Weeks 2.5 – 3.5: Portugal (Cont.)

Portugal Part 2: Lisbon

Following the short course in infectious disease/paleopathology at the University of Coimbra, I took the train from Coimbra to Lisbon Tuesday evening for a talk about my research that I was going to give on Wednesday evening.  I got to my hostel in Lisbon later than I had planned (which, by the way I was in a 4-person room, but had it all to myself both nights I was there!), but I still had time to walk down to the river/ocean and see this beautiful sunset!

Sunset over the Rio Tejo in Lisbon.

The next day I met up with Vanessa and her friends (I had met Vanessa at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting in Knoxville, TN in April, but had known about her previously because my fellow grad student Christina had met her on a previous trip to Lisbon).  Vanessa is the one who contacted the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia (National Archaeology Museum) in Lisbon to arrange my talk.  We met near the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jerónimos Monastery) which is actually the building housing the Archaeology Museum-- it was rather an impressive venue!

The Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Lisbon.

A wider shot of the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Lisbon.

Me at the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Lisbon.

Once I met up with Vanessa and her British friend Cheryl, we walked around for a bit to wait for Vanessa's other Portuguese friends.  In the meantime, we walked over to the water (Rio Tejo) to see the Padrãodos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries).

 The Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries)
facing westward, toward the New World, in Lisbon.

The Padrão dos Descobrimentos
(Monument to the Discoveries) in Lisbon.

Me at the Padrão dos Descobrimentos
(Monument to the Discoveries) in Lisbon.

Note the mosaics on the ground.
According to Vanessa, they're "very Portuguese," still made by hand,
and other places in the world fly in the Portuguese craftsmen who make them.

The Padrão dos Descobrimentos
(Monument to the Discoveries) in Lisbon.

Facing westward from the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries) in Lisbon.
You can see the Cristo-Rei (Christ the King) statue which was inspired by the statue in Rio de Janeiro.
Also pictured is the 25 de Abril Bridge (formerly Salazar Bridge).

Here is the Ponte 25 de Abril which I passed on my way to meet up with Vanessa & co.,
renamed from Ponte Salazar after the Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974.

Eventually Vanessa's other friends arrived and we then went to the Pastéis de Belém (Belém being the are of Lisbon we were in) to get the Pastéis de Belém (i.e., the egg-tart pastry the area is known for).  It was DELICIOUS!

The bakery Pastéis de Belém.  The pastries are sold all over the area,
but this is "the original" which supposedly has a "secret ingredient"
that makes them different from the rest.  They were REALLY good!

My Pastéis de Belém and cappuccino.

After enjoying some pastries, we then meandered back to the water to see some more sights.

  

Torre de Belém built in the early 16^th century 

as part of a defense system and ceremonial gateway to Lisbon.

Torre de Belém.

Torre de Belém.

And then it was time for my talk.  I gave a talk first, followed by a Portuguese lithic archaeologist, Nuno Bicho (who delivered his talk in Portuguese).

Giving my talk (about chins, of course) at the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia.
Photo courtesy of the GEEvH – Group of Studies in Human Evolution.

This is the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, a part of the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos.

There were actually a number of Americans at the talk who had just flown in to Lisbon that day and were going to be doing some archaeological field work in Portugal.  They mostly stayed awake, which impressed me given the jet lag they must have been dealing with!  After the talk I got dinner with Vanessa and her friends which was a nice way to wrap up my time in Portugal.

I really liked Portugal a lot, but on Thursday morning I flew to Paris!  In Lisbon, I took a taxi to a metro station and the metro to the airport, and I left my hostel around 6:20 am and the person who was working was kind enough to get out of bed and walk down the street with me (in her PJs) to point out the nearest taxi stand (it was really close, but I’m not sure I would’ve noticed it without her help)!  This is just one more example of the kindness and friendliness I’ve experienced while in Europe thus far!

Weeks 2.5 – 3.5: Portugal

Part 1: Coimbra

On the morning of May 30, I flew from Amsterdam to Lisbon and then took the train from Lisbon to Coimbra from the conference I was attending at the University of Coimbra: the I BioAnthrpological Meeting: A Multidisciplinary Approach, or I BAM for short.  When waiting to deplane in Lisbon, I saw that the gentleman in front of me was looking at a train schedule to Coimbra and had a conference schedule in his hand, so I thought perhaps he was going to the same conference as me.  I saw him again at baggage claim and struck up a conversation with him.  Turns out he was from the University of Bordeaux and was attending a conference near Coimbra, but it was a neuroimaging conference!  Well, we got to talking and split a cab to the train station and we wound up taking the same train to Coimbra (although he rode 1^st class, I did not). 

Lisbon Oriente train station.

I got to Coimbra and took a cab to Casa Pombal where Christina and I were staying toward the top of the hill which is the town of Coimbra.  Casa Pombal was actually run by several Dutch women, so it was a nice transition from the Netherlands to Portugal!  As mentioned, the city of Coimbra is built on top of a hill (it’s in a somewhat mountainous region of Iberia) and therefore, people complain about walking down and up the hill (the university is at the top and the downtown is at the bottom).  In fact, the Dean who opened the conference discussed this, stating that the fact that they have a university at the top of the hill instead of a castle, fortress, church, etc. was meaningful, and I liked that he pointed that out, especially because the University of Coimbra was established in 1290 and is therefore one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world!

The view from our hotel room at Casa Pombal.

The I BAM conference was on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1.  I presented in the first session, Human Evolution, and I was glad to get it out of the way, especially because my throat was feeling kind of scratchy.  

Here I am during my I BAM talk.

The rest of the day went well too.  It was cool because I got to talk to some colleagues whose work I follow, such as Bernard Wood and Aurelien Mounier, and that night the conference organizers had a group dinner where Christina and I met some new cool colleagues who I wound up spending a lot more time with over the next several days.

On the walk to dinner from the conference.

Remember how I said I had a scratchy voice on Friday?  Well it was completely GONE on Saturday!  Sure enough, I got a cold, so it was really a good thing that I didn’t have to present on Saturday, but Christina did, after which she had to catch a train back to Lisbon to fly out to Rome the following morning.  

Christina's presentation at the I BAM conference.

In the morning of the conference, the session was Paleopathology, the study of disease in past populations, and I gotta say, being under the weather while listening to those talks did nothing for my hypochondria!

By the time Christina left, I had fortunately made some new friends by this point who could more or less understand me even though I essentially had no voice (and English wasn't their first language).  So on Saturday after the conference we went out to dinner (they ordered me lemon tea, which helped!) and then out for a drink, but I had to write down some of what I wanted to say because you really couldn’t hear me!

Sunday was a “free day” so I got to explore Coimbra.  I mostly spent time in the Botanical gardens next to the Anthropologie building (where the conference was held) because they were expansive and really beautiful, but first I toured around campus a bit.

The "old part" of  campus that you can tour.

Facing from the "old part" of campus toward the river and mountains.

At the botanical gardens.

At the botanical gardens.

At the botanical gardens.  The wall is part of an old Roman aqueduct.

At the botanical gardens.

At the botanical gardens.

At the botanical gardens.

That evening I also had dinner with Luis, one of my new colleagues and friends who is a PhD student at the University of Coimbra, and he was also kind enough to buy me some throat lozenges during the day on Sunday which helped during my recovery.

I stayed around Coimbra after the conference because I was going to give a lecture about my research at the National Archaeology Museum in Lisbon on Wednesday, and after the conference the University offered a short course in infectious disease/paleopathology by Keith Manchester, a professor at the University of Bradford in the UK.  It was interesting- he primarily talked about markers of leprosy on the skeleton on Monday afternoon and markers of tuberculosis in the skeleton on Tuesday morning.  However, I was still getting over my cold (and my voice was still not back 100%), and this meant a lot of coughing.  So of course, during his lecture on TB, I wound up having a coughing fit, during which time I had to run out of the building so as not to distract from the lecture or make everyone suspicious that my ailment was more than just a cold.  After that coughing attack though I was good for the rest of the day, and I even correctly answered several anatomy questions during subsequent lectures, so I felt as though I redeemed myself. J 

Back to the hill that is Coimbra, there are different routes one can take to walk up and down, some less steep than others, and therefore, I avoided the steep, but more direct, route for as long as I could because of the way that people talked about it.  However, since I had Monday morning free before the start of the short course, I decided, upon the recommendation of one of the women working at my hotel, to walk down the steep road in the center of town (which was quite lovely with several very old, beautiful churches and touristy souvenir shops).  Later that day I had to walk back up to get to the course, and honestly, I didn’t think it was that bad.  In fact, I thought it wasn’t so bad enough that I walked back down for dinner and back up afterward (the steep way!)  It really only took me about 10 min. but I sure wouldn’t want to have to do it on a regular basis all the time!  Perhaps living at a higher altitude in State College for a bit prior to my trip conditioned me some. 

In all, I had a really great time in Coimbra.  I met many great people and the town was beautiful, but next I was headed to Lisbon to give yet another talk (assuming I had my voice back in time...)

The view from my hotel room of Coimbra at sunset.

Week 2: The Netherlands (Cont.)

Part 2: Leiden

I spent May 27–29 in Leiden studying the Wadjak 1 and 2 Homo sapiens material from Indonesia (a.k.a., the former Dutch East Indies, hence why these specimens are in the Netherlands instead of Indonesia).  Leiden is a university town, and while I didn’t see much of the University, the town itself is very picturesque.  I stayed in a pretty central and very nice location, Hotel Mayflower, which was a welcome change of pace (noise wise) from my hotel in Amsterdam!  It was right on the major central canal (which is a former part of the Rhine) and an open square area with restaurants.

The view from my hotel room in Leiden!

On Monday I went to the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden.  They have very modern storage facilities (i.e., temperature and humidity controlled), which is good for the collections, but I had to work in the same room with the collections which meant that I got rather cold (it was kept at a constant 64^oF or so, which may not sound so bad, but when just sitting in one place it gets chilly)!  They had a really nifty espresso maker though, so when I needed a break I could make an espresso and stand outside in the sun to warm up. J  

The view from "the tower" of Naturalis where I was working with the collections.  There were no windows IN the room where I was working, but when I left the lab, I was treated to a nice view of the city.

What many museum storage facilities look like "behind the scenes" (i.e., what researchers study that's not on public display)

It was really exciting to work in the “Collectie DuBois” which consisted of many faunal specimens and a few hominin specimens collected by Eugene Dubois, an early pioneer in paleoanthropology, particularly in Indonesia.  He was the first to recognize the species Homo erectus (which he originally named Pithecantrhopus erectus) in the late nineteenth century.  In fact, he made a wooden statue for one of the World’s Fairs of what he thought Pithecantrhopus erectus would have looked like based upon the skeletal material he’d studied, and it happened to be *right* next to where I was working!

Pithecanthropus erectus statue created by Eugene Dubois.

Pithecanthropus erectus statue right next to my workspace!

However, I wasn’t there to study Homo erectus material (they don’t have any mandibles there), but instead, I was there to study Wadjak 1 and 2, both early Homo sapiens.  In fact, an article just came out dating them to much older than originally thought, which made seeing these remains extra interesting.  Since I just saw 2 specimens there, I had some extra time to see the Naturalis museum, which was really neat all around, but to me, especially because they had the original Homo erectus skull cap and femur on display which I drooled over for a while as other visitors passed by.

Original Homo erectus skullcap and femur on display at Naturalis.

The Trinil calotte.

In all, Leiden was a lovely town with lots to see and do.  It was far more “Dutch” looking and feeling than Amsterdam in terms of having old windmills to see.

And I also had a delicious apfelstruedel panenkoek!

Apfelstrudel pannenkoek served on a traditional Dutch pancake plate with apple cider at Oudt Leyden Pannenkoekenhuys.

On May 29 I took the train from Leiden back to the Amsterdam airport and spent the night in a hotel near there before flying out to Lisbon the next morning.  I took a little stroll around the hotel and saw these signs on parking spaces, wondering what they meant:

I wondered if they were for pregnant women, although there is no such designation, just “woman only.”  When I posed this question on Facebook Nick let me know that there are designated parking spaces for women only near entrances and where security cameras are facing to prevent assault.  I was unaware of this and found it interesting!

Week 2: The Netherlands

Part 1: Amsterdam

After a week in London, I headed to the Netherlands, flying into Amsterdam.  I spent May 25–26 in Amsterdam (I just saw some sights there over the weekend), and May 27–29 in Leiden studying the Wadjak 1 and 2 Homo sapiens material from Indonesia.

I arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday night around 8pm, so I had planned to just rest, but instead I wound up wandering around for a bit looking for the Red Light District because it was really close to where I was staying.  Well, I didn’t find it (largely because there were so many people out (even though it was rainy, gross weather), and I saw hoards of people heading in one direction.  I figured that direction was likely where the Red Light District was, but decided I didn’t want to join the throng to get there and headed back to my hotel instead.

My hotel, Old Nickel, was above a bar, so I figured I’d just get a drink and hang out there for a bit before heading to bed.  I asked for a “Netherlands beer” and the bar tender gave me something that he said was “very local” and it was good, but I forget the name!  There was nowhere to sit in the bar (it was quite crowded), but there was a table of several people who looked to be about my age, and they were speaking English, so I asked to join them.  Turns out it was a group of friends who went to University of Cardiff in the UK together at the same time for their masters degrees, so they were having a reunion for the weekend in Amsterdam.  They were from the UK, the US, and Germany.  So I hung out with them for a while, and they said I “had to see the Red Light District,” so back out we ventured into the rain and low and behold, I was correct, it was where the throng of people from earlier was heading.  It was just as weird of a place as you might imagine…  It was described to me as the “Disneyland of Prostitution” because families would walk their children through there to see.  I didn’t see many families during my tour through, but nevertheless, it was a strange experience.

The Old Nickel Hotel where I stayed in Amsterdam.

Eventually we went back to the hotel and I, of course, had planned to go to bed.  However, remember how I mentioned that my hotel was above a bar… turns out the bar had live music that night until 3:30 am!!  And my room was *right* above the band.  It wasn’t all bad, I got caught up on uploading my pictures up to that point on Facebook as well as taking care of other various things I needed to online.  And at least they played good music.  Guess in the future when I read reviews of a hotel that say “it’s right above a bar and really noisy” I’ll be more inclined to believe them…

The next day I got up to have breakfast in the bar and again, there weren’t enough seats so I was sat at a table with a girl who looked about my age.  Eventually we got to talking and it turns out she’s a PhD student at the University of Barcelona (though she’s originally from the Ukraine) studying sustainability and she was in Amsterdam for a conference.  We had a lot to talk about, and she offered to help me if I need when I’m near Barcelona later this summer!

As for the rest of Sunday, I wandered around Amsterdam to see what I could see.  I didn’t go to any of the museums since I only had one day to see the city, but I am hoping to go back in the future and do so.  I had contacted one of the former grad students from my department (Jenna) who is now living in Amsterdam to ask her for recommendations about what to see and do, so based upon her recommendations, I walked to the Nieuwmarkt District to look around and then to Latei to try their apple tart.  Yum! 

Some of the goods available for purchase at the Nieuwmarkt.

My apple tart with whipped cream and coffee at Latei.

I also just walked around to see the city itself.  Amsterdam is of course full of canals, and thus far in my experience (Venice, Amsterdam, Leiden), cities with canals are quite lovely (as long as they don’t smell too much!)

Canal right by the Amsterdam Centraal train station and my hotel.

Another pretty canal.

This one's for all my bike riding friends.

A very "Dutch" view! 

In the afternoon I walked to a place called Felix Meritis where they were having an open monument day, so I got a tour (in Dutch) and then got to go up to the roof to get a nice view of the city.

View of Asterdam from atop Felix Meritis.

That's me at the top of the Felix Meritis building.

That evening I took the train down to Leiden so that I could start studying material at Naturalis, the natural history museum there on Monday morning.