Stockholm Syndrome

Okay, it´s time for part 2 of mine and Aaron´s adventure.

After leaving Belgium, we flew to Stockholm, Sweden. Stockholm is a really cool city and the people are some of the friendliest I´ve encountered. We went to a few museums while we were there, including a musical instrument museum (they let you play several of the instruments), a military museum, and the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a Swedish ship built in the early 1600´s and sank on its maiden voyage because there were too many cannons on it and it became top-heavy. It sat underwater for over 300 years and in 1961, they pulled it out and restored it. Because in the low salt content in the Baltic Sea, shipworms are unable to survive there, so ships in the Baltic are always well preserved. It was amazing how few parts they had to replace. I think they said that over 90% of the ship was original!

The next and final stop was Berlin, Germany. We were extremely tired by the time we arrived there, but we were still able to see a lot. Some of the highlights were the Berlin Wall murals, Checkpoint Charlie, the Reichstag (the line was too long, so we didn´t get to go inside), an old concentration camp (wow), the Holocaust memorial, and a museum about the German Democratic Republic. I didn´t really know much about Germany between the end of WWII and now, so it was really cool to get to learn about the GDR and fill in that part of the countries history.

I have heard many people say of many countries that "Everybody there speaks English". "Oh, (insert country/city name)? Everybody there speaks English". This sentence is obviously an exaggeration. Clearly, everybody in a given European country is not going to speak English, right? Being in Stockholm made me think otherwise. After being in Spain for a few months and somewhat adapting to the culture, I really hated having to be a true tourist and having to rely on other people knowing my language. In Belgium and Germany, there were a lot of people who spoke English, and I am thankful they were willing to be nice to us and help us, but in many situations I could still tell that they were still somewhat reluctant or uncomfortable with doing so. In Sweden (Stockholm, anyway. I can´t speak for the whole country), English is so integrated into their lives that it never seemed that I was hasseling someone by talking to them. I actually heard one group of girls switching back and forth between the two languages, rather seemlessly. They would be speaking Swedish (which is a bizarre sounding language, but cool) and then all of a sudden they would say a few sentences in English. Then as if nothing happened, change right back to Swedish. It was so wierd, but in an awesome way!

I'll only be in Barcelona for one more week. Wow... Volcanic ash permitting, I'll be travelling to Ireland for a 2 day hiking excursion, then to Liverpool, England for my pilgrimage to the hometown of The Beatles, then to Leeds, England to see my good friend, Jency. After that, I'll jump on a plane in Manchester and head home. Its so weird that this is almost over. I have very mixed emotions about it right now. I am excited to come home and see friends and family, but I know that I will really miss this place.

See you soon!
Landon

Belgian waffles or Belgian beer? I'll take the latter...

A couple of weeks ago we got a week and a half of school for Easter break. When planning for this semester, I thought that this week would be one of the high points of the semester, and I wasn't disappointed. Throughout the semester, I was a little stressed out about it, because there were so many places I wanted to go, but I knew I could only choose a few. My good friend, Aaron, ended up planning the whole trip more or less, so it worked out well. I got to see some cool places, and I didn't really have to choose anything. There were a few days of the trip that I wasn't even sure where we were going to stay that night. It was kind of fun for everything to be a surprise. (Thanks Aaron!!)

Our first stop, after I gave Aaron a two-day crash course in Barcelona, was Belgium. There was a clear and distinct theme of our travels in Belgium, and that theme was beer. Yes, beer. But not in the same way that beer is the theme of a fraternity party or a Nascar event. We were on a quest to taste and purchase some of the best beers in the world. We succeeded in that we visited two Trappist abbeys, three other small Belgian breweries, and found a few specialty stores that have hundreds of different kinds of beer (all Belgian), many of which you can't buy anywhere else. If you're interested in beer or the brewing of beer or just in weird things, check out the Cantillon brewery in Brussels where they brew odd beers called Lambic and Geuze. Instead of adding yeast to their beer to cause fermentation (which is what every or almost every other brewery in the world does), they let it cool after brewing in the attic of the building, where apparently there naturally exists a yeast that allows them to make deliciously bizarre beer or "geuze". Aaron liked the word "geuze" so much that for the rest of the trip, he referred to any type of beer (or any type of liquid for that matter) as gooze.

I think Belgium was my favorite leg of the trip, not because of the beer (although it was awesome), but because of the unique experiences we had there. One of the small breweries we planned on visiting had recently suffered a fire. Normally, they have tours of the brewery and a bar where you can taste their beers. Being that they couldn't let people into the brewery because of the damage and construction, they opened up their home to people who were visiting. We felt really awkward when we first went in, partly because we weren't sure if we were supposed to be there, and partly because it was full of groups of older people speaking Dutch. Soon after though, we started an hour long conversation with a man named Frankie who explained many things to us, including how many Belgians do not feel "Belgian" at all, but rather Dutch or French depending on which half of the country you grew up in.

Driving through the country was also a really cool experience. Belgium is a beautiful country, and we got to see it in a way that most travelers don't get to. Even though they don't believe in road signs, and were lost about 30% of the time, it was still a lot of fun. We also had an interesting experience asking directions/buying gas from a man who only spoke French. It was such a bizarre feeling not being able to say a single word to each other that both of us would understand. I have definitely experienced language barriers in Spain, but nothing like being in the French half of Belgium.

Well, this is already longer than I planned it to be, so I think I'll call it quits now and just write another post later this week about our adventures in Sweden and Germany. Only three more weeks in Barcelona... Wow. I can't believe its almost over.