Dzień Dobry Polska!!!!

29 März

Today we took a day trip to Polska (Poland) to a town called Szczecin. Marc got lost in the city trying to find port. We went around the city in the same route approximately two times where we saw a Chuck Norris Billboard. We also noticed that there wasn’t really a distinction between where the trolley/train ran and where the cars run. In fact the trains stop in the middle of the street, in the middle lane, open their doors as people jump in and out expecting cars of the other lane to stop. We ended up in the restaurant Marc wanted to go to called, the Colorado, around 3pm. The restaurant was in the style of ‘The Wild West in America’ with wooden Indian statues with red, white, and blue lines painted under their eyes. I searched the menu for anything Polish, but couldn’t really find anything. At the end of lunch, Marc treated us and I learned that you knock on the table to show gratification (when Dennis and Luke started knocking on the table I became quite confused). After lunch we ran across the highway to walk by the water, there wasn’t really a set plan of where to go, so I decided to take charge and lead us back across the highway to some buildings that had neat architecture. I was so happy that I did prompt us in that direction because I led us to the nice side of town. We went by the academy of music where all sorts of instruments poured their melodies into the streets from the nearby windows. Then I took us to a swing which I enjoyed and then a Catholic cathedral. The cathedral was massive and slightly under construction. Inside the confession box there was an actual pastor inside. Unfortunately I don’t speak Polish and I doubt that he spoke much or any English. We left after a while and eventually got back to the car where we started our trip back. This time however with no GPS as the battery had died. We managed getting back in less time than it took for us to get there.  

At the Colorado

 

 

Chuck Norris on the Billboard?!

Night Out on the Town: Berlin

28 März

Woke up this morning with Marc already gone to take his exam. Tanja came by to see if I wanted to join her in getting some toiletries- Yes Ma’am!!! Since Marc’s condo is missing soap, I still needed deodorant and a razor; I was very glad that Tanja was able to take me to get these supplies. When Marc returned from his exam he treated Tanja and me to lunch. Tanja had a pizza and when she was about 3/4ths of the way through it, the waiter asked if it was too spicy and she said it was a little; next thing we knew the waiter decided to give her a whole new pizza for free! Marc was happy with that though Tanja was not quite looking forward to it as she was already pretty full. Luckily when the pizza came out, Marc helped her finish it.

Later in the afternoon, Tanja came over to Marc’s and the two of them tried to figure out where Marc should show me around the city, I am glad Tanja put her two cents worth because now I get to see Checkpoint Charlie and a few other places. 

Around 8pm Marc and I went to meet his friends, Dennis and Luke, to go to a sports bar to watch a Fußball match (football [UK] or soccer [US]). Unfortunately the first place was filled to the brim with sports fans so we went to the Europa-Center to try and find another bar. In the Europa-Centre there was the lead singer of a famous German band ‘Unheilig’, the guys looked at me and asked if I wanted to stop and see, but not ever hearing about the gy before I kind of shrugged and they laughed at my reaction. A little later when we were trying to find the bar some ladies ran past with the utmost urgency almost pushed Dennis out of the way in the escalator, then they snatched some posters that they were going to have the singer sign. So that was what my reaction should have been! We found an Irish Pub which in order to watch Fußball so we decided to go back to the ‘Zoo’ (not really at the zoo, that is just what they call the place). At the Zoo, we caught a 100 bus which went by many touristy sights mainly the ‘Siegessäule’ was of interest to me because it was an angel on a pillar in the middle of a giant roundabout. She was gorgeous to see at night.

Then we got off at a stop and walked around the Reichstag, which is a gorgeous building  that is the centre of German politics. At the top there is a glass dome which Marc and I will hopefully see on Sunday- you have to book three days in advance to go in! Then we walked to a new station that had an odd conveyor belt like slide which Marc and Dennis went down on. Of course when they looked at their hands they were filthy.

Our next stop was the Brandenburger Torr which was so far one of my favourite sights.

At some point we met this Georgian girl named Nini, who was quite a character. Nini has been in Berlin since September working as an opare but now works at the very chic store called Zara. I am not quite sure that she was telling us the whole truth because as she was walking with us she claimed that she was 21 like me, but questioned if that means I was born in 1990. Though her birthday I am pretty sure is the 29^th of December, because she started telling me all about how she is big into astrology. She also told me that she has been working the past four or five years on a medical degree. Odd character at that, she had taken a liking to talking to us that she walked probably a mile or more with us in the city. I guess at one point she was telling the guys of all the clubs she had been to and Dennis started making up club names like ‘arena’ and she would say she had been there- well that couldn’t have been true! Haha, poor girl.

During that time talking with her we past the Lustgarten, Humbolt University (where Dennis just completed his PhD), Dom, Fernsehturm (TV tower), and the ‘world time clock’ at Alexanderplatz, where we ultimately took the U-Bahn to Marc’s stop and then wearily walked the rest of the way home. It was quite the evening!

Ich bin eine Berlinerin!?!

March 26^th

Yesterday we had a BBQ at our place with Sami. It was so much fun, but so smoky since we bought the charcoal brickettes much to Rich’s and Alec’s chagrin. Afterwards we watched Anchorman and Sami slept over.

This morning I got up at 7:30am after a restless sleep bothered from worrying that I have no idea where I am meeting Marc at within the airport nor do I have his cell phone number! Ahhh!!! Currently I am sitting at platform 2 in Southampton Central train station waiting for my 11:33am train to Gatwick airport. Nervous & excited!

SO MUCH SMOKE!!!!!

27 März

First day in Berlin! This morning I slept in till around 9am though I did wake up slightly earlier despite the one hour time difference Germany has from the UK. Marc and I had a cereal that he hadn’t tried before called <<Vitalis knusper Plus>>. It tasted like I was hving dessert for breakfast, really yummy like a granola cereal version of a s’more. It’s kind of funny coming over at this time as Marc has only actually lived in his apartment for a week. The kitchen is still quite bare, as the fridge and pantry is stocked with apples, bread, Vitalis (cereal that I had earlier), Nutella, cheese, and milk- but that’s about it.

Since Marc is busy away studying for an exam, Tanja has been taking me around today. She picked me up around 11:45am to go swimming. The pool was so gorgeous and huge!!! She got me in for a student price and we swam over 30 laps in the Olympic size pool (one lap ~ one length of the pool). I was impressed that I lasted that long despite me being slower than Tanja, I managed to keep up in the number of laps.

After our showers I went to take a picture of the amazing pool to show my mom and after the second photo I was told off by a lifeguard in German as I replied <<Entschuldigung>> (“sorry”) and ran off. Later Tanja treated me to a delicious pastry and chai latte from a bakery called, ‘Steinecke’. It was lovely as the sun decided to come out while we were swimming so we were able to enjoy our goodies outside. The woman at the bakery was so nice because when Tanja returned the dishes, the woman asked if it was good. Tanja replied something along the lines of ‘yes, even the American liked it’ and the woman saide that she saw the two of us taking pictures with the food and thought it was cute.

So far according to Tanja, all of Marc and her friends know that I am here in Berlin, and she kept getting calls from friends and they would also ask her what she did with me today. After a two hour break from activites, Tanja took me to the Kino where we watched an English film Best Exotic Marigold Hotel with her friend Ebby. The film was fabulous and well worth the 7.50€ it cost to go in. Afterwards when Ebby and I were waiting for Tanja in the lobby, I went up to Ebby and started giving my opinion on one of the trailers that we had seen before the movie had started. I turned to look at her and realised that it wasn’t Ebby and that besides height the girl looked nothing like her!! Embarrassed I went over to Ebby (yes I checked and it wasn’t another stranger) and put my head on her shoulder as the three of us shared a good laugh. The buses had stopped running by the time Tanja and I got off the train so we walked the rest of the way- which was nice as we were sitting for most of the evening. On our walk we calculated that since each lap we swam was 50m, then we had swum over 1500m! That is over 1.5 km!! Darn we’re good! 

Picture I got in trouble for, but so worth it!

Ebby and Tanja

Ebby, Tanja, and I

A Bright Day in Brighton

March 18^th

Woke up this morning at 8:30 am after a late night. Got somewhat ready for my day trip to Brighton that I had planned with Claire. Around 9:40am I decided to double check my text from Claire to make sure that I had the location of where we were going to was right. I read that I was supposed to meet up with her at a quarter to ten, not a quarter past ten!!! Ahhh!!! I ended up calling Claire quickly to let her know I was running late, and she asked me if I would be able to make the train since they are every hour and if I couldn’t catch the train then we shouldn’t bother going. OH NO!!! I grabbed my jacket and bolted out to the bus stop by the Mitre, which has a higher chance of me being able to catch a bus there than by Aldi. When I called Claire to check if the U6C had arrived at Aldi already (seeing that I would be on the same bus) she told me that she was walking.  Bugger, it took me 3-5 minutes of running to get to the bus stop, I could have easily have met up with her at Aldi and now I have no idea if I’ll be able to make the train or not. The bus came at the stop around 10:02am and I sat in the bus avoiding the seat next to me that had some chewing gum stuck to it and worrying about making it to the train on time. Arrived at the station around 10:18am, and I bolted in a run from the bus to the ticket machines where I came to the confusion of which route to take to get to Brighton. The first option I clicked told me that the trip would be 55 quid!! I started to phone Claire, when a train employee came over to ask if I needed help (there were about 15 people behind me).. luckily at that time I figured out which route I needed to get the ticket through and I bolted through the train station running to platform 3 when I heard the train conductor blow a whistle and I heard a pound on the window of one of the train cars which turned out to be the one with Michael, Claire, and Emmeline. They were surprised I made it, so was I.

After a two hour train ride, we finally made it to Brighton. The city was bustling with people and the buildings were so colourful! On our way to the beach, we went through the North Lanes where there happened to be a Chocolate Festival happening. It turned out to be a delicious detour to the beach. 

Passing through the winding alleyways that were filled with shops, at one point Claire grabbed my arm and took me to show me one of her favourite shops called, Cath Kidston which was absolutely adorable. It took me by surprised as I haven’t seen Claire get so excited over something like that before, she is so cute.

Getting sights of the beach the one obstacle we had to face was crossing the busy four lane street that stood between us and the pier. Claire immediately joined a few people as they stood in the middle of the street and then ran to the other side. Michael shortly afterwards looked both ways and bolted across the four lanes with one of the cars honking for him to get out of the way. Emmeline and I just looked at each other and decided to walk the 50 meters to the crosswalk and went across that way. I rather attempt to cheat death another day.

On the pier there were so many food vendors and people about. The blue skies were starting to come out and we searched for a vendor who wold decent and somewhat reasonably priced fish and chips because Michael claimed having fish and chips by the sea is the only way to experience fish and chips in England. Off the pier by the ferris wheel we found a nice place for our lunch. The fish and chips were a lot better than the ones I tried with Sami earlier in the year at ‘Sunny’s Place’ which was just a grease pit. Once done with lunch we wandered on the chert stone covered beach towards the water. Everything was just wonderful.

Back on the pier we relaxed on foldable lounge chairs that are free to use on the pier; with our feet up on the fencing and our heads lay back towards the sun we spent a good ten minutes or so just taking in the atmosphere of the beach, the surf, and each other’s company.

 

Soon enough Michael, Claire, and Emmeline wanted to go to the penny arcade near the end of the pier. Going in there I kind of felt like I was in Chucky Cheeses or Illusionz, it was the same set up where you put money in and hope you win a prize. I played a game or two with a couple pennies but didn’t feel like spending much more than that. Lady luck visited Michael as he ended up winning a keychain. Outside the arcade now nearing the end of the pier there were many festival rides including bumper cars (they call it something else in the UK but I can’t remember what), a roller coaster, and a haunted house. At one point we came across the mechanical bull and Claire had the idea of talking whoever was in charge of that ride into letting each of the girls take a try since there was a deal of three tries for two pounds. When we got there though no one manned the ride, but Michael and Claire thought since I never went on that ride before I should at least get a picture on it. At first Michael had the idea that I would run up and get on it long enough for him to take a picture, which we figured would ultimately result in us being escorted off of the pier which was alright since we were leaving anyways. I wasn’t quite ready for that thrill though, so Claire asked an attendant of one of the nearby games if I could get a picture on it. He said sure and even turned it on so the mat inflated below the bull and the bull could be adjusted for a good angle for the photo. Hopping on, Michael took some pictures as I pretended that it was on. I guess when I got off the attendant told me he was tempted on actually turning it on so he could see my reaction as I would be thrown off, though he didn’t… kind of happy for that, but it would have been amusing either way. 

We went back through the Lanes where we looked into the shops and went into a few as well. Michael was immediately drawn to one of the circus like shops, where he could check out the devil sticks. It was a cool store and the guys who worked there were really laid back and pretty neat people. I overheard one of them asking another “hey we’re going unicycling on the beach tonight, want to join?” How cool is that?! After Michael was getting his thrills of playing with the devil sticks, one of the employees of the store showed off for us as he started juggling three knives on a balance board. I felt like we were getting a free show- the guy was really good! Michael tried the balance board afterwards but couldn’t quite get it yet as all beginners tend to struggle with it. I gave it a shot afterwards and was up immediately (do note though that I have one at home so I had plenty of practice). I also tried getting low in it, but I wasn’t as comfortable on this balance board as I am on mine back home to attempt on sitting on it. The guy who was juggling before was kind of impressed of my ability on it and told me to try jumping a 180° and landing on it… I gave that a pass as I wasn’t quite there yet in my comfort zone, not that I am sure I would be even in five years.

After a good day spent the train ride back seemed way shorter.