I just departed Berlin, which I truly did love! I had a horrible hostel experience... it was HORRIBLE, but I literally have slept for 2 hours the past 48. I had a bed in a 30-bed dorm, and it wasn’t so much the other people that kept me awake as it was the god awful “mattress” and “pillow”. Basically my neck kept me awake the entire time. Otherwise, the hostel was the nicest one i’ve stayed in so far!
Berlin itself wasn’t necessarily NICE, but I LOVED the history of it, and I found myself often forgetting I was in Germany since it’s so culture filled. The first day I got there it was raining, and I was starving, and I was still in technology shock from being without any means of communication to anyone for 2 days... so immediately arriving I spent 20minutes trying to connect to internet! And then an hour trying to find a place to eat, before I finally said to hell with it and ventured out to wander. It worked out since the rain tapered off when I left. So I wandered, not too far, and ended up at an Italian restaurant, yes, Italian in Germany. I’m already sick of the “Traditional” German food... bread and sausage. I’ve had my fair share of carbs. I’m wondering if I tell my host family I’m going on a carb-free diet will they get sick of dealing with me and send me back? :)
So I sit at this nice Italian restaurant along the river and enjoy a nice glass of Pinot Grigio. I opted to order lasagna... which later proved to be a bad choice. Ironically, the closer you get to Italy, doesn’t mean the BETTER the Italian. Unless that is, you’re IN Italy. (Reason #3238752475475 why people want to come to America... we LITERALLY have everything. And STL knows Italian!) So I had the best looking and worst tasting lasagna of my life.
And of course, it made me sick! What gives. So I went to bed fairly early, with intentions to get up the next day and get in a good amount of sightseeing.
Since I ended up not even sleeping at all, I was up at 8. Got myself some breakfast from the hostel, and spent a good hour researching things to do. By the time I actually got ready and left it was already 12... go me! So I ventured towards the meeting spot for a free walking tour, free means business! On my way I ventured into the Mercedes-Benz show room, and then discovered the Volkswagen showroom across the street. Got to sit in my future car! The white VW Eos. It was gorgeous, minus the fact its an automatic transmission!
The walking tour started at 1, and to my surprise was FOUUUUR hours long. But I went for it anyway, and I’m glad I did! I actually ran into two girls from the hostel who were from Cali. They seemed pretty cool and nice, but later proved otherwise... but I will say I was pretty envious of them. They’re about to be seniors at Sonoma state and they’ve spent the last 2 months backpacking around. They’ve been SOOO many places, and they leave in 10 days. Kinda wish I would’ve just done that. I’m seriously wondering what I was thinking.
So after this tour, we head back to the hostel. This is where things got “weird” with these girls. First, they actually left the tour like 1 stop before it was over, and I figured, hey I better head back with them anyways, its just one stop and I was exhausted anyway. So they seemed a little like I was intruding by walking back with them. Then, I spent the next hour or so figuring out what to do later that night -- one of the girls comes downstairs to where I was CLEARLY sitting, and she CLEARLY acted like she didn’t see me... then they both left to go get food, also knowing I was going to get food. I guess maybe I’m being a little cynical, but personally... if I were with a friend, and we were backpacking across Europe and we met a normal girl our age from the States and she was traveling alone... I would invite her out with us for stuff! Nope, they just kept ignoring me in the hostel, and then around 11pm, as I’m taking my make-up off... “Oh are you not going out tonight? You should come out!”.... excuse me? Uggghhhhhh...
Anyways, so when they left for dinner I left out on my own in search of some Asian food, because I was CRAVING it. Thanks to Foursquare I found a dece place and started making my way there. It was pretty far so I took the S-Bahn, and ended up at an International Festival! I said to hell with finding the restaurant, there HAD to be some kind of food in there that would satisfy my craving. Sure enough, I found some lovely Thai Curry! The festival itself wasn’t very entertaining, so I walked around for a bit... found myself only entertained by the Boxer/Dane mix playing with a water bottle like Jack used to... and kept wandering. I attempted to waste time and go into the TV Tower, but after hearing it was an hour wait to the top I opted to put that one on the list of things to do when I return to Berlin (2 days was REALLY not enough... well not even 2 days). My wandering adventures continued, and proved to be pretty cool. I walked along the river and encountered some beautiful architecture, weird people, and different parts of town. Overall, I’d call it a success. Ventured back to the hostel, considered going out, and opted to stay in. Guess you could say I’m just not brave enough to venture out to the bar by myself and meet people. Possibly because it’s gone wrong in past experiences.. who knows. It’s different being a girl and going out on your own in a foreign country, and being a guy doing the same thing.
SO today-- I ventured back to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial (which I discovered on the walking tour). They had a free museum that I wanted to see, and I wanted to take more pictures. The memorial is incredible. Well, to me. Maybe i’m just a nerd about stuff like that, but it was designed with the principle that each memorial stone is the same length and width and they are all placed the same distance from each other, but they are all different heights.
Some go from a couple inches off the ground up to like 15 feet! It’s like a huge maze, and the ground underneath is wavy-- the concept behind that is from another Holocaust memorial in which they had so many bodies they had to bury that they eventually started stacking them... so some graves are 10 people deep... and the ground grew around them all making they gravesite wavy. I thought it was all pretty cool and amazing to put forth such thought (and ridiculous amounts of money -- 27 million euro) for such a great memorial. The museum itself wasn’t spectacular, but it gave a good explanation of what all went on, and it was very chilling reading the amounts of people killed, and they even had excerpts from letters/diaries/etc. of Jews that were affected. I really wanted to make it to one of the concentration camps just an hour north, but I was advised not to go alone because it can be very depressing and scary. I checked it out online and agreed. I think I might need someone to come with. To know that you’re in the place of which only 70 years ago, millions of innocent people were tortured to death, young and old... it gives you the chills. So I’m thinking maybe I will make a trip to Krakow Poland and visit Auschwitz. Otherwise, there is also one near Munich. While I’m in Prague I’m hoping to also visit the other Holocaust memorial, I believe it’s the one that graves were stacked on top of each other. I also got to see a lot of other cool sites: Hitler's Bunk, The Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, etc. I will definitely be taking a trip back to Berlin!
I’m currently on the bus to Prague... after what seemed like 437758 stop changes on the U-Bahn in Berlin, I made it to the bus stop. If there was ONE thing I could do without in Berlin, it’s the public transportation system. WORSE THAN LONDON. So now I’m on my “Business Class” bus... first cross-country bus experience since Spring Break ’09. Needless to say, I was a little nervous. But, besides the fact that the FREE WI-FI isn’t working, and I don’t have an electrical outlet at my seat... I can’t complain. I have a full two seats to myself, it’s not a 50 year old bus, the other people on here aren’t tooo creepy, no one is blaring their headphones to the point in which I can hear, we aren’t making 8000 stops at ridiculous stations in the middle of no man’s land, I DON’T have any transfers to other busses... and this particular trip, isn’t 24 hours long!!!! So... I will not be complaining! (plus, free bottled water! BOOM!) Eurolines puts Greyhound to shame! Now, if only I had Kelly Neal, Kristin Figueira, and Hallie Bergen here to start fights with me :)
On the other hand, I am NOT traveling to Prague alone! Well, at the moment I am, but I have an accomplice meeting me! I met a girl last week, Babs... she’s pretty much in my shoes. She graduated from U of I in May, didn’t know what she wanted to do, so she insanely decided to fly across the world and watch a kid, make worse than minimum wage, and “see the world”. Needless to say, we just came from the same lifestyles... and did 160 degrees spins to now, the same lifestyle -- life of a raging college student to life of a “responsible” nanny. Quite the adjustment for us both, but it was nice to hear that someone else is experiencing the same things I am, and missing the same things, and wondering what the hell!
So Babs last minute, got Sunday-Tuesday off... and is meeting me in Prague tomorrow!!!! FINALLY someone to cause some havoc with me in another country! I’m currently riding through the scenic of Germany... looks pretty similar to... my ride through Kansas. Open fields, some trees, and fucking windmills. I HATE those giant white windmills. They freak me out, especially when they’re in huge packs. God I miss home... I’m beginning to question more and more what is worth more. I know it’s only been a month, but while things are getting better, there’s still a void that I don’t think will ever be filled. It’s like... being married to a millionaire... it’s nice, but no matter how hard you try and how much money you spend on great things you buy/experience... you’re still not happy. Granted, I’m sure some wife-of a millionaire could prove to me otherwise... this is my general depiction of being married to money!
Spending the next 4 days in Prague, then guess back to Munich... we’ll see where things bring me then. Tschuss!
