We (my class and I) left Sunday March 24th and returned Friday March 29th.
Berlin: AMAZING
So Berlin is legit an amazing city with over 100 years of history there. My class and I took the Fat Tire Bike Tour of the city which gives you the summary of the most important sites that Berlin has to offer. It was three hours long but it felt like 1 hour. Out bike tour guide was this young fellow from London who was a history major so that meant he knew his history very well. Before the tour started, he asked if anyone could be in the back of the group to make sure no one got lost; I rose my hand and thank goodness I did because at the end of the tour, I got a free soda and a few pieces of the Berlin wall. I'm not lying to you, people CAN get pieces of the wall that have been pre-packaged. So yes, always volunteer because you never know what the reward it.
(Side note: my friends and I started writing down famous last words that we thought could be famous last words and here is our first one:
Flora: Always volunteer for things
Holly: What about as tribute? (referring to The Hunger Games)
Flora: No!
so yes, this game of figuring out famous last words went on throughout the week. It was definitely entertaining).
Now back to what I was saying before. The bike tour allowed us to see such as where Hitler committed suicide with his wife, the monument for all the Jews whose lives were lost during the WWII period, the place where the burning of the books took place, parliament, the Square that has the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from, and the TV tower. We were also told some pretty funny stories that came along with each site. For example, there was a French church built for all the french that came into Germany and the Germans were a tad bit jealous so they built what seems like an exact replica of the same church but on the other side; the German's church is of course just about a few inches taller than that of the French.
I also went to a chocolate store where you could actually make your own chocolate! I didn't make my own but I did get some delicious and cheap chocolate. At night, I went out with a few of my friends to a bar where I met some awesome Dutch guys (they were also in Germany for a school trip; they were architecture business students) I danced the night away along with them and my friends from school. Here are what the boys from Netherlands looked like: I think the one in the middle of the 3 boys was the cutest!)
But I wish I could have gotten their numbers because I want to go to the Netherlands before I go back to the states. Oh well. Man, my hair is getting longer and even bigger in poofiness! After a little hick-up with a girl in my class that I went out with (she basically wanted to go home with a guy and I told her no), I went back to the hotel. Oh the girl basically ran away from my friend and I and I had no energy left to spend looking for her but don't you worry, she came back to the hotel at 6am and was fine.
As for academic visits while in Berlin, we visited Andels Hotel which opened in 2009, the unfinished Berlin Airport, and the Brewers association of Germany. The hotel was beautiful and everyone in my class decided that we should have stayed there instead of our non-magnificent hostel. The airport looked HUGE but I along with other students were exhausted from our nights shenanigans to truly pay attention. The Brewers Association was everyone's favorite visit because we got beer and pretzels. I had the most delicious tasting wheat beer I've ever had and I wish I could remember the name of it so you the reader can try it but I can't.
With our visit to the Brewers Association over with, there was another pause to the tour when one of the students had to go to the Hospital to be checked out because he felt very dizzy. We waited about 2 hours or so and he came back feeling good and all that was wrong with him was that he was dehydrated. Guess from what? bingo, drinking 70% alcohol. So children, please drink responsibly and don't use 70% alcohol, it will destroy your insides. I wish we had been given more days in Berlin because it's a great city that has a lot to offer. But we were back on the bus and off to Prague.
*the Bear is the symbol of Berlin so they were found everywhere!
Prague: Everything is sooooo cheap
Our hotel in Prague or Praha as was written everywhere was much nicer than that in Berlin. It was called Ibis Hotel. We went on a tour of the old castle and "parliament" but it was FREEZING! The tour was supposed to be 4 hours or something but it was only one and a half hours. Even the tour guides were cold and always tried to bring us inside. We got some amazing views from where we were located.
My friends Holly and I also visited the Basilica S. Apostolorum Petri et Pauli and the church looks amazing from the outside. There is also a beautiful cemetery that is on the church property. We looked at each tombstone and kept seeing the word Rodina so we thought it was a first name and guess what? Every tombstone we saw had that on there and we couldn't believe that everyone was named Rodina. After getting back to the hotel, we asked one of our leaders, Lucie who is from the Czech Republic, what it meant and it just means family. So if it said Rodina Christopher, it meant Family Christopher blah blah blah. That cleared up a lot of things for us. One more interesting fact about the cemetery is that whole families were buried together in one spot. Pretty crazy I think because there was a tombstone that had 9 names on it. Talk about a tight squeeze.
It was a ton of fun. That night we went to eat and a bar while most of my class mates went on a pubcrawl and let's just say, they had A LOT of fun but not very many memories except for the pictures of the night. One kid got mugged but he fought his attacker off, he had the biggest lip I've ever seen. Many people threw up. It was a mess but! we everyone made it for our academic visit in the morning.
*I think college students are pretty incredible because they can have the wildest night that's filled with fights, drama, drinking yet still wake up when they have to and look presentable. It's a great skill to have.
We also went on a dinner cruise that lasted 3 hours that was fun; I got to see some cool penguins and the Charles bridge at night. After that, the majority of the class went to the Mafia bar and then a club that Rihanna filmed a video at. Mafia bar was dead when we went there but the club was a ton of fun. Entrance fee for Girls: FREE. I danced the night away with my friends and the unbelievable amount of sweat that came from each surface of my body was worth every second of it.
As for academic visits: we spoke to the Danish Trade Council, T-Mobile, and Lego which was everyone's favorite because it's Lego! A great toy company and the presenter was the best out of the rest.
On the last day, we went to see the clock tower and the line was long but the view was incredible. We had to climb stairs (of course) but my friend and i took the elevator on the way down because the stairs were too "crowded"..we were just lazy.
There was also a cool market near the tower where I got a ton of food to eat, I'm still a hungry girl so I need a lot of food.
Prague was amazing and what made it amazing wasn't the fact that food and drinks are cheap (seriously though, $2 for a mixed drink is NOT bad), it's the fact that I was able to make these great memories with people in my class. When else will I ever get to do this again with 27 other people? And I hope you don't think my class is full of alcoholics because we went out almost every night, we are just college students trying to enjoy this great opportunity that has been given to us.
But I am now back in Denmark and everyone is very glad to be back because this has become our home. I will leave you now with a few video clips I took from the week.
Adios for now
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