From December 1st to December 8th, I took a long vacation to travel through a more eastern part of Europe. My first stop was Berlin, and I stayed in an adorable hostel with 5 of my friends while 5 more stayed in a hotel nearby. We had set up a walking tour around the city for our first day and I was eager to learn more about Berlin. Our British guide, Jamie, has lived in Berlin for many, many years and he was even more informative than some of my past teachers. We walked mostly through east Berlin, where a lot of new construction, culture, and new things have been growing since the end of communism and the destruction of the Berlin wall. After listening to the tour information and walking around, I realized that I only knew about World War II history and how much I didn't know about Cold War history, so it was interesting to finally understand how not only the World War affected Berliners but also how bad east Berlin had it from the 50s until the 90s. I added a few pictures of some cool parts from the tour.
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| Evan and me in front of the Berlin Cathedral. It has been reconstructed since the world war because of Allied bombings. You can also see bullet marks on some parts because of Cold War fighting. |
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| One of the main buildings of Humboldt University, the oldest university in Berlin. In the 1930s it was under influence of the Nazi regime; there was a book burning there, where books by "degenerates" or opponents of the Nazi regime were destroyed. Some famous alumnus are Karl Marx and Lise Meitner, while Albert Einstein was a lecturer. |
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| The separation line at what was Checkpoint Charlie. This is where east Berlin became west Berlin and where Soviet and Allied troops stood guard to protect their respective sides. |
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| A portion of the Berlin wall! There are different stretches of remains of the wall in various places throughout the city. |
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| Mural painted on the side of the main Nazi headquarter building. The building was super long because Hitler wanted his visitors to have to walk down a huge, luxurious, and daunting hallway before sitting down to chat in his office at the end. The mural depicts happy east Berliners being joyful, and Nazi leaders made the artist repaint it several times because the characters didn't look "happy enough". |
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| My foot on top of where Hitler's bunker was. It is now filled with cement, but this was where he spent his days towards the end of the war and where he and his wife ultimately committed suicide. |
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| The Holocaust memorial, not far from Hitler's bunker and the Nazi buildings. |
After this tour, we took some time to walk around by ourselves and explore. We walked down the main road, Unter van Linden, and went to a main center near our hostel called Alexanderplatz where one of the many adorable Christmas festivals was located. Berlin lit up at night was a site to see, and one night a couple of the girls and I went to the coolest "dark dinner" ever; blind waiters guide you to a dark dining room where you eat in PITCH BLACK darkness, without even knowing what you exactly are eating, it was one of the coolest things I've ever done. Berlin was amazing and historical and I wished I could have stayed longer, but on Sunday we were on five hour train towards the Czech Republic!
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| The Christmas festival at Alexanderplatz. Mom, this is where I found your Christmas present! |
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| Taylor and I wanted to ride the carousel, even though it was mostly babies and children. This festival security guard came after us since we hopped on without paying... |
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| Another one of the fairs at nighttime. |
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| At the lit bar before the pitch black dinner. I chose the vegetarian option so I wouldn't be eating unknown meats, and the food was great! I was the designated wine pourer for me and my friends since the ice bucket was near me, and I definitely perfected the art of blind bar tending. |
Prague was one of the cutest cities I have ever been to in my life. For anyone who has seen the Shrek movies, it reminded me of Duloc, where the princess lives: in the main square, Old Town Square, there was a tower where a court jester-like man trumpeted every hour and little mechanical figurines danced around a clock. We also took a city guided walking tour in Prague and learned a lot about some Czech history and customs. Although I only spent two nights in Prague, I was so glad I got to visit to learn, once again, how the world wars and the Cold War really impacted the lives of Czechs. Prague was definitely the cutest of all the cities I visited on this tour...
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| Old Town Square. The lights on the Christmas tree actually danced around. The stands sold cute curiosities, hot wine, meats, roasted chestnuts, and delicious pastries. |
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| The square with a view of the church. The two towers are supposed to represent Man and Woman, which is why the left right tower is bigger than the left tower. |
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| Prague's Astronomical Clock, the third-oldest one in the world. The figurines on either side are the ones that dance every hour on the hour. Since it is an astronomical clock, it also includes zodiac signs and readings for the sun and moon. |
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| A cafe dedicated to Franz Kafka, the famous author who wrote The Metamorphosis. |
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| St. Vitus Cathedral on the ground of Prague castle. |
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| Inside St. Vitus'. I asked our tour guide what the major religion in Prague currently was, because I like to ask this in all of the cities we visit. For the first time ever, though, I got a crazy response. Apparently 80% of the population are atheist or agnostic nowadays. |
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| Changing of the guards at the entrance to the palace. Just a few minutes later, the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus, drove by in a black sedan into the gates! |
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| The Charles Bridge, the most important connection between Prague Castle and Old Town Square. There were beautiful, ornate sculptures of important religious figures all along the lengths and towers at either end. |
We pulled an all nighter out at a 5-story club on Monday night to leave on a 7 hour train ride at 5:00 AM on Tuesday morning. After arriving to Budapest, our special dad-like helper picked us up from the train station and took Taylor, Lauren, and I to our apartment. It was Greek and Egyptian themed and reminded me of a space-age bachelor pad all at the same time. Our helper, Sandor (Alexander but in Hungarian), got us settled and gave us cool tips before we went out to explore what Budapest had to offer. The first day we had to nap, so only made it out at night. We first stopped at the famous House of Terror museum located on one of the main streets, Andrassy. The museum was a very impressive exhibit about fascist and dictatorial regimes in the 1900s in Budapest, and is also a dedication to the people who were interrogated, tortured, and murdered during the World War and the Cold War. The museum was extremely informative, and very sad, but it was so interesting to learn about these things. After dinner, the cheapest one I have had for the most food in all of my European travels, we went to a bar, Szimpla Kert, that was literally right across from our apartment AND rated #2 in all of eastern Europe. We went to bed pretty early to be ready for our Budapest walking tour the next morning.
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| My bookstore/cafe/restaurant! |
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| Memorial at the beginning of the House of Terror museum. It was kind of creepy to be in there, because the music and information made it that way, and when you walk in the basement it is actually where people were tortured. These a for the people who died from Nazi and Communist terror. |
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| Szimpla (pronounced Simple) bar. It was HUGE with different floors and rooms, and had a really cool warehouse, "thrown together" feel. |
The tour around Budapest was really cool, especially because the group was only my two friends and me along with a random dude, so it was very personalized. Budapest used to be two separate places, Buda and Pest, on different sides of the Danube river. Since a lot of things were wiped out during the different reigns of terror, most of the city and architecture is newer. We did stop at a park from the World Expo where there were samplings of older Hungarian architecture, but this was one of the only places, besides the luxurious Hungarian baths, where we could witness older twentieth century architecture.
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| Gothic style building as part of the World Expo park. The statue in the bottom left is of the man who created the system of "Do, Re, Mi...", he was Hungarian. |
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| Matthias Church, one of the main cathedral's on the Pest side (flat side) of Budapest. Later when we summited the Buda side to the castle, we saw St. Stephen's Basilica. |
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| Part of one of the Christmas festivals. |
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| Stand where they make delicious pastries (in very bottom left corner). They put pastry dough around a hot pole and let it spin over a fire, then add sugar and cinnamon. |
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| Széchenyi Bridge: One of the main bridges between Buda and Pest. |
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| Zero Kilometer Stone. This is the reference point from which all road distances to Budapest are measured in the country. |
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| On the top of the hill on the Buda side there is the Buda Castle, the Basilica, and this area of a new made to look old castle village. |
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| Looking across to the Pest side at the Parliament building. |
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| We had a photo shoot in the little castle-like part. |
After the walking tour, we went to a cafe/bakery/restaurant called Gerbaud for lunch. It was established in 1858 by a Hungarian and Swiss man, and it well known for their confectionery delights. We all got dessert at the end of lunch and it definitely did not let us down. The building was majestic and the food was delicious, it was one of my favorite dining experiences of the trip. Afterwards we headed home to shower before the best part of the trip, The Hungarian State Opera. Earlier in the day, my friends and I were able to get tickets to the Nutcracker ballet performance. When we got there, we ordered some champagne and were ushered to our seats in a private box on one of the balconies! The performance was wonderful, the costumes and sets added to the amazing dancing and the experience in all was awesome. The ballet at the opera house was a perfect end to a fantastic trip.
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| Hungarian State Opera House. It is such a gorgeous building that many movies have been filmed here, Brad Pitt was just there filming his new movie. |
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| Cheers! |
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| Main staircase leading up to our seats. |
I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to Berlin, Prague and Budapest. I got to learn a lot about the cities' histories and got to see amazing sites. I had so much fun with everyone I was with, and I hope to re-visit all of these places one day! In just five days I head back to the United States, and I am sad to leave Barcelona and Europe, but am ready to be back home. The chance to study abroad here in Spain and to see so many places around the continent have really been the greatest blessing, I never thought I would have been able to be away for an entire semester. I am so grateful to my parents for making this happen for me, without them there is no way I could have gotten by: I love you thanks so much!
I cannot wait to see everybody so soon, I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me!!!!
