Berlin Bitte!

February 5th - We decided not to sleep in the airport this time... instead I was up until 10:30 packing and woke up at 1:15 am to finish packing and get to the bus stop by 2:15 am. Unfortunately the bus stop was not where we thought it was and just barely made it onto the bus that we thought was the correct one. Wrong direction. Woops! We had to hail a cab to take us to the airport bus stop. Security was extra intense. They took all of my clothes out of my bag and swabbed the lining. I swear I'm not a terrorist! As soon as we arrived in Berlin we went on a walking tour of all the main sights. We hit up Brandenburger Tor, the Reichstag, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berliner Dom, the Holocaust Memorial, etc. It has been such a harsh winter in Germany that the government hasn't been able to salt all of the roads... and the snow and ice made my socks wet. It is horribly uncomfortable to have wet socks in below-freezing weather for 4 hours. We went to dinner at a place called the Tiergarten Quelle, which served traditional German food. I had a schnitzel with Lemke original beer - SO delicious! For dessert we split a kaiserschmarren - kind of like a drier bread pudding with cherries and whipped cream. We sat at a community table with 3 other locals. We just sat around talking for several hours... like everyone else in the restaurant. It was cool feeling submerged in the culture.

The Holocaust Memorial
The Berliner Dom
Kaiserschmarren

February 6th - We took the train to Oranienburg, the location of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. After a 20 minute walk from the station, the same walk that prisoners took through town during WWII, we arrived at the camp. We saw the Commandant's House, 2 of the remaining Small Camp (Jewish Camp) barracks [they were partially rebuilt due to arson in the early 1990s after the visit of the Israeli Prime Minister], the Gestapo prison, the prisoner's kitchen, guard towers, an execution trench, Station Z (named Zed because it is the last place a prisoner would go before dying), and the pathology room (where autopsies and experiments were done)... among other buildings. It was really astounding. Standing in front of the main roll call area gave you the ability to scan most of the camp. It is overwhelming to picture the condition of the camp back during the Holocaust. I could've spent several more hours at the camp, but we were forced to leave because it closes early during the winter. That night we went to a restaurant called the Altberliner Wirtshaus. This time I ordered knuckled pork, which is a favorite German dish. It sounds kind of gross, but it was actually pretty good (despite being a little dry). We had Bitburger beer as well. I've decided that I should be very grateful for not growing up in Germany... I would be so overweight with all of the starchy carbs, meat, beer, and pastries. It was fabulous for the weekend though! After dinner we met up with a German friend that was a foreign exchange student at my high school. We went to this wine bar called Winerie, where you pay 1 euro for as much wine as you want. We couldn't really stay though because it was so crowded and there was no where to sit. When we were walking around we ran into a group of girls at a bachelorette party. The rules of their night was that the bride had to do whatever her friends to her to do. Part of their game was to ask every guy if she could cut the tags of their shirts. The boys complied. I think it is really fun and interesting to interact with locals. Later we went out to a club called Berghain Panorama Club, which is inside an abandoned warehouse. We waited outside in the coldest weather I've been in since I arrived in Europe for about an hour. We kept seeing people getting rejected in front of us, but because we had put in the effort to get there and wait in line we wanted to try to get in anyway. There were several people in front of us that had been talking in English the entire time. When we got near the front I heard one of the girls say "We should probably start talking in German now." Of course, they were let in. The bouncer waved us forward and starting talking in German... obviously we did not understand. When he realized we could not communicate with him he said "We don't want it here." Ouch... our first experience with people disliking us simply because we are American. We were pretty bummed after waiting in the cold, but realized we still had more fun stuff to do in Berlin so we picked up our heads and headed back to our hostel, the Meininger Hotel (which was really nice by the way!)

Prisoner's Gate at Sachsenhausen
my German friend Kobi and I in front of Alex

February 7th - This morning we headed to the Topography of Terror - an outdoor exhibition on events relating to Hitler, the GDR, WWII, and the Berlin Wall. Hundreds of photographs and explanations provided a lot of insight to the history of the area we were in. We went to the Ritter Sport Chocolate store after - where we got to choose things to put in our own chocolate! One of mine had strawberry bits, orange bits, and yogurt crisps and the other had peppermint crisps. It was a lot of fun watching them mix it up, refrigerate it, then break it out of the molding and wrap it. The end products are delicious (I'm trying to savor them. I'm so proud, I'm less than half way done on each of them!) Ritter Sport also served drinks... we got hot chocolate with our choice of chocolate pieces melted into them. I chose praline... which was more than satisfactory :) For dinner we went to a famous curry stand (kind of like the Pink's of Berlin!) called Curry 36. I got the currywurst with fries (and ketchup, not mayo... gross!). Alas, our trip had come to an end. We got on the S Bahn (German public transportation is pretty confusing by the way) and made our way back to Schonefeld Airport.

Brandenburger Tor
Berlin Wall
Ritter Sport store
Curry 36

A little countryside, a little more city...

January 27th - Our Wednesday trip was to Westminster Abbey. Despite not being that religious, I absolutely love seeing grand old cathedrals. This one was no different. At the time it was built, 1066, the architecture and design was simply incredible. I can understand how individuals became fearful of church... their buildings are still incredible today and I'm sure it would've been mind-blowing at the time is was created. I mentioned in a previous post that our tour guide Angie is an architect who works on conservation of historical buildings. She is an expert on the Saxon era and last year did research on what is decidedly the oldest door in Britain... which is a big wooden door that is on the side of one of the cloisters at Westminster Abbey. She took us behind the ropes and explained how some of the marks occurred. For example, she found remnants of animal skin and paint and figured out that the door was once covered in animal skin for warmth and painted with a red and gold pattern for decoration. They also found slashings on the door from when the Puritans tried to destroy it. Through new technology they were able to find the specific area the tree was from and that it had been used at the monastery that was torn down before the Abbey was built. They are still trying to figure out what was so special about the specific door that made them save it. Angie's theory is that it may have been the door that shut off the holiest part of the monastery... so it would have been thought to possess some holy power. It's all pretty amazing. After our tour I went to ULU (student union for University of London) with 2 other girls and took a live model art class. They both have some experience drawing, so I was the only first time. It was interesting to say the least. I really enjoyed going though and the teacher was very helpful at setting me in the right direction. The 3 of us were in the only Americans so it was also good to get some exposure to British people outside of restaurants and tours, etc. We had a conversation with some girls about American TV shows (which are played all the time here). It was funny because they didn't really like shows that portray city or rural life (like Gossip Girl or Glee) but were enamored by shows that portrayed the beach or Hollywood (like The OC and 90210). I don't think they realize those shows just glamorize the southern California lifestyle.

inside a cloister at Westminster Abbey

January 28th - I went back to Borough Market briefly in the afternoon. It is definitely much better on Fridays and Saturdays... only half the stalls were there. On the edge of the market we stopped at a fruit juice stand ran by an Irishman named Dermot. He told us all kinds of stories of traveling on the California coast and walking into a Southern Carolina home because he admired the architecture. He made it a point that he was not British, he was Irish. He was the sweetest man. I'll definitely have to stop by next time I head to Borough Market.

January 29th - Our first excursion to Bath and Stonehenge! We took a coach (charter bus) out to Stonehenge. It wasn't too overwhelming. I mean... it was cool, don't get me wrong, but it was not the most amazing thing I've seen so far. However, I thought Bath was extraordinary. The structures have been added to so people can tour the Roman baths easily... but the ruins themselves are still amazing. There are still people doing excavations as you walk through the site. The springs are still running through the ancient plumbing and the baths are still hot with bubbles coming to the surface. We sat by the main bathing pool for a little while. It was so peaceful. I tried imagining it back in the Roman times... huge arcs stretched across the pool. Parts of the sacrificial altar and temple steps are still intact. The town that was developed by John Wood... he pictured a town where all of the buildings, doors, and windows resembled each other. The result is more than picturesque. As you may have noticed, I was enamored!

Annie, me, Kristy, Michelle, and Victoria @ Stonehenge

standing above the Roman bath with The Abbey (of Bath) behind me
the main Roman bath
in the middle of one of John Wood's circle of townhouses

January 30th - Our program gave us tickets for the Fulham v. Aston Villa football match! We were originally going to root for Fulham (they were the home team) but ended up talking to the guys next to us who were huge Villa fans (we were in the neutral section). We decided to go with Villa... the fans were more spirited (despite having fewer people as the away team) and the match resulted in a Villa victory of 2-nil! On the tube ride home we were in a car with a bunch of Villa fans. They spent the ENTIRE ride back singing different cheers for their team. It was quite entertaining!

me and Michelle