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Published: July 16th 2008
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Hey hey everyone! Greetings from Dublin...it has been quite awhile since my previous blog entry. I apologize for seemingly falling off the face of the earth but I have been pretty busy in this past month or so HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!
The weekend of 27 June-30 June I visited Berlin, Germany to see my friend Jacqui who was studying german in Mayen for the past six or weeks or so. She was finishing her stay by spending about a week in the capital city of Berlin and I, thinking that I also wanted to see Berlin, thought it was a perfect opportunity to run into a friend as well as go to a place I have always wanted to visit. My interest in going to a country in which I can't speak a word of the language was inspired by my dad, who lived in Germany for awhile during college, and has raised me with stories of how much he loved it there. I also loved the city, it is my favorite that I have visited in Europe so far. I like the efficiency and modernity of it. Something about that was refreshing. I also liked the
WARSAW
Flew into Warsaw...long story. This is a pic from the central train station sunny weather, the amazing history that Berlin has (that wasn't supposed to be juxtaposed), and how big the place is.
My journey started out rough. I missed my 6am flight leaving Dublin, and since I was flying Ryan Air (nick named Ruin Air because of their infamous poor service) I was basically screwed. "Sorry, there are no more flights to Berlin until tomorrow at 6am" (which I can guarantee you, with my luck, I would have missed again). So, I'm thinking to myself, great, I'm going to miss a whole day, miss seeing my friend, and basically pay all this money just to go to Germany for one day. I decided to be adventurous. Behind the Ryan Air "help counter" there is a map of Europe and all of it's cities. I just started pointing the ones that were closest to Berlin and asking if I can fly there instead thinking I can just hop a train to Berlin once I get in the general vicinity. "Prague?" "No", "Brussels?" "Nope", "Amsterdam?" "Full", "Copenhagen?" "No more today". FINALLY... "Warsaw?" "Yes, we have one at 4pm today". Done. Emily goes to fricken Poland solo. Awesome.
My plane arrived in Warsaw
me near the reichstag
w/ the german flag in the back! around 8m or so at night. I got in and realized that the first thing I need to do is get the hell out of there. So, I approach an information desk and ask if they speak English. I honestly can't speak a word of Polish, yeah, that was a problem. Basically, she tried to explain how to get to the train station by the city bus in broken english...and at this point I just decided to take a taxi. I also realized that Poland isn't on the Euro, which may sound ignorant, but what can I say? I am ignorant, apparently. I exchange my euros for some odd currency which I had to google when I got home and found out they use the Polish zloty, a currency that is worth a little less than half of the American dollar so the exchange was saweet. Study abroad in Krakow anyone?? While driving through the city of Warsaw I realized that this place was a different world. Everyone makes the distinction between eastern and western and europe, and I can see why. It's not as though this place looked bad in any way, in fact had I been there during
the day and had some time I would have loved to check it out because it looked beautiful. However, it definitely didn't look like western Europe. Long story short, after a whole lot of language barrier issues I finally got a ticket to Berlin for that night. What I learned most from this experience is how doing very simple things, like finding a train platform, getting a ticket, or ordering food can be so difficult (and sometimes impossible) when you can't speak the language. I remember when I did actually get a train ticket that night it was because of the help of a man behind me in line who spoke english and polish. I got the ticket, looked at it, and all it said was the city where I was headed, which one should already know, hopefully. It had no platform number, and there were about 15 different possible platforms to leave from. Me, being the worrier that I am (and rightfully so in this case!) started walking around asking people that I see if they can speak english and help me. I really felt foreign and a little scared. That night I got on the night train and
rode in a sleeper car falling asleep to old school Dashboard Confessional..."Screaming Infidelities". I have never felt so relieved to be moving in a vehicle as I was right then. I awoke the next morning, and I was in Berlin!
Day one of Berlin I first off went to find Jacqui at our hostel, Mittes Backpacker Hostel. It was so great to see her, a familiar face, someone who comes from Canton, MI, which seems so far away in every sense. On this day I had scheduled a tour to see Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp just north of Berlin. Sachsenhausen was one of the first camps established by the Nazi's. It was created in 1936 as a "model camp" to show off to political figures, journalists, etc. It began as a work camp, not an extermination camp, for men only. Although this isn't to say that thousands didn't die here. It was very sad to see this place. Our guide knew a lot of history about the Third Reich and the Holocaust in general. Some of her stories brought me to tears(as embarrassing as this is). It was very much worthwhile to go and see this, I learned a
lot more about the camps and how life was for these people, even though I can obviously never REALLY know.
Later that night Jac and I went out for some hella good german beer and a good craic. We actually, ironically enough, went to an Irish pub in Berlin at first. I go all the way to Germany, to escape the Irish pub scene, and what do I do? Go to an Irish pub. I just can't get enough of 'em. That night was amazing. We went out dancing til 6am and I will never forget it. I felt like I was in Eurotrip or something---how lucky am I!!?
The next day we took it easy. Went around the city a little bit, but it wasn't too much of a sightseeing day. Later that night was EuroCup '08, and it was Espana and Deutschland. The fans are INSANE!! They walk around wearing their country's flag, screaming "DEUTSCHLAND! DEUTSCHLAND!" It went on all the next day too, even though Spain won. I can't say I minded it much, I loved the energy, and I secretly wanted Germany too.
That night Jacqui left for Venice and I was on
my own for the remainder of my trip, which was one day. That day I took a bike tour around the city. Berlin is a perfect city for cycling because it is so flat and biker-friendly. There are actual lanes set up just for cyclists, and it honestly seems as though half of the city finds this their way of transportation. I met some nice people on my tour, and it was a perfect way to see all the sites. We went to check point charlie, Alexanderplatz, the T.V. tower, Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide (although it is below ground and not open to the public, it still exists and isn't opened up so that Neo-nazi's don't gather), parts of the wall that are left, the holocaust memorial, and various other churches and old buildings that I cannot recall right now. This tour guide also knew a lot about WWII history and more specifically the history of Berlin. I learned a lot about what it was like in Berlin during wall years (1961-1989) and why the fall of the wall took place. Interesting stuff.
At the end of my journey, I returned to Eire, after an amazing trip.
P.S. I miss everyone at home! I can't wait to see you all. 😊
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