Our adventures in Germany were full of ups and downs, but the ups were higher and more frequent than the downs, so it was overall an amazing trip.
We started off with a 5am bus ride from Lund to Trelleborg where our first debacle was making it to our ferry. Although we experienced some atypical access we finally made it on the boat!
These are our triumphant smiles for getting through the first leg of the journey
After getting about only 2 hours of sleep the night before, I took a much needed nap once we settled in for the ride
Enjoying the sun on the ferry deck
My expression in this picture is a reaction to Min making some sort of absurd suggestion about posing for a picture I believe
We crossed the sea from Sweden to Germany, passing Denmark along the way, and landed in Rostock. From Rostock we took a train to Berlin. Having flown on a German airline several times, I was used to the fact that Germans tend to be much quieter and more orderly than Americans but we were all shocked when we got in trouble on the train for laughing too loud! Of course this only made our laughter more uncontrollable, however we were eventually able to settle down on the no-laughing train.
Feeling utterly exhausted with figuring out public transportation we took a cab to our hostel, which was actually quite comfy and charming.
"We made it to Berlin!"
We ended up being in Berlin at the same time as another group of friends of mine, so we all met up that night to go out. After a super tiring day, we ended the night with good food and good company in Berlin.
Having a late night fika
Happy and cuddling
Me and Alex
Me and Alisa wasting some time before dinner
The next morning we decided to start off by going to one of Berlin's great museums, the Pergamon. I was not crazy about the idea of being in a museum, but decided to try it out and I ended up being really amazed. It also helped that Alisa had basically encyclopedic knowledge of every artifact in every exhibit.
Took a picture at this spot after getting in trouble for standing on the real ancient Greek marble stairs
The entrance exhibit
Trying to mimic the stoic look of an ancient Greek temple priestess
After the gallery we walked towards the river and had an amazing lunch, which was only slightly ruined by the bees invading our dishes. Inevitably we let out some stifled high-pitched screams while waving napkins, admittedly looking a little ridiculous. Unfortunately this also resulted in an abundance of stares and whispers from the surrounding Germans. We talked about how strange it is to be traveling as an American because these stares and whispers accompanied us nearly everywhere we went on the trip. Kate's German was too limited for her to be able to fully understand their discussions about us, so we remained baffled about this for the entire trip.
Having filled our bellies and gotten Min her daily supply of ice cream, we made our way to the East Side Gallery to see the remains of the Berlin wall. Every time we asked directions asking where the wall was, I was totally surprised to hear people answer, "Well, it's not there anymore." We may be Americans but we were all totally aware that the wall has in fact been torn down!
Found one of my favorite quotes on the wall. "Who watches the watchmen?" comes from the Latin phrase, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
After visiting the wall, history lovers Alisa and Kate decided they'd like to make it to one more museum and Min and I decided to meander around the colorful neighborhood of Kreuzberg. Besides the shock of Min getting hit (quite hard!) by a kid on a bike, we had a mellow walk around before heading back to the hostel.
We found a tiny door that was just our height!
That night we decided we needed to eat some real German food so we got a recommendation from our hostel to head over to Alexanderplatz. We combined the boys group and the girls group again and had a great dinner on my birthday-eve.
Kate getting the knife away from me
Tiny Min and our giant waiter
Saturday morning, my birthday morning, we woke up early and got a train back to super cute Rostock. An Englishman living there recommended a restaurant to us so we passed all the amazing seafood kiosks and took a seat at the restaurant where we again had amazing food.
Mandatory tourist picture in front of the giant fish
Feeling so happy we made it
The incredible fish soup
After a very delicious, very filling lunch
We had a great time in Rostock, however we almost all had nervous breakdowns when it became nearly impossible to get a taxi and we nearly didn't make it on the return ferry. After 30 minutes of searching, we finally found a driver to take us to the port. We underestimated how close the port was and so the drive took longer than expected. The driver really started to understand our panic after I asked how much longer we had to get there. He said 10 mins and in unison all the girls in the back said, "Shit." He sounded alarmed and replied, "Shit?". "Yes, shit," we all confirmed and our already great driver understood our urgency and started to speed. We got to the port and while the rest of them paid and got their bags, I ran to the port to tell the shuttle to wait for us and started the check-in process. Although that was incredibly stressful, we all made it on the ferry. The staff even said they had been waiting for us.
The view from the deck after we studied Swedish in the sun for two hours
Amazing fried shrimp and garlic sauce we took with us from Rostock
Other recent adventures include getting a 48/50 on my final exam for Swedish class...
Celebrating Alisa's birthday by having friends over for drinks and Swedish kladdkaka at my place before heading over to Malmöfestivalen where we saw Flogging Molly and some Swedish reggae...
And enjoying the last days of summer with a picnic in the botanical gardens...
Freshly baked bread, cheese, vanilla yogurt, Swedish princess cake, and banana chips
I have been having a truly amazing summer but I feel very, very ready for the school year to begin. So I will take advantage of having a very simple to-do list for these last few days but when Monday comes it's time to get serious again!
Thanks again to my friends for sharing pictures with me!
