Finally, a wrap-up

I've been home for a few weeks now-nearly three! But I've been asked if there would be any other posts on here, and so I figured I couldn't not write one final wrap-up. 

The biggest reason it took me so long to write this wrap-up piece was because I wasn't quite sure exactly what it was that I wanted to write about, which aspect to zone in on. The truth is, this experience was a lot of things at once. It was everything that comes with an exchange: a new culture, new country, new language, and entirely new university. This was also my first time in Europe, and my second time on exchange, meaning that, in addition to all of the "first" experiences, there was also a lot of comparing going on in my mind, not only with my home country and our neighbour to the south, but also with what I saw and learned and did in Hong Kong, and Asia overall.


After my exchange to Hong Kong, I always felt weird saying I had lived in China- due to both political/legal reasons (Hong Kong being kept at arm's length from Mainland China in ever appreciable way) as well as due to the experience I had there, the things I saw and learned. Funnily enough, I feel the opposite about Maastricht- I'm comfortable saying I was on exchange to Europe, but wouldn't really describe it as an exchange to the Netherlands. Maastricht is just so plugged into Europe as a whole (part of the reason that some of the EU's most important treaties were signed there), that often I felt more like I was on exchange to Belgium than the Netherlands. Europe truly is more integrated than other places I've been- at times, it felt moreso than even the Canadian provinces. At the same time, the way our experience in Maastricht was structured I didn't so much feel like I was given adequate exposure to local culture at all- exchange students live predominantly with other exchange students, many of my classes had an alternative Dutch version offered, and the University is mostly international students anyway. As a result, I made many Austrian and German friends, but few Dutch friends. I became familiar with Belgian politics, but not that of the Netherlands. Sure, I learned some Dutch, mostly from signs and packaging, but I also picked up some German, improved my Italian, and often found myself relying on my French to translate for whole groups of friends. In the most reductive example, I have two apps on my phone for Belgian trains and one for a German-based bus company, but none from the Netherlands.

Of course, this perfectly demonstrates the fact that I got exactly what I wanted from my exchange, no more, no less. My goal in going on exchange was to see and learn about Europe, and I most certainly did that. Maastricht is an ideal place for doing so because, as I said, it's so plugged into European integration- five of us exchange students flew home/onward on the same day, out of five different airports in three different countries, all within a 2.5 hour train ride (the furthest actually being Amsterdam airport). If that's not a global village, I don't know what is. And so I most certainly got all of the things out of exchange that I wanted in that sense.

I also was incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to travel quite a bit. The thing that got me the most about Europe was just how in touch with history the Continent seems to be. In Canada, most people aren't familiar with most of our history. When we do know our history, we either repress the bad parts, or place the good parts under glass (metaphorically or literally) to preserve them, in a way that removes them from daily life. This is not so in Europe. In Maastricht I ate lunch on 13th century city walls and walked past a statue commemorating the death of D'Artangan, of the Three Musketeers, during an attempted siege on the city. In Berlin, I was blown away with how frank and open museums, monuments, and even the tourism board, are with the darker side of that city (and country)'s history. The same things can be said about each place I went. The good was a part of your daily life, and the bad was on display so as not to be repeated. I don't mean to wax too poetic-I'm sure there are shortcomings here as well-but it was most certainly the biggest lesson I took away from being in Europe.

Of course, there are things I think Europe does less well than other places. I was shocked at how the Netherlands didn't seem to be as customer-friendly as I'm used to. Dutch people seem accustomed to paying for any range of things that would drive Canadian consumers mad-from 50 cents (CAD.75) to use the bathroom in a bar, to 70 cents (CAD $1) per packet for ketchup at McDonald's to 5€ (CAD $7.50) to get change at a bank where I was a customer. While travel in Europe is easier than at home due to (significantly) shorter distances, I felt that China's train infrastructure was better, its stations nicer and better maintained, and I found most of the trains I was on in China to be newer and more modern. I was also surprised to at little things, like paying for liquids bags at security (1€!) or having to walk through the Duty Free to get to your gate (which, in many Canadian provinces, would probably violate scent-free laws). The fact that smoking is more widespread in Europe than Canada was something I knew (and it is very true indeed); the fact that everything in Europe is highly crowded was something I didn't.

In Canada (and to a lesser extent the US) Europe is often held up as a perfect example of what to do. I think my time there has given me a more nuanced viewpoint. There are certainly ways in which I think we should strive to adapt European approaches-the Netherlands' famous cycling infrastructure is more or less all it's cracked-up to be, the walkability of European cities is great, and, like I said, I think we have a lot to learn from them about how to interact with history. At the same time, there are ways in which our priorities differ where I prefer the Canadian approach- free drinking water in most public places (including free tap water in most restaurants), not charging for bathrooms, stronger anti-smoking laws (and anti-scent laws), and stronger non-discrimination laws are all ways in which I think we are slightly more socialist than Europe (to say nothing of the fact that our massive empty country gives us a much larger measure of personal space!). There are also ways, by way of cross comparison, that I think we are more aligned with Asia- for example, in terms of convenience and consumerism (the fact that the Dutch equivalent to Wal-mart closes at 6 PM most days is something I had a hard time adapting to).

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't talk more specifically about Maastricht University, Maastricht, and what it's like to go on exchange again. The University is an interesting place-the newest university in the country, in spite of being in the oldest city. I found a sharp sharp divide between my master's and bachelor's classes (since I was permitted to take both). Master's classes were, overall, better organized, more interesting, and more in-depth (perhaps as is to be expected), but they also had much more reasonable workloads. The Bachelor's courses were surprisingly shallow and demanding, and I was not a fan. Overall, I felt the University was very welcoming of international students, but the level of organization was not so great, the facilities were rather limited (only one library on the main campus, for example), and staff were often not very helpful with questions. There's also the matter of "Problem Based Learning," or PBL, the teaching method which Maastricht so proudly speaks of. PBL is touted so much in the University's own literature that it was a major topic of conversation amongst exchangers in the first few weeks. In the end, however, I think it was overhyped-in Canadian terms, it basically consists of learning via case studies more than lectures, and the extent to which it is followed varies considerably from class to class. Maastricht, on the other hand, is wonderful. The city is gorgeous and extremely well-situated for travelling. The international student community is also very excellent overall, given how many activities are organized just for exchange students. Overall, I would say Maastricht is an excellent choice if your goal is to learn about Europe- the location, the courses (which focus heavily on the EU and do a good job of it), and the mix of students will make sure you learn a lot. That being said, if you are looking to learn about the Netherlands specifically, you may be better off elsewhere.

That just leaves one last thing- going on a second exchange. I think the key to going on a second exchange is, to use a cliché, that it is the sum of its parts. You can't think of it as a fresh exchange totally independent of the first- it's not a do-over, and there are parts of being an exchange student that just don't exist the first time. You can't have a fresh experience devoid of any influence from the first, it simply can't be done. At the same time, however, second doesn't mean secondary- I learned quickly not to think of Hong Kong as my "real" exchange and Maastricht as a consolation prize, and I think anyone considering going on exchange again should realize that it will be a different experience, but one that will benefit from all of the knowledge you gained by going on exchange the first time.

Borders

(I apologize in advance if this post is vague and overly academic. I find borders really fascinating from an academic standpoint, so naturally I'm going to say a lot of boring social-science-y things about them).

Having just yesterday visited the Drielandenpunt, or Three-Countries-Point, this seems like the appropriate time to talk a bit about what borders are like here in Europe. It's particularly interesting to someone living here in Maastricht, because we're really on the edge of the country- I have, quite literally, gone out for a walk to Belgium before.

  As a Canadian, I've always had a very particular idea about what borders mean- between Canada and the US, our own land neighbour (with the possible exception of 1.5 KM of rocky border with Greenland, of course), the border is marked by a several-thousand KM long strip cut out of the trees. You pull up in your car, often after a long wait, and are asked a seemingly arbitrary series of questions by a border guard. The experience varies significantly on who you get, and the mood they're in. Coming back, it's much the same, with Canada Customs asking about the things you've bought, as you search for receipts to prove your purchases. Sometimes, they randomly search trunks. Other times, you may have to pay a fee. One on one side of the border or the other, you get a clear image of the border as that imaginary line where Canada stops and the USA starts (or vice-versa, of course).

Most people are aware of the fact that that hasn't been the case in Europe for quite some time now. Thanks to the Schengen agreement, most of the countries in Europe no long have border controls between them; you're free to come and go as you please. With EU citizens having the right to live and work anywhere in the Union, most EU countries using the Euro as their currency, and the EU having made significant gains in achieving as "single common market" wherein it's fairly easy for companies to operate across borders, most of the familiar aspects of border crossing just aren't here. I don't have to change my money, the timezone spans most of the continent, and many of the products are the same across borders. There's not even always a sign that you've crossed the border- especially if you're going by train (I found this an interesting contrast to, for example, Nova Scotia, which has giant signs just to let you know you've entered a new county). You have to simply guess based on what languages are spoken and the designs of the train stations, or, if you really can't tell, just wait to get a text message from your provider telling you the rates in the country you've just entered.

 Here in Maastricht, you really get the feeling that people take full advantage of the open borders- the city is full of Belgian and German license plates, for example, as many work here and live elsewhere (and, no doubt, vice-versa). It's not uncommon for professors to teach both here and in Hasselt, Belgium (in my case, I have a professor who teaches at both back to back in the same morning), and I even had one tutor who taught here, lived in Belgium, but was from Italy. And, while in theory each country that uses the Euro makes its own coins (which are all valid anywhere in the Union, of course), in practice here in Maastricht my change always has Dutch, German, Belgian, and the occasional French and Luxembourg coins.

So, with all this said, it stands to reason that borders mean something a bit different here, and so as an exchange student, I experience them differently than I do at home. One very noticeable difference is, as I wrote about in an earlier post, language. Cross to the South, you're speaking French. Cross to the West, you're speaking Dutch. Cross to the East, you're speaking German. Often, this is basically an instant transition, and I can't help but wonder if it's confusing for motorists to suddenly face signs they can't understand. This was also one of the interesting parts of the Three Counties Point-signs and monuments were mostly in the Netherlands or Belgium, and switched languages as you cross the line. Another one you can look out for is the differences in how infrastructure looks. When we went to Luxembourg, for instance, we knew we'd entered the country because the train stations were of a different design than the Belgian ones (and slightly better maintained). Crossing on the highway, you'll often see the speed limit suddenly change (when a friend with a car took me to lunch in Germany, as soon as we hit the "Deutschland" sign he put the pedal basically to the floor, since the Autobahn has no real speed limit).

But, I want to put on my political science hat for a second and say that the way the border is constructed here has a lot more to do with the subtleties of the different European cultures. Going to Germany yesterday, for instance, one of the more noticeable differences (aside from a distinctly different way of designing the city) was the presence of bakeries everywhere, which sold products of a markedly different (and, according to my German friends, decidedly higher quality) variety.  The difference is, of course, that local tastes vary.

And so, the construction of the border here is a little more subtle. It doesn't happen with fences and invasive questioning and changing of your money and needing to remember to keep receipts for the inspection on the way home. It's also not always as evidently marked by differences in businesses, as many companies operate across the borders. Rather, it's more in the day-to-day. The fact that if you take a bus an hour down the road to Germany you'll find bakeries filled with pretzels and German speakers, and the widespread availability of apple flavoured soda and orange flavoured Coke. If you head in the other direction over to Belgium, however, you'll find fine local chocolates in the grocery stores and a mix of language compromises not present here in the Netherlands.

All of this, of course, is interesting for the exchange student to explore. The differences, for someone unfamiliar with the local cultures and unable to speak the local languages, don't pop out at you quite like a giant border station does,and so it certainly took me some time to grasp some of these aspects. It's also, obviously, very convenient for an exchange student to be sitting at a point where two other countries are easily accessed-for example, I've become greatly familiar with the Belgian train company's website for buying tickets , since Liège has been the gateway for a lot of my train journeys.

None of this easiness of crossing or the disappearing of the visible signs of the border, of course, takes away any of the fun of standing in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany all at the same time.

Words

In terms of languages, Maastricht is a funny place. 

   Being in the Netherlands, the main language is, of course, Dutch. I hear it every day, and have even picked up sufficient words to be able to respond correctly to supermarket cashiers. But the Province of Limburg also has a language, Limburgish, which the Netherlands has actually recognized as a minority language. Not being able to speak Dutch, I actually don't really know with what regularity I hear individuals speaking Limburgish, although from my understanding of the language (and based on what people from other parts of the country have told me) I'm guessing I hear it a lot. The most visible presence of Limburgish is on street signs, which, in the older parts of the city, are bilingual Dutch/Limburgish. 

   Given the number of students, it should be no surprise that Dutch isn't the only language which one regularly hears. English is the lingua franca used between most people in the area who don't share a mother tongue, and as a result its use is widespread (I've so far encountered at most one or two people who can't speak English). Of course, Dutch being the official language, signs, products, advertisements, etc. are generally not written in English (though products sometimes may have German or French-more on that later), and so us exchange students do tend to pick up a few words here and there. I find it interesting that, much more so than with Cantonese in Hong Kong, people will encourage you to learn Dutch.

    Interestingly, customer services don't necessarily go out of their way to provide other languages either: I was shocked, for example, that the bank I deal with here, ING, explicitly does not offer the option to access my account in English at ATM's (which do have menus accessible in four different languages if you use a foreign card, so clearly the translations have been done) or online. This is in stark contrast to Canada, where a growing number of banks are making services available in multiple languages, even to holders of accounts at that bank. Similarly, although the website for NS, the national train company, can be accessed in English, the page offering deals is only available in Dutch (and purchases require a Dutch bank account). Paradoxically, Maastricht University is also the only university I've ever been to, or heard of (with the possible exception of other Dutch unis) where taking a language class is considered something over and above one's regular courses, requiring extra fees. The end result, therefore, of a relatively high number of English speakers, and restricted access to learning the language at the University, is that we depend, quite frequently, on google translate to muddle through the handful of things not offered in English, rather than being in a position to quickly pick up the language. 

  What's really interesting about Maastricht, however, is that it sits squarely on the border with several languages. If you head directly West (and, depending what part of the city you're in, also sometimes North), you reach Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. But if you head directly South, you'll be in the Walloon region, the French speaking part of that same country. And if you head East, you're in Germany. Now, not only does this place us on the border of multiple languages, but in fact on the edge of two language families, with French being a Romance language (belonging to a family stretching all the way West to the end of the continent), and German and Dutch being Germanic languages. It's not unusual to hear any of these languages spoken in the streets, or to see them present on products (especially French, as many products are jointly marketed in Belgium and the Netherlands with one bilingual packaging), and some customer service personnel may be able to speak either (or both, as I've also seen). 

   Multilingualism is, of course, familiar to Europe. The EU has 24 official languages, and actively encourages all citizens to become trilingual. Nowhere did I see this more to be evident than in Luxembourg. A tiny country squeezed between Belgium, Germany, and France, Luxembourigsh, the local language, is most peoples' mother tongue. However, 61% of individuals are able to speak four-that's right, four-languages in total. French, German, and English are widely spoken, and which one is found on which signs varies (McDonald's, for example, advertises in German, while most street signs are in French). 

Berlin Part One: Berlin the Fun

Berlin is a complex city with many layers of history, all of which are very present for the traveller. Out of respect and as a trigger warning for people who may find it difficult to read about the heavier topics, everything relating to World War II, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and the Berlin Wall/Divided Germany will be dealt with in depth in a separate post, although mention may be made here for chronology sake. Both posts will follow the same chronology. 

   With exams over and done with (more on that later), I had a few days to take another trip. Berlin had been on my list of places I had to get to while in Europe anyway, but the fact that a friend of mine was going to be heading to the city at a time when I was free sealed the deal. Thursday morning, I left Maastricht on an 8:28 train, connecting in Amsterdam. The total journey time was around 8 hours, but I didn't mind so much: Germany's countryside, with it's pretty houses, made for a good backdrop.

   The first real sign of crossing the border, and one theme permeating Berlin, was the graffiti. I'm not sure quite how they manage to keep it just within Germany, but it was a pretty effective method of knowing right where the country started. Berlin is actually known for its graffiti, which definitely challenges the boundaries between vandalism and art (sometimes swaying more in one direction or the other). Graffiti is only one of the ways in which Berlin is, apparent almost immediately, very hip and urban. More on that below.

   Arriving in Berlin around 5:30, I headed straight for my hostel, in the East side of the city. The hostel came with extremely high ratings, and really didn't disappoint: it was clean, with a very hip design and good location. For those who like the hostel vibe (I'm, admittedly, more into the cheap prices than the backpacker scene), there were plenty of activities. I started by joining one, a quick guided trip to a local market, after which I bailed and headed out on my own, with the goal of catching sight of a few monuments (see: second post). One of my first observations was that Berlin seems to close up early: by 7:30 or 8:00 PM there wasn't much going on in a lot of the streets (though this was not the case Friday night), and so I wound up turning in early.

  Not being a believer in sleeping in while travelling (there's too much Berlin to be seen!), I woke up early Friday and was out by 8:00 AM. My first stop was a bakery I had read about online. Remember how, as a kid, people used to tell you that, no, not even adults get to just eat junk food all the time? Well, that's a lie, since I started my day off with an assortment of baked goods washed down with an orange flavoured Pepsi (which turned out to be disgusting. I know, I'm probably the only one shocked). From the bakery, I headed out to the town of Oranianberg, to visit a nearby site (see: second post), and grabbed a quick doner (Berlin's take on kebab/shwarma/donair) before heading back into the City.

   Back in Berlin, I gave some use to the Museum card I had purchased. While it was a good deal, at only €12 for three days (student rate), it turned out not to let me into most of the museums I was looking for. In the end, I only visited two with the card: the Homosexuality Museum (which was really more of an art gallery of sorts), and the Pergamon Museum, which hosts multiple large-scale relics from the Near-East (and, being under construction in some parts, took only about an hour to complete). After three straight museums, I needed a quick break before heading for a fourth, so I stopped to grab a pretzel (and an apple flavoured soda, which is also quite popular in Berlin, and is actually very nice), and sat below the Fernsehturm (Berlin's most recognizable tower), taking in the crowds around. After hitting up one last museum (See: second post) and checking out some of the shops in Alexanderplatz, I went and grabbed some schnitzel for dinner, at a cool and hip little restaurant near my hostel (complete with graffiti all over the walls and hip hop music playing).

  It was on my second full day in Berlin that I met up with my friends, who were visiting from various parts of Europe, where they were studying. The morning actually went quite off the rails-while we were sitting and eating breakfast, my friend's bag was snatched, resulting in a morning spent at the police station, filling out the necessary paperwork. Thankfully, my friend had quite a positive outlook, and this didn't stop us from taking advantage of the afternoon, the highlight of which was stopping for a piece of cake after lunch. In the evening, we met up again in front of a venue which we had been told was a beer garden, but actually turned out to be a ballroom dancing location. Not so interested in that, we wandered over to a more touristy area to grab some dinner, and some more pretzels (which we got to go, quite to the amusement of the restaurant where we ordered them).

On my final day, I checked out early and walked along the river towards the centre of the city, stopping for a coffee and breakfast and taking in the river, the changing leaves, and the city scenery. My first stop was the German History Museum. I was a little unsure if I wanted to visit this museum, which would cost me money, over one of the ones accepting my museum card (which got so little usage), but I'm glad I did. The German History Museum is honestly one of the best museums I've ever visited. It thoroughly and thoughtfully explained German history, starting around the year 800 and connecting the dots all the way up to the end of the Cold War. Displays were well designed, with just enough detail to let me know where in history I was, and the option to read more in depth on items that interested me (of which many did). I was really grateful for the opportunity to fill some gaps in my knowledge of the history of Germany and of Europe, and to see some important items (including a Code Napoleon and original works from Martin Luther). The special exhibitions-one on Europe after the War and a second on Homosexualities- were also excellently designed (see my second post for more on both).

This being my last day, I had things planned out (almost to the minute, though this wasn't exactly on purpose) fairly well. The next stop after the German History Museum was the Jewish Museum, where I was to meet my friends at 1 PM. Around 12:45, a few blocks away, I noticed a growing number of police cars. Soon, I was asked to evacuate the area: apparently, an unexploded bomb from World War II had been found (this actually happens on occasion in Europe). This is where my plans got permanently derailed: it turned out that the bomb was located near the Jewish Museum, making me unable to meet up with my friends. After trying with no luck to find wifi, and with no money on my phone, I gave up on finding them and walked back towards the Reichstag (German Parliament), to take a few pictures, before heading back to the train station to await my train.

The train journey is a story in itself: five different trains, including one connection of 6 minutes, for which my arriving train was 7 minutes late (such a rush!), and a bus which the NS (national railway here in the Netherlands) never informed me I would need to take at the moment I booked my ticket. It was a small miracle I made it back to Maastricht that night-I came within seconds of having to find somewhere to sleep in some suburban German city.

The best part of any country is the food!

Hello friends!

I realized that recently I've had the bad habit of just using this blog as a place to describe my travels, and have been neglecting writing about life in Maastricht/the Netherlands/Europe. So, for now I'll put writing about the last couple day trips I've taken on hold, and get into one of my other favourite topics: food!

In the first couple weeks of being here, I had the habit of translating words that I saw often on signs. Translation and food are things that us exchange students have been experiencing hand-in-hand, since most of the products we buy in stores have only Dutch on them. The following scenario is quite typical
*Chatting in the kitchen with roommates while cooking*
Person 1: Hmmm, just a second *runs to their room and comes back with a computer*
Person 2: Translating the directions on your food?
*laughter ensues*

This turned out to be a really effective way of picking up useful Dutch, and I'm proud to say that I now can understand "pierce holes in the plastic and microwave for X minutes" without my friend Google.

Similarly, I've been picking up the words on menus and advertisements as I see them. So when I started seeing signs advertising "koffie met vlaai", I already knew that this meant "coffee with".....vlaai? Whatever that was. This interested me at first, but once Google informed me that vlaai translates to "flan," I lost interest.

Fast forward to me reading a website about specialty foods in different parts of the Netherlands, only to discover that I'd been mislead-vlaai actually translates to, get this: pie!
That's right, I'd been turning down pie. Local specialty pie served at restaurants with seating outdoors on lovely cobblestone squares.

Needless to say, I rectified this, heading the next weekend for pie and coffee with two of my friends. This was promptly followed up with my roommate buying me a pie as a birthday cake. An idea which I then stole imitated for the birthday of another friend a few days later. In the meantime, I discovered that pie and coffee is quite cheap at the local shopping centre. And so, thankfully, my folly of turning down pie has been made up for.

This situation, of course, stemmed from an interesting problem: since exchange students live predominantly in exchange student accommodations, and since many of the English classes have few Dutch students (since a Dutch option may also be available), I have few Dutch friends from whom to learn about local cultural things (like pie). Of course, I'm making an effort to meet more Dutch people, but in the meantime I've found an interesting, if bizarre, window into local cuisine: grocery stores.

Specifically, I've come to realize that you can learn a lot based on not only what the grocery store has (or doesn't have), but on what they have a lot of. For example, a few weeks ago, I noticed that there are sprinkles-a lot of sprinkles. The internet confirmed my suspicion-in the Netherlands, eating sprinkles on bread is very common, including for breakfast. And so, I bought a sample pack of sprinkles (or hagel slag) and went to town. Along with sprinkles, there's quite a bit of sausages, schnitzels, and various types of saurkraute-ish products.

As for sweets, the "stroopwaffel" is currently my hand-down favourite, being a combination of wafer-thin crunchy waffles and sweet syrup (McDonald's even makes a McFlurry version). There are various other types of waffles-mostly Belgian- as well. Milka chocolate is available in a wide assortment, mostly geared towards combinations of Milka chocolate with other sweets.

A final interesting observation for today's post is the impact that different international relations have on food. Being next to Belgium, there's a wide variety of Liege waffles, Flemish fries, and Belgian beer. The Netherlands' history as a colonizer in South-East Asia also means that there is a massive amount of Indonesian food available-albeit in a modified form that removes most of the spices and a bit of the flavour.

Of course, these are only the observations I have after a few months, and mostly based on where I live (a day in Amsterdam showed me that they seem to have some different food habits). If I find anything else interesting, I'll let you know!

Rome Part 2, or, The Time I ate my way through Rome

(Yes, I know it's been two weeks and I haven't yet finished writing about Rome. Oh well).

The logical point at which to divide up my posts about Rome is, of course, when my friend Rachel arrived. Having previously run into problems meeting up with a friend in London (apparently there is more than one "main entrance" to the British Museum. Thanks for that, Google Maps!), I wanted to be very specific about where we should meet up in Termini, the large train station that serves as the main gateway for trains arriving from the airport. "We'll meet at McDonald's" I said, picking the most obviously recognizable landmark. This would, of course, have been a much better plan had I known that the station has two McDonald's inside, and one across the street, leaving the two of us running a circuit between the three locations (apparently in opposite directions), before eventually meeting up.

Now, planning this trip was a bit complicated. We knew we wanted to go somewhere and meet up and have adventures, but getting our schedules and interests to aligned with one another, and according to budget, was no small feat. So, when we realized, just before booking, that we would only overlap for a little over 24 hours in Rome, we decided to book anyway, because it had become one of those "if we don't just do it, it's never going to happen" things. With only 24 hours to hang out, we set our sites on having a sort of pleasant, chill kind of day enjoying Roman food.

We started the morning off by wandering through the streets of Trastevere to a little market. Having heard good things about the produce in Italy, I wanted to stop to buy some fresh tomatoes. Through  bizarre combination of broken English, Italian, and Spanish, the lady also convinced us to buy some red peppers which had been soaked in olive oil and spices. We took our bounty to a nearby square in front of a fountain, discovering that the peppers had, indeed, been a very good choice. We then continued our walk. Remember how the Vatican wouldn't loan me a pen? Well, as a result, our first destination for the day was to head back to the Holy See to drop of my postcards which were now signed, but had stamps only valid in the Vatican. This turned out to be a good thing because, as we left the Vatican heading vaguely in the direction of a pizza place we'd read about online, we stopped, on a hunch, in a cute looking grocery store, where we happened upon some cornetti (croissants), in miniature, filled with a sort of hazelnut chocolate cream. We instantly regretted the decision to buy only one each.

After a brief detour heading the wrong direction, we soon found ourselves in the vicinity of the pizza shop we were looking for. Already this neighbourhood was obviously different from the more touristed areas, with less English, and more authentic looking food lining the streets. The pizza place turned out to be an excellent tip: sold by weight (as pizza in Rome typically is), the pizza came in numerous varieties, and was topped with extremely fresh ingredients. The woman working behind the counter also seemed to have a sixth sense about what we would like-after picking one or two pieces, she suggested a third for each of us. Full of proper pizza, we set off again before stopping, only a few blocks later, for gelato at a small shop on a corner, rounding up a blissfully decadent morning.

Stuffed full of Italian goodies, we spent most of the afternoon walking through the streets of Rome. It hadn't actually been our intention to spend so much time out on foot in the heat, but our only real goals for the day all involved trying different foods, and at that point we couldn't have eaten a bite more. And so, we walked, and walked, stopping briefly at different tourist attractions (the park surrounding the Villa Borghese, as well as the Spanish steps), or shops, looking to fill the rest of the afternoon. As we wandered back, we realized that we were in the vicinity of the Vatican again. With relatively little hope for success, we decided to see if we could find the little grocery store from the morning and, much to our surprise, we succeeded! Having spent the day talking about how much we regretted not buying the entire case of pastries, we ordered two of everything. Then, in one our of smartest decisions, we decided to walk back to the Vatican to enjoy them. As a result, we wound up sitting in the square in front of the Basilica, eating delicious Italian pastries, and watching the sun go down and the lights come on, as nuns from around the world gathered for some sort of function.

We rounded out the evening, after walking back to our room, with dinner. Trastevere turned out to be more geared towards tourists than we had suspected, and so finding a restaurant that was even moderately authentic was a challenge. With some help from Trip Advisor, we picked what was either an authentic local restaurant or, at worst, the best of the tourist restaurants. Wine, fettuccine bolognese, and tiramisu, followed by some more gelato, rounded out the end of our day in Rome.

The next day was an early one for me-with a flight back to Brussels leaving at 7:10, I was up just before 5, catching the first train to the airport.

Rome Part I, or, the Story of Wandering About and Looking at Pretty Old Things

Well, it's sure taken me long enough to get around to it, but I finally decided to write about my time in Rome.

Unlike when I went to Paris, I flew to Rome. But just like going to Paris, this required spending a lot of time in Belgium, since the best fares nearby were actually from Brussels National Airport. This required three different trains to reach from Maastricht. Luckily, Belgium is a little less than half the size of New Brunswick, so crossing the country via high spend train is done fairly quickly, and I actually arrived at the airport very early. After a few hours of wasting time in the airport I was off to Rome. This was my first time flying the infamous Ryan Air-for those who aren't familiar, Ryan air is basically the cheapest of the cheap, both in terms of prices and in terms of frills. Despite the many stories I'd heard, I actually thought Ryan Air was quite good-I wanted to get somewhere paying the minimum amount, so I didn't quite care about things like free beverage service or that little bag of pretzels you get on Air Canada.

Rome Fiumicino (also known as Leonardo Da Vinci Airport) is a piece outside the city, nearer the ocean, and so getting into the city requires some logistic decisions. I opted to pay €5 for the bus which, other than turning up late, was a fairly good deal, and took us to the same location inside the city as the train would have, for about a third the price. By the time I got to my hostel and checked in, it was around 8:30 PM, but, freshly arrived in Rome, I was far from ready to call it a night. I was also really, really hungry, since I'd somehow convinced myself all day "naw, I'll just wait 'till Rome to have lunch," in spite of knowing that I'd be arriving so late. So, I hit the ground running, wandering the streets of the neighbourhood looking for food that didn't look like it was geared towards tourists. Being tired and hungry makes most people grumpy, but for me I get more indecisive, and so eventually I just settled for a pizza place that seemed moderately local (people yelling at a soccer game on TV in Italian). I actually ate the pizza so quickly that I burned my mouth and didn't taste the first, oh, 90% of what I ate, but the last 10% was pretty good.

Happily fed, my next mission was to go to the Colosseum, since I had a vague notion that it was somewhere nearby. After following a group of nuns (there are plenty in Rome) down a nice street, and then heading through a charming little neighbourhood, I eventually found it. It's almost funny how unceremoniously one just sort of happens upon the Colosseum, this striking ancient building, just causally located next to a subway station and a strip of bars. Being about 10 PM (and given Rome's warm weather), the atmosphere was quite nice-less loud and obnoxious tourists than I would see there the next day, more a mix of couples and individuals with a more reverent attitude.

I actually didn't go to Rome alone; this time, rather, the plan was that a classmate from McGill, Rachel, would be joining me the second night. As she'd been to Rome before, I decided it was best to spend my day there alone efficiently knocking off all the main sites from my list, and so I headed to bed early and was out around 8 AM, hoping to tackle the Vatican before it became swamped with tourists.

I took the Metro from the area I was staying up towards the Vatican, getting off a stop early in hopes of grabbing some breakfast at a more local café. After successfully finding a place where one stands at the counter while eating a cornetto (and Italian croissant) and sipping undrinkably strong coffee (it took everything in my power not to grimace with each sip), I found my way to the growing crowds of tourists near the Vatican. I actually nearly went to the Museums first (not entirely by choice, though any order of doing things was fine by me), until I was stopped by a person trying to sell me tickets that let you skip the line (there's a long line for purchasing tickets, and almost no line for pre-purchased). Something about his spiel reminded me of similar tactics at the Terra Cotta Warriors and other sites in China, and I was pretty sure that the "price list" he had for purchasing tickets at the window was faked, so I headed to the Basilica first.

While a geography nerd like me will point out that I actually left Italy when I went to the Vatican, I was a little disappointed that there's really no sign or other markers to this effect. There's a large open square with large fountains, and off to the side one lines up for metal detectors before entering the Basilica itself. The inside of the Basilica consists of a handful of smaller altars (small not being exactly the right word, since many of them are, in fact, huge), as well as a crypt containing the bodies of many former Popes. There was also the possibility to climb the dome of the Basilica, but that's not really my thing. Instead, I went back out to the little giftshop, and over to the post office to mail some postcards (the Vatican has its own postal service, being a country and all). I'll be honest, I was a little surprised at the sleazy commercialism income parts of the Vatican-the post office wouldn't so much as lend me a pen to write a post card, instead telling me that they cost €1.50 (about three times the price a pen should cost).

After filling up my water bottle at some of the cute little fountains in the middle of the square (with temperatures now nearing the high twenties), I decided it was time to head to the Vatican Museums. Once again, I was greeted with a line of touts trying to sell me admittedly more expensive tickets that offered the possibility of skipping the line (the Vatican itself also offered similar tickets in the gift shops, but unfortunately they didn't take credit cards). The wait ended up being around an hour (which made me a little weary, since I had to be at the AirBnB at a specific time), but the plus side was that, with the student rate, I paid €8 instead of the €20+ for the quicker tickets.

The Vatican Museums were teeming with people, which made them a fair bit less enjoyable, to be honest, as did the unmitigated heat. The Sistine Chapel is within the Museums, and so the throngs of people wanting to catch a glimpse of Michelangelo's work are funnelled through a series of exhibits first, rendering these exhibits nearly un visitable, as tourists jostle their way past magnificent works of art and history. The Chapel itself is, of course, breathtaking, though its religious purpose seems now undermined by the mass of tourists who, inspire of signs (and announcements, ironically), are still not very quiet.

Luckily, the Sistine Chapel seems to keep most people for a while, and so the rest of the museum afterwards was much less crowded and, thus, more pleasant, particularly the gardens. Not knowing how long it would take me to walk to the Air BnB to check in, I didn't hang around too long (though I  also didn't miss anything I wanted to see, as some sections were closed). I followed the Tevere (Tiber) river to Trastevere (literally-the other side of the Tiber), where I was staying, and checked into the AirBnB. When booking, the fact that they had A/C didn't really impress me too much-but I sure appreciated it when I got there, with temperatures in the 30s outside.

I stuck around only briefly before heading out to find some gelato and then lunch (in that order). After  a nice plate of lasagna (an admittedly nonsensical choice given I was eating outside in 30 degree weather, but it was something I had to have while in Italy), and a brief trip back to the room to cool down again, I set off to see the last few tourist sites before Rachel arrived.

In the mid-afternoon heat, I can't help but think I missed a few sites here and there (or walked past and didn't stop), but one decision I'm glad of having made was to climb a hill that appeared, from the bottom, potentially mildly interesting. At the top, it turned out to host a museum (which I didn't visit) and spectacular views of the Fora Romani and the Colosseum. I had actually thought, after seeing it the night before, that I probably wouldn't mind paying the money to go in both of those attractions. The views from the hill, however, were far superior than the idea of trudging through ruins in the heat, and so I appreciated from afar for a while before climbing down the hill.

After supreme amusement at finding a free sparkling water dispenser outside the Metro, I took a train to the Piazza della Repubblica, and from there walked to the Trevi Fountain (which turned out to be under construction), the Pantheon (at which I arrived precisely at closing), and the Piazza Navona. The sky growing dark, and my legs growing tired, I walked back to Trastevere (which, unfortunately, had no Metro Station), grabbed a piece of pizza (even more delicious than the day before) and a Chinotto soda (which tastes sort of like a cross between a tangerine and liquorice), before setting off to find Rachel.