Hannah Swithinbank

Narcissism, Vanity, Selfies.

I promise, I’m not about to fall in a pond and drown or anything.  I got bored of just plotting further travel and decided to take some self-portraits.  At the moment I’m the only person who’ll pose for me, so I’m the only model I can practice on.   And right now, I like being curled up on the bed reading, so that’s my modelling location (also, right now I seem to only like photos with only bits of my face in – clearly full-frontal portraiture is not my thing).  I have Jasper Fforde’s newest, Shades of Grey, and Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point on the go.    I’m also reading the Lonely Planet Encounter Guide to Berlin.

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. BERLIN.

OK. Shrieking done.

I have just over two months left in Germany before the lease on the apartment is up/the scholarship money stops coming in and I have to head back to the Cornwall (where I plan to carry on exactly the same way I am now – writing, job hunting, and taking photos, except with less wurst and more roskilly’s ice cream).  So I’m trying to make the most of it.  I’m going to Trier for a couple of days at the end of the week to see Roman stuff. Trier’s nearly three hours by train, so a day trip is pushing it, giving me an excuse to stay overnight, hurrah.   Then, before I finally head home the Maternal Unit is coming out to visit so that we can go down the Rhine to Mainz, the Loreley and Koblenz – and so that she can give me a hand yanking my hefty suitcase on and off the trains on the way home.  Aaaand, Berlin.

I’m going to Berlin for six days.   I’m a little nervous.  Berlin’s always scared me off a little – it always sounds like it’s Way Too Cool for the likes of little old me.  I don’t much go in for partying either, especially not when I’m travelling solo, so a bit of me feels like I’ll be wasting something big that Berlin has to offer.   Still, I *do* want to see all the historical stuff – after years of modern history in school and university I’m ready to put faces to names, as it were.  I’m itching to see the Pergamon Museum and the altar – even though it’s clearly only going to make me want to go to Turkey all the more and actually see the ruins of Pergamon.  I’m going to go up the Reichstag dome, and photograph the Brandenburg Gate at night.  I might go to Schloss Charlottenburg. Or I might go to Dessau to see Bauhas stuff.  I’m going to take a day trip to Sachsenhausen, because yes I am that kind of traveller.  And the nerves are starting to become excited nerves rather than slightly scaredy-cat nerves.  I’m reading the guidebook and thinking, ‘I want to see that, and that, and that.’ And this is why I like Lonely Planet’s Encounter guides – they work around neighbourhoods and atmospheres and sights that aren’t necessarily the big things that you go into and ’see’ (though they do cover those things), and I like to walk when I’m visiting cities. Rather than just going from highlight to highlight on buses and trains, I like to walk my little feet off (seriously, I think seeing Tokyo might have actually stress-fractured every bone in my feet, they hurt so much) seeing what the city looks like as a whole – and taking photos of course.

So, internet, tell me – what should I see in Berlin?   What areas should I explore (or not explore, y’know, if there are those)? What neighbourhoods have funky hidden away bits?  Where can I get a good cup of coffee and a cheap meal? What one piece of architecture will make my camera spin?  If I have to choose between Schloss Charlottenburg and Dessau, which should I choose?  Where can I get a truly fantastic bag?  Advise me!

back at work [cough]

I just came back from California, so I really need to be getting on with writing some stuff about the trip/editing photos/working on my article-in-progress.    However, I got back on Saturday and woke up jetlagged on Sunday to find that it had snowed in Cologne. I promptly put on the wrong pair of trainers and headed out to church, first getting my shoes, socks and feet wet and then sitting in an Anglican church for two hours. It goes without saying that church was cold. All Anglican churches are cold, thems the rules. I think you’re supposed to get so used to it that you become even more afraid of hellfire, because it would be Too Hot.   Anyway, I now have a streaming cold and I don’t feel like doing any of it, so I’m just faffing around, mainlining Fisherman’s Friends and working my way through a box of tissues and several lemons with a lot of honey.

For the time being, take it that I had a great  trip, the conferences was really good, and that exploring the snowy bank of the Merced looking for the spot from which a flickr contact of mine takes his killer El Capitan shots was a highlight.  I’m not sure if I found the right spot (yes, no, maybe they were his footprints from the previous weekend that Iwas stepping in) – but I did find snow, reflection and a good view of the rock, and got this, which I’m really really happy about.

Mid-Week Skiving

I can’t remember exactly why I decided that skipping out on a day in the library to go to Aachen was better than waiting to the weekend, since there wasn’t any rugby to watch at the weekend (I’ve found an Irish pub in Cologne that shows rugby, and I’m very excited about the possibility of seeing the autumn internationals – or I was until practically the entire England squad ended up in the hospital).  I suspect it was to do with the weathe – that I decided that I didn’t see the point in day-tripping in the rain, and so picked the first not-rainy day to go hop on the train.

Aachen is a wee city (well, wee-er than Cologne) near the border, and it is where Charlemagne had his palace.   It’s busy developing a Charlemagne trail at the moment, which could be fun.   I mostly wanted to see the cathedral (which is home to Charlemagne’s throne) and go spa-ing.  I also fancied seeing the cathedral treasury, but in the end I passed up on it to go spa-ing, on the theory that I would be going back to Aachen, hopefully with the brilliant @Sunsetmog if she can make it out here, and could go to the Treasury then.   In the end result, I probably should have gone to the Treasury instead, spa-ing was fine, but just not quite as unwinding as it should have been, due to – well, cultural differences/personal hang-ups.  I just don’t do  mixed nekkid saunaing.  I find this not relaxing.   I also like my spa-baths to be not two flights of stairs away from my saunas. Carolus Thermen is big and swish and all, but it’s actually too big for my tastes.  Well now I know – next time I will go for Mediaeval Treasures.

The Cathedral was Made of Awesome, though.  FYI, the Treasury is open from 10am and the cathedral from 11am (there are services before, so you can pop in, but not really tourist).  Also, if you want to see Charlemagne’s throne, which is up in the gallery, you have to take a tour.   It’s about €3 and it also takes you into the cathedral Choir, which is otherwise gated off, so it’s worth it – even in German.  I did the German tour in the morning, ‘cos I wanted to go to the Spa, but there’s an English one at 2pm nowadays, which is a Good Thing, ‘cos I’m pretty sure, based on what I gleaned, that the tour guides are good and interesting.

It’s just the most gorgeous building.  If you come at it from the train station you sort of fall upon it, set in a wee square, all soaring lines and architectural wonder.  Then you go round a corner and find yourself in the small square in front of the cathedral.  The other side of the cathedral faces onto a large square between the cathedral and the Rathaus, but it’s a bit empty and not as nice.  Basically, the cathedral’s in two bits.  There’s the older two tier octagon, which Charlemagne’s original chapel, and which is a masterpiece of mosaic bling, and is home to the throne (a very simple set of marble blocks bound together, with a view down to the altar.  Then there’s the the later, gothic choir, which flies up straight and narrow, and seems to be made of stained glass windows (which were restored after the war).  It really is the original definition of awesome.  There was definitely awe involved as I stood with my neck craned looking up at the ceilings and windows.   Although it’s relatively small, it’s definitely one of the loveliest cathedrals I’ve been in – and I’ve now been in a fairly large number of European cathedrals.

Finally, in Aachen, there was Printen. Nom nom nom nom nom. Printen is Aachen’s own special kind of lebkuchen (german gingerbread) – a spicy, chewy biscuit, with crunchy rock candy bits. It comes in all shapes and sizes, and coatings – sugar glaze, chocolate, chocolate with bits – and it’s NUMMY. I came home with a stash at it.

Oooh, teh shiny…

I have finally finished my photobook of Tanzania.  It’s mostly photos and just a little bit of travelogue (as the vast majority of the travelogue was either me listing all the different animals and birds, or spitting about Kennedy, and that’s no fun for anyone) – but I am proud of the photos.  Have a look.

Tanzania

By Hannah J. Swithinbank

Book Preview

Afternoon Out

Today I did actual sightseeing stuff. I went to the Römisch-Germanische Museum, which is home to all the fun ancient things that have been dug up around here.  Mostly it’s too late for my tastes, being AD – although I have learnt to identify a bust of Augustus at 20 paces.  Teaching archaeology and running around Roman museums has done that much for me.   I really need to take a tame archaeologist with me to the museum, in order to properly appreciate all the stuff that’s in there – because it is clearly a really good collection that properly illustrates Roman life in the Germanic provinces. I just don’t know anything, really, about that (except that some of the Imperial family hung around up here fighting battles), and I can’t properly read the explanations, as my German isn’t that good (and my imperial archaeology isn’t good enough to guess).   Then I think I will get much more out of it.  That said, the two big mosaics (the Dionysus and the Philosophers) and the reconstructed Tomb of Poblicius can’t fail to impress even *this* Republican philistine.  They really are stunning – and beautifully displayed.    I invested in a year’s pass to the Cologne Museums (it covers all the major beasts), which at €50 for students was an absolute steal.  You’d comfortably spent €20 visiting three of the eight or nine covered, as a student, and I have plans to go to all of the ‘big three’ (the Römisch-Germanische, the Ludwig, and the Wallraf-Richartz) more than once. And I’m only here for six months.   Even if you’re not a student, the year’s pass is only about €68, which is still worth it.

After all the ancientness, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine – and ended up wishing I’d taken my sunglasses – before going to listen to Vespers at the Kölner Dom.  There’s this pilgrimage thing – Domwallfahrt 2009 – going on at the Dom, and there’s a bunch of services taking place, so I thought I’d go and listen to some music in stunning acoustics.  I strolled across the Hohenzollernbrücke (which is the railway bridge) to see the view back to the cathedral. You’d never think that a railway bridge and station would do much more than spoil the view of a gothic cathedral, but the juxtaposition really does work – despite the fact that the sun was directly above the Dom, requiring much eye-screwing-up.  I’m going to go back in the morning and after dark some time to take some more photos across the Rhine.   Vespers was lovely, too. I only stayed for a little while (and sat through the build-up before hand, which is what the last photo shows), but it was just perfectly relaxing, and the music (girls’ choir) was gorgeous.  I think I’m going to have to go back for more services in a language and denomination I don’t understand.

Sorted?

German phone number. CHECK.
Sends messages outside Deutschland. CHECK. Though apparently not to my mother’s phone.
Registered as a furrriner living here for more than three months. CHECK. That one took some time, due to not being able to read the signs very well. Furrrriner fail.
Bank account so I can get my scholarship. CHECK. Easiest bit. Nice bank lady who was happy to speak English to me.

I live here now.

I’m working up to the bit where I do some work.

After yesterday’s adventure to find the International Office was done, I explorationed into the city centre and saw the cathedral (quite stunning but v. busy due to something called Domswallfahrt – I may venture thence for Vespers or Evensung tomorrow though) and meandered a bit, and had my first proper Köln brewed beer, and it was all very civilised.  I spent this morning running around doing busywork, and then pootled back into the Neuemarkt where I had spied a Habitat, for I needed pillows.  Don’t do your household shopping in Habitat, ye godes.  I whimpered and fled from the one-person €30 coffee presses and €50 towels towards a nice department store called Karstadt, where I spent about half the amount on a pair of pillows, a towel and flanel, the fluffiest blankey you ever did contemplate snuggling up in, and a coffee press.  Mmmm. I can have coffee tomorrow morning.

I think tomorrow that I might take myself to the Römisches Museum by the Dom, to see all the ancient things, and then I might be about ready to think about doing some work from next week.  The new supervisor is in the States, but I think I can be brave enough to go and find the department and say hello to the department before he gets back. Hopefully they’ll have heard I’m coming. Oop.  Are all visiting scholary things so disorganised, I wonder, or is it just at this stage of my career. Do I get to have a monkey to do all this organising stuff for me, and tour me ’round and introduce me to people, when I get higher up the academic food chain?  That would be nice.

Arrival

So, I have arrived in Cologne. It was a loooooong day of trains. Left St Erth at 0700, and arrived at Koln Hofbahnhof at 2115, by way of London and Brussells. Did I mention it was looooong. And my big suitcase was superheavy (which was partly why I got the train), and now my arm is so tired from pulling it that I can barely hold a pen to write a list of all the things I need to do tomorrow.

But my new landlord met me off the train, and brought me to the apartment, so I have a very hazy idea of where I live, except that it’s about 10 minutes walk from a direct train/tram (seriously, it starts as a u-bahn, and ends up overground like a tram) into the city centre, and that there’s a nearer stop if I don’t mind changing once along the way.  I know that there’s lots of shops on a street that we walked up, including a supermarket that opens at 7am, which is good, as I will need breakfast tomorrow (having had a cereal bar and satsuma for supper). I know that the university is vaguely ‘up-the-way’, and I’m going to trot off there tomorrow to find the international office, who were supposed to be emailing me about an appointment for tomorrow, but haven’t – but I have been invited to a concert and drinks, and to a reception by the mayor, and a city tour, and offered shiny public transport deals, so I guess I can go find them about the other stuff, like police registration and banks. My German appears to be coming back – at least, I can understand a good deal, but I don’t have the confidence to talk yet. My default foreign language is still Italian, so I need to crack that habit. Tomorrow I think I will be writing lists of conjugations and declensions, and pinning them up around the apartment to help me out.

It’s all very nice in my wee apartment. The internet works – clearly – which is A Good Thing. I have a pretty large kitchen and a large study bedroom, and a wee shower room. I have nowhere to hang stuff, but I will cope, as I have only about two things that need hanging anyway, and my coat is hanging off the end of the bookcase. I have more bookshelves than I can use, since I didn’t even bring a shelf’s worth with me, so the bookcase is being used for trousers and jumpers, and make up and camera gear. I also appear to have a TV with some kind of digibox, and a PS2 for DVD watching, plus there is a copy of a Tony Hawk game a drawer. And I’m here to WORK. yes.

See, dinky wee apartment. Oh, and I have a (somewhat small looking) double bed, so people who don’t mind snuggling can come and stay. Otherwise they may have to bring their own rollmat and sleeping bag. I am going to buy more pillows though.

Is Back Home

Sitting in front of the tennis watching Federer and ignoring Robson (who isn’t doing herself any harm with her performance, even if she does go down to Hantuchova). I have seventy thousand photos to process still, but that’ll happen (slowly), and seventy thousand words to edit. I have a print out of the thesis-so-far and am wielding the pink muji pen over it to try and sort out the two problem chapters to the soothing sounds of tennis balls being hit too and fro (and this is why I won’t be watching much women’s tennis – the grunting, it is NOT soothing).

Tanzania ended in a Battle Royale with Kenedy (albeit with less blood) which we finally won. Fortunately, Zanzibar is such that it’s appeal can survive even his awfulness in the memory. Dar not so much – but then there is so little to do, and it’s horribly humid, so it’s not so appealing. We spent our last day on the Msasani Peninsula relaxing at Sea Cliff Village. I got very excited because there was a Spur, which I know from holidays in South Africa, and so we ate amazing steak, and waffles and ice cream, whcih meant there was no room for plane food at all, fortunately.

‘Tis graduation this week, so I’m trying to pack in the work between catching up with the boys who have come back from New Zealand, the US and Cambridge for it. It’s quite like old times, bizarrely, except now Gwyn and I are hard at work in the office (at Jamie and Jeremy’s old desks), and we can make them tea monkey for us. So it’s all go, and I just decided to add to my busy by booking some Edinburgh tickets for the summer. I’m off to see Moon on Tuesday, and Adventureland on Friday at the Film Festival. Now I have tickets for Neil Gaiman and for Gerald Scarfe for the Book Festival, and the Early Edition on the Fringe – that’s my August treat to myself, as I’ll be desperately wrapping up the thesis.

Not quite at the beach yet. But nearly

Am on Zanzibar. I hereby refuse to recommend Safari Planners as a safari organiser, ‘cos they are not organised, and the director flat out lied to us last night when he said he had our names down for the ferry today, and would bring our tickets in the morning. This morning, we drove down to the ferry, and then he took our names and nationalities, and went and bought our tickets. Still we got on the ferry, and got here, and his guy on Zanzibar is far better organised and personable than he is. We may have been screwed out of a bit of cash, but we are in Zanzibar and we have a nice hotel in Stone Town (with a TV and Setanta Sports no less, so we caught up on the Lions injury list whilst cleaning up after the ferry). Tomorrow we are spice touring, and on Friday off to Jambiani on the east coast for a couple of days on the beach. Today we have been for ice cream and cake on the waterfront, and browsing the shops to get some ideas of prices for haggling, and work out what we want to buy when we come back to Stone Town on Monday. Epic numbers of shawls, and Barack Obama kangas are on the list.

So, we were last heard from about to head out on safari. Clearly we were not eaten by lions or leopards. Our one leopard peed on the front wheel of our car though, so we now belongs to it. TONS of Lions. We are totally blase about them now, but not about Cheetahs, which are still awesomeness. And we saw lots of them – about five up close. SQUEEEEE. Got eaten alive by various bugses, but totally worth it, and were camping on the Ngorogoro Crater rim when news about Roger Federer’s French Open victory came through (amazing signal in the Serengeti and Ngorogoro), so we did a little dance of glee along the edge, and then hopped back into our sleeping bags, for it was COLD. Acutally had to wear two long sleeved layers. Wild.

This evening we are off to be hopelessly colonial and have drinks on the roof at the Africa House hotel, and then to the night market for fresh cooked fish. And then to get lost on the way back to the hotel. Erm.

Still Here…

Internets in Arusha are Rubbishes.

Had an amazing weekend in Kilimatinde, of which more later when good internets. But my old kindergarten is still going strong (and they have uniforms now, very exciting), and some of my old KG kids are in the secondary school now (way to make me feel old), and it was wonderful and brilliant, and kind of sad, in the way that going back to old places can be, because nearly all of the people I knew there have left to go and do new things, and I don’t know when I’ll get back again, but there’ll be even less of them then… But it was beautiful and ace, and so worth the 8 hour bus from Dar to get there, and the 13 hour bus to Arusha to get here. And tomorrow I am off on safari-times. Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater. I have 16 gigs of memory cards. I think that is enough.