Tellus » landmarks/ famous places

erandall — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:30:07 +0000

Anyone who has gone to Germany will tell you that each city has three things to offer, a church, a palace/castle and a town hall. We visited the Stuttgart Palace on a wonderful summer afternoon, had ice cream in the city center and ate Döner. Walking in these fountains next to toddlers and Germans. This is a beautiful memory for me. Germany will be the only opportunity I will ever have to say I went to school in the largest Baroque palace in the world, and that is something I aim to hold onto.

Mini-me

afurlow — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:16:17 +0000

It’s strange. During my days abroad in Germany I got to really know this particular landmark known as the Wasserturm or the Water tower in English. It actually looks really nice in the surprisingly hot German summer. Everyday I passed by it on my way to class. In the beginning I found this building quite intriguing because it’s unlike anything we have in my hometown back in the states. As time went on, I just kind of forgot about it and took it for granted (since I was a resident, I naturally was used to seeing it on a daily basis). For me it was the most similar to the “Golden man” on top of the capital in Salem. It helped me navigate around the city. I actually grew so fond of it by the time I left that I took it upon myself to bring home with me a special memento Although truly epic, it still doesn’t quite do it justice compared to the real thing!

ebrigham — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:31:00 +0000

Going to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine at night was one of the most breathtaking experiences I had while in Japan. Wandering up the mountainside between thousands of torii gates, my friends an I were almost the only ones there. Pure silence except for the sound of footsteps. I doubt I’ll ever experience such a solemn, beautiful place ever again.

City of Memory

msunada — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:24:56 +0000

Prague is a city which celebrates the harmonious interaction between history and the present. Living in Prague opens your eyes to the importance of the past in defining a nation’s culture and identity. The city’s architecture and memorials not only honor the country’s predecessors and heroes but commemorate the beginning of the nation. The Charles Bridge and Prague Castle are only two of the city’s beautiful historical sites. In my class, Prague a Living History, we trekked around Prague to see some of these famous sites, and simply touring the city educates a person about the progress of the country in the most captivating history lesson. We traveled to the monuments from the beginnings of the country to those that represented the Revolution of 1989, which made the events more vivid and memorable than reading a textbook. Although I had expectations about Prague’s historical preservation, I learned a lot about the country by seeing the architecture they valued as important and symbolic.

Latvia Encapsulated in Icefishing

msunada — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:12:01 +0000

Rīga is bitterly cold in the winter. It was -18° Celsius (just under 0° Fahrenheit) in late January when I got off the plane in Latvia and walked across the tarmac to the gate, still wearing the jeans and T-shirt I had on when I left Seattle. The next three weeks only got colder. On a frigid, windy February day on which the temperature never got above -25° Celsius, I had my first experience ice fishing. The cold bit through my gloves, my boots, and my heavy winter socks, and I was sure I wouldn’t regain feeling in my nose until at least the next day. And yet, ice fishers were out in force on the Daugava River.
Ice fishing is more than just a way to spend an afternoon in Latvia—it’s an integral part of life, and it is an important microcosm of Latvian culture. winter, and the ice it brings, to a great extent dictates the way the city works. The Daugava River, which is about half a mile across as it makes its way through Rīga, is completely frozen. Most ice fishers congregate in this inlet on the east side of the Daugava because the current is weakest here, allowing them to catch more fish. When the inlet freezes, it also creates a much shorter commute for people who live on one side of the inlet and work on another.

There’s a fiery debate in Latvia between those who support global integration and industrialization and those who favor a Latvia more in touch with its traditional roots. The controversy over the impact of Latvia’s increasing industrialization on its traditional ways of life is discussed in my university classroom, but it is felt on the river itself. Here, the traditionalists appear to be winning: the early 2000’s were boom years for the Latvian economy, and a construction bubble grew rapidly. That bubble burst dramatically with the current global recession, and huge cranes now sit idle, a dormant backdrop to successful ice fishers.

Ice fishing is at once an intensely personal and very social experience. One man can sit alone for hours some days, as seems to be the case in here, with nothing to show for his work but a head full of his own thoughts. It’s getting dark; the sun is setting, and yet this man still hunches on his small stool, waiting for a bite. Others, like the man in the second photo, seem at least slightly more successful. When I asked in my broken Latvian why he ate his fish straight out of the water instead of cooking it, he responded with one word: “Izbadējies.” Hungry.

For many people, however, ice fishing in Rīga is a social activity. This group of men who quietly for hours on the river.
Many ice fishers are visited by friends, like the woman in the background of that photo, to assuage the monotony, and a vibrant social network exists of ice fishers who meet daily on the river to exchange news. Solitary ice fishers are forced to become more social, though, as spring begins to thaw the Daugava’s tidal estuaries. Late March brings out the daring fishers to try their luck.
It also gives a glimpse of the stubbornness that my Latvian friends agreed is, for better or for worse, a central part of their national character: at this point, it would probably be safer to simply cast a line in from the shore, but that’s not how it’s done. “In winter, we fish on ice.” Ice fishing offers a window into religion in Latvia, as well. The men here say they sit in front of their neighborhood старове́ры, (Starovery) or Russian Old-Believers church, every time they fish so that they can easily attend afternoon prayers.
Spring has finally arrived. It’s still freezing, and heavy coats are still essential, but the swiftly-moving parts of the Daugava are devoid of ice. Even without the moving water, though, I would recognize that Winter has passed. I observed a remarkable shift in the general attitude in Rīga around this time. When the river thaws and trees begin blooming, people begin to smile. The men are laughing in this picture, something I never heard from fishers on the frozen Daugava.
Ice fishers have a profound impact on the economy in Rīga and Latvia. The domed structures are former zeppelin hangars along the Daugava that have been converted to a fresh food market. One entire hangar is devoted to fish, and on big catch days, the market spills out into the surrounding streets. To put this in a more typically American perspective, one and a half football fields is not enough room to hold all the fish that are caught and sold in Rīga on some days. The market is extremely successful, and people, undeterred by the cold, continue to give the fishers a reason to while away their time on the ice.

Encountering History.

msunada — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:02:06 +0000

In London, History greets you at every turn. Literally. There are monumental locations galore: Westminster Abbey, in which a myriad of historical figures are buried; the Banqueting House, at which Charles I was beheaded; the British Library, housing manuscripts written by Dickens, Milton, Darwin, and Handel; Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms; the Tower of London, where people of prominence like Anne Boleyn and the future Queen Elizabeth I were imprisoned; the list goes on and on. However, London does not only encapsulate this very public history. Scattered around the metropolis are hundreds of round, blue or green plaques identifying the former homes of London’s most prolific people. I found that these signs always took me by surprise. Without intending to do so, I so often stumbled across the very residences of authors, politicians, and thinkers who publicly changed the world while privately embracing London as their home. They once walked the streets of the city that I, too, grew to know as a home.

Easter Sunday

msunada — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:08:06 +0000

This is a picture of St. Peter’s during the Easter Sunday services. Priests, nuns and pilgrims from all over the world flooded into the city, squishing alongside curious American students like ourselves during the Vatican’s Easter Sunday services. Every Sunday, it is impossible to forget that Italy is a Catholic country and that Rome so nearly borders the Holy See. We learned to buy all essential groceries on Saturday, to expect buses to take alternate routes to avoid major street closings, and to expect the occassional loudspeaker-narrated processions. Holy Week, however, transformed our understanding of the city’s powerful relationship with the international Catholic community.

La Sagrada Familia

msunada — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:29:27 +0000

I got a chance to visit Barcelona over Semana Santa (Spring Break) while studying in Granada, Spain. Barcelona is the city where the most famous of Antoni Gaudi’s works are located so I went to see them all, including my favorite the Temple Expiatori Sagrada Familia dedicated to the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph and Jesus). Construction began in 1882 and has continued on to the present day even with the death of Catalan architect Gaudi. You can go to just about any church or temple in the world and feel humbled by the awe history and religion evokes, however I believe that this is the only such religious building that you can enter and actually see history being written. I would love to come back here when the temple is finished knowing that I was a part of its history.

War and Peace

msunada — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:25:13 +0000

This image is significant to my abroad experience since the tension between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is still felt, even though the two nations are at peace. The fight for a unified Ireland (or the continuance of a separated one) still exists and is still being fought. This is a picture on one of the many peace walls (or peace lines) in Northern Ireland. This particular one was located in Belfast. Even though I did not study abroad in Northern Ireland, this was still one of the most memorable pictures I took. The legacy of the Troubles (the time of bombings and political unrest in Northern Ireland) is still felt in Ireland. It was extremely powerful to be able to visit Northern Ireland and see the effects. Peace walls are a way to divide the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods in Northern Ireland. They are also a physical way to see the underlying tension between the two sides. Each neighborhood is clearly marked by murals, graffiti, and flags of the religion (and therefore nation) the neighborhood sides with. The peace walls serve as a reminder that the peace in Northern Ireland is very fragile.
Everyone in my program was able to get out of our bus in Belfast and sign the peace wall. It was very powerful to see how many people had signed it and to be one of the people that had. You were able to see all of the tourists and locals who believe peace is a viable option for the island of Ireland. This picture is of something a person who had visited the wall previously had written. I loved that this person called for love, peace, and unity among the different sides. I liked this stranger’s optimism and hope.

Modern Ireland

msunada — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:44:33 +0000

This is one of the many messages written on the Peace Walls of Belfast, Ireland. Graffiti throughout Ireland interested me but the single wall we saw held the most intricate and powerful images by far. For me, our trip to Belfast was unique in that the historical struggles of Ireland were immediately present rather than mediated through a lecture or museum. I took several pictures of the most inspiring images on the wall. This one, however, holds particular significance. Previously, in an English class I was taking that semester, the topic of feminism in Ireland had been starkly brought into focus. When the professor asked which of the fifteen students, all young women, were feminists, only the three American students raised their hands. So I was delighted to see such a bold and clever statement elsewhere in Ireland.