TV Tower Dinner - May 28, 2013

Today started off with everyone in a panic to finish their projects, as they were due at 2. I had turned mine in a few days ago so I just hung out and relaxed until everyone else was done. My throat started to feel funny and everyone has been getting sick so I'm really hoping I'm not.

Once everyone had turned in their project we went to this little espresso bar near our hotel and had these really delicious sandwiches. Pretty much everyone got the mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwiches but seeing as I don't like tomatoes I didn't get that. I got Serrano ham and fresh mozzarella. It came on an herb bread and it was so delicious that I'm probably going to go back tomorrow and get it.

After lunch we wandered around Alexanderplatz for a while just to get out of the hotel. We went to another Humana thrift shop, but I don't really have the patience to find good things in thrift shops so I just sat and watched people try on weird clothes.

We then went back to the hotel and got ready for our nice group dinner at the TV Tower. Basically you get in the elevator at the TV Tower and it's super fast and makes your ears pop. The elevator lets you out at the observation deck where you can walk around and see a 360 degree view of Berlin. It was cool to look out in pretty much any direction and recognize a place we had visited or learned about during our trip.

Once we had looked around a bit we got to go up to the next floor to the restaurant to eat. The restaurant is situated like a donut, as Professor Freeman called it, with the tables all aligned in a ring next to the windows on a spinning platform with the kitchen being stationary in the middle. The restaurant rotates once every half hour, so it spins at a noticeable speed. This gave me a headache at first, but you get used to it.

This dinner was one of my favorite memories. The ceiling of the restaurant has little lights that look like constellations and it's really class and the food was delicious. We had a set 3-course meal because of how big of a group we were, and normally since I'm a picky eater I don't enjoy these types of things but it was so good.

We started off with bread and a potato soup. Our main course was roasted chicken with potatoes Au Gratin. It was so good, especially the potatoes Au Gratin. I could have just eaten a giant bowl of those for dinner. Amber ordered a vegetarian meal and got a really delicious risotto which several of us helped her finish. The only part of the meal I wasn't a huge fan of was the dessert. It was some sort of cherry something with vanilla ice cream on top. The ice cream was good but I don't really like cherries so Andrea enjoyed most of my dessert. I was pretty full from finishing Amber's risotto anyway so that didn't really matter.

The TV Tower dinner was a unique experience that I never would have thought to do, but was extremely cool. We felt so classy sitting in this nice revolving restaurant sipping our wine and eating delicious food. It was great.

After dinner a few of us had been wanting to go back to the Brandenburg Gate at night because it gets lit up and looks really pretty. We took a bus there and it was a double decker bus so everyone was excited. We went upstairs and sat in the front so we had a perfect view out the windshield. The gate at night is much more peaceful without the throngs of tourists and creepy people dressed up in costumes everywhere. I really enjoyed it. What I did not enjoy was the journey back. For some reason we decided not to take the bus back in the direction we had come from so we took an S-bahn to the U6, finally figured out that all those announcements over the past few days in German were about the U6 being closed between the street we were at and the street we needed to get to, then we went to another S-bahn platform and another and another before finding the right one. I was getting ready to walk out and walk because that probably would have been faster at that time of night when the trains don't run as frequently. But we made it. We even managed to see someone we know, Alex who was our walking tour guide and Lauren's project subject. That was actually pretty cool because it just shows that in a big city you barely know you can still see someone familiar.

Anyway, it was a really good night and I'm starting to get sad that tomorrow is our last day here. I really have enjoyed being here and I want to come back some day for sure. I am excited to go home and see my family and friends and sleep in my own bed though. As cliché as it sounds, leaving Thursday morning will definitely be bittersweet.

Exploring Alone and Emilie's 21st Birthday! - May 27, 2013

Today I woke up and it was sunny. FINALLY! I decided to embrace the sunshine and go out exploring by myself. I hadn't really gotten a chance to do that yet. I really enjoy walking around on my own so I was excited. First I went and got a pastry for  breakfast because after a while I just can't eat salami sandwiches for breakfast at the hotel. Then I rode the tram and walked to Museum Island where I bought a 3 day pass to all the museums there.

First stop was the Pergamon Museum which is really cool. Inside there is about a third of the actual Pergamon and you can walk up the steps and look around. There is also an Islamic exhibit in the museum which has beautiful wood and tile work.

I took some pictures outside in front of the Berliner Dom and then decided to walk to the Brandenburg Gate which is about a kilometer away. I slowly made my way there, people-watching along the way. I also made a stop at Humboldt University to buy a t-shirt because I collect shirts from different universities.  Once I got to the Brandenburg Gate I attempted to take a series of unfortunate selfies because I really wanted a picture of myself in front of it. None of them were very successful, so hopefully tomorrow night we can go as a group and someone can take a decent picture of me in front of it.

Next I decided to go over near some cafés by the US Embassy to get some lunch, and I settled on a Crêpe place that I had eaten at during the walking tour last week. My waiter didn't speak English, and he thought I was French so he proceeded to speak to me in French which wasn't really any better than him speaking to me in German considering I couldn't understand him either way.
 
I ordered a Berliner Weisse for the first time, and I settled on the apple flavor because that seemed like a good option. It was really weird drinking apple flavored beer through a straw. I also got a toasted baguette with turkey and some sort of cheese which turned out to be more like a pizza than a sandwich, which is what I thought it would be. So lunch was an interesting experience. Not to mention the plethora of birds flying past my face every 2 seconds. This did nothing to appease my intense fear of birds.

After lunch I had originally planned to go visit the Reichstag building, but I didn't really want to walk back in that direction and I really wanted to buy something at KaDeWe so I sat down and tried to look at my map and figure out how to get there. I had a general idea of where it was but I stared at my map for nearly 20 minutes and couldn't find it on there. Finally I gave up on looking at the map and just walked towards Potsdamer Platz until I found free wi-fi. When I found wi-fi I looked up the U-bahn stop for KaDeWe and headed towards that.

I got what I was looking for and was exhausted so I decided to head back to the hotel after that. The trip from KaDeWe takes almost 45 minutes and I was ready to relax when I got back.

Today is Emilie's 21st birthday and we all wanted to make it special for her so a few of us went back to KaDeWe to have gourmet desserts and wine. The choices were almost overwhelming. I got the KaDeWe torte, and honestly I have no idea what was in it but it was delicious. I never actually had a real dinner.

After dessert a few of us headed to Victoriapark with TA Andrew to watch the sunset. Everyone else went back to the hotel to finish working on their projects. Watching the sunset from the top of the hill in a fortress was cool, especially since last time a group of us tried to watch it we missed the sunset completely due to getting lost.

I really enjoyed my day of solo exploring and I'll probably go off on my own again tomorrow, at least to go look at the rest of the museums. Exploring alone helped me get some good photos that won't look the same as everyone else's. It also gave me time to reflect on the city and the trip. I find that wandering around by yourself is the best way to discover a place. I can't believe we only have 2 more days here. I'm definitely planning on making the most of them. I'm going to come back and add pictures from today later, the wi-fi is being really slow and it would take hours to upload them all now.

Flea Market at Mauer Park - May 26, 2013

This morning a few of us headed off to the giant Sunday flea market near Mauer Park. It was raining but stopped once we got there, but there was mud everywhere. This didn't take away from the uniqueness of the flea market though. It was absolutely massive. We spent hours there and I still don't think we saw all of it. There is a part of the wall still at the park and we went up and took pictures near that as well, and I sat on one of the swings there that overlooks a field and the entire flea market.

Megan and I got bratwurst for lunch and I managed to get ketchup all over myself. I also searched fervently for a souvenir for my friend Courtney and finally found one. I won't say what it is, in case she is reading this, but I bought it from a British guy. That will make more sense once she sees what it is.

I spent about an hour or two in the afternoon perfecting my project and waiting for Professor Freeman to return so that I could show him. The hardest part of the project was definitely taking the photos, I found editing the audio and putting the soundslides presentation together really simple. I'm so relieved to be done with that.

I decided to celebrate finishing my project by going to dinner at Asian Tiger with Megan, but we were a bit disappointed and have come to the conclusion that the Vietnamese place that we keep going to is better.

A few of us ended the night by hanging out in our room as usual, and that led to some pretty hilarious conversations. I'm excited to go home in a few days and see my friends and family again, but nights like these make me realize I'm going to miss Berlin and the new friends I've made here on this trip.

Bayern Wins! - May 25, 2013

It has been constantly raining and cold. I can't say I'm a fan of that. However, I didn't let that get in the way of having an amazing day.

The day started off late as usual because we tend to stay up late hanging around and talking to each other so the first thing we did was go get lunch. We tried to go to Asian Tiger but it was closed on Saturdays so we went back to the Vietnamese place that we ate at for one of the group dinners. I got the same thing, chicken with fried rice, again because it was delicious and cheap. Then we went on an epic adventure to go find this giant thrift shop. It took quite a while to get there and we were all freezing and soaked. We were also a bit disappointed because the thrift shop was not exactly what we had expected.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to go to Kaiser and get snacks which was a fun experience. Then I remembered that my friend had told me to watch the Champions League Finals so I went and asked the front desk clerk what time it started and I began to research the best places to watch. I settled on the Oscar Wilde Irish Pub. A group of us headed out and when we got there it was packed because it was about a half hour before the game was scheduled to start.

The good thing about an Irish pub is that the people who were working in there happened to be Irish and could speak English. Also, they have really good french fries, or chips as they were calling them. We found seats on a bench that didn't have the best view of the screen, but it was the only place we could find to situate ourselves without being yelled at to move every 3 seconds.

Because of my friend Stefan I wanted Bayern München to win. I prefer their colors over Dortmund's yellow and black anyway. Luckily we ended up sitting near mostly Bayern fans. Being in this pub for the final was beyond cool. Whenever anything remotely exciting would happen everyone cheered, and I lost my voice cheering when Bayern scored their second goal near the end of the game. Everyone jumped up and high-fived and screamed, it was great. This night was definitely a highlight of mine. It was such a cool event to be a witness of, watching two German teams compete against each other in the CL finals in Germany.

Tonight was a night I'll never forget, and it is just another thing to add to my list of reasons why I love Berlin.

Laundry Day - May 24, 2013

Today I woke up and did laundry. I've gotta say, it was not easy to decipher what the instructions were when they were all written in German. I just had to guess what the words meant. Also, German laundromats are expensive. It probably cost me about $15 to wash a weeks worth of laundry. I'm so grateful for my washer/dryer in my apartment now.

After doing laundry I had to run back to the hotel and change to go back to the EyeEm office to meet Severin. We went to lunch with one of his co-workers at a Vietnamese restaurant and I had these chicken spring rolls that were really good. Then we went around taking a few pictures and I did my interview. I feel much less stressed now that I have the pictures and audio for my project, but now I have to edit everything together which is a different kind of stressful.

I came back and had some alone time which was really nice. I edited some pictures and tried to pick out which ones to use for my project. It's so weird going from being at my apartment alone all the time, or with just my roommate to being with people nearly 24/7.

Emilie, Megan, Lauren, Amber and I went back to Al Dente for dinner which was delicious. I feel like I haven't eaten enough German food on this trip because there are so many different options around us. After dinner some of us went to the Kaiser Market and I got 2 giant bottles of water and some German chocolate.

Now a few of us are chilling in our room as usual, blogging and working on our projects. I think we're probably going to go out tomorrow night which I'm excited about. We're also planning on going vintage shopping and exploring to get more pictures. I can't believe that in a week I'll be back home in Gainesville. I almost don't want to go home. Sorry for the lack of pictures today, most of them were of Severin and there will be plenty of pictures of him later so I won't bombard my blog with them now. Tomorrow should have more!

Shopping and blisters - May 23, 2013

So today I woke up late again, as usual. Professor Freeman was downstairs critiquing people's photos. I was nervous about that, since I've never taken a photography class and I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with a camera most of the time. I had a couple okay pictures, but I definitely need to get out and take more.

After breakfast a group of us decided to go to Alexanderplatz to go to this festival (which was possibly an African culture festival), but we all got separated at one point and Lauren and I were on our own. I was wearing new shoes which were giving me blisters so I went to dm and got some blister bandaids, but they are not the same as the ones back home. That is, they didn't work.

Lauren and I spent the day shopping around Alexanderplatz and then we decided to go to KaDeWe, Europe's largest department store. I could have spent hours there. The food selection alone was really cool. They even had an American section of drinks and candy. There was stuff from all over the world. We plan on going back for Emilie's birthday to get dessert because they looked phenomenal.

After KaDeWe we had to head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We ate at this Thai/Vietnamese place down the street from our hotel and I got chicken and fried rice with vegetables. It was so good. I plan on going back there at some point because it was cheap and I really liked it.

I got back to the hotel early to check my email because I was supposed to meet up with Severin and I had to figure out where the place was. Since I had time to myself I finally got to Skype with one of my friends, because it is really difficult to use the internet when everyone is here and sitting in your room having 4 conversations at once. So it was good to catch up with someone from home.

At 9 I was supposed to meet Severin at a restaurant with his friends so I figured it wouldn't take that long to get there and I could leave about 20 minutes before I was supposed to meet him and be on time. However, that was not the case. Once I figured out how to get there it took about 45 minutes to an hour to get there.

Lauren and I had a nice time having drinks with Severin, his girlfriend and his friends and it helped me get to know him a bit better.

I feel like I'm getting really good at navigating the city and the public transportation. I have my bearings now and one of my favorite things to do is explore on my own and find random places that nobody else from the trip has found. Well, that's all I have for today! 

Solo Exploring and Sangria - May 22, 2013

Today I slept in. A catch up on sleep was definitely needed after the first few days in Berlin. In the morning Andrea and I went shopping at Alexa. Again I spent too much money in there. It's a problem. I managed to order my lunch only in German and I was pretty impressed with myself for that, although honestly I just guessed what the man I was ordering from was saying.

I had to get back to the hotel to find my way to EyeEm Headquarters, because I had a meeting there at 4 to talk about my project and figure out how they would participate. It was a bit of a walk, and it was raining, but I actually enjoyed being totally on my own for the first time. I think being all alone in a city helps you to get a feel for the city.

When I got to EyeEm I was a little nervous to ring the buzzer and walk up the stairs. Once I got into the office though I felt much better. Severin met me and introduced me to people and we discussed what I would need from a subject. He then took me to meet some of the other people in the office. When he asked someone else how they would figure out which one of them would be my subject, they all suggested him. Severin is really friendly and easy to talk to, and I'm excited to profile him.

After my meeting with Severin I had to meet up with the rest of the group, conveniently next door the EyeEm's office to listen to Christoph Niemann speak. He talked to us about creativity and showed us some of his work. I really like graphic design, so I found this really interesting. His stuff was so creative that I couldn't even imagine how his brain works. He gave us each a mini screen print of his, which I thought was really nice and I can't wait to hang it up above my desk at home.

Tonight we attempted to go to a pub crawl but then didn't feel like paying 12 euros for it, so Megan, Meredith, Carla, Andrea, Amber and I decided to go in this Spanish tapas restaurant and share a pitcher of sangria. I loved it because it reminded me of my trip to Spain last summer, and we had a really good time.

Today was a productive day for getting in touch with my subject and I can't wait to learn more about Severin and get my project done.

Tacheles and shopping! - May 21, 2013

Today Megan and I decided to go find this weird shop that we had heard about because Megan wanted to see if the owner of the shop would be a good subject. We walked all over but couldn't find the shop. We did however find Tacheles. Both of us had heard about the building where artists meet to create and display their work but knew it was closed. There was an artist outside named Carl who we had an interesting conversation with about Berlin and Tacheles, but he wasn't interested in being Megan's subject. He told us that in the back of the building was a garden that some of the artists still had their work displayed in.

We walked to the back of the garden and there were sculptures and paintings all over. We talked to several artists and Megan finally found one who was interested in being her subject.

After we left Tacheles we got ice cream and went to Alexa to go shopping. I may or may not have spent a little too much money in H&M...

A few of us decided that we didn't want to go out so we hung around the hotel and worked on editing pictures and blogging. Obviously I'm several days behind on blogging, so I was working more on my photos and trying to get in contact with my subject.

In the evening we went to the Friedrichstadt-Palast and saw Show Me which was sort of a musical revue. I'm not generally into theater so I didn't know what to expect, but I was blown away by how cool it was. There were acrobats, pole dancers, water features, and more. It was the highlight of the day for sure.

West Berlin and Dr. Pong - May 20, 2013

Today started off by getting up and trying to explore a bit because we had free time until 1PM. Megan, Amber and I decided to venture out of the hotel for fresh air and found pretty much everything was closed due to some sort of bank holiday.

The three of us found this little coffee shop/bakery near Alexanderplatz and I got a muffin because the hotel breakfast hadn't cut it this morning and I was still hungry.

When we came back we all met with a photojournalist who works for a wire company and he was really interesting. I enjoyed listening to what he had to say. I related to a lot of his attitudes about career and life.

In the afternoon several of us went to West Berlin to explore that area more. We went over to Potsdamer Platz and found a festival. It was called the Berlin-Instambul festival and it was a celebration of Turkish culture.

After walking around the festival we went to the Sony Center which is this giant place with restaurants and a movie theater. It's very modern and really contrasts with a lot of the parts of East Berlin that I've explored. We also walked around Tiergarten, which is this beautiful, GIANT park near the Brandenburg Gate.

In the evening the entire group went to this Ping-Pong bar called Dr. Pong's. I wish we had a place like this in Gainesville because it was pretty awesome. I met some really nice women from Newcastle, England and talked to them for most of the night about traveling. It's so cool how you can meet people from all over the world and instantly connect with someone over a shared interest.

Berlin is the coolest place ever - May 19, 2013

Today was absolutely amazing. It didn’t start off well, because once my alarm went off at 8:13 this morning it took me about an hour to actually get out of bed. That’s what I get for staying up until 3AM. We were scheduled to do a walking tour today, and it was the perfect day for it because it was 75 degrees and sunny all day.

We met our guide Alex and he took us all over Berlin to places like Museum Island, the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie. He was really good at explaining this history of Berlin, and the whole thing really excited the history nerd in me. I also got a much better understanding of the layout of the city. I really enjoyed the walking tour.

Lunch was at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Lauren and I decided to be freaks and go to McDonald’s because the only other options were Turkish or Asian food and we just felt like being those people. We waited for everyone to meet up after lunch because we all wanted to head to the Carnival of Cultures, but most of the group wasn’t showing up and me, both Katies, Andrea, Lauren, Megan and Sarah decided to just venture off on our own to the carnival. 

When we arrived at the carnival it was a bit overwhelming because it was SO crowded. I’ve literally never been anywhere so crowded. The only thing I can compare the mass of the crowds to is after an exciting home football game where everyone stays until the end and you have to walk out of the stadium in one giant sea of people. That’s what it was like. We looked at the vendor stalls and grabbed some drinks. There was a patch of grass that a bunch of people were hanging out in so we sat down and talked. The seven of us had a lot of fun there for about 5 hours. It was my favorite part of the trip so far, hands down. I’m really glad we happened to be in Berlin for it.

After the Carnival of Cultures we wanted to go watch the sunset at a park because we thought that the rest of the group would be there. Getting to the park was a bit dramatic due to us not being able to find a bathroom and getting separated at one point, but we quickly recovered and found our way to the park by asking half a dozen people for directions. The park was really pretty and it had an awesome playground. There was a zip line and a four person see-saw which we thoroughly enjoyed until actual children came to play on them. 

After that we made the long journey back home. We took the U-bahn for the first time today and we couldn’t find where to get on the S-bahn so we walked back to Alexanderplatz and got the tram back to the hotel. Sarah and I were starving so we stopped at the Princess restaurant and got a pizza. Now everyone is chilling at the hotel editing pictures and working on blog posts. It has been an exhausting but fun and eventful day. I can wholeheartedly say I fell in love with Berlin today. Our bike tour guide, Sophie, said it best when she told us you have to “get” Berlin to love it, and I definitely get it.

Rain, Rain Go Away. Please. - May 18, 2013

Today we went on a 6 hour bike tour through the city. It was very enjoyable most of the time, but towards the end it just kept getting colder and wetter and I was ready to go somewhere warm and dry.

We started off at Alexanderplatz underneath the TV Tower at the Fat Tire Bike Shop. We picked out our bikes, and you had to choose carefully because each bike had a different name. I chose St. Peter's Basilica. 

Riding our bikes through crowds and near crowded streets was a bit terrifying, especially considering I can't remember the last time I was on a bike prior to today. It was nice though to ride through the city and be able to cover a lot of ground easily.

I liked being able to see how different the neighborhoods of Berlin can be. My favorite part was when we made a stop to look at a bunch of street art housed in and on a bunch of old buildings. We found this art gallery called Urban Spree, and everything around it was so cool to explore. 

There was a skatepark and a bunch of little kids on skateboards running around with there parents. There was also an outdoor rock climbing gym which was interesting to explore. I could have walked around that place taking pictures for hours. 

We all had lunch in this turkish restaurant where I ate Shawarma with holloumi and drank some orange soda. I'm a picky eater, but I still thought this was really good. After lunch though the rain picked up and became more continuous. It also got much colder. All of us were pretty miserable so the tour was cut a bit short.

Now I'm sitting in our room, nice and warm. I'm thinking of heading out shopping and we're all going to dinner tonight. We were also discussing going out. We want to go to the #1 Techno club in the world, which is another thing we saw on our bike tour today, but we've been told it's really hard to get into. Either way though I know we'll be up to something.