Occupy the World

Although I have only used this as a travel blog, my reference to borders was not intended to be limited to national or geographic ones. I want to start documenting my experiences and sharing my ideas as I try to make sense of this world and find my place in it. What has inspired me recently to begin to be more proactive in finding answers is a series of events in the past two weeks which all led me to one place: the Occupy Wall Street movement.

My Thanksgiving weekend was spent in the United States. I briefly stopped in New York City and Philadelphia where I had the chance to witness Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Philadelphia. The protests reminded me of the occupation of University of Vienna by students while I was on exchange there. The students were fighting for their right to free education as the government had been talking about imposing a fee on higher education in Austria. My perspective on the protests has drastically changed since then as I have become more aware of the issues surrounding post-secondary education here in Canada and of how apathetic and perhaps oppressed we actually are as a society. It was a breath of fresh air to see that something like this was gaining momentum in North America and that people were finally waking up and realizing they are not powerless.

Last Wednesday, I attended a talk with Judy Rebick which intended to focus on climate justice as social justice. Her conversation with Brigette DePape ended up touching on many issues pertaining to social and economic justice, including the Occupy Wall Street movement. Brigette brought up Judy's book Transforming Power and how relevant it is to this movement. Judy was delighted to see that somebody had picked up on that.

On Friday, I saw a documentary film called How to Start a Revolution at the One World Film Festival in Ottawa. It was the Canadian premiere of the film. It exposes Gene Sharp's writings on non-violent action against oppression and the use of his ideas in various resistance movements and revolutions around the world. A Q&A period with the director of the film followed. Again, the conversation in the end became about whether this was applicable to Occupy Wall Street. The answer was: very much so.

This all brought me here: on Saturday at noon I was at Confederation Park in Ottawa where the first general assembly of Occupy Ottawa was about to begin. The occupation became official by 3pm.

This movement is finally exposing people's frustrations with the social and economic inequalities they experience. I am deeply enthusiastic about it for its empowering and unifying nature and also because I am sick of living in an inherently unjust society where government and corporations do not represent the interests of the majority.

Jack, you were right.

Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

Wanderlust

Somebody told me a few weeks ago that coming back home only gets harder every time. It was at least reassuring to see I wasn't the only one having a hard time readjusting. The old is new again but still too familiar for comfort. I wonder whether having a new perspective will do me any good or will only further drive my dissatisfaction with the society in which I live.

The best way I can describe what my exchange abroad has given me is wanderlust, desire to wander or travel. That is what I hope to do with my studies and with my career, but for now I need to cope with the banality of routine. Paying more attention to my 'home' and noticing new aspects of it has kept me motivated, but that is not to say I can spend a day without reminiscing of my travels.


Lisbon


Barcelona

Christmas market in Vienna

Deer in the Headlights

Prague. Is it there anything authentic left about the major European capitals? It seems that most of the popular touristic cities have turned into museums for mass tourism. It's impossible to walk across the Charles Bridge without getting caught in a mob of tourists. A lot of the tourists in Prague come in couples or in big groups and take pictures at every step without really trying to understand what's around them. I've been hearing every language but Czech and sometimes I forget where I am. And as long as you're in the center no matter where you go, you're always caught in someone's picture like a deer in the headlights.

Spain

I miss Spain. I got so into my travels after Madrid that I didn't think of writing. My thoughts on the capital: more is less. Besides the art galleries and the huge Sunday market El Rastro, Madrid didn't impress me that much. Barcelona on the other hand was my favorite.

Partying every night in Barcelona, Gaudi, crazy Basques partying in the streets during carnaval all day and all night in San Sebastian, getting by with broken Spanish, the amazing sea and ocean views from castle ruins, world heritage sites like Segovia's old town, getting a burn from falling asleep under the Andalucian sun with a view of the Albayzin in Granada, all the people I met, the times we had, the stories we shared, and of course all the paellas, tapas and sangria...

Time of my life.

Spain, Chapter 1: Valencia

How am I going to leave this city? I started my backpacking trip two days ago in Alicante late at night. I woke up to an amazing view of a castle on a hill and to a narrow street with really cute houses. I took a 5 minute walk through the hilly centre onto the Mediterranean coast. Coming from Vienna it was unbelievable to be on the beach among palm trees and not having to wear a jacket in February. I got on the road right away and took an 11am train to Valencia. The third biggest city in Spain. It´s nothing like I imagined it to be. I walked through the whole city centre from the train station to my hostel and was on a natural high. It was a really sunny day, I had been been using nothing but Spanish, and the city was like nothing I had seen before. At first I had a strange feeling about it, like it wasn´t for me. But my mind has changed completely. Apart from the Valenciano dialect which I can´t understand (a dialect of Catalan, which is a dialect of Castellano or "standard Spanish"), I love everything about Valencia. Eating a traditional Valencian paella at an outdoor café in one of the many plazas, burning under the sun and wearing sunglasses in the middle of the winter, having tapas and sangría with other travellers in the middle of the day, getting fresh fruits for breakfast at the central market, taking a walk down the old river which is now a stretch of green space, being a part of the rhythm of the city, being pleasantly surprised by the juxtaposition of different architectural styles, getting lost among the narrow streets and stumbling upon cute shops... I´m not as excited as I should be for my next stop: Madrid.

After the Wall

I’m watching the celebrations in Berlin for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the wall on tv and I thought I’d write about my experience. I was in Berlin two weekends ago with a group of friends. It was a nine hour drive crossing the Czech Republic (with an unintentional detour in Poland). We arrived late on Friday night and on Saturday morning we did a four hour walking tour of Berlin. Walking through the Brandenburg Gate, the Death Strip, and Checkpoint Charlie, among other symbolic sites of the Cold War, really was a lot to take in at once. Later that night we went to the East Side Gallery, a remaining strip of the wall. It took my breath away when as I saw it in the distance. I thought of what it represents as I walked along the retouched murals that cover it. Its history is quite overwhelming and a bit hard for me to completely understand since I never lived where and when it stood. We also visited the Soviet Memorial on Monday before leaving. It was a reminder that I'm more connected to the wall than I realize, because my grandparents and parents all lived in the Soviet Union and remember the day the wall fell. It was a great feeling to be in a city that contains so much of world history – history that is still recent and relevant to my life. For the first time I truly felt connected to the past, and not just alive in the present. It was a first time in Berlin for many of us and I think we were all changed in our own way after a weekend in the city.

Innsbruck: Afterthoughts

I just got back from a weekend in Innsbruck with two other exchange students from my home university. Every time I come back from traveling, I have this feeling of calmness and fulfilment. There's much to take in from every place that I visit and I don't want to let it slip away. Every place that I've visited in my life has affected me in some way, and I don't want this memory of the beauty of Innsbruck to fade away. But I know that when I wake up in the morning it will already be somewhat distant, since I have to get back to reality in Vienna. Since my move, I've experienced the chaos and traditions of Oktoberfest, seen Munich, capital of Bavaria, been to the famous Neuschwanstein castle in Germany's countryside, seen the unbelievably small country of Liechtenstein, taken a train across Austria and seen an innumerable amount of towns surrounded by the Alps, and visited Innsbruck. Being here has reminded me of how much I love to travel. I'm looking forward to letting every experience and every new place change me, and most of all I hope to hold on to it all forever.