Quick trip wrap up & moving onto graduate school
I apologize again for being off the radar. After returning home from my trip I had to venture out to Montreal to do some apartment hunting for my move to the city that commences on the 27th of August. Things have been very busy and jittery, and I have been relaxing into the embrace of my family and friends whom I have not seen for four months.
How to summarize the last cities of my trip?
Munich, Germany (3 days): Amazing walking tour done by the infamous Ozzie, lots of discussion of beer and seeing beer (but not drinking beer since I am not a fan), park with wandering nudists, interesting to learn about how Munich hides WWII history in different ways, more lederhosen, & staying with a great guy with a similar taste of music and discovering lots of amazing bands.
had a selection of vegan cakes with my cs host:
they have doggie parking spaces here:
Berlin, Germany (5 days): “coolest” city I have ever been to, feeling of unpredictability kind of unsettling about it, tried vegan doner, broken glass is to be avoided, almost tripped on a glass bottle on the stairs, loved the Holocaust memorial and how people interacted with it, bliss was seeing several art pieces by one of my favourite artists: Anselm Kiefer, great walking tour: Alternative Berlin, learning about Berlin’s underground urban art, major conflict between large corporations attempting to wipe Berlin clean and the independent artistic underground culture occupying beautiful abandoned buildings, it was interesting talking to Berliners about being Berliners, & buying cool clothing in small shops.
our tour group:
lots of great urban art was seen:
enjoyed some of the new architecture:
Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2 days): smelled marijuana on a tram within 10 minutes of entering the city, had guilty feelings about being in the Netherlands for only 2 days and in the least representative city culturally according to most Dutch people I have met, loved the canals and lush greenery, bikes everywhere!, Van Gogh museum, sex museum (strange experience), & delish Maoz falafel that reminded me of their locations in Spain.
Paris, France (5 days): Van Gogh, Degas, the Mona Lisa, Sainte Chappelle, Notre Dame Cathedral, (many things seemed a bit overrated about Paris), got the museum pass which was utterly worth it, Chateau Versailles was where I saw Marie Antoinnette’s home, attended the Rodin museum, & did lots of home cooking with my cs host since at the end of my trip funds.
Sainte Chappelle was magnificent:
At Versailles:
And possibly the best part: the reunion with the first farm I worked on, which has a twice monthly market in Paris. Bought some of the onions that I planted so long ago!
I really appreciated the way that my trip came full circle. A reunion with the first farm I worked on in Paris, then the chance to meet my first couch surfing host again in London, who remarked on how much I had changed since when we first met each other back in April. In four months I have travelled to over ten countries, couch surfed numerous times meeting people in their homes, experienced many languages, packed and unpacked countless times, and took many trains (and a few planes). After all that, being back in Ottawa, Canada where the streets are familiar to me, is a surreal experience.
And now, I am moving to Montreal to embark on my graduate studies degree in Communication Studies. Just as I enter into a new chapter in my life, this blog will also change. Expect at times a more academic tone, cheaper and quicker recipes … I am still deciding whether or not I will keep up my Twittering or Tumblr-ing, while del.icio.us remains indispensable.
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