Ich Liebe Dich, Berlin

Hey!

Just got back from Germany today! wow, first I would like to say that getting to and from Germany is hard work...REALLY HARD WORK and yes...there is a HUGE language barrier. When people say, 'Oh yes, well, everyone is Germany speaks English...' don't believe them. T-T That was seriously the only problem that we had in Berlin. People could speak English but not very well. It was very awkward and not what we were expecting at all. On our part, we would say "danke" for "thank you" and "Kein Deutscher" for "no German" when people started speaking to us and "Morgan" for "Morning!" but that was all we really knew. So many people kept telling us that many of the signs were in English as well...that was also wrong. Many of the signs (and menus in restaurants for that matter) were not in English. I don't think it would have been as hard if Caroline and I weren't vegetarian and Nikta wasn't vegan, so it was kind of difficult to eat anywhere that wasn't a Dunkin Donuts or a McDonalds. So, with that out of the way...I will explain Germany! ^_^

We arrived in Hamburg, Germany Thursday night/Friday morning. We wanted to visit Shanna's very nice and helpful friend Julie, who was residing there because of school. When we got there (1:00am) we found out that she had to go to school the next day, so we all decided to get up with her. She brought us to the U-bahn (the Tube in Germany) and told us what stop we needed to get off on so that we could take and bus to Berlin. We got at the bus station, had some MickyDs and got on the 11:30am bus to Berlin. It was a smooth bus ride...that took 3 hours... >_< nevertheless we had a great time reading, talking, eating cookies and sleeping. When we finally got to Berlin we tried desperately to figure out where our hostel, BaxPax was. It was crazy because at first we thought that we were staying in the ghetto of Berlin. There was SO MUCH GRAFFITI and punkers that we felt extremely intimidated. It would only be the next day before we discovered that Berlin was like that EVERYWHERE!! Anyway, after we finally found BaxPax we found an amazing vegetarian diner (the only place with an english menu!) on our street called Yellow Sunshine. It was so amazing! When we got back to our hostel we found that we were sharing a huge room with 16 other people, most of them boys. We didn't mind this because there were enough bathrooms to spare and everyone kept to themselves. The only funny thing was that these guys slept in their underwear (teehee). It might be a European thing...it might not...whatever reason these guys were almost naked, no doubt about that.

The very next day, Nikita and I pulled out a map and figured out the walking distance to the center of Berlin. Shanna had found an add in our map that told us about a free tour that started at Brandenburg Gate. We walked a good 30 mins to get to the main part of Berlin, put the city was ahead of Canterbury when it came to fall time so it was a lovely walk indeed. We took the free tour (we found out that it was the same company Nikita and I encountered in Edinburgh) and had a splendid time. We saw what was left of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's Bunker, The National Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe (whew!), and other neat things. It was so beautiful and haunting. Later that afternoon we made an effort to go to a place called Freidrichshain. We had to take the U-bahn to get there. Professor Sanders gave me a list of all these very neat vegan/vegetarian restaurants that were supposedly in this area. We were too late to catch the nifty thrift shops near there but the food places were still open! We got our dessert to go from a CUTE place called *Cupcake* and got to pizza at an Italian restaurant where you could write your name on the wall. It was MMMMMMMM GOOOOOOD food.

The next day (Sunday), all four of us got up early and went to Brandenberg Gate to meet up for another tour that would take us to Sachsenhausen. The nerve center and model for all of the concentration camps (particularly Auschwitz). This was a very disturbing experience. We were almost going to go to Poland for the day and see Aushwitz instead but decided that time would not be on our side. Well, I'm happy to say that I'm glad we didn't go to Aushwitz...Sachsenhausen was bad enough. Our tour guide was pretty good about telling us the stories and the history of the first ever WWII concentration camp. It was so sad. I cried a few times and the other girls were just depressed. When we got out of there Shanna admitted to me that she would have not been able to handle Auschwitz, I agreed with her.

Here is a link to Wikipedia's description in more detail...mind you it doesn't do it much justice though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsenhausen_concentration_camp

When we were done for the day, we took a bus back to Julie's in Hamburg and stayed for the night again. The next day, we came home. It was such a thrilling experinece being in Berlin! I would not have given up for anything. <3

Oh Scotland...My Love

It was over a week ago that Nikita and I got back from Edinburgh, Scotland...I didn't realize how much I had to get done when I got back. OOPS! Oh well, I figured I'd update it now!
Well, what can I say? Edinburgh was simply beautiful! I went awhile ago with my family but it was def. a city worth returning to. We stayed at our first hostel, ST. Christopher's! It was extremely hard to find though. It was attached to a pub called Belushi's Bar & Hostel. Nikita was like, "Hey, maybe we can ask these guys..." and I cut her off saying "No! We shouldn't ask one hostel where another hostel is...that would be rude." Well, it turns out that if I had just listened to Nikita and walked in we would have found our hostel (and saved us 30mins of useless walking). They were SUPER nice and very clean (they also gave us a free breakfast and 10% off drinks). I suggest them entirely (thanks Stacy!!).

What was great about our hostel was that they had a bunch of brochures about the city. Nikita and I only planned on seeing one thing (the castle) and figured we just do whatever when we weren't there. Anyway, we found one brochure for a FREE Edninburgh tour (3 hours!) they pretty much took you everywhere through the city. So, thinking that that was a very good deal, Nikita and I woke up early the next day to do it. Our tour guide was AMAZING. She was a young theatre student from Canada who had moved to Edinburgh 4 months ago for "adventure." She was extremely entertaining and made friends with Nikita and I. She also did our Ghost Tour of Edinburgh that we took later on that night. We had to pay 7 pounds for that tour...but they gave us a free pint of Strongbow that night, so that was nice of the tour guide peeps.

Throughout the day, Nikita and I would explore, shop, and so on. One place we went to was the Elephant House. This was the cafe where J.K. Rowling apparently wrote the first Harry Potter on a napkin! It was very cool (especially since I've become fascinated with elephants lately) but very busy due to obvious reasons. We ate there twice; so worth the hullabaloo. Most of the time, if we weren't on a tour or exploring, we would chill at the Starbucks that was next to out hostel. It was so vast and comforting! Very different from the Starbucks' back home which seem to be small and always packed.

We finally made it to the castle on Sunday! It was amazing! We went early in the morning to avoid the traffic of fellow visitors. We took many pictures, saw the crown jewels, gift shop, WWI memorial room, dog graveyard, and the stone of destiny (which has an amazing history...you should google it...)

So all and all, Nikita and I had a fantastic time and wished that we could have stayed longer in Scotland so that we could she some of the Highlands. Oh well...there was one Highland that was visible from all high points of Edinburgh. It was called Arthur's Seat. It was so majestic!

LOve & Peace!