Day 92, 4/22/2010
Well today I made yet another mistake I wasn't able to get up to my alarm... again. For whatever reason I kept having a very hard time getting up in the mornings. And this morning I didn't wake up till it was a little late for me to get to the Clash of Realities in Cologne. As soon as I was awake I realized I was super late. So I grabbed my phone figured out where to go got dressed and headed to the trains to get to the presentations. I got there and I had to sit at the stop till I finally got a hold of someone to tell me where to go. I got a hold of someone and they sent someone to come get me and when I got there I signed in. By that time it ended up being way too late to even matter that I rushed to get there. The cool thing is that I was later able to find a girl friends house later the next week. Anyway I got there and signed in to go to the rest of what was showing in English. Right after that we headed over to the local cafeteria to get some lunch. There was a minor argument over who would be staying and who would be going to eat somewhere else. Also who would be going back to Bonn immediately or staying. It ended up that right after that I went back with Lisa and Brian back to Bonn. Then I was done for the day.
Day 93-95, 4/23-25/2010
This was Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I can't remember what I did. It was the weekend so I know I didn't go up to the school but other than that I don't really remember. This is what I get for not doing this earlier.
Day 96-100, 4/26-30/2010
Finally the last weekend of official school for that semester. The whole week till Friday way was devoted to school and getting things done. I didn't have class on Monday morning or all day Tuesday and Friday. I can't recall anything specific happen except that I was getting really really tired of everyone in Germany and I was past being mad at my partner because he wouldn't do what I wanted him to do. So it was pretty much just working. For the non-class days I think I went up to the school at least a couple of times. I'm almost positive I did on Friday. Not to mention one of these days I ended up staying up all night to get some stuff done. The next day was a long one.
The only specific day that I know if is Wednesday. 4/28/2010. This was the test day for our Game History class. The sad thing is that I didn't know it was a test day. Well anyway. I didn’t know that we were going to have a test so most of what I answered I remembered and I think I did a good job surprisingly for not having studied at all. I showed up in the morning and realized that we had a test so I immediately sat down to get whatever studying I could done. Then we took the test and I think I did surprisingly well. The horrible thing is that although I lucked out I have never had a test that I had to take without studying. I’m completely surprised that it didn’t screw me as much as it should have. It was the only day I really remember anything specific happening that week besides a couple of reviews and working.
Also on Thursday after class I ended up staying the night at the school and working all day long like usual on the project. Some time at the end of the day I went home for a blanket and some food before heading back to school. It was getting very very close to the due date and crunch time was upon us. It was ridiculous because I was so tired. I'm pretty sure it was Thursday that I ended up staying.
Day 101, 5/1/2010
This was a very cool day. First thing this morning my host mom took me to a traditional thing that the churches and villages in the area do for the first day of spring. The young single guys raise this tree in front of the church and they hang trees in front of their girl friends houses as a symbol of love I guess. The trees are also decorated with ribbons. People even try to steal trees from other churches so they guard it to keep people from taking it. This was really neat. After that they were selling hot dogs so we ate a few for lunch and that was the last time I would see Trudy's mom. Around 4 or so I made my way over to Michelle's house. Today was a celebration for the towns along the Rhine for the first day in spring called Rhine in Flammen. I made plans to go to it with Michelle and spend the evening with her. Well the way it started was that I got on the train heading over to her house and I missed the stop so I had to wait at the next stop to catch the train to go back. By then I was way later than I planned on being. I also was talking to her on the phone to let her know what happened. After I finally got to the right stop I had to wait for her to get back to where I was. When she and her friend did we walked back to her friends house first then over to hers. At her friends house I had a funny thing happen. Her friends bird decided I was a good perch. So I got some cute pictures of the bird before we went over to hers to wait till when we would head into town for the festival. At first when we got into town I was very bored and disappointed because when we got into town the first people we met were the typical stuck up teenage sixteen year olds and about 30 mins of standing around and spending time with these guys it started grating on my nerves. After a while I got Michelle to go with me to go get a hamburger at McDonald's for her and the hamburger place near AIB for me. That took longer than I wanted it to so I didn't get the chance to eat it for a while. It sucked so I pretty much had to sit there and hold it waiting till I had time to. That didn't happen till we actually got on the train to head over to the river and the place that they would be shooting the fire works. This was fine because on the train I was able to eat. When we got there we finally left the annoying 16 year olds. I was especially glad to leave the raunchy dating couple. So when we got to the river area we ended up meeting with some of her other friends and I actually liked these friends a lot better. So I hung out with them the entire time. First we started near the station and went to sit down in the grass. Thats when I finally discovered that some of them could speak English. So we talked and just hung out. After a while we got bored and started walking around. About this time my new shoes that I bought earlier that week started really hurting my feet so I took them off and walked around barefoot. Which was ok with me. After a while I put my shoes back on because we were going down to where there was no grass. They had a carnival with all the rides that I like to ride at the festival in Angelo but the rides were just way too expensive. So we walked around some more and after a while we went and grabbed a beer. By the way you're allowed to drink beer at 16 in Germany. After that we went to find a place to sit till the fireworks. They played some really interesting songs. finally they started. I don't think I could ever watch fireworks in San Angelo again because these were so amazing these were the most amazing fireworks I've ever seen. If I ever go back to Germany I'm definitely going to do that again. It was just amazing. Everything was played perfectly with the fireworks. It was truly amazing. I couldn't believe that it was so amazing. After that we waited for a while to get some cups for their deposits because you get a deposit for taking the cups back. Then we went to catch the train because we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get on it before it stopped for the night. Well we got on the train just in time. We ended up standing for a very long time. After walking over to the stop we needed to get to over the bridge then we had to stand. Needless to say my feet were already hurting. So we drove a couple of stops then all of a sudden the train didn't leave the station and we were waiting and waiting. Soon we found out why. One of the other trains ahead of us got stopped because of a fight and our train was grounded. So we decided to start walking because at least then we would be moving. Right when we got a ways from the station the train started moving. That was not cool. So I pulled my shoes off so we could get moving to get to the next station in order to catch the train again. Finally we were able to get to the next station get on the train and get back to the hauptbahnhof. We planned on having a party of some kind but it didn't happen. Anyway I eventually got back to the house and went to bed.
Day 102, 5/2/2010
This was a Sunday and my last Sunday of the semester. All our projects were due on Tuesday. I worked all day of course again to make sure it was done. I don't remember if I went up to the school or not.
Day 103, 5/3/2010
So this was the last day before final review. I got up to the school as early as I could. This would be the longest day yet. I was so close to finishing. So I worked and worked and worked. Then around 8 that evening I headed home to grab some food then I headed back to school to stay there again. So I worked till about 4 in the morning and then I changed my mind and decided I didn't want to stay again and I was done so I headed home for a little bit of sleep.
Day 104, 5/4/2010
Surprise, surprise I didn't wake up to my alarm and instead to someone calling me. So I got to school as fast as I could. When I got there they hadn't started yet so it was alright. I had left my computer but it was moved to a table on the wall. Colton and I spent a little bit of time getting our stuff together to make sure that we wouldn't be loosing anything important to give to the profs. Then we spent the rest of the day watching presentations and running back and forth from the room where the presentations were going on and my computer to get the CD made for the profs. After the presentations it was like a sigh of relief. I was very ready to be done with the work. So about that time the host families started showing up for the Farewell dinner. This was ok with me because my host mom only showed for a little while. This was just a lot of hanging out and enjoying the food. I loved it we had a beer and some good food. My host mom left early but I stayed for a while enjoying myself. After that I went home to talk to Sean and then go to bed early to make sure that I was up in time to go to the FMX Convention in Stuttgart.
Day 105, 5/5/2010
This was the beginning of our final trip and the one I was looking forward to. Whats awesome is I got up in time... I don't remember if my host mom had to take me to the train station or not but I got there in time and we enjoyed the trip there. It was a long trip and It was fun. When we got there we went to the convention center for the final presentation of the night before heading to the hostel. The presentation was about .**** The walk to the hostel took a while. We did take a train but other than that it still took a while to walk up the hill to the hostel that looked over the city. This was a pretty nice hostel. Before heading to bed we ate dinner there at the hostel and that was the end of the day.
Day 106, 5/6/2010
When we got up this morning we got a really nice breakfast from this place because that was part of being at this hostel. They offered all the meals except lunch, and it was really good. After that we headed over to the convention.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
I'm no long in Germany but I'm still finishing.
This is way after I've left and I've already started a new semester at Texas A&M.
Day 81, 4/11/2010
Well I’m more than a month behind and the trip is over. Sean and I have already gone to Rome and everything. So I guess now would be a good time to finish my blog before the summer stupor erases everything from my brain.
So the final day in Berlin was spent going to the Jewish museum for a few hours before we had to catch our train to get back to Bonn. We started the day like the others with getting up getting ready except today included packing. We headed out after breakfast and caught the usual train to the Hauptbahnhof to get our stuff in a locker. After that we headed toward the Jewish museum. This was a very cool museum mostly because of the architecture. This is one of the first modern architecture buildings I learned about in school when I was still in the architecture program. It is an incredibly interesting building. It’s shaped very similar to a lightning bolt. I really liked the reason the building was built. It was just incredibly interesting. Be took a map and basically made the building into areas where Jews lived and every place that there is a window is a place on the map that there were Jews living on the map. After we had our tour of the most interesting parts of the architecture they allowed us to walk through the museum. Sadly, I only made it through the top floor before we had to leave. I didn’t learn much in this place except that Jews have always been on the outs in Germany. It doesn’t really make since why however. I didn’t really find a reason. Well after that I pretty much had to rush out of the place because it was already past the time they told us to meet. Allie and Lisa found me on their way out and told me. So we headed out and I rushed down to the book store as fast as I could to see if there were any books that I wanted or that mom might want. I found one but I didn’t have time at the moment to find a museum guide which is what I usually get at these places. So I went back out to meet up with the ground and they decided they wanted to check out the shop. So, as they headed in I turned around and headed back in to see if there was a guide. I ended up asking the desk lady if there was a good one and she pointed me toward a few books. I purchased what I wanted then headed out to go with everyone else to head to the train station. Yet, again I think I was a little slow getting outside. So we walked back to the closest train stop to get to the Hauptbahnhof. Then when we got there we grabbed some food again before we needed to catch out train to head out for Bonn. This we another long train ride back. And again I ended up next to Trisha, not by choice. So I had to listen to her for a while. Then finally she put on her ear phones and I didn’t have to listen to her for a while. Sadly, unlike on the trip there I wasn’t able to use a plug in on the way to work on my computer. This time they didn’t have any because we were on a different kind of train so I ended up just reading and talking to the others till we were back in Bonn. It was a long train ride and not exactly fun. By this time all the guys in Germany have about driven me nuts. Finally we got back to Bonn and we all headed home in our separate ways. I took the usual underground train back home to my host house. Then off to bed for school the next day.
Day 82, 4/12/2010
This was just a work day. For working in studio we were going to be working all day long pretty much. At this point I was getting fairly irritated with my partner in the final project because he basically didn’t want to do anything and I needed him to do a little bit of stuff in order to get this project done and a few other thing s that weren’t required but were needed in order to get the top grade in the class. I just wanted an A. But every time I would mention for him to fix something he would tell me that it wasn’t necessary and I just wanted to slap him and say “YES IT IS!!!!” But I held my tongue and didn’t say anything. I wish I had but he just didn’t want to do any more than the minimum and he wouldn’t do any more. So we just worked for the day and I stayed up late yet again to get more and more thing done. I was getting slightly panicky at this moment because it was getting close to the end and we weren’t going to have much time left of finish things. So I worked until late like I did on most of the other nights then sleep of course.
Day 83, 4/13/2010
This was our first day of the Editing Workshop it wasn’t meant to be long one it was only going to last for the entire morning on this first day. So we got there ridiculously early that next day, to start this workshop. I decided to actually try to pay attention and work for what she was trying to teach us but I just couldn’t and I worked on my own computer at the back of the class for the entire workshop. She was trying to teach us Final Cut Pro and the problem is that it only comes on a Mac so the whole workshop was kinda useless for me. So, I was ok with not listening. I just worked. After the workshop we all went to find some lunch. Right after that we headed back to the AIB for our Game History class. Sadly, after this day I think it’s the last one that actually follows the schedule that I have. There were several days that were changed so I can’t exactly say anything about the next two weeks except on the days that we didn’t go to school. There were several days that we went on an excursion instead like other days. I will relate what I remember but for the most part the last part of the week was exculsivly just school. Anyway after game history we worked for the rest of the afternoon. Some people went home while most of us stayed at the school to work. I stayed until fairly late every day this week.
Day 84, 4/14/2010
Yet another day of working on the editing class this time I went to the computer at the front of the class and tried to learn more but still I couldn’t concentrate I actually ended up going to sleep for part of it. I felt kind of bad because it was right next to her. After that I just got up and went back to my computer at the back. At the end of class we finally had the time to get our filming for the videography class off onto the computer. Funny enough we ended up having more film than anyone else in the class so it took a long time to get the film off the tape and onto the computer. After that, Colton, my partner, was finally able to get started on the compositing. Pretty much the rest of the day was just spent working just like the next two. After lunch however we had two blocks of Game history. Then we worked for the rest of the day.
Day 85, 4/15/2010
This was the third day of working and second to last day of the workshop. This time the day started with our studio class so that the professors could get an update on what we were doing for our projects and so they could give us some feedback.
Well I knew that once summer started that I would have a hard time continuing this thing till the end. I suppose I should try to finish soon before all the information is sucked out of my brain. It’s near the end of July now and I’ve been home for nearly 2 months. I only have another month left here in San angelo before I go back to school I know for a fact that once school starts I really won’t have time to finish this so here I go again to push to finish. I don’t really remember all the differences in the schedule so I won’t be able to give much detail on days that were just work days…
So to continue with this day, I remember going to class and it was a feedback and work day. I think they just walked around the room again in the morning. We didn’t do much except try to get work done. That afternoon was the editing workshop. I think this was the day my partner didn’t show up. By this point Colton was driving me crazy because he wouldn’t do anything but the bare minimum. So anyway I had to figure out how to work the program and get the video to our teacher before the end of the day because if I remember right she had canceled our final class. I don’t remember. After that I went home for the day. Like all the other days till the end of the project I worked till I went to sleep.
Day 86, 4/16/2010
This day according to the schedule we had another class of editing. I’m pretty sure I skipped that morning because I didn’t want to get up. Again I don’t remember. I know I worked but that’s it.
Day 87, 4/17/2010
This was Saturday. I know I didn’t go anywhere this weekend but I still don’t know what’s going on. I’m pretty sure I slept late I don’t know. I worked on my homework of course other than that I don’t remember what I did. It’s possible that I went somewhere but I don’t remember. I’m mostly sure that I just worked and stayed home.
Day 88, 4/18/2010
Sunday same as Saturday.
Day 89, 4/19/2010
This was a work day. We had studio like usual and worked on our projects. I worked on the same things, trying to get Mayra’s animation finished. I think this was the day that I didn’t realize we had class in the morning and I ended up sleeping all morning. Well I showed up half way through the day and worked on getting my project finished again. Went home and went to bed after doing the usual for the day.
Day 90, 4/20/2010
This was our final day of Game History, which was sad because it was one of the best classes I’ve had. I learned so much from that class. I just hope I can retain it. The next game class would actually be a test rather than a class. After that of course we had studio for the rest of the day and of course we worked and had our review.
Day 91, 4/21/2010
Today was one of our break days. Today was one of the planned trips from the AIB. They had a boat ride down the Rhine planned for us. The horrible thing that wasn’t planned was the weather. It was the coldest and wettest of the last two weeks. We all bundled up and met Ariane at the train station to head to the town that we would be heading out of on the boat. We got there and it was incredibly cold. When we got off the train we first decided to go up to one of the small castles up on a hill because we had some time before the boat was to come. After we got up there we took some pictures and messed around a bit. Then, we went down to the dock to wait for the boat. People kept milling about waiting and I just listened to people talk. Finally the boat came and we headed outside to go down the river. That only last for about 20 mins of us being outside. This was also about the time that Ariane pulled out these wafer snacks to give to everyone. It was very interesting because they had stickers in them. And about 5 mins after that someone got the idea to start sticking those stickers to Trisha's back. At this point I was so mad at Trisha that I didn't say anything. I even participated. By the time we were done with the boat trip she was covered in stickers all over her back. What was funny is that she didn't even notice. After that most of the group headed down stairs to be inside out of the cold. I stayed outside with a few other people mostly so I could get some good pictures of the castles that we would be passing on this trip. It was awesome. After we passed all the best ones Me and the guys also headed inside. After going inside we just sat and hung out. It was fun. Kevin did some magic card tricks and we played with some of the cards and talked till the end of the ride. After that we were near a castle called Marksburg. That was our next stop. It is the only castle still left standing in its original form instead of being rebuilt. It was one of the best defended castles of the area which is why it was never conquered and torn down. The other reason for its continued existence is that this place was continuously owned by attentive owners, including, I think, one of the popes. It was a very interesting place because I got to see some of the architecture that went into building this place and it was just really neat to be in a place that is original and unchanged. After that we went to the gift store and I just got a squished coin they didn't really have any books. After that We headed to the train station the head back to Bonn and home. Again like so many other times I ended up sitting next to Trisha even though I didn't want to. When we got back I headed home and worked on homework till bed.
Day 81, 4/11/2010
Well I’m more than a month behind and the trip is over. Sean and I have already gone to Rome and everything. So I guess now would be a good time to finish my blog before the summer stupor erases everything from my brain.
So the final day in Berlin was spent going to the Jewish museum for a few hours before we had to catch our train to get back to Bonn. We started the day like the others with getting up getting ready except today included packing. We headed out after breakfast and caught the usual train to the Hauptbahnhof to get our stuff in a locker. After that we headed toward the Jewish museum. This was a very cool museum mostly because of the architecture. This is one of the first modern architecture buildings I learned about in school when I was still in the architecture program. It is an incredibly interesting building. It’s shaped very similar to a lightning bolt. I really liked the reason the building was built. It was just incredibly interesting. Be took a map and basically made the building into areas where Jews lived and every place that there is a window is a place on the map that there were Jews living on the map. After we had our tour of the most interesting parts of the architecture they allowed us to walk through the museum. Sadly, I only made it through the top floor before we had to leave. I didn’t learn much in this place except that Jews have always been on the outs in Germany. It doesn’t really make since why however. I didn’t really find a reason. Well after that I pretty much had to rush out of the place because it was already past the time they told us to meet. Allie and Lisa found me on their way out and told me. So we headed out and I rushed down to the book store as fast as I could to see if there were any books that I wanted or that mom might want. I found one but I didn’t have time at the moment to find a museum guide which is what I usually get at these places. So I went back out to meet up with the ground and they decided they wanted to check out the shop. So, as they headed in I turned around and headed back in to see if there was a guide. I ended up asking the desk lady if there was a good one and she pointed me toward a few books. I purchased what I wanted then headed out to go with everyone else to head to the train station. Yet, again I think I was a little slow getting outside. So we walked back to the closest train stop to get to the Hauptbahnhof. Then when we got there we grabbed some food again before we needed to catch out train to head out for Bonn. This we another long train ride back. And again I ended up next to Trisha, not by choice. So I had to listen to her for a while. Then finally she put on her ear phones and I didn’t have to listen to her for a while. Sadly, unlike on the trip there I wasn’t able to use a plug in on the way to work on my computer. This time they didn’t have any because we were on a different kind of train so I ended up just reading and talking to the others till we were back in Bonn. It was a long train ride and not exactly fun. By this time all the guys in Germany have about driven me nuts. Finally we got back to Bonn and we all headed home in our separate ways. I took the usual underground train back home to my host house. Then off to bed for school the next day.
Day 82, 4/12/2010
This was just a work day. For working in studio we were going to be working all day long pretty much. At this point I was getting fairly irritated with my partner in the final project because he basically didn’t want to do anything and I needed him to do a little bit of stuff in order to get this project done and a few other thing s that weren’t required but were needed in order to get the top grade in the class. I just wanted an A. But every time I would mention for him to fix something he would tell me that it wasn’t necessary and I just wanted to slap him and say “YES IT IS!!!!” But I held my tongue and didn’t say anything. I wish I had but he just didn’t want to do any more than the minimum and he wouldn’t do any more. So we just worked for the day and I stayed up late yet again to get more and more thing done. I was getting slightly panicky at this moment because it was getting close to the end and we weren’t going to have much time left of finish things. So I worked until late like I did on most of the other nights then sleep of course.
Day 83, 4/13/2010
This was our first day of the Editing Workshop it wasn’t meant to be long one it was only going to last for the entire morning on this first day. So we got there ridiculously early that next day, to start this workshop. I decided to actually try to pay attention and work for what she was trying to teach us but I just couldn’t and I worked on my own computer at the back of the class for the entire workshop. She was trying to teach us Final Cut Pro and the problem is that it only comes on a Mac so the whole workshop was kinda useless for me. So, I was ok with not listening. I just worked. After the workshop we all went to find some lunch. Right after that we headed back to the AIB for our Game History class. Sadly, after this day I think it’s the last one that actually follows the schedule that I have. There were several days that were changed so I can’t exactly say anything about the next two weeks except on the days that we didn’t go to school. There were several days that we went on an excursion instead like other days. I will relate what I remember but for the most part the last part of the week was exculsivly just school. Anyway after game history we worked for the rest of the afternoon. Some people went home while most of us stayed at the school to work. I stayed until fairly late every day this week.
Day 84, 4/14/2010
Yet another day of working on the editing class this time I went to the computer at the front of the class and tried to learn more but still I couldn’t concentrate I actually ended up going to sleep for part of it. I felt kind of bad because it was right next to her. After that I just got up and went back to my computer at the back. At the end of class we finally had the time to get our filming for the videography class off onto the computer. Funny enough we ended up having more film than anyone else in the class so it took a long time to get the film off the tape and onto the computer. After that, Colton, my partner, was finally able to get started on the compositing. Pretty much the rest of the day was just spent working just like the next two. After lunch however we had two blocks of Game history. Then we worked for the rest of the day.
Day 85, 4/15/2010
This was the third day of working and second to last day of the workshop. This time the day started with our studio class so that the professors could get an update on what we were doing for our projects and so they could give us some feedback.
Well I knew that once summer started that I would have a hard time continuing this thing till the end. I suppose I should try to finish soon before all the information is sucked out of my brain. It’s near the end of July now and I’ve been home for nearly 2 months. I only have another month left here in San angelo before I go back to school I know for a fact that once school starts I really won’t have time to finish this so here I go again to push to finish. I don’t really remember all the differences in the schedule so I won’t be able to give much detail on days that were just work days…
So to continue with this day, I remember going to class and it was a feedback and work day. I think they just walked around the room again in the morning. We didn’t do much except try to get work done. That afternoon was the editing workshop. I think this was the day my partner didn’t show up. By this point Colton was driving me crazy because he wouldn’t do anything but the bare minimum. So anyway I had to figure out how to work the program and get the video to our teacher before the end of the day because if I remember right she had canceled our final class. I don’t remember. After that I went home for the day. Like all the other days till the end of the project I worked till I went to sleep.
Day 86, 4/16/2010
This day according to the schedule we had another class of editing. I’m pretty sure I skipped that morning because I didn’t want to get up. Again I don’t remember. I know I worked but that’s it.
Day 87, 4/17/2010
This was Saturday. I know I didn’t go anywhere this weekend but I still don’t know what’s going on. I’m pretty sure I slept late I don’t know. I worked on my homework of course other than that I don’t remember what I did. It’s possible that I went somewhere but I don’t remember. I’m mostly sure that I just worked and stayed home.
Day 88, 4/18/2010
Sunday same as Saturday.
Day 89, 4/19/2010
This was a work day. We had studio like usual and worked on our projects. I worked on the same things, trying to get Mayra’s animation finished. I think this was the day that I didn’t realize we had class in the morning and I ended up sleeping all morning. Well I showed up half way through the day and worked on getting my project finished again. Went home and went to bed after doing the usual for the day.
Day 90, 4/20/2010
This was our final day of Game History, which was sad because it was one of the best classes I’ve had. I learned so much from that class. I just hope I can retain it. The next game class would actually be a test rather than a class. After that of course we had studio for the rest of the day and of course we worked and had our review.
Day 91, 4/21/2010
Today was one of our break days. Today was one of the planned trips from the AIB. They had a boat ride down the Rhine planned for us. The horrible thing that wasn’t planned was the weather. It was the coldest and wettest of the last two weeks. We all bundled up and met Ariane at the train station to head to the town that we would be heading out of on the boat. We got there and it was incredibly cold. When we got off the train we first decided to go up to one of the small castles up on a hill because we had some time before the boat was to come. After we got up there we took some pictures and messed around a bit. Then, we went down to the dock to wait for the boat. People kept milling about waiting and I just listened to people talk. Finally the boat came and we headed outside to go down the river. That only last for about 20 mins of us being outside. This was also about the time that Ariane pulled out these wafer snacks to give to everyone. It was very interesting because they had stickers in them. And about 5 mins after that someone got the idea to start sticking those stickers to Trisha's back. At this point I was so mad at Trisha that I didn't say anything. I even participated. By the time we were done with the boat trip she was covered in stickers all over her back. What was funny is that she didn't even notice. After that most of the group headed down stairs to be inside out of the cold. I stayed outside with a few other people mostly so I could get some good pictures of the castles that we would be passing on this trip. It was awesome. After we passed all the best ones Me and the guys also headed inside. After going inside we just sat and hung out. It was fun. Kevin did some magic card tricks and we played with some of the cards and talked till the end of the ride. After that we were near a castle called Marksburg. That was our next stop. It is the only castle still left standing in its original form instead of being rebuilt. It was one of the best defended castles of the area which is why it was never conquered and torn down. The other reason for its continued existence is that this place was continuously owned by attentive owners, including, I think, one of the popes. It was a very interesting place because I got to see some of the architecture that went into building this place and it was just really neat to be in a place that is original and unchanged. After that we went to the gift store and I just got a squished coin they didn't really have any books. After that We headed to the train station the head back to Bonn and home. Again like so many other times I ended up sitting next to Trisha even though I didn't want to. When we got back I headed home and worked on homework till bed.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Day 91, 4/21/2010
Day 80, 4/10/2010
This day started much the same as the others in Berlin we got up, got ready and then came out to the lobby to eat breakfast. Then, catch the tram that runs in front of that hotel to our destination. Today we would be going to a concentration camp in the morning. It took us a while to get there because it was outside of town a little ways and we had to take a Regional train to get there then a bus a short distance. Once we got there we gathered into our tour group and started the tour. There really isn't much to say. Mostly because most of the camp is gone and a lot of it was changed by the previous government basically to be anti-fascism propaganda. They also left about a big part of the history when it was open to the public. They left out the part about it also being a Russian war camp after the Concentration Camp. I can't tell you much because we didn't really learn much except the way the camp was set up and why. The tour guide wasn't incredibly good and she had a weird fetish with groping the models. Well the weather was very cold with occasional rain. None of us had a heavy jacket so it was like setting the mood for how the prisoners felt as they entered this place. When we entered the camp we went in the same way the prisoners would have when they came to the camp 60-80 years ago. I can't remember the exact years that this camp was used. The saying on the original gate as you entered said in German "Work makes you free," just like Auschwitz. It was set up as a model camp for all the other concentration camps only later it wasn't used because of the impracticality of the triangle layout. It was impossible to add more to the camp in the current layout so they changed it into straight line barracks when they added other barracks later. It was laid out in an equilateral triangle so that one main guard house could guard every row of barracks cause they could see down every row. The gunner in the tower could shoot the machine gun that used to be mounted on top to any part of the camp with accuracy. There was a 'No man's land' line of about 4 meters along any of the walls. If one of the prisoners entered that space they would be shot without warning. Many would step into it as a form of suicide. Many were forced by the cruel SS guards. Others had to make a choice of whether to die or not because the SS guard would have take they're hat which was a required part of their uniform and thrown it into this area. If they didn't have the hat they would be punished with a beating to the lower back which would kill them anyway. Many chose to be killed by the bullet, because it was quick and relatively painless. This was a working camp not an extermination camp so there weren't many Jews in this camp. Most of the prisoners here were political prisoners. Other prisoners included Jews, Gypsies, POWs, Jehovah's Witnesses, Gays and many many others. Most of the people who were killed there were Russian prisoners of war however. I really don't want to talk about much of this because its just way too sad so I'll leave you with a list of the things we saw. After going in the gate and seeing the main triangle and the ring wall that marked the first line of barracks (In front of that was the open area where they had Roll Call) we walked over to a couple of reconstructed barracks so we could see what the inside looked like. Most everything in this place was torn down for use in rebuilding the town because it of course was destroyed during the war just like practically everything else. These barracks were numbers 38 and 39. They were reconstructions of reconstructions. The originals were of course torn down and the other ones were burned by an anti-Jewish arsonist. These were the Jewish Barracks, so it would make since that they would target them. So we sat in there for a while talking about the living conditions of the prisoners in this camp. About how many people slept in the beds and how the hierarchy worked within the prisoners themselves. It was very interesting. Another thing that we saw was some of the punishing devices as well as one of the contraptions they used to trick the Russian soldiers into thinking that they were getting a medical exam, when instead they would be shot in the back of the head. I shudder to think that so many people died in this place. After the barracks we walked over to where they would have killed people by shooting squad and where a mass grave was located for those bodies. On the way we stopped at one of the barrack markers and the guide explained why there were rocks on the barracks. It has to do with a Jewish tradition of placing small stones on a person's grave side out of respect. After that we walked over to the crematorium which was very close by. When we arrived at the crematorium I was a little freaked out. It just gave me this feeling of foreboding. I guess it would be something like what the prisoners felt about this place. It was were most of them were killed if they didn't kill themselves on the electric fence and it is where they burned the bodies. I took pictures but it felt wrong to do so, almost disrespectful. So after that and after she talked about the building we walked out again. It was the end of our tour at this horrible place. I couldn't wait to leave however since I knew that mom would like a book from this place and I've gotten a book at every museum I've visited I had 10 minutes to go to the book store and get the books I wanted and to get back to the bus stop. I made it with plenty of time and we were on our way back to Berlin. I don't remember exactly where we ate lunch. I believe it was at the train station before heading over to Museum island for the rest of the day. At least for me it was the rest of the day. We had to walk quite a ways from the train stop to get to the island museums. About half of us went to one museum while the other half went to a different one. I started this part of the day with the Pergamon Museum. This one I was the most excited about because it had the Ishtar Gate and the Altar of Pergamon inside. I really wanted to see this so this is where I went first. I checked out the book store while the rest of the group waited in line. I had a minor scare when I left my camera in there and didn't know where it was a for a few minutes. I ran all the way back to the book store and the shop keeper had it. Phew! scary moment. Well I walked through the museum and in the first room it was the Altar of Pergamon. This thing was huge. I knew it was big but this thing was huge. I walked around the room and got the best pictures I could with the sheer amount of people in that room. I looked at all the sculptures and the reliefs from the Altar that were lining the walls all around. Then I moved on to the next room. I saw several different really cool things through out the day. The next one was a rebuilt facade of what I think was a temple but it was unlike anything I've ever seen but since this thing wasn't really something I knew about I didn't spend much time there. After a while I came around the corner and there was the Ishtar Gate. I just stood there and gaped, much like I did at all the other museums I'd been to. I rather wish someone had been there to take a picture of my face cause I'm sure my mouth was open. I took a ton of pictures. Well, correction, I took as many pictures as my full memory card would allow. (Yes, I forgot to empty my memory card). I went through and deleted any pictures I didn't absolutely want and took more pictures. I think I might get a book specifically about the Gate when I get back to the states. So I looked at this thing for quite a while walking around and studying it. Then I moved on and kind just breezed through the rest. I'd seen what I wanted to see. So after that I headed to the book store and grabbed what I was interested in like a book then Trisha, Garrett and I headed to the other museum to see it as well before the end of the day. I had to get a ticket with a different group. I believe it was Jacob, David, and Tyler. We weren't allowed to go in until 5:30 After that we only had an hour to see the entire museum. So we waited in line and screwed around until it was our time to go in and off we went into the museum. Of course, I ended up doing the whole thing by myself. I was ok with it there was only one thing in the whole place I was really interested in anyway. That was the Nefertiti bust. It was really neat but it turns out that your not suppose to take pictures of it. I just got one really really blurry picture before I was told no. Its stupid because your allowed to take pictures of the entire rest of the place. So I walked through this place. I don't really remember anything else specific because that was the only part that I wanted to see of the whole thing. I of course bought myself a good book before I left. Then I was all alone. Everyone had left to meet up with Lars and go to a bar. I wanted to go but I wasn't in a hurry because I prefer the museum over a bar. So after that I had to figure out how to get back to the hotel. I knew I needed to go to Alexander Platz but first I needed to find a bus stop/tram stop in order to get to where I needed to go. I had to walk around for quite some time till I found a place then I just got overly frustrated because the maps weren't legible I had no idea where to go or what to do. Eventually I just ended up going on the underground which was out of my way to the platz. It took two train switches to get there too. Finally I was at the platz but yet again I didn't know where I needed to go. So I just walked around trying to figure out what I needed to do. I was too afraid of getting on the wrong tram and I had no idea which one we had been using this whole time. So I called Lars and he told me which train. There was some minor confusion for me because one of the lines at the Alexander Platz stop wasn't working and I didn't know if it was the one going to right way or not. Finally I just decided to get on one and I made it to the hotel. It was lucky of me because I was so afraid of not getting there. When I got there it was over an hour after I left Museum Island. Everyone had already left to eat or go to a bar so I just decided to stay in the room and mess with my comp. I didn't want to get lost trying to find them. That was ok with me. I talked to Sean and wrote in my blog for about 4 hours till I was too hungry to wait anymore. I decided to head out and get some food. I asked the man at the main desk what would still be open because by then it was past 11. He pointed me around the corner. I just walked till I found a nice Italian place called, oddly enough, 'San Angelo's.' Well that made me laugh to myself a little bit and I went in to eat. After that I walked back to the hotel. By this time Lisa and Allie had come back and were in the room with Jason and Jake. So I just messed with my computer and bit longer till the guys left and we went to sleep.
This day started much the same as the others in Berlin we got up, got ready and then came out to the lobby to eat breakfast. Then, catch the tram that runs in front of that hotel to our destination. Today we would be going to a concentration camp in the morning. It took us a while to get there because it was outside of town a little ways and we had to take a Regional train to get there then a bus a short distance. Once we got there we gathered into our tour group and started the tour. There really isn't much to say. Mostly because most of the camp is gone and a lot of it was changed by the previous government basically to be anti-fascism propaganda. They also left about a big part of the history when it was open to the public. They left out the part about it also being a Russian war camp after the Concentration Camp. I can't tell you much because we didn't really learn much except the way the camp was set up and why. The tour guide wasn't incredibly good and she had a weird fetish with groping the models. Well the weather was very cold with occasional rain. None of us had a heavy jacket so it was like setting the mood for how the prisoners felt as they entered this place. When we entered the camp we went in the same way the prisoners would have when they came to the camp 60-80 years ago. I can't remember the exact years that this camp was used. The saying on the original gate as you entered said in German "Work makes you free," just like Auschwitz. It was set up as a model camp for all the other concentration camps only later it wasn't used because of the impracticality of the triangle layout. It was impossible to add more to the camp in the current layout so they changed it into straight line barracks when they added other barracks later. It was laid out in an equilateral triangle so that one main guard house could guard every row of barracks cause they could see down every row. The gunner in the tower could shoot the machine gun that used to be mounted on top to any part of the camp with accuracy. There was a 'No man's land' line of about 4 meters along any of the walls. If one of the prisoners entered that space they would be shot without warning. Many would step into it as a form of suicide. Many were forced by the cruel SS guards. Others had to make a choice of whether to die or not because the SS guard would have take they're hat which was a required part of their uniform and thrown it into this area. If they didn't have the hat they would be punished with a beating to the lower back which would kill them anyway. Many chose to be killed by the bullet, because it was quick and relatively painless. This was a working camp not an extermination camp so there weren't many Jews in this camp. Most of the prisoners here were political prisoners. Other prisoners included Jews, Gypsies, POWs, Jehovah's Witnesses, Gays and many many others. Most of the people who were killed there were Russian prisoners of war however. I really don't want to talk about much of this because its just way too sad so I'll leave you with a list of the things we saw. After going in the gate and seeing the main triangle and the ring wall that marked the first line of barracks (In front of that was the open area where they had Roll Call) we walked over to a couple of reconstructed barracks so we could see what the inside looked like. Most everything in this place was torn down for use in rebuilding the town because it of course was destroyed during the war just like practically everything else. These barracks were numbers 38 and 39. They were reconstructions of reconstructions. The originals were of course torn down and the other ones were burned by an anti-Jewish arsonist. These were the Jewish Barracks, so it would make since that they would target them. So we sat in there for a while talking about the living conditions of the prisoners in this camp. About how many people slept in the beds and how the hierarchy worked within the prisoners themselves. It was very interesting. Another thing that we saw was some of the punishing devices as well as one of the contraptions they used to trick the Russian soldiers into thinking that they were getting a medical exam, when instead they would be shot in the back of the head. I shudder to think that so many people died in this place. After the barracks we walked over to where they would have killed people by shooting squad and where a mass grave was located for those bodies. On the way we stopped at one of the barrack markers and the guide explained why there were rocks on the barracks. It has to do with a Jewish tradition of placing small stones on a person's grave side out of respect. After that we walked over to the crematorium which was very close by. When we arrived at the crematorium I was a little freaked out. It just gave me this feeling of foreboding. I guess it would be something like what the prisoners felt about this place. It was were most of them were killed if they didn't kill themselves on the electric fence and it is where they burned the bodies. I took pictures but it felt wrong to do so, almost disrespectful. So after that and after she talked about the building we walked out again. It was the end of our tour at this horrible place. I couldn't wait to leave however since I knew that mom would like a book from this place and I've gotten a book at every museum I've visited I had 10 minutes to go to the book store and get the books I wanted and to get back to the bus stop. I made it with plenty of time and we were on our way back to Berlin. I don't remember exactly where we ate lunch. I believe it was at the train station before heading over to Museum island for the rest of the day. At least for me it was the rest of the day. We had to walk quite a ways from the train stop to get to the island museums. About half of us went to one museum while the other half went to a different one. I started this part of the day with the Pergamon Museum. This one I was the most excited about because it had the Ishtar Gate and the Altar of Pergamon inside. I really wanted to see this so this is where I went first. I checked out the book store while the rest of the group waited in line. I had a minor scare when I left my camera in there and didn't know where it was a for a few minutes. I ran all the way back to the book store and the shop keeper had it. Phew! scary moment. Well I walked through the museum and in the first room it was the Altar of Pergamon. This thing was huge. I knew it was big but this thing was huge. I walked around the room and got the best pictures I could with the sheer amount of people in that room. I looked at all the sculptures and the reliefs from the Altar that were lining the walls all around. Then I moved on to the next room. I saw several different really cool things through out the day. The next one was a rebuilt facade of what I think was a temple but it was unlike anything I've ever seen but since this thing wasn't really something I knew about I didn't spend much time there. After a while I came around the corner and there was the Ishtar Gate. I just stood there and gaped, much like I did at all the other museums I'd been to. I rather wish someone had been there to take a picture of my face cause I'm sure my mouth was open. I took a ton of pictures. Well, correction, I took as many pictures as my full memory card would allow. (Yes, I forgot to empty my memory card). I went through and deleted any pictures I didn't absolutely want and took more pictures. I think I might get a book specifically about the Gate when I get back to the states. So I looked at this thing for quite a while walking around and studying it. Then I moved on and kind just breezed through the rest. I'd seen what I wanted to see. So after that I headed to the book store and grabbed what I was interested in like a book then Trisha, Garrett and I headed to the other museum to see it as well before the end of the day. I had to get a ticket with a different group. I believe it was Jacob, David, and Tyler. We weren't allowed to go in until 5:30 After that we only had an hour to see the entire museum. So we waited in line and screwed around until it was our time to go in and off we went into the museum. Of course, I ended up doing the whole thing by myself. I was ok with it there was only one thing in the whole place I was really interested in anyway. That was the Nefertiti bust. It was really neat but it turns out that your not suppose to take pictures of it. I just got one really really blurry picture before I was told no. Its stupid because your allowed to take pictures of the entire rest of the place. So I walked through this place. I don't really remember anything else specific because that was the only part that I wanted to see of the whole thing. I of course bought myself a good book before I left. Then I was all alone. Everyone had left to meet up with Lars and go to a bar. I wanted to go but I wasn't in a hurry because I prefer the museum over a bar. So after that I had to figure out how to get back to the hotel. I knew I needed to go to Alexander Platz but first I needed to find a bus stop/tram stop in order to get to where I needed to go. I had to walk around for quite some time till I found a place then I just got overly frustrated because the maps weren't legible I had no idea where to go or what to do. Eventually I just ended up going on the underground which was out of my way to the platz. It took two train switches to get there too. Finally I was at the platz but yet again I didn't know where I needed to go. So I just walked around trying to figure out what I needed to do. I was too afraid of getting on the wrong tram and I had no idea which one we had been using this whole time. So I called Lars and he told me which train. There was some minor confusion for me because one of the lines at the Alexander Platz stop wasn't working and I didn't know if it was the one going to right way or not. Finally I just decided to get on one and I made it to the hotel. It was lucky of me because I was so afraid of not getting there. When I got there it was over an hour after I left Museum Island. Everyone had already left to eat or go to a bar so I just decided to stay in the room and mess with my comp. I didn't want to get lost trying to find them. That was ok with me. I talked to Sean and wrote in my blog for about 4 hours till I was too hungry to wait anymore. I decided to head out and get some food. I asked the man at the main desk what would still be open because by then it was past 11. He pointed me around the corner. I just walked till I found a nice Italian place called, oddly enough, 'San Angelo's.' Well that made me laugh to myself a little bit and I went in to eat. After that I walked back to the hotel. By this time Lisa and Allie had come back and were in the room with Jason and Jake. So I just messed with my computer and bit longer till the guys left and we went to sleep.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Day 90, 4/20/2010
Day 79, 4/9/2010
New day in Berlin. It wasn't that hard to get up this day luckily. I got up around 7ish. This was a fun and yet another busy day. We went to a lot of places today and two of those places were for just a few hours. So we started the day walking down the East side gallery. Of course, after riding all the trains and what not to get over there. So we spent part of the morning walking down this wall and looking at the art work. This is the famous piece of the wall that was rebuilt later for a memorial and art gallery. Right after that we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate. So this time we could see the front of the gate and to take a few pictures. I liked getting to see the Star Wars Storm-trooper standing right there in front of the Gate. I was kinda disappointed in the Gate especially after seeing all the arches and architecture in the ancient city in Rome. Well we took pictures of the gate and I got to see the United States Embassy as well as the window that Micheal Jackson held his baby out of. Right after that we walked to the Chancellery. We were invited to see the inside of the building and to see the architecture of the building, also so maybe learn a little bit about how the country works. So when we got there we had to go through airport like security to go inside. Once inside we were taken to all the different places and shown the different parts of the building as well as what they were used for. Like the meeting rooms and the place that they give television addresses, as well as the place where they greet important people as well. We also saw the back garden. I don't think many people, who don't work there get to see it. After that we headed back through and saw a few more rooms that were important to the government that I kind found boring. Then we were done at the Chancellery. This was when we had our free time for the day mostly so we could go eat some lunch. We rode the train all the way over to a larger shopping area near a church that was bombed during WWII. I hung out with the other group today. Allie, Lisa, Jake, Kevin, and Jason. It was a rather nice change from Trisha and Catie. So we walked down to the Ka Di We. Which is suppose to be one of the most famous if your in the fashion industry, which I'm not. We decided to go eat lunch on the top floor in the restaurant area. It was a buffet style meal which ended up being really good. After that we headed right back down to walk around the street level. Allie and Lisa stopped at one of the levels to look at Bathing Suits while Me and the guys went on down. While the guys shopped for shoes I looked around and found a few souvenir shops that I looked into but didn't get anything. I got a few squished coins in the area, so that was cool. Eventually I left the guys to seek out the Hard Rock Cafe. I didn't have too much time to find it and I really wanted to get that pin for Sean. So I walked down the street that I thought it was on looking for the famous sign just hoping it was sticking off the building far enough for me to see it. Well eventually I felt like I had walked way too far so I talked to a kiosk worker. He told me to go two blocks back and it would be to the right. Well I walked back and there was a Hard Rock on the corner... but this one was being built. I looked inside, trying to figure out where the other one was because I know he wouldn't have told me to go back if it wasn't there. A police officer walked up to me and asked me if he could help me. I asked him where it was since this one was under construction. He pointed me down the street. I found it and got my pin and turned around to head to the nearest underground station. I had to be at Alexander Platz by 4:30 and I only had an hour to get there and with how fast the underground took it would take me that long to get there. So off I went through the underground after figuring out where I needed to go and changing where necessary I got to the platz. I wondered around this place for a while searching for the group but I couldn't find them. Alvaro called me to asked where I was I told him I was in the platz but I didn't know where they were. He gave me directions over to the train station and I found them right as they were leaving to go to our next destination. Lucky again. We were heading to a convention called Pictoplasm. It was suppose to be in English and we had tickets to go watch one block of lectures. Sadly, it didn't turn out to be that invigorating. I fell asleep during the first lecture but the second one was ok because of the interesting images not exactly because he was a good speaker. The poor guy was so nervous. The host tried desperately to get him to talk with some ease but like I said he was so nervous. A couple of our group went to talk to him in person and came back saying that he was normal when talking face to face he was just too nervous talking to a crowd. This farther emphasizes the fact that artists shouldn't talk to crowds. Right after that we decided to go over to the Parliament building again to see if we could go up in the dome. We took the underground to get over there. This was to see if the line wasn't too long. Turns out it was. So we just decided to screw around in the Jewish Memorial. It was worth it. We had so much fun running through there and taking weird pictures. I got some pretty cool pictures of me and the gigantic blocks. Eventually it started to rain and we were getting tired of messing around so we headed toward an out of the way bar and art place that we looked at some pretty cool art work and home made jewelery. It was pretty cool. I ended up getting a catalog for Sean cause one of the artists there had some really awesome art that I know he would like. I also found an arm cuff I really liked but they told me that it was more money than I had and so I started to leave but they called me back and showed me others that were cheaper so I looked at those for a while and I found one I liked but it didn't fit as well as that first one but I still really liked it so I bought it. Later I kinda wished I hadn't but I can't change that now. I get weird when it comes to purchases like that sometimes I just can't say no and I later regret it. I've had that happen a few times when I'm purchasing clothes. So after having a beer at the bar we all headed back do to go our separate ways for dinner. First we all headed back to the hotel area then we went to dinner. I wanted to get something other than a doner which is where everyone was eating. So I ended up walking down the street with Trisha much to my dismay but I wasn't surprised to sit there and have her bitch the entire time yet again. I finally decided on Chinese food. I sat with them the group that I hung out with earlier that day. Trisha joined us but we didn't really care. After that we all headed back to the hotel for the night again. Nobody wanted to go out so we just went to sleep. Oops I think this was the night that Allie and Lisa decided to stay behind because of a coin toss. Oh well. After talking for a while we all went to bed.
New day in Berlin. It wasn't that hard to get up this day luckily. I got up around 7ish. This was a fun and yet another busy day. We went to a lot of places today and two of those places were for just a few hours. So we started the day walking down the East side gallery. Of course, after riding all the trains and what not to get over there. So we spent part of the morning walking down this wall and looking at the art work. This is the famous piece of the wall that was rebuilt later for a memorial and art gallery. Right after that we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate. So this time we could see the front of the gate and to take a few pictures. I liked getting to see the Star Wars Storm-trooper standing right there in front of the Gate. I was kinda disappointed in the Gate especially after seeing all the arches and architecture in the ancient city in Rome. Well we took pictures of the gate and I got to see the United States Embassy as well as the window that Micheal Jackson held his baby out of. Right after that we walked to the Chancellery. We were invited to see the inside of the building and to see the architecture of the building, also so maybe learn a little bit about how the country works. So when we got there we had to go through airport like security to go inside. Once inside we were taken to all the different places and shown the different parts of the building as well as what they were used for. Like the meeting rooms and the place that they give television addresses, as well as the place where they greet important people as well. We also saw the back garden. I don't think many people, who don't work there get to see it. After that we headed back through and saw a few more rooms that were important to the government that I kind found boring. Then we were done at the Chancellery. This was when we had our free time for the day mostly so we could go eat some lunch. We rode the train all the way over to a larger shopping area near a church that was bombed during WWII. I hung out with the other group today. Allie, Lisa, Jake, Kevin, and Jason. It was a rather nice change from Trisha and Catie. So we walked down to the Ka Di We. Which is suppose to be one of the most famous if your in the fashion industry, which I'm not. We decided to go eat lunch on the top floor in the restaurant area. It was a buffet style meal which ended up being really good. After that we headed right back down to walk around the street level. Allie and Lisa stopped at one of the levels to look at Bathing Suits while Me and the guys went on down. While the guys shopped for shoes I looked around and found a few souvenir shops that I looked into but didn't get anything. I got a few squished coins in the area, so that was cool. Eventually I left the guys to seek out the Hard Rock Cafe. I didn't have too much time to find it and I really wanted to get that pin for Sean. So I walked down the street that I thought it was on looking for the famous sign just hoping it was sticking off the building far enough for me to see it. Well eventually I felt like I had walked way too far so I talked to a kiosk worker. He told me to go two blocks back and it would be to the right. Well I walked back and there was a Hard Rock on the corner... but this one was being built. I looked inside, trying to figure out where the other one was because I know he wouldn't have told me to go back if it wasn't there. A police officer walked up to me and asked me if he could help me. I asked him where it was since this one was under construction. He pointed me down the street. I found it and got my pin and turned around to head to the nearest underground station. I had to be at Alexander Platz by 4:30 and I only had an hour to get there and with how fast the underground took it would take me that long to get there. So off I went through the underground after figuring out where I needed to go and changing where necessary I got to the platz. I wondered around this place for a while searching for the group but I couldn't find them. Alvaro called me to asked where I was I told him I was in the platz but I didn't know where they were. He gave me directions over to the train station and I found them right as they were leaving to go to our next destination. Lucky again. We were heading to a convention called Pictoplasm. It was suppose to be in English and we had tickets to go watch one block of lectures. Sadly, it didn't turn out to be that invigorating. I fell asleep during the first lecture but the second one was ok because of the interesting images not exactly because he was a good speaker. The poor guy was so nervous. The host tried desperately to get him to talk with some ease but like I said he was so nervous. A couple of our group went to talk to him in person and came back saying that he was normal when talking face to face he was just too nervous talking to a crowd. This farther emphasizes the fact that artists shouldn't talk to crowds. Right after that we decided to go over to the Parliament building again to see if we could go up in the dome. We took the underground to get over there. This was to see if the line wasn't too long. Turns out it was. So we just decided to screw around in the Jewish Memorial. It was worth it. We had so much fun running through there and taking weird pictures. I got some pretty cool pictures of me and the gigantic blocks. Eventually it started to rain and we were getting tired of messing around so we headed toward an out of the way bar and art place that we looked at some pretty cool art work and home made jewelery. It was pretty cool. I ended up getting a catalog for Sean cause one of the artists there had some really awesome art that I know he would like. I also found an arm cuff I really liked but they told me that it was more money than I had and so I started to leave but they called me back and showed me others that were cheaper so I looked at those for a while and I found one I liked but it didn't fit as well as that first one but I still really liked it so I bought it. Later I kinda wished I hadn't but I can't change that now. I get weird when it comes to purchases like that sometimes I just can't say no and I later regret it. I've had that happen a few times when I'm purchasing clothes. So after having a beer at the bar we all headed back do to go our separate ways for dinner. First we all headed back to the hotel area then we went to dinner. I wanted to get something other than a doner which is where everyone was eating. So I ended up walking down the street with Trisha much to my dismay but I wasn't surprised to sit there and have her bitch the entire time yet again. I finally decided on Chinese food. I sat with them the group that I hung out with earlier that day. Trisha joined us but we didn't really care. After that we all headed back to the hotel for the night again. Nobody wanted to go out so we just went to sleep. Oops I think this was the night that Allie and Lisa decided to stay behind because of a coin toss. Oh well. After talking for a while we all went to bed.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Day 86, 4/16/2010
Will I ever be caught up?
Not unless I write everyday
Day 74, 4/4/2010
Wow am I really 12 days behind...
I had a hard time getting up this day, but I still was on the train by no later than 8:20, which was twenty minutes later than I wanted but still not bad considering I had no one yelling at me to get up. This was the best day I've had in the entire time I've been here, only rivaled by the previous visit to the Lourve, and a later visit to a couple of Berlin Museums, I'll talk more about those when the day comes up. So, this day like all started on the tub, going to my destination. This morning it would be the Globe theater first. I had made the decision the previous day that it was just something I couldn't miss, no matter what. I had to get off at the St. Paul's tub station again, then walk across Millennium Bridge like I did the day before to get to St. Paul's just in reverse order. Well I got there when the place opened at about 9ish. (Yea, I know, the trains take forever). However, the first tour of the interior of the Globe wasn't until 10. Well I didn't plan on going into the exhibition about Shakespeare but since I was going to have to wait an hour anyway, I went in. Interesting fact, no one actually knows how he spelled his name because he spelled it differently in ever signature that has survived from him. Weird right. I started through the exhibition and I wasn't even half way through when the gong rang to go on the tour. So I hurried out to catch the tour guide. He introduced himself, I can't remember his name, and we immediately went over to the Globe. Well, sadly this is the third Globe theater. All of the others are gone, including the original Globe where Shakespeare's original plays were performed. They only just barely pinpointed the location of the second one a little over a decade ago. Mostly because they found the remains, still intact of another theater in the area called the Rose. It was a rival theater in the Banks of the Thames. This allowed them to pinpoint where the Globe was originally. However, the one we were in was just a replica, as close as they could get, to the first Globe that burned down in 1613 because of cannon fire during a performance of King Henry VIII. The wadding caught the thatched roof on fire. There were no casualties, according to the tour guide. We first sat up in the second story balcony area so we could look at all the features of this Globe theater and he talked a little about the previous two and their locations. We also talked about the similarities of this one and the first one. Another interesting story on how that theater came into being is about a man named, Sam Wanamaker, who came to London in the 40's naively thinking he was going to get to see the original Globe, not even the second one, the first one. The one that burned in the 1600's. Well, needless to say at the time they didn't even know where the location was let alone have a theater standing. Well this upset Sam and he made it his literal life goal to get a new one built as close to the approximate location as he could get. in 1993 his goal was realized after a life time of campaigning and money collecting. Sadly, he did before it was finished built but he died knowing that it would be. This was quite a moving story for me because rarely does someone have that kind of passion to have something done. This Globe was built like the first one, with a thatched roof and everything. It was pretty amazing to be in a building that was built as close to the old one as possible, using the same building techniques and everything. We sat and listened and talked a little up on the second level before continuing down to the bottom where the common people would have stood for a performance. You would pay 2 penny's to stand on the ground for the three hour performance,1 more penny to sit on the second and another on the third. A whole shilling to sit in the Lords rooms or on the balcony on the stage. The point of sitting there was not to watch the play but to show the world how rich you were by paying to get to sit there. Another thing I learned is that everyone went to see these plays from the lowest to the highest, including royalty. It amazing, to get to see this replicated place of history. I only wish it could have been the original. After talking on the second level we were allowed to go down to where the common folk would have stood for the play in the pit area. I believe the nick-name for them was "pit dogs". It was very interesting to get this insight into this place. I enjoyed it quite a bit even though I had planned to go to a different museum this one was well worth it. After we finished in the Pit area we headed out to look at the name blocks outside and with that the tour was over. I immediately went back to the exhibition. I didn't want to spend too much more time there but I was still interested in everything. I pretty much just started taking pictures of all the signs. The place wasn't too big so I was able to get a picture of all of them. Mostly for Sean and I. I wanted to be able to read them but simply didn't have the time for it. Hind sight tells me that I should have paid more attention to my camera batter and not taken so many pointless, by that I mean deleted later, pictures. After that I went and bought the things I picked out of the store the day before. Then I was off to the British Museum, where I would see things that I had no idea they had or would even imagine me seeing. I was way too exciting. This place is what made me fall in love with London. The first thing I saw was the oldest piece of art the museum had called the Swimming Reindeer. It was made from the end of a mastodon tusk 13000 years ago. After that I saw (Not in exact order) some Native American stuff from America, I also saw one of the Easter Island statues, a Crystal Skull, many old Stone Age items, pieces of the Yorkshire Hoard as well as from the hoard found in 2009 just recently, The really good stuff that made me so excited was a piece of Egyptian sculpture of Ramses II, as well as other smaller less famous Egyptian stuff, a piece to the beard of the famous Sphinx in Egypt, and several mummies. Out of the Egyptian section and into the Assyrian. I saw yet more Lamasu, yet these were different than the ones at the Louvre but these weren't as interesting because we didn't study these specifically. After that I saw the Lion Hunt relief, which is something we looked at last semester. Then the biggest highlight of the whole day because my camera was still working was getting to see The Black Obelisk of Shalmanezer III. This just made my day. It was one of the more specific things we wrote a paper about last semester. I studied this thing very closely just like the relief in Munich. I was able to see it in person. It just made my day. I took so many pictures of it because I wanted to document it. After that it was on to other rooms. I didn't get upset until about half way through that section when my camera died. I wasn't too happy about it, because right after that is when I walked into the best sections of all, these next there were all things we specifically studied in class. The first one was the Mausoleum of Halikarnasos. Well whats left of it. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I've now seen one of the wonders!! (Again, what is left of it) I was able to get my camera to work for one picture of the monumental statues representing the two people that were buried there. It is thought to be a wife and husband, named Mausolus and Artemisia. The word mausoleum comes from this monument. It was amazing. I just sat there and looked at it for some time before moving on to my next big surprise. Again another thing I didn't know was at this museum, The Nereid Monument!!!!!!!!! The exclamation points don't even come close to how in awe and excited I was. It was amazing. Yet again I got lucky enough to get my camera to work and I got a picture of it. It wasn't a bad picture either except the girl in front that was moving at the time, but I didn't care I got a picture. The Right after that the second best room after the Nereid Monument room. This one had the sculptures from the Parthenon. It was all the Metopes, Friezes, and Pediments. The Centaurmachy and the processions. Both, pediments and the famous bust of Iris. I really need to stop going into detail or I'm never going to finish this day. Good thing is that right after that there wasn't anything that absolutely made me weak in the knees sorta speak. After that I went to get some quick lunch right as the cafe was closing, I got some really hard pizza. I was kinda disappointed because I should have gotten the fish and chips. After that I went through what I could of the rest of the museum. At one point I didn't realize that I had missed the Rosetta Stone. I just completely missed it. I don't know how it was right in front of me when I walked into this area but I didn't see it. I guess I just saw this large stone with writing on it, went huh 'thats cool' and moved on. So when I couldn't find it on my map and I had to ask someone where it was, it was a *face palm* moment because there it was. luckily, yet again, and for the last time I was able to get my camera to work so I got one picture of it. After that I went upstairs. This area was mostly Indian and Hindu artifacts. That was interesting because I didn't know anything about any of it. I loved being able to see something new as well. The very last thing I saw was peices to the famous Yorkshire hoard and the one found in 2009 that changed our thinking about the Vikings. The other thing that I saw was the Lewis Chess Pieces. Which turns out aren't really chess pieces, but since at this time they were basically shoving us out the door we had to go and I didn't get the time to read the rest of the information. After that I headed to the the book store to find one of the books that I had been looking at periodically throughout the day as I would pass the store. When I got back to one of the stores that had post cards I grabbed a few and decided that it was a good idea to get one of the water bottles that was there. A Rosetta Stone one. I really liked it and I wanted a water bottle. Although I'd rather not compare the price to what I would have paid in the states. Yea it was probably WAY too expensive, but whatever. After that I headed out of the museum for the long walk back to the station. I didn't mention earlier but the station was quite a ways from the Museum itself. Along the way I found a souvenir shop that had some dolls and DP!!! I didn't even see the dolls at first because I headed straight for the Dr. Pepper. MMMMM it was so good. I didn't even make it back to the hostel before It was all gone. Anyway while I was there before I paid for the DP I saw some dolls. They looked really bad at first then I noticed some porcelain ones right next to them. These were exactly what I was looking for. A culture specific doll to the area. It was perfect. I find it a little weird because it is a police officer but then London is famous for the uniform the police used to wear. So after I found that I didn't want to get it without making sure it was made in the UK because all the dolls I have are from their country of origin. So I called Mom first and since it was Easter I wished them all a happy Easter. Yes I know I didn't mention it before except with going to Easter Vigil at St. Paul's. So while I was on the phone with them I asked them to look up the doll company for me. I hung up with them a milled about the store talking to the worker for a little while. Then I called them back and they gave me the go ahead. They told me that all the info they found about it pointed to that it was made in the UK by a certain lady and I asked mom if she was in doubt would she still buy it. She told me yes, so I got it. Then I headed back to the hostel to try and figure out a way to charge my phone. I forgot my plug converter for the UK so I didn't get the chance to charge my phone the night before. I rode the trains all the way back to the hostel. When I got there I asked the desk clerk where I could get a plug converter. They sold them there at the counter for 2 pounds. That worked out perfectly cause I was able to go upstairs and start charging my camera. I tried to get it charged enough before the sun went down but that didn't happen so I just settled for going to get some night pictures. After about an hour of waiting I headed for the train to get to the Parliament buildings and Big Ben. When I got there the sun was already down. I came out of the station and right next to the exit was Big Ben. I had to look straight up to even realize what it was. I was so surprised. After that I headed out to go across Parliament bridge so I could get pictures of the those buildings as well as the London Eye and Big Ben. After taking quite a few of them I headed over around the Parliament buildings to the back so I could see that side and Westminster Abbey was right there. So I took some night pictures of it as well. I also walked around to the front of it to get more pictures. Then I headed back to the station so I could back to the area near my hostel for some food. When I got there I tried a bar that I saw that had fish and chips but their kitchen was closed for the night. So, I headed down the street to try to find some place to eat. I ended up going to a cheap Italian place down the road a little ways. When I got there they didn't have a place for me to sit so I stood for a while then they took me down stairs where I had to sit by myself till they got a free table upstairs. When I finally sat down there I ordered Carbonara. Before I got my pasta two gentle men sat down next to me. It was a bit uncomfortable at first because the tables were really close, but it ended up being just fine. I don't know how the conversation started but we just started talking. Mostly about different things like all the stuff I had seen that day. I was a very good conversation I quite enjoyed it. These two men were there for business because they both work in the restaurant business. They were both from Newfoundland, Canada and the gentlemen I talked the most with owned a restaurant in St. Johns called Atlantica, or Atlantis. I wish I could remember because I can't find it on the internet now. I'm suppose to look them up any time I'm in St. Johns. I don't remember their names though. I think the shorter one, not the owner of the restaurant was named Terry. After a little while, I realized that I wasn't eating so I started trying to finish. When I had finished and they had they asked me if I wanted any dessert. I hadn't planned on but I ordered some cake and a cappaccino. It was a very good dessert. I quite enjoyed it. When it was over I pulled out my wallet to pay and they told me no that dinner was on them for making such a good conversation. It was really nice. I was too stunned to know why they did it. They insisted and since I didn't have that much money left I didn't complain. I thanked them a lot before we even got out of the restaurant. Once outside we ended up just walking down the street which turns out was the wrong direction for me but it was ok I was getting to talk to people who spoke English. After that I told them that we were heading in the wrong direction because my hostel was back toward the park. So we turned around and headed back. At one point they asked me about a sculpture on a store wall. It was just a representation of Neo-Greek with modern figures and after looking at it I told them so. After that we kept walking and I asked them where the Hard Rock was. The restaurant owner whipped out his phone and looked it up. Turns out it was just around the corner. So after that we walked all the way back to the hostel. I guess they were still enjoying the conversation because they walked me all the way to my hostel. We said goodbye and I went inside. I quite enjoyed the conversation. It put some confidence in me that I still had conversation skills. I went immediately up stairs. While up there I soaked my feet and watched TV. I also went down stairs on the internet for a little while. They gave me some extra minutes because of a messed up station. I didn't use the minutes though because Sean got off early and I didn't have anything else to do. So I went back upstairs (the computers were in the lobby) and watched TV till later. (Fiddler on the Roof). I finally just had to turn the TV off because I really needed to sleep so I could get going by 8 in the morning.
Not unless I write everyday
Day 74, 4/4/2010
Wow am I really 12 days behind...
I had a hard time getting up this day, but I still was on the train by no later than 8:20, which was twenty minutes later than I wanted but still not bad considering I had no one yelling at me to get up. This was the best day I've had in the entire time I've been here, only rivaled by the previous visit to the Lourve, and a later visit to a couple of Berlin Museums, I'll talk more about those when the day comes up. So, this day like all started on the tub, going to my destination. This morning it would be the Globe theater first. I had made the decision the previous day that it was just something I couldn't miss, no matter what. I had to get off at the St. Paul's tub station again, then walk across Millennium Bridge like I did the day before to get to St. Paul's just in reverse order. Well I got there when the place opened at about 9ish. (Yea, I know, the trains take forever). However, the first tour of the interior of the Globe wasn't until 10. Well I didn't plan on going into the exhibition about Shakespeare but since I was going to have to wait an hour anyway, I went in. Interesting fact, no one actually knows how he spelled his name because he spelled it differently in ever signature that has survived from him. Weird right. I started through the exhibition and I wasn't even half way through when the gong rang to go on the tour. So I hurried out to catch the tour guide. He introduced himself, I can't remember his name, and we immediately went over to the Globe. Well, sadly this is the third Globe theater. All of the others are gone, including the original Globe where Shakespeare's original plays were performed. They only just barely pinpointed the location of the second one a little over a decade ago. Mostly because they found the remains, still intact of another theater in the area called the Rose. It was a rival theater in the Banks of the Thames. This allowed them to pinpoint where the Globe was originally. However, the one we were in was just a replica, as close as they could get, to the first Globe that burned down in 1613 because of cannon fire during a performance of King Henry VIII. The wadding caught the thatched roof on fire. There were no casualties, according to the tour guide. We first sat up in the second story balcony area so we could look at all the features of this Globe theater and he talked a little about the previous two and their locations. We also talked about the similarities of this one and the first one. Another interesting story on how that theater came into being is about a man named, Sam Wanamaker, who came to London in the 40's naively thinking he was going to get to see the original Globe, not even the second one, the first one. The one that burned in the 1600's. Well, needless to say at the time they didn't even know where the location was let alone have a theater standing. Well this upset Sam and he made it his literal life goal to get a new one built as close to the approximate location as he could get. in 1993 his goal was realized after a life time of campaigning and money collecting. Sadly, he did before it was finished built but he died knowing that it would be. This was quite a moving story for me because rarely does someone have that kind of passion to have something done. This Globe was built like the first one, with a thatched roof and everything. It was pretty amazing to be in a building that was built as close to the old one as possible, using the same building techniques and everything. We sat and listened and talked a little up on the second level before continuing down to the bottom where the common people would have stood for a performance. You would pay 2 penny's to stand on the ground for the three hour performance,1 more penny to sit on the second and another on the third. A whole shilling to sit in the Lords rooms or on the balcony on the stage. The point of sitting there was not to watch the play but to show the world how rich you were by paying to get to sit there. Another thing I learned is that everyone went to see these plays from the lowest to the highest, including royalty. It amazing, to get to see this replicated place of history. I only wish it could have been the original. After talking on the second level we were allowed to go down to where the common folk would have stood for the play in the pit area. I believe the nick-name for them was "pit dogs". It was very interesting to get this insight into this place. I enjoyed it quite a bit even though I had planned to go to a different museum this one was well worth it. After we finished in the Pit area we headed out to look at the name blocks outside and with that the tour was over. I immediately went back to the exhibition. I didn't want to spend too much more time there but I was still interested in everything. I pretty much just started taking pictures of all the signs. The place wasn't too big so I was able to get a picture of all of them. Mostly for Sean and I. I wanted to be able to read them but simply didn't have the time for it. Hind sight tells me that I should have paid more attention to my camera batter and not taken so many pointless, by that I mean deleted later, pictures. After that I went and bought the things I picked out of the store the day before. Then I was off to the British Museum, where I would see things that I had no idea they had or would even imagine me seeing. I was way too exciting. This place is what made me fall in love with London. The first thing I saw was the oldest piece of art the museum had called the Swimming Reindeer. It was made from the end of a mastodon tusk 13000 years ago. After that I saw (Not in exact order) some Native American stuff from America, I also saw one of the Easter Island statues, a Crystal Skull, many old Stone Age items, pieces of the Yorkshire Hoard as well as from the hoard found in 2009 just recently, The really good stuff that made me so excited was a piece of Egyptian sculpture of Ramses II, as well as other smaller less famous Egyptian stuff, a piece to the beard of the famous Sphinx in Egypt, and several mummies. Out of the Egyptian section and into the Assyrian. I saw yet more Lamasu, yet these were different than the ones at the Louvre but these weren't as interesting because we didn't study these specifically. After that I saw the Lion Hunt relief, which is something we looked at last semester. Then the biggest highlight of the whole day because my camera was still working was getting to see The Black Obelisk of Shalmanezer III. This just made my day. It was one of the more specific things we wrote a paper about last semester. I studied this thing very closely just like the relief in Munich. I was able to see it in person. It just made my day. I took so many pictures of it because I wanted to document it. After that it was on to other rooms. I didn't get upset until about half way through that section when my camera died. I wasn't too happy about it, because right after that is when I walked into the best sections of all, these next there were all things we specifically studied in class. The first one was the Mausoleum of Halikarnasos. Well whats left of it. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I've now seen one of the wonders!! (Again, what is left of it) I was able to get my camera to work for one picture of the monumental statues representing the two people that were buried there. It is thought to be a wife and husband, named Mausolus and Artemisia. The word mausoleum comes from this monument. It was amazing. I just sat there and looked at it for some time before moving on to my next big surprise. Again another thing I didn't know was at this museum, The Nereid Monument!!!!!!!!! The exclamation points don't even come close to how in awe and excited I was. It was amazing. Yet again I got lucky enough to get my camera to work and I got a picture of it. It wasn't a bad picture either except the girl in front that was moving at the time, but I didn't care I got a picture. The Right after that the second best room after the Nereid Monument room. This one had the sculptures from the Parthenon. It was all the Metopes, Friezes, and Pediments. The Centaurmachy and the processions. Both, pediments and the famous bust of Iris. I really need to stop going into detail or I'm never going to finish this day. Good thing is that right after that there wasn't anything that absolutely made me weak in the knees sorta speak. After that I went to get some quick lunch right as the cafe was closing, I got some really hard pizza. I was kinda disappointed because I should have gotten the fish and chips. After that I went through what I could of the rest of the museum. At one point I didn't realize that I had missed the Rosetta Stone. I just completely missed it. I don't know how it was right in front of me when I walked into this area but I didn't see it. I guess I just saw this large stone with writing on it, went huh 'thats cool' and moved on. So when I couldn't find it on my map and I had to ask someone where it was, it was a *face palm* moment because there it was. luckily, yet again, and for the last time I was able to get my camera to work so I got one picture of it. After that I went upstairs. This area was mostly Indian and Hindu artifacts. That was interesting because I didn't know anything about any of it. I loved being able to see something new as well. The very last thing I saw was peices to the famous Yorkshire hoard and the one found in 2009 that changed our thinking about the Vikings. The other thing that I saw was the Lewis Chess Pieces. Which turns out aren't really chess pieces, but since at this time they were basically shoving us out the door we had to go and I didn't get the time to read the rest of the information. After that I headed to the the book store to find one of the books that I had been looking at periodically throughout the day as I would pass the store. When I got back to one of the stores that had post cards I grabbed a few and decided that it was a good idea to get one of the water bottles that was there. A Rosetta Stone one. I really liked it and I wanted a water bottle. Although I'd rather not compare the price to what I would have paid in the states. Yea it was probably WAY too expensive, but whatever. After that I headed out of the museum for the long walk back to the station. I didn't mention earlier but the station was quite a ways from the Museum itself. Along the way I found a souvenir shop that had some dolls and DP!!! I didn't even see the dolls at first because I headed straight for the Dr. Pepper. MMMMM it was so good. I didn't even make it back to the hostel before It was all gone. Anyway while I was there before I paid for the DP I saw some dolls. They looked really bad at first then I noticed some porcelain ones right next to them. These were exactly what I was looking for. A culture specific doll to the area. It was perfect. I find it a little weird because it is a police officer but then London is famous for the uniform the police used to wear. So after I found that I didn't want to get it without making sure it was made in the UK because all the dolls I have are from their country of origin. So I called Mom first and since it was Easter I wished them all a happy Easter. Yes I know I didn't mention it before except with going to Easter Vigil at St. Paul's. So while I was on the phone with them I asked them to look up the doll company for me. I hung up with them a milled about the store talking to the worker for a little while. Then I called them back and they gave me the go ahead. They told me that all the info they found about it pointed to that it was made in the UK by a certain lady and I asked mom if she was in doubt would she still buy it. She told me yes, so I got it. Then I headed back to the hostel to try and figure out a way to charge my phone. I forgot my plug converter for the UK so I didn't get the chance to charge my phone the night before. I rode the trains all the way back to the hostel. When I got there I asked the desk clerk where I could get a plug converter. They sold them there at the counter for 2 pounds. That worked out perfectly cause I was able to go upstairs and start charging my camera. I tried to get it charged enough before the sun went down but that didn't happen so I just settled for going to get some night pictures. After about an hour of waiting I headed for the train to get to the Parliament buildings and Big Ben. When I got there the sun was already down. I came out of the station and right next to the exit was Big Ben. I had to look straight up to even realize what it was. I was so surprised. After that I headed out to go across Parliament bridge so I could get pictures of the those buildings as well as the London Eye and Big Ben. After taking quite a few of them I headed over around the Parliament buildings to the back so I could see that side and Westminster Abbey was right there. So I took some night pictures of it as well. I also walked around to the front of it to get more pictures. Then I headed back to the station so I could back to the area near my hostel for some food. When I got there I tried a bar that I saw that had fish and chips but their kitchen was closed for the night. So, I headed down the street to try to find some place to eat. I ended up going to a cheap Italian place down the road a little ways. When I got there they didn't have a place for me to sit so I stood for a while then they took me down stairs where I had to sit by myself till they got a free table upstairs. When I finally sat down there I ordered Carbonara. Before I got my pasta two gentle men sat down next to me. It was a bit uncomfortable at first because the tables were really close, but it ended up being just fine. I don't know how the conversation started but we just started talking. Mostly about different things like all the stuff I had seen that day. I was a very good conversation I quite enjoyed it. These two men were there for business because they both work in the restaurant business. They were both from Newfoundland, Canada and the gentlemen I talked the most with owned a restaurant in St. Johns called Atlantica, or Atlantis. I wish I could remember because I can't find it on the internet now. I'm suppose to look them up any time I'm in St. Johns. I don't remember their names though. I think the shorter one, not the owner of the restaurant was named Terry. After a little while, I realized that I wasn't eating so I started trying to finish. When I had finished and they had they asked me if I wanted any dessert. I hadn't planned on but I ordered some cake and a cappaccino. It was a very good dessert. I quite enjoyed it. When it was over I pulled out my wallet to pay and they told me no that dinner was on them for making such a good conversation. It was really nice. I was too stunned to know why they did it. They insisted and since I didn't have that much money left I didn't complain. I thanked them a lot before we even got out of the restaurant. Once outside we ended up just walking down the street which turns out was the wrong direction for me but it was ok I was getting to talk to people who spoke English. After that I told them that we were heading in the wrong direction because my hostel was back toward the park. So we turned around and headed back. At one point they asked me about a sculpture on a store wall. It was just a representation of Neo-Greek with modern figures and after looking at it I told them so. After that we kept walking and I asked them where the Hard Rock was. The restaurant owner whipped out his phone and looked it up. Turns out it was just around the corner. So after that we walked all the way back to the hostel. I guess they were still enjoying the conversation because they walked me all the way to my hostel. We said goodbye and I went inside. I quite enjoyed the conversation. It put some confidence in me that I still had conversation skills. I went immediately up stairs. While up there I soaked my feet and watched TV. I also went down stairs on the internet for a little while. They gave me some extra minutes because of a messed up station. I didn't use the minutes though because Sean got off early and I didn't have anything else to do. So I went back upstairs (the computers were in the lobby) and watched TV till later. (Fiddler on the Roof). I finally just had to turn the TV off because I really needed to sleep so I could get going by 8 in the morning.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Day 83, 4/13/2010
Day 73, 4/3/2010
First full day in London, and it was such an awesome day. I didn't even care that I was there by myself. So I started the day with getting up and ready around 8:00 I didn't get out of the hostel till about 9. Mostly because I ate a really crappy breakfast provided by the hostel, then heading out, instead of just going. The first place I went was the St. Paul's Cathedral. I wanted to see the interior. So I got on the underground and rode it over to the St. Paul's stop. It wasn't hard because It was on the same line as Queensway. When I got there I of course looked at it and took a lot of pictures. Then when I went to go inside it turns out that it would cost me 12 pounds to go into this place. I was a little mad because this was the first church I've ever heard of that charged you to go in to see it and they didn't allow photos. I thought that was a bit ridiculous. So after seeing this place I headed to the underground again to continue on my way to The Tower of London. It turns out that the stop near the tower was offline or closed for the weekend so I had to walk down from a different stop. This was alright because I was able to walk along the river and I got some good pictures of Tower Bridge on the way to The Tower of London. When I got there I thought it was an actual tower, well I learned just by looking at it that the Tower of London was actually a fortress and palace. I walked completely around the entire fortress first to take pictures which later I didn't like... o well. After that I decided it was time to go inside. Before going to the ticket line I checked out the souvenir shop right there beside the entrance gate to the fortress. After deciding what I was going to purchase I got in line for my ticket. That took like 20 minutes to get through. The line was very long. Finally, I got my ticket and I purchased the guide book at the ticket stand. I of course started at the gate. This is now the only entrance you can enter through. I started down Water Lane, then into the palace area of the Tower. After getting through that entire wing I exited on the opposite corner from the exit. At about that time I saw the Ravens for the first time. This was actually really cool. There is a legend that says if the Raven's leave the monarchy will crumble into oblivion. I don't remember exactly where I went next but I eventually saw everything they had to offer. In roughly this order. After the palace area I went to see one of the rooms that held the older crown jewels. I never went to see the actual crown jewels because the line was soo long that I didn't want to wait. There were some very interesting rooms besides the palace that were important to the violent history of the tower. A lot of the rooms had carvings on the walls made by the prisoners. The awesome thing is that they were able to identify who made them. A lot of them were from famous people. So after I saw most of the curtain wall and whatever it had to offer I headed toward the actually White Tower. This was really neat because this was what started the fortress on this location. It was also the first palace on the location. Even though the king who built it didn't stay more than three months it was still outfitted to be a palace. This was cool also because they had armor. Armor from the kings and others as well as weapons. This was very very cool to see. Although I know nothing about the armor it was still the most interesting part of the Tower. The final thing I went to see is the Bloody Tower. This is the only tower that contained REPLICAS of the torture devices. This was interesting because from what I understood this was not the place that they would have tortured them. I got to see some replica's of these devices. There was a wrack, manacles, and another device that makes you scrunch up and it doesn't allow you to stretch out. So after that I was done with this place. I was tired and there wasn't much else for me to do. At some point during the day I ate a small lunch. Also before leaving the tower I got a few souvenirs at a shop inside the inner curtain wall. After leaving the tower I stopped by the shop outside to gather the rest of the souvenir's I planned on getting for my family, then I headed back to the train stop after looking at the outside of the tower again. This was when I decided to go to The Globe Theater. I wasn't sure if I would have time to see it any other time while I was there so I really wanted to see before I left London. I had to walk back to the stop then ride the rest of the way back to St. Paul's stop. Then I walked across the Millennium bridge to the theater. I walked around outside of it for the most part because it was too late to go on a tour of the interior and I didn't really have the time because I was going to go to church at St. Paul's. My brain conveniently forgetting that it was an Anglican church not a Catholic church. But, before I went to church I hung around the theater. Mostly to check out the souvenir shop and decided what I might want to purchase later. After only being there for a little while I decided that I would go to the exhibition and the tour in the morning. There is just no way I could miss this. After that I turned back around and headed back across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's for Mass. This was definitely an interesting experience. I was already in the church in a seat when I remembered that this wasn't a Catholic Church. I decided to stay anyway and just experience it even if I didn't participate. I didn't even sing because I didn't know the songs. The first part of the service was outside in front of the church. The Bishop spoke and then we lite our candles and went into the church to stand around the baptismal font and watch people get baptized. Then we headed back to our seats. Mine was to the right just underneath the dome. I ended up just looking at the decoration the entire time I was in mass. I also have to confess, I went to mass not just because I planned on going but because I wanted to see the inside. That was the only way to get in for free. After the LONG service during which I feel asleep, I felt bad for that, I started to head out and noticed that people were taking pictures so I went a head and got my camera out and took a few of the things that I wanted pictures of then I headed out into the night to look for a place to eat. Right there next to the church I found a burger place. This was a very good place to eat. I ended up getting a chicken burger with fries. After that I went back to my hostel and got on the computer after paying for it of course. I only talked to Sean for about an hour because he left after that. Then sleep for the night.
First full day in London, and it was such an awesome day. I didn't even care that I was there by myself. So I started the day with getting up and ready around 8:00 I didn't get out of the hostel till about 9. Mostly because I ate a really crappy breakfast provided by the hostel, then heading out, instead of just going. The first place I went was the St. Paul's Cathedral. I wanted to see the interior. So I got on the underground and rode it over to the St. Paul's stop. It wasn't hard because It was on the same line as Queensway. When I got there I of course looked at it and took a lot of pictures. Then when I went to go inside it turns out that it would cost me 12 pounds to go into this place. I was a little mad because this was the first church I've ever heard of that charged you to go in to see it and they didn't allow photos. I thought that was a bit ridiculous. So after seeing this place I headed to the underground again to continue on my way to The Tower of London. It turns out that the stop near the tower was offline or closed for the weekend so I had to walk down from a different stop. This was alright because I was able to walk along the river and I got some good pictures of Tower Bridge on the way to The Tower of London. When I got there I thought it was an actual tower, well I learned just by looking at it that the Tower of London was actually a fortress and palace. I walked completely around the entire fortress first to take pictures which later I didn't like... o well. After that I decided it was time to go inside. Before going to the ticket line I checked out the souvenir shop right there beside the entrance gate to the fortress. After deciding what I was going to purchase I got in line for my ticket. That took like 20 minutes to get through. The line was very long. Finally, I got my ticket and I purchased the guide book at the ticket stand. I of course started at the gate. This is now the only entrance you can enter through. I started down Water Lane, then into the palace area of the Tower. After getting through that entire wing I exited on the opposite corner from the exit. At about that time I saw the Ravens for the first time. This was actually really cool. There is a legend that says if the Raven's leave the monarchy will crumble into oblivion. I don't remember exactly where I went next but I eventually saw everything they had to offer. In roughly this order. After the palace area I went to see one of the rooms that held the older crown jewels. I never went to see the actual crown jewels because the line was soo long that I didn't want to wait. There were some very interesting rooms besides the palace that were important to the violent history of the tower. A lot of the rooms had carvings on the walls made by the prisoners. The awesome thing is that they were able to identify who made them. A lot of them were from famous people. So after I saw most of the curtain wall and whatever it had to offer I headed toward the actually White Tower. This was really neat because this was what started the fortress on this location. It was also the first palace on the location. Even though the king who built it didn't stay more than three months it was still outfitted to be a palace. This was cool also because they had armor. Armor from the kings and others as well as weapons. This was very very cool to see. Although I know nothing about the armor it was still the most interesting part of the Tower. The final thing I went to see is the Bloody Tower. This is the only tower that contained REPLICAS of the torture devices. This was interesting because from what I understood this was not the place that they would have tortured them. I got to see some replica's of these devices. There was a wrack, manacles, and another device that makes you scrunch up and it doesn't allow you to stretch out. So after that I was done with this place. I was tired and there wasn't much else for me to do. At some point during the day I ate a small lunch. Also before leaving the tower I got a few souvenirs at a shop inside the inner curtain wall. After leaving the tower I stopped by the shop outside to gather the rest of the souvenir's I planned on getting for my family, then I headed back to the train stop after looking at the outside of the tower again. This was when I decided to go to The Globe Theater. I wasn't sure if I would have time to see it any other time while I was there so I really wanted to see before I left London. I had to walk back to the stop then ride the rest of the way back to St. Paul's stop. Then I walked across the Millennium bridge to the theater. I walked around outside of it for the most part because it was too late to go on a tour of the interior and I didn't really have the time because I was going to go to church at St. Paul's. My brain conveniently forgetting that it was an Anglican church not a Catholic church. But, before I went to church I hung around the theater. Mostly to check out the souvenir shop and decided what I might want to purchase later. After only being there for a little while I decided that I would go to the exhibition and the tour in the morning. There is just no way I could miss this. After that I turned back around and headed back across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's for Mass. This was definitely an interesting experience. I was already in the church in a seat when I remembered that this wasn't a Catholic Church. I decided to stay anyway and just experience it even if I didn't participate. I didn't even sing because I didn't know the songs. The first part of the service was outside in front of the church. The Bishop spoke and then we lite our candles and went into the church to stand around the baptismal font and watch people get baptized. Then we headed back to our seats. Mine was to the right just underneath the dome. I ended up just looking at the decoration the entire time I was in mass. I also have to confess, I went to mass not just because I planned on going but because I wanted to see the inside. That was the only way to get in for free. After the LONG service during which I feel asleep, I felt bad for that, I started to head out and noticed that people were taking pictures so I went a head and got my camera out and took a few of the things that I wanted pictures of then I headed out into the night to look for a place to eat. Right there next to the church I found a burger place. This was a very good place to eat. I ended up getting a chicken burger with fries. After that I went back to my hostel and got on the computer after paying for it of course. I only talked to Sean for about an hour because he left after that. Then sleep for the night.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)