were probably 20 to 30 police vans on that street alone. After talking with some nice Germans, I finally realized that all the security was for the NATO conference taking place just down the street. (I am normally quite up to date on world news, but I’ve been traveling and not paying for newspapers or Internet.) After the Brandenburg Gate, I saw the Reichstag, the German Parliament? There is a beautiful dome on top, but it is no longer open to visitors. Also you can’t enter the building at all without a reservation, but the outside was very pretty anyways. Then I saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The best way to describe it is to show a picture. I was shocked to learn that there was no such memorial until the mid 1980s in Germany. Before I took my Holocaust Perpetrators class at Elon, I had not realized that the world (especially Germany) did not really address the legacy of the Holocaust until many decades after the fact. Underneath the hundreds of steel blocks that make up the memorial, there is a little mini museum that addresses Jewish life in Europe before and during the Holocaust. It was very well done and also free!

The next few things that I saw in Berlin concerned the wall. I first went to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the checkpoints left between East and West Germany. The checkpoint is outside; there is a museum inside, but you couldn’t take pictures, plus I just assumed it would have been very touristy. Speaking of touristy, at a nearby section of the Berlin Wall, they literally will charge you 25euro to get an “East German passport stamp”. …… There’s nothing else to say about that. Needless to say, I declined.

Then I visited a museum called the Topography of Terror. It is partly indoor, partly outdoor. It contains a big section of the Berlin Wall and is at the site of some of the most important buildings of the Nazi regime. Those buildings were destroyed after the war, but the museum helps recreate the site. I had not realized that so many historically important buildings were destroyed after the war, but Berlin really does a great job of preserving history. The Topography of Terror also had a great temporary exhibit on Adolph Eichmann. Another thing that I had learned about in my Holocaust Perpetrators class, Eichmann was basically in charge of the transport systems during the Holocaust. After the war, he escaped to Argentina, but Mossad kidnapped him and brought him to Israel to stand trial in the late 1950s. He had a very controversial trial that was largely used to build up the state of Israel. After 4 months of deliberations, he was sentenced to death and executed. Being a Nazi is the only crime for which you can receive the death penalty in Israel. I’m pretty sure that his trial is the only one that took place in Israel.

Finally to wrap up my super charged day in Berlin, I visited the Jewish museum. I originally wasn’t going to, but decided to at the last minute. This was the only thing I had to pay for in Berlin, but they had a great student rate of only 2euro50. It was actually one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. It had a small Holocaust memorial, but the heart of the museum was documenting Jewish culture from medieval times all the way through to today. It was a very fun and interactive museum, and there were plenty of people there.

Spring Break Part 2: Amsterdam

Amsterdam was great fun, of course. I did not see any prostitutes, but the reputations of the coffee houses seems to be right on. While I did not visit one of them, I did finally find a yummy place for bagels! When I travel abroad, I generally try to eat the food of that country, but it had been nearly 3 months since I had had a bagel. Especially anyone who is Jewish can understand why I had to give in. 3 months! Anyways….bagels are not the most interesting part of my trip to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a really fun city, but it also is pretty expensive. The most famous/interesting museums in Amsterdam are the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rjiksmuseum. Since I can see some Van Gogh in France and because I have to save money somewhere, I only went to the Anne Frank House. I tried to go the first day, during the middle of the afternoon, but the line was about 3 blocks long, so I went back first thing the next morning. I got there about 45 minutes before the museum opened, and at that time, there were only about 5 people in line. It should have been obvious, I guess, but apparently everyone is very interested in this museum. It’s always nice to see people interested in the Holocaust.

The house was fascinating! For some reason, Otto Frank wanted the house left unfurnished when it was turned into a museum, but with photos, descriptions, and film clips, you get a good idea of what it looked like. Speaking of pictures, for some reason, they don’t allow you to take any inside, so unfortunately I don’t have any photos of it. As you make your way up the museum, you first see the offices that hid the annex. The friends of the Frank family who worked for Otto Frank worked there. You then move to the bookcase that hid the annex opening. Very cool! You walk through it, just like they did. You then see all the bedrooms, the bathroom, and the bedroom/kitchen/living/dining room. It made everything I had read in the book so real. The museum wraps up with a relatively small exhibit on Margot, Anne’s sister. Overall, I really liked the museum, but I am always a baby bit disappointed when museums connected to the Holocaust don’t mention the “never again” concept and don’t mention modern genocides. That’s just a small complaint though. Overall it was a great museum, minus the lack of student discounts and not allowing photography.

The other great part of Amsterdam was just walking about town. It totally didn’t matter that I wasn’t rushing from museum to museum all day. It was very nice. Obviously there are canals all over Amsterdam. When I was there, the skies were very gray, so my pictures aren’t great, but I did get some. There was also flowers everywhere, mainly in markets but also planted. In touristy stores, they sell so many tulip bulbs. I don’t think you can import plant products into the US, so I didn’t buy anyone any bulbs, but they were very pretty! Another very cool part of Amsterdam is all the bikes. I really got the impression that most people there commute. There were long lines of bikes riding down the street in the morning. I wish the States could be more like that. 

Spring Break Day 2: Prague Pt. 2

Yesterday was another beautiful day in Prague, very sunny and nice. We headed downtown after breakfast and went to the Museum of Communism. Ironically located next to a McDonald’s today, it documented the rise and fall of Communism both all around the world and locally. It was a lot of artifacts that didn’t see to be particularly famous but helped illustrate what life was like during those times. They had stuff from schools and homes and even the police. After that, we went to the Jewish Museum. It’s actually about 5 or 6 different buildings that you can buy one ticket for. Most of the buildings are synagogues, but they’re currently set up more like a museum. They have old books and artifacts in cases all over. There was one synagogue that was still somewhat set up like a synagogue, the Spanish synagogue. There was also an awesome cemetery with over 12,000 graves dating back to the 15^th century I think. Very very interesting. Then we got lunch at one of those outdoor markets again. Delicious and pretty cheap. After lunch, we just wandering around several big parks. There is supposed to be a big wall of graffiti dedicated to John Lennon, but we couldn’t find it, so we just ended up people watching for a while. Prague is a great city and very fun, but 2 days was definitely enough time to see it.

I’m flying out to Amsterdam tonight, and I’m not sure what my Internet situation will be like there. 

Spring Break: Day 1

Day 1: Prague

We got into Prague late last night. I had ordered a pick up service for the airport, so we didn’t have to mess with trying to learn the metro system, which was nice. Our hostel is actually really nice, as far as hostels go. We have a private room AND a private bathroom, and there is even a nice free breakfast. Breakfast only lasts until 10 AM, so we got up around 9:30 to head down for breakfast. After a little bread, coffee, yogurt, and cheese, we headed into town. The first thing we stumbled across was a cute church with an outdoor market. The problem in Prague is that all the buildings look so beautiful that you’re not sure which ones are famous and which aren’t. The first important building that we ran across was the National Museum. Museum entrance fees can add up, and we weren’t sure how interesting it would be, so we declined. We’re just meandering down the road, and we stumble across this huge group of people practically climbing up this statue in their pajamas. As far as I could tell, it was just a giant pajama party. My Czech’s just a tad rusty…

After that, we wandered through row after row of outdoor market. Today was the kickoff of a couple weeks of pre-Easter fairs/markets all the around the city. They were mainly selling souvenirs, but also some good looking food. By the time it was lunch time, we had wandered away from the markets. We decided to find the river and find a restaurant from there. We did both of those things and found a cute Czech café with an English menu for lunch. Knowing how heavy Eastern food is, I decided to just get pasta with salmon for lunch. It was delicious, and the whole time, we had a great view of the river and the castle.

After lunch, we walked up to the Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge is one of Prague’s most famous landmarks. It’s just a bridge with some statues on it, but it is quite nice. On the other side of the bridge is the Prague Castle. It’s a mix of a cathedral, the old castle, and some modern government buildings. All of this is WAY up on the top of a hill. Quite a climb, but there was an excellent view at the top. You had to pay to go into the castle, so we declined again, but the inside of the cathedral was nice.

Once we wandered back down the giant hill, we were quite tired. We found ourselves at one of those outdoor markets again, so we all bought delicious Czech doughnuts and sat down for a bit. By that point, there was just a little bit of time before dinner, so we decided we had just enough time to hit the Franz Kafka museum.

Like the Charles Bridge, Franz Kafka is one of Prague’s most memorial creations. He was a Jewish writer from the 19^th century. He’s mostly known for writing The Metamorphosis and The Trial. His writing is bizarre, so I wouldn’t recommend reading him unless you’re adventurous, but he is worth looking up on Wikipedia, especially if you haven’t heard of him before now.

Right before dinner, we stumbled across the other part of our group on the Charles Bridge, and we all got dinner together. I finally got to try Czech food and ordered gulash. It came with bread dumpling and was a delicious beef stew. So so heavy, but delicious.

Cultured Paris

Salut,

Living in Paris is so much more exciting and cultural than Burlington. Yesterday after school I went and watched a burial at the Pantheon. The Pantheon was a church originally, but the Revolution turned it into a Republican monument. Now it is the final resting place to many famous French people, including Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Alfred Dreyfus. The burial that I went to was for Aime Cesaire, a poet and politician from Martinique. He helped bring about the end of colonization and drew attention to the extreme bigotry and racism present in the French Republic. Like his close friend Leopold Senghor, he was both a great poet and a strong politician.

The burial was so interesting because most members of the French government were there. I got to see Frederic Mitterand (currently a  minister and the nephew of former President Francois Mitterand), the Prime Minister Francois Fillon, the Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, and President Sarkozy. He really is quite short, but definitely thinks very highly of himself. There was a pretty long poetry reading, and then Sarkozy gave a short speech. The proceedings were inside the Pantheon, but the crowd was kept outside. There was, of course, a lot of security, but it was really interesting to see all the politicians.