the end of Berlin and Amsterdam

My time in Berlin has come to an end. I can’t believe how quickly the past 4 months have gone by. Its true what they say, time flies when your having fun and I really did have the time of my life. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience and I have no one more important to thank for this experience but my parents. I am entirely grateful that they didn’t stand in my way when I told them I wanted to study abroad. I made some amazing friends that just helped make my abroad experience that much better. Now after 4 amazing months I leave my home in Germany and embark on even more adventures with some friends and family. Next stop on my European adventure is Amsterdam then I’ll be going to Vienna, Zürich, and lastly I fly home to LA from Paris on December 28^th. These next few blog posts are actually being written while either sitting on the train from one country to the next or during some downtime.

Side note: traveling through the German countryside is absolutely beautiful. I feel like I’m in Narnia, everything is completely white with really cute country-style homes. Oh so very cute. Okay, now back to me, just kidding, but not really since that’s kind of what this blog is about…

Amsterdam was amazing, but getting there was another story. We started our trip at 7:31 in the morning where we left Berlin and went along our merry way to Amsterdam. Since Europe can’t function when its cold, rainy, or snowy our train broke down right before the stop we were supposed to get off at. From there we had to find our own way to the Amsterdam Central Station which ended up consisting of us running back and forth for 4 hours from one platform to the next missing all the trains. Finally, after literally sprinting to the front of like the 8^th train we attempted to catch, we finally got on after we sprinted with all of our bags. Since everyone else was in the same boat the train was ridiculously and I mean ridiculously crowded. I was folded in the most awkward position clutching my luggage for well over an hour. I can now honestly admit that in drastic times I can morph into a human pretzel. Since the trains weren’t running correctly there was a long back-up to get to the final platform, which consisted of us waiting in a crowded train stopped in the middle as we waited for our turn to get to the platform. Once we finally got to the platform it was pretty much smooth sailing from there on, I mean it is Amsterdam after all. In Amsterdam we took a city tour on a boat where we could hop on and hop off wherever we wanted. We saw the Anne Frank house, the house (more like factory) where Anne Frank and her family were hiding before some idiot ratted them out causing them to get captured and sent to Auschwitz where they later died a month before the liberation. Such a sad story. We also went to the Van Gogh Museum, the Heineken Factory (so much fun), the Ice Bar, walked through a few Christmas markets and along the cannels. Amsterdam was such a beautiful city; it definitely bypassed everyone’s expectations. We all want to go back. 

Here are some pictures of Amsterdam and Vienna:

Amsterdam

Amsterdam's canals

the perfect shoes

Vienna City Hall

Schloss Schönbrunn (Palace)

BelgiYUM!

Ahhh I’m behind on my posts! Sorry! Okay…what to fill you guys on? Hmm…

Well a couple of weeks ago I went to Belgium, which was awesome mostly because, lets face it, it’s the chocolate capital of the world. YUM! Oh and it was gorgeous! We stayed in Brussels but took a day trip to Bruges and Ghent. So ridiculously pretty masked with a nice overtone of FREEZING. In Brussels, we pretty much walked around the entire city and went anywhere that sounded interesting, aka we pretty much walked into every chocolate shop there was in Brussels. We accidentally ran into a Christmas market in a random plaza where we ate yummy food. Side note: European Christmas markets are amazing. They keep the Christmas spirit running at full force.

what else? CHOCOLATE

 After we ate some amazingness we went to a bar called the Delirium Pub. This bar is known for its beer. It has had thousands of beer on tap so obviously we had to try them all, just kidding we only sampled a few and they were all so good. Oh another side not: I have officially become a Beer Connoisseur…just kidding, but I feel like I should be.

A Christmas Market in Brussels

 We also took a day trip to Bruges and Ghent where we had a tour of both cities, both very cute and a lot smaller than Brussels. In Bruges our tour was a boat tour. The city is really small so it was easy to see everything via boat. Half way through the tour I lost feeling in my entire body cause it was so cold. But that was okay cause then we went into a chocolate shop where we drank amazing hot chocolate! In Ghent we were left to venture on our own, so what do we do? Oh ya, we went to the best waffle restaurant in Ghent where we ate the delicious Belgium waffles.

WAFFLES!!

 When we headed back to Brussels we hit up some souvenir shops and the next day was our last day so we hit up the European Union headquarters. Brussels is where the EU headquarters are so we walked around and saw the European Commission, European Council, European Parliament, etc. I thought that was really cool because all semester here in Berlin we constantly talked about the EU and what they do, so to actually see where all the EU politics occur was really cool.

European Commission

European Parliament

Under the Moroccan Sun (plus Italy and Spain)

I realize this post is overdue but in my defense I’ve worked hard to master the skill of laziness and therefore had a personal responsibility to maintain that image. Mom, I’m kidding, well sort of.  

As most all of you know I spent 10 days traveling to Milan, Morocco, Girona, and Barcelona. It was an amazing trip with many interesting adventures!

So to begin this, lets face it, crazy long post I’ll begin with Milan.

Right after my last midterm I got back to my apartment and packed like a madwomen and headed to the airport. We only had 1 full day in Milan so we spent the whole day walking throughout the city. The best part of my day was climbing to the top of the Piazza del Duomo. From there we had a great view of Milan. It was cool because we were really tired when we got up there so we just casually took a nap on roof of this huge church. Besides that Milan is an expensive and pretentious city that dresses pretty tacky, sorry but the truth had to be said.

the Duomo

After Milan and one really early flight later we got into Fes, Morocco. Fes is divided into the more modern city and the Medina. The medina is the area where cars are not allowed to drive through simply because they don’t fit. It’s a bunch of narrow streets were Moroccans sell things. You really get a grasp of their culture walking down these streets as you constantly have to move out of the way for donkeys. It was really cool minus the fact that we accidentally witnessed a live chicken get its head chopped off and a cow getting skinned. Those images will forever comfort me in my dreams. In Fes we walked around and ate great food. We even went out of the city for a bit to a smaller village called Bhalil where I almost got pick-pocketed by a little boy, but thanks to me being me he failed and I let him know it by giving him a dirty “I dare you to do it again” look. Little punks. Back in Fes we met up with a couchsurfer who talked to us about Morocco and the Moroccan culture. He also invited us to his apartment where he cooked us really good food.

view from our first lunch

where we ate our first lunch in Fes

Bhalil

This is a theater in Fes that is no longer in use. My friend and I walked in and the security guy was nice enough to give us a backstage tour of the theater even though it was restricted access. Our private tour was cut short when he had to leave to go pray.

sitting by the water in Casablanca

After Fes we took the train over to Casablanca. In Casablanca we saw the huge mosque that’s really famous there. It was gorgeous and right alongside the water, which made it that much cooler. Since Casablanca is Morocco’s largest port we saw a lot of sailors. In Casablanca we treated ourselves to dinner in the nicest restaurant in the city. We only had a day in Casablanca, which was more than enough since the Mosque and beach are really the only things to see there.

 Marrakesh

 

Marrakesh at night

After Casablanca we headed over to Marrakesh. Marrakesh is by far the most touristy city we went to. There were vendors everywhere practically throwing themselves at all the tourists trying to sell anything and everything. Sadly we didn’t have enough time to leave Marrakesh and go into the Sahara to ride camels so we made due with drinking tons of mint tea and eating and walking around.

view from lunch

Mosque in Marrakesh

Even though it seems as though we didn’t do much in Morocco it was overall quite the adventure. Its hard to write about just because it was more of a cultural learning experience where we ended up learning a lot by just being in Morocco and interacting with locals. Now I can officially say I have stepped foot on the African continent, peed in a whole in the ground, ate great food, and drank yummy mint tea.

Oh I almost forgot the best part, we had to take an overnight train from Marrakesh back to Fes to catch our flight and since the train got in at 2am and our flight was at 12pm no one wanted to spend any more money to pay for a hostel so we decided to become homeless and sleep in the train station. As we settled in our spots on the cold floor we got the nod of approval by a group of homeless ladies. I guess we mastered the skill of homelessness, well at least we thought we did until we got kicked out of the train station by security. So then we went to the airport and became homeless there until our flight. That was definitely an experience.

After Morocco we went to Girona, Spain. Girona’s a cute little city located a little over an hour outside of Barcelona. The city isn’t overrun by tourists so its actually one of those Spanish cities that shuts down in the middle of the day for their siestas. This made trying to eat lunch hard. In Girona we walked up to this old medieval churchy thing then up a hill where we had a great view of the city from the top. My favorite part of Girona (minus the amazing pastries and yummy sangria) was the medieval wall that ran throughout the entire city. It was really cool cause we walked along the wall and had a great view, it was like a miniature Great Wall of China. I like to call it the Not So Great Wall of Girona. 

The view of Girona from the wall.

Me sitting at the top of the hill :)

Girona

From Girona we headed over to Barcelona. This was my second time in Barcelona so it was cool seeing things that I’ve already seen three years ago plus some new stuff. We went to Gaudi’s Park, which was like being in a spanish disneyland, we also saw Sagrada Familia (a church that is still being constructed after being in the works for like ever). We went to Dali’s museum, walked on Las Ramblas, drank sangria, then strolled along the port. We even went to the Magic Fountain, which is supposed to have an amazing water/light show but of course it broke right before we got there.

Gaudi's Park

so pretty!

This was a quick recap of my 10 days in 7 cities, 3 countries, on 2 continents all in 1 trip!

Polished is NOT derived from the word Polish

Where to begin…hmm…this past weekend was insane in the membrane so I’ll just start from the beginning, bear with me…or just skip down to the juicy stuff. But since I’m writing this as I go I don’t actually know if there is any juicy stuff so stop being lazy and just read about my life, I mean you’re already here looking at it plus I’ve been told my life is kind of interesting….or just awkward, take your pick.

Friday~

We started the day with a tour of the Bundeskanzleramt, aka the Chancellor’s office. A tour of the German Chancellor’s office here is kind of equivalent of a tour of the White House back in the US so it was pretty cool to get to see it from the inside even though we had to be followed by 2 security officers to make sure none of us tried to, I don’t know, steal a microphone or chair or something bland. After the tour a couple of friends and I got to go to the U.S Embassy to interview my friends dad for a school project. Not going to lie but I felt pretty cool walking in since no one’s allowed in unless accompanied by an Embassy worker.  Awesomeness.

the Bundeskanzleramt

that window at the top is the Chancellor's office

right outside the US Embassy (you're normally not allowed this close to it)

 After making my friends dad 30 min late to his meeting with the Ambassador (oops!) I went home and had a little over an hour to clean up the pigpen I call my apartment and head on over to the train station so I could be on my merry way to Poland.

Little did I know the next 45ish hours of my life would be a whirlwind. So our (my friend Libby and I) commute to Krakow, Poland included 4 trains (yes 4). Once we got on our second train we noticed we were actually in Poland and then really quickly realized we don’t understand ANY Polish nor do we have any Polish currency with us... Not to mention Polish trains don’t announce what stop they’re approaching nor do the train stations have names so you’re pretty much stuck hoping you get off at the right stop because if you miss your stop or connection your pretty much screwed cause the train stations are in the middle of nowhere.

Then I believe it was train #4 of the night when we realized how sketchy Poland can be. It all started when we got on the train and tried to find open seats so we could actually sleep. While walking up and down the train we were being followed by some sketchy man who kept offering us his apartment to live in. Apparently in Poland “no thank you” gets translated into “yes please creeper, keep following us with your daughter”. What a sketchball. 

Saturday~

We finally got into Krakow at 6:30 in the morning we realized the girl gave us the wrong return tickets back to Berlin. Great. So we spent like 2 hours walking around the train station trying to find the ticket booth (which, we failed at), then also tried to look for the place to buy bus tickets to Auschwitz (which we eventually found).

Now at this point of the story, we’re on our way to Auschwitz (about 1hr and 40min bus ride). I don’t really want to get into too much detail about Auschwitz (the largest concentration camp during the Holocaust) cause words can’t really explain what its really like walking around and actually seeing what they did to the Jewish people. I will say however that it was a very moving experience. Here are some pics:

Auschwitz

The Wall of Death-where they shot people in the back of the head

the crematorium

Arbet Macht Frei --"with hardwork comes freedom"...ya right

After Auschwitz we went back to Krakow. Once in Krakow we decided to walk around and guess what we ran into….yup the ticket office we were looking for to change tickets so instead of taking the train at 2:30am back to Berlin we got it changed to 10ish p.m. That way we didn’t have to wonder around Krakow in the middle of the night until our train came. Once that was settled we actually walked around Poland. We ran into some pretty awesome stuff. We saw a weird display of orange and white mannequins for some insurance promotion thingy, a weird satellite ball, some awesome squares where there was a flower market and a concert playing. As we continued strolling down the cute parks/streets that are Krakow we got some scrumptious gelato and found ourselves walking up some hill to a castle that overlooked the city and a river. After that it was starting to get dark so we made our way down the hill to find a place to eat dinner. We finally found a restaurant that served Georgian food that was pretty cheap and delicious. (Cool side info: I noticed the desserts they offered at the restaurant were Armenian, but I didn’t get any cause they’re the weird ones my dad always buys…).

the orange and white mannequins

in a satellite ball

the city of Krakow, so cute

some church

me

the view from the castle

After dinner we still had a few hours to kill so we went to the Boogie Café for some dessert and to use the rest of the Polish money we had to withdraw. After my apple pie and Libby’s ice cream with strawberry sauce we then went to a mall to window shop before heading back to the train to begin our 13 hour trek back to sweet ol’ Berlin! Thankfully we only had to change trains once on the way back AND we got to reserve seats so no more seat-hunting and sleep deprivation. 

Don't get me wrong Krakow was an awesome city but since we didn't speak any Polish and didn't really have much time we weren't able to fully appreciate it. One day I may go back.

Sunday-

At about 4:30 in the morning on Sunday was when we had to change trains at Warsaw. Definitely not one of the better moments of our Polish adventure seeing that we were successfully being harassed by 3 Polish guys who kept taking pictures of us. Creepy? Um…yes. And let me tell you, Polish people have the worst haircuts I have ever seen and they smell bad.

the station we had our layover at 4:30 in...creepy

Once we finally got back to Berlin around 1pm we booked it to our apartment to shower Poland off of us and to get ready for the ballet. Yes, the ballet. How very cultured of me I know. Ya so a bunch of friends and me went to go see Swan Lake, which was pretty cool, weird to say but the male ballerinas were a lot better and more entertaining to watch then the girl ones. At intermission we left (bad I know) but it was also the 20^th celebration of Berlin’s Reunification and that is something you can’t miss. The Reichstag (government building) and Brandenburger Tor were all lit up and pretty. Plus to clear my conscience, it ended up being a good thing that we left the ballet early because apparently at intermission the orchestra went on strike and left so the ballet continued with just one guy playing the piano. 

The Reichstag with fluorescent lights

they projected pictures against the Reichtstag and had video clips playing on the screen

Brandenburger Tor

Cori and I in front of the Brandenburger Tor

Well this crazy long blog was my weekend in a nutshell.