Berlin: July 27-28

Despite designating today to be the day to pack, I'll take a short break and put up some information from my short trip to Berlin.

My friend Beverly and I took the 4 hour, 74 Euro (round-trip) ICE train leaving at 7:08. It was a great train ride because I absolutely LOVE the ICE seats and "dream pillows" as I call the headrests. Plus we didn't have to change trains once.

We stayed at Meininger Hostel for 15 Euro, which included linens, towels, and an all you can eat breakfast buffet. It was very close to a U-Bahn and S-Bahn stop, so location was ideal and reception was open 24 hours. They also had a luggage room you could use after check-out at 10, which was helpful.

Walking around Berlin was great. Clear skies were the order of the day, so Beverly and I took advantage of the weather and decided to visit the Berlin Zoo and Aquariam. For a 14 Euro combination pass, we gained access to both sites. We saw everything from elephants, giraffes, monkeys, tigers, bears, goats, cattle, deer, and vultures to alligators, turtles, sharks, frogs, salamanders, and different species of ants. We didn't get to see the famous polar bear Knut, though. There were simply too many people crowded around his area. Which, I might add, was not in any type of cool environment. It was outside in the heat.

A note on the ants: It was a bit disturbing when we were in the insect portion and one cage had caution tape stretched the whole area. We looked inside to see a bunch of ants. Unfortunately, we also saw several of these same ants crawling on the outside of the cage... We didn't stay long in the area.

The rest of the day was spent walking around seeing the famous sights of Berlin. We saw the Brandenburg Tor, and the Reichstag. We decided to spend some time in the grass admiring the Reichstags to rest our weary feet.

Since everyone had told us to try a Doener in Berlin, we hunted for almost an hour to find one for dinner. We finally found one, but only in the Bahnhof. It was definitely better than I've had before, but still not as amazing as everyone described. Of course, it did come from the Bahnhof. We then returned to our hostel, but were so tired that we didn't even bother to enjoy our free "welcome drink" provided in the connecting bar. Beverly and I didn't sleep well, because two other girls came in at 12:30 and were quite loud setting up their beds.

Nevertheless, we woke up the next morning ready to see more. After taking full advantage of our included breakfast, we checked out and left our heavier items in the luggage room. We headed to see Checkpoint Charlie, the Berliner Dom, the Fernseher Turm, a portion of the wall, and Schloss Charlottenburg.

Unfortunately, it cost 3 euro to see the Dom. I didn't want to pay on principle. Churches are supposed to be free. We couldn't find any huge parts of the wall, but we did see the line that runs through the city denoting where it had once stood. The Turm was highly visible from most of the city, and Schloss Charlottenburg was very pretty. We didn't go in, because our feet were killing us. After that, we headed back to get our things and took the 16:57 train back to Bamberg.

While we didn't go in the Reichstag, despite being free, because the line was incredibly long, and though we didn't pay to see the inside of the Dom, I feel this trip was productive. We were able to visit a zoo with the most species in the world, we saw all the major historical points, and even enjoyed some Starbucks and the best Doener I've tasted. I'm glad I was able to visit Germany's capital city before returning home.

As a side note: I didn't do as much as I would have, because I have a nasty infection on my big toe. It's quite disgusting and it makes walking more painful, especially in closed toe shoes. Gross, I know. But it had to be said. Oh, and pictures later.

On Leaving, or something like that

Two 6 page papers: Check
One 10 page paper: Check
Two written exams: Check
Two oral exams: Check
Berlin: Morgen früh

I'm done with this year.
I don't want to leave.
I can't wait. Very anxious.

More later.

Luzern, Switzerland: May 3-5

Ok, since I'm backtracking, I won't bore you with too many details about my trip to Luzern, Switzerland. Here are the essentials:

1. The train from Bamberg is 7 hours, and I stayed at Backpackers Lucerne.
Advertising note: This is a great hostel to stay in because they exchange money for free, the staff members are knowledgeable about the area, and so friendly! They even have a stock of coats left behind by other backpackers (all washed and clean!) which came in very useful.

2. The first day I shelled out the big bucks for a four part trip to nearby Mt. Pilatus. I first rode a boat across Lake Luzern to get on the steepest cogwheel train in the world. Once on the mountain peek, donning the hostel provided jacket (because I didn't think about it being cold on the mountain top! go me!), I hiked around and got an amazing view, despite the cloudy day. Then I took a gondola down the other side of the mountain to catch a bus back to the city.

3. It rained. A lot. I gave myself a city tour with the fairly decent tourist map and saw almost everything in half a day. I decided to cut the last day of my trip (the 6th), and the hostel had no problem with refunding the money. I walked around more on Saturday, and took the 2 pm train back to Bamberg.

4. Major points of interest: Loewendenkmal, Glacier museum, Chapel Bridge, Musegg Wall, and a myriad of small town squares with lovely architecture....like all of Europe :-) Enjoy:

Prague: July 5-8

On Thursday I added number nine to the list of different countries I've visited since I've been in Germany: the Czech Republic. For the grand total of 145 euros, I traveled to Prague with about 100 other exchange and native German students.

I must say it wasn't the best trip I've ever been on (it will take an fairly spectacular trip to beat out Portugal), but not because of the beautiful city. The only thing I could do was laugh at myself and be light hearted about everything else.

Problem 1: The bus picking us up from Bamberg was late. Now this doesn't seem like much of a dilemma, but it made us late picking up more students in the town of Erlangen. This will transform into an even larger one, as I will relate later.

(Almost) Problem 2: Silly little me had gotten so secure about not having to show anyone my passport while traveling, that I left it in my luggage bag. It was safely locked in the lower regions of the double decker bus, but not within my reach. While nothing came of it, I certainly was panicking when we actually had to stop at the Czech Republic border.

Problem 3: We arrived so late in Prague, that we had to completely cut out lunch time from our schedule. No one had any crowns yet, so there was no way of stopping into a fast food place to get anything. Result: Me. Hungry. Not. Good.

Problem 4: After taking the most round-about way into town, we began looking for somewhere to exchange money. First place: rate wasn't good enough. Second place: even worse exchange rate than the first. Third place: Just right. But only for about 15 people. Good thing I was one of them! Fourth place: accomodated a lot more. Fifth place: It was a bank, so people could withdraw money instead of exchanging euros. It was getting a bit ridiculous, so after that everyone had to branch out on their own if they needed money. Keep in mind the sky decided pelt rain on everyone, so we were soaking wet for the rest of the day.

Problem 5: At this point we trekked over to the national museum. This isn't a real problem, per se, but it was a lot of geological items and not all information was in a language I could understand. National Museum may sound interesting, but it was more for children. Plus: Me still hungry.

Problem 6: After eating (finally food!!) at a typical Czech restaurant (with a less than friendly waiter and untimely service, but tasty food!!), John and I decided to leave. We didn't know anyone in our group as we had split up to eat, and I had a pounding headache. Unfortunately for us, our dorm wasn't even on the map! So we were, of course, lost. After walking around for an hour uphill, stopping in 2 hotels and taking a tram without a ticket (only two stops!) we finally made it back.

Problem 7: I shared a room with Amanda, and we had some American suite-mate guys who were studying at an English uni for the semester. They seemed nice enough. Until it was 1 in the morning and they were playing rap music so loud that it woke even me, the dead sleeper! For an entire hour they blasted their beats, even rapping along to some of them. How thoughtful. If that wasn't bad enough, they played it again starting at 7:30 in the morning until they left for the weekend at 9. Lovely. At least they were gone.

Here ends the laundry list of my disappointments with the Prague. Even though our city tour was canceled on Friday, we had one on Saturday (that also started half an hour late). But it was worth the wait. We had the most amusing Czech tour guide who said the funniest things while on our English tour.

What could be so great? "He even had to die in his bed because he couldn't find a mate." "This is a one way street. It is awkward and unpleasant." "This tower has not been built so high anymore." And the best? He continually said things like, "When he was king he did many things e.g. tearing down the tower." It was e.g. hilarious.

The weather was sunny the rest of the weekend, the club was somewhat entertaining (5 stories) , and the old Jewish cemetary was fascinating. I loved spending time with my British and Canadian friends, and making a few on the way. The castle was beautiful, the architecture gorgeous, and despite being unorganized, the people who set up the trip were nice.

Oh and one last problem: on the way home, we were making great time when the bus broke down! I had to pee, and the toilet on the bus was already broken. So what to do?? Well, let's just say you have to do what you have to do. After waiting for an hour for our replacement bus, we climbed aboard and finally made it back home to Bamberg.