I traveled to Oslo, Norway, during the weekend of March 12-14 to see the place that I have heard my grandmother nostalgically talk about for years. The port city was beautiful with blue skies, thick white blankets of snow, and a vast harbor bay. I traveled there on my own, which my parents and sister were a little distressed about...but I survived in the foreign Scandinavian city. Actually, I have a native friend from Oslo who picked me up from the airport and showed me around the city for my entire stay. Sondre first took me to Vigeland Park, which is filled with magnificent bronze sculptures by the famous Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. This is one of the locations that Peppy (my grandmother) spoke of when she talked about her visit to Oslo when she was younger. The sculpture park has two iron gates: one with figures of women and the other with figures of men. Inside the gates is the famous obelisk that stands a little shy of 56 feet tall! The theme of Vigeland's statues is the "Human Condition," which demonstrates love, rivalry, aggression, admiration, titillation, primal anger, etc. There are 58 bronze sculptures in the park area, and all are magnificently displayed one after another.After the park, Sondre took me as a guest to his "Bandy" team's end of the season dinner party at the Ullevål club house. Yes, I too did not know the sport "Bandy" until the Norwegians told me about it. The best way to describe it is: "ice hockey with a field hockey ball." Anyway, once again, I was one of the few girls at the party (there were five including myself), and I was the only one who did not speak a lick of Norwegian (which, by the way, is the funniest sounding language I think I have ever heard). The dinner was quite delicious and I had a really good time conversing with Sondre's teammates, since most speak English pretty well. At one point during the dinner, the coach was making a speech and one of Sondre's friends was translating for me. All of a sudden, Marcus (my translator) decided to raise his voice and translate during the coach's pause so that everyone would turn and stare at me "the misfit American girl." It was pretty funny; however, I am pretty sure I buried my face in my hands.Tip #1 for visiting Oslo in the winter: DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEEL PUMPS! As we were hailing cabs to go back to our respective apartments, houses, and hotels, I hit an ice patch and fell to the ground in front of all of Sondre's friends. No sooner had I gotten back up onto my feet, did I fall once again! Due to my inability to walk on ice, Sondre began to call me "Bambi."Tip #2: Bring A LOT of money. Oslo is ranked as the 2nd most expensive city in the world!!! I was actually dumbfounded by how much certain items cost. I guess I have also been pretty spoiled living in Berlin, since Berlin is one of the less expensive cities that I have traveled to since the semester began.On Sunday and Monday, I traveled around on foot to the Oslo harbor, the Royal Palace, the Opera house, the old fortress, and a few other famous sights. Monday's weather was wonderful and the sky was so blue; I could not have asked for better weather! It was a wonderful end to a great weekend adventure.
On Friday my Visual Culture class took a trip to the city of Dessau, which is most well known for the Bauhaus College of Architecture. My professor grew up in Dessau, and his uncle was a Bauhaus artist; therefore, the plethora of knowledge Professor Butter has to offer is dumbfounding. I am not going to lie, modern architecture is not my favorite area of art history, but I really enjoyed a lot of aspects of the trip. For example, the Bauhaus color theory is a very interesting subject. To break it down into simple forms, the Bauhaus scholars grouped colors based on their pigments as well as how they effected each other. Our perception of colors changes depending on how they are presented. A shade of light blue will look gray when put next to a deep blue. It is a really interesting way of thinking about the mind and perception of colors.We ended the trip with a visit to Professor Butter's mother's house, where she fixed us coffee, tea, and served us cookies. She was such an adorable 88-year-old woman, and she was so excited to have the company. In fact, I was the first person to walk into the apartment and I extended my hand to give her a greeting and she stretched her arms out and said, "Oh come! Welcome!" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I then told her "Mein name is Margaret auch," which translates to "My name is also Margaret." I knew this because on the first day of class, our teacher was going through our names and explained that he loved my name because Margaret is his mother's name. It was a really awesome experience in all!
Two of my favorite sculptors are Auguste Rodin and his protégé Camille Claudel, so I was enthused to find the Rodin Museum which houses both of these artists. My friend Morgan and I went on a beautiful sunny day, which was wonderful since many of Rodin's most famous sculptures (i.e. The Burghers of Calais) are located outside in the garden courtyard. Both artists worked with bronze and marble mediums, and Rodin's influence on Claudel is clearly evident when viewing the two artists' work together.Actually, Claudel's "The Waltz" is probably my all-time favorite sculpture and I knew it was housed in Paris somewhere. The first few days of the trip I continuously tried to remind myself to Google search which museum the sculpture belonged to; however, I always absentmindedly forg0t. Luckily, I walked into the "Camille Claudel Room" and what do I instantly see? Oh yes, you guessed it..."THE WALTZ." It was such an amazing moment to be able to get so close to the figure and inspect each crevice and wrinkle in the bronze cast. The most beautiful part about Claudel's "The Waltz" is the twirling movement it captures between the two dancers. Every angle captures a different movement; therefore, the piece is definitely something that one must see in a 360-degree view. As I said earlier, art history textbooks cannot capture the greatness of any one piece!The museum also housed two Vincent van Gogh works, which are always interesting to view. There is so much detail in his brushwork and the colors seem to pop from the page! I was happy to get a photo of these, since the Musée d'Orsay (which has many of Van Gogh's works) does not allow the public to take photographs.Overall, I would say that this was my favorite museum. It was not gigantic like the Louvre, so it didn't create a feeling of rush. Furthermore, the pieces are magnificent in detail, form, and content.
On Tuesday our group traveled to the majestic Palace of Versailles (about 20km outside of Paris), and we spent most of the day there walking around the grounds. First built as a hunting lodge for Louis XIII, the building continually went through phases of remodeling in order to stand as it does today. The palace is most well known for the additions made by Louis XIV (or "The Sun King"), which are namely in the Late-Baroque and Rococo styles. The palace shines when the sun strikes the gilded gates, roofs, and facades. The IES group got a private tour of a section of the palace that is usually closed to the public; therefore, we did not have to stand among the hundreds of tourists piling into the main attraction rooms of Versailles (i.e. The Hall of Mirrors). In fact, our group got to go inside the Royal Chapel, which is normally roped off. Our guide told us that the chapel's organ is over 300 years old and consists of over 1,000 pipes! After the tour ended, some friends and I walked around the gardens, which are probably a lot more breathtaking in the spring when the gloom of winter doesn't hang so harshly over the sky. Regardless of the lack of flowers and cool weather, the gardens were impressive in size and beauty. The land and lakes stretch into the distance and there is no telling where the grounds of Versailles end. It is truly a magical place! At one point, I was following three of my guy friends who were all arguing about which way would be the most direct way back to the palace (of course, all three of them were wrong...big surprise). We ended up in a back corner of the gardens where an old well stood. I seized the moment to make a photo opportunity out of the well encounter (as shown in the photo above).
Aside from a day trip to Amsterdam two years ago, my trip to Paris was my first time in another European country outside of Germany. Paris, to say the least, is gorgeous! Haussmann's architectural style brings beauty and decor to the streets and facades of Paris, and the aesthetic beauty is incomparable to that of Berlin. On the first day, IES went on a bus tour to pass by all the famous sites: Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Royal Palais, Notre Dame Cathedral, Palace de la Concorde, Paris Opera, and so many more! By mid-afternoon, the sun had gone down and the wind picked up (and if you know me at all then you know that I desperately needed to use the restroom), so a few of us got off the bus and walked to a small cafe. We tried to find a reasonably priced place, but failed to do so...big surprise! So we sat down at one place, and I payed 11,50 Euros for a fabulous tiramisu and espresso. At least the bathroom was free. Speaking of free, while we were waiting to place our orders, a man in his mid-thirties approached our table and addressed us with a handsome French accent: "Hello ladies. I must leave, but I still have half a bottle of wine. Would you like the rest of it?" We hesitantly agreed, and he went and told the manager the situation. The waiter brought our table glasses and served us the rest of the wine--it was fantastic (glad I didn't have to pay for it...I bet my father is too!) So that was our first interaction with the "more aggressive/forward men" of Paris that our program had warned us about; I'm not going to lie...if this is "aggressive" then I like it. (I sound like my mother and grandmother...oh God!) After the cafe, my friend and I walked to the Louvre where we spent about 2.5 hours looking around. I think you would have to go about 25 times in order to see everything! I probably saw only a 1/5 of the entire collection! The museum was actually a bit overwhelming at times--so little time and so much to see. But all of the works were fantastic. I got to see the originals of so many pieces that I tirelessly studied in my art history courses over the years (David, Watteau, Rigaud, Cimbue, Leonardo da Vinci, Poussin, Géricault, Delacroix, and the list could go on). In fact, I walked into one room and grabbed Ana by the arm while tears welled up in my eyes. Hanging in front of my eyes was one of my favorite paintings ("Death of Marat" by Jaques Louis David), which I had forgotten was housed in the Louvre. The painting is pretty sepulchral, but for some reason I have always loved it. My favorite part about seeing all the pieces was realizing their actual size--you never know how small or large something is when it is printed in a textbook.
That night Morgan, Ana, and I went to a small bar/lounge that is famous for their sangria. Despite the fact that it was Parisian sangria (sort of oxymoronic), it was quite delicious. The bar was very cramped, and we all huddled in a corner table together. All three of us commented on the difference between Frenchmen and Germans--the Frenchmen usually look more rugged (not shaven), while most Germans look very manicured and clean-cut. We were happy for the aesthetic change in "scenery." In fact, Morgan and I quickly noticed a very attractive Frenchman sitting at a nearby table, and we made it our goal to talk to him before the night was over. Before we could make a move, two other Frenchmen (the unfortunately manicured kind) sparked up conversation with us and offered us drinks. (Don't worry, we watched the bartender open the bottle of wine). While their talk of working for Louis Vuitton and J.P. Morgan was fascinating...NOT...we entertained them with our stories of the "American Life." Finally, we were able to slip away from the conversation, and we conveniently moved closer to the handsome Frenchman and his two friends. A conversation somehow started between our two groups and we ended up spending the rest of the night sitting and talking with our new French friends (Clément, Charles, and Geoffrey). It turns out that Clément is a musician and the three friends had just returned from Berlin where Clément had performed at some clubs/bars. We had such a nice time with our new French friends that Morgan and I met up with them again the next night for dinner and drinks.
The whole IES gang arrived in Paris on Sunday night--giddy, sleepy, and hungry! A private bus drove us to our designated hotels in the 14th sector of Paris, where we quickly dropped our luggage and met up in the lobby. Heather and John (IES leaders) gave the whole group a short tour of where the IES Paris building is and a general tour of the area. We split up after the tour in order to find a place to have a late dinner. Two of my friends and I found a small Crêperie called Crêperie du Manoir Breton (not sure if it is named after Breton the author or Breton the painter..or neither?)
Oh my sweet taste-buds! The crêpes were DELICIOUS! I had a buckwheat crêpe with chicken, cheese, potatoes, and herb cream sauce, while Morgan ordered a buckwheat crêpe with duck, chevre (goat cheese), and plum sauce. It was fantastic, and the Côtes du Rhône wine perfectly accented the flavors! Needless to say, my first meal in Paris was a great success.
