Jenn's Study Abroad in Brighton, England: Berlin!

Hey everybody!

Sorry this is coming so late! I've been home for a little over a week now. Things have been so crazy with school starting up again and finals looming ahead that I haven't had a whole lot of free time!

So, here's my story of Berlin! On the morning of the 15th, I met my friends Megan and Carli in the train station in Warsaw to head to Berlin. Our train wasn't going to leave until 9:45, so we got there at 9, figuring that 45 minutes would be plenty of time to buy tickets and make our way down to the platform. Oh, how wrong we were. We got in line to buy tickets, waited for about 5 minutes, and were told that the desk we were at did not sell international tickets. So, we headed upstairs where the lady had pointed and saw a huge line of people at several ticket booths. Assuming this was where we needed to be, we joined the queue, waited for about 20 minutes, and were told (again) that we were in the wrong place. By this time, there were about 15 minutes left until our train departed. Starting to worry, the three of us found a desk and asked the lady behind it where we should go. She seemed annoyed as she gestured us to join the line at the other end of the counter. 7 or 8 minutes later, we were told by the clerk that we were, once again, in the wrong place, and that we needed to find the international ticket office. Frustrated, we looked around and spotted a TINY sign that pointed us in the right direction. By this point, we had about 5 minutes left until our train departed, we didn't have tickets, and to top it all off, there was construction going on around the office that we needed to get to. The three of us sprinted around the construction barricades with heavy luggage, until we finally found the international ticket office. 3 minutes until the train leaves. We took a number, and saw a woman sitting at a desk without a customer in front of it. We ran up to her, before getting yelled at by an old lady with an earlier number than we had. We let her go ahead, then spotted another empty desk. We told the girl behind the desk that we needed tickets to Berlin. I swear, I have never heard anyone take so long to answer a question before in my life. "Um... that... train... leaves... in... 2... minutes..." YOU THINK?!?!?! WE NEED TO GET ON THIS TRAIN, LADY!!!! "uh, yeah. we need tickets, like, now." "Well... you... could... buy... them... on... the... train..." Gee. Thanks. So, the three of us sprinted as fast as we could down 2 flights of stairs and an escalator, running over some old men on the escalator in the process. We got onto the platform just as the conductor was blowing the whistle. Megan and Carli, who had backpacks, jumped onto the train, pushing a blonde lady aside who was blocking the door. I was hurrying after them just as a rather large man got in front of me and walked towards the train. I couldn't exactly move around him, but luckily I managed to get on the train just as the door closed behind me.

So, we were all on the train. Out of breath, with massive amounts of adrenaline pumping through our veins, but on the train. It was then that we realized that the seats were assigned, and we didn't have tickets. We set off to find a compartment to sit in until we found someone who worked on the train to sell us tickets. We found a compartment with three empty seats, put our baggage up on the luggage racks, and sat down, drained. Just then, a guy walked in and told me that I was in his seat. Crap. So, we all got our stuff back down again (much to the disdain of the nun that was sitting next to me) and set off to find someone who worked on the train. We found a man and asked him where to buy tickets. He told us to follow him, and put us in a compartment at the very back of the train, without giving us tickets. I'm assuming we didn't need reservations with our eurail passes, because we never actually bought tickets for that ride... The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful. We found our way to our hostel without too much trouble, and even navigated the metro system with only a few minor mishaps. Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we arrived to our hostel (around 5:45), and we spent the rest of the evening napping and watching a movie.

The next day, we decided to go see the Berlin wall, considering that it was the only really famous thing that we knew about in the city. We found the wall, or what is left of it. There are only three sections of the wall remaining, as the rest was torn down in 1989. We went to a free 15 minute movie about the wall, which told the history behind it. It was a good refresher course for us, considering how long it had been since any of us had taken a world history class. The wall itself isn't as big and menacing as I thought it would be. It is mostly covered in graffiti, and there is a memorial for all the people who died there. The stories are sad to hear. It's crazy how one wall can separate families and friends, and the risks that some people took to get back to their loved ones.

We got hungry, so we decided to get a bratwurst from a street vendor for lunch. Coolest thing ever. These guys wear a belt with a grill and an umbrella attached to it, and they grill bratwursts on the go! So crazy! We spent the rest of the day just wandering around the city. We found a little flea market that was fun to look around! I found a couple of my favourite children's books in German at one of the stands! We wandered more into the town centre and saw a group of breakdancing guys putting on a show. That was really fun to watch. A few minutes later, we saw a group bicycle thing, with a big square bar and beer taps on it! Basically, everyone sits at the bar and peddles and drinks at the same time. It looked like so much fun! We wandered a little further and saw a big tent looking thing. It turned out to be a dinner show venue, and we decided to go see that night's show by an Australian group called the Tom Tom Crew. They were amazing. They were basically a hip hop/ drumming/ acrobatics group. I don't even know how to describe them. Basically, there would be a dj playing music and doing his thing, a guy beatboxing (he was the best beatboxer I've ever heard in my life!), and some guys doing acrobatics, all at the same time! Then, a guy would come out and do some crazy drumming stuff! It was amazing.

The next day, we decided to go to the top of a space-needle-looking tower in the middle of Berlin. We waited in line and got our tickets, then had to wait about 45 minutes before we could go up to the top. In the mean time, the three of us walked around another little marketplace for a while. We went up to the top of the tower and saw the view,which was smoggy, but still beautiful. We were planning on eating in the restaurant at the top of the tower, but apparently you need to make reservations 4 weeks in advance, which didn't exactly suit our "fly by the seat of your pants" sort of attitude. We spent the rest of the day just walking around the city again. We found this church-looking statue in the middle of a park, where we sat and watched the sun set. Then we set off to go back home. It was then that we realized that we hadn't eaten anything substantial all day. Pair that with being tired, and the result: cranky Jenn. We ended up getting food at a random restaurant on the way back to the hostel, where none of us talked for a good 10 minutes while we were scarfing down our food. We went to bed fairly early that night, from sheer exhaustion. After all, we had all been traveling for about 18 days by that point. It gets exhausting after a while.

The next day was the final day of our trip. We slept in, which felt amazing, before getting up and heading out for the day. We went to Checkpoint Charlie, the entrance to what used to be the American Sector of Berlin. There were American flags flying, and I felt at home for a second. We saw the Topography of Terror museum, which was basically a museum on the Nazi Regime in World War II. It was really interesting, but SO much reading. After sight-seeing for 19 days straight, my brain couldn't take much more. We walked a little further and saw the last section of the Berlin wall, which pretty much looked the same as the first two sections we had seen, but it was still cool. That afternoon, we went and saw a palace. It was gorgeous, especially the gardens, which were planted in swirly patterns that sort of reminded me of the Queen of Hearts' garden in Alice in Wonderland. We got back to our hostel fairly early that night, since I had to catch a plane back to England early the next morning. I woke up at 4:15am to leave for my flight. I caught the metro to the airport without any difficulty and got through security with no problems. My flight went just fine, and I got into London Gatwick airport at 8 in the morning.

It has been so nice to be back. Just the fact that I don't have to live out of a suitcase has been amazing. Since I got back, I've been doing a lot of schoolwork, although I took a break on Thursday (the 21st) to go to London and meet my friend Hannah who lives in Wales. We went and saw two plays: Frankenstein, which is apparently the hot ticket in London right now, and Cause Celebre, a play about a woman who is on trial for killing her husband. They were both PHENOMENAL! I'm so glad I went!

So, there you have it. My spring break is over. It was absolutely incredible. I'm so fortunate to have been able to do all of this! I feel like I know so much more and have experienced so many amazing things! I just hope that I will have another chance to come back and travel around Europe some more.