Berlin and Prague

After a late night of packing and prepping for our trip, Heather, Kathryn, Joana, and I woke up early and were off to the Thessaloniki airport for our flight to Berlin. While we were waiting in line, a man came up to me and started asking me questions in German. This was great. No one in Greece assumes that I speak Greek, so it was great to feel like I looked like I belonged. I couldn’t help him at all, but it was awesome that he thought I could. This happened to me a few times in Germany and I loved it. On the plane, when we flew below the clouds over Germany we looked down and saw red, orange, and yellow trees and got really excited. Besides for missing people, fall in New England is what I’m missing most about home right now, so it was great to finally see some fall colors. When we arrived in Berlin we needed to conquer the public transportation in order to get to our hostel. Luckily Kathryn is very travel savvy so she had us hopping on and off the s-bahn until we got to our hostel. We were staying in the outskirts of the city, in Wannsee, for our first night in Berlin. We passed through several neighborhoods on the way to the hostel that were like adorable German villages. Our hostel was right on a lake in Wannsee and that, along with the fall foliage, made really feel like I was home.

After we got sort of settled in our hostel we were back on the s-bahn to the city and on a mission to get train tickets to Prague. After a little confusion at the train station in Berlin we found tickets for the next morning to Prague. We then wandered around Alexanderplatz, a square in Berlin, for awhile and just took in the sights. We saw a guy that looked about our age and asked him where young people went in Berlin. He replied with, “I’m actually from Holland, so I don’t really know, but I’m meeting my friends over there…you’re welcome to join us.” So soon we were sitting at a café with Saskia, Boi, Michel, and a few other people. We ended up chatting for hours about American politics and viewpoints, and it was awesome to hear other European opinions on everything that is going on in America. They were in Berlin with their graduate program looking at internships and learning more about possibilities within their field – which happened to be cognitive neuroscience or something very intimidating like that. After the café closed, we went back to their hostel with them that was down the street and talked some more. We exchanged emails and phone numbers, and when we finally left to go back to our hostel, Joana started crying because she was sad to leave our new friends.

After oh, about 2 hours of sleep we were on a train to Prague. It was about a 4 hour journey through some of the most beautiful villages and mountain and farmland. The train went along a river for most of the time and it even went through Dresden, which was also great to see. Once in Prague we hopped onto their tram system, but ended up going on the wrong direction. While it delayed us for about an hour, we ended up being able to see some beautiful views of the city. I’ve never seen more gorgeous architecture than what I saw in Prague. Each and every building was unique and breathtaking. We got to our hostel, which was more like a hotel, got settled and headed out. Our first mission was to find Czech food. We found a restaurant up the street and we all ordered the first thing on their specialties menu. It was goulash and it was so good. Food in Greece is not what you’d call hearty, so it was great to have a meal that almost instantly filled you up.

Kathryn is a HUGE fan of hockey, and she found out there was a game in Prague that night. We went to a few tourist information places, but they didn’t have any helpful information. We decided to go to the arena to see if there was any way we could get tickets. In the metro we saw a group of men that Joana thought looked like they were going to a hockey game. I don’t know why she thought this – they weren’t wearing jerseys or scarves or anything, but she decided to ask anyway. Turns out that they were in fact going to the game and one of them spoke English so we were able to get directions from him. When we got to the arena, we found a scalper selling tickets. They cost 100 kruna (I think thats the currency – Czech is really difficult) which is the equivalent of about 5 USD. We got tickets and ended up being about 3 rows away from the ice. The arena wasn’t packed so after the first period we went over to the Praha Slavia’s cheering section. These people are serious about their hockey. Prague ended up losing but it was interesting to see the fan-team dynamic. At the end of the game the entire team sat on the ice looking at their fans. The fans cheered something, and then the team got up and applauded their fans.

After the game we wandered around the city some more and found ourselves in an Irish pub. There was a group of people at the table next to us, and the guy asked if we would take their picture. Then we all started talking. Ger, Kate, and Anna were from Ireland and were in Prague to celebrate Kate’s birthday. We talked to them all night and Heather and Joana planned their trip to Ireland with their help. They were only planning on going to Dublin, but our new friends offered to show them around Cork if they made it that way.

The following day we explored the city of Prague. But before we left I went downstairs in the hostel to borrow a towel. While I’m walking into the lobby, I hear my name. No one knows me here, so I was a little surprised. I turn around and see this girl and it takes me forever to place her. Turns out it was Casey, a girl I graduated from high school with. In the same hostel, in Prague. What a small world! She’s studying in Budapest this semester and was in Prague for the weekend.

We started at the castle and did a tour of the grounds there. From the castle you can see almost the entire city – I’ve never seen so many spires in my life. Then we went to the Old Town, Stare Mesto where the astronomical clock is. It’s a 24 hour clock that also has sun and moon positions, and a calendar with months. At each hour the clock chimes and the figured around the clock move. After having lunch in Stare Mesto, Heather and I decided to just get lost in Prague. (Not really lost…they have trams on almost every street. As long as we could see the tracks we wouldn’t really be lost) While I enjoy seeing the touristy parts of cities, it is almost more valuable to just wander around and see where you find yourself. So we just started walking and seeing what there was to see. We ended up in Vinohrady, which is the oldest part of the city. From there we walked along the river from the Fred and Ginger Dancing House to the National Theater and a building we named the Bubble Wrap building. On this walk we walked past someone I sort of recognized but I couldn’t think of where I might know him from, so I didn’t really think anything of it. One of the girls he was with stops dead in her tracks and says, “No way!” Turns out it was the people Heather, Danica and I met in Santorini that let us stay with them in Athens! We chatted for a bit and shared any useful information we had about Prague. Heather and I then went to Charles Bridge, which is a pedestrian only bridge with towers and a beautiful view of the city. We were climbing up one of the towers and spotted this guy Bobby from ACT who was there with his parents to celebrate his birthday. Its crazy how small this world is – to run into 3 separate groups of people in one random city on the same day. That along with the fact that Joana met so many people with connections to Oregon (where she’s from) really just goes to show how connected the world really is.

From the bridge we continued just wandering around the city. We had planned on meeting back up with Joana and Kathryn for a fun night out in Prague at a place one of Joana’s friends had suggested. Heather and I were pretty tired from our long days of traveling and walking so we just decided to go back to the Irish pub we’d been at the night before and head home pretty early to get a good night’s sleep. We stayed for maybe an hour and were just about ready to head home when this guy comes out of the bathroom and asks if he could sit with us. We said sure and asked him a few questions. He had clearly been enjoying the pub for quite some time, so two minutes later he was asleep at our table!!! His friends came over and apologized and tried to wake him up – with no luck. We chatted with them for a little bit – there was a group of them from all over the world. Jamie from Ireland, Tom from Australia, Sleeping guy from England, and another guy from Scotland – who knows how they knew each other! They were hilarious and really fun to talk to, but we still decided to go home early because our bus back to Berlin left pretty early in the morning.

We slept almost the entire bus ride from Prague to Berlin, but luckily it didn’t end up being any longer than the train ride – which we thought it would be. We got back to Berlin and found our hostel pretty easily – it ended up being in the square that we explored the first night in Berlin. We heard that there was a hard rock café in Berlin, so that was our very first stop – we were all craving some American food after 6 weeks of eating Greek. Then we all just wandered around some more and found ourselves at the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. We happened to be there during Berlin’s Festival of Lights, when all the important monuments and buildings are lit up with colorful lights and project images into the sky, which was really cool to see. We wandered around the city some more and went back to the hostel to get ready for a night out. On our way out we walked past another Irish pub that had seemed kinda lame our first night in Berlin, but for some reason we decided to go in for just a bit. Before we had even ordered drinks, a group of about 15 englishmen surrounded our table and started talking to us. They were in Berlin on a “stag weekend” to celebrate their buddy’s upcoming wedding. They were all dressed as nerds as part of their theme and they were wicked funny. We had our own American Idol competition (Heather’s impression of Britney Spears is spot on – so she won) and the guys made Kathryn impersonate Sarah Palin all night. Before we knew it, it was 4 am and we never made it farther than just down the street when we had planned on a more adventurous night out, but it was wicked fun anyway.

The next morning we got an early(ish) start and headed to Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish Museum. The museum was really interesting and had a lot of really cool exhibits. From there we headed to the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall and walked that. We had thought about going to a concentration camp not too far from Berlin, but having had so little sleep and it being mostly dark out, we decided it would probably be too intense for us. Heather and I then decided to get lost in Berlin because we’d had so much success with that in Prague. We wandered and wandered until our feet really couldn’t hold us up any longer (I seriously ended up breaking down and buying a pair of slippers to walk back in). We found a German pub and brewery and got brautwurst, sauerkraut, and german potatoes. Because we had to be at the airport at 4 am the next morning, we decided that we were just going to stay up all night, but when we got to the hostel Heather and I really just needed to nap before even thinking about heading out. When we woke up we just decided to pack up and stay at our hostel and play cards in the lobby instead of trying to find a place to go.

We made it back to Thessaloniki yesterday a group of travel-tired girls. We had a lot of fun and packed a whole lot into the long weekend. Germany made a huge impression on me, and I’m really drawn to all the history that’s there. I know that I will be going back in the near future to see what else the country has to offer.

When I get my pictures online, I’ll post the link on here. Please let me know if the links didn’t work last time.

I have one day of classes tomorrow and then on Saturday I’m off on a school trip to Meteora, which is home to the rock tower monasteries.

Here’s a list of the rest of my travels while I’m abroad – I may try to fit in a trip to Vienna or Sophia, Bulgaria as well, as long as I can do it very inexpensively:

November:
1-2 Meteora
7-9 Athens
15-16 Thessaloniki
21-23 Istanbul, Turkey
29-30 Thessaloniki

December:
6-7 Thessaloniki
9ish – Kayla from Stonehill comes to visit!
13-19 Venice, Florence, and Rome with Kayla and Julie from Hollis
21- Home