#ionasadventures

[ionasadventures]

Interrail Day 17

Today we had a good ole explore of Bern! First stop - the Bear Pit! It’s literally a pit with a family of bears in it in the middle of Bern. There was only one beat out today and they were slomberin in the sun, but it was kinda cool! ((They were fixing the actual pit part, hence why the bear is in more of an enclosure but it is an actual pit!)). Next, we headed off to Einstein’s House! He lived in Bern for a few years, but it was here he wrote his Theory of Relativity! He lived in Bern with his first wife, Mileva Marity (Maric), from 1903 to 1905. His house was kinda small, and it must’ve been super crowded with him, his wife, and his child ((his oldest son was born whilst they lived here)). After we had Lunch, and we headed to the History Museum of Bern. That was creepy as HECK man. In the basement, they had all the original statues from the Bern Minster, and the lightning was quite minimal so as to avoid damaging the artefacts even more. Very very creepy. Like straight out of a weeping angels doctor who episode. As it was quite late in the day, we were the only people there too which made it more terrifying as it was SO quiet. Unfortunately the translation of the information from German-English wasn’t as good, so we got a basic description of what it was, however not much background information about it. Although, you may notice some of the statues do not have noses, and that in some cases the heads have been removed from their bodies - this was a deliberate desecration of these statues. Unfortunately there was no reason given as to why. Upstairs, there was a section on Bern up until present day. It was equally interesting. For example, Lenin himself lived in Bern whilst he was in exile. Also, the Bond Girl from Dr. No, Ursula Andress, was from Bern, as was the String Quartet from the movie “Titanic” ((you know, the ones who play as the ship is sinking...)). It also highlighted a lot of interesting facts about Switzerland’s neutrality during the war. As they were neutral, they traded equally ((or certainly were willing to trade equally)) to both “sides” of the war. During World War Two, this meant that they bought and sold a lot of stolen Jewish artefacts, particularly gold, which they then either melted down or sold for profit. Equally, it meant that they turned away a lot of refugees from invaded countries. It seems that whilst they did not want to take in refugees, particularly Jewish ones, so as not to appear to be taking sides, they were more than happy to take money and stolen goods. The main money making from the war did come from artefacts the Nazi’s stole as they surrounded Switzerland on all sides during the war, but they equally made money off of the artefacts stolen by the Allies too. Kind of grim when you see the truth, as Switzerland being neutral always seemed, certainly when I learned about the war waaaay back in school, that they had nothing to do with anyone on either side. But that’s not true at all. Quite interesting and harrowing at the same time, however I am appreciating (certainly central) Europe’s dedication to remembering and talking about the bad things they did in the past. They don’t glorify it, they retell it to make sure they remember what they did and to learn from it. There’s no point in only mentioning the good parts of history - how else are we to learn from our mistakes, and grow?

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Interrail Day 14

Two weeks already??? Oh Lordy! Today was a relaxed day, although we did have to get an early train from Florence ((where it was already 25 degrees at 9am!)). A quick change at Milan, which has a beautifully ornate station (picture 1), and then it was off to Switzerland! The scenery change from city to alpine was amazing, and it was absolutely beautiful. You get this tiny little bus-like train from Brig to Zermatt, and it has these massive, wide windows so that you can see the beautiful Matterhorn Valley on the way up the mountain. It was breathtaking, rounding the corner and being able to see for miles down this beautiful mountain range. Zermatt is 1km (1000m) above sea level, so the altitude is quite high! Zermatt itself is basically a stereotypical alpine chalet town times a million. There’s SO MANY hotels and chalets all over the place. Luckily, we’re in their off season so it’s not too busy ((not empty though!)). It was a little difficult to find our accommodation, as they seemed to be doing construction work on every street leading to it. But we managed! It was actually a relief to get off the train and it only (only!) be 16/17 degrees and raining. Hopefully it won’t rain too much tomorrow so we can go on a walk around! But now, sleep!

[ionasadventures]

Interrail Day 10

Today was a bit of an adventure! The place we are staying at has the option for you to rent some bikes for getting around the area, so we thought why not! and headed out towards the Almsee, a glacial lake at the foot of the Austrian Alps. It was a 3-4hour hike, but allegedly could still be cycled. Our hosts at the hostel gave us directions that were simple enough for us idiots to understand, and off we went! Grünau is a beautiful, quaint little village that looks absolutely sublime to stay in (it kinda reminded me of a smaller Falkland, but waaay warmer as it was about 28/29 degrees out!). There was a little Spar that was closed on a Sunday, and even took an hours break for lunch at midday. We cycled for aaaages. About 2 hours to get to the lake. My legs were absolutely killing me, but my bum was the worst. The seats were NOT comfortable, and I have a notoriously boney bum which did NOT help! But we did it! Despite the heat, and despite the effort and the fact I’ve not done physical exercise on this level in like ... an embarrassingly long time. The lake was beautiful. It was absolutely crystal clear, you could see the bottom and everything in it. It was PERFECT for swimming. So after being doused in suncream, I headed in. But of course this is a Glacial lake, meaning the water comes from the glacier. The frozen glacier. Yea the water was cold. It was like swimming in the sea at St. Andrews, in the North Sea. After a while I got used to it and swam around (my two travelling companions took a while longer to get in, eventually being persuaded by the fact that I was yelling at them calling them cowards). But we all went in! I’m not sure how long we were actually in the water, but after a while we came out and sat down in the sun to dry off. Which took aproximatley two minutes because of how warm it was. We headed back to where we had stored our bikes (a little restaurant on the other side of the lake) and decided that perhaps we would try and get the bus back, as all of us were super tired and aching. The bus pulled up, which looked promising - it even had an under carriage for luggage that could easily fit our bikes - but the driver said he wasn’t letting bikes on. Shite. So after he drove away, we filled up our water bottles (from the pristine alpine water - tastes amazing!) and began the hard cycle back. I was particularly dreading it because it had been difficult for me on the way there, and I thought it was all uphill on the way back. Turns out the opposite was true! It was mostly downhill! We arrived back in Grünau in about an hour! The hardest part however was Grünau to our accommodation, as there was a HEFTY hill to get up. My knees felt like they were going to fall out, and ye gads did my thighs ache. But mentally, I didn’t really mind because it was so breathtaking cycling past these amazing views?? It was incredible to look at, and I didn’t feel bad for taking a few rests as it was amazing to take in the views. We managed to get back and, coupled with the great news that my companions had achieved excellent results in their degree specifications, we decided to have our dinner then head to the little bar in the hostel. I greatly enjoyed not walking around, and it was a lovey little break. Our room has a balcony, so we sat out on it and chilled for a while in this idyllic surrounding, the early evening sun still absolutly scorching. We’ve a bit of a long journey tomorrow, and I’m a little sad to leave here, but nevertheless I’m looking forward to the next leg! This was a lovely, well needed “holiday from our holiday”, an escape from the city.

[ionasadventures]

Interrail Day 4

Ayyyyyeee Day 4 completed!! Today we bid Saluu to Belgium and crossed over to Germany! We had a reasonably early start as there was only one direct train (the rest involved 2-3 changes minimum or a hefty reservation fee yikes) but we were waved goodbye to by a cute (very well behaved) doggy!! We got off at Cologne initially, as the train would get us in to Frankfurt waaaay too early. Cologne is very interesting! Right out the central station you are greated with the MASSIVE Cologne Cathedral. It’s dedicated to St. Peter, And is the seat of their Archbishop. It’s also the second tallest cathedral spire in Europe, and boy is it tall! Allegedly, in its shrine to the three kings, the box at the altar contains their bones which was so cool to learn! Also during World War II, it was the only building in Cologne left standing, as the Bomber pilots would use it as a landmark to find the city. Further round the corner from the catheral is the Hohenzollern Bridge, which is covered in so many love locks that they have done permanent structural damage! I believe the council regularly removes them in order to preserve the bridge, as it is used still for the trains! Before you get to the bridge, there is this sorta brick circle path that leads past it. This is actually the roof of the Philgarmonic Opera House! It’s underground, and when a concert is in session (like it was today when we went) you cannot walk over it as they can hear your footsteps in the theatre beneath. It must have amazing accoustics though! After that, me and two other members of the Squad™️ went to the “Museum Ludwig”, which is an art gallery strangely enough (yes I did go willingly and yes I am just as shocked as you!). It was pretty standard, but there was some amazing original Picasso’s, Dali’s, and Warhol’s which is always cool to see! The toilet was... weird. Idk if it itself was meant to be a modern art feature, but if you look at the picture you’ll notice that the toilet roll is about 6ft off the ground, and about 4ft from the toilet itself. The rest of the squad went to sit in a German Beerhall, which looked really cool and traditional inside! I’m not a beer fan (((good choice coming to Belgium and Germany eh))) but it still had a nice environment. Then we got on the train to Frankfurt. Unfortunately, the directions we had to the hostel were for the wrong one initially (there are two hostles, both by the same company, in the city : one just by the train station and one over an hour away. Guess which one we got :) ) but we found the place and it’s really nice! It feels like a hotel more than a hostel. However I forgot that some places in Europe charge a city tax for tourism, so there was a brief moment of panic when we thought we hadn’t actually paid ANY of it but it’s all sorted. Our plan was to buy food in and cook it in the hostel, but we forgot it was Ascension Day. Germany is a very catholic country and as a result almost everywhere was closed. Eventually we found a Turkish restaurant and had what was essentially a German-Turkish hoagie. It was delishious. So far on this holiday I have walked so much my legs are aching and my back is so sore from carrying my bag so I am ALL SET for an early bed and to just chill. We’re going on a walking tour early tomorrow morning so hopefully my legs will have recovered by then! Also managed to find some BumBums which I am very pleased about!!!!

[ionasadventures]

LA Adventure- Day 2! (Part 2)

We got to briefly stop and see around a real live sound stage! We weren’t allowed to take any photos of the inside as the show was still filming (they’d stopped for lunch!) but it was so fascinating seeing how they make these 3 camera sitcoms. The set was made up for “Bob <3 Abishola” (spelt with a heart symbol I’m not just being lazy haha) which is a typical sitcom like Big Bang Theory or Young Sheldon or Friends. They’re called 3 camera sitcoms because typically they only use 3 camera angles! One on the character speaking, one on whomever they’re speaking to, and then one for the wide shots with everything in it. The sound stage is laid out in a grid fashion, with 4 sets on each side of a narrow passageway. This passageway is referred to as camera alley because this is where the cameras will be! As with before, the sets don’t have ceilings on them to allow for lighting and the cameras are in a fixed position so as to not see the lights. It takes about 5 days to film one episode, and the sets are left as they are throughout the whole filming season as most of that time is dedicated to set up! After this the tour of the backlot continued, we drove past a few more famous locations! They have a massive jungle area with real plants from the jungle (as the climate will allow for it!). This was ESPECIALLY of interest to me as this was the area where they filmed the iconic T-Rex chase scene from Jurassic Park!! Warner Bros. let’s other studios use their facilities too, which is why some of the locations seem above are used in things like Breaking Bad, Jurassic Park and Spider-Man. They also have a big pit which can be filled with water to create a lagoon, or with dirt to create a graveyard. Versatile! After the outside lots - which were MASSIVE - we navigated to a warehouse area of the tour which had costumes and props on display. It was very cool to see! Costumes from Interview with the Vampire, Batman, Crazy Rich Asians, Space Jam, and of course a whole host of DC superheroes. They even had some from Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon. The costumers were intricately made, the detail was outstanding! For example on Aquaman’s suit there’s tiny iridescent scales all over. The props were cool too as they were primarily the Batmobile and other Bat-items from across the Batman movies. They had this cool area from The Hobbit which showed how they did the forced perspective trickery to make the Hobbits look small and Gandalf look big! The studio tour really made a point to showcase every aspect of the filmmaking process, detailing how costumes and props and sets were made. The amount of afford put in to each and every part of filmmaking is insane, no wonder it takes so long to make because so much detail is included, things you may not even see or notice unless you’re looking really close! Sam Warner (one of the Warner Brothers) advocated for the use of Vitaphone, the process of using sound in cinema, and it was fascinating to see how they would make the sounds for shows. For example, in the Spider-Man kiss scene, to prevent the fake rainwater from going up Tobey McGuire’s nose, they used a combination of cotton wool and Vaseline to plug up his nose! However this meant that he couldn’t speak properly, so he re-recorded his lines using the sound system to make himself sound clearer over the rain. If you go back and watch the film, you’ll notice that Kirsten Dunst as Mary-Jane only lifts the mask up to below Spider-Man’s nose, to prevent the cameras from picking up on the cotton wool! They also had things such as wooden boards and fake shoes to amplify the sound of actors walking on set, as typically the sets would have plastic floors to prevent the actors’ footsteps from drowning out their lines. Thus by dubbing over the footsteps, the sound department can control how loud they are and change the volume depending on the scene. Such cool stuff!! From storyboards to green screens to motion capture to physical makeup, it was incredibly to see behind the scenes and had given me an even greater appreciation for all those involved!

[ionasadventures]

We managed to reset our sleeping scheduled to conquer the jet lag today so weren’t asleep for tooooo much of it! Didn’t wake up till midday though. We had planned for today to be a rest day anyway so didn’t really have much planned. Our hotel was within walking distance to the Warner Bros.‘ Studio Tour so we decided to check that out! After like…. 2 minutes outside my hair was completely dry from the shower I took. Safe to say it was HOT. About 30C which was interesting! Luckily most places in the US have AC so when we arrived at the studios the temperature was nice. There was a Starbucks there lmao and also a LOT of security. Like airport level security but I guess that’s for safety purposes as a lot of stuff is filmed here. Upon entry you’re guided to a introductory room explaining about the Warner Brothers themselves - Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack - who founded the studio in 1923. This means that this year (2023) is the 100th anniversary of the studio founding! They were the children of Polish-Jewish immigrants. After this information area you are ushered to a movie theatre-esq room which plays an introductory showcase of all the films made and some of the things you will see. Then you’re split into groups and taken on a shuttle ride. Our guide (Jenny I think?) was SO good, really kind and helpful and can constantly walk backwards without looking, like Mater in cars lmao which was a little uncanny but very impressive! She really knew her stuff and made sure to point out most of the things that locations were used for, not just the more popular shows. Which was good cause honestly the tour primarily was banking on Friends, Gilmore Girls, and The Big Bang Theory, none of which I’ve seen! However one thing I HAVE seen that was filmed almost ENTIRELY on this set is Pretty Little Liars. It’s an ….. interesting show? Shall we say? I wouldn’t say it’s terrible and I wouldn’t say it’s good. Like Glee. A LOT of the houses on the tour we saw were used in PLL and it was so cool to see them and recognise them! Fun fact - each of the houses have multiple façades, so they can act as the exterior of different places depending on which angle the camera is at! The interior is empty completely to allow for multiple uses, and there’s no ceiling on the inside! This is to allow the lighting, cameras, and AC to be moved and positioned to accommodate different things. We went into what was Emily’s house in PLL and everything looks so realistic, but is actually made with other materials to allow for complete remodelling if the shoot calls for it. Fun fact 2 - if any changes are made at ALL, at the end of filming the crew MUST return the set to what it originally looked like. So in PLL, Spencer’s barn is white and has fancier doors and foliage than the red barn originally has. The windows are also all made out of sugar glass so no one gets hurt when doing stunts. In an episode of PLL, a car gets driven into Emily’s living room - this was actually done here, on this set! The stunt driver drove a car straight through the walls and windows, and because of the material the house is made from, it could smash into it without posing much danger to the driver. It’s absolutely fascinating to see and hear how the behind the scenes work! I’ve tried to include in the pictures screenshots from the shows so you can see how they were used and how they were changed, but I took most from a moving golf shuttle (like a golf cart but longer and can fit 12 people) and i shake like there’s no tomorrow so they won’t be the clearest 😅 the sets were also used for films like Batman, Citizen Cane, and they were currently all set up to look like the streets of Texas for Young Sheldon, which was currently filming as we were driving around! Luckily all the film stages are soundproof to accommodate things like this.

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Los Angeles Adventure - Day 1

Off on another adventure ! Technically my third since I last updates this blog (sorry!) but I’m off to LA with my sibling to (amongst other things) go to the Five Nights at Freddy’s Blumhouse showcase at Universal Studios horror nights 😬 it was a looong day of travelling but honestly we were very lucky and it went very smoothly. I left Dundee at 08:00 UK time to fly first from Glasgow to Heathrow, then Heathrow to Los Angeles. Before security at Glasgow Airport there’s an IRN BRU shop and I had to restrain myself from buying EVERYTHING but I did get some socks lmao. Heathrow was busy and trying to find the underground station that takes you to the terminals was confusing (turns out the underground trains that go to London ALSO go to the terminals but the signage made it seem like they were separate. Same with the lifts to the lower levels but we figured it out eventually!). The Virgin Atlantic flight was incredibly comfortable! Not sponsored but there was a decent amount of feet space, there was regular snacks and meals and drinks offered, plus inflight TVs and the cabin temperature was very well regulated. I was worried about being cold on the flight cause Dundee/Glasgow was about 8C and LA was 26C so I didn’t reeeeallly want to cart about jumpers. Plus the flight staff were so lovely. The flight was nearly 11 hours and unfortunately I struggle to sleep on flights but there was plenty of entertainment so it was gucci. Hopped off the plane at LAX WITHOUT a dream in our cardigans because even at 20:00 LA time (which is approx. 04:00 UK time) nighttime it was 20C still. The traffic outside was INSANE like I’m SO glad we opted to use the bus to the designated outside taxi point because honestly it was SO busy. Couldn’t imagine trying to drive and there was just layers upon layers of roads spanning across 14 lanes and up over each other! Madness! Got to the hotel, we’re staying in the Burbank area and are literally 5 minutes from the Warner Brothers Studios. Earlier in the week (Monday so literally two days before lmao) our original hotel cancelled so this one was a LOT more expensive but it’s in an ideal location so at least there’s that. We were exhausted when we arrived so essentially collapsed into bed! Was super lucky that there was no travel issues (and that we missed both the storm in the uk and the earthquake in California oops)

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American Adventure- Day 3

Today was spent just cutting about campus and chilling in this heat! Went on a squad trip to Costco to pick up bulk groceries (like water - tap water here is SHITE tastes disgusting and is technically “drinkable” but honestly it’s nasty 0/10 do not recommend) and then headed back to the halls to just chill. I sat outside and played minecraft in the sun and saw some neat bugs! A teeny tiny little red one which looks like a spider but is actually a mite of some kind, and some other …. Thing?? Idk seemed ok but didn’t want to think about it too much seeing as there’s a whole host of venomous bugs here 🙃 in addition to the Goose Squadron™️ there are deers just cutting about on campus! One of my flatmates with a MUCH better camera than mine took that amazing picture of one of the deer outside the classrooms when we walked around a bit, they’re so tame and so chill they just do their own thing without bothering too much about people. They’re still wary like they won’t let you get too close before running away but if you’re a safe distance away they don’t mind. Also they scream. Really loudly. At night whilst running across campus. Which is great for sleeping (terrifying). Plus the train at the station across the road honks it’s horn about every hour till like 4am but it’s all stuff that I’ll adjust to! Monday tomorrow but there’s no classes cause it’s Memorial Day weekend so there’s that at least.