Learning about Berlin

The day started with the standard hostel breakfast: rolls with butter and jam. This hostel gained points by having nutella as an option, and that was definitely an option I took advantage of. As we left the hostel, the weather was exactly what we expected from the forecast--it was raining pretty hard, but luckily we had umbrellas and we decided not to let the rain stop us.

Brandenburg gate in Pariser Platz

Having stumbled across Sandeman’s New Europe tours in Dublin, Meg and I continued our New Europe free walking tour streak and went on the tour through the Berlin city center. Some of the sights we covered included the Brandenburg gate, (one of the most iconic gates of Berlin), the Reichstag building, (a government building), Hitler’s old bunker, a Holocaust Memorial for all the murdered Jews of Europe, the Book Burning Memorial outside of Humboldt University, Checkpoint Charlie, the SS Headquarters, the Berlin Wall, and finally the Museum Island. It was almost unreal walking on the tour because the history is so recent and powerful. I guess I just hadn’t realized that the Berlin Wall only came down about twenty years ago, about a month after I was born. This was definitely the most intellectual and historical tour that I had been on and was very sobering. After the tour, Meg and I continued in our Paris mindset and got crepes—best crepes ever!

Checkpoint Charlie

After the crepes, I went to the Topography of Terrors, a museum about the history of Hitler, the Holocaust and the Berlin wall. Walking alongside the wall was very thought provoking, and while it wasn’t the happiest or most joyful thing to see, I am very glad I got to experience it. The museum was teeming with information and pictures and it was overwhelming to try to take it all in. We spent quite a bit of time in the museum and ended up sitting for a little while to rest our very tired feet.

A remaining portion of the Berlin wall

We walked back along the walking tour route and stopped for an early dinner near the Holocaust Memorial. The day had tired me out more so than past travelling days, and I decided it had to be because it was the last travelling weekend and my body was just tired. We headed back to the hostel around 6:30 to get ready for our pub crawl later that night.

Holocaust Memorial-different height blocks on uneven ground

The pub crawl made for one of the best nights out in Europe. We left the hostel around 8:15 and the first place we went had an outdoor backyard which was super crowded with other “crawlers.” The entertainment provided at the pub was a really outgoing pyro-man, juggling fire and playing with a blow torch. We met quite a cast of characters throughout the night including a stag party (think bachelor party) with the groom dressed as Elvis, a trio of “Teach for England” teachers, two awesome girls from Ireland, a pair of au pairs from Munich, 2 engineering students from Cincinnati, and some German natives. Everyone was extremely friendly and it was just a solid fun night.

Meg and I with the groom to be (Elvis), the best man and another friend. They were a riot!

August 14

Stress Level

A pictorial representation of my stress level (above) and the corresponding thoughts running through my head (below).

• 4:30 pm I’m going to head to the bus so that I’m early and I’ll make sure I don’t miss the bus 4:45 Okay, I’m at the stop, it should be here any time.
• 5:00 Where is the bus? It was supposed to leave now! Why isn’t there anyone around here for me to ask about this? Why won’t the bus drivers talk to me? The rain is probably slowing everything down. I’ll be totally fine on time as long as I leave by 5:15. Meg’s 4 pm bus was supposed to be 20 minutes late so it’s probably normal for buses to be late.
• 5:15 Where is a number for me to call? This is making me nervous. The bus totally should be here by now! I have a flight to catch. I wonder if that guy over there is waiting for the same bus as me….”Sir! What bus are you waiting for? …oh, not the same one, okay nevermind.” Worth a shot, okay here’s a number to call. I hope this won’t drain my minutes on my phone.
• 5:30 THE BUS IS BROKEN DOWN! What do you mean the bus is broken down?!?! (Talking to bus company representative: “What am I supposed to do now? I have a flight to catch!!!!...okay, yes you can call me back after you talk to your manager.” I can’t miss my weekend trip to Berlin! Okay, so if I do miss the flight, there must be another flight later that night. Meg can get on our original one and I’ll meet her there. Why, why, why!?! Maybe a taxi would work?
• 5:45 Talking to representative again, “I don’t think the bus that gets me there at 6:50 for a 7:45 flight is going to work!...Okay, so I can take a taxi and be fully reimbursed? Guaranteed? Just keep the receipt? Okay, thanks so much!” Okay, got to flag down a cab! There is one! This better work. “How fast to Stansted Airport? Do you take credit card? Do you give receipts? Okay, let’s go!
• 6:00 Come on, let’s get a move on! Why is traffic stopped? We’ve hardly moved at all. Text to Meg: “He estimates around 6:30. AHHH!!! I’m nervous!” I have to stop at a cash machine…this better be fast.
• 6:15 Okay, we’re finally cruising, should be there soon. I better get reimbursed for this!
  
• 6:30 I’m here! Where is Meg? I just have to get through the lines and then it’s smooth sailing.
• 6:45 Oh darn, I got in the wrong line to get my passport stamped. The right line just got so much longer. Ask at the front of the line? Wow, they were so nice to let me go to the front…I mean, it did only take 5 seconds to get my passport stamped. Still, very nice people. Now to security! Thanks Meg for getting me dinner while I was panicking!
• 7:00 At the gate, finally able to eat, my heart rate can finally resume normal human beating patterns. Slow down. Eat food. I made it.
• 7:15 Board the plane, I can’t believe this worked.
• 7:30 Relax
• 7:45 Relax more, heart is still beating kind of fast
• 8:00 Time to sleep
• 10:30 I made it, almost no stress now. It totally worked out and I’m in Germany! This is so strange. That lady was nice to help us get our bus tickets.
• 11:00 Why is there construction on the bus line we need to get to our hostel? I don’t read German and this is super confusing. Why is everything going wrong travelling on this trip?
  
• 11:30 I really hope this bus is taking us to the right place.
• 12:00 Meg and I are travelling pros. It may have taken us a little longer, but we totally have this down. Nice try Berlin, but we figured it out. Now time for bed. We made it.

August 13, (Friday the 13th!!!)

Forecast

Looks like I'll be bringing my umbrella.

Final trip

Meg and I will embark on our final trip tomorrow to Berlin. We made the realization tonight that we have become accustomed to traveling every weekend. In any other situation, I would be over the moon about traveling to Germany for several weeks leading up to my departure, but in this current setting, I'm only beginning to get excited about 18 hours beforehand. Traveling to other countries on the weekends has become almost routine, and we are treating it as if it were a school field trip. I've hardly given it any thought and am planning on packing tomorrow along with planning the trip over lunch with Meg before heading to the airport. Europe has spoiled me, and I realize that only in retrospect will I actually realize how cool this summer really is. Goodbye England, hello Germany! I'll fill you in when I get back on Monday!

2 down, 1 to go

2 classes down, 1 left! Today was my last art class, leaving me with the realization that I will be headed back to the States very soon. I have the chance now to reflect on my experience in my art studio course.

I have definitely had my ups and downs in the class, leaving some days feeling completely frustrated and other days feeling great about the work I’d produced. In looking back at the class however, I think more important than any of the paintings and sketches I’ve produced is the way that I have learned to think about my art. I have learned to experiment with color and trust my eyes and to paint what I see, not what I think I should see or the “right” colors. Painting is more about finding the relationship between things and letting the background add beauty to the foreground rather than painting simply the subject. A complete painting should include the entire surroundings in a cohesive and unified way. For my last painting, I painted the same project that I started with in the first class: a colored square exercise. The premise is to mix several colors and paint a square on the paper. You then use that color to mix a new one and place it beside the first one, and continue on in that fashion. The purpose is to let the colors work together and complement one another. I learned that oftentimes, the paint palette can look more beautiful than the painting because in trying to force the colors to be what you think they should be, you lose sight of the beauty of the materials and the way they work together effortlessly. A big part of painting for me is letting go and really letting the colors work in comparison to one another. Using complementary colors is also a lot more fun and relaxing.

I really enjoyed the art class. While some of the hour discussions were sometimes slightly painful and abstract, it really got me thinking about the different elements of art. I’m really happy I had the chance to take an art class over the summer since I probably won’t be able to fit it into my schedule at school. It certainly wasn’t what I expected, but I am very satisfied with the class and know that I have learned to think in a new more colorful way.

August 11

Impressions of Paris

Sunday was an action packed day—our last day in Paris and our last chances to see everything we wanted to see. Meg and I started the day early by going to the Orangerie Museum. This museum was perhaps my favorite museum because it had Monet’s water lily paintings. The 8 paintings took up entire walls. The museum was also home to work by Renoir, (my new fave!), Degas, Cezanne, Picasso, Gauguin, and many others. Meg definitely instilled a love of impressionist paintings in me because they were just so beautiful.

After the Orangerie, we ventured over the Musee d’Orsay-a museum in an updated train station. This again housed many impressionist paintings, many of the same ones from the Orangerie, along with van Gogh’s self portrait. This museum was a little more overwhelming than the previous one because of its size, but the paintings were beautiful and there was a very relaxed atmosphere. Meg and I were able to put the things we have been learning about in our art class into use as we commented on the paintings and I felt that I had a better appreciation of the work.

I was pretty museum-ed out after those two, so we headed over to the Notre Dame to meet up with Ken. It is very impressive simply in its sheer size, and it was very neat to go into the cathedral. When we got in, mass was just finishing so we got to see the procession. I noticed that the organ music was very gothic and eerie with loud minor chords, almost mirroring the Gothic and imposing architecture. Dainty and whimsical are definitely not the words I’d use to describe my experience there. I was hoping to run into Quasimoto there, but no such luck…

For lunch, Meg, Ken and I met up with Meg’s mom and sister to go to Angelina’s. Meg’s parents went to Paris for their honeymoon and had had hot chocolate at Angelina’s and had been building it up for Meg her whole life, so it was cool to be able to go taste this magical hot chocolate. Lunch was very tasty, but we all knew we were looking forward to dessert. The hot chocolate was easily the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted by miles. (Sorry Dad—it makes Chevron hot chocolate taste like Swiss Miss!) It was a hybrid of regular hot chocolate and chocolate pudding. It was so thick and I guess they melt down hot chocolate bars to make it. We received instructions to taste it on its own first before then adding the whipped cream. To go with the hot chocolate, the table split the specialty dessert-a meringue coated with whipped cream with chestnut paste on top. I was almost painfully full at the end of the lunch, but the hot chocolate was too good to pass up. Thanks Mrs. Zolner!!! I’m hooked on Angelina’s for life now.

After lunch, Meg and I headed to Monmarte, the artist district. The main attraction there is the Sacre Coeur, a beautiful white church. On our way up to the church, we were accosted by the bracelet selling street vendors who try to put the bracelet on you and then charge you. Luckily we were warned about this so keeping our hands in pockets seemed pretty effective. Sacre Coeur was so beautiful to see. We walked around after that to the artist square to watch the myriad of artists all painting the same subjects (the Parisian monuments) but in so many different styles. My favorite was a woman who painted the sites with beautifully colored water colors. There were lots of tourist shops in the area, but it still maintained a cool artsy vibe.

As our last touristy activity, we took the metro to the Pompidou Centre, a modern arts museum. It is a really neat building that looks almost inside out. Pictures are the best way to visualize the building. This area had such a different vibe and just seemed way more hipster and trendy. There were quite a few teenagers hanging out skating. There was a cool modern art fountain which really seemed to complement the area.

To end the day, we picked up our stuff from the hostel and headed to the train station. I felt completely satisfied with the weekend, having seen the museums I wanted to see, climbing the Eiffel Tower, seeing the Notre Dame and Arc du Triomphe, and exploring the culture by seeing the Champs Elysees, the artist district and the trendy hip scene. As my ears popped going under the Chunnel, I couldn’t help but just feel happy and so lucky to have had such a great weekend.

August 8

Paris Expectations v. Reality

I really like this theme, but I realize that it is difficult to discuss expectations in retrospect, but I’ll do my best to be unbiased.

Expectation: The bread in Paris would be incredible.
Reality: The bread at the hostel that they served for breakfast tasted normal.

Expectation: Versailles would be a beautiful house, very elaborate with gorgeous architecture.
Reality: Versailles was an INCREDIBLY beautiful chateau with simple and sophisticated, intricate architecture. Meg, Ken and I decided to explore the gardens instead of the actual chateau, and that took us half the day! Luckily we were there early enough to see the fountains actually running with water, and there was music playing in the background. I think I took around 150 pictures just at Versailles because it was picture perfect. The gardens were so well tended to, and there were about 16 different sections of the garden with different patterns or set ups. Each set up was beautiful in different ways, and it was fun to kind of explore in the maze created by the gardens. I couldn’t imagine having those gardens as my backyard and just finding a shady corner to read. It would definitely be conducive for the biggest game of hide and go seek…ever. Versailles was definitely the most beautiful house and garden I’ve ever seen.

Expectation: Crepes EVERYWHERE!
Reality: There are only crepe stands in certain parts of the city, and unfortunately after our trip to Versailles, we did not go to one of those parts of Paris. It was late afternoon when we got back and we were starved and desperate for food in the Carousel de Louvre. It seemed our options were either pay around 15 euro for a sandwich or 4 euro for a Happy Meal. 3 college students…I’ll let you figure that one out. I did get my crepe that I was anticipating later that night for dinner-sugar, lemon and butter—delicious!

Expectation: The Louvre would have lots of paintings, lots of corridors and the Mona Lisa would be huge and prominently displayed in a bulletproof case.
Reality: The Louvre was huge! We got in for free because we are students of the EU for the summer, and we spent about an hour and a half in the museum. I got to see the Renaissance paintings, Italian and French works of art, famous statues like the Venus de Milo, and some of Napoleon’s old furniture. Most of the museum was pretty empty, except for the Mona Lisa room. It was a pretty small painting, and again, it was unreal to see the painting because it is arguably the most famous painting in the world. I won’t say that I had any real artistic inspiration by looking at it, but it was pretty cool.

Expectation: Paris would have lots of trendy shopping, be super expensive, and everyone would be really well dressed.
Reality: Maybe those things are true, but just not in the super touristy areas that I was exploring. Meg and I did some souvenir shopping and our greatest find was twelve postcards for 2 euro. I found something for my sister, (I know she doesn’t read this so I’m not worried about her knowing), and just had fun seeing all the super tacky Paris souvenirs.

Expectation: I’ve already talked a little about the Eiffel Tower, but I definitely had high expectations for it before I went to Paris. I’ve seen so many pictures of it, seen it in so many movies and it is just such an icon of Paris.
Reality: The Eiffel Tower exceeded my expectations by a mile. Not only did its sheer size blow me away, but the majestic and impressive presence was just so powerful. For something built out of criss-cross metal, it is so graceful and beautiful. Meg and I opted to walk up the stairs to the second level of the tower instead of waiting in the mile long line for the elevator, saving money and getting a work out in at the same time. We counted the steps and recorded our hike on the way up and came to about 686 steps. The view from the second level was absolutely incredible and we could see all of Paris. I couldn’t help but think about all the pictures that were being taken of me while I was up there…haha.

Expectation: I thought the river boat cruise would be beautiful as we cruised along the Seine seeing all the monuments. Meg had talked it up a lot so I was looking forward to it.
Reality: We chose the only time in Paris that it rained to go on the cruise. (Meg-if you are reading this—totally not your fault, it was still awesome!). Luckily the boat was covered, and it may have actually been the best thing to do in the rain since we were still seeing the sites but weren’t getting soaked. It cleared up at the end and we were able to go outside to see the Eiffel Tower and watch it light up. Gorgeous. A perfect end to the night.


August 7