I don't have any witty titles for London

As a final addition to my third field study trip through 3 European countries we stopped in London, UK. This awesome city was almost like a dose of home, with full cooked breakfasts, English being spoken at every turn, and ice in my drinks. It was a great way to wrap up the trip, despite the minor setback of becoming a victim of the most catastrophic airline failure EVER. But what am I doing complaining, there are millions of worse places to be stuck in this world than London, though many far cheaper places too. So here is my recount of my London adventures.

Tuesday
I know I already covered my Tuesday in my blog post about Tallinn, but my British experience really began in Tallinn, and somewhere over the North Sea.

After getting through emigration, which you do when you leave the Schengen area, and standing in line to board our flight to London we came across a group of British guys who had spend the weekend partying in Tallinn and were now heading home. As we were passing onto the jetway to get on the plane I overheard a conversation about one of the Brits having lost his passport and not being able to get on the plane, with all his buddies standing around him I gave him a friendly "That sucks, man" to which he slurred at me (yes, he was drunk): "You don't even care do you, you just think it's funny!" Now I'll admit, it was a little funny, but only for a moment, because he did manage to find his passport and get on the plane. Naturally, being the classy fellow he was, he scoped the plane for a seat and decided to sit next to 2 pretty girls he saw, that just happened to be Liz and Tabitha, girls from our program, and right behind me. After a few laughs at his antics and flirting he passed out for most of the flight, before waking up minutes before landing and getting suddenly violently sick. Luckily I managed not to get any on me! Once we landed we wished him good luck and hoped he would get better soon.
We passed through immigration, adding another important stamp to my passport(!), and after only a brief issue finding my luggage, got headed to our lodging, which was at an IES run dormitory in Chelsea.

Wednesday
We headed out in the morning to a meeting at the IES London center and learned about British politics, which may or may not be the most complicated thing ever. I thought the EU was confusing, but man are British politics all kinds of turned around. Right now, they are in election season, which lasts less than 2 months, and only occurs when the Prime Minister decides to call elections. Gordon Brown decided to do this, then promptly dissolved Parliament and resigned. So until elections on May 6, nobody is running the British government. God save the Queen.
Our second meeting was with an American woman who has been working in the UK to develop understanding about different business practices and social styles between Britain and the US. Though pretty interesting and largely factual we found many of her assumptions to be overarching generalizations about a country. This was further rebuked when she continuously said "British people are this way, but this is just a generalization." She kept refuting herself, which made it hard for us to believe what she was saying.
After our meetings we struck out to have some food and delicious English beer. My friend Ryan and I headed to a little out of the way pub where I encountered my first real live British Fish & Chips, complete with mushy peas and a hand pumped ale. We also had a nice conversation with the bartender about good places to go see and things to do while we were in London, as well as picked up some insider tips.

After an incredibly filling lunch we met up with some others at the British Museum. This museum is literally the complete collection of the British imperial empire. They have the plundering from every corner of the world, Egypt, Rome & Greece, the Far East, the Americas, plus tons of British history. The museum is so massive that no person could hope to see it in one sitting, but luckily you can come back as often as you like, because the whole museum, along with many others in London, is completely free to the public. Given that everything in London seems excessively pricey, not to mention the terrible exchange rate, this is a great deal for us! Some cool things we saw inside include: The actual Rosetta Stone, giant Greek and Roman pillars and capitals, the majority of art from the Parthenon in Athens (which we saw more of than the IES trip that actually went there), an exhibit about the life of a British person, including all the medication they had taken over the course of their lives, ancient clocks, and much, much more!
After all that Matt and I headed back out to go visit the Queen. Okay, we didn't actually visit her, but we did go see Buckingham palace lit up at night and stroll by the major sights at night. We checked out Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben, where I called my mother to let her hear the bells chime, the London Eye. We started to get a little hungry so we walked past #10 Downing Street, up through Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus and almost all the way back to the British Museum before settling on an Indian place.
After ordering my meal I was acosted by 2 British women for my order. The conversation here vaguely follows what was said (Just imagine her lines in an awesome British accent, its better that way):
Her: "Excuse me, did you just order a Vindaloo?"
Me: "Yes, why?"
Her: "You do know that is the spiciest thing you can order, right?"
Me: "Oh, I think I'll be able to handle it, I've eaten lots of spicy things before"
Her: "Oh, well good luck" and when she was leaving - "Enjoy your Vindaloo"
Best thing about this is, that the meal wasn't even that spicy, it was just the right amount of spice I was looking for. I guess all the Mexican food back home has built up a resistance to spice.
Matt and I did a little more walking around and then headed back to Chelsea.

Thursday

Matt and I woke up early with a mission: Find a good, reasonably priced English Breakfast. And behold, just a block from our dormitory there was a cafe serving full English Breakfast and coffee for only 5 Pounds. This amazing meal is something I could honestly eat for the remainder of my life: Beans, toast, eggs, pork sausage, bacon, and tomatoes, all together on one plate. It was delicious.
After our breakfast of kings we headed to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Our speaker, a Bulgarian man was very long winded and didn't seem to understand American, or German humor. Eric, one of our chaperons tried to make a joke after the presentation by saying "I just have one more question. Why is it that banks always have the buildings with such nice views?" Now of course we all laughed and started to pack up, but our speaker actually took the time to answer the question, explaining how the money they had and prestige they possessed got them such nice views. It was rather awkward.
We originally had a plan to go see a session of Parliament in the afternoon, but as discussed earlier - there was no Parliament, so that wasn't going to happen. We instead headed off to see the Imperial War Museum.

The Imperial War Museum chronicles the British military through a number of conflicts but mainly focusing on the World Wars, and modern conflicts. The museum also has a large exhibit on espionage and the actions of MI5 and MI6, as well as the British SAS (Special Air Service). The exhibition is incredibly interesting and makes me wonder what the implications of a release of that kind of information about the CIA or FBI would be like in the US. The main lobby of the museum is the "Toys for Boys" room with lines of tanks, planes, missiles, and submarines.
That afternoon we headed back to town to check out some of the sights during the day, getting me better pictures of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and everything else. After a little deliberation we headed into the Abbey to watch the Evensong service and see the inside of the Abbey, which usually costs 12 Pounds, which just seems unreasonable. We enjoyed a little improv Organ playing and listened to the service while checking out the great architecture, famous tombs, and coronation chair.

In the evening we headed out to our IES farewell dinner, and we drank some good beer, ate some good food, and enjoyed each others company for the evening. At this point we've become aware of the volcanic eruption in Iceland and have started wondering what will happen. Some of the group was supposed to leave Friday morning, but we were pretty sure that wasn't going to happen. As most of our flights were on Sunday we weren't too worried. IES gets info from all of us about our flight plans and lodging.
Afterward we met up with Tyler's friend who was studying in London and went out for a few more drinks around town before heading back.

Friday

Woke up late, had leisurely breakfast at a little cafe down the street from the dorm in Chelsea while checking on some email and the volcano situation. I then headed to the Tower of London with Matt and Ryan in the early afternoon. I have decided that whenever you think of a Medieval castle, you're actually thinking of the tower of London, whether you know it or not. We arrived and grabbed some tickets. Met some rude American girls while we were at it (They got all pissed when I told them the UK's currency was Pounds after they said "It's $17... or whatever"). Its interesting how my perspectives have changed so much.

We headed into the Tower and hit up one of the free tours with the Beefeaters. They walked us through the whole tower and gave us some interesting information on the history of the rulers, the building, and the prisoners there. We ran into Tyler and his friend Chris again and wandered around with them through the Royal Armories where they have the armor of old British Kings, including: King Henry VIII, King James. They also have a bunch of other exhibits about the history of the Tower, royal gifts and other cool stuff. We then headed to check out the Queen's crown Jewels. Unfortunately they don't allow pictures, but it was cool to see the ridiculously large stones mounted in a crown that gets worn once. There are also an odd assortment of other things like royal plates, spoons, and staffs. We then headed to check out the torture chambers and walk around the wall.

After a couple hours at the tower we cruised across the Tower bridge and to the other side of town. We walked down the path for a few minutes and past a few cool buildings before we hopped the Tube to St. Paul's Cathedral. We arrived literally just as they were closing and missed going inside, but on strong recommendations decided to come back later.
We headed back downtown to check on possibly seeing a play that evening. There was a play that I have wanted to see for a long time that was showing. Avenue Q, a quirky musical that makes fun of other musicals and is considerably vulgar, and also hilarious. We picked up some tickets, found a pub to have some food and beer before the show, and headed inside. The show that ensued had me laughing from beginning to end, and singing along with all the parts I knew.
We headed to a bar down the street afterward for some 1.50 beer and just relaxed while talking about life. We then headed back to the dorm where some drama ensued, without getting into too much deal let me just say that I didn't get to sleep until after 2 AM.

Saturday

Matt and I got up and headed down toward to Buckingham Palace with the intention of seeing the changing of the guard. We picked up some English Breakfast on the way of course! When we got down to Buckingham we realized pretty slowly that they weren't doing the ceremony today. Whoops! Got some nice pictures though.
Instead we headed back to St. Paul's to climb the dome. The dome at St. Paul's is  bested only by St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It also has the whispering wall, a balcony where you can hear someone opposite whisper because of the perfectly circular room. We slowly climbed over 1000 steps to get to the top and got some great views along the way. Unfortunately some genius decided to build a high rise between St. Paul's and the Parliament building, completely blocking it from view. But other than that the city view was great! After fighting our way around the tiny balcony at the top of the cathedral we headed back down and out to see some other parts of the city. We stalled briefly for lunch at the Starbucks and checked some more email.
We strolled across the Millennium Bridge with the original intention of going to see the Tate Modern museum, but because it was such a beautiful day, we opted for a walk along the River toward the London Eye.
We saw some really great parts of the city and admired many Londoners in their true form, enjoying the weather and relaxing on a lazy Saturday afternoon. We wandered through an open air book market, watched some street musicians, and ended up heading back to the dorm for a bit with the intention of maybe going out later.
We had a packaged meal bought from Tesco, as we were starting to run out of money, and rested our weary legs for a little while. We met up with Ryan later and headed out to meet some friends of his downtown. Unfortunately by the time we got downtown they had already left and the night turned into a bust. You win some you lose some I guess.

Sunday

I was originally supposed to go home today, but thanks to the wonderful "Act of God" we were part of my flight was cancelled. After briefly figuring out that the IES staff planned to have a meeting that evening with us we struck out for the day to see the changing of the guard for real. Matt and I stopped, now throughly addicted, for another English Breakfast - I told you I could eat them for my whole life! We got to Buckingham a bit before the show so we looked around and did some excellent people watching.

I was rather uninspired by the whole changing of the guard ceremony. I was expecting something a bit like the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. Nothing like that. The group of guards about to go off duty arrived led by a pipe and drum band, and proceeded to stand or pace around for 10 minutes. Then the new guards arrived led by a full band. Then everyone stood around for 5 minutes while a couple guards walked out and met each other in the middle, walked to the Palace door, and stood around some more. Then there was some random chaos as the band set up to play a few numbers. They played (surprisingly) some popular music tunes, that weren't so awesome. Then there was a massive bit of scuffling about and the bands an guards set up to leave. Then they all marched out and the whole thing was over. Really, not very exciting, but now I can say I've seen it.

We then wandered through St. James park and lounged on the grass for a bit while deciding our next move. We decided to head to Greenwich to check out the Royal observatory and the Prime Meridian. The city of Greenwich really isn't much and is only famous probably for Greenwich Mean Time, the Prime Meridian and a few boats. We hiked up the hill to the observatory, obligatorily stood on both sides of the world at once, you know, no big deal, I've been in 4 US states at once. We took a quick peruse through the Naval museum and around the Royal naval academy. We grabbed a quick snack and headed back to the dorm for our meeting with the IES staff. They informed us we would be taking a Eurostar and bus the next morning to reach Freiburg.
Tesco was the option for dinner yet again and I opted to watch a movie and take it easy on our last night instead of trying to go crazy my last night in London. More drama in the room when I returned, what fun!

Monday and the Journey Home
Lucky for us we didn't have to be on a train until 10:00, but needed to get to the station early for check in, immigration, and to fight the crowds. We snagged some breakfast and snacks for the ride home before hopping on the train.
The Eurostar is really just a train. I don't quite know why people get so excited about it. Yes, you do travel under the English Channel, but from the window of the train it is just a 22 minute long tunnel. The amazing thing is that you can zip from London all the way to Paris in just 2 hours.
After getting to Paris we hopped on our good old Freiburg bus and headed home. We took a brief stop for dinner and got all the way home before 10 PM.
Not bad for 12 hours of traveling.

Whew... General Impressions
London is huge, I was there for 5 days and could have easily spent another 10 with no trouble. They also have great public transit which is good in such a huge city. Between the Tube and the Buses you could get anywhere fast. Mind the Gap.
I was really impressed that most of the major museums were free, it was nice to be able to visit all the cool places without paying a dime, and to soak up so much history and information is always a joy. Other than the musuems though, London is pretty expensive. 3.50 for a beer doesn't sound bad, but when you add in the exchange rate it hurts. The money here shows though. London rakes in 3/4 of the UK's GDP.
Some of my main favorite things: Tower of London (great value), River walks, Avenue Q, Westminster area (Abbey, Parliament etc.), Royal Parks, St. Pauls.
The Volcano extravaganza was a big deal, but ultimately had almost no impact on my trip. I gained a bit of time in London, which was great, but didn't have any huge financial or travel issues because of it. It is cool to be part of the history that it will bring and will make a great story for the future when I talk about my trip! I have to give a huge thanks to the IES staff for working out our transport home!

In other news: IES EU lost the championship for best study abroad location to Nantes, France. But given that we were scattered all over the continent it is amazing we did so well. We're the runner up best place to study, but we all know that Freiburg is a better place to be! Far fewer crazy French people.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this incredibly long post! It might even be a new record

In (former) Soviet Russia....

Hi everyone, sorry for being so 'postless' the last couple days, it's been crazy and I have barely had any time to write. Besides that, I was lucky enough to be one of the 300,000 stranded travelers out of London this week! So I'm just getting around to working on some blog posts of the remainder of our trip. Here goes...

Tallinn, Estonia
We arrived early in the morning, a murky thick fog covering the water, we didn't see the city until we were almost upon in. Okay, just kidding, we got in around 10 in the morning and walked into the brilliant northern sun along the Baltic coast. And so started our adventure in Tallinn. Fun fact: Tallinn, is the most Northern locations I have ever been on  Earth, it's also the northernmost capital of the European continent (not including Scandinavia).

Sunday
After getting checked in to our surprisingly upscale hotel near downtown Tallinn, I immediately went back to bed for a few hours before heading out to see the city.
In the afternoon, we took a tour of Tallinn in a few different groups and discovered some different parts of the city. My group learned about Medieval Tallinn. The city has numerous old fortifications and interesting buildings that have been around for centuries. It's amazing that many of them are still standing as Estonia has been ruled by other countries until only 1991. Our walk took us through the old town area and we tried some traditional food, saw some old shops and talked with a few locals. We got lost a couple times on our journey, but that just proved to be an experience all its own. After our tour was finished we regrouped to talk about our tours and show the pictures we had taken.
By this time we were all famished and headed to get some food at a pancake place recommended to us by a local for cheap, filling meals. Now when I think pancakes I think of light fluffy dough with butter and maple syrup. I don't think they've ever heard of maple syrup in Estonia. These pancakes were something completely different, they were easily a foot across, and folded up into quarters after being stuffed with different things, like chicken, fish, cottage cheese, shrimp, anything really. It was really a 'one pancake meal'.

After dinner we took another nice walk around the town to see what we might find and ended up taking some great pictures over the town and out toward the Baltic before heading back to the hotel.

Monday
We were up and fed early for a meeting with a Canadian (in Estonia?) Andres Kasekamp, about Estonian relations with the EU and Russia. The meeting was pretty intersting and provided us with some good information on Estonia that we would not have known otherwise.

After my academic lunch, where we eat with a teacher and talk about what we've done on the trip so far, we went to the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We had 3 different meetings about Estonia's role in the world through organizations and the EU. Being such a small country, both geographically and demographically (there are only 1.5 million people in Estonia, 300,000 of whom are Russian), Estonia has to try very hard to make itself heard. It was interesting to learn that Estonia thinks of itself more like a Nordic country, similar to Finland and Sweden than it does a Baltic country.
In the evening, though it felt more like the afternoon as the sun was still high in the sky because we were so far north, just south of the 60th parallel, my friends, Nao, Tyler, Matt, and I headed out to see the Estonian singing grounds. This was the location of the 1989 "Singing Revolution" that separated the Baltic states from Russia. The song grounds would fill with up to 400,000 people who would all sing together. I can only imagine how moving it might have been to see it.
We did not, however, get to the song grounds in a timely fashion, we managed to get lost on the Tallinn bus system. After taking the wrong numbered bus, we ended up quite literally in former Soviet Russia. We were surrounded by old empty warehouses and dilapidated railways. It literally looked like we had jumped back 30 years in time. After a little confusion and reversal of our route we did manage to get back to the main bus station and onto the right bus. Quite the adventure.

Our detour may have also been a blessing however, because by the time we got to the Song grounds the sun was just beginning to set and we were able to take some very good pictures of the song grounds, amphitheater, and stroll along the Baltic coast during sunset. The Baltic isn't the prettiest sea I've ever seen, the area around it is trash filled and the sea bed is filled with old chemicals and pesticides. In recent years there have been efforts to reverse the negative effects and keep the sea a clean and safe place. This is important as many of the people in this region depend on the Baltic for their welfare.
We headed back into town and had some dinner, some excellent, and hearty dishes with some authentic Estonian beer.

Tuesday

Our final day in Tallinn, we headed to meet with a local professor about the impacts of the EU on everyday Estonian life an the support for the EU in Estonia. We did have a bit of free time before we headed to London, so several of us decided to visit the Museum of Occupation. This 1 room museum shows the chronology of occupation in Estonia from the Russians, the the Nazis, to the Russians again. The Estonians initially treated the Nazis as liberators when they first came because of the previous years of Russian oppression. However the occupation didn't last long and at the end of the Second World War Estonia became part of the USSR for the next 40 years. The museum has some interesting artifacts of the occupations including old telephone booths, suitcases, prison doors, and even a copy of Mein Kampf. 
After the museum we took one more stroll around old town Tallinn before collecting our luggage and heading to London.
We arrived very late to London and got started early the next morning - More about London in my next post!

Overall Thoughts
Estonia is a country that's very different from other European countries and has developed in a very different way. Because of it's tormented past and numerous occupations, the Estonians are rather mistrustful of other and are slow to open up. They are however very excited to meet Americans, as many of them have never seen one in real life. We met a guy on our cruise who was so excited to meet us and take pictures with us. He told us how much he loved America and that he wanted to go there someday. It was kind of a nice change of pace from the Germans and French who just wish we would go away sometimes...
The city of Tallinn is an odd mix of 3 or 4 time periods, from it's medieval old town, to it's 18th and 19th century churches, to the blocks of Soviet built apartments and office buildings, to the new downtown area with high-rise glass banks. It's a city that cherishes the old, but also loves the new, and as a result is a city with a rich and troubled history, but also a very modern look, feel, and approach to life. It quite possibly seemed less "Eastern European" than even Prague was, surprising, as it was actually part of the USSR, not just a satellite state.
 They're also incredibly technologically advanced. Every citizen can cast national ballots online using a special identity card, they created Skype, and are working to give every citizen internet access in the coming years.
Overall Tallinn was a nice surprise as a city and a culture. I leaned a lot about somewhere that is usually skimmed over in every history book ever printed.

Stockholm Syndrome

After much anticipation and lots of waiting we started our 3rd and final field study trip to Stockholm, Tallinn, and London. We headed to the airport on Wednesday afternoon around 3 and were in Stockholm before midnight. Because it was late and we'd been travelling all day, it was time for some rest so we could hit it hard on Thursday.

Thursday
Up and out of the hotel early to meet with a representitive from the Swedish Institute for European Studies. We learned about Sweden's position on important EU issues and were able to learn a lot about Sweden and their opinions.

We then headed out to get some lunch in town. We had a couple free hours so we wandered to Gamla Stan, the old town area where Stockholm was founded. We enjoyed seeing the Royal Palace, walking through the small alleys, and strolling by the Baltic sea. The weather was great and a light jacket was all I needed to keep warm. We of course came across a number of attractive Swedes, because they are literally everywhere.
After lunch we headed Ericsson to have a meeting with their treasury department. We also took a tour of the company history and learned about the development of telecommunications since the beginning of the industry. Our guide also had all the new and exciting cell phone toys, including a watch that was connected to his phone to tell him who is calling and locate his phone. The meetings turned out to be rather boring, with lots of technical treasury info and money management in a large industry. However we then had the evening free and after a quick change of clothes we headed out to find some traditional Swedish food.
We ended up just across the street from our hotel in a highly recommended restaurant called Vurma. They offered traditional dishes like: Reindeer, Swedish meatballs and fish stew. We throughly enjoyed our dinner and awesome waiter who helped us learn about the Swedish language (which is a lot like German), good bars, and places to see.
We then headed back into town to see the city at night and find some (cheap) beer. Sweden has massive taxes of up to 25% on alcohol, making going out a very expensive prospect. An average beer goes for around 50 Kronor, which is about €5, a little different than €1 beer in Freiburg. We did however manage to find some decently priced drinks in the cheaper, up and coming, part of town. We then headed back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for another exciting day. I also had a chance to chat with my Dad for a few minutes about my parent's imminent trip to Europe!

Friday

We were up and out early to head over to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We had several speakers who informed us about Sweden's government setup, which is a little different as they primarily use outside agencies for research and policy recommendations. We also talked about Sweden's foreign policy with concern to the EU and about Sweden's recent EU presidency. We then had what so far has been the most interesting presentation we've had in the whole program. We learned about the affect of migration on trade. According to the study immigrants from a certain country increase trade between their home country and Sweden 3-6%. Pretty amazing that just moving can affect trade relations.
We made a quick dash back to the hotel to change before our Stockholm boat tour. While not the best tour ever I learned some interesting things about Sweden and got some pictures. The weather had turned to a heavy fog which caused picture problems unfortunately.

After the tour we decided to go check out a few museums. We ended up in the Nobel museum and learned all about the life of Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prizes. He was a fascinating and intelligent man who seemed to regret his creation of a powerful explosive and dedicated his fortune to pursuits of good.

Saturday
We woke up a leisurely hour and checked out of the hotel, and then headed over to Skansen island, a living history museum that shows traditional Swedish life. We walked around for a bit, enjoyed seeing some animals at their Zoo, and headed to the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a 17th century war ship that sunk after traveling only a few kilometers due to having too little ballast stone. The boat has been preserved and looks outstanding. It is amazing to stand right next to the ship and realize just how big it is, it stands 7 stories tall! Though we didn't get to go on the boat, I did get some great pictures of it and learn a lot about naval warfare.

After a quick snack we headed got ready for our Baltic cruise.
I have officially decided that boat travel is the way to go. We took a wonderful "ferry" ride from Stockholm to Tallinn. This was no dinky ferry, it carries up to 2500 passengers, has a duty free grocery store, multiple restaurants, a dance club, and bars everywhere. We spent an exciting evening enjoying everything the boat had to offer and danced the night away. We arrived in Tallinn around 10 and started our next adventure. Now  if only there was a ferry from Tallinn to London... oh well.

Well that is all I have for now. I will have another update on Tallinn and London both.