Not all who wander are lost -- Lisbon, Portugal

Traveling through Dublin with Heather reminded me of how I like best to see a city. It consists of two parts—the wandering and the eating. The key to wandering is that you need to roughly have in mind a few things that you’d like to see, but you can’t be to attached to seeing any of these things. You also have to be open to changing plans completely if something more interesting catches your eye. When it comes to eating, what works best is never eating a full meal—only small snacks. Doing this means that you can spend the entire day wandering and stopping at cafes, bars, patisseries that speak to you. For example in Dublin, Heather and I spent a day snacking and our spread out meal looked like this: Stop 1—homemade grainy bread, Stop 2—half a goat cheese panini, Stop 3—hot chocolate, Stop 4-cheese,  Stop 5—cider, and so on.

On the first day in Lisbon, I was lucky enough to travel with two friends, Rimo and Judy, in the same style. Here is where our wandering took us: 

A gorgeous view of the city. Our ship is just to the right of this picture.

A stop at a church in Alfama, the historic section of Lisbon

A ride on Tram 28

11'oclock Nata (custard tart) and coffee break

Lots of climbing up stairs (and never going down them)

Shopping at a bookstore the size of a closet

An elevator designed by the architect who designed the Eiffel Tower

A train ride to Cascais, a nearby beach town. Judy and I decided that this would be a perfect way to spend the afternoon

A walk to the ocean

A stop for a fruit smoothie in a cafe promising a rooftop deck

Fresh grilled fish

A sunset on the beach to end the day

Peace

Subheading: A Foray into Global and Inner Peace

In Antwerp, my SAS trip actually took me out of Belgium, through the Netherlands, and back to Germany to visit Peace Village International. This is a NGO whose mission is to provide healthcare to children from war torn countries. The organization flies in children from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and several countries in Africa who have severe medical problems. The children receive hospital care and are then flown back to home to be reunited with their families.

Button Bracelets

Inside Peace Village

 We were there to do arts and crafts with the children. A friend of mine recommended that I bring buttons and string to make button bracelets and this went really well (Thanks Sonia!). The children were at first very shy, but enjoyed working on the craft projects. While at the Peace Village all children are spoken to in Germany and are expected to learn Germany quickly. So, I had to put back on my German thinking cap and try my best to remember how to ask basic questions like, “How old are you?” and “What is your name?” I learned that the Itsy Bitsy Spider is not a song sung in Afghanistan, but the kids thought it was funny. Mostly, I resorted to communicating as I did in Russia and other parts of Germany—with hand gestures and miming.

After a morning of crafts, a tour of the village, and a little bit of free time with the kids, our tour took a more contemplative turn as we left Peace Village to visit a gasometer. I’m still not 100% sure what a gasometer is, but this is what it looks like:

The Gasometer

It once was used to store gas(?) for a steel mill, which has since shut down. Now the gasometer is used for traveling art exhibits. So we spent the afternoon going through a Cristos exhibit inside this massive structure. 

Cristos exhibit

Cristos had even created an art installation using the top half of the gasometer. When inside this installation, it resembled the inside of a hot air balloon. There were pillows on the ground inviting visitors to lie down and relax. The best part of being inside the installation was hearing the way sound bounced off of the fabric walls. Laughter echoed in the eeriest way. So it was here, at the end of the day that I was able to find inner peace for a few minutes before the long drive back to the ship.

Art or Vandalism?

I’m still not sure if I would consider the graffiti I saw in Germany as art or vandalism. Since my tour of the street art in Berlin, I’ve seen random tagging all throughout Germany, Belgium, and France. Some of it is just a name or word sprayed on a building or wall. This is usually not very artistic or eye- catching. I’m thinking this would be considered straight out vandalism.

Then, there is graffiti that looks more thought out and is more detailed. It has colors, shading, and design. I think this is when it approaches art. The tour through Berlin’s street art scene mostly focused on the latter type of graffiti. It was led by two twenty-something hipsters who I suspect are heavily involved in the Berlin street art scene. The one guide referred to it as the “hip-hop culture” and mentioned popular hot spots that she and other hip-hop folk go to hang out—a pancake house, an abandoned lot, an empty industrial building, etc. 

Some of the graffiti we saw was with spray paint. This is usually done by a group who want their name to be recognized. Their goal is to spread their tag throughout the city. This type of graffiti is illegal and comes with a heavy fine if caught.

Another type of graffiti that we saw is called “paste-ups,” which is printed out graphic art that is pasted onto a wall. It is usually made of several sheets of paper all pasted together. These paste-ups are often shocking, humorous, or are poking fun of pop-culture. The guides explained that while this form of street art is still illegal, it is much easier to get away with.

The most exciting part of our tour was visiting an alley of shops where the street artists were permitted—encouraged—to create their art. The works here were far more elaborate because they didn’t have to be done with the time constraints inherent with not wanting to get caught.

Graffiti on the Berlin Wall

I want to live here—Lubeck and Bruges

Germany, Belgium, and France are peppered with small Medieval towns that somehow survived the bombings of World War II. They have since turned into hidden gems and easy day trips to escape city life.

Gate to Lubeck

I only had the chance to visit two of these towns, Lubeck in Germany and Bruges in Belgium, but for both I said the words, “I want to live here,” about every ten minutes.

Streets in Bruges

Part of the charm of these two towns is that it feels like you have traveled back in time to somewhere

between 1200-1400. Forget Renn. Fest, this is the real deal! All that was missing was period garb, turkey legs, and cheesecake on a stick.

Sailor's Pub in Lubeck

Town square in Lubeck

Merchant's house in Lubeck

The other reason to love both Lubeck and Bruges is that they seem to honor the role of cafes and 4 o’clock snack time. Lubeck is filled with coffee shops where you can have an afternoon piece of cake and a cup for coffee. They also specialize in marzipan, and shape it into all kinds of imaginative items—for example, marzipan pigs feet or a marzipan strawberry.

Marzipan desserts at Nideregger's in Lubeck

For Bruges, it is all about the chocolate. Every store sold hot chocolate and about 80% of the shops were chocolate shops. The air even smelt like chocolate!

Chocolate Rhino in Bruges

Aside from the constant references to the movie “In Bruges,” that kept running through my head (this movie showed for 4 days straight on our cabin tvs before we arrived in Belgium), I could easily have believed I ended up in a new section of Disney World when I got off the train. It just felt too magical to be true.

Walking through Bruges in the rain

Sitting in the tower where Ralph Fiennes meets his end in In Bruges

An interesting gate in a park in Bruges

One of best parts of these day trips is that it provides a nice opportunity to explore and have fun with friends from the ship outside of our usual ship-life routine.

The Lubeck crew: Kathy, Ralph, Me, Mary, Susan, Steve, and Kelly

Eating

 The food on the ship is adequate. Nothing is overly elaborate, but nothing is disgusting either. I usually bypass the two or three pasta and/or potato dishes and pile my plate with salad fixings (minus the iceberg lettuce), steamed vegetables, and the fish entry or soup. Here’s what dinner looked like tonight

At the ports, however, is a chance to really embrace eating. One thing to note is that in both Germany and Russia, there were more Chinese restaurants and pizza joints than traditional Russian or German establishments. Although I felt wrong doing it, I had great Chinese food in both ports.

In Berlin, I’m not sure I had traditional German food, but I had food worth mentioning. It was actually one of the best meals I’ve eaten so far (other than the Indian in Southampton). For the last stop on the tour I was on in Berlin, we were dropped off at a department store for two hours of shopping. This caused me to roll my eyes, until I heard these magical words, “This department store has a food court with over 1,000 different kinds of cheeses.”

“Cheese,” I said, “which floor?”

I actually didn’t find the cheese, but that was all right because my attention quickly turned to the desserts and other amazing looking dishes available at this Harrods-like department store.

The salmon on the plate was Norwegian salmon made to order. I watched the cook lightly dip the fish in flour, season it, and place it right on the cook top. Five minutes later I had an amazing lunch. The dessert, I’m told, is a traditional German dessert made with local berries. It was almost like eating a think berry jam mixed with custard and cream. So good! 

In Hamburg, I unenthusiastically ate a pizza for dinner, but then was surprised at 6 in the morning by the variety of food available at the fish market. Now, those who know me well know that waking up to see the sunrise is not the top of my to-do list. In fact, I have only done it a hand-full of times and I’m usually unimpressed with the experience. This time, however, was worth it. In Hamburg, there is a fish market that starts at 5am and ends at 10am. The charm of going at the start of the market is that you quickly realize people didn’t wake up to make it that early—they just never went to bed.

People of all ages treat the fish market as a kind of after party where you can continue drinking, dancing, and if you so chose can find some great hangover foods

My favorite was the fried dough balls rolled in sugar, which were actually light and fluffy.

For those who actually wanted to buy fish and produce, both were amply available. To keep the crowds entertained, the vendors yelled German obscenities (I can only image that is what they were yelling) at the crowd with much gusto.

The real St. Petersburg

On the second to last day in St. Petersburg a group of us decided to check out a weekend flea market. I knew it would be an adventure when I asked Julia, the local librarian who took us around the first day about it and she replied, “I don’t know of any flea markets in the city. The only one I can think of is far and you wouldn’t want to go all the way out there.”

She was right about the distance, but it was a chance to see what we have since fondly referred to as “the real St. Petersburg.”

It also gave me the chance to see the St. Petersburg subways, which are reported to be some of the nicest subways in the world. I’ve seen pictures of stations on the red line with crystal ceilings and gilded walls.

On the two lines we used to get to the flea market, we didn’t see crystal ceilings, but the trains and stations were extremely clean and efficient. They are most definitely  the deepest stations I’ve even been in. The escalators down in St. Petersburg went down for miles and miles. Far deeper than the DC metro stations.

After about a 20 minute subway ride (and one transfer) we came to the suburbs of St. Petersburg. The “real St. Petersburg.”

Where the ship docked in St. Petersburg in a wonderful location-very close to the historic district, which is the tourist district. There, everything is international, metropolitan, and most people speak English. Finding Chinese, Spanish, and Italian food was very easy here, but finding traditional Russian food was actually a challenge.

On the outskirts of St. Petersburg no one readily spoke English and while the streets were still fairly clean, no one was trying to impress the tourists. My friends instructions to the flea market read, “Get off subway, follow people across the train tracks.” This we did and discovered rows and rows of stuff (in some cases junk) for sale--mounds of clothes on tables, random selections of USSR memorabilia, and a plethora of materials you could use to fix up your house.

 My favorites were a box of rusty nails for sale and the table of old sewing machines. Apparently I missed the stuff

Next to the flea market was a small farmers market which I thoroughly enjoyed walking through.

My of the farmers were selling tiny berries that came in red, yellow, and blue. When I asked one of the sellers what they were for, she put her hand across her forehead and mimed fainting, then rubbed her hand on her belly as if she had a stomach ache. I had to buy some. I would love to report that these berries were amazing, but instead they were really sour. Kind of like a cranberry, but more tart. So either these berries which I have translated as “forest berries,” or “cow berries” either help with headaches and stomach aches or they cause them. I’m not sure. Either way, it was a real experience.