Welcome to Budapest :) June 30th

Heads up-sorry for the delay in uploading these, but I will be posting a lot of my drafts soon hopefully!

By late Thursday afternoon I landed in Budapest and successfully navigated public transit to my hostel. That is after arriving at the wrong hostel initially. So for some reason hostels aren’t creative enough with their names or something because the hostel I’m staying at, Carpe Noctem Vitae, is conveniently named quite similarly to the hostel I accidentally went to about a half-mile away called Carpe Noctem. Not confusing what.so.ever. But after I got to my place I was able to check in and get settled, planning my time in Budapest. 

Thursday night happened to be the night that my hostel does a boat tour of the Danube river. So we started the night by walking over to our “sister hostel” and hanging out at a bar there before walking towards the river to the boat. For a slightly more, you can “upgrade” your boat ticket to also include a bottle of champagne, so I did this. Which means I had my first experience with opening a bottle of champagne and nobody or objects were injured/damaged in the process! The views from the boat were absolutely spectacular. Honestly Budapest is beautiful, but it is so so beautiful at night when things are all lit up. 

In front of Hungarian Parliament 

Popping open our first bottles of champagne! 

 Can you tell which picture of Hungarian Parliament is mine vs wiki? lol

Buda Castle

After the boat, we got buses back to one of the ruin bars in town. Did I mention my hostel is part of a group of party hostels? lol I went back though at a “decent” time so I could get some rest since I had planned on doing the 10:30am free walking tour of Budapest. 

So my hostel had a kitchen which was extremely nice to be able to buy groceries and then be able to cook food if you want. Also if you were too lazy to cook dinner but wanted food from the hostel vs. paying even more to eat out, then you could sign up for “family dinners” made by someone on staff at the hostel. Also the hostel had a rule where basically all dairy products (eggs, milk, butter…) were free and the hostel provided them. So I got meat, cheese, bread, and fruit and made a lot of omelettes that week for breakfast and had some sort of egg or meat/cheese sandwich for dinners that week. Nonetheless, I still managed to make it to all my morning walking tours in time! I guess that’s a perk for not having a comfortable bed, its easier to force yourself up in the mornings even with little rest because laying down isn’t as comfy. 

Last of Berlin -June 28/29

In retrospect, Tuesday I overdid it. But oh well. I started out with a wonderful walking tour of the city. It was rich in information and our guide Beth was great! Literally in this tour, it covered most of the city and all the major “Berlin sights” you would think to add to our list.  I went on the Original Berlin Walks "Discover Tour". Like I said, it was extremely comprehensive (4 hours, but ours went an extra 30 or so minutes because our guide shared so many cool details with us).

Spree River on a beautiful day

Berlin Art, what can I say...

So some wisdom to share about Berlin-

• The name Berlin comes from the plastic bear "bear Lin" comes from the German word "bear lion" but in actuality this is a myth and Berlin actually comes from the Slavic word meaning "swamp"!
• Berlin ironically was once the home to "rejects" the people that were not really wanted like Jews, homosexuals, and more.
• Hyperinflation in Nov. 1923 the American dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 ~4.3 trillion German Marks.
• Berlin was a very progressive city. From 1920-1929 there were 84 lesbian clubs- aka a true gay scene. There was a plethora of research and support for homosexuality being accepted.
• Be careful with translating German and English- the gardens in the grounds of Museum Island are the Pleasure Gardens, not the "lust" gardens.
• Kennedy's speech said "Ich bin ein Berliner" which means "I am a Berliner (a sugary pastry stuffed with jam)" if he didn't have "ein" then he would have said "I am from Berlin" as intended. So close JFK!
• Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings. -1823 scary premonition showing how wherever you allow prejudice and increasing hostility to fester worse and worse will continue to happen until it spirals out of control. Which indeed happened, there were book burnings in 1933 of over 200.000 books of science and knowledge by the Germans prior to the deportation and murders of the Holocaust. 
• Brandonburg gate = royal gate built in 1791 originally the Goddess of Peace was atop the gate then Napoleon stole the goddess with the horses and brought it back to Paris. Eventually it was taken back and renamed the Goddess of Victory. You'll notice the head tilted to the left staring at the French Embassy, thus aways has an eye out. 
• Hitler's bunker - in '45 it was attempted to be blown up, but it didn't work. Oh ya, that's what it was built for! lol, so instead they drilled into it in the 80s and it collapsed to destroy it. 

Brandonburg gate

Claim to fame for this hotel-- Michael Jackson hanging his kid, "Blanket", out of the window. 

Holocaust Memorial- a very disorienting "maze," quite architecturally symbolic. 

"Madness" is probably too simplistic of an explanation.

Immediately following the walking tour, I had to make my way to the Jewish Museum Berlin to meet one of the friends I made the day before as we planned on visiting the museum together. There was 1,000 years of Jewish History covered here and most of the exhibit was devoted to artistic interpretations of jewish living and cultural teaching about religious lives of jews. Honestly, there was quite a lot in the museum and we were there for ~3 hours, but having a firm understanding of most Jewish practices made many of the exhibits not extremely important since I knew most of the information. I did get an audioguide though this time, so that was nice to be able to have that explain things because at the beginning there was a lot of explanations of why the building and garden was constructed as it was and the symbolism that would have been even more confusing without the guide. I think my favorite line from the Jewish Museum Berlin guide was --> "Jews have a thousand rules, but a hundred thousand exceptions” its just too true. 

Fallen Leaves Installation= "While these serve as an architectural expression of the irretrievable loss of the Jews murdered in Europe, Menashe Kadishman's sculptures filling them evoke painful recollections of the innocent victims of yesterday, today, and tomorrow." I'm sure you can imagine the unnerving feelings as one walks on these faces.  

After all that history, I was a little sight-seeing out. So Wednesday, I took it very light. I started out at Topografia Terroru and looked around briefly and learned more about Hitler's acquisition and brain-washing regime. Went to Potsdamer Platz, back to the Brandenburg Gate, walked around Friedrichstrasse again, and then went up to the 360 Berlin or the TV Tower for a view of the city before moving hostels for my last night.

Wherever you go, GO BLUE! 

In front of US Embassy when there is a memorial and love sent to the LGBT community #Orlando

When tourist shops get it right, twice.

TV Tower- Panoramic floor 203m up; top of pole 368m; Staircase= 986 steps; 2 lifts-6 m/s 

Hello Berlin!

My Berlin trip was three full days before I headed to Budapest. If anyone is looking for a hostel recommendation where you will be surrounded by travelers interested in seeing the city rather than just partying and you’ll get a good rest, I’d highly recommend The Grand Berlin Hostel. Honestly, I probably haven’t slept so soundly since getting to Europe- they don’t have bunks here and the beds are very comfy. (Coming from me this means A LOT!) Trip advice part two- make sure to ALWAYS have the correct public transit pass on you (validated) when you’re in Berlin. It’s expensive, but you’ll need to use public transit most likely, unless you’re biking, and there are a lot of ticket inspectors around that will fine you 60 euro MINIMUM on the spot if you don’t have the right one. 

Ann Frank- across from Otto Weidt's shop where he rescued and saved many Jews

Otto Weidt's museum holds a picture of him and his workers-all Jewish and blind or deaf. Otto employed only Jews to make brooms and brushes for the war efforts while he made fake documents and bribed officers to protect his staff. All survived the war. 

Ok, so what did I do? Well lets start with Monday- today I took Geoff’s advice and did the Alternative Free Walking tour because this is “how I will fall in love with the city.” I’m quite glad I took my big brother’s advice, we saw many back roads and off-the-beaten-track kind of places and unique wall art in back alleys. Not gonna lie, sometimes these alleys looked sketchy, but with a group a 11am, we were totally fine. lol Our guide also pointed out the most amazing Kebab hut that was amazing and super cheap :D This was also the perfect beginning to my trip in Berlin because I met 4 other young travelers from the states and had a great time with them. We ended up hanging out most of the rest of the day together. We chilled on Yaam Beach for a bit before heading to the East Side Gallery. ha you could say we had some fun at the wall! 

Back allies for the true Berlin feel

Best Kebab shop outside Kottbusser Tor U Station 

Chicken Kebab ~2.20 Euro and delicious!

Finding 4 young grads from the states = a great day

The beach along the Spree River. Named Yaam- not surprised it smelled a little "green"

WARonWALL-East Side Gallery Exhibit of Syrian war and the destruction of lives to raise awareness of refugees

Nice group shot in front of Berlin Wall

When we all make monkey faces in front of the monkey (covering the monkey's face) taken with our smartphone when it says "destroy all smartphones." Clearly having too much fun here

Can't help but laugh after that! 

After the wall, we walked along the river a bit before heading to Templehof aka the abandon airfields. So two of the girls I met that morning knew of a friend who was going to be having a BBQ in the fields and they were meeting up with and were ok with the rest of us tagging along. I thought the airfields may be a little creepy because they are empty and “abandon” just makes me think of ghost towns. But it was actually a really awesome hangout spot for a summer day. There is a garden like area with a bunch of benches and old chairs and things around that makes for a peaceful spot to sit and just immerse in nature. If you want to exercise, the take-off/landing grounds are still there and full of people running, biking, rollerblading, skateboarding, land windsurfing, and walking their dogs. If BBQ and chill is your scene, there is a zone for that too. And plenty more open grassy areas for people playing with dogs, kids, and enjoying the outdoors. Even people flying kits! At the BBQ we joined, they had two dogs, so naturally they were the center of my attention when I joined :) Ha this white dog was just so cute though, I got a good dog fix and a chance to pet a good dog and get kisses! Miss you Bailey! 

Super fluffy center of attention :)

Magical Wroclaw Weekend- June 25/26

Off to start my nine day holiday :) 

This was my first experience where I went on a pre-planned weekend with IAESTE (the internship program I am part of). Unfortunately, I had planned on a full day of work and decided to book a train leaving at 7:25pm which meant that I got in at midnight. Thankfully someone from the committee met me and helped me navigate the night buses. But because they run so infrequent, and we took the wrong one initially, we didn’t get back to the hostel until 1:30am…Then we had a packed full Saturday of sight-seeing and bonding. We were woken up (army style) bright and early—:>8am (earlier than I wake for work! And my roommates didn’t get back from the club until 4am, so I guess I got the easy way out by deciding not to go out and get a “head-start” on some sleep. haha After some breakfast we were off for sight seeing around town. We saw the old town area and what used to be Wroclaw University and what is now a museum, and then took a quick break in a park for lunch. One of the girls I met was from Hong Kong and this was the first time she had seen a “forest of trees” since there were quite a lot of trees throughout the park we are letting her still call the park a forest! Hong Kong being so industrialized and populous there isn’t open land reserved for natural things like forests unless you count the skyscraper buildings that make up a “building forest”. After lunch we walked to the Jump Hall (a huge jumping room). I’m not 100% sure why, but it was still kind of fun to jump a little (obviously, I didn’t jump much) and mostly watch the others on the big screen which was great entertainment. It was surprisingly difficult to get yourself out of the foam pits you can jump into, so you’d see people jump into them and then spend 2-5 minutes stumbling and trying to get up and out of it! Today was also an extremely hot day, so it was nice to be in the AC jumping area before heading back to our non-AC hostel… Yes, not much sleep happened in-part due to being out late from transportation and parties, but also because the hostel was so hot. But Saturday night we were out and enjoyed a beautiful light show at the fountains. 

They have these little gnomes all around the city like AA fairy doors!

Doors to the University Museum

University Museum

Views 

Playing in the water. Too hot to skip today! 

I hope you also have a sense of humor...

Old Town area 

Tired from jumping

Fountain Lights

Part of the show

Sunday morning was essentially a free day. There was time for us to get ready in the morning and decide what we wanted to explore on our own a few more things in the city. We went back to old town and saw some other architecture and cathedrals in a small group. I connected with six other interns from łódź, Poland (pronounced w-ooch). We had lunch together, beer and hot chocolate, and then explored more before going our separate ways back to łódź, or for me—Berlin. Two of the other interns from łódź and I are now planning on a weekend in Krakow- June 15-17! 

Can you guess the girl to guy ratio here?? lol

Never be lost! 

Fellow IAESTE committee members and trainees together for the weekend

I took a Polski bus from Wroclaw to Berlin that night. I am happy to say, I met one of the sweetest women I have ever met. As we awaited our bus, we spoke. She was a student at a nearby university studying nursing so she could one day take care of her family financially and in general. As the academic term finished, she was finally on her way home to Turkey (leaving from Berlin) for the holiday of two months. She was constantly conscious of her English and often apologized for it not being perfect. While it wasn’t, she never stopped smiling, trying, and curiously asking questions as we learned of each other’s families, culture, and more. She even taught me how to say a few words in Turkish—> Hi = Selam! (careful on the pronunciation or you may say ham instead); and water = su. While our bus was late and our journey long (just to get to Berlin), it was a pleasant one, and I am thankful for meeting such a kind hear to travel with. <3