Everyone speaks English in Berlin

Before I update my weekend travels, there are some necessary things to mention about the end of last week. On Wednesday night, Crystal came over again, only this time she was lugging around two bottles of wine. We had a family style dinner with the five of us plus her, the boys cooked up some delicious food while the girls drank wine (standard) and we had some general bonding. We then went out to a little pub called O'Neills (not the usual one, a different one, turns out there are about 100 with the same name). I introduced Crystal to the glory that is the Clover Top beverage and we had a good time. We then spent some time haphazardly strolling around London in search of somewhere else to go, but Wednesday just didn't feel like the appropriate night to pay cover and go hardcore clubbing. Therefore, we went our separate ways.

So many friends!

On Thursday, I somehow survived class after passing out in the basement of the London Centre for two hours during my break. I then proceeded to chug a Diet Coke and eat a candy bar in preparation for my arduous three hour Shakespeare class on Thursday afternoons. Luckily, the nap time/caffeine/sugar worked wonders and I stayed awake and alert the entire time. After class, Allie and I had this mysterious meeting with Greg and Cornelius (two of the program leaders/professors) at the London Centre. We decided to stick around for it. Turns out they wanted to hear about some of the new professors they have brought on board. Allie and I cut our theology professor some slack and gave them some general pointers regarding the class. The most notable thing about this event, though, was the ridiculous abundance of wine. We quickly finished four bottles between four students and two professors. There was actually an entire bottle left when we were about to leave but Cornelius told us not to be wasteful. What is this place?! So my calm Thursday night turned out differently than expected as I was full of wine and Pringles. We had a great talk with the profs and I returned home to pack for the weekend. Side note: packing is also much harder after being forced to drink wine with your professors for a couple of hours. I pulled it together and was social inside the flats on Thursday night before taking a two hour nap and waking up at 2:30 a.m. to get to Berlin. There were a few yawns involved to say the least.

Berlin was super fun! Zack and I took EasyJet out of the London Gatwick airport. I had heard sketchy rumors regarding airlines like EasyJet because they are ridiculously cheap, but the flight went quite smoothly and wasn’t too sketchy after all. We arrived on Friday around lunch time, conveniently checked into our hotel early and went out to explore the city. It was not a problem that I didn't speak German because literally every person speaks English and/or everything is translated in English everywhere... The perks of America. That was after we bought baguettes, cheese, meat and candy for 6 Euros for lunch. Berlin was definitely much cheaper than London and I am beginning to realize how expensive London actually is. Friday we walked around a lot of the city. Initially, we checked out this giant thrift store called The Garage that sold clothing by weight in kilograms, awesome. We walked through the Tiergarden, found the parliament building, some downtown areas and some not-so-downtown areas. In fact, on the way back we definitely walked through the prostitution section of Berlin as the sun was setting. I will definitely not forget that. We were pretty tired but luckily we took some convenient breaks/naps in scenic locations and survived the day successfully. After attempts to mobilize and go out that evening, we ultimately ended up sipping champagne, ordering room service and watching German channels on TV. It turned out to be an ideal night staying in.

Oh hey Berlin

On Saturday morning, we checked out of our hotel and literally walked two blocks down the street to our second hotel, the Crowne Plaza. It was the definition of classy. We grabbed a bite to eat and went exploring in some of Berlin’s markets. A lot of them had old antiques and delicious looking food. The freshly squeezed orange juice was a good call. We also stumbled upon this awesome waterfall/park area that we hiked up to see a cool view atop the city. We met up with Zack’s mom later in the day to do some touristy activities, including a trip to the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall, things you can’t not do while you’re in Berlin. Dinner that night consisted of true German delicacies: weinersnitchel, some other German food that starts with a K that I can’t remember, and German beer. It was delicious and we were able to sit outside in a really cool setting.

The next morning, we took advantage of the hotel pool and sauna (classy, like I said) before heading out for breakfast at this place called Einstein Café. It was literally packed so we knew it had to be good. We ordered some lattés and delicious breakfast food. A lot of places are closed on Sundays in Europe, but we managed to check out the Berlin Museum and the Berlin Zoo. I am obviously overtly obsessed with zoos so Zack agreed to take me. It had a great array of animals but was one of the hardest zoos to navigate, ever. They do not believe in maps in European zoos, clearly.

This day, I also realized something funny. I had taken fifty Euros out of a German ATM, and the ATM ended up giving me 40 Euros and 10 Deutch Mark, aka the old currency that is no longer in circulation. I didn’t realize it until the next day, and I figured I would keep the weird currency as a souvenir. The German ATM smoked me!

After the zoo, Zack and I searched for far too long for more champagne. Turns out, every grocery store is closed on Sundays. After searching for a solid half hour, we found a sketchy “ethnic” store that sold alcohol. We were elated and obviously bought a bottle. We drank that while getting ready to go out that night. We meant up with Zack’s mom at this extremely nice concert hall filled with chandeliers and overall classiness. We sat through some of the conference and mingled amidst some people while taking advantage of free wine and hors d’oeuvres. We then went to dinner across the street at a nice Italian place that had really good food and excellent gelato.

(note the chandeliers)

We got up at 5am to catch our flight the next morning, and took a taxi to the airport and made it back to London without getting detained. I have now realized one of the more fun aspects of flying is passing through the cheap Duty Free shops. We returned to the flats on Monday morning, and I made it to NBC by 4pm. I may have wrote about this in an earlier post, but getting driven home by my own personal NBC driver at the end of the late shift is by far the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. I feel so important. Monday was my mom’s birthday so I had a Skype date with her that night. Happy birthday Mom love ya! Monday Night, we also headed to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a really historic pub in London that made me feel like I was in Harry Potter. Charles Dickens apparently went there all the time back in the day, along with lots of other famous people.

Tuesday, I survived classes (a professional stage manager gave a talk in my theatre class, pretty cool) and I actually stayed in for my first night of legitimate academic work. Luckily, I still know how to crank out a five page paper in a few hours. We also planned more fall break plans on Tuesday night. Planning trips feels great once it’s done but the actual planning process is super tedious and time-consuming!

Tonight, I am headed to the Almeida Theatre for a production called My City followed by a production of Much Ado About Nothing in the Shakespeare Globe on Thursday night. I am looking forward to sticking around London this weekend with most of my friends! Norway the following weekend should also be very neat.

The weeks are going by so fast. One second it is Monday morning and the next it is Thursday night and already the weekend once again! I am loving everything as always, although I have been missing frisbee a bunch recently! I MISS YOU WOMB! Allie and I played frisbee on Tuesday and I realized I am already so excited for this spring with my team. Also, the UK women’s frisbee team finally emailed me back and said they are starting open practices in London in mid-October. Looks like Allie and I are going to playing with some top notch players for the second half of the semester!