Final Blog

First off, here is the amazing slide show that our class created. I am not entirely sure who exactly had their hands in it, but great job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7xvOj8EJl8&feature=youtu.be

Why am I writing this final blog? Mainly because I always felt like this was incomplete and it was driving me nuts. I always wanted to write a final blog reflecting on the whole trip and my feelings and everything. I left for Munich over 2 years ago. It was the first time I left the US and it was the first time I went anywhere besides the northeast or Florida. 311 days later I had visited 10 countries. Things changed fast. I changed fast. I got back to the US a little over a year ago and now I feel like is a good time to reflect on everything and put my thoughts and feelings down.

When I returned from Prague I had to settle in and really focus on my exams and papers and research.  The final week of my time there, my mom came back to Germany for a second time. She helped me everything out of apartment and into that dreaded storage locker that was the bane of my existence when I arrived. If you missed that saga, feel free to click in September and take a look at my first blog in Germany. It was the worst time of my life. All year I dreaded hauling stuff back to that unit and I am infinitely grateful that my mom came to help me.

Of course, when she came it wasn't all business. We spent a fair amount of time in the beer garden next to the  Chinesischer Turm and at Hofbräuhaus. Funny story about that beer garden. I was in Boston last October I believe when I was coming back from Chicago. I was on the T and there were two Germans next to me talking to a couple of Americans. The Americans were talking to the Germans trying to explain a beer garden that they had been to in Munich. I turned to the Germans and explained to them that I think they were talking about the Chinesischer Turm Biergarten. After some more consulting with the Americans we determined that was it. I never told them that I had been there countless times and used to live in Munich, so they were probably curious as to how I knew that. It was a cool feeling

Anyway the highlight of my moms time there was when I took my mom to Salzburg to go on a Sound of Music tour. As you may recall I had been to Salzburg before so I knew of some places to eat and stuff. I took her to the same cafe we all ate at in April when we went. Anyway my mom loves Sound of Music and I found a reasonably priced tour so I decided to take her on that. It was amazing. I did not really know most of the places we went but it was all breathtaking.

Our drinks at the beloved Cafe Mozart

Overlooking a pristine lake in the Mountains and Lakes district of Salzburg 

Our tour bus was awesome

The palace used as the von Trap mansion

The gazebo from the movie

The monastery from the movie

The church from the movie

Me by the lake

Mom by the lake

Side note- Libby and I recently went to Stowe Vermont to go to Ben and Jerrys. Stowe is where the von Traps moved to after they fled Europe. So we saw their mansion and ate there. I thought that was cool. Here are some photos from that trip.

Libby and I at Ben and Jerry's

The Von Trap family Lodge. They brew beer. It's alright

Grave of Maria, the youngest Von Trap

Libby at the Stowe Brewers festival. It was a good time

My biggest failure during this trip was when my mom brought up the fact that we did not have a single photo together from her trip. Whoops. Not my best. It was still a great time though and not too many mother son duos can say they spent a week in Europe together. Side note the hotel we stay at in Munich is amazing. Its the Marriott Residence Inn Munich City East near Ostbahnhof. The rooms are great, the location is great, and the breakfast buffet is out of this world. By far the best hotel I've ever stayed at, but again, that's what happens when you lounge on your Mom's tab instead of scraping by around Europe like I'm used to.

At the end of the year we had a graduation party at a beer hall in Munich. We learned how to do traditional Bavarian dancing and had the slideshow, great beer, food, and company. It was an amazing night and a perfect way to end our journey.

Libby and I at the graduation party

Libby Blake and I. What a crew

Blake Melina me and Libby

Me Ivett and Libby. Ivett is the best JYM professor

On July 23, 2015, after 311 days away from home, I got on a plane and flew back to the US. I landed in Boston, where I was forced to sit on the runway for another grueling 30 minutes. I've made it this far, just get me home! The first thing we did was get pizza, because as I have complained about, the pizza in Europe was trash. I finally got home. A few days later my mom totally surprised me with a party. I actually had 0 idea that it was happening and it actually got me totally off guard. It was an amazing way to be welcomed home.

In Germany I was doing an independent research project that focused on how Holocaust commemoration in Germany had changed over the years and how it is currently entering a new Era. This ultimately turned into my senior thesis back at Bates, which I crushed by the way. When I got back from Germany I felt like school in the US was a million times easier just because everything is in English. I actually did all the readings and I didn't procrastinate and I just overall was a way better student, mostly because my mindset had totally changed when I got back to the US. I ended my last semester there with a 4.0, the first I had ever gotten.

I honestly feel like I can do anything now. It sounds so cheesy but its true. I look at how hard things were for me at the beginning of Germany and what it took out of me mentally and physically and it was honestly a low point in my life. I was so overwhelmed. But slowly day by day things got better. Soon by November I was having the absolute time of my life. The summer months of May June and July were truly the most fun I have ever had due to the environment and the people I had met. I look back at how tough those beginning times were and I know that few things are going to be as hard as that and that I can do pretty much anything if I hunker down.

Yet weirdly, by the end of it all I was excited to get back home. When I left Germany I was not sad about it, simply because I was so excited to get home. Now with each passing day my desire to go back is greater and greater. I remind myself though that if I went back now it would never be the same. I will never again be a student in Germany surrounded by an amazing group of people with very little responsibilities and have time just to focus on having fun and expanding my horizons. Even if I went back I would have to worry about getting a job and all of that stuff. As a student you just went to class and did whatever you wanted in your free time. I also did not have a job for the first time in college which was nice. I finally had time to focus on myself and relax, which was so nice after everything that has happened in the past 4 years.

I felt like I was so tightly wound when I went to Germany, and my time there gave me time to relax and get in a better mental place. Now I am much more relaxed, a nicer person I believe, and much more social. I love going out and meeting new people now. If Germany hadn't happened, that never would have changed.

Speaking of changes I travel all the time now. I went to Chicago 5 times this past year. What an incredible city. It is so fun to be there and oh my god the pizza. I would not mind living there. Besides that I have been to Wisconsin, Niagara Falls, Delaware 3 times, all over Pennsylvania including Gettsyburg and Philly, Vermont, and places in Maine that I have never been before.

Overall JYM was an absolutely amazing experience. I am that guy that will talk to anyone I know about it. At the same time it is frustrating because you run into people and they say how was it? The problem with America is that people ask you that but don't really care about the answer (thanks for the analysis IKK.) Therefore I end up summing up the most amazing experience of my life down to the word good. 311 days of my life and all I say is good. Kind of sad, but it is just so hard to have deep, meaningful conversations with people about it because it is an experience nearly impossible to put into words, and the ones who can relate to the feeling of it are the ones who lived the experience with you. That's why this blog was good I think, because I could just pour my thoughts and feelings out into it and you guys can read whatever you want and I feel some sort of gratification from it. Side note, I don't think I would ever be able to have a diary because no one reads it. When I write deep things I want people to read them for some reason.

What are my current plans? I graduated from Bates obviously. I dropped the whole PHd in History thing and am now trying to go to law school. I am moving to Philadelphia soon so if you are reading this and can hook me up with a paralegal or legal assistant job, send me a message or comment. Shameless plug. Just trying to make it in the world.

I applied to a few things in Germany, unfortunately the only one I heard back from was a bilingual summer camp job outside Munich. It would have gotten me back to Germany, but it would have been a prison, as in no contact with outside world and terrible pay. Ultimately not best for me so I passed on the opportunity. I still want to get back there in some regard in the next 5 years though. I have a feeling it will be via the tourist route, which is fine, I know a great hotel.

Prague

For the record it is October 2016 and I am now writing this blog that, about a year ago, I said I would finish writing. I am going to write it like I just got back from the trip though. Why am I writing this blog? It just really bothers me that I never finished it and I figured I might as well document it now, when my already fairly depleted memory of the trip is still somewhat available, as opposed to 40 years from now when I remember nothing. This following paragraph I did really write not long after Prague I think, but I am too lazy to change it, which is why the voice sounds odd.

Sorry. Once again it took me a really long time to update this. I said in my last blog I would soon be writing about Prague since I was going there with my class. But once we got back from Prague, the end of the semester was approaching and therefore got extremely hectic with papers, tests, and getting prepared to head back home.

So I was in Prague June 26-28 with my class called Prag and Wien (Prague and Vienna.) The class itself was alright,we learned basically only about artists and writers from Prague and Vienna, which I don't particularly care for. I think most of us signed up for the class because we knew that cheap trip to Prague was included. I think it cost 75 euros for us, great deal. The class was mostly new JYMers, which is what we old JYMers call the students who arrived only for the second semester. JYM is Junior Year in Munich, the name of the program. I am not sure if I ever clearly stated that. It is the title of my blog though. I digress. Most of the class was new JYMers with a few old sprinkled throughout. I think there only 4 of us old JYMers on the trip, so I would come to befriend and get to know a lot of new JYMers on the coming trip.

Anyways, I was really excited to get back to eastern Europe because as you might recall I had a great time in Krakow. I still maintain that Poland is the most underrated country in Europe. It was a ton of fun. So I was excited to visit Prague in hopes that it would be pretty similar to Poland. It sorta was, sorta wasn't but regardless, I still had a good time. The main reason we went to Prague was to learn about the art and architecture in the city. The main event was learning all about Franz Kafka, who we had studied in the class, and visiting his various homes all around the city.

The interesting thing about going on trips to cities with a class is that you end up doing a bunch of stuff that you never would have done on your own. For example, we went to the Kafka museum, which was all about Kafka and his works and stuff like that. There is a 0% chance that I ever would have gone to that museum had I been on my own. The flip side of that is that since we were there as a class, we had access to things that we never would have had as a class. For example, we had dinner one night with the BBC Correspondent for the Czech Republic and something else. Again, there is no chance that I ever would have done that if I had traveled alone.

Dinner (not pictured) with the BBC Correspondent

So to sort of start over now and talk about the day to day of the trip. Getting there was chaos. There is no other word for it. I do not remember what time our bus was supposed to leave, but it was sometime in the morning. So all of us met at the bus station to get the bus to Prague, including our Professor Peter Becher and Patricia, who is one of the head office people at JYM who helps us get our lives in order and gives JYM a good face. I also realized during this time that I had forgotten my passport. I was sort of nervous about this because they told us to bring it, but I also knew that the Czech Republic was in the Schengen Zone, which means that I would not need my passport to cross into the country or come back to Germany. For those who do not know, the Schengen Zone is basically a group of countries who have agreed to not have checks between theirs countries borders, so it is basically like going to state to state here in the US. The countries that make up the EU essentially make up the Schengen Zone, except for Great Britain and a few others. "But Jake" you'll say "GB is no longer in the EU." But remember people, this was actually* written in 2015 and the vote hadn't happened yet. But yes, Britain will soon not be in the EU, but this isn't that type of blog.  Anyway, there was no time for my passport to be brought to me by Libby, who had this point had my spare key, so I just said whatever I'll see what happens.

 Anyway something was wrong with the AC on our bus, so it was not working. So we had two options- we could either ride the bus to Prague without AC, which was about 4 hours,  or we could change buses, which was going to take a few hours, or we could wait for someone to come fix the bus, which was also going to take a few hours. Well as you probably heard, the summer of 2015 was one of the hottest on record for Europe. It was just scorching hot all the time for some reason. So no one was jumping to ride this bus without AC. Thankfully it got sorted out somehow and we only left an hour or two late.

There was also a gratifying moment during this. There were a couple of really nice American Tourists sitting next to us. They were about 60 I think, but didn't look it. The man was retired from the Navy, I forget what the woman did, but they were super nice. As the announcements on the bus. occurred it was only in German, and the guy, who heard us JYMers speaking English (tisk tisk) jokingly asked if we had understood it. When I fired back with all the info about why we are sitting there and the different options and stuff he was sort of surprised, which made me laugh. Finally an English announcement came on an confirmed everything I told him boosting my credibility and also giving me a moment of like wow. I am actually getting good at this whole German thing (more on that later). It was a gratifying moment.

So we finally arrive in Prague and my god is it a beautiful city. We came over the bridge into the city and saw the city and the castle and everything and it was just stunning. We arrive at our hostel and we have to check in. This is where it would have been helpful to have my passport. The lady was really giving me a hard time about not having it. She was saying you came form America you must have your passport. No, I came from Munich and don't need my passport. But she was having a hard time comprehending that we were Americans who had been living in Munich a while and therefore would no necessarily have our passports. She thought I was lying to her about not having it. She asked for my drivers license then, which I no longer carried because it was no good in Germany obviously and carrying it only meant I risked losing it. I had been getting into bars and clubs and stuff when they asked to see my ID by showing them my German Health Insurance Card since it was the only Germany thing I had on it with my picture. I am sort of surprised that worked at most places now that I think about it, but I don't think I had to use it often. Ultimately there is no way you're under 18 with this hairline anyway.

So this woman was asking for ID and I said look I have my LMU ID or International Student Identification Card pick one. After a lot of hassle she finally chose the LMU ID I think? I don't remember. Note to self, bring passport even though you don't need it.

We started off by doing a scavenger hunt of sorts around Prague. We got maps and had to go to places and say what they are and why they were important and the addresses of the place. I think that's what we did. I do not remember. Basically it was a fun  way for us to get acquainted with the city.

I genuinely don't know what this building is but it's cool. Also as you see it says Prague Proms. If that's where the prom is for the local Prague high school, that's awesome. SITREP I googled famous buildings in Prague and it is telling me that this is a Municipal House. It has concerts and things

Yes, this is an ad for a spa in which you are bathed in beer


This is a cool tower/gate


The main square of Prague with Ashley, Melina, and Sarah. We did the scavenger hunt together. Ashley and I are old JYMers while Sarah and Melina are new


This is a shot of the Prague Castle from the famous bridge in Prague. If you look really close you will see Kafka written in white, which is where the Kafka Museum that we visited is


Apparently if you touch the gold part of this statue it's good luck or something. No idea of the story behind that


Bill Clinton cameo. Played Jazz at this club once


In this club


This is the main drag in Prague. This is Wencesles Square and in the back is the National Museum of Prague. The square is where the Jan Palach set himself on fire in protest of the USSR invasion of the Czech Republic during the Cold War


This is a coke truck I want. Nothing more, nothing less


The oldest still operating astronomical clock in the world


Overlooking Prague from the castle that dominates the skyline


Me at the Castle


Church up by the castle


Inside the church


Square by the castle


Gate by the castle


Another shot of Prague from the castle


This is a really cool wall that has a bunch of murals


Sarah, me, Ashley, and Graham in front of the wall


All of us+Patricia overlooking Prague



Franz Kafka's grave

The food during this trip was also good. Our hostel provided us with the usual European breakfast of breads and jams and hard boiled eggs and cereals and stuff like that. That sentence had great grammar. JYM was also generous during the trip, giving us dinner each night. We were allowed to order anything we wanted, including drinks. It was a good time. They also took us to really fancy restaurants. I got a steak at once place and lamb at another. It was also really cheap due to conversation. The steak and lamb were each like 10 dollars.

This is the lamb. It was delicious.


This was some part of a duck. I hesitate to say liver but I think that's what it was. It was gross


The beer was much better.

Overall it was a great trip. It is hard to say what exactly we did day by day because it was a year ago. I know we did the tour and visited the Kafka museum. We had those two dinners and visited the castle but for the most part it was whatever we wanted to do. I remember one night a bunch of us went out and were sitting in the basement of this bar when all of a sudden a guy comes down and says you guys will want to get your drinks because I am leading a bar crawl of like a 100 people. So in about 30 seconds we went from being the only ones in the basement of the bar to it being packed. That was pretty cool. We ended up meeting some people and joining the bar crawl. We just pretended to be with some people from Sweden who were actually on the crawl and since the people were doing a terrible job at checking for bracelets we got into 4 more places with free drinks until we got caught.

Another night we all ended up in hookah bar. This time it was just us JYM kids. It was a chill atmosphere and a great time.

Overall it was a great trip with great people. Not much else you can ask for.

Oslo

From July 19-22 I was in Oslo. I was really excited for this trip because I had always wanted to visit Norway because it seemed really beautiful, but I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it out there because I wasn't sure who I would go with  because no one else was really talking about visiting there, and it wasn't a place I wanted to go by myself because there didn't seem to be a whole lot to do there besides take in the scenery, which is sort of lame to do by yourself. So when the opportunity came up to go with Libby it was like uhhh duh of course I'll go. Also, I always heard that Norway was wicked expensive, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to go, but it all worked out thankfully, and yes, it is as expensive as they say it is.

We flew from Munich to Norway on the 19th at 1 and landed at 3, were at the hotel around 430. I was really excited to be here because Norway is so far north and gets so much daylight that I was just really excited to experience that. When we were there, the sun went down around 10pm and rose around 4am, but it was never truly dark there. Even around 2 and 3 am the sky is still blue and you can still see perfectly fine and there are people everywhere, even people in their 50's and 60's who you think should be in bed. So it was really cool to see and experience for myself. It doesn't ruin your sleep though because the hotel had really thick, good curtains.

This is the Royal Palace, taken at 11:30pm

This was taken at 4:24am. It looks like noon

Side note, this was the magazine on the place, which excited me because I love watching Million Dollar Listing NY with mom at home

Our hotel was right next to the royal palace, which was cool. We had to walk through the park that it is in to get to the hotel, so we saw a lot of the palace and the guards.

The Royal Palace

The guards. They are allowed to talk to you and move around a little

The main reason to go to Oslo is the beauty scenery, so we spent a lot of time just soaking that in, which was nice.

The path from the royal palace to the center of town

A cool fountain

The Hard Rock Cafe. Probably the coolest one I've seen. At night this thing turns into a nightclub basically, same with TGI Fridays, which there were at least three of in Oslo. Why... just why? But a lot of the restaurants and bars turn basically into clubs at night, which is cool

Some nice architecture

Norway's parliament

A really pretty park in Oslo

The main attraction was of course being down by the water, since Oslo is right on the North Sea. It is a big attraction for cruise ships and multi-million dollar yachts. It is so nice down there.

The Opera House

The view from the Opera House

A nice canal

I was a huge fan of these balconies

On Saturday we walked around a lot. There was a music festival going on and there was a ton of free food, so I gorged on that because Norway is amazingly expensive.

For example, each of these pizzas were $50

Norway uses the Norwegian Krone, which 1 Norwegian Krone is worth about 13 cents. the prices on the menus are normally about 200 krone, so around $25.

When you look at Norway from the water, the landscape is dominated by this fortress. It was built way back in the day (scientifically proven) to defend Oslo from attack. It now houses a few museums, such as the military museum, Norwegian Resistance to the Nazi Occupation Museum, and currently a special exhibition on the German attack of Norway during WWII. So that was really cool. The fortress has a neat old feel to it, and overlooks the harbor, so it is nice to just sit up there and take it all in.

Part of the fortress

Another part of the fortress

A view of the harbor from the fortress

We planned on going to get a nice seafood dinner one night since Oslo is right on the ocean. So on Saturday we went out to dinner and chose this place right on the water, which was really nice and we probably had no business being at. We were the youngest people there, and even the people a few years older than us there were with their parents, so they weren't paying. The host asked us where we we from but you sort of could tell it was more like "how can you afford to be here" and there was an American family at the table next to us who were clearly loaded and as we were leaving I heard the mom say "Are they just college students orrrrr?" 

But whatever we had a table right next to the water and it was a really nice meal. I had a glass of wine with scallops as an appetizer and whale as the main course. Wait what? Whale? Yes, whale, and it was wicked good. It looked like a giant steak and came with this cream that you dunked it in and it was delicious. Libby had the same thing, except seafood soup as the appetizer. We both agree that whale was wicked good. Whale is also expensive. Here is the dinner tab.

About $170 after the tip. Well worth it though, and would totally do it again

I was trying to discreetly take a photo from our dinner table, but it didn't go well. You can see the boats in the background. We were right next to the water, which was really nice.

Post dinner photo on the water

The next day we went out to the Viking ship museum, which I was really excited about because how could you not be. Its basically a museum that exhibits 4 viking ships that are like 1000 years old. They were first used normally as ships, but then were used as burial ships. So some rich people were buried in them and the ship was buried in blue clay, which helped preserve them really well. They were also buried with animals, food, and treasures, a lot of which was on display, which was cool.

One of the ships

Me with the ship

The next morning we had a flight out of Oslo at 7am. This is a Monday, and we landed at 9, and I had to be in class at 1030 for a test. So that was fun. But it all worked out well. Olso was a really beautiful city but incredibly expensive. It was definitely worth it though and I would totally do it again.

Finally, these little guys, cause why not?