berlin there done that pt2

Day #2
Bright and early at 8AM (I know the fact that I got up so early in a foreign country surprises me too, shows how much I loved this city.), me and my fellow classmates were off for our tour of Berlin.
In a small bus/van we drove around the city and saw some of its historic sites.
And I must say, for being in a moving bus/van, taking pictures out the window without the window screen showing is quite a talent that I have inquired.

Grafitti Art along with an ad for exterminating bugs

A what could have been a car accident between a bus and a van.

A building filled with graffiti that I will let you know its true meaning in a future post.

For when I have a coffee emergency
Berlin gets me

French Fry Plaza

I forget what this building is called but all I know is that the tour guide called it
"Jimmy Carter's smile"

French Fry Street
Reichstag Building
Potsdamer Platz (hungry translation: Pots & Plates)
Brandenburger Tor- will be seen in pictures below

German Palace

Victory Tower

A street sign called "Wedding"
I don't know where it leads to

June 17th!
I know something in German!

German Ad on a truck

A building that the German prince built for a woman he loved, but SCANDAL
The woman he built it for had no interest in him and didn't invite him to any of her parties that were hosted here.

Prince Freidrich's church that he built for himself.
It was bombed around the time of WWII and what is left is that top part.

The inside of the church: The tour guide noted that it had no relation to Christianity or Jesus that the church was meant to represent Frederich and his family

Another church just across from Frederich's church

Inside of the church

Me with my Swedish friend Sophie.
Everyone say hi to Sophie!
"Hi Sophie!"

German Film and Television Museum that I went that will be mentioned in a future post.

CineStar-IMAX movie theater that will once again be mentioned in a future post.

Pots and Plates

Pictured below is the Holocaust Memorial. This memorial is different than any other memorial that I have seen/heard/read. This memorial has no writing on it, no sign or poster that states it is the Holocaust Memorial. Everyone just knows that it is the Holocaust Memorial.
According to the artist, whose name I have forgotten, the meaning of the memorial is meant for people to create their own interpretation and own meaning out of it. Whatever one feels is the meaning behind this memorial. As goes for the meaning of the square blocks. There are over 1,000 of these square blocks all in different shapes and sizes and all giving a different meaning to people.
Some may say that each block represents a certain amount of people that died in the Holocaust or it may have a different opinion.
When you walk into the memorial the floor sinks down and you are lower than ground level. The memorial is like a maze so if you get lost, it'll take a while to find your way back let alone find the people that you came with.
So keep straight and if you need to take few turns.

I wasn't sure if you were supposed to smile in the Holocaust Memorial as it is a representation of a sad part in history and that it is supposed to be a somber moment, so I just smiled anyway. Because I like to smile, smiling is my favorite.

United States Embassy in Berlin and this is the interpretation of the Statue of Liberty.
JK, the mascot of Berlin is a bear, so there are bears everywhere....So i guess you could call it
BEAR-lin?!?!? (HaHaHa...get it? I crack myself up)

Low and Behold: The Brandanburger Tor (Gate)
The notable monument that Berlin holds.
If you look closely the middle opening is the biggest, and is where royalty would walk through Berlin while passing through the Brandanburger Tor.
And as a future princess of Sweden ( it will happen), I walked under the middle opening.

The IMCS (International Media and Communication Studies) crew taking Berlin.
Left to Right: Yang, Yating, Meng, Professor Peder, Jessica, Elisa, Ronja, Gianna, Amanda, Jenn, Alicja, Kacey, Sophie, Me)
In Spirit: Cassie

And here is me in front of the Brandanburger Tor
If you look closely on my left (your right) is a weird looking creature.
Brandanburger Tor is a very tourist-y place where like in L.A people dress up in costume wanting to take pictures with you, but secretly are pick pocketers.
No worries, I didn't get pick pocketed, I dodged those costume people like they were students at Sonoma handing me flyers while walking to class.

The Berlin synagogue in which before this trip I posted this picture stating "I want to go to there"
I went to there, it was beautiful.

Checkpoint Charlie
Pictured is the last U,S solider that was in Checkpoint Charlie after the fall of the Berlin wall.
Sadly, his name was not Charlie, so unfortunately, I cannot tell you why it's called Checkpoint Charlie

At the end of our tour and in between breaks, we stopped at a restaurant where I got Pho...a long needed time for some Pho-n 

And it was Pho-cking pho-n
(ok I'll stop the Pho puns now, they're not pho-nny anymore.
Ok I'm done.)

After lunch we stopped by the Topography of Terrors which is an exhibit of a timeline of the Nazi regime during 1933-1945.

After the Topography of Terrors we then visited a small daily German Newspaper called

Der Tagesspiegel (pronounced Day-Ta-gesh-pea-gal) Where we got a tour of their gift shop, wine collection (yes this newspaper sells wine-to increase profit) and work room.

Room with a presentation of the newspaper  along with pictured below snacks and German lemonade.

And I got a free newspaper out of it!
And no I did not understand a word of it, but I did do the Sudoku on it the next morning.

Roof of the newspaper building, I could work here. 

After a long day of touring around Berlin and seeing a German newspaper, we all returned to our hostel where we took a long needed nap before dinner.

Where did we go to dinner? You ask...

Well a friend of mine had a friend who lived in Berlin and knew of a good place. It was famous for having a Beer Boot and one of the best hamburgers in Europe. And when I say famous I mean famous in that our reservation was at 10:30PM. So all 12 of us hoped on the U-Bahn with empty stomachs ready for some German beer and German hamburgers

We love the U-Bahn!
Left to Right:
Jenn (California), Gianna (California), Elisa (Sweden), Amanda (California), Jessica (Sweden)

Pictured Left-Right:
Austin (Cassie's friend- California), Cassie (California), Me (California), Ronja (Sweden), Sophie (Sweden), Ali (Poland/California) Kacey (California)

The place was called The Bird and being known for my fear of birds a part of me was hesitant about coming, since I thought there was going to be a bird, but I was wrong.

There was no bird in site nor any pictures of birds so I knew this place was safe.

If you look closely, if you buy a 0.4 L of these two beers you can take them outside.
This is genius. But no I did not do this, I'm sorry.

This is part of their menu. One hamburger they had in particular (which I had my eye on ) was the Gonzales burger. A hamburger with avocado with salsa, a perfect California burger, however, after seeing this note I changed my mind and went with the Blue Cheese burger.
I have no regrets.

And of course with my hamburger I had half a liter of  Schneider Wheat Beer which was delicious and its caramel color was a beauty to look at.
Beer is a beautiful thing.

My dinner Blue Cheese hamburger with Wheat Beer.
Being an American and having hamburger as being a national food, I must say, this was the best hamburger I have ever had.
The Blue Cheese- perfection and the best.
The Hamburger was cooked perfectly and despite being on an English Muffin it fit perfectly.
The French fries- perfect french fries that when dipped in the blue cheese that was spilling out of my burger was ERMAHGERWD perfect.
Food-gasm in my mouth.
Literally.

Unfortunately, I did not finish the burger as I was extremely full from the delicious food. (And let me say that thank god I wore my MC Hammer pants with the loose pant waist, or my stomach would have exploded)
But I did finish the beer, despite my full stomach, because if my family back home found out that I didn't finish a good German beer, I would have gotten a long lecture on how it was wrong of me to waste a perfectly good German beer.
This is my family.

And that ends Day #2.

A well informed, well fed day I must say. (That rhymyed!)

Day #3 to come with more descriptions and pictures.

Intermission #2 ya'll.

berlin there done that

Folks, this is going to be a long blog post, so I will break it up into 4 posts to save you from your eyes burning from staring at the computer screen too long.
So please sit back, fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride.

Day #1
My flight left at 7:20 so naturally I left my house at 2 and met up with my friends to eat Swedish waffles before the trip. (I mean you can't go on a trip without having some Swedish waffles in your stomach)

It was supposed to say "Berlin" in chocolate syrup but it failed.
I tried..I really tried

After stuffing my face with waffles and coffee, my friends and I met up with 2 of our other friends and hopped on the bus to the airport.

Getting there 2 hours early, we decided to stop for a coffee break.

And in the midst of Stockholm-Arlanda airport, shining in the bright light, it's brown color and smell of coffee whisking my feet off was a Starbucks.

A sweet, warm Starbucks just waiting for me and their Pumpkin Spice Lattes calling my name.

Oh Starbucks how I missed you.

There is no special place in the world that can make me sugary fall drinks and is acceptable to lie about my name without judgement.

It was beautiful, delicious and just what I needed after 3 months without Starbucks.

After enjoying the well needed Pumpkin Spice Latte, we finally boarded the plane to Berlin.

Fun Fact about the airline: Norwegian offers free WiFi while flying, best idea ever.

At 10:30 we finally arrived at Berlin!

Hoping off the plan we made a quick bathroom break where the phrase "Just wait a little" became a famous phrase during the 4 day trip.

Story behind "Just wait a little"

A short story about bad literal translation

Outside the bathroom of the Berlin-Schonefeld Airport was a sign that said

"Bitte warten" (and under it)

"Please wait a little"
Just a little...Like just a little ok?

I know it's probably not that funny, but you had to be there.

After a 5 minute laugh and taking pictures of this hilarious sign, we were off to our hostel.

Now a fact about Berlin, their public transportation system is quick and semi-simple.

There are two main trains that go around Berlin: the U-Bahn & the S-Bahn. 

The S-bahn and the U-bahn were are best friends the past 4 days as we got to know them very well and they helped us get from point A to point B, and they allowed us to sing lots of musical numbers on it.

Now while on the S-bahn at 10:30 at night, we all realized that none of us had eaten for 8 hours.

We were starving. To the point where everything we saw was related to food.

For example:

On the S-bahn the screen would show what the next stop would be.

Näschte Stationen= Nacho Station

Sudkruedz= Saurkraut

Friedrichstraße = French Fry Station

Orianenburger Straße= Orange Burger Station

We were so hungry and our train stop couldn't come any sooner.

But then we arrived...an hour later in our hostel, ready to stuff our faces with any food and to pass out on our college-dormitory style beds.

And it wasn't until midnight that we found a small little Indian restaurant right next to our hostel where I stuffed my face with Lamb Komm (I think that's what it's called...) and German beer.

And that concludes night 1.
And now comes Intermission, this is a time where you can get up, get something to eat/drink (recommend a German beer to go with the theme) before the next showing begins.

pilates

As stated in a previous post, I have recently been introduced to Swedish waffles (and by recently, I mean for the past 2 months that I've been here.--Also realization that I've been here for 2 months, slightly freaking out).

The past couple of weeks, on Thursdays, I have been going to the same Student nation and paying 40 SEK (6 US dollars) for all I can eat waffles and coffee and talking with friends for hours on end.

It's kind of a mixture of FRIENDS at Central Perk and How I Met Your Mother at McClarens  where we all sit around a table, give ourselves food comas and get hyped up on 5 cups of endless coffee and sit for hours on end just talking, laughing and filling in awkward moments.
No matter how poor you are, there is always time for waffles and even if you are poor and barely have food, you know that filling up on waffles will last you the whole day until around 10 o'clock at night when you get the late night munchies.

One of the best parts, besides the re-enactment of two famous television shows, is that no one will judge you on how many waffles one eats. Like I said before, Swedish waffles are a lot thinner than US waffles and always come in twos. So the thickness of one big US waffle is about 4 Swedish waffles. So like it's ok to eat 4 Swedish waffles because it's like 1 big US waffle.
And you top it off with cream, jam, chocolate chips or even better when they bring out the chocolate whipped cream (yes chocolate whipped cream and yes it's homemade).
::ugh, drool::
Now that it is fall/slowly winter a cup of hot coffee and some warm waffles will for sure make this winter bearable.
Just thinking about holding a warm cup of delicious Swedish coffee and filling my cold stomach with warm waffles as I watch the snow fall outside, makes for the picture perfect winter that I can't wait to experience.
Everyone, WINTER IS COMING and so are the waffles.

autumns, leaves and pumpkins! oh my!

It's fall! It's fall! It's fall!

Wait was season is it?
Fall.

Like the real definition of fall. Leaves on the trees are orange, red, yellow and there are big piles every where. The air is crisp the sky is sunny and wool tights and flannel are in. Now all I need are pumpkins.

This is an image of fall that I found on Google.

Now these are images of fall in Uppsala.

Yes they are a tad filtered due to Instagram, but the colors are real. 

It's real fall. 

I can only imagine what it would look like during the wintertime (I'm bracing myself).

All in all I'm adjusting well to Sweden, my coffee intake is better now as I bought myself a French press and feel like a hipster barista in my room making coffee. I'm cooking a lot with makes me happy and at home.

I'm also walking a lot and taking the bus, since my bike has been kidnapped so finding my way around Uppsala is getting easier.

I started a new class this past week and it's a little better than the last and also a lot better, since in 2 weeks I will be on my to BERLIN! (Hefeweizen and German food, I'm on to you).

Also Amy Poehler and her brother might make a trip to Stockholm to film a TV show...what? 

I know, I'm crying too.

Keep on the lookout for a short, brown hair girl wearing bright colors and speaking broken Swedish, you might find her.

russianfest 2k13

While everyone was flying off to Munich, Germany to enjoy the festivities of Okotberfest, I myself had a different kind of "fest", a "Russianfest" as said in the title.

This was the event:

Known as "Katushka" pronounced (Ka-toosh-ka), it's pretty much a Russian accordion punk band that lasts for about 5 hours. 

In a small student club, hundreds of Swedes and International Students come, drink and dance to this accordion punk music and have mosh pits.

It was fantastic.

Dancing freely in the extremely, disgustingly warm heat of a tiny room, dancing on stage to accordion music. I have never experienced something like this before. All I remember most was at one point they played "Last Christmas" accordion style. It's September.

This was the stage with the accordion band, notice the theme of the stage was Space.
Space, Russians & Accordion Punk?
I kind of approve.

They need to have more of this back in the states.

Despite the freezing cold, everyone was having a good time and didn't feel their bodies being turned into icicles outside. When I mention that it was disgustingly warm, I mean it was disgustingly warm. I walked in and I felt the heat, that the cold freezing air outside felt like an air conditioner....that's how disgustingly warm it was.

No joke.

But then of course once we got outside to leave, the cold no longer felt like an air conditioner. 

This was the Swedish cold everyone was warning me about.

And then my bike got stolen.....

Locked up against my friends bike, somehow the thieves got into my lock and took my bike. 

Disappointment? Yes, as I had only had this bike for 3 weeks, but on the other hand I wasn't surprised as bikes are stolen on the regular here. Luckily the people I was with walked with me as we got the 3am meal at McDonalds but it wasn't until we had to go home that things that a little adventurous and uncomfortable.

I had to ride on the back of some guy's bike and let me tell you it was uncomfortable, but it was probably the only solution other than walking 30 minutes in the freezing cold at 4AM.

And that concludes my whole Saturday night in a nutshell. As of now, I have had the days off until Thursday (so like tomorrow) to relax, watch Bones and drink copious amounts of coffee.

Until the next adventurous post.