Cello again faithful readers (of which there are about 5 methinks)! I come to you with more photos and an update about school and my second adventure to Cork!
First week of college was "key skills." Bunch of different “key skills” that we need for the future. What future? Mostly research based. Second week was Environmental Health. A lot do with hygiene, sanitation and water (HSW). Actually everything to do with those things. My classmates want to start a campaign called, “Shit Happens: Don’t let it hit the fan.” Now all we need is money and celebrity power to make sure that everyone in the world knows and understands how important HSW is! Who wants to help?!
Then Cork with Meghan and Frank for delicious sausages (I honestly think I need to bring some home they're so good) and a beautiful walk in Gougan Barra! I freaking love Ireland. (Sorry for the not top quality photos... all were taken by iPhone.)
Why did I take a photo of this? BECAUSE IT'S A TRAIN TROLLEY LIKE IN HARRY POTTER
The title is the title because it was REALLY cold in Berlin (so I'm hoping that one of my best friends appreciates it... You know who you are :) haha)
Stayed in a crappy mc crap crap hostel (David's Cosy Little Hostel... Not cosy at all. Little.. kind of and more like David's Crappy Little Hostel. Man I'm mean) the first night but then moved to a WAY better one (which the name escapes me and I feel bad). Went to the TV Tower and treated myself to a great dinner at the rotating restaurant, which was my first rotating restaurant ever! Then I did a walking tour of Berlin where I saw pretty much everything.. Including Dunkin’ Donuts.
Pretty no?
Duck something. Doesn't matter what it was. It was duck and delicious.
Really sobering Jewish Memorial. Completely open air and subject to your own interpretation.
What's left of the Berlin Wall
The next day I want to Sansoucci Palace, the summer palace of Frederick the Great. And yes, it was great. (Bahaha I’m so lame). Everything was so elaborate and ornate!
Ceiling of just one of the rooms!
The guy played the flute. King of Prussia and he chooses to play the flute.
I have dreams of getting married in this thing.
Crazy beautiful chandelier.
On my way back to the hostel I stopped by the Olympic Stadium.
(Apologies for the late post... The assignments were kicking my butt!)
The home of the black gate (see previous blog post 02/01/2011). The oldest city in Germany. Absolutely freaking beautiful. Let’s start by me landing at the Frankfurt-Hahn Airport and being greeted by Frederik and Ryan. I couldn’t have been happier to see them. Germany was uber snowy and pretty. Obviously the Germans know how to handle snow unlike the Irish. Poor Irish people…
Anyway. So back to it being the oldest city in Germany. Every building has so much character.. Even the McDonald’s is housed in an old building! New Year’s Eve basically the whole city lights up with fireworks! I got to light my own as well... it was such a cool experience but now I see why it’s outlawed in the States. Especially with drunk stupid people around (anywhere)... It could get really ugly.
I know it's a terrible picture but my first firework lighting!
The best part of Trier? The people I was with! Sarma, Mila and I already mentioned the guys…
My girl Mila and of course Ryan being Ryan in the back :)
Had some awesome sledding time with Ryan but I was quickly reminded of the age that I am because I was so afraid to go too fast. Haha. I did, however, have an interesting encounter with Sarma’s mother-in-law. So basically New Year’s Day, (of course everyone is all hung over and we didn’t even get up from bed until noon) Sarma, Mila, Ryan and I are eating “breakfast” and Sarma’s mother-in-law comes up and says, “You know Christine, if you’re leaving today, you better get ready now so you can catch the train. I will drive you.” I say, “Oh I thought we had agreed that I’d leave tomorrow?” To that she responds, “Oh well tomorrow is our last day…” I look to Sarma, who is stunned, and I say, “Right. Well I just need to throw everything together and I’ll be ready in 20 minutes.” So I run up the stairs and start rolling my clothes like crazy and making sure I have all my school stuff together. Everyone is still downstairs and after a bit Sarma, Ryan and Mila come up and they look like they’re in a trance. They can’t stop saying how sorry they are for how crazy she is and how they wish I could stay. Meanwhile I’m agreeing and still packing AND looking for a place to stay that night! Did I mention that I had nowhere to stay and no clue of how to get around? Meh. Oh but Ryan was so sweet he said, “Why can’t you stay? Everyone wants you to stay… No one wants her around. Why doesn’t she go?” What a sweetie! Anyway, the mother-in-law comes to collect me like 45 minutes later and starts to apologise and basically says because of her English, sometimes she doesn’t know what she’s saying, blah blah blah. So I end up staying the day but am SO uncomfortable. So on the second of the year, I made my way to Berlin. The train was super expensive but whatever. It was a really pretty ride anyway. Berlin post tomorrow!
I know this has been said over and over, since there have been a number of films that have come out around this subject, but airports/airplanes are super interesting places to people watch.Yes in the arrivals gate, as Love Actually points out, about 99.9% of people are very happy to see whoever they wanted to see. For me that usually happens and I didn’t even realize how much I missed that person (whether I am the one arriving or receiving someone arriving). The percentage of people happy at the departures gate is almost the exact opposite. And the percentage drops exponentially if the flight is delayed. There are some people, like me, that LOVE flying and cannot get enough of it. Yes I am in a confined metal object hurtling through the air at a ridiculous speed but for me, usually at the end of that ride, there is an exciting adventure for me. And weirdly, I like airplanes. When I typed that just now I just got the image of a child playing with one of those Korea Air figurines… Hahhah weirdly it was a little boy. I don’t get claustrophobic BUT at the same time if there is someone hacking up a lung, that’s when I get antsy and grossed out. Those are the times where I wish I had disinfectant spray for around my head and hung there so that nothing could get in my breathing space. I know I’m a weirdo. By the way, this is how you correctly cough (the video is funny anyway):
Anyway, what spurred this blog was my recent trip from Dublin to Trier to Berlin. (Trier to Berlin was on the train and trains are fun too. Only because I’m almost always reminded of my high school choir trip to Japan where we rode the bullet train and everyone fell asleep except me so what else could I do besides take photos of everyone sleeping? Oh and that’s when my best guy friend spoiled the Harry Potter book where Sirius dies. Sorry if I spoiled it for you… hahaha). At the Dublin airport I of course was very excited and couldn’t help smiling like an idiot, but at the gate, and I don’t know if this is because of the airline I was going with, I’d say myself (the only single person) and maybe 2 other families were smiling. These two other families had small children who were extremely excited to go on an aeroplane. Which brings me to my first story. So I take a seat on the floor railing of the moving walkway because there weren’t any seats and a family was going to sit next to me. This little girl, who must’ve been no more than 2 years old, of course like any other child likes to hang on things so she promptly put her hands on the black railing and lifted her feet. This is where I should probably say again that it’s a moving walkway. Hahahaha you can imagine her surprise as well as her family’s. I couldn’t help but laugh because one minute I could see out of my peripheral vision that she was at least 4 feet away from me and in no more than 3 seconds, she was right next to me. It was SO cute. Then of course we’re all laughing but this encouraged her to try it again and again in addition to her older brother who was probably 3 or 4 to try it too. The other fun story was actually on the airplane while we were waiting to take off. I sat in the very last row in the aisle (praying that they’d open the back door as well when we landed in Frankfurt) and of course a American boy, about 11 or 12, was traveling with his family sat across the aisle from me but by the window and next to this old Irish couple. He promptly started talking about pretty much anything and everything. Mostly about horror films but of course he had to explain every single one and also each part that was his favorite, which happened to be really crucial to the movies. The Irish couple was so sweet and patient with him. As he was explaining one of the films his little sister, who was sitting in front of him, asked if it was a scary movie. He said yes and she immediately responded, “I’m going to watch Harry Potter for the rest of my life!” I agreed with her in my head. Haha.
I'll probably add more to this post after my Berlin airport stint. We'll see though.
