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.