Three countries in two weeks... Part 3: Scotland

Well, needless to say, my trip back to St Andrews was not nearly as eventful as the rest of my travels. Although, I did forget how long it takes to get there from Edinburgh. Next time I live some place, I'm going to live somewhere that has an airport! All these buses, trains, cabs, etc. are really getting to me. So, I arrived in town about mid-afternoon and headed straight into the department so I could print off my thesis! Yes, the purpose of this quick trip back to town was to submit my PhD thesis. I got into the office to find that the PDF program on the computer was broken and since the IT person doesn't trust us postgrads to have admin access to our own computer, there was nothing I could do to fix it. Thankfully, P had her computer with her so we were able to print it off and celebrate! When you submit your thesis, you need to print off 3 copies, so, I'm single-handedly killing the planet with my 300 page thesis (900 pages total). Eeeek! Here is a nice stack of just over 3 years of work:


On Monday, I took it down to the Bindery to get it bound, then walked to the Registrar's office to drop it off. The registrar's office is like a fortress. They won't let anyone in so you have to buzz to get them to open the door. The conversation at the buzzer was as follows:
Registrar: Hello
Me: Hi, I'm here to drop of my PhD thesis
Registrar: Oh, I guess you want to be buzzed in then?
Me: Yes, please.

Seriously, what did they think I wanted? "No, I'll just leave these 900 pages here on the doorstep in the rain and you can come grab them whenever you feel like it." Ugh. So, in I go, to the Golden Palace, or whatever they think they work in. I was directed to a woman at a desk who told me just to set it down here and she wrote out a receipt. No fireworks, Congratulations, or even a smile. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it was kind of a lunchbag let-down. I trudged back up to the department, 900 pages lighter, and bought three books and a coffee as a present to myself!

Unfortunately, it was not yet time to celebrate. During my time in town I had two job applications to finish so I went back into the office to work on those. We did end up all going to the pub later and I spent the next 3 days I had in town visiting people, grabbing pints and coffees, and finishing up the job applications. It was really weird to be back in town, especially since most of my friends have left. It was also weird to go into my old office and find that everything has changed. The office has pretty much had a complete turnover, so it is definitely not my space anymore. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was weird. So there you have it. Three years of work is now gone, out of my hands, fini! I will have my defense sometime in the next 3 months but as of this moment, I can't really think about much. It's been an interesting experience, kind of like giving birth I suppose. It's had its ups and downs, and I don't think I'd want to go through this again, but I don't think I'd trade these past three years for anything!

So, now I'm back in Germany for my last month. It's crazy to think at how fast these last 3 months have gone. I feel like I haven't really accomplished anything, and am especially disappointed with myself over the state of my German, but I can't be too hard on myself since I've actually got quite a bit done: Finished thesis, gave two papers at international conferences, presented part of my thesis at the research seminar here.... Nothing to sneeze at. So now I just have a book review and an article to finish before Christmas. Should be able to take it easy at bit and enjoy the Christmas markets...

Three countries in two weeks... Part 2: Germany

First, I guess I have to say, that this doesn't really count since I live in Germany all the time, but since this was a brief interlude between my two other trips and I never actually went home, this does count as traveling! So, I got off my plane in Frankfurt Hahn (the Ryanair airport about 2 hours outside of Frankfurt) and since there was actually no way for me to get back to my town that night, I decided to head to Cologne (also about 2 hours away) and visit H who also has a fellowship from the Germany government. I guess it is now worth having a little aside about German transport since I didn't include my epic train journey in my introduction to Sweden's post. I know I said in an earlier post that I loved German trains because they are never late, are clean, etc. Well, I have learned my lesson! Since it is about a 5 hour journey from my town to Frankfurt Hahn I decided that I would catch an early train just to make sure that I arrived with plenty of time. I am so glad I did. My train was a hour late! The Deutsche Bahn had no other alternatives for me so I just had to wait around and hope that I would be able to catch the last possible bus for me to get my flight. Fortunately, I made all my connections and arrived at the airport about 30 minutes before my flight took off. Thankfully, the airport is tiny, I had already checked in, and only had hand luggage. Looks like I'll be getting my money back for the ticket which is exciting but it was way more stress than I needed at the start of my trip.

So, back to Germany. I arrived in Cologne on the first night of Carnival (the main part occurs in February but it's basically a 4 month party). The town was insane. Having spent most of my time in the last 3 years in small towns I wasn't really ready for a big city. Also, it was quite a culture shock since my limited experience with Germany has been in the East and a trip to the West is almost like being in a different country. Thankfully, I was staying with H and we just toured around and had another nice 3 day holiday. First stop was the Roman Museum. Cologne was a Roman colony (which I got to write a bit about in my thesis) founded by Agrippina the Younger (sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius, mother of Nero). Since I do a lot on provincial religion and Roman colonies it was really fun to wander around the museum and find all the stuff I have read about over the past couple of years. In the city there is also the Praetorium (the provincial governor's residence). They have some amazing Roman stuff and it was great to tour around and see stuff but not really have to work.

Our next stop was Bonn. It's about 30 minutes away on the subway (or by Train). It was the capital of West Germany until the capital was moved back to Berlin after unification. Our real reason for going there was to see Beethoven's house. He was born there and his childhood home has been changed into a museum. H and I spent far too much time in there just playing with some of the computer archives. They have also made a 21st century version of his only opera, which was 3D and consisted of particles rather than actors. Kind of neat but I think I prefer staged opera. After, we walked down the Rhine, then headed back to Cologne.

My last day consisted of heading to some of the shops, and one last stop, the Gestapo headquarters in Cologne. The museum is mostly in German so H and I just sort of looked at pictures and such but probably didn't get as much out of it as we could have. The basement was turned into a prison and there is still all the graffiti from the prisoners on the walls.

To catch my flight to Scotland, I had to leave Cologne at 2:15 in the morning. I was slightly worried by this since the bus left from the Train station and areas around Stations are not usually the best place to be late at night. However, Cologne seems to not do the whole sleeping thing. The streets were still busy just like it was the middle of the day. People were still sitting in restaurants and pubs and, since I was going to be by myself at the train station I figured I'd hang out in the 24 hour McDonalds, the McDonalds was packed with 13 year olds just hanging out. It was surreal. No problem getting the bus and I headed off for my next adventure..... Scotland!

Three countries in two weeks... Part 1: Sweden!

I just got back from my last set of epic travels. First stop, Sweden! Back in the spring, a call for papers came up for a conference on the ancient family and since this is a topic I have touched on a bit in my PhD, I figured it would be worth submitting an abstract. It seemed to be organized by the Classics department in Birmingham and since I hadn't yet had the chance to visit there, I figured it might be a cool place to go. Anyway, my paper was accepted and the email concluded with "look forward to seeing you in Sweden". Sweden? I asked myself. Hmmm. I went back and looked at the conference details and sure enough, it was organized by the Classics department of Birmingham but in conjunction with the University of Gothenburg and was to be hosted in Gothenburg. And so it happened that I was able to head to Sweden, about two weeks after I had returned from South Africa.

Two of my friends from St Andrews had moved to Sweden about 5 months earlier so I decided to extend my trip a bit and visit them as well. So, off to Gothenburg for the three day conference. I arrived a day early and spent most of the day in Museums. First, the main museum which boasts the remains of a viking ship. It also explained some of the Norse traditions and I am definitely interested in doing some more reading on Norse polytheism and Viking history. I then headed off to the art museum since my ticket from the other museum got me in there as well. I have to say, I'm not really an art person, but it was quite neat to see some of the Swedish artists who are not really known outside of Sweden. I spend about an hour just wandering then headed back to the hotel. As far as the conference went, my paper seemed to go well, and I got to meet some really great people.

The day after the conference I met up with K and J for another exploration day in Gothenburg. It was then I had the truly Swedish experience. I believe that Tolkien had the Swedish in mind when he came up with the idea of hobbits. They really do eat all the time. First, there's breakfast. Then about an hour or so later, they have second breakfast. About an hour after that it's time for Fika, which consists of Tea or Coffee and Cake. Then it's lunch time! Then around 3, it's time for more Fika. Then dinner. Then about an hour or two before bed it's time for more, you guessed it, Fika. I really feel like I got to see the inside of most of Gothenburg's coffeeshops. We took a break from eating to head into the Modern art museum, which was even more confusing then the art museum. It was almost like walking into Ikea! At around 6:45 we caught a high-speed train to Skövde, and from there then headed north to J's parents' house. They live on a farm just outside of a town called Skara.

The next three days were spent relaxing, playing Wii, and making little trips around the surrounding countryside. Sweden looks a lot like Canada in places. It almost felt like I was home. Weird. One day, we went into Skara to look at the Cathedral and went to the local museum where 30 bronze shields are displayed. One day, a farmer was plowing his field and hit something. He looked down and called the local authorities. They brought in some archaeologists and uncovered 30 shields and some other artifacts, most likely some kind of ritual deposit. So cool! The rest of my trip was quite relaxed and it was really nice to visit with K and J and just shut my brain off. When it was time to leave, they put me back on the train and I headed back to Gothenburg. Next stop.... Germania!