Chillin' on Chesil Beach

April 29^th

Today I got up at 6:20 to get to the Highfield bus interchange by 8am. Luckily I had a cup of chai latte to get me through such an early start of the day. On the coach there were my oceanography crew (Michael, Claire, Emily, Emmeline, Rachel, David) waiting to get our trip started to Chesil Beach on Fleet Lagoon. After a two hour ride inside the coach, we were busting to get out. Drabbed in a jacket, a rain coat, yoga pants, ski socks, waterproof trousers, a woolen hat and hiking boots I marched out of the coach ready to take in the fresh air- and boy was there fresh air. The wind was intense, pelting the rain and hail on our faces. Fresh air or not, we were all ready to go back to the coach after about 15 minutes exposed to the elements.

After a few stops at various beaches and an old church that had experienced flooding various years, we reached a nice path along the coast where we walked through mud and grass. At this point my waterproof trousers were no longer waterproof and I dealt with my yoga pants sponging up the water and sticking to my legs- burr! Chris, an American marine biology student from North Carolina, was enjoying the use of his wellies taking almost every opportunity to jump in a puddle or wade out to the sea. During one of our stops he went out to the beach and when walking back one of his wellies was stuck in the sediment resulting in him walking out of it into the mud- bummer.

At our final stop, a few of us were brave enough to go out into the rain and cold again. The beach was fabulous, such a steep incline of the chert stones into the sea that the wave pattern just awed me. The water was very clear where you could see to the bottom a good distance. At one point Emily accidentally tried running in and out of the tide but the wave was too quick, resulting in her becoming very wet as she fell into the tide.

On the ride back David fell asleep in such an odd angle that I took a photo of him with Michael. There were so many laughs on this trip, it made for such a great day.

Once back home, Rich cooked dinner for all of us and afterwards we continued our Fighter Fantasy book, The Stealer of Souls, with Alec reading, Rich mapping and me rolling the die and drawing illustrations on the map.   

A Lovely Day in Lymington

April 14th

Arrived at Southampton Central at 8:33am to meet up with Naomi and crew. Joe and Sam were there with me as we waited till everyone gathered around 9am. We got tickets to go to New Milton where we were then going to walk to Lymington.

After we began our walk we eventually made it to the seaside where there was a steep drop off almost considered a cliff to get down to the walking trail on the beach. We shimmied down the clay/rock face and at the beach it was just gorgeous. We walked along the beach for a good distance eventually taking a brief water/apple break to enjoy the scenery. Despite weather forecast predicting it to rain, the weather for the most part held out for us. At the half way point we reached a castle, which was built in the late 19^th century. During our break there, Joe slyly loaded Matts backpack with rocks making it about 3 times the weight it normally was. Surprisingly as we continued our trek Matt didn’t notice the extra weight and we continued by taking a small ferry over to a town nearby Lymington cutting off possibly an hour from our walk. Once off the ferry, we had to make a decision whether to take the meandering pedestrian route along the coast or the more direct cyclist route through farm land and pastures to get to Lymington. Well none of us could make up our mind for the group really, so Joe pulled out a ten pence and we dubbed heads would go the long route and tails for the shorter route. Heads came out first, but then Joe said two out of three, while others in the group decided the cyclist route since we were getting pretty hungry after walking for at least 3 to 4 hours. About the time that we decided to take the shorter route, Joe had also flipped the coin two more times in each case resulted in tails. After a lovely jaunt we finally made it to Lymington and at the pub called the Kings Head, Matt discovered the rocks in his bag! It was quite to everyone’s amusement, even Naomi was in on the prank.

Making a quick stop to the boat launch, we laughed as Matt dumped the rocks out of his bag into the water in almost a ceremonial manner.

A bit in a hurry not to miss the train, Naomi, Hannah, and I waited as the guys popped into various shops for last minute fudge purchases and Joe bought a butterfly net for Matt as a present.

Today just was great for humour and a great day all together!

Adventures of Arundel Castle

April 11^th

On wards to Arundel, a small town situated in West Sussex which holds a cathedral as well as an ancient castle. Excitement coursed through my veins as Hannah and I made our way to the entrance of the castle. The Arundel Castle was my first ever experience of seeing an English Castle. ‘No cameras allowed within the castle grounds’ a sign said as we passed the front entry. As we made our way up to see the Keep, that rule was quickly ignored (no worries I don’t use flash) as I would occasionally sneak a photo here or there, usually of the views from the windows.

The day just was sweet, sunshine kissed our faces as we enjoyed our lunch outside of the castle on a bench surrounded by cherry blossoms. At lunch I had my first ever hot cross buns, which I guess is an Easter treat, but I was excited to try it since I have always heard of hot cross buns from the nursery rhymes. After lunch we went to see the castle gardens since we were not allowed to go to the main castle rooms till past noon, where I bought some organic kale from the Duke’s garden.

Hannah and I wandered through the immense rooms in the castle, it is just so stunning to see architecture and decorating of such a high standard and even more impressive that they were made at least over a hundred years ago or more. A bit bizarre to think how much has changed in the quality of items made a hundred years ago.

After our castle excursion aided with our map we roamed the streets of Arundel searching for a tourist information building. Once we managed to find it we entered the building as two German tourists were walking out and the elderly gentleman behind the counter said, “I’ll be with you in a minute” to us without looking up from his cataloguing. After marking down that two people visited from Germany he said, “Good afternoon madams, how may I help you?” Hannah asked him if there was a walking map of the routes of Arundel; the man kind of half heard us gesturing to some town maps of Arundel below the counter. Hannah attempted again as we already had a map of Arundel and asked if he knew of any decent trails that we could take around here, letting him know that we do have hiking boots and a car so distance isn’t too much of an issue for us. The man just said somewhere along the river, and told us to take a map of the city. To please him we did, though for trails all he could tell us was to walk along the river on a trail that seemed like it wasn’t very far. Before we left he asked us our nationalities. Hannah told him she was from the UK and I told him I was from the U.S.; he made note of this in his catalogue as we began to leave. Stepping into the street a woman passed us entering the tourist information and we heard behind us, “Good afternoon madam”-Quite a peculiar character.

Hannah and I had a lovely walk by the river, managing to find an unpaved path that continued in the country fields. Cows huddled laying down on the grass watching us as we went past. At one point we came upon an old village church, the church of St. Leonard of South Stoke to be exact (2.5 miles north east from Arundel). The church was recorded in the Doomsday Book in 1086! 1086!!! That is practically a millennium ago! The history of such a building just baffled me to think of all the villagers who attended this modest church, were married, grieved, baptised. So many generations must have walked on the same stone flooring as I have walked on now. The parish currently has a population of 57 people.

Hannah and I sat on a bench outside amongst the gravestones snacking on fruit as we saw a couple walk into the church. The couple left and soon Hannah and I decided it was about time to head back before the sun sets. Out of the churchyard gates we bumped into that same couple, turns out that they live in the next village over but had never ventured over to South Stoke before. They told us of a book about the town that includes Arundel and the church of St. Leonard, called, The Foxes Oven. After a long and lovely chat we bid adieu and continued on our journey back. I really enjoyed that couple; they were definitely from the countryside Hannah told me, because in the countryside or smaller villages it isn’t uncommon for folks to strike up a conversation or just be really friendly.

Returning to the car we changed our shoes and headed back to Southampton by sunset.

Last Day in Berlin- My Heart Skips a Beat

April 1^st

 

An early wake up for me today as Marc and I were getting ready to go for our 8:15am tour of the Reichstag building which is where politics in Berlin occur. Running for our train it turned out that Marc fibbed a little to me on the time but at least we got there. Boarding the train around 7:30am on a Sunday morning was like entering a ghost town. There were about three people in our train car and remained less than 20 by the time we arrived to the Brandenburg Gate Station.

At the Brandenburg Gate, people were setting up fences for the half marathon that was going to occur in Berlin later that day. I guess the half marathon runs past Marc’s condo complex too, but I didn’t get to see it. Despite it being in the 8 o’clock hour on a Sunday morning, the line to go into the Reichstag was present and kind of bigger than was expected. After passports were checked and got the ‘ok’ through the security checkpoint, we joined the group of UK college (high school) students and tourists alike. To get to the glass dome of the Reichstag, Marc and I entered one of the largest elevators that I have ever been in. I swear they fitted in at least 30 people! Coming in last I managed to be next to the glass doors, which was great as I got a great view of our ascent. Out of the elevator, Marc and I picked up our ‘tour guide’ headsets from the front desk and headed outside.

It couldn’t have been better weather as it was sunny blue skies without a cloud insight! The dome was beautiful and impressive, well worth waking up early for! From the glass Dome, I could see practically everything that I had visited before with Marc, and more! The guided tour by the headset was quite good as it was triggered to start at various locations but was also concise so you weren’t at the same location for a long time. Despite the brief description from our automated tour, I encouraged Marc for us to take our time in the Dome while I went snapping hundreds of photos with my camera.

I learned that the Holocaust memorial that I went to earlier was actually called ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe’ designed by Peter Eisenman. I also learned that the ‘Charité’ hospital was built in the 1700s in response to a Bubonic Plague outbreak in Berlin; and many important cures for other diseases have been discovered there. The tour was fascinating and if I could get a chance to visit Berlin again, I would definitely go to the Reichstag in a heartbeat!

We too the subway back to Checkpoint Charlie to get our passports stamped by the jokester in a military uniform that I think claimed to be named, Tim. So now I have a stamp with the date that I was at Checkpoint Charlie… though I do wonder if it is such a good thing to have a stamp like that in a legal/official document… hmm…. Either way it will be nice to have it for later.

Around 3pm we headed over to the condo and prepared for the arrival of Marc’s friends. Waiting, I joined Marc in watching reruns of Baywatch in German until his friends arrived a little after four o’clock.

The girls hung out at the kitchen table as the guys were in the kitchen cooking. Thankfully the girls spoke with me 95% of the time in English and they were really nice. Around 5:30/6pm the food came out to the table. The girls complained that it was spicy, but when I tasted it I barely could detect its spiciness. So much to the other two girls astonishment I added a teaspoon or so of what the girls claimed to be really hot chili sauce and it made all the difference in the world; transforming the meal to a whole new level of deliciousness. Everyone left around 8pm after cleaning up and putting the table back together in its compact form. It was good that it was an early night because I have to get up around 4:40am for my flight back to London.

On a side note: I love German radio! They play some songs that I love that I never get to hear on a radio station, like Ben Howard and Lily Allen, and on the same station play classics like ‘Eye of the Tiger’. If I could pick one song for me to remember this past week it would be ‘My Heart Skips a Beat’ by Olly Murs; just because I never really heard of it before and it is played here all of the time.

Germany, it has been swell. Very good to see you again but once more I must say auf wiedersehen!

(Going to See) My First Professional Fußball Game

31^st März

Went to send off all the post cards and letters that I had written last night; it’s crazy how much they add up in cost when all said and done (~20€ total… though that did consist of three packages, one of which I sent razors to myself since I couldn’t bring them on the plane) but I am glad I was able to mail them.

Marc got a hold of his friends, Alex and Burien, in regards to what is needed for dinner tomorrow (really looking forward to meeting them). We ended up going to the grocery store for some tomato paste. Around the time of our walk back it began to snow a little! Marc claimed that it wasn’t snow but ‘slushy rain’, well I had a nice bicker with him of what to classify the weather (in good spirits though) which helped keep our minds off how cold we were.

Bundled up in leggings under my jeans, two t-shirts, a UW sweatshirt, my red jacket, raincoat, two scarves, gloves, and a hat, not to mention smart wool socks; I was finally ready around 3:30pm to leave for Dennis’s and ultimately go to see my first professional Fußball game (or football game (UK) or soccer (US))!! At Dennis’s we met up also with Luke and Dennis’s sister, Nina. We stayed there for a bit, enough time for Marc and Dennis to play one round of darts (game= 301) and for me to enjoy some hot chocolate. Walking  to the subway/train, I stopped at a Deutschbank to withdraw enough cash for the tickets and some food. In Germany, everything is closed on Sundays except for bakeries during the morning so it didn’t make sense to withdraw more than what could get me through the night. At the ATM (which is inside a small room rather than out in the streets like in the U.S.) I noticed a bum fast asleep on the counter resting his head on one machine and feet on another. Dennis told me it was my ‘picture opportunity’ but I didn’t take it because it didn’t feel right. Down to the subway Marc, Luke, and Nina were ahead of me and I mentioned on the escalator that I still needed to buy a train ticket. I think Dennis only heard me as he lead me back upstairs to help me buy my ticket. We got back to the platform just as the train arrived! Shortly afterwards or at least when we were on a connecting train ride, guys came by to check our tickets which was the first time it happened for me in Berlin. I was so glad that I had said something beforehand about getting a ticket otherwise I would have been in a serious predicament as if I recall the fines for not having a valid ticket on a train in Germany is in the 100s value in euros.

Getting off the train to the station at the Olympiastadium it was quite the scene. Thousands moved towards the stadium drabbed in blue and white (home team) it doesn’t help that everyone I know, including myself, were geared up in those colours too. Many officials or workers were stationed at various points collecting empty beer bottles and plastic bottles from the masses. Eventually we made it outside in front of the standium where we bought our tickets (17€ each) and weaved in and out passing by the various fans already working on their first or third beer. After going through the turnstile at the security checkpoint everyone gets padded down and bottles get confiscated as well as food, such as the bag of chocolates Marc brought- so after I was given the ‘all clear’ by security, I turn around to find the three guys working through the numerous chocolate bars. 

Once they were done and received an ok from their pat downs, we went to a bratwurst stand and got some food for dinner. The stadium had two columns in front of it which suspended in the middle near the top was the Olympic Games logo of the 5 rings. The stadium itself was built during the1930s for the Berlin Olympic Games before WWII. Seeing the stadium today it is quite impressive still and is still aesthetically pleasing. Before the game we scoped out our seats and then sat far from them closer to the field to have a good 30 minutes or so to enjoy the sun.

The crowd below was so much fun! There were 46,333 fans in the stadium; they sang chants, cheers, jumped up and down, waved their arms, clapped, waved flags, and were just overall an energized group of fans. I took part in some of the clapping and waving the team scarf over my head though it was a bit difficult to join in the songs and chants, so I hummed instead. At one point the crowd broke out singing ‘Bare Necessities’ in German. Once the game started we were back in our seats at the furthest back section of the stands. I got really into the game quickly (-oh how I missed soccer). At one point the Berlin teamed scored!! We were jumping and hugging in the stands. Before the half was over however, the other team (colours similar to the Washington Sounders) scored a point. Rats! Halftime was kept alive as fans below carried on with their eccentricities and many in our section went during that time for beers and food. Multiple times (about 3 times or so) a guy who had one beer to many fell into me from the row bejind. Pretzel and beer vendors made their rounds through the stands. At one point it was snowing a bunch during the game and I became quite grateful for my numerous layers that I was wearing and the guys couldn’t mock me anymore for looking like a wuss from the cold. We ended up leaving 12 minutes before the game finished as the score was 4 to 1 favouring the opposing team.

After two changes in our train ride back to Dennis’s we stopped at a Turkish kebab restaurant and got Döners to go. At Dennis’s place we played darts and ate. At one point Marc got out the German version of Risk, which I had a feeling would result in a long game. I played with the guys for a while with my mission to invade North America and Africa, and then I let Dennis’s sisters to take over so I could take a nap on the couch as it now was nearing midnight. Dennis ended up winning the game, and Marc and I returned to Marc’s condo around 2am. I was so sleepy and it didn’t help to think that we had a 6am wakeup call the next day!

Touristy Trips and Tasty Treats

30 März

Started the day leaving the apartment around 8:30am to pick up some bread rolls at a nearby bakery for Frühstüke (breakfast) with Marc’s dad and Tanja. Frühstüke consisted of various meats and cheeses, red bell pepper slices, marmalade, Nutella, the bread rolls, and tea with honey. After breakfast we took the U-bahn to Checkpoint Charlie. It was definitely a tourist trap but really neat. There were remnants of the Berlin Wall hanging on the side of the buildings and guys dressed up as WWII soldiers. I learned that I could get a ‘West Berlin’ and ‘East Berlin’ stamp in my passport which I will try to do on Sunday. I bought 10 postcards for 6.50€ just to find a deal across the street of 12 postcards for 5€. Rats, oh well at least I have my postcards. After Checkpoint Charlie, we visited Marc’s University. It was HUGE!!! One of the larger classrooms he showed me was even bigger than the largest classroom in Kane Hall back in UW where I had a 750 person chemistry class. Sheesh! Then we went on a walk in the Tiergarten where eventually we were walking along the outside of the zoo where you could- surprisingly enough- actually see quite a few animals.  It was so cool!! 

Eventually we went out of the Tiergarten and walked over to the Siegessäule, which is this gorgeous monument of an angel that is in the middle of a roundabout (that has at least 3 lanes going around it). To get to it, you go through an underground tunnel which was really neatly lit all sorts of colours. At one point, there was a section of the walkway where when you walked through it one wall would light up as if by majic. Sensors were on the opposite wall of course but it was so cool! At the Siegessäule, Marc asked if I would want to go to the top of the angel. I told him if it costs 3€ or less I would. Luckily it cost exactly 3€, better yet since Marc and I are students it costs 2.50€!

Inside the base of the monument was the history of the Siegessäule as well as other monuments. At one point Marc pointed out a monument he hadn’t seen before which I immediately recognised to be the Wahallah in Regensburg which I went to when I visited Kathrin. After getting enough history and pictures of monuments, Marc and I began to ascend one. I would guess we climbed roughly 285 steps at least, as it never seemed to end. Nearing the top my thighs were burning as I realized that the Siegessäule was the ultimate Stairmaster of Berlin. At last I made it to the top, slightly out of breath. The view was incredible. A 360° view of the entire city, enough to realise how closely clumped certain monuments are. The wind whipped my hair in my face as I remembered why I keep a spare hairband in my pocket. Marc was leaning into the wind further than normal and not falling over- it was that strong! My hands grew bright pink from the cold as my fingers attempted to move enough to press the button on my camera to take some photos. My eyes started to water from the cold too that after 10-15 minutes or so we eventually decided to head back.

We wandered through the Tiergarten again to get to the Scholss Bellevue which is Germany’s equivalent to the White House since it is the residence of the German President. It was from what I could tell standing from the street, a lovely estate, kept well maintained and well-guarded. Marc and I then went to the Russian WWII memorial which according to Marc was considered Russian territory till 1991. It had the plaques all in Russian and tanks around the front of it.

Back in the Tiergarten we moseyed about trying to locate the Holocaust Memorial. During that time we stumbled upon a statue in honour of famous German composers, as well as some random polished boulder sized stones of marble and other familiar rock types. Eventually we made it to the Holocaust Memorial which was made up of multi-layered rectangular columns. It was so neat, I really enjoyed it (though I am not sure if that word is quite appropriate here but it’s true) though it is sad to think of what it represents. Marc thought the design was random and couldn’t quite grasp how it relates with what the memorial stands for; but for me I feel that the rectangular shaped columns represents the countless and nameless graves of those who had perished during the Holocaust in WWII.

Cold and somewhat hungry we went to the train/U and S Bahn station called Potzdamer Platz. The station itself was so modern and definitely one of the coolest stations that I have seen thus far. In the mall adjoined to the station known as Potzdamer Platz Akarden, Marc treated me to a fresh warm soft pretzel. It was go-oo-ood!! Then since we were in the mall of the ice cream place he wanted to take me to, we decided to go there today. I got a streusel and pistachio flavoured gelato. The streusel was a fabulous flavour that I must have again sometime in the future. After heading back and checking email, we went to have Döner, which is a Berlin style of Turkish food, and boy Döner is amazing!! So I ended the day in a tasty manner.  

Es ist Wunderbar!