Ich bin ein Berliner

So Carmen and I wanted to go to Germany but we didn’t have a lot of time or money left at the end of the semester. To save both, we only went for two days. But two days was enough to get in a god dose of Berlin. We got there very late on a Wednesday night. Neither of us speak German but we somehow managed to figure out the trains from the airport. We actually got kicked off the one we were  supposed to be taking. Luckily, not all of them stopped running at midnight and the system was really similar to both the Tube and the L. It was also snowing a lot in Germany. But unlike the UK, not everything shut down so we were able to make it to our hostel just fine.

The next day we went out to explore. We found this restaurant and I got a German breakfast (the healthy choice). It had three types of cheese, three types of fruit and three types of meat. Also scrambled eggs and a whole basket of rolls. They know how to eat. One of the meats was raw minced pork. For those of you who know my eating habits you’ll know that I really like raw meat. I know it’s weird but there was no judgment in Germany. I also had a beer with breakfast. Beer and raw meat. Yum.

After that we went to find the Berlin Wall memorial. It was really neat. The area they have it on was originally a graveyard and graves were moved to put up guard towers. They have a bunch of memorials for that and the people that died at the wall. Next to it is what’s left of the graveyard. It’s very eerily pretty.

On our walk from the Berlin Wall, we found a big patch of untouched snow. So of course we had to make snow angels. It was SO cold. I got it down my pants and Carmen found my jumping around just hilarious. Also on our walk we saw so many little German kids in snow suits being pulled on toboggans by their parents. I wanted  to die it was so cute.

After that we walked through the main town area a bit and went into some shops. Then we went to the Holocaust memorial. It was night time by then and it was really intense. We walked around amongst the stones for a while. It’s intense the way they rise above you. It was a good experience though. It’s a wonderful memorial.

After that we went back to the hostel for a bit where we met a guy from Louisiana who was traveling by himself.  He ended up coming out to dinner with us. We went to this ‘Mexican’ restaurant. It was good food but it was weird seeing the menu for Mexican food all in German. At the end of our meal they gave us tequila shots. I hate tequila and don’t usually drink it but I was peer pressured into it. It’s still as disgusting as I remembered.

After that we went to a pub for a few drinks. As we were walking there we passed about three girls with these really distinctively ugly snow boots. At first I thought it was maybe a fashion trend in Berlin. Until we passed one of them who had a corset on outside of her giant puffy winter coat! It was at this point that I leaned over to the other two and asked “Do you think they’re prostitutes?” At which point Carmen said “Well I didn’t before but now I do.” It was later confirmed by the really nice, English speaking, Australian bar tender that they were in fact prostitutes.

The next day we did some more walking around. We went to the museum part of the memorial which was shut the night before. It was a little depressing but I’m glad I went. After that we walked around the American sector. Then we found a Christmas market! I had the best German bratwurst of my life! By the time Carmen got to take a picture I only had a bite left. It was SO good. That market was a little dead so we walked to another one. This one was much bigger. There I bought a couple of presents and ate a schnitzel. Again, delicious! After that we found pub to wait in until we had to go back the airport. I got traditional German beer and Carmen, of course, got hot chocolate.

A trip to the great white (sort of) North

Our second big out of England trip was to Scotland. We left for Glasgow the night of Thanksgiving. I was EXHAUSTED because I had been up all day cooking and we had to go straight from dinner to packing to our bus. It came in handy though because we were trying to sleep on the bus. I passed right out.

We got to the bus a little late so we couldn’t all sit together. I ended up sitting in the aisle seat next to some man. I woke up in the middle of the night with him basically laying on me. Guess we were cuddle buddies. Now I didn’t really mind this because it sort of kept me warm but I kept thinking ‘if you were going to lean this way then why did you take the aisle seat?’ Eventually I moved though because he started stroking my arm in his sleep (or what I hope was in his sleep).

It was really cold when we got into Scotland and we had to walk about a mile to get to our hostel. After a short nap and some breakfast we went walking around our area. It was so cute! We found some really cute vintage shops (I got a scarf). We also found this used book seller and bought some books. (Which, in hind sight, may have been a bad idea as we had to carry our bags around for most of the last day.)

After that we went to this pub to get lunch. Our waiter was Scottish and he was so funny. He kept talking to us because the place was slow. He gave us ideas on where to go and helped Carmen with her Scottish accent.

Following our big walk around we went out with some Aussies we had met at breakfast in our hostel. We ended up at a place called the Orah Mar which is essentially an old church that they turned into a pub and club. There was stained glass windows and everything. It was really cool to look at. While we were there it started to snow. They were great big snowflakes which are the best kind but that wasn’t the best part. The best part was that the guys we were out with are from Sydney, Australia. They had never seen falling snow in their lives. They ran outside without their coats to play in it. They came back in pretty quickly though because clearly they can’t handle the cold. It was really cute though. Like watching kids get excited about the snow. It made me appreciate it more.

On our way home we went to get something to eat. We found this pizza place that was open late. While we were in there we became the center of attention for some drunk Scottish guys. They thought our accents were great. Also one of the Aussies has a beard and there were never less than three drunk Scots touching it at all times. One of the guys kept hugging me. He told me I couldn’t pat his back because it made it less ‘intimate’. He also told me that after talking to me he felt like he was swimming in a ‘sea of inspiration.’

Once we shook the drunk admirers, we went back to our hostel to build a snowman. That failed miserably because there was not nearly enough snow. Instead we had a snowball fight. I’m sure we were really loud and obnoxious and that everyone within earshot hated us but we had a really good time. Around four in the morning we finally managed to go to bed.

The next day we took it easy. Food, shopping and a little drinking at the end of the night. Our last day there was a bit more of an adventure. By this time there was about an inch or two of snow on the ground. We got kicked out of our hostel at 10 am so we had to walk around until our bus left at 11 pm. We ended up finding this river walk. It was BEAUTIFUL! We got to walk along the woods and the frozen river. There were little kids getting pulled on sleds by their parents and dogs playing in the snow. At one point, Carmen decided she needed to play Lord of the Rings and be Gandalf. She found a big stick and made us film her shouting ‘YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” This of course created a crowd of adoring fans on the bridge above us. One of them threw a snowball at us! Carmen tried to reciprocate but she has terrible aim.

After our walk we went back to the pub we had been to our first day to get warm apple cider. It was amazing. Our waiter friend was there again and he was really happy to see us. Actually what he said was “you three again?” but I know he missed us.

From there we walked around Glasgow some more. Backpacking is SO much easier when it’s warm out. We went to go see Harry Potter 7 to stay warm. It was even better the second time! I cried. Again. After that we went to dinner where we had a really awkward conversation with our waiter. We were trying to order desert. It was something none of us had ever heard of but apparently it was a ball of pastry that was fried and covered with chocolate and cream.  Carmen asked the waiter ‘how many balls you get?’. Then she blushed a little. I tried to make that question less awkward but didn’t think it through so I said “She meant how big are they?” Then our waiter started to blush and laugh a little. I tried to back peddle and say that I meant is it big enough to share but from that point on we couldn’t look each other in the eye. Our waiter thought it was hilarious though. Oops. Guess it made for a good laugh  and an awkward story.

We managed to catch our bus home to London. We were lucky to be going south because everything going east, west, or north was canceled because of the snow. My seat buddy on the trip back  wasn’t nearly as cuddly. He did however have the lovely scent of menthol cigarettes. Gotta love budget traveling.

Tower of London (Not actaully a prison)

Last weekend I went to the Tower of London. Being a bit of a history geek I LOVED IT! I learned so many cool history facts (which I will spare you all from). Our tour guide was really funny. He kept us very entertained and did a great job of explaining everything. Plus we got to see medieval castles and buildings. We also got to see the chapel where Anne Bolin is buried and where they keep the crown jewels.

It’s so much fun being a tourist sometimes. We don’t have buildings this old in America. It was amazing to be standing inside a castle that was built in the 13^th century. It’s sort of humbling when you think about it. I mean, is there anything I’m going to leave behind that people are going to pay to see in 800 years?

Also I got to pretend I was a princess so…. (picture below)

Three Blind Mice

Ever since I was in Jr. High I’ve loved Agatha Christie. She’s one of my favorite writers. Well this past Saturday I got the chance to go see the play she wrote called Mousetrap. It’s (of course) a murder mystery and it’s very British. I loved it! The theater we were in was sort of small and very cozy. It also had a really great old time feel to it. The best part about the play is that it’s been running for 59 consecutive years. It’s been around for 12 US presidents and 12 Prime Ministers. That’s insane!  

She was a Daaaaaaaaaay Tripper

Carmen’s mom is visiting and so we rented another car and went on yet another day trip. This time we head out west to a little town called Salisbury. It was a really cute town that was sort of typical English except for two very amazing things. The first is that it’s a cathedral town. And the second is that in this cathedral there is one of only four remaining copies of the Magna Carta.

The cathedral was insanely beautiful. It was massive and breathtaking. For those of you who have read Pillars of the Earth, you can imagine my excitement. I couldn’t stop looking at how intricate everything was. There are literally no words to describe how amazing the church was.

After muddling around the church for a bit we went to the Chapter House. This is where they keep the Magna Carta. I actually got to read the document that basically set the ball rolling on modern western democracy. (Okay not read because it was in Latin but nobody’s fact checking so…) Also in the chapter house they had friezes that depicted the first two books of the Bible. Friezes are carvings in stone that pop out in a 3D manner as opposed to being etched in. They had such incredible details.

After we left the cathedral we set off to try to find Stonehenge. I was in charge of navigation. We had a guidebook with a map of the town so we figured we were all set. Wrong. I’ve come to terms with a few things about roads in the UK. The major thing is that you can be walking on a street called Kings Cross Rd when all of a sudden it’s now called Bishop’s Gate. You didn’t change directions or turn a corner. They just got bored with the name. This I’ve come to accept. What I cannot except is when a map tells me that Queen St and Knight Rd are parallel yet I’ve somehow managed to take a right turn from one onto the other. Needless to say, there may have been some yelling and some swear words. But we figured it out in the end.

Once we were finally on the road to Stonehenge we saw a street sign for the funniest named street I’ve ever heard of. I can’t think about it without laughing. In fact, I’m laughing right now. The name of the street? Fugglestone.

Stonehenge was awesome. You can’t actually go up to the stones because they have it roped off but you can get about fifteen yards away. They’re enormous. It’s insane to think what it took to get them there. One thing we read said that some of the stone come from mountain ranges 250 miles away. That’s insane! It was raining and dreary the entire time but I’m so glad we saw it. Plus the dreariness made me feel a bit like Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

Once we left Stonehenge we set out to find a nice little country pub to have dinner in. We decided to try some back roads in our quest. We didn’t find any open pubs or inns but something even better happened. I drove again. This time in a manual. And I felt vindicated because I know that everyone secretly though it wasn’t as cool when I drove the first time since it was manual.

After driving around a bit more we finally found a pub. It was the cutest thing and all the old men LOVED us. I don’t think they get a lot of tourists so they were really excited to hear our accents. While I was waiting at the bar for a drink one old man told his friend who had just walked in that they had celebrities in their midst and pointed at me. When the new arrival asked me what kind of celebrities we were I told him the really famous kind. They all got a kick out of that. We kept having them stop off at our table to talk to us. They were the cutest old men with the cutest accents.

After our massive day trip where we were very wet a majority of the time, we went home and crawled into bed.