The good times, bad times and the downright ugly times

Hi there, look at me checking in so soon. A fair amount of things have gone on so we'll start from the terribly long day I had on Tuesday, after napping on the bus back from Vienna and arriving in Berlin at 6am. Naturally I had to go to work, then my language class and then to meet up with Joe and the others. It was a good night - we ended up sitting in Görly park with beers and pretzel sticks.

The rest of the week I weaseled out of all plans as I was just unfathomably tired and grumpy (I am still convinced it has a lot to do with the heat), until Saturday night. I'd spent the entire day in bed reading, which was absolutely glorious and very much needed. Sophie, Hilary and I went to the ramen place, Cucolo, that Spencer and Kat took me to in my first week here. It was so good. We decided to have a non-alcoholic evening, opting for coffee in a waffle bar.

On Sunday, we all met up at Görly (I swear, I spend my entire leisure time around this place) for the breakfast market, where I was most delighted to find steak pies. I repeat, I FOUND STEAK PIES. It was New Zealand recipe, but still. Delicious. Then we headed to Mauerpark. Sophie hunted down a bag, I bought another shirt, Hilary bought a few things and then lastly, I paid 17 euros for a ring. It was amazing though, and the woman reassured me it was top-quality brass, it wouldn't tarnish or stain my fingers green. Well.

Happy as larry, we had coffee and cake at Anna Blume, which is a lovely brunch place. Then I noticed my finger had indeed turned green, so the girls agreed I had to go back to the market and tell the woman. Which we did, and I ended up getting my money back but not without being called a 'crazy bitch' for being upset about paying a lot of money just to react to the metal so quickly, and I'm sorry, but don't reassure someone that your overpriced rubbish is nickel-free when it evidently is bloody not. ANYWAY.

On Monday, I met up with Joe, Chelsea and her boyfriend Chris at the Fanmeile, where it seemed the whole of Berlin had turned out to watch the Germany-Portugal game. The atmosphere was insane, and afterwards we found Sophie and Hilary and all went out for Mexican at, yes you guessed it, Görly, before going to Chris' and playing Ring of Fire, which was great fun.

The Fanmeile (the dome on left side is the Reichstag, and the screen was in front of the Brandenburg Gate)

Tuesday was pretty uneventful at work, but Joe made a pizza for us from scratch which was lush, and we just spent the evening at mine watching stupid Youtube videos. Alas, my bridge fell out that evening as well, leaving me with one front tooth less. It was all fine though as I had my emergency denture with me, and I went to the dentist today. I'm getting a new one fitted in the next week or so, so that's perfect!

Sigmund and I sulking after the tooth incident

It seemed the bad luck wasn't going to end there. On Tuesday, I got out of work early so we went and did some shopping and when we got home, my netbook decided it was time for it to say goodbye to this world, which meant that we watched like 4 games of football, and Joe commandeered the internet on my phone. Ah lovely. This problem is also resolved, as I picked it up from the repair shop today and it is working like a dream! On the positive side of both these things, I dealt with all of it in German, and I'm super proud of that!

Friday night was pretty good though. Sophie, Hilary and her two friends from home, Joe and his friend Ciorstaidh and I went to a wine bar, where you pay for a glass and just fill it with whatever wine you want, and at the end you just give a donation. Delightful! Then it was on to a club called Rosis, where we danced the night away to 80's indie music which was also delightful!

On the way back to the U-Bahn at 7am though, it was just me, Sophie and Hilary, and not once, but THREE times, men literally got in our faces, to the point we were all actually a bit scared. One of them tried to kiss Hilary, to which we both lost our shit. We stood up for ourselves, yes, but we should be able to walk along without having to defend ourselves against getting kissed against our will! So freaking gross.

A bit of Ciorstaidh, Hilary and me in a caravan outside Rosis. Sorry Hilary but I think it sums up the night!

Saturday night was a bit quieter, and we went to watch the Germany-Ghana match at Tempelhofer Feld. It was so, so good. The beer was flowing and Germany scored twice. The atmosphere was great and afterwards we headed to Madame Claude's for a couple of beers. Sunday saw me in bed all day reading and napping, until Joe came over and picked up some of his stuff and we said goodbye ... until I see him in Edinburgh. Which is bloody shocking.

This has been a reaaally long post, and not many photos, apologies!

xxx

Vienna, du bist so bloody schön

After being excited all day at work, and suffering very badly from Friday afternoon syndrome, it was finally time to get the bus to Vienna! I was so stressed getting to the bus station because, well, it's me.

I ended up sitting next to a large snoring man, but at least I had the window seat and could bury myself as far that way as possible. I didn't manage a massive amount of sleep, mainly because I just couldn't wait to see Austria for the first time. It didn't disappoint. I woke up just as the sun was rising, to see rolling hills and farms bathed in soft pink light and mountains rising in the distance. It was the definition of idyllic.

Ugh, well it looked better than this in real life ... awkwaard

Enough of me pretending to Wordsworth. I met Sia at the station and we went straight to hers for breakfast. On the way we went past the parliament. My jaw actually dropped. It looked like someone had winched it over from Ancient Greece.

The Parliament

The day was a very busy one, yet at the same time really lovely and relaxed. We started off at the cemetery (none of you should be surprised by this). We were, of course, looking for the graves of Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, Brahms and Schubert. We found them, primarily by following a large group of Chinese tourists.

Next up, Sia took me to Belvedere Palace and again, I was just like 'oh woah'. The views from here were stunning and I couldn't get over the fact that I could see mountains. The last person to live here was Archduke Franz Ferdinand! We also saw Karlskirche, which was beautiful inside. We then decided we were hungry and grabbed lunch, sitting in the shade of the cathedral near Sia's uni, before heading down the road to Cafe Landtmann for a Sachertorte. This cafe was lovely and was apparently the preferred coffeehouse of Sigmund Freud - but there'll be more about him later. I also quickly decided that Viennese coffee is superb.

Moi outside Belvedere

View from the palace

Following that, we went to the Museum Quarter, where I again marvelled my little head off. We were now in the Hofburg Palace and, boy it was something. I was excited to see all the Ancient Egyptian stuff, including a mummified crocodile. We saw the rest of the first floor as well, and the whole place is just ridiculous. It's not quite as insane as Versailles but it's still like, guys, really?

Creepy

Roses in the Hofburg Gardens

Then I saw the Spanish Riding School to see the famous Lippizaners! I only saw them in their stables but whatever. I'll be back in Vienna at the end of August so we're going to take a tour then.

After a long day of being sweaty, we went back to Sia's to freshen up before going to the dinner concert. It definitely ranks in my top 10 year abroad moments (maybe I'll make that list happen when I leave). The food was good and I even tried some fishy stuff, which was brave of me, because I hate fish. Everything was traditional Viennese and the performances were so much fun to watch! Near the end, we were treated to 'Edelweiss' and the whole room joined in, followed by 'The Blue Danube', danced to by a lady in a gorgeous red dress. It ended too soon, but as soon as we stepped outside onto the square, there was a massive disco going on? We weren't sure what it was, but we grabbed a beer and had a little dance to Queen and the like, before dragging ourselves on home.

Please excuse my humming and muttering

Probably one of our nicest photos together! (stolen from Sia)

Sunday was a bit more chilled and after a nice breakfast, we headed out to Schonbrünn Palace. You know what I'm going to say, right? It was stunning. We took the little tourist train tour, which took us to the top, to the Gloriette. From here, you could see the Palace with the city behind it, and then some mountains. Sigh. We sat on the grass for a while, taking in the view and having a little picnic.

Outside Schonbruenn

Sia and I on the little train

View from the top! (I stole this from Sia)

On our way back down to the carriage museum in the main building, we stumbled across some mazes and decided to try our luck. I think we did okay! Put it this way, no one had to come rescue us and we sent up no flares.

Sia in the maze

We went through the rose garden and then into the carriage museum. Granted, it sounds a bit random but it was really interesting. One of the carriages on display was the one that Napoleon used for his coronation in Italy! They also had the HUGE funeral hearse for Queen Sisi, which was pretty morbid but incredible, and was last used in 1980 ...

Sneaky museum pic ooh

Anyway, it was good and after that we sat down for a cool drink before going home. Sia cooked for us, which was lovely, and we had dessert at Cafe Central. This cafe was also beautiful, complete with a pianist.

We were both incredibly excited for the Prater; one of the oldest Ferris Wheels. It's pretty huge too, and one of the most well known symbols of the city. It took a little while to get on, but get on we did and enjoyed a gorgeous night view of Vienna and the fun fair below. We rustled up some money for the water log ride and then I determined to find an ATM because we'd walked past a fun house that we just NEEDED to go in, okay?! And yes, before you ask, I did fall over at one point. But it was hilarious.

Trying to be arty ...

On Monday, we started with the Hundertwasserhaus, a really awesome apartment block that has trees growing through it. I bought most of my souvenirs here and then we went onto the Sigmund Freud Museum. Everybody at least knows his name, so to stand in the rooms that he used to practice psychoanalysis was incredible. I bought a pen inscribed with 'Prof. Dr SIGM. FREUD', because I like to think this makes me quirky and interesting. We lunched on Schnitzel, followed by yet another Sachertorte, but this time in the very building they were invented.

Hundertwasserhaus

Wienerschnitzel

We had dinner at a really nice Hungarian restaurant,which unfortunately did bad things to my tummy which had me almost in tears on the train and locked in a toilet without toilet roll. Sigh. It was time for me to go catch my bus home ... and go to work that morning.

Anyway, it was such a good weekend, and I'm looking forward to going back already! Next up is my sister's visit in two weeks time!

xxx

On being a tourist (guide)

Hi! It feels like ages since I last properly blogged. Since then, I've spent hours in muesums, given up on Jean, signed up for German evening classes, danced all night to Madonna, toured my mum and her partner around most things of historical relevance, had an accident and have pretty much finished planning my August adventure. 

So a couple of weekends ago, it was der Lange Nacht der Museen, where museums are open until the early hours. My mum's initial reaction when I told her about it was "What's so special about that?" Oh mother! You are right about 99% of things, but not this. What could be better than sitting on the steps of a museum filled with ancient Greek treasures, cup of tea in hand, at 12.45 am? Who needs alcohol when you've got a two day museum pass? Not me mate.

'Telephos goes to Argos' This amused me greatly.





the stuff of nightmares

who put the glad in gladiator? HERC-U-LEEES

Biggest dinosaur skeleton in the world, or sumfink

There was a room filled with sealife in jars.

Dunno what my legs are doing, but CURRYWURST

There was even an interactive takeaway van thing. This is Sophie serving you chips.

It was genuinely great, and Sophie and I clocked up 7 museums in what, 12 hours? The Pergamon (architecture), Neues (where Nefertiti's famous bust is), Altes (Ancient Greeks), Bodes (not entirely sure of the central theme, but a fair amount of Jesus), Naturkunde (nature, and the obligatory dinosaur skeletons), the Currywurst Museum (!!!!) and the Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, which was really moving. We got quite into it, and each bought a postcard of our favourite exhibit from each one.

Next item on the list - the German Tandem Partner Situation. I genuinely do not understand what happened there. I am not gonna make you read reems of my hypotheses. Lionel is still around though, and to combat the lack of Jean, I signed up for an 4 week evening class course. I just figured I needed something. It was also born out of a moment of mild panic when I realised that I have 2 months left and my German is not as good as I want it to be! Yesterday I tried out a class, and I loved it. Due to time issues, I can't go to B2 classes because of work, so have to make do with B1-B2. It's fine so far and is quite nice to feel like a freaking boss but I might go to a C1 class just to see if that is challenging enough not to be painful, if not, I don't mind too much staying in this class I'm just worried I will get too comfortable and complacent ...



Saturday  before last was Madonna night. Hilary, Guy, Hilary's flatmate Daniel and I headed out to a Club in Neukölln (yes!) at like 1am and sweatily danced the night away to Madonna, Kylie, Britney ,etc. It was awesome. Mainly because of the fact there was music with lyrics, shock horror. And a lot of oiled, but sadly homosexual, torsos jumping around.


The next day my mother arrived! I was so excited to see her, and it was so cute to see her little face bobbing in the crowd. We went out for dinner that night at Italo, which was lovely because my mum loves Italian food and was in her element. The following day, my historical tour began. Starting with *deep breath* Potsdamer Platz, Brandenburger Tor, tour of the Reichstag, Soviet War Memorial in the Tiergarten, the memorial for the 1953 uprising at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Topography of Terror and a brief glance at the former Gestapo HQ, Checkpoint Charlie, Bebelsplatz (where the Nazis famously burnt the books), St. Hedwig's Cathedral, Berliner Cathedral, coffee in the Nikolai quarter, East Side Gallery and the Oberbaumbrücke and then finally DINNER.

Gross of me, but mum looks cute

It was just a prelude, because when you burn books, in the end you burn people too.

The Nikolai Quarter is so pretty

Mum bought me a new friend. Meet Sigmund.

'I remember'

East Side Gallery

Bit minging, but one of my favourite places in Berlin

Tuesday started off badly, that's for sure, as I somehow managed to slip and get my left leg stuck in the gap between the train and the platform. It felt like I was there forever but Mum has since assured me it was not even a minute before she pulled me up. After crying hysterically from the shock of it, we located a pharmacy and I patched up before I gallantly hobbled onwards to continue their tour. The leg is still bruised and still hurts. Sigh.


First off, I took them to J.F Kennedy Platz, then onto Ku'damm and the church, followed by the Siegesäule. We all paid to go in and the information was interesting but there was no way I could climb 285 spiral steps with my poor limb, so Mum and I didn't climb it in the end. Next stop was Bernauerstraße and the Wall Memorial. I visited this with Lewis in 2012, but I had no idea just how extensive the memorial was; the whole street was demolished to make way for the wall and so has been preserved almost in it's entirety. You can see the foundations of a church that once stood in between. You can see foundations of houses that were ripped down because people were using the windows that looked out onto the west side to escape. There was even video footage of a man shimmying down a sheet rope from a window. Lastly, they preserved part of the Death Strip. You climb a big viewing platform to see it properly and it's just, awful. Awful to think that it was only 24 years ago that it came down. The East Side Gallery is interesting, but I think Bernauerstraße really makes you realise just what this wall was, even though I will never get my head around it. It's a really tasteful memorial too, and I was pleased to see people were being respectful.

Do I really need to caption this?

After that, we rushed over to the Stasi Museum. By now it was absolutely chucking it down, so the weather was quite conducive to the tone of the day! We only had an hour there, so I showed them the most important bits. My mum has always been interested in spy stuff, so she was simultaneously fascinated and horrified.


We then went for dinner, opting for a place at Alexanderplatz. It was initially really good, until after we had eaten no one asked us if we wanted more drinks and we waited half an hour for the bill ...
After we all had a bit of a strop, we bought some biscuits and wine and hung out at their hotel until gone midnight.

hab' dich Lieb, mama

After dropping their stuff off at mine the next morning, I gave mum her birthday card and little present and there were some little tears too. Then, as an extra special birthday present, we went to see the site of Hitler's Bunker. It was chilling, and not just because it was pissing down. Saying goodbye at the Airport was not too bad, as Spencer drove me home so I had to dump them and run really. It was lovely seeing mum, and I think I can make the next couple of months now!

I spent the holiday weekend in Vienna visiting Sia, so there'll be a post soon about that! And last night, I went for drinks with Joe and the gang, as Joe will be knocking around el Berlino for a couple of weeks. Yay!


Bis bald
xxx

How I know I've been in Berlin a while

I've been here for 4 months today. What?!


1. Sparkling water is normal and I drink it like a fish. What was all the fuss about?
2. Crossing on the red man is for the reckless and they are to be judged.
3. I sometimes capitalise English nouns without thinking.
4. It's no longer weird to me that people stagger around with huge bags of plastic/glass bottles, and rummage in bins for said bottles.
5. On more than one occasion I have thought to myself 'Where the hell is my Handy?'
6. At the beginning I struggled to accept the z y inversion on German keyboards, but now I can't type properly on the English ones. Oh dear. Fun Fact: Kirstz Dwzer was my name for the first week or so here.
7. The way I write has changed slightly ...  7, T, Z have undergone makeovers.
8. I've had a few strange dreams in German -  a fox and a wolf arguing about the cleanliness of a house, me shouting at a man writing something in a notepad and other such nonsense.
9. I'm actually starting to enjoy techno and house music, and heard myself say 'oh I like this one' the other day, despite a friend's protest that it all sounds the same.
10. I'm no longer that bothered about smoking in clubs/bars - before I found it gross, and smoked outside, but now I do it too. Oh dear.
11. Doner Kebab is a perfectly acceptable lunch, snack or evening meal option.
12. A man in a shop didn't seem to be entirely sure where I was from and asked 'So, you come from round here?' Good enough.
13. I always carry at least one shopping bag (and a cloth one, I'm well eco) in my handbag, just in case I pop to a supermarket, because all the supermarkets charge for bags. Lidl/Aldi will never catch me out in England again!
14. I am no longer horrified by the thought of sharing a table with strangers at a restaurant.
15. Someone walked in front of me in a queue yesterday, and I just let it happen. I repeat. I LET IT HAPPEN. Because I seem to have finally accepted that that happens here.

And suddenly, a social life

Hallo hallo

The last couple of weeks have been very much fun-filled, thanks to being friends with people my age again. I have come to the conclusion that everyone I have met from Edinburgh Uni (read, Joe's mates) are all total babes. Last Wednesday we found ourselves in a fetish club, which was a very eye-opening experience. It was good fun though, and we danced away to techno until the small hours. The following day was the 1st May bank holiday which naturally meant a massive street party in Kreuzberg. The streets were rammed with people, food, alcohol and loud music. We left in the early evening before it descended into madness (we'd already seen about a thousand riot police) and the festival is quite well known for it's rioting and car burning. We went for a nice drink in Neukolln, Hilary, Sophie, Blythe (who was visiting from Austria) and I and had some wonderful tapas. A busker came in and was particularly rude when Blythe gave him some money and said 'Is that all?'. Bloody ingrate.

Goerly Park got a bit packed too 

Oranienstrasse (Sorry to this dude)

I've also recently become obsessed with Game of Thrones (very late on the bandwagon, I know) so Saturday consisted mainly of that before we went for dinner at a little French place in Kreuzberg called Chez Michel. The food was good, but the bloke was as tetchy as anything. I asked him where the bottle opener was and I was half expecting him to hit me with it.

Sunday was my first visit to Mauerpark and, despite the famous Karaoke not being on, it was still pretty good. No pictures from me, because I forgot my camera, but Hilary took a couple. Fairly sure I'll go again at some point!

Choosing a shirt, oh the dilemma

We went for a Vietnamese not far from me and oh my, it was divine. It was then time to say goodbye to Blythe, but hopefully I will see her while I am in Vienna (only a few weeks away!). I'm also still meeting with Lionel every week and I think we've made Italo our spot. It's such good food and it's not too expensive. I'm still frustrated with French though, as there are points where I just cannot remember how to say it in French and accidentally speak German. Lionel is nice about it, but it's just so embarrassing. I'm reading Heidi in French at the moment in a bid to absorb some of it, and I've also been listening to a lot of Zaho. (If you don't know her, you should). I'm trying!

Thursday night was quite exciting, as Sophie and I went to see a 'mystery movie', or as we were firmly corrected by the woman ' a sneakpeek', at Potsdamer Platz. It was an, erm, interesting movie with Jake Gyllenhaal. Just watch the trailer below and you may understand our state of 'okay, that was pretty odd'. (There was a lot of spiders and ALSO, I'm fairly sure it was bodysnatchers kinda thing but yeah)

And last night was, of course, Eurovision. We went to a bar round the corner from me to watch it. Sat in a basement in front of a big projecter screen with people fidgeting, stealing coats (Sophie found hers in the end), treading on beer bottles, not clapping and generally just not understanding was a little frustrating but we still enjoyed it. Although the UK didn't win (obviously), I still think we did fairly well - 40 points! Progress is progress!

the glorious beginning and the heads of the two morons that irritated me all night

When Conchita won!

My prize for betting that Austria would win, righty ho. The others got one too!

Aside from socialising (I know right, look at me go), work has been good too. I feel like my German has improved a lot, and I no longer have to strain to understand. I'm also glad that I chose to do an internship, as it's teaching me so much. Not just the translation industry, and what makes a good/bad translator, but just general things about being a project manager. I'm still enjoying it, even though there are days when I just want to hide under my desk, so that's the main thing!

I'm also proud to announce that I have now had 4 dreams/semi-dreams auf Deutsch. They're all nonsense but, still!

Unfortunately, I haven't heard from Jean in a couple of weeks... so I'm not really sure what that's about. I am disappointed because we were getting on really well! Ah, might have to find another German tandem partner if I don't hear from her this week...

Anyway, that's all for now.

Tschussi

xxx

Prague and Munich

Thursday started at the hideous hour of 3.30 am, and I was on my way to the Czech Republic by 5 am. Needless to say I was asleep for a while and woke up when we stopped at Dresden and a Korean girl sat in my compartment. The scenery outside suddenly became beautiful so I stayed awake and attempted to take pictures of it.

It was around this time that the Korean girl, who introduced herself as Deborah, started to read 'The 4 Spiritual Laws' to me. It was all just very awkward as I tried to tell her I didn't believe in it, but she gave me the booklet anyway and told me to add her on Facebook. Which I have done, I just don't want to talk about Jesus... this post is starting off strangely. Anyway. The train was delayed for a little bit, but I arrived in Prague at about 10, grabbed a metro ticket and met Sia and Sarah at I.P.Pavlova (a very pleasing station name). First stop was my hostel and then it was sightseeing time!  

We decided to take a free walking tour from the Astronomical Clock, which is probably one of the best things I've done! I never take walking tours as I normally just navigate myself around, but it was brilliant - we saw so many relatively hidden things and it was so interesting.

The Astronomical Clock



Sleeping Beauty's Castle was inspired by this apparently, not Neuschwanstein then?

Franz Kafka street and cafe

Memorial plaque for Jan Palach, a student who set himself on fire in protest against the end of the Prague Spring

The only door to the attic of the Old-New Synagogue *shudders*

Traditional Czech cakes, soo good

Brilliant

After the tour, we stopped for a coffee in a little cafe before walking back to the Old Square to look through the market and watch the astronomical clock show.

On Charles Bridge... oh dear

We walked across Charles Bridge, where I became obsessed with photos of it in the mist, then went to Mind Maze. None of us had done anything like it before, but basically you are locked into a room and you have an hour to get out by solving clues... we didn't win, but I think we did pretty well! We stumbled on the last two hurdles. After lots of frustrated mumblings and a shared cuppa at the hotel, we went for dinner at the Railway Restaurant, where your drinks are delivered by little trains! Amazing. 

Green beer, why not

 We had a few drinks at a bar that looked like a cave, as far as I remember before the girls dropped me at my hostel and went on their way. The hostel was fine, save for the fact I had to ask someone how to unlock my door ...

I met the girls at their hotel next morning and had some of their breakfast, before we headed up to Prague Castle - that was a tough walk but the views were beautiful!

Then I decided to go to Munich with them. I'm really proud of myself of being so spontaneous! So I rushed to buy a ticket and as it was only 34 euros, it would have been rude not to really. Six hours later, after lots of word games and being very overheated (we only worked out how to open the window 4 hours into the journey), we arrived in Munich. The girls checked into their hotel, and we just decided they would sneak me in later.  I was massively worried about this but tried to forget about it, and I think I did quite well. We had an amazing Indian, then went for a beer at the Löwenbräu brewery. 

Blurry but happy!

This was pleasing until my horrible man voice appeared

This was my first visit to Bavaria and I was not disappointed. I sat there with my litre of beer and a pretzel, watching people dressed in lederhosen and dirndls dance around. Wonderful. Happily, the hotel plan went also went without a hitch but Joe had been in Munich that evening and we missed each other because I didn't text him early enough. Typical!

Next morning, we got up fairly early and grabbed coffee and baked goods before heading to the Glockenspiel at Marienplatz. I decided very quickly that Munich was very nice, but I found the accent quite different - a lot softier (and mushier?) than Berlin. We had lunch in the courtyard of the Glockenspiel, which was delicious.

Schnapps sausages with potato pancakes, Bavarian sauerkraut and bacon

Then we had a little wander to see some of the city before we all went our separate ways - me on a bus back to Berlin, Sia to Vienna, and Sarah to Freiburg. 

The bus wasn't too bad, but time seemed to drag after the 5 hour point. I would definitely do it again, as it works out so much cheaper! I also definitely want to go back to Prague some day.

As usual, it all went far too quickly but it was lovely to see Sia and Sarah again, and I can now tick two places off of my list.

Tschuessi

xxx