29 September, 2005
Day 66 - Meeting more people
Today I went to the Meteorology welcome meeting and the first Christian Union meeting. I could write a ton about both of those, but I'll say for now that I like them both a lot. The meteorology building has a giant neon art thing inside that lights up different colors based on the direction of the wind. So cool! I'd love something like that for my house. The CU is very unique (compared to what OU has) because it's sponsored by all the various churches in Reading, from Anglican to Pentecostal to Reformed Baptist. If you'd like to know more, email me. In summary, I met (and got to know better) a lot of great people today at both places and a few more at my hall.
I think I've already met more people in England than in Oklahoma, and that's after living in OK for 6 years. It's impossible to remember that many names, so I remember most people by where they're from. And that works, because everybody at the Univ. of Reading is from somewhere other than Reading and it's hard to find two people who are from the same place. It's not like OU where at least half the people are from either the OKC or DFW areas, and definitely not like SJSU where 90%+ are from San Jose. Of the hundreds of people I've met, only a few were from London and none were from Berkshire (Reading's county).
And there's another thing that the Meteorology department, Christian Union, int'l students, and Windsor Hall have in common. I'm not gonna say what that is, but I'm sure some of you can already guess ;-)
28 September, 2005
Day 65 - Small World Café
Tonight I went to the Small World Café, which is not a café but a dinner for international students which is hosted by the U. of Reading Christian Union (CU). I've been very much looking forward to being involved with the CU because I've heard good things about it and know of at least 3 people involved in it who've read/posted to this blog, all of whom seemed very friendly, including the leader of tonight's event who I got to meet tonight.
I met a lot of very nice people there. I met someone from Norway, Estonia, Thailand, Niger (or Nigeria?), Iran, France, Portugal, Germany, 3 from Belgium, 2 from Italy, and several from England including a meteorology student. The turnout was much higher than expected, which was good, but it meant that by the time it was my turn to get food, there wasn't any left. Food isn't easy to get here at 10:00 when it's pouring rain, but I found an ok place not too far from campus.
Speaking of food, one of my biggest fears about moving into Windsor Hall (fully-catered, so all meals are provided) was not liking the food and being stuck with it. But much to my surprise, the catered cafeteria food here is very good. It's better than 90% of the restaurants I've been to in England, not that that's saying a whole lot. And they serve decent portions, which I didn't know existed in England. But it'll be hard to get used to having only warm water to drink.
My Address
Here is my address from now on, at least until I go back to Oklahoma.
Matt Haugland
Windsor Hall
Upper Redlands Road
Reading
RG1 5JL
United Kingdom
Day 64 - Traffic light party
Tonight my hall did a traffic light party at the bar downstairs. If you're not familiar with that term, it's a thing where you're supposed to wear red if you're taken, yellow or orange if you're single but picky or not interested, and green if you're "single and up for it". I'll leave it to you to guess which color I wore. :-)
It wasn't bad.. more fun than the dancing last night. But it was still another loud place where it was pretty impossible to have a meaningful conversation. I left after about 30 minutes.
Yesterday at the international student meeting I met a Fresno State exchange student who happend to be from Santa Rosa, CA. For those of you who don't know, Fresno State was the big rival when I was at San Jose State, I have family who attended Fresno State, and I was born in Santa Rosa. So it was very neat to meet such a person so far away.
Tonight after I left the party, I met her for fish & chips and a nice quiet walk around the campus and surrounding areas -- Reading is an awesome campus for walking around at night. I know it kinda defeats the purpose of the whole foreign experience, but it was great. Talked for almost 3 hours and never misunderstood a word or asked for anything to be repeated (until tonight I think the longest I've gone here without asking someone to repeat something is about 5 minutes). But it was more than just the "language barrier" that made her easier to talk to. It's hard to explain.
As much as I love hanging out with English people, tonight reminded me that I'm still very much an American from the Bay Area.
26 September, 2005
Day 63 - Freshers' Week
Today was the first official day of Freshers' Week, a week without classes to get the freshers (freshmen) oriented to the university. While I'm not a true fresher, I've been participating in a lot of it because it's my first year here.
Tonight I went to an event that could never happen in America: a school-sponsored drinking/dancing event at the night club in the student union. A place on campus packed with 18-yr-old freshmen drinking, and it's all legal and encouraged by the school. So strange.
That was probably the lowlight of the night. Before that was nice.. at dinner I met several new nice people from my floor. It was nice at first, before it got too loud to talk to anyone. The dancing later on was kinda fun for a while, but after an hour or so it started to get old. I guess people need to drink a lot in order to have fun at something like that. Otherwise I don't understand why people don't get totally bored (as I was) after 2 or 3 hours of it. Well, I guess it wasn't so bad when (on rare occasions) they played a song that I actually knew. But it still wasn't my kind of thing. Now if they played country music and occasionally stopped dancing and did completely different things to keep it interesting, that could be fun.
One last note about "Freshers' Week"... it's nice to live in a place where people know where to use apostrophes and where not to. In Oklahoma it would surely be written "Fresher's Week".
25 September, 2005
Days 61 & 62 - A night in London
The past 2 days were more like one big long day, so I'm condensing them into one post.
I went to London on Saturday to hang out with some friends. After meeting in east London, we went to the Good Mixer, Bullet Bar, and Dublin Castle, all in
Camden. Very interesting places, and with people I really enjoyed being around. It felt very British. I had a great time. Then I tried to get back home.
It was after midnight, so the Underground was closed. I tried to take a bus toward Paddington station (on the northwest side of London where the trains to Reading leave from) but ended up going east instead. I finally made it back to an area south of Camden and kept walking west until I could find a bus that went to Paddington. None. So I ended up walking all the way to Paddington (about 3 miles I think) and arrived at 3:30. The last train to Reading left at 1:00. The next one was 6:43. So I spent the rest of the night at the train station waiting for the 6:43 train.
I tried to make the most of it. It was kinda neat to walk around a deserted London. And the 6/8 hour time difference came in handy for calling people in the U.S.
A few other random things... I saw a pretty serious fight in east London, fed crisps to pigeons (have you ever seen them try to eat those? it's quite entertaining!), saw the Greenwich meridian laser, and learned that a "daddy long legs" is a very large flying mosquito-like thing, not a long-legged spider as in America.
23 September, 2005
Day 60 - From RG2 to RG1
Today was my first day in the RG1 postcode. As sad as it is to no longer be in the Whitley postcode, I've enjoyed my first day at Windsor Hall. It's almost totally empty. Most of the other students won't move in until Sunday. So I might change my mind about it after that. From what I hear, most of them will be loud undergraduates. hmmmm
Yes, Windsor Hall is older and dirtier and not as nice as Sherfield. I don't have my own bathroom anymore, and the shared one is not terribly dirty but it's old enough that it's kinda gross even when it's clean. But I'm not complaining. I'm only here for 80 more days. And my house in Norman will definitely seem ultra-posh when I get back.
This is my first night living on a university campus. It's neat. I always enjoy walking around OU at night, and Reading is even better for walking around because it's more like a park than a school. My room has a GREAT view. I'm on the 6th (top) floor. I'm right above the tennis courts (where I plan to spend a lot of time if it's not too cold) and can see almost half of the campus out my window. I can also see a fair bit of the town centre (and town centre lights at night) which I love! I'm starting to regret not bringing my telescope.
So the postitives help cancel out the negatives. Oh, I almost forgot, the worst thing of all... this is a fully-catered hall, which means I'm stuck with the food they serve -- which may or may not be good, but knowing England I don't have very high expectations for it. But that's not the worst part yet.. dinner is only served from 5:30 to 6:15!! I thought it was a joke at first. I can't even remember the last time I ate dinner before 8:00 (average for me is about 9:30). That's definitely gonna be a big adjustment I'll have to make. But if everyone else can do it, I guess I can too.
Here's a picture of my new room:
22 September, 2005
Day 59 - Last day in Sherfield
Today is my last day in Sherfield Hall. This afternoon I got a sneak peak at my new room in Windsor Hall. As expected, it was not as nice as where I'm living now.
The consensus around here is that Sherfield is one of the best (someone today even called it "posh"), and Windsor is one of the worst. However, another consensus is that Whitley is not a good place to stroll around - and yet it's my favorite place to be. Perhaps for similar reasons, I think I will like it. It'll help me appreciate my house more. Most students living on campus here probably don't own a nice, new, big (by UK standards) detached house to go back to, or 5 acres of land, so I certainly have nothing to complain about!
Here is a picture of my "old" room in Sherfield. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of my new room.
Trip - Dublin - Bournemouth - Reading
I left Dublin early in the morning and flew to Bournemouth on the southern coast of England. Yes, Bournemouth really does have an airport! I think it's the smallest international airport I've ever seen. The international arrivals building looked more like a mobile home than something I would've expected to see at an airport.
The train ride from Bournemouth to Reading was pretty uneventful. It was nice to get back to Reading, but not like after my trip to France & Italy. This trip was much more relaxing, mostly because I didn't cover as much distance every day.
The sites in Scotland and Ireland aren't as spectacular as Italy's, but are much more pleasant to visit.
(click to enlarge)
21 September, 2005
Trip - Belfast - Dublin
Belfast was a nice city, but wasn't very unique compared to many I visted. I spent several more hours there in the morning before moving on to Dublin. I was looking hard for differences between Northern Ireland and Britain, but there were more similarities than differences. One noticeable difference was the train system - the station in Belfast was very new and clean, but the trains were infrequent (only once every 2 hours to Dublin, unfortunately) and they don't let you split trips like in Britain. Though the trains were nice, I prefer the British system - maybe that's partly because I can ride for free in Britain and had to pay for it in (N.)Ireland.
I went down the eastern coast of Ireland to Dublin. The scenery was nice, but not as much different from Britain as I had expected. Dublin was interesting. Tons of new buildings. I don't think I've ever seen so many cranes in one city. Of the European cities I've been to, Dublin is one of the most modern. A few streets almost looked like downtown San Jose minus the palm trees. However, there also were some nice older areas, VERY nice parks, and some not-so-nice areas that were fun to walk through.
Again, I looked hard for differences between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and between Ireland and Britain. There were some noticeable ones. Many of the signs are in English and (Irish) Gaelic - similar to signs in Wales that are English/Welsh. The currency obviously was different. I prefer the UK currency because the coins all look very different -- Euro coins almost all look the same (all the same color and similar sizes) and it can be hard to tell them apart.
Another big difference I noticed was the people -- they had a very Irish look to them, which I did not notice in Belfast. Many of the men looked a lot like Conan O'Brien, and many of the women looked a lot like, uh, well, Conan O'Brien with long hair.
(click to enlarge)
Trip - Edinburgh - Glasgow - Belfast
I woke up very early and spent more time walking around Edinburg.
After that, I spent a couple hours in Glasgow, which also lived up to what I've heard -- not as nice as Edinburgh, but still had a lot of character. From there I went down the Stranraer and took a ferry (the Stena HSS) across to Belfast.
The ferry was much smaller than the B&O ferry that I took across the Channel a few months ago. But I think it was a little nicer inside. It had a mini movie theater and a Burger King, which the other one didn't have. It's supposedly the world's largest and smoothest fast ferry. It definitely was smooth and fast!
Belfast was an interesting city. It reminded me of Manchester -- some old things, but a lot of it was very new and modern. It was, for the most part, a nice city. It's hard to imagine violent protests / riots there.
(click to enlarge)
Trip - B'ham - Lake District - Edinburgh
Here is a map of my trip to Scotland and Ireland:
On the first day I stopped in Birmingham (has been one of my favorite cities for years) for lunch, then headed up to Edinburgh through the Lake District (northwestern part of England). The Lake District had some of the most beautiful scenery in England.
Several people have told me that Edinburgh is a very nice city, and it lived up to my expectations. It's definitely one of the nicest cities in Europe, perhaps the nicest I've seen so far. It had a great (and rare) combination of oldness and cleanliness. Edinburgh Castle wasn't the best-looking castle I've seen, but it looked awesome on top of the hill, especially at night. Even many of the regular buildings were castle-like, which gave the city a very neat atmosphere.
(click to enlarge)See next post for more pictures of Edinburgh...
17 September, 2005
Day 54 - Scotland, N. Ireland, Ireland
Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for another trip. I will head up to Edinburgh, Scotland tomorrow. From there I plan to go to Glasgow and then down to Stranraer where I will catch a ferry to Belfast, Northern Ireland. I've been hearing a lot about Belfast in the news lately because of all the violence/riots there -- which is part of why I'm so interested in going there. I think I'll be safe though.
From Belfast I plan to take the train down to Dublin, Ireland. I booked a flight for Wednesday morning from Dublin to Bournemouth, which is a relatively short train ride from Reading. I plan to be home early in the afternoon on Wednesday. That should give me enough time to prepare for the big move on Thursday.
I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures! And if anyone needs to reach me, my mobile phone should work, at least while I'm in the UK.
16 September, 2005
Day 53 - Frozen strawberries
One of the worst things about the UK is lack of frozen fruit at groceries stores, at least at the ones I've been to. It would be so nice to dump some frozen strawberries (which come with the stems already chopped off) into juice and blend it for a quick smoothie. I have a great little hand blender here, but it's not so convenient to have to perpetually buy fresh strawberries (because they don't last very long or come in giant packages), cut all the little stems off (which is a bit of a pain), and add ice (another thing that's not always easy to get here).
I guess if the main thing I'm complaning about now is the lack of frozen strawberries, it means I've adjusted pretty well to life here and enjoy living here.
15 September, 2005
Day 52 - One more week in Sherfield
I have one more week here in Sherfield Hall. Next Friday I'll be moving into Windsor Hall, which is located on campus (Sherfield is a couple blocks south of campus). It'll be more convient for school, but I'm not looking forward to moving.
I like where I live now for a lot of reasons. One of them is that I'm right on the edge of an area called Whitley. Whitley has a reputation. A 5 minute walk southwest of Sherfield takes you from a nice upper-middle-class area to a rather notorious little neighborhood of flats where I've been advised not to go at night. I walk through there on the way to church, right by a fence that's covered with flowers and candles -- someone was murdered there recently.
When I move to Windsor, I probably be spending more time on the north side of campus rather than down by Whitley. So what's wrong with that? Well, I've always liked Whitley, particularly the more dangerous parts. It has a lot of character. The "chavs", as they're called, who hang out in front of the flats along my walk, are very interesting to me. They tend to be younger and less intimidating than the gangsta' type thugs that you'd see in a bad American neighborhood. They have unique accents -- nothing like the stereotypical posh BBC English. They look and act very different from most people in Norman, San Jose, or even Reading. It's one of my favorite places to be. I like the atmosphere there. The contrast across such a short distance is amazing. And some of the "chavettes" are kinda cute.
14 September, 2005
Day 51 - Eating utensils
Tonight I went to a prayer meeting that was a joint meeting between three of the cell groups -- two of which were the ones I attend, so it was quite convenient. Afterwards, we had cake. That's when the wackiness began.
I was handed a plate with a piece of cake on it, and nothing else. This lead me to discover that English people eat cake with their hands, frosting and all. I had seen people do it earlier and just assumed it was because there were no forks around. But no, that's the normal way to eat cake here.
That's not so shocking in itself. I wouldn't be too surprised if some Americans ate cake with their hands once in a while. But what's truly baffling about it is the fact that these same people, the same ones who eat cake with their hands, also eat pizza and french fries ("chips") with a knife and fork!!
Can someone explain that one to me?
13 September, 2005
Day 50 - OU Football in England
While evryone here is celebrating England's victory in the Ashes (I don't know anything about cricket, so I can't say any more about that), I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about OU football this year.
I might just be the biggest OU football fan in England. I have been recording the games on my computer in Norman, converting them to AVI/DivX, downloading them from my home web server, and watching them here in England. Sure it's not quite the same as being in Norman, but it's still OU football and I still love it.
The TCU game - Unfortunately, I already heard about the outcome before I was able to watch it. While I was in Rome (of all places!) an American tourist saw my OU shirt and asked "How did OU lose to TCU?". For a while I thought it was a joke, so it didn't quite ruin it for me. But I wasn't as surprised about it as most people. TCU is a good team. I was expecting a close game, and that game could've gone either way. However, TCU losing to SMU last week makes me wonder, as SMU is terrible.
The Tulsa game - That one scared me for a while. OU outscored Tulsa 95-0 in the past two years. I was hoping Bomar would have a good game so I could think TCU was a fluke because of Thompson. He didn't. However, after the bad start, he didn't have much of a chance. The entire offense was "hand the ball to Peterson". Sure he made some big mistakes, but he also made some good decisions and showed good running ability. And Peterson had some spectacular runs!
I think OU has a lot of potential this year. Give them time. Once the QB completes some passes and gets some confidence, and the offensive line shows up, I think the passing game will come. Once that happens, the combination of Peterson and an athletic QB like Bomar (or Thompson) will be deadly. (If it still doesn't happen, maybe they should think about scrapping Chuck Long's offense and start running the wishbone!)
The defense has already looked pretty good and will only get better. I wouldn't be at all surprised if OU beats Texas again this year and wins the Big 12 title. Maybe that's too optimistic. But if it happens, I'll have proof that I predicted it on Day 50.
12 September, 2005
Day 49 - 2nd Place from Oxford
Now that the voting is over, I can post my best picture from Oxford. It won 2nd place (out of 342 entries) on
DPChallenge. What a blessing it is to live so close to so many beautiful places.
11 September, 2005
Day 48 - Mail & more travel ideas
Today I went down to check my mail and found a letter from the Welsh people I stayed with a few weeks ago, and a card signed by people from my CTK small group. What a great surprise!!! Things like that mean a lot to me and helped make today a great day. I know at least a couple of you read this, so thank you VERY much!!
I'm still thinking about my next trip. Tonight I talked to a friend from Northern Ireland and two people who've lived in Scotland. Both sound like places I'd love to visit soon. After all the news lately about the riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland is quickly moving up toward the top of my list of places to go!
Down at the laundry room tonight, I met a couple students from Greece, both of whom did not like England and couldn't think of a single thing they liked about being here. They said Greece is "so much better" than England. I've always thought Greece wasn't much different from Italy (and you know my feelings about Italy), but now I'm thinking it must be a lot different. So I'm adding Greece as another place I want to visit while I'm here - in addition to Scotland, N.Ireland, Ireland, Spain, Germany, and Norway. I sure hope I don't end up having class every day!
Day 46 - Ha Ha Bar
Tonight I went to the Ha Ha Bar in Reading with some friends from church. It did seem a bit classier than the pubs I went to recently, and a lot different from what I pictured a "bar" to be like -- definitely different from the ones I've seen in America. Well, I don't think I've actually been to any except at the Holiday Inn, but I've seen them in movies and they were nothing like what I went to tonight.
It was fun, and I had a good chance to talk to a few nice people who I didn't know very well. But there's something that I don't understand about the place. Maybe someone can explain it to me. There's really nothing to do there but talk to people. And yet, they played music so loud that it was very hard to hear what anyone is saying, and you almost had to yell for anyone to hear you. What sense does that make? I think there should be quite places for talking, and loud places for sitting and listening to the music. But loud places for talking? What's the point of that?
10 September, 2005
Day 45 - Impressions of France & Italy
Here are some of my impressions of France and Italy:
FranceFrance is a pretty big country but does not have a lot of big cities. There is a lot of farm land and little towns that all seem to have a tall church steeple. It's generally a very attractive-looking country. The north has low rolling hills and is incredibly hazy. The south has steep mountains and a beautiful coast. It's a little warmer and sunnier than England, especially toward the south.
Positive: Excellent train system, nice architecture, smaller towns are in good shape, good English speakers in Paris and Marseille, most people are at least somewhat friendly and helpful, tons of cute girls, great fries, food cheaper than in England, generally happy atmosphere.
Negative: Parts of Paris look like 3rd-world countries with slums, some areas are dirty and smell bad, some people are unfriendly, even when speaking English the people can be very hard to understand, a lot of graffiti, many homless people on the streets - at least in Marseille, very hard to find wifi.
ItalyItaly has a lot of mountains and everywhere is pretty close to the sea. Some areas are very green and look very nice. There's a lot of farm land, which generally looks pretty nice. Almost everything is old, but the styles are very consistent - not a big clash between modern and old like Reading and London, for example. More big cities than in France. The cities seem not to have many suburbs.
Positive: Very nice terrain, nice countryside. Extremely good landmarks and historical sites. Prices of food are much better than the UK and a little better than France. Quite easy to find good pizza, pasta, and sandwiches. Has a unique style. Venice is wonderful. Many things that you can't see anywhere else in the world.
Negative: Very dirty, many places smell bad, tons of smokers, big cities very crowded, people generally unfriendly, lack of AC makes warm weather miserable, graffiti everywhere, many people arguing/yelling at each other in public, relatively bad train system, difficult to cross the street in big cities, most big cities don't feel safe.
Compared to the US and UKThere's really not much close comparison with the US. France's train system is light-years ahead and Italy has historical sites that the US could never compete with. Otherwise, both of these countries have a significantly lower standard of living than America in pretty much every category. In terms of cleanliness, comfort, modern conveniences, etc., I'd say France is about halfway betwen the US and Mexico, and Italy is about halfway between France and Mexico. And in case you're wondering, I'd put the UK about halfway between the US and France.
My impressions of these countries may change if/when I spend more time in them. But those are my thoughts as of now.
09 September, 2005
Day 44 - Durham-Peak District-Derby
I explored Durham in the morning (VERY nice town that I'd love to go back to) and then headed down to York, where I caught another train through Leeds to Manchester. From there I went southeast through the Peak District (beautiful area!) to Nottingham.
Around 5:00 I went west to Derby where I met a friend. She was nice enough to show me around the city (it's nice, a lot like Reading) and take me to a few pubs. It was the first time I've been to a real English pub not for food, and with a real English person. I enjoyed it very much.
The whole pub thing is not what I used to think it was. People (generally) don't go there to get drunk or have a wild time. I found it to be a nice relaxing place to sit and talk. It was exactly what I needed after being in Italy for the past few days. Now I have a pretty good idea of how it works, how to order something, etc. And it was great timing because on my way back to Reading, I was invited to a "bar" (which apparently is considered classier than a pub, though it's probably different from what "bar" means in America) with some people from church. That's right, to the bar with people from church. This definitely ain't Oklahoma.
Trip - Rome-Durham
By the 5th day I was really missing England, and it made me happy to think I'd be back that night. I was exhausted, still hot and thirsty (despite spending more money on drinks than on hotels!), tired of carrying my bags everywhere, and frustrated that I couldn't speak/understand Italian (although Spanish was somewhat useful at times).
But I was in Rome and had a few more hours, so I wanted see as much as I could. I walked through St. Peter's Square to get to the Vatican Museum. I went to part of the mass that was given by the Pope. How cool is that? It was very crowded, but that also made it interesting.
The Vatican Museum was huge. I was disappointed to find out that they didn't have old Bible manuscripts (I was hoping to see the Codex Vaticanus and Textus Receptus, but apparently you have to write a letter to the bishop and jump through a lot of hoops to see those). But it was interesting anyway. It had a huge collection of art, mostly Christian art, and much of it was quite early 3rd-5th century. Then there was a VERY long walk through countless rooms on the way to the Sistine Chapel. Most of these rooms were filled with amazing art work and some very famous paintings, but they also were extremely hot and crowded. Eventually I made it to the famous part of the Sistine Chapel and it was worth the wait.
After that, I still had a few more hours, but was so tired and hot that I didn't want to walk around anymore. So I got to the airport a couple hours early and cooled off there. The plane was an hour late, but that didn't bother me too much. As much as I wanted to get out of Italy, it was nice to finally sit in an air-conditioned room. When the plane finally boarded I was very happy - not just because I was headed back to England, but also because it meant that my dirt-cheap Ryanair flight was legitimate!
When I arrived at the Durham Tees Valley aiport it was like heaven. The area was beautiful from the air, and on the ground it was clean and friendly. And people there spoke English! (with a very Scottish-sounding accent) I couldn't believe how friendly everyone was. I was still 200 miles from Reading and thousands of miles from Oklahoma, but the feeling I had was "I'm home now".
Trip - Naples-Vesuvius-Rome
NaplesWhat can I say about Naples? Haha. As I said earlier, I liked Marseille.. it was dirty and run-down, but at least it had some redeeming qualities. I don't know if I can say the same for Naples. Naples made Marseille look like Beverly Hills. It was filthy, falling apart, full of rude people, drunk people peeing in the streets, graffiti everywhere, thugs on every sidewalk, and a hotel that tried to rip me off.
But to be fair, all of those things made Naples unique, and I'm very glad I went there. I'd be happy if I never returned, but I also enjoyed visiting such a place. After all, I seek out places like Liberty City/Miami, Camden NJ, Detroit, South-central LA, the north Bronx, east Oakland, north Memphis, etc. I like visiting da 'hood. And Naples fits in well with those places.
Herculaneum and Mt. VesuviusI headed south from Naples and walked through the ruins of Herculaneum, an ancient city that was very well preserved by the ashes of a Mt. Vesuvius eruption. After that I climbed to the top of Mt. Vesuvius, still an active volcano, and looked down into the 1000+ foot crater. The views were amazing. I took a very wild bus ride down the mountain and eventually went up to Rome from the Naples train station - yes, I went back, and this time I got a great Italian sandwich that was very cheap, even by U.S. standards.
RomeI arrived in Rome and walked around for a couple hours. To be honest, I wasn't impressed during that time. It was hot, no air conditioning, and the prices of drinks were ridiculous (as much as $4 euros ($5) for a 500ml bottle of Coke). The people were generally unfriendly and didn't speak much English. As with all European cities, it's easy to get lost, and I did.
I was looking for the Coliseum and eventually I found it. At the moment, my negative impression of Rome turned around. The Coleseum was awesome, but everything around it was even more so. As interesting as Herculaneum was, it was nothing like the ancient port of Rome. Very few cities in the world (maybe none) have a history that can compare to that of Rome. It amazed me to think about all of the history that occurred in the city where I was standing.
I eventually made my way northwest to the Vatican. St. Peter's Square was a very impressive sight, especially at night and with relatively few people there. After that I had a great dinner -- a very thin pizza that was folded in half, wrapped in paper, and sold by the kilogram. Interesting! I also had an excellent & unique orange soda of some kind. Outside of the touristy areas, the food prices were very reasonable compared to England.
Then I tried to find my hostel that I booked before I left, and my feelings of Rome started to change again. I thought it would be easy to find, as it's right next to a Metro (subway) stop. However, for some reason that I can't figure out, the Metro does not go toward the center of Rome after about 9pm. It only goes away from the center. So I took a bus with a very unfriendly & unhelpful driver that left me somewhere near my hostel, but not close enough that I could actually find it. I eventually made it back to the central train station, and from there took the Metro to the stop where the hostel was.
By this time, I was soaked in sweat because it was hot, humid, and no air conditioners anywhere. The hostel room seemed like it was about 90 degrees inside, but otherwise I liked it - and figured that any other place would be just as hot, so I stayed there.
I walked around a little after that, and saw another side of Rome -- one that was much like Naples but with a lot more homeless people and not quite as much thuggery. It was sad to see.
Trip - Venice-Florence-Pisa-Naples
The 3rd day was the longest, most eventful, least relaxing, and probably most exciting. I left the hotel around sunrise and explored a very empty Venice. WOW! I've been to a lot of places and I've never seen anything like Venice. Well, I take that back -- I've been to the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas and was amazed by it, but that wasn't nearly as spectacular as the real thing.
The city doesn't have any roads. It's all canals and walkways. It has a very consistent look -- the buildings all seem to be from the same era (quite), and many of them look the same. But they were very clean and well-kept. And I liked the architecture a lot.
Because there are no roads, Venice has some unique things that no other city (to my knowledge has). It has buses, garbage "trucks", and abulances, but they are all boats! I rode one of the water busses and it was very nice. I think Venice is one of those places where everyone should visit at some point. And get up early. By 9 or 10, the city became very crowded and lost some of its charm.
There is one negative side to Venice -- it's nearly impossible to find your way around. A map of the city would literally look like a maze. Sometimes long walkways lead to dead ends. Sometimes you can cross the canals and sometimes you cant. Sometimes you can walk along the main canal and sometimes you cant. I looked closely at a map, took a waterbus "to the train station", walked around for an hour trying to find the station, and eventually ended up right back where I started. I've heard that a compass is recommended, and I agree. It's usually hard to see where the sun is because the walkways/canals are so narrow and the buildings on each side block the sun.
I eventually made it to the train station, and from there headed down to Bologna, Florence, and Pisa. Florence and Pisa, both in Tuscany, were reasonably nice cities - much better than Genoa, but not as nice as Venice. The countryside from Florence to Pisa was quite nice. After my experience near Genoa, I didn't want to touch the train from Pisa to Naples (would've taken forever to get there!) so I went back to Florence to catch a faster train after first exploring Florence for about an hour. I think Florence is the second-nicest city in Italy, after Venice.
I went straight to Naples - passed through Rome but didn't get off the train.
Trip - Monaco-Genoa-Milan-Venice
Despite getting up very early, the second day got off to a slow start. Why? Because there was a fire at the Marseille train station! The station was closed and several fire trucks were gathered in front, along with hundreds of people. I went down to the port to find a bus, but couldn't find any to where I wanted to go. So I spent a few more hours exploring Marseille. The station finally re-opened and I was off.
The southern coast of France is beautiful!! And in some areas, the vegetation, terrain, and architecture look almost identical to the Santa Barbara area. Areas further inland reminded me of the Santa Clara Valley where I grew up.
The beaches were very nice, especially west of Cannes and Nice. Monaco was very nice also. It's easy to see why this area, known as the French Rivera, is one of the most famous/popular vacation spots in the world.
Entering Italy...Crossing into Italy and through Genoa reminded me of the drive from El Paso, TX to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The terrain around Genoa, like Ciudad Juarez, was spectacular. But the city itself was awful. It was very dirty, many of the buildings were falling apart, and there were quite a few thugs on the streets. It's no surprise that "graffiti" is an Italian word, because most of the country (and especially Genoa) is covered with it.
There also was an immediate drop in the quality of the trains. The Italian trains had nothing in common with the French ones. They were old, dirty, rickety, crowded, loud, and smelled very bad. The standard Italian trains, Trenitalia, were extremely slow and stopped at some stations for as long as 20 minutes! Once I got north of Genoa into the mountains, it speeded up a litle because there weren't as many stops.
The mountains were beautiful. The terrain flattened out as I approached Milan, where I stopped for my first real Italian pizza. The pizza I had in Milan looked a lot like thin American pizza, but tasted a bit different - particularly the sauce. It was pretty good though. I didn't see very much of Milan, but Milan is known as an unimpressive place anyway, so I didn't mind. I wasn't impressed by anything I saw there.
From Milan I took a train to Venice. It was a lot faster than the earlier one, but still nothing like the French trains, or even the British ones. I went through Verona (home of Romeo & Juliet) which looked quite beautiful at night. If there's any place I regretted not spending more time in, it would be Verona.
I arrived in Venice around Midnight, which actually turned out well because it was not very crowded at all. I found a clean, cheap, and very unique hotel room right by the train station. I walked around for about an hour and was amazed! But I saw a lot more of Venice on the next day...
Trip - London-Paris-Marseille
I'm back! I had a great time on my trip, but I'm VERY happy to be back in England! There's so much to say that I can't cover it in this blog, but feel free to email me if you'd like to know more. Here's a brief overview:
I took the Eurostar train from London to Paris. It was my first time going under the channel, and my first time on a high-speed train -- this one went 180 mph, which was very neat! I walked a couple miles through Paris (mostly along the Seinne) from Paris Nord to Gare de Lyon station. I took a very fast TGV train (200+ mph!) from Paris through Lyon and eventually to Marseille. The train system in France is excellent - better than the UK's, and really puts Italy's to shame - more on that later.
After stepping off the train in Marseille I was immediately hit by the humid air there. The dewpoint was probably 15-20F higher than in Paris a couple hours earlier. Marseille is right on the Mediterranean. Thus, it has a much different climate and character than northern France, including Paris.
I liked Marseille a lot. It was dirty, run-down, and full of homeless people, but it had a certain charm. Though many of the buildings had a similar architecture to those in Paris, it had a much more Spanish/Mediterranean look. If I didn't know better, I might've thought I was in Barcelona.
I found a hotel early (9pm), which gave me some time to explore the city, especially down by the port. The city was full of life. I went to a run-down fast food shop and got some of the best chicken nuggets and THE best fries I've ever had! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, after all, they're called French fries.
Though there were a lot of thugs around, the people did not seem unfriendly, and they spoke surprisingly good English.
06 September, 2005
Quick Update
Europe is very stingy about a lot of things, including Internet access. But now that I have a few minutes online, I'll post a quick update.
Right now I am in Vatican City, the world's smallest 'country'. This morning I woke up in Naples, walked through the ruins of Heracleum, climed to the top of Mount Vesuvius, and took a train to Rome, where I spent the past 4 or 5 hours visiting some of the major sites. Wow. Too much to say. You'll have to wait until Friday for a full description.
Some of the other places I visited on this trip include Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Monaco, Genoa, Milan, Verona, Venice, Bologna, Florence, and Pisa. I've taken about 500 pictures so far and still have another day or two to go. I look forward to writing more about it in a few days.
This definitely has been one of the best trips I've ever had, but I'll be very happy to be back in England tomorrow.
02 September, 2005
Day 38 - Leaving Saturday morning
I'm mostly packed and ready to go. My train from London Waterloo to Paris leaves tomorrow at 12:09pm. I booked a room in Rome for Tuesday night with easy access to Ciampino airport (where my flight leaves Wed. at 6:55pm). And I'm planning to meet a friend in Derby on the way home from Durham on Thursday. Otherwise, I still don't know yet where I'm going or what I'm gonna do between Saturday afternoon and Tuesday.
I'll probably spend a few hours in Paris and then head down toward Marseille. From there, probably either Barcelona or Switzerland, and then Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rome. Some of this depends on whether sleeping on the train is an option. Either way, I'll probably just go wherever I feel like going at the moment. I should have occasionaly internet access on my PocketPC. So if anyone has any suggestions, please email me -- it might just help me make up my mind about where to go.
My language problem is mostly solved. I downloaded a French & Italian translator for my PPC. I also downloaded PocketSkype, a program I can use to call people from my PPC using WiFi. So I might just be in touch while I'm away (if I can find wifi), although I probably won't be updating the blog or emailing much until I get back on Thursday night or Friday morning. By then I should have several hundred pictures to share from Paris, Rome, north England, and, well, you and I will find out where in a few days.
01 September, 2005
Day 37 - Turning point in world history
Tonight I led the Bible discussion (more like intense Bible study) for one of my cell groups at RFC. It was very fun to do it -- not so much because I miss doing that kind of thing (my church in Oklahoma probably wouldn't want a heretic like me to lead such a thing, so this was a rare opportunity), but because the passage we looked at was very interesting and very profound - yet in a subtle way that's easy to miss.
I Kings 19. I challenge all of you to read it and see if you get what I'm talking about. Hint: it helps to read I Kings 18 & II Kings 9, and think about the big picture. You'll probably have to read it slowly and very carefully. I missed most of it the first couple times I read it. But once I slowed down and looked up the events that it references, I was blown away. It might not seem like such an important passage, but I promise you, I Kings 19 is a big turning point in the history of the world. The sovereignty of God, which is very evident here, is unfathomable. This is the kind of passage that can change the way you think about the world.
Don't worry, if you read it and still have no clue what I'm talking about, just email me ( blog @ matthaugland.com ) and I'll be happy to discuss it with you - though it'll probably have to wait until I get back from Paris/Rome/Durham.
