Day 88, 4/18/2010

Day 75, 4/5/2010

Last day in London. :(

This was a very fast moving day. I had a list of things I wanted to see and do in the three hours I had to do it in. Gladly, I pulled it off. Although I didn't get to really enjoy the sites much because I was moving so quickly. So I got up and pretty much got ready and left, checking out on the way out. It was the beginning of this long day. The first place I wanted to go was Abbey Rd. The famous Abbey Rd. Only famous because of the Beatles. It was a long way away from any tub station so once I got to the closest one I still had to walk for quite a ways to actually get to the famous crosswalk. The only reason I knew it was the famous one was because Beatles graffiti started show up everywhere along walk next to the road. So I found the cross walk. I also took a lot of pictures of it. There was a really nice Asian girl there also and she offered to take some pictures of me on the cross walk so I got a few of me doing the famous walk across the road. It was cool, but there wasn't much there. Immediately after that I went straight back the way I came all the way down the road back to the tub station. The next place I went was Bakers Street. This was to see Sherlock Holmes's 'place of residence.' He's fictional so there isn't actually a place to see; I just wanted to say I'd been there. I walked all the way down the street to the park. I took a few pictures of the park. While I was doing that an old English lady walked up nearby and her dog came and greeted me. I don't remember her name but the dogs name was Deedee. If you haven't noticed I'm really bad with names. Anyway, I walked down the street and talked to her for a little while as we walked. We parted ways at the entrance to the Bakers Street tub station. Right after that I decided it was time that I should go get Sean's pin from the Hard Rock Cafe. I've gotten him a pin from ever major city that I've found a Hard Rock in. I feel special because that is pretty much the only souvenir's he's asked for. I'm an awesome girlfriend. Teehee. The walk to the Hard Rock was long because I didn't know exactly where it was. It actually wasted a lot of my time. I might have had time to go into Westminster Abbey later if I had known where the Hard Rock was. Well I got off at the stop I should have and then tried to figure out where to go from there. I ended up asking a person selling tours where to go. By then my feet were hurting like usual. He told me to go straight down the street and I would get there. Well needless to say that took FOREVER. I walked and walked. And when I finally found the place that he told me I had to use the address the Canadian men told me the night before. I eventually found the restaurant, but it was closed. I got pretty upset because I didn't know when it would open and I didn't have the time to come back or wait. I just kind stood there trying not to get upset when a worker came out of the door. I asked him when it opened and he told me eleven. Then he asked me if I was going to eat or I just wanted to go in the store. I told him I just wanted the store. He made me feel so much better when he told me that the store was in a different place because it was so big and that it was open. I wanted to hug him, but didn't. He pointed me on my way. I got there got the pin and then went to the closest tub station which was way closer than the one I came from. Then it was time to take a step into Harry Potter by heading to King's Cross and hopefully find the sign for Platform 9 3/4. Sadly when I got there it was under construction and I had no way of getting to the platforms... I was kinda sad but I could change it. After yet again wasting my time I headed to the tub station and on to the next place, Parliament buildings and Big Ben in the day time. Mostly, so I would have pictures of it as well. So I went all the way over there via tub station again. I pretty much followed the exact same path I did the day before. I came out of the station then went out on the bridge for pictures. I took a few there then back to the same place I took pictures of the London Eye. Then I went to the other side of the Parliament Buildings and toward Westminster Abbey again for pictures. This time I was able to go inside St. Margaret's Church. Its a smaller church right next to the Abbey. I went in briefly because like I said before I didn't really have the time to wonder. So I went over to Westminster. Debating the whole time whether I should go in or not. Sadly I decided against it because I still wanted to go see Buckingham Palace and I had less than an hour to see it. So I walked around the exterior taking pictures then stopping briefly in the shop to grab a book about Westminster Abbey. Then off I went to Buckingham and my last rushed stop of the day before I had to catch a tub over to. I pretty much got out at St. James park and headed toward the palace. I walked quickly despite how my feet hurt so I could get there with enough time to get pictures and leave. I was already past the time I planned on leaving so I was rushing. I took some pictures of birds and scenery in the park as I walked to the palace. I didn't have the time to make sure they were good pictures sadly. So once I actually go to the palace. I took the pictures I wanted and turned right back around to go to the tub station. It was past the last alarm I set to get to the airport. I was so late. I practically ran to the tub station. I could really because my feet hurt so bad. When I got there I already knew how I needed to get to Victoria. When I got there I bought my train ticket to get to the airport and then got on the train. Not long after the train left. 30 minutes later I was at the airport. Luckily I didn't have to check in because I didn't have any bags to check. I ran the entire way. I got to the airport and it turns out I needed to go to the other terminal so I found the buses that were going there and got on one. I got there and ran all the way to the other side of the terminal to finally get to my plane. When I got there they were already in line for boarding. Phew!! I made it just in time. That could have been so bad. I will never ever ever do that again. If I'm going to see something I'm going to fit it into the days BEFORE I'm going to leave. So finally on the plane. It took us about an hour and a half to get back. I had to listen to the couple next to me argue the entire way there. That sucked but I could do anything about it without being rude. So I just played my gameboy till we landed then I immediately went to the skytram to go to the trains to get home. When I got to the train station the train didn't come for an entire hour so Yay more waiting and playing my game. Finally the train came and I was on my way home. When I got back to Bonn I got on the usual UBahn to get home. Finally at home I immediately crashed. I fell asleep at 9. I was an incredibly long day.


Day 76, 4/6/2010


Well the beginning of a two day week which is so nice considering. The whole end of the week was completely devoted to yet another trip. Well on Tuesday we just had a game class and nothing for the rest of the day. I don't remember if we had a presentation that day but if memory serves me right we didn't. I enjoyed the day because we didn't really have much class. Yet again, most of us just worked on our final projects for most of the day. I don't remember anything specific happening. So I guess it was an un-eventful day. The usual for the evening before going to bed.


Day 77, 4/7/2010


The really nice thing about today is that it didn't start until 1 in the afternoon so I was able to sleep all morning. When I finally got up it was about 11 I got ready and headed to class. After getting there we had our meeting about Berlin and the pre-departure stuff we needed to know before we left like what time to get to the train station. Right after that we had studio. This time we just went over what we've already done and what needs to be done before the end of the semester. I'm not worried yet about getting stuff finished but I'm sure I'll get worried and stressed before the end. So anyway we showed them what we had and that was about it besides working because we were leaving for the Berlin trip the very next day.


Day 78, 4/8/2010


This was the first day of an awesome four days in Berlin. However, it didn't start very good. First of all my alarm didn't wake me up. It didn't wake me up at all. I was woken up by David calling me on my cell phone to ask me if I was coming. That gave me the biggest heart attack. I had no idea if I would make it there or not. I jumped out of bed and ran around getting dressed. I asked my host mom if she would be willing to get me to the train station. I don't understand why the only days I don't wake up on time are the days that I could get left behind or look the worst to the coordinator, Lars. Well my host mom wasn't actually ready for the day but she threw on some clothes for me to take me into town. I was so grateful because without her twice now I wouldn't have made it in time. Well I grabbed my stuff she threw on some clothes. I'd already done the same thing. I grabbed my tooth brush and we ran down to the car and hopped in on our way to the station. We got there and I had only 5 minutes to spare. I ran as fast as I could to the platform and found the car we were in with just enough time for me to put my bag up in the rack and for me to sit down and the train started moving. I can't believe that I made it in time again. This is the second major trip we've gone on that I almost missed the departure time. So this was an incredibly long train ride. I spent most of it talking and typing on my computer. That was when I caught up quite a bit on my blog. Finally we got there and we had to ride several trains and trams to get to our hotel so we could drop off our luggage. First however when we got to the Hauptbahnhof we grabbed some lunch. Silly me grabbed some sushi which I had be craving for a while. After we ate and met up in the designated meeting place we grabbed the tram to the different places we needed to go to get to the hotel. Once there we dropped off our stuff. Hung out for about an hour, (I was roomed with Lisa and Allie this time) then we headed back out to go to the Bike Tour office. We were about to go on a bike tour of Berlin. We started the tour in an old brewery that has since been changed into a culture center. After that we rode all over town. The first major place we visited on this tour was a replication of the wall and the former neutral zone between the two walls. The Berlin wall consisted of two walls and a 'No Man's land.' Then we visited a same location as a church that was right on the wall boarder that they tried to prevent from being torn down but it still was later. This was a rebuilt modern church and an observation tower with an exhibition. You could see a completely rebuilt and replicated area of the wall and the 'No Mans Land.' It was just like it was when the wall was at its height of security. It was kinda weird to see. After I was late again because I had to go to the restroom we started riding along to the only tower left in its original location from the Berlin Wall. This was a little more moving because the guy who gave us the tour was the brother to the first person shot trying to get over the wall to freedom. It was weird seeing this location and how the towers worked along the wall. We didn't stay there long, but I was still moved by the brief time we were in there. Mostly because of the cruel ways they used to keep people from escaping. One of the worst was a large mat of foot long spikes that they would place just over the wall so that any one jumping would fall on these and basically bleed to death depending on if the soldiers decided to come help them or not. After that we headed to the next place on the list which was the Chancellery and the Parliament Building with the modern day glass dome. All we did was ride past it. Right near here was the field where Hitler had planned on building his Germania. This was interesting because, again, although nothing was there it was the original location of history. We stopped briefly at a shop right next to those buildings before heading one our way to the Brandenburg Gate. Sadly we didn't get to see the front today but we would go to the front later. We continued our tour over to Jewish Memorial again we couldn't stay long. Long enough to talk about it and move on to the next place. The second to last place we went that was a location without anything there was Hitler Bunker. Where he supposedly killed himself at the end of WWII. Nowadays it's just a parking lot with a sign. That was it. After that since it was getting close to the end of our tour we had one more place to go before riding back to the Bike Tour office. This was the location of the book burning during the War. There wasn't much to see except a memorial for the books below ground represented by empty bookshelves. After that we were done with our tour and we had a dinner reservation we had to make it to so we rode back to the office as quick as we could so we could get on our way to the restaurant. This place was called the Kartofelselar, or Potato Cellar. This was the best place I've ever eaten. It was amazing. I loved every bite of food I put in my mouth and sadly I'll think about this place for the rest of my life and I will never be able to eat there again. I also got the best Beer I've ever had as well. Called Berliner Weisse Rot. It was soo good. We talked and screwed around for the time we were waiting for our food then after that we didn't do anything because it was just so good. Then we were done for the evening and we headed back to the hotel. At least a few of us stayed when we got there. Allie, Lisa and I just went to our rooms to talk and wait for the guys to decide if they wanted to go out. Well by the time the guys came by the room we didn't want to go anywhere. Allie and Lisa couldn't decide so I flipped a coin for them and they decided by that to stay. Right after that we went to bed.