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The Great European Adventure Book Vol 1
Dear family, friends, associates and everyone
under the sun,
Greetings from Scotland! So much has happened to me in the
last three months that I scarcely know where to begin. I
will therefore take the easy path and begin at the
beginning. I flew to Germany on the fifth of July, spending
a month at the Schoenfelder's in my beloved Barmstedt. It
was wonderful seeing all my old friends once again and I improved
my German, although it is still instantly apparent to anyone with
the most superficial knowledge of the language that I am still
far from being fluent.
A month after arriving in Germany, I grabbed a backpack and my
old pal Parker and caught the first, well, actually the second,
train out of town. Although I won't bore you with all the
details of the next month (those will come when I return home
with the 300 pictures), I will say that I had an incredible time,
saw much of Germany and Austria and met a bunch of people from
all over the globe. If I had to choose a few highlights
from my trip, they would have to be Innsbruck, Vienna,
Rothenburg, Wolframs-Eschenbach and Munich, where I saw up to 95
percent of the Eclipse before the clouds came rolling in to spoil
totality. I don't, however, want to bore you all with more
stories about Germany since I have done just that so often in the
past.
Scotland- at last! Scotland is, next to Tyrol, the most
beautiful place I have laid eyes upon. With its hills and
lochs, heather and distinctive stone architecture, the only thing
wrong with this land is the ambiguity of its restroom
signs. Edinburgh quickly became one of my favorite cities,
despite having to endure orientation, which could have been much
worse I suppose. My destination, however, was elsewhere and
I departed on a bus for St. Andrews after a week of drooling over
Edinburgh Castle and the Walter Scot Monument.
St. Andrews itself lies on the eastern coast of Scotland, just
North of Edinburgh in the county of Fife. The university,
which is spread throughout the small town, was founded in 1411,
making it the oldest in Scotland and the third oldest in the
British Isles after two minor, inconsequential English
universities we'll just refer to as "o" and
"c." Although it was once the ecclesiastical hub
of Scotland, the city was not spared from the Reformation and
consequently both the cathedral and the archbishop's castle lay
in ruins. Many of the university buildings are from various
periods in the university's history and are, as to be expected,
very beautiful save Andrew Melville, my dorm. Another one
of those hideous sixties experiments, Andrew Melville resembles
two ships passing in the night or, as those who live here often
say, crashing in the night. That would explain why it is
sinking; in fact, the physics department has calculated that were
it to continue at its present rate, it would be entirely
submerged in approximately 400 years, quite a problem for a
600-year-old university.
St. Andrews offers a large variety of Mediaeval and Scottish
history courses, although I must admit I find both the teaching
and the class organization, as well as the organization of the
entire university to be much better at Santa Barbara. I
have three classes this quarter: Dark Age Scotland,
Medieval Britain and Scotland 1707-1830: Union and Enlightenment,
however I find myself preoccupied with other matters and am
having an extremely difficult time doing any work at all!
There is, after all, so many more important matters to attend
to: clubs, societies, Ceilidhs, and much more.
Societies are much more prevalent here than they are back home
and I, never having joined one at any school before, have joined
several. The first was Breakaway, a club that takes weekly
hiking/camping trips to a different location in Scotland.
Then there is the History Club, which has special guest lectures
and takes trips to castles or, in the case of this weekend,
Scotland's secret nuclear missile silos. The Celtic society
is loads of fun, offering a weekly Ceilidh and many other events
relating to Scottish culture. Also, although I'm not
officially a member, I regularly attend events by CMAD (the
Christian Music and Drama Society, to which I have little to
offer but my academic dad is the leader) and The Dead Parrot
Society, whose honorary president is naturally John Cleese.
So what's this Ceilidh thing, and why does it sound like someone
clearing their throat? First of all it's not pronounced
"Ceilidh" but "Kay-Lee." [Historical
note: the Phoenicians never made it to Scotland] Ceilidh is
Scottish country dancing and it is a lot more fun than anything
in the states. I've been to a couple of classes and several
Ceilidhs, particularly the one at overseas orientation and the
Christian Union, not to mention the Kate Kennedy Club's Fresher's
Ball, to which I took my now academic sister, Georgianna.
Now, I know what you're thinking and yes, I did rent a kilt and
yes, I do have pictures and yes, I will send them in the next
email so you might just want to delete that one when it comes.
By this time you are probably wondering what all this talk about
sisters and dads is about. One of the traditions at St.
Andrews is the adoption of first year students by third years,
giving one an academic family for the events of raisin weekend,
which I will explain at a latter date. My dad's a large
Scotsman named Keith who has adopted me as well as three other
Americans, a Welsh girl named Rachael and an Irish fellow named
Steven. This makes me one of six kids: three boys and three
girls, the youngest one sadly lacking curls. This is a
fantastic conversation aid, since you can figure out if and how
you are related to others on campus. I've got an uncle,
Chris, who was born in England but has spent most of his life in
Kenya. Very interesting.
So, as you all may have gathered, I am having the time of my life
here in Scotland. I miss you all terribly and will consider
coming home sometime...maybe..probably not but I do hope you'll
come visit, although not during Christmas because I've heard
whispering voices saying "Greece.Rome.Mediterranean
winter."
Your humble Servant,
Ryan
Been here, done this (and much, much more):
Germany
Elmshorn
Barmstedt
Lüneburg
Helgoland
Schleswig
Konzert in Schleswig-Holstein Musik Fest
Viking Museum at Haithabu
Castle Gottorf
Hamburg
Würzburg
Fortress Marienburg
Nürnberg
Nürnberg Castle
Albrecht Dürer Haus
Nürnberg Castle
Nürnberg's cathedrals
Dinner at Bratwurst Röslein
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Käthe Wohlffahrt- the Christmas shop
Medieval Crime Museum
Reichstadt Museum
Ansbach
Wolframs-Eschenbach
Wolfram von Eschenbach Museum
Munich
Glockenspiel
English Garden
The total solar eclipse
Munich's many museums
The Olympic Stadium
Headquarters of BMW
The Hofbräuhaus
Castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau
Berchtesgarten- the Eagle's Nest
Austria
Salzburg
Mozart's House
Salzburg castle
Mozart concert at Castle Hellbrun
The Sound of Music Tour- including, yes, the "I am sixteen
going on seventeen" gazebo.
Hallstadt
The salt mines at Hallstadt
Vienna
St. Stephen's Cathedral
Strauss soncert in the Hofburg
The Art History Museum
The Imperial Armoury
The Danube
Yet another Mozart/Strauss concert
Palace Schönburn
"Wienerschnitzel" at Café Central
Graz, birthplace of everyone's favorite overgrown Austrian action
hero/bodybuilder/the next governor of California?
Remnants of the castle
City Hall
The Armoury (enough arms and armour for an army of 30,000)
Innsbruck
Maximilian's Goldenes Dachl
Maximilium
The Hofburg
Folk Art Museum
Innsbruck city museum
Olympic village
Hiking in Tirolean Alps
Feldkirch
Castle Schattenburg
Bregenz
Largest onion dome in Europe
Lake Constance
Switzerland (only one night)
Germany (again)
Meersburg Castle
Constance
Stuttgart
Saw "Episode I: Die Dunkle Bedrohung"
Broke down and bought overpriced hippy sandals (Birkenstocks)
Castle Hohenzollern
Heidelberg
Heidelberg Castle
Heidelberg University
The Philosopher's Way
The Rhein from Mainz to Koblenz
Bingen (home to everyone's favorite mystic, Hildegard von Bingen)
The Rhein's castles
The Loreley
Koblenz (nope, didn't see the Kaufman or read anything about the
Pyramids)
Monument to German Unity
Cologne
The Cathedral
4711
Aachen
Tomb of Charlemagne
Scotland
Edinburgh
Royal Mile
Edinburgh Castle
The Walter Scot Memorial
Nelson monument
Arthur's seat
Holyrood Palace
Dundee
And, of course, St. Andrews!