Cheers from Vienna!

Singerstraße from Stephansplatz; Vienna, Austria

Cheers from Vienna!

This post is catching me as I’m finishing up Eurotrip round two, during my month of free time between the Ulpan in Jerusalem and the beginning of my semester in Haifa – what an insane (and wonderful) time it’s been.

My month in Jerusalem was really amazing – it was a fascinating experience to be there, and I found awesome friends to hang out with and explore with all around the country (shoutouts to JP, Matthias, Andrea, Ivana, William, Jesse Matthew, Emily, Tommy, Henrike, Simone, Hannah, and Aviva!). My Hebrew has improved significantly, though I don’t have any right to call myself fluent – I’ll need a bit more time for that, but at least I can string a few sentences together at this point. I’ll be taking a class in Hebrew in the spring so that will be a real experience! The Ulpan (Hebrew class) crew was great – a very interesting combination of ages and nationalities and places in life.

Masada; Judean Desert, Israel

I did some traveling around Israel – there was a Hebrew University trip to Ein Gedi (on the Dead Sea) which was lovely, if tiring from all the hiking, but the views were incredible and swimming in the sea is always quite an experience (yes, you really do float). We also took an impromptu trip to Tel Aviv for a weekend which was מצוין, filled with the crazy Tel Aviv nightlife and many awesome walks along the beach, all the way to Jaffa. I developed a distinct distaste for Arak but somehow still continue to drink it because of the culture and Middle-Eastern-ness of it and the collective adoration for it in spite of its overwhelming anise flavor. When I finished my program in the middle of February, I spent a weekend in Haifa which was very chill and family-filled, and saw the Technion campus where I’ll be taking classes. I then spent a couple of days again in Tel Aviv (this time in the north) and explored a bit, and then it was off to Europe again!

I took an insanely early flight to Budapest and hung out with the epic Thomas Pinella there for four days – it’s such an attractive and aesthetically beautiful city, it’s difficult to describe. When you walk through the streets, the level of ornate architecture and detail is just astonishing. The language is impossible, but I got around enough with English – it’s really the history that’s fascinating there, it has a complicated story as a country. I have a fairly strong family connection to the place, but no family lives there any longer – World War II did not treat Hungary kindly. I did see my family’s old flat though, and I went to the terror museum which quite powerfully lays out the history of authoritarian Hungary. I also explored the castle and the culture museum, went out on a lively Wednesday night for an (albeit American-mediated) nightlife experience, hiked Gellért Hill, and spent a fantastic sunset drawing the palace over the Chain Bridge, so it was a week well-spent.

Dwejra Bay; The island of Gozo, Malta.

I then took a crazy little trip to Malta, and had a London reunion with Clarisse and Adrienne! We went to Gozo for a day, which was remarkably pretty (and so green!), and essentially traversed the island in several directions, catching the Azure Window – days before it collapsed –  (shoutout to Game of Thrones which I’ve actually never watched), the capital Victoria and its carnival, the Martian-looking Ramla beach, and the ċittadella and even the Ġgantija temple/megaliths, which was a super cool experience. The rest of it was on Malta itself, complete with a tour of Valletta during the carnival (super cool!), the old capital (Mdina and would you believe it, I saw a bus), a walk along the beach from Ta’ Xbiex (where I was staying) over to Sliema and the ferry across the bay to Valletta again (and somehow included in this party a lecture on ECGs at the medical school!). It was a super cool and interesting trip, and definitely enhanced by my lovely friends’ willingness to be the tour guides :)

The Azure Window; The island of Gozo, Malta.

After that it was a wonderful return to France, complete with staying with a friend in army barracks just out of Paris (much more lively than it sounds!), and of course in having a lovely return to Rennes for a weekend. The return to French immersion after a month of Hebrew immersion was much more smooth than I had imagined – possibly due to my maintenance of the language in Israel (somehow I always end up surrounded by French-speakers!). It was a pleasure to return and to see two of my favorite cities again, and of course to see my wonderful host family again, to go to the Saturday Marché des Lices, to draw the Place Sainte-Anne, and (praise) to eat real baguettes and cheese, and to drink proper wine from a proper French vineyard again.

I then went back to London (are we really surprised?!?!) and spent an amazing week there working, seeing friends, and of course traveling across the country! On a whim, I bought a flight to Belfast and back, so I woke up on Wednesday morning at the ripe hour of 5:30 AM and made my way to Victoria and to Gatwick, took a 9:00 AM hop to Belfast and was in the city center by 11:00, so I spent the greater part of the day exploring Northern Ireland! It’s a fascinating place and the discord between itself and the Republic was really interesting to see, plus there was the allure of the Titanic Museum, no matter how touristy it might be. I arrived back in London around 11:00 PM and had just enough time to sleep before leaving for Bath the following morning, so I spent Thursday with the lovely Marin Takikawa, and had a wonderful tour of the city plus an amazing walk along the Avon. It was a great Rochester reunion, and it turned out that we were on the same bus back to London (she was headed to Edinburgh) so we had lots of time to bond (ßor rather to sleep, let’s be real). We managed to fit in my favorite walk from Parliament to Piccadilly before heading to Euston, and then parted ways at the Scottish sleeper. I spent my last remaining day in London out exploring and running errands near St. Paul’s, and had an awesome reunion/vegan dinner at Covent Garden with Ilana (who finally showed me around her borough of Harrow!).

Le Palais de Justice; Bruxelles, Belgique

After the UK it was a charming two-day trip to Brussels, made perfect by the wonderful Paris-reunion with Sarah Kennedy, who not only ran all across the city with me but even managed to give me an amazing tour of the EU Parliament! I feel thoroughly Europeanized (not to mention laden with merch representing the European People’s Party, despite probably having my views better aligned with the PES than the EPP – but details, free pens are wonderful). Being in Brussels again (for longer than 24 hours) was fantastic, with abounding chocolate and waffles – what more do you need in life??

New friends at the Bratislavský Hrad; Bratislava, Slovakia

I took a wild little trip to Bratislava for a day because that was where the cheap flights went to, and it was actually one of the most interesting experiences I think I’ve had on this trip. Western Europe is delightful but Slovakia was particularly interesting firstly because I know no one there and secondly because I know embarrassingly little about Slovak history. I had an experience that topped almost all others because I took a hostel shared with a rando just because it didn't cost so much, and it turned out to be a Slovak girl my age from Košice, who spoke very little English. We ended up having a thriving conversation mediated entirely by Google Translate’s (extremely limited) functionality, and despite the abundant errors and mistranslations we actually communicated quite well! We ended up spending the entirety of the next day exploring the city and seeing the castle and walking along the Danube, communicating entirely by gestures and by broken words chewed by Google. It was certainly one of the most interesting intercultural experiences I’ve had, and our ability to communicate despite our thoroughly different languages was simultaneously tiresomely fatiguing and correspondingly rewarding.

I took a quick train across the border into Austria (where I am now), and have spent the last couple of days amidst the incredibly generosity of Alberto Fresolone (London reunions are the best!) and I’ve been walking all across Vienna, seeing palaces and museums and delightful city streets and cafés (not to mention had the most wonderful Käsespätzle with homebrewed Italian Limoncello!). But all too soon I will be leaving to continue the journey back in Israel! My classes begin on Monday so this is really the last breath of break before the medical coursework beings in Haifa, so I’m really trying to make the most of it before the real semester begins.

Il-Bajja s-Sabiħa; Birżebbuġe, Malta.

Until the next!

Vienna, Austria; 16 March, 2017.