November went by in a flash. Everything I did felt like it happened last week. That's the way I hope to keep it since I made a bunch of great memories.
The end of October marked the end of my Swedish economic history class, leaving me with only one class here at Lund University for the rest of the semester. With more time on my hands than I knew what to do with, I spent the majority of my time traveling, spending usually three days at most in my hometown of Lund.
My first trip was to Ireland, where my homie Nathan Metzger was studying. We met up in Dublin, where we joined a student trip that toured Dublin, the Cliffs of Moher, and Galway. Our time in Dublin was spent mostly walking around the large and lively city. We walked something crazy like 20 miles our first day there.
Our time in Dublin was capped off by a pub crawl, where we watched live music and 'authentic' Irish dancing while sipping on nice, cold Guinness. We also took a tour of the Guinness Storhouse in Dublin, which was quite the experience. The museum, which was shaped like a pint of Guinness, had something crazy like seven floors. At the top, we poured our own Guinness and appreciated Dublin from the Gravity Bar which gives a panoramic view of the city.
The Cliffs of Moher were an amazing sight. They look like something straight out of a movie, and an hour and a half walking along the cliffs was barely enough time to take in their full beauty. After a nauseating bus ride, we arrived in Galway that afternoon, which unlike the touristy Dublin, really has an Irish feel to it. It is a nice, small city with a vibrant culture.
After the student tour, Nathan and I spent a day back at his place in Cork. We walked around the city, drank amazing hot cocoa, and ate greasy fish and chips before parting ways until later in the month.
The next weekend I took a train to Stockholm for the renowned ESN (Erasmus Student Network) Sea Battle. The Sea Battle part of it didn't start until Monday, so I arrived in Stockholm a couple days early to take in all that Sweden's grandest city had to offer. It was my first time travelling alone, and it gave me a newfound respect for people who are able to go on solo trips for more than a few days. I felt lonely and depressed after just one day by myself.
Monday afternoon we boarded the cruise ship that would take us from Stockholm to Tallin, Estonia and back, returning to Stockholm Wednesday morning. The cruise ship was pretty decked out, but the room Mark, Cameron, Tom, and I stayed in was a cram. We didn't spend too much time sleeping, so it wasn't much of a problem.
Tuesday was devoted to seeing Tallin, which ended up being one of my favorite cities.
The history of the city jumps out at you like few others, with remnants from Soviet rule and walls with towers from when the city was split into an upper and lower town who each despised the other in every way.
Milan was my next destination. I arrived in Milan less than two days after returning from Stockholm to meet up with an Italianized Jake Steiner. Jake's host family welcomed me into their place, where I got as good of a feel for a city's culture as is possible in four days.
Besides seeing the stunning Duomo and Gallery in Milan's city centre, we spent nights out with Jake's host brother and his friends, along with the host family of another student Jake had made friends with. This was the first time I had gotten the chance to really interact with locals, and it made for a better learning experience of Italian culture than any museum could have.
We also made a side trip on Sunday to Lugano, Switzerland, which featured a beautiful lake surrounded by the magnificent Alps.
The bus ride into Lugano was itself a spectacle, winding through the Alps, where the scenery of long lakes wrapping around mountains is hard to beat. The city of Lugano was also really nice, besides the fact that almost everything was closed on Sundays (we got breakfast at a Burger King -- the burgers were around $12!).
The last trip I made in November was to Berlin, where the one and only Riley McShane is studying. Riley welcomed Nathan and I into his home on the last weekend of November for a partial crew reunion, before the whole squad gets back together in January. We were also joined by my friend Doug from Lund for part of the time, as he just happened to be making a solo trip to Berlin the same weekend.
During our time, we saw the National History Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Topography of Terror, the Berlin Wall, and many other iconic sites in Berlin. Being the center of World War II, Berlin was easily the most fascinating and history-filled city I'd been to yet.
Riley had a handful of hipster bars to show us in Berlin, all of which provided a great cultural experience and environment for hanging out and catching up. The exclamation point of the weekend was going with Riley to class Monday evening, where we learned about architecture in Berlin and cyber sex (pop culture comes in many forms).
Looking back, this November was one of the most important months of my life. Seeing so many places made me realize how small I am in the scope of it all, which honestly was a little bit depressing. If we don't travel, we only read one page of the many that the world has to offer. I had tricked myself into thinking that my world of Santa Clara and Mountain View was the world.
Realizing how much I don't know and understand about this world humbled me, and gave me a much better perspective on life. The realization of how insignificant we are to the world is tough to cope with, but it's something that I think everyone needs to go through, especially me. The ego can be a dangerous thing. Once you leave it behind, the possibilities are endless.
