Like all of my posts have started.... I'm behind again!
This time I'm about three weeks off from the present, I have to tell you all about Berlin [April 4-8], Athens [April 11-15] and Paris [April 18-21]. All of these places were terrific trips, but all for distinctively different reasons. Rather than give a play by play of what I did in each of these places, I'm just going to re-cap a little about what I'm up to now, and tell you a little of how I feel about each of those trips overall, and what I think of the places after all my trips this semester.
Right now, I am spending my time between classes cleaning up my room (yes mom, I DO clean my room, I'm actually ridiculously neat, you'd be proud of how well I keep house! haha), re-organize my internet homepage, and write this entry.
This past weekend was my last trip outside of my program (I am traveling to southern Italy on May 3-5 but it is set up through my program, I didn't organize it or have to pay anything extra besides food/shopping) so essentially my travels in Europe are finished. Recognizing that the semester is coming to a close, I'll be posting a re-cap/summation of the entire semester in just a few weeks. But this also means that I have finals coming up, and a lot to be thinking about as far as what I'm doing for the summer, and getting ready for the flight back and the re-entry process to the US.
Well, that is where I'm at now... here is how I feel about my trips:
Berlin was fantastic! I got to spend the weekend with my friend Rachel from Grove City who is studying abroad in Berlin. Me and another of her friends (Lisa) were able to crash with her, and she gave us a tour of the City. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, East Side Gallery (very cool), the graves of the Grimm Brothers (p.s. Aunt Patty, I started watching the show Grimm and I absolutely love it), Checkpoint Charlie, and a bunch of other really interesting things! Berlin is full of history, and it was really mind-blowing to think about how RECENT all this history really was, and how much Berlin had gone through in such a short time. It is very different from Rome, where many of the sites are ruins and very old history, and I love them both!
My visit to Berlin was great for a few reasons: I got to visit with a friend from home which is always refreshing when you're in a foreign country for a long period of time, Berlin itself has a very cool feel to it because of the history there. Also, Ritter Sport chocolate, and curry wurst. I SERIOUSLY ate too much chocolate, but it was worth it, and curry wurst is just amazing and I wish I had more. :)
Here are some photos of the trip:
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| Brandenburg Gate |
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| At Checkpoint Charlie |
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| East Side Gallery |
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Section left in place of what the wall used to look like.
Original watchtower, lights, everything. |
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In use now, this used to be a Ghost station that was blocked off
so people couldn't use it as a way out of East Berlin. |
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| Berlin Bear |
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| Best curry wurst in Berlin. YUM! |
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| Grimm Brothers! |
ATHENS:
Athens was a VERY cool trip. I loved the atmosphere for the sheer fact that it is SO different from any other place that I've been. The way I described it was like a "garage sale." You can find the coolest antiques, and so many interesting things, but there are also things that are not pretty, and maybe not the best place to be. I was with my friend from Rome on the trip, and we saw a lot! At one point we were just wandering through an archaeological site, where we are pretty sure there were people working, but apparently we were allowed in! It was very relaxed, and very interesting. We also saw a lot of tortoises there. :)
I also wandered through the Ancient Agora, which was by far my favorite part of the trip! I am such a nerd, but I LOVED reading about their ancient means of time keeping, or legal/political system. It was very interesting seeing how they used to vote, or seeing inscribed stones about ancient arbitration.
But Athens is also a pretty dirty city. I never felt like I was in danger or anything, but I was much more conscious about what was going on around me than I'd ever been anywhere else. And keep in mind, traveling I am ALWAYS aware of what is going on around me, that's just practical traveling, but I was even more alert while I was in Athens.
All in all Athens is one of my favorite places because it had such an interesting feel to it, it was much different than any other place I'd been, and I really enjoyed that it stood out! I would absolutely go back again, but it is not a place I'd like to visit on a trip by myself. Also, I never got a chance to go to the beach, so I'll need to go back to Greece someday for the islands!
Photos:
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| My favorite square! |
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| They were Everywhere! |
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| Parthenon |
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| In the Ancient Agora |
PARIS:
Paris is my favorite. I was never really excited about Paris, I thought I should see it, but I was never really too interested. Maybe because to me it seemed too cliche. Everyone loves Paris, girls wear the Eiffel tower on shirts, and necklaces, and oh my word it's just THE thing. It didn't interest me much.
But now that I've been, I have to admit that I absolutely DID love Paris. I want to go back. There is so much to do there, and everything seems so grand and just invokes a sense of awe. I saw the Eiffel tower and was amazed (I was partially just amazed to be so amazed by it!) at night it is beautiful, and I have truly never seen anything like it. Really, you should go.
This trip was made even better because I'm a study abroad student under 26. I got free entry to the Louvre AND free entry to Versailles Palace. It was awesome. If you (or someone you know) ever plans on studying abroad, ask me how and I'll let you know how :)
We also walked into a protest against gay marriage, which was very cool to just happen upon. I've never been in the middle of a protest and last Friday night we just happened to walk right through one! (All was peaceful, nothing violent, so we were safe).
As for pictures of Paris, that will be a separate post because I haven't uploaded them yet, AND now I have to go to class!!
Hope you enjoyed my abbreviated review of my past three trips, I know it made this post really long, but if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
I'll be home soon to fill in the gaps for you all!
Ciao!
