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diff --git a/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md b/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md deleted file mode 100644 index b830dde..0000000 --- a/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,432 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: >- - Mr. Worldwide, Pt. 1: Europe -description: >- - Or: How I stopped worrying and learned to love tomatoes. ---- - -## TODO - -## Outline - -- The Second Leg - - Munich - - No more pictures, no more tourism - - Diet - - Belgium - - Brussels - - Communism and french fries - - Comic book museum - - Drawing - - Bruges - - Beer - - A fucking expensive fairytale - - So cold, so scarfed - - Camina Del Santiago - - UK - - London - - Cost of museums, theft of culture - - Dublin - - Housing problems - - Glendalough - - Edinburgh - - Reading/Writing - - Harry Fucking Potter - - Amsterdam - - Pub crawl (partying vs ...) - - Van Gogh - - Weed - - Sex (museum) - - Copenhagen - - Freedom (Christiania) - - So many chairs - - Stockholm - - Tradition - - Berlin - - History - - Movie - - Prague - - Wandering - - Planning -- The Third Leg - - Munich - - Alps, Olympics - - Passport - - Venice - - Beauty in spite of tourism - - Rijeka - - Hitchikers - - A strange beauty - - Vienna - - Riches and empire - - A day at the palace - - The Couchsurfing Cult - - Athens - - Culture - - History - -## Munich, Germany - -On Febrary 14th I returned to Munich. Having been on the road for a little over -3 weeks, I was utterly exhausted, and neglected to take any pictures at all. In -fact, I hardly remember _what_ I did there, except go to the library a lot. -Munich has a fantastic public library, which I spent a considerable amount of -time at every time I was in town. I'd create my rough plans of where to go next -there, as well as do miscellaneous coding and writing. I was through being a -tourist. - -After Rome I had begun really putting my strategy of "wander around and see what -calls out to me" to the test. By the time I was in Munich it had really sunk in, -and the only thing which really called to me in Munich was the peace and quiet -of the library during the day, and hanging out with Caitlin and her friends at -night. For the rest of the trip I wouldn't take so many pictures as I had been -doing, and wouldn't go way out of my way to see something which didn't truly -interest me. - -After I left Italy I had begun eating differently too. Italy is, obviously, -known for two foods: pasta and pizza, and I had a lot of those while I was -there. At one point I had the awkward experience of an Italian guy asking me if -Italy had better pizza than the U.S., and me having to try and find a way to -both be honest and not seem like too much of a dick when I told him: "no". It -would be fair to say that, in Italy, your money goes a lot farther in terms of -quality than in the U.S.; or, in other words, their average quality is higher. -But it's not like Italians know some secret the rest of the world doesn't, and -you can easily find a good, crispy, thin crust, wood fired pizza anywhere, if -you look for it. - -That was the real lesson for me: it's not that Europe has _better_ food across -the board than the U.S., it's that even their cheapest restaurants will be -pretty high quality, whereas finding good but cheap food in the U.S. can often -be quite difficult. So someone like me, who's on a spend-as-little-as-possible -budget, can still enjoy pretty good food anywhere. - -All the same, I would largely stop going out to eat at all from this point in -the trip onward, and instead I began visiting grocery stores frequently. During -the day I'd always have in my bag: a bottle of water, a loaf of bread, a block -of cheese (usually gouda), almonds, and dates or dried figs. These I would munch -on throughout the day, and for dinner I'd make something simple like pasta or -rice with veggies and tofu. Having a kitchen would become a requirement for me -to stay at a hostel, and many hostels have a "free stuff" section filled with -food items people had left behind, like garlic or salt or whatever, so I often -didn't need to go shopping at all. - -Of course, I didn't abstain from eating out _completely_. Every country has some -claim-to-fame food item, which I'd try once or twice while there, if it didn't -mean going way out of my way. But food wasn't a primary concern of my trip, and -so I tried my best to spend as little as possible on it. - -Having spent a few days in Munich, recuperating and figuring out my next steps, -I continued on... to Brussels! - -## Brussels, Belgium - -The bus arrived in Brussels super late at night, and I woke up to the voice of -the bus driver over the intercom: "Welcome to Brussels! Donald Trump says it is -the shithole of Europe, and he has it right!" So it was a warm welcome. I only -stayed in Brussels for two nights; it was more of a pit-stop on the way to -Bruges than anything. My hostel was, apparently, on the site of one of Van -Gogh's old studios, but that fact was played up in favor of actually making the -hostel any good. But the city was nice enough, and despite the bitter cold I -enjoyed myself. - -{% include image.html - dir="mr-worldwide" file="brussels-2018.jpg" width=556 - descr="Comic murals like this can be find all over the city. Brussels, 2018" - float="right" - %} - -Besides being the capital of the E.U., Brussels is also famous for its history -of comics. Not just superhero comics, but also political, children's, humor, and -historical comics too. While wandering around I visited a number of comic stores -with huge selections, almost entirely in not-English (Belgium has three -official languages), and there were huge comic murals all over the city. -Brussels' comic history would also provide me with my favorite museum experience -of the entire trip. - -The majority of museums I went to in Europe were only loosely ordered. Large -collection museums would organize be era, and maybe by year within the era, or -perhaps by artist. Those museums are fine for wandering around, but the really -good museums are those that tell a story. The Escher exhibit in Lisbon, the -Picasso exhibit I went to in Barcelona, and the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam -tell the story of a single person's life, and by having that focus can be really -compelling for the visitor. Those with a more broad focus have more difficulty -being as compelling, but the Belgian Comic Strip Center nailed it. - -The museum started with a walkthrough of how comics are actually made, from -initial blocking, to pencil sketches, to coloring, and finally inking. It -covered materials used in past and present, and how digital tools like -Photoshop and 3D modeling, which allow the entire process to be done digitally -and quickly, have changed the landscape. - -From there the museum opened up into different sections, some focusing on -specific countries, others on a particular artist, others on a theme. Each had -a series of wall texts guiding you through the section, not just by giving -information on a specific piece, but giving overall information on context. -There were sections on specific Belgian artists, famous comic characters, a -whole section on comics in propaganda, chinese and japanese comics (_not_ -manga), and much more. There were sections on the different mediums that comics -appeared, e.g. newspapers, comic books, and posters, and even a whole section on -the Smurfs. Overall it was one of the most thought out, well designed museums -I've ever been to, and it made the trip to Brussels worth it on its own. - -After the Comic Center I didn't have much else I wanted to do. I wandered -through the tourist-y area, saw the statue of the peeing kid that's apparently -famous, and ended up walking a long while to visit what is, according to _the -internet_, the best belgian fries joint in the city. It was pretty good (though -the best belgian fries I'd have would turn out to be in Amsterdam), and I sat -down in a little plaza to eat them. While there I caught the eye, for better or -worse, of a guy coming out of a bar, and he immediately bee-lined for me. His -English was not solid, but that didn't slow him down in the least. - -He opened by telling me he was waiting for his taxi, and then immediately -launched into a tirade against capitalism, in favor of communism. I told him I'm -from the U.S. and we (mostly he) talked about consumer culture, the plight of -the working man, and the like. After a few minutes his taxi showed up, he wished -me a good trip, and we said goodbye. It was a fun but extremely odd interaction. -"Are all Belgians so eager to espouse communism to random passerby?", I'd wonder -to myself. - -After wandering a while longer I decided to just catch a bus back to my hostel. -A woman walked by with her two kids while I was waiting at the stop, and turned -back to tell me something, though she didn't have hardly any English to work -with. After some struggle we managed to land on "no bus". Damn. So I walked down -to the metro station to take the train instead. While waiting for the train I -overheard on the intercom: "Train delay due to worker strike". Which explained -everything instantly. The Brussels public transit workers were on strike, so -there was no bus, and no train, and a man (I'm betting one of the workers) was -drinking in the middle of the day, waiting for a taxi, and super primed to talk -about worker's rights. - -While it was a funny situation, in a way, it did make my life quite a bit -harder. Once I finally got back to the hostel I stayed in for the night, and the -next day headed on to Bruges. - -## Bruges, Belgium - -I'll be honest and say that 90% of the reason I wanted to go to Bruges was -because of the movie, _In Bruges_, which is one of my all time favorites. The -movie was shot almost completely in the city, and makes a lot of fun out of -tourists coming to see it. "It's a fucking fairytale" is a common refrain in it. -Bruges always had a pretty solid tourist game, but after the movie it really -took off, so that most of the other people in my hostel said they had only -really heard of the city from the movie too. - -{% include image.html - dir="mr-worldwide" file="bruges-pano-2018.jpg" width=1492 - descr="View from atop the the Belfry of Bruges, 2018" - %} - -The city itself is actually beautiful. Once out of the busy tourist area, -centered around the Belfry, the streets and canals wind around through quiet -neighborhoods and small parks. Bruges is sometimes called the Venice of the -North (though Amsterdam also calls itself this), due to its history as an -important historical commercial port built on top of a maze of canals. There are -many canal boat tours available, but I was too ~~cheap~~ poor to spring for one, -so I took a free walking tour instead. - -"Free" walking tours are a fairly common business in European cities. The tour -guides collect people from various hostels they have arrangements with, and walk -them around the city, talking about whatever is worth talking about. Most that I -took were quite good, weaving together the history of a place, its culture both -then and now, and current events, all while giving you a good lay-of-the-land -and two-ish hours of being out-and-about. At the end of the tour the guides ask -for tips/donations, and most people give between $5-20. - -On the tour of Bruges our guide had pointed out a sea shell cemented into the -pavement. This was part, he said, of the Camino De Santiago. In the middle ages -the Catholic Church considered pilgrimage to be a suitable form of atonement for -sins/crimes, and so many people throughout Europe were sent away from their -towns to travel by land to the Santiago de Compestela Cathedral in northern -Spain. Over time the various routes materialized into a network, denoted by sea -shells or sea shell symbols, which stretches throughout Europe and which people -continue to use today. - -Even as the guide was telling us about it I knew I wanted to do. As the trip -wore on I talked to a few people who had done the pilgrimage, and for every one -I became more and more convinced that I must do it. - -{% include image.html - dir="mr-worldwide" file="bruges-canal-2018.jpg" width=1920 - descr="Canals of Bruges, 2018" - %} - -I made a few friends in my hostel, our friendship having been forged in the -struggle of trying to find an affordable meal in Bruges. Every restaurant in -Bruges, it seemed, did "full" meals, where you pay a fixed amount and get two, -three, or four courses. But the fixed amount was never lower than €45, and so we -spent a lot of time searching for alternatives. After a lot of searching we -found a couple places which were reasonably priced for the couple nights we were -all there, and one of the group knew of a hard-to-find pub which made and sold -13% alcohol beer for a few euro. After all that Bruges wasn't as unaffordable -as it first seemed, and was a lot of fun, but it took a bit of work to make it -so. - -After Bruges I took a bus back to Brussels, where I hung out for a while waiting -for my next bus which would take me across the pond. - -## London, England - -Getting to London was honestly one of the most exciting parts of that trip. The -Channel Tunnel, or "Chunnel", runs from France, underneath the English Channel, -and pops back up in England. In the tunnel is a giant train which ferries cars -and buses through the tunnel. Taking the Chunnel was as easy as buying a bus -ticket from Brussels to London, and passing through three passport checks along -the way (the UK check being the most intense passport check of my entire -journey, for whatever reason). - -While the London Underground (The Tube, as the British call it, in their very -endearing habit of giving everything an endearing nickname) was easy enough to -use, though _very_ expensive, so I spent a lot of time walking in the bitter -cold. London is a _huge_ metropolitan city, filled to the brim with shops and -restaurants and plenty of other attractions to grab tourists. But despite their -best efforts, none were more grabbing to me than the museums. - -{% include image.html - dir="mr-worldwide" file="london-steg-2018.jpg" width=1920 - descr="Stegosaurus at the Natural History Museum. London, 2018" - %} - -All the major museums in London are free to enter. This includes the National -Gallery, exhibiting paintings and art from the world over, the Natural History -Museum (my favorite), with its seemingly infinite halls of fossils and stones -and pre-historic artifacts, and the British Museum, which exhibits many of the -archeological treasures the British have stolen from other cultures throughout -history. - -There's a significant amount of controversy surrounding the British Museum, and -whether or not it's right for it to keep artifacts like the Rosetta Stone, and -sculptures from the Parthenon of Athens. The argument is that the British were -not really _given_ these artifacts by the peoples/cultures which originated -them, and so the museum is effectively parading stolen property. - -The British Museum argues that, in fact, it's encouraging the spread of culture -and understanding by collecting these artifacts from around the world and -displaying them in context to each other, and that its mission is charitable to -the cultures from which the artifacts are taken. And additionally that: "[the] -restitutionist premise, that whatever was made in a country must return to an -original geographical site, would empty both the British Museum and the other -great museums of the world". - -The argument that they're actually spreading culture is pretty patronizing, as -if the people they've stolen from don't know how to do this best for themselves, -and as if they should obviously _want_ this to be done for them. As for the -argument that restitutionism would empty the museum, I can only imagine a -restitutionist responding: "Yes, that's the point". It's one thing for a museum -to be given or loaned an item for display by another people, but quite another -to assume the right to take an item regardless of its peoples' wishes. - -Besides some very good fish and chips, London didn't have all that much else for -me. The museums were insanely crowded, with everyone pushing over themselves to -fill out their selfie-with-famous-objects-bingo-cards; my hostel was weird (all -of my hostels in the UK were weird, in fact; more on that in Ireland); and -everything was quite expensive. I wasn't too sad to leave. - -## Dublin, Ireland - -My bus dropped me off at a small ferry terminal in Holyhead, a town in Wales. -From there I took the couple-hour ferry ride to Dublin. - -I spent only a couple of days in Dublin, but one of those days I struggled to be -a living human while fighting off the flu. I still managed to walk down to -Trinity College to see The Book of Kells and the college library's Long Room, -but the memory of it is fuzzy. I'm sure I looked as dead as the people who wrote -those books. - -That day I mostly hung out at the hostel. Hostels in the UK have a very -different atmosphere than everywhere else; there's a fairly bad housing crisis -occurring in most major cities (like the three I went to), and often it's -cheaper to live in a hostel than to rent an apartment. So the hostels I stayed -in were filled with people who'd been there for months, some of them working, -others trying to find work, others just lounging. But the dichotomy between -people who were just passing through and people who were there long term made it -a less than stellar experience. The long-term residents all knew each other and -formed cliques, and generally took up the common spaces, so if you weren't -already traveling with others (like me) it was pretty easy to feel excluded. - -On the second day I decided to go on a day trip out of Dublin. The city was -neat, but I wasn't finding all that much I wanted to do inside of it. I found a -bus company which did day trips to Glendalough, a valley which holds -the ruins of a 6th century monastary, a beautiful lake, many hiking trails, and -some sheep. I spent the day hiking, wandering around the ruins, and escaping an -incoming snow storm. By the end of it all my sickness from the previous day was -completely gone, and I slept the whole bus ride back. - -## Edinburgh, Scotland - -I left Dublin just as the Beast from the East made landfall. A giant cold wave -brought in tons of snow and unseasonably low temperatures, stretching all across -Europe. My plane must have been one of the last ones to land in Edinburgh, -because for the next 2 days the entire city was completely snowed in, and most -stores and attractions were closed. - -The tourist industry heavily plays up that Edinburgh is the city where JK -Rowling wrote most of the _Harry Potter_ books, and you can see its influence -clearly. The towering gothic cathedrals, castles on cliffs, old graveyards, -dense cobblestone streets and dark alleys all feel like something right out of -the books (though really it's the other way around). There was a cafe only a few -blocks away from my hostel where JK Rowling apparently first started writing the -books, a piece of trivia which the cafe has not failed to cash in on. - -The city was quite peaceful, probably because everything was closed from the -storm, but it felt like it might always be like that even in good weather. Most -days I'd find a spot to hunker down and draw for a while, then in the afternoon -go explore some sight or another; the castle, the royal mile, Calton Hill... Or -I'd go in search of decent groceries, which were strangely difficult to find. -The city is (said to be) built on seven hills, like Rome, and between the many -steep stairways and narrow alleys navigating them, and packed snow and ice, it -was quite difficult to explore too far. - -While I spent five whole days in Edinburgh, I don't have much to talk about for -it. It's probably one of the most unique cities I visited, with a lot of beauty -and history and things to see, and I absolutely would love to go back. But -despite all that, there was definitely a feeling a depression while I was there, -like I was totally alone. When I got onto a plane and took off, I was more -relieved than anything else. - -## Amsterdam, The Netherlands - -One of the first things I noticed when I landed in The Netherlands (which is -such a strange name for a country, now that I'm typing it out) is that they have -a sun. It's a stereotype that the UK doesn't get much sun, but it was absolutely -a true one while I was there. There was literally cloud cover the whole time. -That probably had to do with why my mood was down the whole time, unbenownst to -me. - -With my extremely pale ginger self back under the sun, it felt like I'd been -holding my breath for weeks and I was now finally able to breathe again. - -Amsterdam is sometimes called the Venice of the North. Like Bruges. Unlike -Bruges, Amsterdam is gritty and in some places delapidated. The buildings are -sinking into the soft, slightly-under-sea-level Holland soil, and so lean -precariously over the streets. House boats line nearly all canals, many -appearing abandoned. Most canals have a layer of debris and trash floating on -them. - -Some parts of the city are littered with bars and clubs and "coffee shops", -giving them a grunge feel. And others had wildly colored houses and quiet -corners on the canal. And then the museum district, with the amazing Van Gogh -Musuem and the laborynthian Rijksmuseum (those were the two I went in, there's -like five in that little square). And still there's the red light district, with -sex shops and cheesy tourist shit and live shows and, obviously, prostitutes. -They each have a little window where they try to grab your attention from. It's -kinda weird. - -Despite that, Amsterdam was probably my second favorite place I visted on the -whole trip. Like Lisbon, the city feels real. The grunge lets you know people -actually live there. The hostel I stayed in was really cool, and I made a bunch -of friends. One of the nights there I confirmed a long-held suspicion: that I -would hate bar crawls. Now I know for sure. On a different night me and friends -went out, visited a "coffee shop", and hit up the Sex Museum. This turned out to -be a great idea; it wasn't even that raunchy, just kind of mind-boggling. - -Amsterdam also turned out to have the best Belgian fries I've ever had, for -whatever reason, and they ended up being my lunch almost every day. I'd grab my -fry-cone and wander the canals, finding small corners and tucked away cafes to -sit and read at. I wouldn't have thought that a city known for nightlife could -also be home to so many serene little spots; nevertheless, the city is full of -them. - -My bus out of Amsterdam was an 8 hour overnight journey which deposited me in -Copenhagen. Before getting on the bus I killed the last of my "coffee" that was -in my pocket, contorted myself into a ball fitting into the two seats of space I -grabbed, and got the best sleep I've ever gotton on a bus. |