This morning around 5am Jacquie left for the airport, leaving me all alone with the nasty Brits that were our new roommates. I packed up my things, went down for breakfast, and was out by 9am for the move to my new private room in a hostel in West Berlin. It was located near the huge shopping district and alongside all the fun shops and restaurants I had seen the day prior, so I was very pleased. Since I felt we had really gotten the most out of our 5 days in the city I opted for a little day trip to Potsdam, the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg about a half-hour S-Bahn ride southwest of Berlin. The residence of the Prussian kings until 1918, the city is surrounded by a series ... read more

We awoke today to another fairly nice day, though somewhat overcast. After again feasting at breakfast we headed out into the city toward our first stop, the GDR Museum. This museum captures the life of the citizens of East Berlin who lived in the Communist "German Democratic Republic" with hands on exhibits and recreations of a typical home, etc. Though my Easter European trip some years ago gave me a lot of experience with museums recreating life under communism, I did enjoy this museum quite a bit, save the annoying school groups. The fact that the Berlin East Germans were literally cut off from half of their city overnight makes the situation quite a bit different, literally a wall separating them from Western Life. Moving on along we stumbled upon the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche, Berlin's first neo-Gothic ... read more

After waiting a bit at the airport for Michael's sister and then trying to figure out the S-Bahn, we arrived at our hostel sometime before midnight and basically went straight to bed. The hostel is hands down the best I've ever stayed in so that was very exciting after such a long day. Unfortunately we woke up to nasty weather the next day - it wasn't cold but it was very dreary and rainy. Since we were planning on spending most of the day in East Germany I told myself it was an appropriate reflection of the area's somewhat dark past. Anyway we first had a lovely 5€ breakfast downstairs consisting of eggs, cold cuts, breads, fruit..you name it! We were ghetto and even made sandwiches for later in the evening wrapped in napkins. Once finished ... read more

Our last full day in Cantabria started once again with breakfast, but this time we were afterwards bussed to the Fundación Marcelino Botín. Being a foundation started by the owners of Banco Santander, the foundation has a lot of money and seems to have set up tons of organizations in the city of Santander for the promotion of language, culture, and whatnot. There we heard from the Director General and sat through two presentations by ETAs discussing our break-out session experiences. Finally the conference was closed. From there we were transported to Comillas, a northern municipality where the Fundación Comillas, which is dedicated to promoting Hispanic culture worldwide, has taken control of the former Jesuit Pontifical University. We first had a tapas-esque lunch of fish "pudding", squid, a goat cheese salad, flan, and copious amounts of ... read more

Well Andorra, I like you, but now it's time for a 4 month affair with Santander, Berlin, Vienna, and Chicagoland. That being said, yesterday we began our journey to Santander, in Spain's region of Cantabria on the northern coast. This part of Spain is known as being "green" due to its wet climate and therefore lush vegetation. To be honest it is extremely reminiscent of Newport - lots of money, lots of beautiful homes and buildings, and lots of old people. Though I have been here once in 2006 while studying abroad in Spain, I honestly remember almost nothing and am very much looking forward to a few days on the coast. Naturally, since I am traveling, we had to be met with trauma. The first of said traumas was the 1.5 hour bus delay thanks ... read more