The Wall

Hello everyone, I hope y’all had a wonderful 4^th of July weekend. I’m sorry to keep you waiting with the next installment.

After my time at the WWII memorial I continued down the national mall. While I walked beside the reflecting pool looking at the Lincoln Memorial started to remember important moments in American History that occurred there. As I looked at the steps of the memorial I began to imagine what it must have looked like to be at there listening to MLK give his “I have a dream” speech on that August day in 1963.

With it being a rather hot June day I decided to go off to a shady area near the Lincoln Memorial. 

Before I knew it I had ended up next to the Vietnam War Memorial. The memorial has been called “the wall that heals”. After being there in person I can attest to that name being well-deserved. I decided to sit down on a park bench and see what was going on. The Memorial was rather quiet that day. The only real sound came from a park ranger giving a tour of the Memorial to a summer program, of some sort, that was full of middle school aged kids. I listen for a little while as the ranger talked about important names and dates associated with the wall. I must admit I was probably listening to the ranger about as well as the children were. I was distracted by my own thoughts. The ranger eventually led the group away to the “Three Service Men Statute”.

 In the absence of the tour group a hush fell over the area. After a few more moments of silent reflection I walked over to the wall. As I began to get closer to the wall, the smooth, polished black marble began to reveal the names of those who gave their lives in service to the nation. It was almost impossible for me to digest the shear amount of names engraved on that wall. I remember looking down to the other end of the memorial. All along the base of the memorial I could see things people left at the memorial. Some of them were personal items like photos from comrades. Others were simply things like flowers and cards left by loved ones. I began to tear up a little as I thought of the men behind the names. All of these men had hopes and dreams, they loved and were loved and they gave all that up to serve our country. Their brothers who did come home didn’t receive the welcome they deserved. Some were verbally or physically attacked simply because they answered the nation’s call. I started to think about all the veterans of Vietnam that I know in my personal life, and what they must have gone through both on the battlefield and back home. That is why I want to take this time to thank any and all Vietnam vets for their service. You came home without as much as an acknowledgement from your fellow Americans. So from this grateful American I’d like to say “Thank You and Welcome Home!”

Mr. Stroud goes to Washington

    Hello loyal readers I’m back by popular demand and this time I’m in the nation’s capital. I’m going to be in DC for most of the summer for an internship in the meantime I’m going to try and keep y’all posted about the things I’ve been up to. I’ll apologize now about this post because of the fact that I’ve been out here for about a month so this is going to be a long post. I’ll probably have to break it up into several parts.

Due to the nature of my internship I’m not able to visit many of the sights during the work week. So I’ve been spending most of my weekends at the numerous museums, memorials, and tourist attractions. So far I visited all the memorials on the national mall, except the Jefferson memorial (which is way out away from the mall).

While all the memorials are indeed special I felt that the World War II memorial and the Vietnam memorial were the most moving. I remember being at the WWII memorial on the weekend of June 6^th. As I was slowly walking around the memorial, I was quietly reflecting to myself that this memorial was there to symbolize the sacrifice this nation made in order to make the world a safer place. As I was doing this I remember seeing the people around me.

Most of them seemed oblivious to the fact that they were standing in a memorial, let alone what the memorial stood for. This troubled me, I stayed motionless watching all the happy tourists laughing, joking, and taking pictures of themselves acting silly. Suddenly something pulls me from my thoughts I see a group of women motioning me to come over to them. When I got over to them one of them asked me to take their photo in front of the memorial naturally I agreed to help them. As the group sorted out how they were going to pose for the picture. Something behind them caught my eye.

It was an older man; he looked to be probably in his mid to late sixties. As he walked to one end of the memorial I could sense that he came to this place to remember someone. When he reached the end of the memorial I saw him bend down and place something on the ground. About that time the group of women were ready for their picture. I quickly took two shots to ensure at least one turned out well. I handed the camera back to the owner and hurried over to where the man had been standing. 

However, by that I got over to the spot the man was gone and all that was left was his mystery package. The old man had placed two medals and a little packet on the lip of the memorial fountain. The fountain itself was made out of granite. The edge of it had the names of important battles and campaigns of the European theater engraved on it. The old man placed his belongings on the part of the fountain that bore the name NORMANDY. The medals appeared to be a bronze star and the WWII victory medal, the packet that accompanied it contained pictures of the national cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, a small bag of sand from that beach, and small note.

The note said that the reason the medals were placed at the memorial were to remember the man’s father who had fought at Normandy. He believed that these things belonged here, the note went on to thank all those who served during the war and to offer to give these items to anyone who fought at Normandy. As I stood there looking at these items I was hit by a wave of emotions. The Strongest feeling I had at that moment was regret, I wished I could have found the gentleman that left behind this heart-felt note and these medals and talked to him. I wanted nothing more than to sit down on one of the park benches and listen to him as he talked about his father. Nevertheless I knew it would be impossible to find the gentleman in a city the size of DC. (To be continued….)

Epilogue

Well I guess its time to recap my final week of traveling through Europe. The entire class started out by taking a trip up to Pisa and then up to the a lovely coastal area known as Cinque Terre (Five Earths) the town we stayed in is a rather beautiful summer destination for many tourist. After spending the night in the sleepy little town of Vernazza. It was time for our groups to go their separate ways. Some of us decided to spend another week free traveling. However my group and a few others chose to leave on the 23rd instead of the 30th of April.
After a tearful farewell it was time to catch a train to Milan and what we Hoped eventually a train to Paris. However, in reality things didn't work out that way instead of a train to Paris. We had to make an unexpected detour to Geneva. When we arrived at the station, it was already getting late. We had no idea where we were going to stay for the night many of the hotels around the station were rather expensive. So after about an hour of shall we say investigative work we managed to find a hostel that was both affordable and close to the station. Unfortunately due to the unexpected change of plans we spent much of the night planning and booking the rest of our trip. Finally after finishing our all night plan session I managed to get a three hour nap in before we had to be back at the train station to buy our tickets from Geneva to Paris.
Needless to say due to the utter lack of sleep that the group received at the hostel, we all spent much of the four hour train ride sleeping. I must admit that Paris is as beautiful as everyone always says it is. On the first day we spent most of the time viewing all the major sites: the Eiffel tower, the Arc de Triomphe, etc. It was still impressive even if the weather was less than cooperative. My favorite part of that first day was being able to go up the Eiffel tower at night and see all the lights of Paris shine. We started our second day in the city of lights by celebrating Easter sunday by going to the Morning mass as Notre Dame. After a wonderful brunch it was time to visit the Louvre, Unfortunately due to time issues we couldn't visit all the exhibit halls in fact we more or less had to hit the high points. After spending only a few short hours in one of the most famous museums in the world, we decided to try to visit the palace of Versailles. The Palace and the garden that surrounds it were simply magnificent. Everywhere you looked it was fountains, marble statues, and ornamental flowers and bushes.
After Versailles it was time to board another train, this time we headed toward the city of Lille.

The next morning we boarded a ferry that would take us to Dover, England. I must admit that after months of only hearing foreign languages it was nice being on a boat were everyone spoke English. When we arrived in Dover we immediately boarded a train that went to London. London was an amazing sight, we had only two days to take in as much of the sights as possible. So we did what any sensible person would do.....we rented bikes and travelled all over the city. We visited everything from Tower Bridge (What most people mistake for London Bridge) to The Tower of London. From the Parliament Building to Abbey Road. Among the many things we visited we managed to squeeze in a trip to the British museum of Natural History as well as watching Les Miserables in Piccadilly Circus. Before I knew it it was time to go to Heathrow international airport and fly back to Atlanta and then Home. Out of all the places we visited on this trip I had the most regret about only having a few days to spend in London. I feel I could have spent a week in London and not gotten to visit everything that was there.

I'm glad that I was given the privilege and opportunity to have taken this adventure. I wish to one day return and perhaps spend a little more time enjoying the places I have visited as well as maybe discovering new places as well. My time in Europe has opened my eyes a little bit more to the world around me. It has shown me that the world is not as big as I once thought it was, I got the see thing first hand that I thought I would never get the chance it experience first hand. I know what I have shared probably hasn't really been good at expressing this experience. But perhaps it has given everyone a idea of what I've been through.

The Cathedral of Pisa

Me leaning on the Tower

A Memorial to both WWI and WWII

Notre Dame

The Palace of Justice

the Louvre

the gardens outside the Palace of Versailles

The Famed White Cliffs of Dover

Tower Bridge

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

Buckingham Palace

The Rosetta Stone

The Athena Frieze

One for the Road…(So long and thanks for all the Pasta)

                It’s been said that all good things must come to an end. It hard to believe that three months have already pasted, it seems like just yesterday that I arrived at the villa for the first time. Well that’s enough of dwelling on the fact that time never ceases. Anyway, dear readers it is time for me to bring you up to speed on what I've been up to since my last post.

                On the 20^th of March the entire HUF group went on a day trip to the several cities including San Gimignano and Siena. While Siena was very beautiful I much rather preferred the city of San Gimignano. Much of this medieval city is exactly like it was during the Time of Machiavelli (the famous author of The Prince). This ancient walled city is amazing I would recommend this to anyone who wanted to get off the beaten path and get a taste of authentic Italian life.

                Just two days later a group of friends and I were on a train bound for Switzerland. We visited the little ski resort town of Zermatt in hopes to get an amazing view of the Matterhorn. Unfortunately for us, the weather was being uncooperative that day. A dense cloud cover prevented us from seeing twenty feet in front of us let alone the mountain. Next it was of the city of Interlaken, where we spent a day enjoying a cruise on Lake Thunersee. The view was amazing, the water was a beautiful crystal blue, and the snow covered mountains made the scene almost feel unreal.

                Next it was off to Prague, I must admit this destination wasn't even on my RADAR but my friends wanted to go. I am glad I went; the city was beautiful especially at night the lights gave all the buildings a surreal glow. I wish my camera could take pictures in an environment like that unfortunately it can’t. While we were in Prague we took a bike tour of the city, we say everything from St. Charles’ Bridge to a memorial dedicated to Prague’s communist past. We ended our tour at the John Lennon wall. This graffiti covered wall is a constantly changing memorial inspired by the communistic Idealism of John Lennon. Standing there listening to someone play the song “Imagine” on guitar, I was inspired to leave my own message there.

                Our last stop on our trip was the city of Salzburg, Austria. We only managed to stay the day in the city. We spent our day, on a tour of Salzburg dedicated to the musical “The Sound of Music”. Those of you who are familiar with the musical, knows that the story is set in 1930s Salzburg. Our guide took us everywhere from the former Von Trappe Estate to the church that was used as the setting of the famous wedding scene. After the tour, the group stopped at a small restaurant and had a traditional Austrian meal. That evening it was time to take a train bound for Florence.

                After a few days of classes at the villa the group was off on another trip. This time we spent three days in Casentino. We visited several sites including three castles and an ancient church. It was interesting especially when we found out we were staying in one of the castles. The castle is famous for the fact that Dante stayed there as he was writing his famous Divine Comedy. It was amazing being able to have the privilege to stay in a castle. I’d like to take this moment to thank my friends for not killing me for making an copious amount of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” references while we were stayed at the castle. I’m sorry guys I couldn't help myself.

                Finally after few days just enjoying the castles, churches, and the Italian countryside it was time to face the most feared thing known to students (suspenseful music builds) finals week (da da da dunt da). I went through finals week without losing much sleep (a first for me) and I handled the test like a champ. All that’s left to do is enjoy one last week of traveling and finally boarding a big ol’ jet airliner bound for the good ol’ USA.

                I’d like to thank everyone who has followed me on my adventures in the Old world, I promise I’ll post my final update as soon as I can. Until then enjoy and I’ll see y’all again soon. 

The Matterhorn (well sorta)

The view outside our hostel

A Swiss village near Lake Thunersee

My friends and I "thumbing a ride" outside of Interlaken.

Prague

A caricature of Me saying "live for the day, Love for eternity"

John Lennon Wall

The Convent that Maria was a nun at

Gazibo used for the "you are Sixteen going on Seventeen" musical number

The Von Trappe Estate

Austrian Countryside

Church that was used for the Wedding scene in "The Sound of Music"

ruins of a medieval castle

The tower that Dante stayed in.