Pictures Online

I have posted selected photographs from my European journey, view them at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/elizannleach

The new albums are (in order of travel):
Paris
French Riviera (Montpellier and Nice)
Pisa
Rome
Florence and Lucca
Venice
Oslo
Helsinki
Tallinn

It is best to click on an album and then click the 'View Slideshow' link on the right side of the screen above the pictures.

Adventures in Scandihoovia (and the Baltics)

Where do I begin?? I ecstatically parted ways from Sandy and Jolie and flew from Venice to Oslo (through Copenhagen, which has a great airport) and arrived not at the main Oslo Gardemoen airport but at the tiny Sandefjord airport. I swear the airplane dropped me off on the southern edge of the country in the middle of a forest. The airport was totally deserted (this was 7:00 on a Sunday night of a holiday weekend) and I had no idea how I was going to get from Sandefjord to the city center where I had a hotel reservation. I finally managed to find someone who informed me I had to take a bus (oh by the way--it's raining and 36 degrees) to the gas station down the road and then take another bus from there to Oslo. All of this required Norwegian kronor (apparently Norway has not joined the EU because they don't want to give up their fishing rights) and by some miracle, there was a functioning ATM in this teeny tiny airport. This series of buses deposited me at the central bus station in Oslo (still raining, by the way) and I have no map. After attempting to find my way, I gave up and hailed a taxi... 100 kronor later, I arrived. Norwegian hotels (and by extension, all hotels in Scandinavia!) are beautifully clean and warm (with heated bathroom floors) and I slept better this night than I had for the previous three weeks. At left is a Stave Church - I have always thought they are very interesting and unique to Norway. This one was built in the 12th century about the same time as Salisbury Cathedral in England. Can you believe that? There are only about 30 of them left in Norway, this one is at the outdoor Folk Museum and was transported from Gol in Hallingdal.

I was up at dawn, though, to go meet my dad at the normal Oslo airport which is beautiful and new and exactly what you would picture an airport in modern Norway to look like. It was a happy and slightly tearful reunion and it seemed strange for a little bit that he was actually here. I was so happy to have him as my travel partner for the next week. After taking a train back to the city center and struggling to get a handle on Oslo's public transport, we arrived at the hotel. This was Monday, May 1st and Labor Day in Norway -- we were just in time to witness the socialist parade down Karl Johannsgate complete with marching bands playing ABBA songs. It was gray and very cold and the whole thing just seemed like a rough introduction to this country I have wanted to visit since I was mesmerized by the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994. My two semesters of classroom Norwegian at St. Olaf was slightly helpful although English is universally spoken in most of Scandinavia. Over the next few days, we dabbled in most of the city's museums including several on polar exploration (Norwegians are tough cookies), the Vikings, and maritime ventures. I even drug my dad to the Holmenkollen Ski Jump (pictured above), about a half hour outside of and 1,000 feet above the city. The actual jump was used during the 1952 Oslo Olympics and hosts a ski festival every year. It is BIG. We actually got to climb to the top of it and stand right where the skiers stand before they take off. Holmenkollen also has a great museum on the history of skiing, both cross country and downhill, and even a ski simulator to let you know what it feels like to fly down a ski run in Lillehammer at 130km/hour. My dad's birthday was while we were in Oslo, too, so I took him to a fun place where we sampled seafood soup and yes, smoked moose meat which was really very tasty. We couldn't shake the cold and gray until the morning we left for Helsinki... and then the sun came out and we were able to shed a few layers. Oslo is a pretty little city with a lot of good things going for it - the mixed-use harbor front development (Aker Brygge) is especially nice. In Norway everything is clean and you don't have to pay to use the public toilets. Cool Scandinavian design and wool sweaters are everywhere you turn, but it all comes at a price. At about 6 kr to $1, it was hard to try not to have a heart attack when looking at prices and we were constantly dividing by 6. Norway is a beautiful place -- I think I need to go back in the summer time to witness it in all of its glory but it's definitely "my" kind of place.

On Thursday, we flew to Finland and arrived in Helsinki in the early evening. Helsinki is a difficult place to describe -- it felt much more lively and extroverted than Oslo but that may be just because it was sunny and warm the entire time we were there and everyone was out and about. The architecture in Helsinki is distinct and different than elsewhere in the Nordic countries -- you have to look carefully to notice the carefully considered details and unusual ornamentation. At left is the Rautalieasema Järnvägstation (train station) designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen in 1916... it is distinctively guarded by four men holding lanterns. These four figures show up in TV commercials and advertising and have become icons of Helsinki. Their uniqueness captures the independent Finnish spirit.

Because Finland was once part of Sweden and was also a duchy of Russia, it is an interesting mixture of east and west. Our first night there we ate at an authentic Finnish restaurant where we had reindeer soup and plates full of heavy, hearty fish and meat and potatoes. It was here that we discovered that Finns like their drink -- nearly every table around us was passing around some sort of vodka-looking substance. You could argue it's necessary to handle the long, Baltic winters... Helsinki is at 62 degrees north latitude. (Omaha is around 41 I think, on the same line as both Rome and Barcelona!) Of course, Finland is also home to one of my favorite architects, Alvar Aalto and his presence is quite evident throughout the city. Finnish design is very unique and my dad and I had a good time wandering through shops looking for interesting things to take home. A highlight of the trip was attending a Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra concert in Finlandia Hall! It is probably Aalto's most famous building which houses a phenomenal concert hall and a congress center. While we sat in seats in the very last row of the balcony, the acoustics were so great that it felt like we were sitting about four feet from the stage. On the program was Haydn, a strange Stravinsky piece, and Dvorak's New World Symphony. When my dad was in Helsinki in 1974, Finlandia Hall was only 2 years old and he had never been inside it (pictured at right). It was a memorable event.

As we were coming out of the concert, we noticed black smoke. Walking further down a street I can't pronounce (Finnish is an impossible language!), people were gathered all over the steps of the Parliment Building, in the street, on the lawn... watching what looked to be old railway sheds engulfed in flames. The Finnish fire department has some sort of chemical they spray instead of water that puts out the fire much more efficiently but the building is a total loss. It didn't look to be too historical but it was sure exciting to watch! I will always remember Helsinki as a place where the sun was always shining (it comes up around 4:00am and sets around 10:00pm this time of year) and the sky was a brilliant, cloudless Midwest blue. At left is the Sibelius monument, built to immortalize Finland's great composer Jean Sibelius. Standing underneath the pipes and looking through up at the blue sky is beautiful. And listening to Sibelius's 3rd Symphony IN Finland is definitely a must.

I had been reading in my guide books about Tallinn, Estonia, a city only 50km to the south across the Baltic Sea from Helsinki. Regular ferry services run between the two cities so on Sunday morning, we boarded a hydrofoil and made the trip in about an hour and a half. Obviously, Estonia was once part of the Soviet Union and since it declared its independence in 1991, it has grown and created quite a name for itself along with Prague, Krakow, and Riga. It is packed with history and a similar intersection of eastern influence from Russia and western influence from Finland and Scandinavia but it definitely feels more eastern. A quarter of all Estonians are native Russians. My dad and I didn't really have a plan for our day in Tallinn so we spent it wandering around Toompea and the Old Town. The colorful old buildings against the perfect blue sky created a photographer's paradise. Although Estonia joined the EU in 2004, they still use their own currency, the Estonian krooni. There are 13 EEKs to $1 so everything is quite inexpensive. (Especially having come from the rest of Scandinavia where things are pretty pricey.) We did some interesting shopping in Tallinn and I found myself having to make a trip to McDonald's at the end of the day just to get rid of the equivalent of $20 that I had pulled out an ATM that morning... I still couldn't get rid of all of it! The US$ goes quite a ways there. It was a great little adventure and Tallinn is a beautiful city with a lot of things going for it. If you ever have a chance to visit the Baltics, go. It's off the beaten tourist track, they speak pretty good English, and it's something you'll never forget. Above is my dad and I on Tallinn's town square. All of a sudden it was our last day of the trip and we realized we didn't have any pictures of us!

So here I am, at 1:32am in a hotel room near Heathrow Airport with the contents of my suitcase strewn over the floor and bed, praying that when I get to the terminal tomorrow, it doesn't weigh more than 70 pounds now -- otherwise I am going to have to throw things away. I had to go back to our London hostel to get my bags tonight and between buses and the long Piccadilly Line tube ride, it took FOUR HOURS. Good thing I wasn't in a hurry. It's comforting to be back in London, though -- I know how things work here, I know where to go. After travelling for these nearly four weeks and being chained to a map (sometimes a compass), it's somewhat liberating to return to somewhat normalcy. Oh, and London got green while I was gone, too!

I have no idea what to expect when I arrive in Omaha tomorrow night with thousands of pictures, four curriencies in my wallet, and wonderful memories. I'm sure it will feel like home but I don't know what kind of adjustment I will go through. Leaving Norway this afternoon and watching the endless pine trees fade into the smooth blue of the Atlantic (left), I was a bit sad to see such beauty disappearing. It has been truly amazing to see all of this, to jump on a train and be in another country three hours later, to walk out the door and see Helsinki's Uspensky Cathedral or the Spanish Steps in Rome, to have to make a conscious effort to think about which language I should say 'thank you' in. (Merci, grazie, takk, kiitos, tänan...) I have seen some amazing things, gone through ten different countries and these four months will go with me wherever I go now.

To those who might be wondering, Bahr Vermeer Haecker Architects in Lincoln offered me a summer internship! This is extraordinarily good news because not only does it give me experience to pad my resume, it provides great income, allows me to take fewer credits in the fall and focus more on my thesis, and will be a great learning experience.

As it's 1:43am GMT, I am off to bed on this, my last night in Europe. I have LOADS of pictures to sort through so you'll have to be patient with me but I will get them posted eventually. Thanks for reading all this time!
Ha det!

Florence, Venice, and Chris's family

This is my last morning in Italy. Our bad experience in Rome was followed by a nice two days in Florence where we experienced the majesty of the Duomo, Santa Croce, San Lorenzo and Michelangelo's mannerist stair at the Laurentian Library, the Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria, and even all the way up to the Piazzale de Michelangelo which was worth the climb. Florence is still very crowded and the streets are more narrow than Rome but I think we just accepted the fact that Italy is full of people all the time. I was fortunate to be in Florence at the same time as Chris's parents and aunt and uncles who were having a mini family reunion and greatly enjoyed spending a couple of days with them. Bill and Sue and I took a day trip to the walled city of Lucca, about an hour from Florence, and spent most of our day wandering around trying to figure out where we were on the map! It was a nice quiet departure from the hectic pace up to that point. His family is wonderful and I look forward to seeing them again soon. Thanks to Bill and Sue for feeding me so well in Florence!

So yesterday we left Florence for Venice and just spent the day here. I was prepared for it to be stinky and dirty and unpleasant but really, we had a very nice time here. All of the important architectural sites are visible from a waterbus cruise on the Grand Canal and we spent most of the day wandering aimlessly (I am tired of being chained to a map all of the time!) and experiencing Venice's wonderful shopping. Murano glass is huge here and I found a really unique dish I hope makes it home intact. We ate lunch on the Piazza San Marco (yes, with all the pigeons... yuck!) and enjoyed our last meal together and in Italy at a small trattoria in one of the maze-like Venetian streets complete with some after-dinner limoncella.

I fly to Oslo this afternoon and my dad arrives in the morning. We will spend three days in Oslo and then fly to Helsinki on Thursday. I'm also thinking about taking the ferry across to Talinn, Estonia since what I've read says it's a really interesting place that is enjoying its new found freedom from the Soviet strongarm. It is all going by so quickly! I am getting ready to be finished living out of a backpack, wearing the same clothes all the time, and sleeping in many different unfamiliar beds. I think we planned the duration of the trip just right... Jolie and Sandy and I are ready to get rid of each other! (Well, me maybe more than them.)

More from Scandinavia!

No love from Rome

Greetings from Italy. I wish I could tell you that Rome is absolutely wonderful... we have had a really tough time here. We arrived around 11:00 Saturday night on a really old and junky train and due to a miscommunication within our group, Jolie booked the wrong nights at the hostel and we ended up having to stay at this really horrible place. Even though we had made a reservation, when we arrived, they didn't have enough beds for us and asked if we would share a twin bed. Um, no, we won't. So this guy goes and gets pieces of bunk beds from the basement and starts to assemble them in a room with 12 other people already in it. We reluctantly paid (although I really wanted to go to a hotel) and I "slept" in my clothes with my shoulder bag on top of me. Half the people in the room were snoring loudly so there wasn't much sleep to be had. The icing on the cake was that there was one disgusting shower and one toilet (with no toilet seat) for the 50-odd people staying at this horrible place. I bypassed the shower (which is a big deal for me) and wore the same clothes I'd worn the day before and all night. We left without saying a word to the people who run the place. Fortunately the place we are staying now is much better but it was not a very good introduction to Italy.

We have seen a lot of stuff in the last three days, the highlights have been tossing coins into the Trevi Fountain, waiting in line on the Piazza St. Pietro to get into St. Peter's for 2.5 hours in the sun, seeing the Sistine Chapel, eating gelato on the Piazza Navona, and wandering around the Colosseum. With the exception of my €20 dinner last night, the food has been unimpressive, it is extremely crowded (it doesn't help that we are here for Liberazione Day) and it has been very hot here. We are really hoping that things will go better for us in Florence; I am sure that under ordinary conditions, Rome is a fantastic place but it's just one of those places that I am ready to leave and try again some other time.

More from Florence in a few days!

Rail strikes and palm trees

We left Paris yesterday after four wonderful days. The day before we had taken the stairs to the 2nd balcony of the Eiffel Tower (718 steps) so we were looking forward to the 8 hour train ride to Barcelona to rest. Our double-decker TGV train (which travels close to 120mph) arrived in Montpellier on schedule but after total confusion and language barriers, we finally figured out that there was a rail strike in Spain and we could not cross the border. It was complicated because I needed to cancel our lodging reservations in Barcelona and could not get the call to go through from the payphone in the train station so thankfully my dad was in the office when my call came and was able to send an email for me. So then it was 10:00 at night in Montpellier, we have no place to stay and no map, and this is a part of France that doesn't speak as much English. Luck was in our corner when we got the last room (which somehow was a triple...) at a hotel with a private bathroom and comfortable beds. We decided to just take things easy and stay in Montpellier until we head to Nice tomorrow.

When we woke up this morning, we discovered that this is a beautiful city! Pure blue skies and temps in the upper 70s which felt like August in Nebraska after having been in London for so long. There are palm trees everywhere and we are just 7km from the Meditteranean. We ate lunch at one of dozens of outdoor cafes and spent the afternoon in a park after buying sunscreen, which was another ordeal. Everything ended up working out pretty well although last night, with 30 pound backpacks and no place to stay, I was a little worried. Someone up there is surely watching over us while we're trapsing around Europe!

Sandy is now sick and so none of us are sleeping very well with her coughing. I am anxious to move on to Nice tomorrow and then Rome on Saturday. It's wonderful to have warm weather and sunshine now. Au revoir!

Beautiful Paris

I am typing this on a French keyboard and all the letters are in the wrong place so it will unfortunately be brief! We arrived in Paris on the Eurostar yesterday and spent the afternoon exploring Montmartre including Sacre Couer and Moulin Rouge. Our hostel is also here and is pretty nice compared to what we were used to in London! Free internet, a shower in our room and croissants for breakfast. Montmartre is also the highest elevation of the city so there are a lot of steps and hills! We feel the change from the relative flat of London. I experienced salty crêpes for the first time last night with cheese, ham and tomatoes... the food here is just so good. (Tough to do worse than English food, though!)

Paris is beautiful even though it has been cloudy the last two days. Things are definitely a different pace here and at night the city is very quiet. This is new and different! We are speaking French as much as we can but usually people will respond to us in English so that has been helpful. The words for "Leave me alone, please" have been helpful as there are a lot of people begging for money or trying to sell souvenirs. I speak German to them sometimes because generally they don't know it!

Today we went to Notre Dame for Easter Sunday along with everyone else in France apparently! It was SO crowded, we just kind of got pushed around until we reached the exit. To say it is a beautiful place is obviously an understatement and it was very special to be there on Easter. Also visited today were the Pompidou Center, Ste. Chapelle, Jardin du Luxembourg, Pantheon Ste. Genevieve, and made a reservation at Gare d'Austerlitz for our train trip to Barcelona (in French!). It was a full day of walking so after a nap; we treated oursevles to a hot meal at a great Italian place (again, English-speaking waiter) and took the subway to the Eiffel tower to see it at night. HOLY MOLY. How incredible! It's incredible lit up at night - we will get to the top tomorrow afternoon but are trying to decide if it's worth it to take the steps (€3) or the elevator (€11). As you can imagine, it's a LOT of steps but the budget is pretty tight! :)

We are off to Chartres in the morning!

Last Post from London

WE ARE FINISHED! Yesterday’s final studio presentation at Woods Bagot was a success and now all academic work is complete. I haven’t done much of anything this week besides prepare my design so having everything finally finished is a fantastic feeling. We even have our grades already. After our presentation, we paid one last visit to The Rocket, a pub on Euston Road we’ve frequented because they have a deal where you get a burger, chips, and a drink for £3.95. The hostel threw us a party in the downstairs bar last night, which consisted of two free drinks for each of us and tortilla chips. But apparently if they hang up posters in the hostel with American flags advertising that there will be a bunch of Americans (let alone Nebraskans) in one place, it keeps them away rather than encouraging them to come…

Did you know that a Dutch girl stole my umbrella in Westminster station on Tuesday? And it was raining outside! Grrrrr.

So now we are in the process of packing it all up – our room is so small than only two people can pack at once. I am glad that I did not overpack because everything is fitting pretty nicely in preparation for going home. However, packing for 23 days in a backpack is something I’ve never done before! I have mixed feelings about the end of the official London program – I am anxious to experience new cities and see some amazing sites on the Continent but London has been home for three months and I’ve seen and done some really cool things while here. (By the way, I was in the first group of people to ever visit the brand new Wimbledon Lawn & Tennis Museum on Wednesday!!) Besides the obvious things like the amazing architecture, vast history, and the great museums, I have heard some truly amazing music here, especially the London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra, and that will stick with me for a long, long time. That was what personalized the trip for me and is something that no one else really got to experience. Also, all of the walking, stair climbing and living off of Tesco sandwiches and fruit has resulted in my clothes hanging on me and a belt becoming an essential wardrobe accessory. It’s great! I also really need a haircut...

So, on to Paris! We leave Waterloo station at 11:10 tomorrow morning to take the Eurostar (the high-speed train that crosses and goes underneath the English Channel) and arrive in Paris at Gare du Nord around 2:30 tomorrow afternoon. (It seems so weird that we’re actually leaving – I have been thinking about and preparing for this trip since September and it’s kind of surreal that it is now time.) I have to admit that I’m a little nervous about some of the logistical things in a country where I don’t speak the language but we have phrase books and maps and a guidebook (and each other) so hopefully things will be alright. It will definitely be an adventure! I will try to post on this next leg of the journey but since I’m not taking my laptop with me, I don’t know if I’ll be able to share photos until I get home.

Now I’d better go ride the tube one last time before I go… au revoir!