About time I saw Berlin...

After 6+ years of German, it was about time I saw Berlin...

This trip was alot more educational then others, because for once we really wanted to learn all we possibly could about the history of this city. We had a lot of background knowledge to begin with, but the roots of lots of our studies trace back to Berlin, so it was really nice to have everything come together before our lives. I do have so much to say about everything we saw, but unless you are into Germany history it would probably bore you if I went into depth. Plus, I am way behind writing this so I don't really have time to go into depth even if I wanted to! :)

Friday, October 21st: First stop besides our hostel and the best Currywurst stand in town, was Berlins biggest attraction (and 2nd most popular in Germany), the Brandenburg Gate. It was so cool to see this in person after seeing so much video footage as well as pictures from this monument before and after World War 2. It has been through so much history and it was just so amazing to stand in front of it.

Next stop, the Reichstag! It is equivalent to our captial buliding today and where all of the German government decisions are made. This buliding is relatively new and refurnished, but it still holds quite a large amount of history. 

We also walked along where the Berlin Wall divided East and West Germany. It was a weird feeling to be able to easily walk across where the wall stood. Only a couple of decades ago that wall seperated family and friends and led to the death of many.

Next stop, the Berlin Dom! We weren't able to go inside, but the outside of this buliding was just beautiful! You will see a better picture of it at night a little later on in the posts.

Unlike some of our other trips where it has been the whole gang, only Becca, Anne Marie and Matt were interested in seeing Berlin with me. We joined up with 3 other guys in our program, Louis (from NCC), Ben and John. The mix up was actually GREAT! We got to know the other guys better, and have a break from the constant cattiness that can sometimes accure when we have all the girls and Frat Matt together. It was also really nice that Becca and Anne Marie were the two from our group that were with me. They are from the Midwest as well and we just get along so easily because we are just much more laid back then some of our other friends.

Next stop was the Jewish memorial, the DDR museum and Dunkin Donuts. They don't have ice here in Germany (like nothing is ever cold) and all fall long we were graving iced coffee. We found a DD in Berlin and jumped at the opprounity, even if it was like 40 degrees outside it was still worth it.

After exploring the city on our own, the group of 7 of us headed to the "Tiergarden Quelle" for dinner. It was a little hole in the wall place on the other end of town, but Louis showed us it because he had been there before with our Professor from NCC. It was AMAZING! We had Kasespätzle (cheese spätzle) with bacon and tomatos. So good, yet soooo filling. We also got to try some green Berliner Kindl beer which is special to the area. Also, real good!

Saturday, Oct 22nd: The group decided to split up and explore the city on our own. Us girls REALLY wanted to take a Third Reich tour through the city and learn more about its history, while the boys decided they wanted to explore on their own. Louis knows the city so he showed them around and they ended up having a "Mans Day" filled with sampling beer and eating sausage!

We started out by seeing Checkpoint Charlie. This well known attraction is really just smack dab in the middle of a very busy street. It was weird to think business could never function the way it does now, only a few years ago.

After checking out the gift shops, which were super weird filled with all sorts of American souveniors, we headed off to KaDeWe, aka the largest dept. store in ALL of Europe. Again, we found a TON of American foods and goods. We were kinda in heaven. After that we decided to meet up with our tour. We had the best tour guide named Barry! He was from Ireland and was SO knowledgable about everything. We went all over town and saw everything and anything that had to do with the Third Reich. Super interesting and again weird that we were walking through a place with such a dark past.

That night we had some baller Chicken Döners (like Gyros, but Turkish) and hit the town...twice. Anne Marie and I decided that before we went out, it was important to get a work out in. After all, it is Berlin and the festival of lights were taking place downtown so we really wanted to see it all. Oh, not to mention...there is a famous German movie called Run Lola Run where the main character runs Berlin and with our movie theme...we had to do it. We set out and foot and ran all over downtown Berlin. All the monuments and bulidings had light displays and shows and it was beautiful to see. It was also just nice to shake out and get a good run in. We then decided to mix our work out up a bit. So...we started planking.

The picture on right is the Berliner Dom at night. Gorgeous!

We then proceeded to head out to the Diskos. Quite a good night if I do say so myself :)

Sunday, October 23rd: After sleeping in we decided to get the first real breakfast we had in months so we checked out of our hostel and headed into town. We found a decent place and all ordered what we thought were big breakfasts. Pshhhh. 10 Euro for 2 pieces of toast, a scoop of eggs and 2 pieces of bacon. So disappointing. Good, but not enough food. We also got ripped off when we ordered juice. All freshly squeezed juices were 3 Euro. They had like every flavor so I went for pineapple strawberry banana. We thought it was a great deal because that was the same price as normal oj. NOPE! Huge rip off. Regular orange or apple juice are an actual cup....my juice was a shot. Literally in the size of a shot glass. We were not quite pleased when we left the restaurant, but we didn't have time to get more food because we were off to meet the group at the Berlin Wall Memorial.


The memorial was definitely worth seeing. A part of the wall is still remaining and you can see just how elaborate the security was. It was very weird. That day we also checked out the Ghost Stations, and the Typography of Terror Museum.

Berlin was an awesome trip and I think number 2 on my list over all. We learned so much and just had such a good time. It was alot less dramatic then our other trips. There is so much to do and see! I will definitely be back to Berlin :)

Switzerland for lunch? Why not?

Switzerland has always been on my travel to do list and with our German Rail Passes we can get into Basil Switzerland for free. Naturally, we had to take up the opprounity; however, we only had a few days left in the month to do so. Basil is just under 3 hours from Heidelberg with the ICE train, so we knew we could use our final pass and make the trip in a day. Matt, Lauren and I had to be back for class at 5 so we decided why not just hit up Switzerland for lunch? Gotta love the life of a study abroad student!

Wonderful idea...however, we never got lunch.

Thursday October, 20th: We arrived in Switzerland around ten and went off to explore town. Basil is a really cute little city, but there was not a whole lot to see. Fall was in full force so we got to see all the beautiful trees, but aside from that and a few churches, we were ready for lunch pretty quick. Sadly, we didn't put much research in Basil and didn't even think about currency. Should have figured Switzerland would be different and not apart of the European Union, but no...we didn't. Swiss Franks is the only currency accepted so instead of enjoying a nice meal, we walked around the city starving for a few hours. We were not about to lose money just to exchange a few Euros for Franks...it was not worth it.

After a few hours, we decided just to head home. Although the country was beautiful and we had a fun little day trip, I really would not recommend Basil to other travelers unless you have alot of time. I wish I could have seen Zurich, but we couldn't use our pass to get that far.

Overall, a wonderful way to spend a Thursday.

Passport to Paris and Versailles

If you haven´t figured it out already...yes, several of my blog titles and Facebook albums are named after Mary Kate and Ashley movies. They were our inspiration growing up that we could travel the world, so now that we are actually fulfilling our dreams it was only right to give them credit. Not to mention, we got pumped up for all of our trips by watching their movies. Super cool, I know! :)

Our weekend get away started late Friday night. We were supposed to catch our overnight bus in Mannheim (the next city over) at around 11pm. We waited for 45 minutes and still no bus, or anyone to ask if the bus was still coming or why there was a delay. Typical Germany...

Finally, after an hour our bus arrived! Yes, we were taking an overnight bus again. Two actually! One to Paris and one back because we wanted to save money, even if it meant no sleeping for the next few days. Thankfully, unlike the first bus ride...I knocked out right away. It was wonderful. I woke up once when we stopped for a bathroom break and that was it. The others in my group were not as lucky, so by the time we got to Paris at 6am, they were kinda grumpy. We were supposed to arrive at 7, and we assumed we would be late...but shockingly we were an hour early. We were so confused, but happy that we got an extra hour in the city.

October 15th: Our first impressions of Paris were not great. The train station smelled horribly and for the first time, we actually had to deal with the language barrier. In Germany, everyone knows English, and we know German so we don't normally have too many issues. In France, that is not the case. Most Parisains don't know English (or at least acted like it...stereotypical, but true). We tried using German, but that was even less helpful. After about an hour of trying to figure out how to get to our hostel, we just picked a train and went. We are def spoiled with the German transportation system and the Tube in England, because Paris was not nearly as clean, or "pünktlich" (on time) as we are used to. When we made it to our stop it was still dark out and not a sign anywhere to lead us in the right direction. After a little wandering, we stumbled upon the beauty of a hostel we booked, "The 3 Ducks". You all will read more about our hostel experience later, but all I can say for now was that we were not impressed. We dropped our stuff out and headed out looking for some food. It was now around 7:30, yet it was still dark and nothing was open. No little cafes, no grocery stores..nothing! We wandered around until we found the one place we knew would be open...McDonalds. Yes, we did it...yes, we were ashamed....yes, we looked like Americans, but we were starving! It ended up being probably the best Egg Mcmuffin I have ever had honestly. The Paris McDonalds was impressive.

We headed back to the hostel, cleaned up a bit and were off to the Louvre. One great thing about Paris is that they really value their students. All students studying in the EU got in fo freee :) Yes, saved 10 Euro. The Louvre was beautiful. So much history, it is kinda overwhelming. We wandered and admired the art, specifically the Mona Lisa for around 2 hours and then were off to Notre Dame. By the way, the Mona Lisa is tiny! Compared to all the art in the Louvre she really doesn't stand out. She is gorgerous in all, but I found quite a few other paintings and sculptures that I admired more than her...

 

We then wandered along the Seine River and stopped along one of the many bridges. I have no clue what the name of this bridge is...I simply refer to it as the Love Bridge, but it was the bridge with the most "Locks of Love". Gosh, I was fascinated by the locks. So many. Each with their own story, their own history. I really think this was my favorite part of the city. This bridge alone is where you can just feel all the romance in Paireee. Gorgerous! For those of you who don't know the story of the locks, it goes something like this. After a wedding, the bride and groom stand on opposite sides of the bridge, walk toward the middle, lock their lock on the bridge and throw the key over the edge to symbolize a never ending love. They are not meant for just couples, although alot of dumb tourists tend to believe that and lock their locks to the bridge anyway. Regardless if all of the locks are "authentic" they are something to see. I love a good artsy photo and this was just the prime location.

Next Notre Dame! So beautiful! The architecture outside is just unbelievable, and the inside just has such like a mysterious side....we couldn't help think of Quasimodo! Def was the best church we have seen thus far! A must see in Paris!

Next stop, Arc de Triomphe! Again...totally felt like I was in Passport to Paris. All that was missing was the cute boys in the mopeds! Such a beautiful part of the city. It was packed with tourists, but still so pretty to walk down and soak in the culture.

After a full day of exploring the city we headed back to the hostel to change for our romantic night ahead. We planned to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower and then enjoy a nice dinner downtown, but due to the line for the Eiffel Tower, we never made it to dinner. Fine by us! We spent the evening above the city of Paris!

I have to admit, I was freaked out! I am not normally scared of heights, but I have never been so high and out in the open. It is not like the Sears Tower where you stand within the glass windows, rather you are out with Mother Nature and the elements. This particular night was very windy and I was def not excited about that. Thankfully, my fears were quickly subdued as soon as we made it to the top! It was just so beautiful and so romantic. Shucks...

The only down point to the evening besides my slight fear and the cold, were my bunions. Yep, as always causing a problem. They slowed me down tremendously over the first part of our journey, but after standing in my heels for hours in the cold...they made it known that they were unhappy. Instead of heading out for dinner, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed home. Not only were my feet not up for the journey, but surprisingly Paris really does not have a great night life past around 11pm when we got down from the Tower. Public transportation doesn't run past midnight, so we decided to take it easy and just enjoy a glass of wine back at the hostel.

Sunday, October 16th : Off to Versailles. Totally worth the 45 minute trip outside the city. The castle by far wins the "Best Interior" category of the trip. There is no toping the Hall of Mirrors (pictured below) and the King and Queens bed chambers. They are covered from floor to ceiling in gold and it really is a spectacular site.

It was great to walk through this hall and close your eyes for a few minutes and picture yourself standing there a few hundred years ago. The King and Queen held masquerade balls there and it felt like you were really in a fairytale. Such a cool atmosphere. It really didn't help with our already overwhelming Princess Problems we have developed on this trip though. How are we supposed to go back to real life?

After a few hours touring the castle (not the Gardens, they were not nearly all they were cracked up to be. Germany truly kicks ass in the garden department) we headed back into the city for some food. I enjoyed a nutella and banana crepe (the best by far) while relaxing in the middle of the city. This was my point to take it all in and really appreciate where I was. We always try to take on hour or so out of our traveling just to sit and enjoy everything around us. With our hectic schedules, we don't always take the time to appreciate the culture we are in; however, in Paris..it was a must. Not to mention it was a beautiful day. One of my favorite parts of the trip was right here. Everything kinda came together for me that this point.

Our last stop before dinner was the Catacombs. And god, was it cool. So creepy, but so cool. The Parisian Catacombs are one of the less talked about attraction in the city, but definitely one of the coolest. During the plague, when thousands lost their lives, the city ran out of places to place the bodies. This huge underground tunnel was bulit and in it, millions of bones were stored. It was so CREEPY, but if you know me at all..you know this was right up my alley. It had a spooky, creepy, haunted feeling to it..so naturally, I loved it. I have to admit though, I would never go down there alone. NO WAY!

The last stop on our tour of Paris was a cute and affordable romantic dinner on the river. Well, I mean...technically it was a street over from the river...student budget afterall, but it is well known in town for great food and an awesome environment. We got a three course meal and wine for only 11 Euros. Really not bad, and just what we needed to wrap up our weekend getaway in Paris.

Overall, I have to say Paris has been my favorite city thus far. It really does just have its own feel, that we have not experienced anywhere else. It is so romantic and I would love to come back with my husband sometime and get to experience it all again. Great weekend, even with our horrid overnight bus home. Can't wait to get back! :)