Hello All,
Ugh I am so sorry. I am currently sitting in Vienna, and I am going to try to get a few posts up here tonight. First I'll tell you about to my first of two trips for my Thesis research; Berlin.
Berlin was amazing. WHat i noticed upon arriving was that I immediately felt comfortable in the city. I think that it was because, upon reflection, that I realized it was because it reminded me of Boston, or New York, and I felt at home. There were buildings that were ACTUAL skyskrapers (be it one or two) but still.
So I got there. Finding the hostel was a bit of a pain, but I was on the phone with dad, who is ever helpful, and he directed me to Alexanderplatz, which is apprently the equivalent to Times Square. My hostel was just off of that road. It was called the 180 Hostel and it was RIDICULOUSLY cool. There were giant circular seats to sit in in teh walls. HOWEVER; as cool as it was, the people were not warm or welcoming, adn for a 21 year old woman traveling alone, that sucked and brought me to the verge of tears 3 times that night. I showed up and forgot that "surname" meant lastname and the guy literally just grabbed the passport out of my hands. Then, I tried to get a glass of wine, and the bartender was like OH NO NO NO we do NOT accept cards for payments under 10 euros. Great. So now i need to go find a damn ATM. Couldn't find it, obviously. Asked some guy in the Holiday Inn down the road, and I swear he did the "george head-roll" and was like "uhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Deutsche bank........................it's right there........................." so I obviously sassed back and was like OH GREAT. THANKS. Jackass.
Anyway, I got my wine to settle my nerves for Friday, which was the day I would be conducting... "conducting" interviews. One of my program- friends' friends was coming to Berlin from Hambourg (she is on the Smith program in Hambourg) to translate for me.
Friday I got up, and went to meet her and her friend at the train station. I took them back to One80, and then we went to the Munich Haus for lunch. For those of you who have heard me talk about this restaurant that is in Chicopee, MA, this one in Berlin was EVEN MORE AWESOME (shoutout to mom and auntie nikki). It was HUGE and spacious with a LIVE GERMAN BAND. We got some type of sausage-y thing for lunch with Dunklas Radler (?) dark beer. It was so good. The beer was a little sweet and went PERFECTLY with the sausate. But I digress. After lunch, we made our way past Museum Island and a BEAUTIFUL cathedral to Humboldt Universitat, which was equally beautiful. There, my friend's friend began asking people to help us out on the street. We spent about 3 hours begging for people to answer questions about hate speech. It was QUITE a process, but eventually we got enough people (including one especially sassy woman who said I should have had a German look at my translation....I had a German TRANSLATE my translation, who is FLUENT in English so you can just shut right the hell up, thank you VERY much).
After this, we grabbed dinner at this great spanish restaurant right near our place. The inside literally looked like we were in Spain, with brick archways, water works, and a bridge guiding us in. It was amazing. THe man sitting next to us happened to be a French teacher, and so I was able to chat with him for a while. He took a video of us saying "hi" to his son, who is an English teacher. It was awesome and adorable all in one.
That night, we met and played Beirut with some REALLY drunk British guys, and the bartender made me a rose out of a napkin. All around strange and a little bit uncomfortable. HOWEVER. I did meet a guy (one of the drunk British guys) who is ACTUALLY in the Nutrcacker. His name is Richard. I will absolutely be looking for him Thursday when I go. Whatup.
The next day two of my friends from the program came, and we literally did all of the touristy things. We went to the Anne Frank memorial house and learned the history and read part of her diary (which I now DESPERATELY want to read), and we saw almost ALL museums in Museum Island (even hearing a street performer playing Ave Maria on the French horn **hemhemRyan**), bought Gluhwein (hot wine) at an adorable market, and saw the giant Cathedral. We almost went in, but it was expensive and a guided tour, and since time is PRECIOUS, it wasn't worth it. As it got darker, we headed to Ritter Sport, a chocolate company, and just bought TONS of chocolate and watched a presentation on the history of it...pretty cool stuff. There was also a Christmas tree made of chocolate, so even better. From there, we grabbed dinner at a Korean restaurant, and then went to the Brandenburg Gate (it is the really famous archway in Berlin that you've probably seen the Nazi's marching under in every WWII documentary) and saw the Bundestag, or parliament, which was ENORMOUS and awesome. We crammed a TON into one day.
The next day, Sunday, everyone was gone except me and one other friend in the program. We decided to trek to the Berlin wall and walk all the way down it. Some of the sections were breathtaking and thought-provoking. I can't explain them, but I'll eventually get pictures up. From there, we headed back to where we'd been before. I was starving for a late lunch, so we went into this small Biergarten and got beer, and I got some schnitzel. The guy working there reminded me so much of my dad and I actually almost started crying.... whoops. I secretly took a picture of him, too. From there, we wandered down the shopping street and UNFORTUNATELY everything was closed. Maybe fortunately........ There was a store that had the most ADORABLE chelsea boots in them and I may have bought them had I the chance...........Probably would've. Anyway, then my friend got hungry, and I was no longer hungry, so we went into this adorable half candyshop half- café place (the candy was ALL christmas themed, mind you) and we got hot wine, she got soup, and I got rice pudding. It was SUCH GOOD RICE PUDDING (but not as good as mom's ).
I've realized hot wine has become my drink of choice. NICOLE- if you read this, I'm forcing you to have some. Same with everyone else. It's just happening. Sorrynotsorry. MAYBE I CAN MAKE IT FOR CHRISMAS EVE
After this, we walked back, and my friend, who'd had VERY light soup, decided she reallyreallyreallyreally wanted a sausage from the Munich haus (may or may not have been my fault, i was raving about it), and so we went there, she bought me my Dunlkas Radler (?) and she got a sausage. There was live music, the place was packed, and you could just feel the energy from the people, and the sociability of them (as compared to Geneva). It was just awesome.
OH I forgot to mention; walking back to our hostel every time, there was this big mall-type thing. Fine,whatever. BUT. In the windows, there were these GIGANTIC displays of castles, the Gate, a ferris wheel etc. GUess what. It was ALL made out of MARZIPAN. OHMYGODWHAT THESE THINGS WERE HUGE. So cool.
Anyway. THat was it. We went to bed, and Monday morning we headed back to Geneva and class and normalcy, which sucked, until Thursday, that is, when I left for Paris.
Berlin was an amazing city filled with life and history and beautiful old architecture mixed with the new. It was really a wonderful place, and I hope to get back there.