Capes, Cops, and Cocktails: The Berlin Chronicles

Prost! 

How's it going everyone?! First off prost is German for cheers so you now know another new language. Anyway this weekend I headed off for my second to last trip of study abroad (crying as I type that). Early on Friday morning, aka 4am, my friends and I traveled by taxi to Dublin airport. I might as well rent a bed there for the month of November considering how often I've been there! We discovered the Aer Lingus app had mobile check-in so we had boarding passes on our iPhones and breezed through security. After the mandatory coffee stop (I travel with a gang of caffeine addicts) it was finally time to board. I managed to catch some z's on the plane. If I hadn't, day 1 would have been struggle city. Berlin, like most other European cities has a ballin' metro system so we decided to be truly adventurous and navigate it blindly to our AirBnB. For those of you who don't know what an AirBnB is, it's basically someone privately owns an apartment and rents it out to travelers through the website. It's much nicer than a hostel and about the same price! We ended up having a penthouse type set up in one of the nicest apartments I've ever seen! Here's a link if you wanna check it out. If you're ever in Berlin and need a place to stay I highly recommend it. The only downside was the lack of elevator. It felt like we were climbing a mountain every time we got home. Our friend Catherine had flown in from Paris a little earlier than us and was waiting for our arrival. After regrouping for a few minutes we ventured to this market to meet up with Catherine's friends who were studying in Berlin. It was sweet to have our own tour guide who knew his way around and even spoke a little German. We went to the local grocery store and grabbed some beers. The beautiful part about Berlin is there are no open container laws (more on this later) so we casually strolled along the river drinking our Schofferhoffer admiring the city. You may be wondering if it was cold in Berlin? Well it was. About 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit while we were there but for the most part we didn't notice. For a late lunch we grabbed some burgers because, let's be real I'm essentially trying one in every country. The boys offered to cook us dinner at their apartment so we had those plans ironed out but wanted to get a little culture in on the first day. One of the girls I was with is a history major and we were totally geeking out over being in Germany. I've always had a strange fascination with WWII and Holocaust history. Anyway we headed over the Jewish History Museum which is designed with very deliberate architecture and exhibits. It was full of artifacts from actual people involved in the holocaust and persecution. It was so powerful. Everywhere you looked there was another art exhibit with a deep meaning linking to anti-Semitic themes. My favorite part was the garden of exile where there are these tall stones on slanted ground that make you feel dizzy and disoriented. It's hard to explain but it certainly is representative of the way Jews felt in Nazi Germany. After exploring the rest of the halls we headed to the boys' apartment where they had laid out quite the luxurious spread from a cheese tray with wine and a bangin stir fry. We certainly were living the high life this weekend. The plan was originally to have dinner and then head to a bar or club. Well that didn't happen. Our host ended getting a little too drunk and somehow took us to a random house party in the middle of Berlin. The best part was we thought that he knew the people but a few minutes in we learned that we were completely alone! We evacuated from there fairly quickly but still hilarious. We stopped at one more place before cabbing it back to our place. Speaking of cabbing it, god bless all the kind Germans who called big vans for us since we were a group of five and couldn't fit in a standard cab. The next morning we woke up determined to get a lot done. We had breakfast and coffee and this bagel place which was sweet because we don't get a lot of bagels in Dublin or Paris. From there we tried to take the metro to the Berlin Wall which was where our first and only bit of trouble happened. So in Berlin you have to validate your metro ticket before boarding but apparently one of us did it wrong and the secret metro police who were so shady and undercover made us get off and charged our poor friend Madeline 40euro! So lame, but again one for the record books. We ended up making it to the wall which is really intense. All along the top at various points there's these ghoul like statues but the wall itself is cool covered in interesting art pieces and messages. 

From the wall we found this really cool store full of handmade rings and retro things. The girl working there had just moved to Berlin from Maine and gave us great advice on how to get to Checkpoint Charlie. Off we went! After stopping at Starbucks (caffeine addicts I swear!) we saw the checkpoint which is actually just a little booth in the middle of the street. We got kinda annoyed when we realized the "American" soldiers were actually German totally mocking our servicemen and taking some risqué photos with tourists with our flag. We stopped at the souvenir shop so I could get some postcards and headed back to the apartment to plan the rest of the evening. We eventually formulated an itinerary that started off at the Kadawe, the largest department store in Europe. This place was massive. The whole bottom floor was all luxury stores that I could never even dream of affording but we worked our way through and ended up at the restaurant at the top and ate dinner overlooking the street. Then we decided we wanted to go to the top of the Television Tower. It's one of the biggest landmarks in Berlin and was built by the soviets. When we got off the metro though we stumbled upon a 5 euro cocktail place which is just too good to pass up. After enjoying the first mojito we realized we could get one to go. Literally we were five American girls strolling the streets of Berlin with Mojitos! So euro! The tower itself wasn't too hard to navigate to as you can see it from almost everywhere. The elevator takes you 260 meters up in about 40 seconds and the top is a 360 panoramic view of the city. So breathtaking. There was a bar up there so we hung out for a while just hanging out and talking about life. 

After that we were gonna go home to get an early jump on our last day but ended up in a club for a little bit which was an experience no doubt. It was mostly older people ordering bottle service of Absolut. Seriously go big or go home folks, but we had a great time dancing and enjoying life. 

One our last morning in the apartment we all packed up our backpacks and headed out to explore Museums and the bigger tourist attractions. We had the most questionable breakfasts known to man ranging from an Irish breakfast to pizza. We're an eclectic bunch no doubt. From the breakfast place it was only a short walk to museum island which is where the national art gallery and all that jazz is. Honestly it was nothing special so we moved on. Once on the other side of the river some of the group stopped in the German History Museum to utilize the coat check for their bags. I just had one backpack (I'm becoming a really efficient packer!) so I carried it with me all day. We continued down the road to the Brandenburg Gate and took some obligatory tourist pics. Then we hung a left and ended up at the Holocaust Memorial which was awesome. There was a free museum underneath so of course we explored it. I could have stayed there all day reading the stories of those poor souls. Definitely a moving experience. A pit stop was need after that so we grabbed coffee. I finally found a Dunkin in Europe so of course I had iced coffee. I don't care how cold it was outside, you don't understand the struggle of trying to find ice anywhere in Europe. It's just not a thing. After the delicious DD break we walked down to the Reichstag which is the German parliament building. It was crazy to think we were looking at places that Adolf Hitler had been, as well as thinking how different the city would have looked even 25 years ago. The building itself is huge and imposing, a true must see. We knew we had to start heading to the airport soon so we hiked back to the German History Museum where the bags were checked. We had time to kill so we explored in there a little. I went and saw a killer exhibit called The Eyes of War which told the story of around 40 people who had been blinded in the war or shortly after from ammunition left around by troops fleeing. The stories were really sad as all of the blindings were just accidents. Most of the time when these people were kids they just didn't know that their "toys" were actually deadly weapons. It was truly heartbreaking. Finally we headed via metro back to the airport. I broke the tradition of having McDonald's in every country but did end up with some ballin Burger King. Let me just take this time to say how horrifying the Berlin airport is. It's a thousand degrees inside with no where to sit. Literally people just sprawled on the floor everywhere you looked. It was torturous to have to sit in there for a few hours. Thankfully though I got on the plane and sat next to a lovely Irish woman who gave me gum and offered me lots of snack. She wanted to hear all about studying in Ireland and what I thought about it. It was just another reminder of why I love this country so much. You won't find friendlier people or a more warm atmosphere. As the last days of my semester are winding down I'm full of so many conflicting emotions. I'm going to miss it here more than I could ever express in words on this blog. But I try not to think about the little countdown ticking away at the right of the screen. I still have plenty of time to love it up. I'll be back. 

From Dublin with Love. 

I fought the top bunk and the top bunk won.

Hey friends, family, and acquaintances,

So I CZECHED another country off the list this weekend when I visited Prague in the Czech Republic. ****PARENTAL WARNING- things got a little messy this trip and I will be nothing but brutally honest in this post hahah**** On Friday I woke up early and hopped on the Dublin Bus to take me into city center where I was catching the Aircoach. The Aircoach is an awesome service here in Dublin where a shuttle bus will pick you up and take you to the airport for around 6 euro. I was meeting my friend Paige from home and her roommate who are studying at UCD. Because we had checked in using the Aer Lingus app we could bypass all the typical waiting around and head straight to security. The flight itself was a little over two hours long. Upon arriving in Prague there were immediate signs of the communist and soviet era. Everything seemed a little colder and there was certainly a feeling that the country was playing catch-up in their post-communist state. I continued my tradition of tasting the McDonald's in every country before hopping in the cab towards the hostel. One of the biggest difference in the Czech Republic is their currency; they aren't members of the European Union and therefore don't use the Euro. Instead, they use the Czech Koruna. I took out about 2000 koruna which equates to about $97 US dollars. We got to our hostel, The Czech Inn, which is on the newer side of Prague. Ironically the newer part is not as nice as Old Town because it was built up during the Soviet Era. After settling in we tried to venture out to find food. There wasn't much around but we found a Chinese place. Even that was a struggle though. The shop owners first language was Chinese and her second language was Czech, so we ended up pointing to the menu and hoping for the best. We got back to the hostel and met up with our nine other roommates who were on the trip with us to get ready for the Clock Tower Bar Crawl. Prague is the nightlife capital of Europe and the thing to do on Fridays is crawl. This is where the trouble started. This crawl was 18 euro and included a four hour open bar. I felt like I was back in an international frat party. We played beer pong with people from Spain and Liverpool among other places. By the end of the night was had the whole bar chanting USA as we dominated every opponent in pong. They also just carry around trays and trays of free shots for you to grab as you party. We left the first bar and walked across the street to stop number two. Did I mention that at every bar they give you a welcome shot? This one was an underground dance club type experience where everyone was on the stage dancing around enjoying their 3 for 2 euro Jager bombs... The third bar was about a 20 minute walk. Along the way we almost got hit by the tram; that was the first near death experience. The third place got really weird, really quickly so we didn't stay long. We decided it would be best to hop off the crawl before the last stop so we wouldn't be too hungover for the next day. After cabbing it back to the hostel I attempted to get back into the top bunk but missed a step on the ladder, kicked the bed HARD, and fell, injuring myself pretty badly. In all honesty I probably should have gotten stitches but they aren't so easily accessible in a foreign country where you don't speak the language. I went to bed and dealt with it in the morning . Everyone woke up around 9 to go to breakfast and get ready for the walking tour. My injuries forced me to walk a little slower but I toughed it out and made it through the day. We went down to the water and viewed the city, saw the Charles Bridge, and even made a stop at the John Lennon Wall. The wall was my favorite part. During the Velvet Revolution, which was the movement to pull away from communism and eventually allowed the country to become a republic, young activists and students would come to this wall and write secret messages about protests and meetings. Every day the communist forces would come to the wall and paint over them. If you were caught writing on the wall you would be arrested and tortured. Today though, the wall serves as a symbol of the country's progress and people come from all over the world to leave messages. Our trip leaders brought some spray paint for us to write our own messages. Paige and I decided to leave an Irish message and wrote Slainte. I also put #NBLB on the wall in memory of Sara. For lunch we had a traditional three-course Czech meal which was, well, interesting. The first course was a weird soup, followed by beef goulash. Not horrible but not my favorite European meal. For dessert we had apple strudel. After lunch we traveled by tram up the hill to Prague castle. The castle itself is pretty small and is really just a group of building surrounding what people thing is Prague Castle, St. Vicar's Cathedral. St. Vicar's is a huge Gothic building and is actually the second largest cathedral in the world. We explored there a little bit and had Starbucks on the side of the cliff. Then we headed back to the hostel for a rest. For dinner we found a place by the metro where some of us had burgers and other had more traditional Czech food like pork knuckles and cheek. Very bizarre. On the last day in Prague we woke up and headed to Old Town Square to see the Astrological Clock which was voted the second most disappointing tourist attraction in Europe, next to the Mona Lisa, While beautiful, the clock doesn't do much except the parts move on the hour for a small show. Each piece of the clock represents something which was interesting to learn about. We stopped at a place called the Bakeshop for a light lunch before heading off to the airport. One interesting fact about the Prague airport is that there is no security until you get to your individual gate. Each gate has its own mini security check. While I had a very fun time in Prague I am always excited to go home. It's actually starting to scare me that when I think of home I think of Dublin instead of America. It is just such an overwhelming feeling every time I get off the plane in Dublin knowing that I am back in a place that brings me so much happiness. I have had very few bad days here and I'm not ready to come home. I wish I could just come home for Christmas time and come back for the spring. In any case I am going to live it up for the rest of my time here and I know I will be back as soon as possible. Berlin next weekend!


From Dublin with Love.

Fly High Shaquita

Hello everyone,

I told myself that this blog would be a representation of my time abroad: the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm sad to say that today is one of the saddest days in my life. One of my good friends has passed away. Sara Sawick was an infectious spirit so full of love and life. From volleyball to softball, royal masque to kairos, parking lot dance parties, to late night conversations we used to be inseperable. You always were there to make everyone around you laugh. No matter how mad I was at you, you would always make me laugh and everything would be fine. Our relationship was a unique one: the definition of love/hate. I'll never be able to look at a squirrel or sing Baby It's Cold Outside without thinking of you. Your death was a tragic reminder of the fragility of life. I only wish I could be home to say goodbye to you one last time. You lived a life full of laughter and YOLO-ing where you always told every one around you "why blend in when you can stand out". You certainly did that and no one will forget you. Sara, you stayed k&k until the very end. So much untapped talent and potential and love. May angels lead you in. NBLB. BSC. BBs. 

A dull weekend in Ireland is better than an average weekend anywhere else

Greetings friends!

I don't have to much to report this week. It was relatively quiet, but much needed. The work week was grueling as always, but I did get to work on some secret projects on Thursday which made things a little more interesting. The world of Irish politics is currently dominated by the water charges being put in place to deal with the EU Bail-out. The debates have been very interesting and I'd say I have gained a better understanding of what grinds the gears of the average Irish citizen. If you are interested in seeing all the things I am working on you can check out this website: Irish Independent
The party I work for is the party in power, Fine Gael. On the weekend, I fully intended on starting to work on my final papers. Crazy to think that I already have to start thinking about finals! Instead, I slept a lot and recovered from the constant running that study abroad has caused. On Saturday night I went and saw the movie Gone Girl with Kelly. What a phenomenal movie, I definitely recommend it! One weird thing about the cinema, as it's referred to here, is that you have assigned seating! Luckily we had good seats right in the middle. Of course afterwards we headed to the pub for a pint or two. My friend James asked me if I'd go to church with him on Sunday and I don't know if it was the beer talking but I agreed. Those of you who know me well enough know that I'm not really a religious person and don't even go to church at home, but I actually enjoyed the mass! It was at 6pm so I still got to sleep in, plus there is a folk music group that does the cantering! They even sang Let It Be for the Communion hymn. It was a little piece of home since Catholic masses are the same no matter where you go in the world. We even brought our friend Kelly along which was hilarious because she is a Baptist and was totally lost. She seemed to think we were in an aerobics class rather than mass with all the standing, sitting, and kneeling! We also got to see the upcoming candidates for Confirmation as it was their enrollment mass. Fifty adorable little Irish lads and lasses, reminding us how old we actually are these days.....Oh well, afterwards we went, you guessed it, to the pub for some post-church pints of Guinness and a chat with the bartenders where we really confess our sins.

Only a few weeks left!

From Dublin, With Love.

Halloweekend

Halloween has always been a fun time of year for me as long as I can remember. I love watching the leaves change color and fall to the earth. The rich reds, oranges, and yellows of autumn slowly transform into the oranges, purple, and black of the Halloween season. Things were a little different this year. At home, my friends and I spend weeks planning our Halloween festivities. Whether it's decorations, or costumes, or what parties we're going to, every thing gets planned down to the tiniest detail. In Ireland, though, Halloween is not nearly as big of a deal. The only place you actually see decorations is at the airport. I didn't even have a costume until the day of! Our weekend started on Wednesday with a small party hosted by my friends Susan and Kelly. We all had work the next day so it was a small get together. Up until about an hour before the event I still didn't know what I was going to dress up as, but I eventually scrounged through my bedroom and pulled the pieces together for a tourist costume, selfie stick included. It was great craic going around the party taking ridiculous pictures of everyone. On Thursday, we decided to take it easy and hang out at James and Dev's place playing one of our favorite games, Cardboard. Some people went out afterwards but I was dead tired after a long work week, so I turned in early. Halloween finally rolled around and I had not idea what to wear. I headed down to EuroGiant where nothing is more than 2euro and purchased some face-paint. I decided to go with the most unoriginal costume of the year: a sugar skull. I was pretty pleased with the finished product and headed out to Blackbird for some drinks. The original plan was to hop around a little bit but as always I ended up staying at Blackbird for the rest of the night. James' girlfriend was in for the week and had a flight to catch the next morning so we were supposed to keep it a quiet night, supposed to being the key phrase here. The next day, after a few pints of water and a long nap, Dev and I headed to Dracula's Castle, which is half haunted house, half magic show. It was a cool way to have a chill night that wasn't just sitting around. We even got involved in the show, getting called on stage to be a part of the act. Afterwards we headed back to Rathmines by bus, grabbed some Chinese, and spent the rest of the night watching Sherlock on the AppleTV. Sunday was a lazy day filled with half-hearted attempts at cleaning the flat. I grabbed an early dinner with John and hung out with friends for a while before heading back to, you guessed it, Blackbird to grab a drink with Kelly and her parents who are in for the week. They even invited me and Anne to a later dinner so we headed into city centre for a nice relaxing night. Currently, I'm back in class, obviously diligently taking notes.....Sorry mom. SO I guess I'll get back to that.


From Dublin, With Love.