Ich Bin ein Berliner

"I am a Berliner" - JFK in his speech on June 26, 1963 underlining the support of the United States for West Germany

 

This past weekend I went on a trip with Panrimo to Berlin. We were all excited to go, but our panrimo trip "leader" Sam was not so excited for Berlin and our other trip "leader" Iva had never been to Berlin before... That being said we ran into some problems along the way. We left on a bus to Berlin at 7 am on Saturday and arrived around noon. When we got there we quickly realized how little we knew about the Berlin transportation and got lost. By the time we made it to our hostel and ate and were ready to go on Sam's walking tour of the city it was 4 pm. That being said I was pretty excited to get moving and see the city, but I guess some of the other panroamers had a different agenda to see inside all of the bars in Berlin. It made it a frustrating experience as they kept wandering off and we would wait for them. Sam didn't have much to say about Berlin so we ended up splitting off and the people who wanted to see the city were able to so the trip got infinitely better after that. I didn't get as much history and information as I was hoping for this trip, but I think we ended up seeing the big sites so I mostly just have pictures!

 

Berlin is a cool European city because it is relatively new since most of it was destroyed during WW2. It is super modern and has art and really cool and modern buildings, quite the contrary to Prague!

 

 Holocaust Memorial- Sam didn't say much more than that... but my friend who went the last week that the different sized blocks represent 100,000 people of different age groups and there is a lot of symbolism.

 

 Famous Brandenburg Gate

 Parliament building- the few of waited in line to go to the top dome. It ended up being the best part of my trip and free with a free audio tour! The audio tour pointed out many buildings and landmarks in the city and gave a brief history. The top of the dome is open so when it rains or snows the water funnels in through the middle and is somehow convert to electricity! The mirror design is meant to use and channel as much sunlight into the parliament room as to use the least amount of electricity and lights as possible.

 

The dome looks awesome from the outside

Berlin has cute walk and stop signs so I decided to take a picture. I found out later that a lot of people like them because their are whole stores dedicated to the walk and stop merchandise!

 

Berlin Cathedral we found

Famous Berlin TV tower

 

The next day we only had a short amount of time so we saw Charlie Checkpoint and the largest portion of the Berlin Wall which is 600 meters and covered with artwork. Berlin has a brick line running through the entire city where the wall used to be.

 

 

 



 



Italia Part 3: Conquering Rome

The last leg of my trip was in Rome. We arrived in Rome late on Wednesday night by train and I finally got to live my dream as Lizzie McGuire (for those of you unfamiliar with The Lizzie McGuire Movie- I recommend you watch it, Cody would not agree). The next morning we woke up early ready to conquer Rome. One of our hostel reception people had told us the bus we needed to catch to get to the Coliseum the night before. It was supposed to be 70 that day so naturally I broke out the tank top and flip flops after months of bitter cold. As we tried to make our way to the Coliseum and quickly realized that A. Rome transportation is awful and very confusing and B. we were being targeted as tourists whether it was the tank tops or my blonde hair I don't know so we tried making our way back to grab some jackets. Turns out the bus system is very illogical in the fact that it picked us up on a totally random street than where it dropped us off. Thanks to the help of some nice Italian people, they helped us find our way back.

Once we got back the new reception hostel guy helped us out, giving us the load-down on Rome- how the transportation works, what we should do each day, where to buy tickets without lines, where we should reserve tickets online, good places to eat and much more. He was EXTREMELY helpful and I could not be more grateful for his help because he saved us a lot of time and money. Hostels and their workers can definitely make or break a visit to a city. After regrouping, we set off to conquer Rome once more and were much more successful this time around.

We started off getting our tickets at the Roman Forum only waiting about 2 minutes in line (instead of the 2 hour long ticket line at the Coliseum) which included both attractions for a two day pass. Not only did we miss the line, but we got free tickets because we are studying at the Faculty of Arts.... not a bad deal if you ask me!!

 We started off at the Roman Forum which used to be the center of Roman political and social life. Its basically a bunch of ruins, so without a guide or map I think it would be hard to get as much out of it.Rick Steve's gave us a nice walking tour around the Roman Forum and we got to see the sites where the senate met, where the lawyers worked, the site where Julius Ceasar was buried, and much more. It was a great tour!

 

We then headed over to see the Coliseum. It reminded me of Death Valley in Clemson except it was the real death valley. It could seat up to 70,000 people if my memory serves me correctly! I can't even imagine living in that time and watching the events that took place there. They have part of the bottom of the arena exposed to show the dungeons and trap doors down below.

After the Coliseum we headed over to Capitol Hill which is massive as well and reminded me of the white house except cooler.

Once we saw Capital Hill we made our way to the Pantheon. It was originally built after a victory and then was converted into a church and now just seems as though its a tourist site. The opening of the dome in the Pantheon has an open hole where sunlight and rain comes directly in. When it rains all the people flood in to watch the rain come down (see what I did there :) ). After the Pantheon we saw some of the other little sites our hostel person pointed out to us such as squares with music and some restaurants. It was an exhausting day, but we got to see the big sites!

The next day we made our way to the Trevi Fountain and unfortunately it was under construction :( I still made a wish and threw in my coin- guaranteeing my return to Rome.

 We went to the Spanish Steps which really aren't anything special except a lot of steps, regardless they provided a great place to take a rest. We then made our way to the Vatican. We reserved tickets online so we didn't have to wait in line for 3 hours to get in. The Vatican museum is massiveee, 59 museums in 1, with over 4 miles of museum to see. At first I was really trying to look at everything, but after awhile it just became exhausting. As Rick Steve's said, a short visit in the Vatican is about 2 hours and a long visit could be a week! I think art buffs could spend years in that place. It was awesome to see regardless of the length, but it was always crowded. At the end I felt like a zombie, so we decided to see St. Peter's Cathedral on Saturday and we spent the rest of the day strolling along the river and relaxing.

 

St. Peter's Cathedral is the largest cathedral in the world! The atrium itself is larger than most churches including mine back home. I was glad we were able to see it. We stood in the square where the pope and hundreds of people had been one week earlier on Easter! Our plane left in the afternoon so we had to start making our way back, but it was a great end to the trip. I got to have my favorite meal one last time..

Rome is an exhausting and crowded city, with a lot to see and do. I think spacing things out and getting out of the touristy areas would help to break it up a bit. I thoroughly enjoyed my week in Italy and I was sad to leave!

 

Ciao Italia!

Italia Part 2: Flowering Florence

After our amazing stay in Venice, we headed to Florence on Sunday by train. When we first got to Florence I didn't think I would like it because it was cold and cloudy and all the buildings looked brown and dull. Not long after the city shortly grew on me due to the liveliness of the city, all the stuff to do there, the walkable distance to everything, the food, the prices, the surroundings... pretty much everything. Because it was Easter Sunday and Monday, a lot of the attractions were closed so we just did some exploring. The surrounding area around Florence is beautiful with the mountains as a backdrop.

The next morning we took a quick trip to Pisa by train in the morning. There isn't much to do in Pisa besides the leaning tower of Pisa and the cathedral near by. I was expecting The Leaning Tower to be much bigger than it was. We were searching for it then rounded a corner and up there it was!  When we first walked up there were hundreds of people all with their hands out acting if they were pushing it and that gave me a good laugh. Not long after we joined in the fun.

50 attempts later...

The following day we took a walking tour of the city. I always find walking tours extremely helpful to point out the big sites and get my bearings. Some of the big sites in Florence are the Dummo (4th largest cathedral in the world), Pointe Vecchio (a really really old bridge that has shops along the whole bridge), Academia/Uffizi Galleries where many famous paintings and sculptures are held, the government building, and some other squares and churches. Here are some pictures from the tour!

 The humongous duomo... made from pink, green, and white marble. As amazing as the outside is, I was surprised to find out the inside of the cathedral was very plain and dull.

 Duomo Clock Tower

 

The Pointe Vecchio

 

 

That evening, Cody and I took a Pizza and Gelato making class!! It was a lot of fun taught by an Italian chef. Better watch out when I come back to America I might open my own pizza shop!

 

 The final product.. two thumbs up

The next morning we went to see the Academia which included Michelangelo's famous statue of David. Michelangelo sculpted the statue to represent the story of David and Goliath from the Bible. At the time, Florence was a relatively small city surrounded by a bunch of bigger cities that were "bullying" Florence. David represented Florence defeating the giants around it. The people loved the sculpture and became a strong symbol for Florence. Speaking of symbols, Florence means flower or flowering and the symbol for Florence is the Fleur-de-lis and is found throughout the city. It was really cool to see that because my sorority's (KKG) symbol is the Fleur-de-lis. Go Kappa!

 The statue of David. It was huge! One might believe that David was the giant after looking at the statue. Lucky for us, we got in free to the museum since our school is the Faculty of Arts. We ended up getting a ton of discounts for being students throughout the trip and discounts at museums because we are art students. After the Academia, we went on a wine tour to Tuscany, the world's most famous and most beautiful wine region in the world and we got a discount for the tour too! Pictures don't do it justice.

 

As a side note, Florence had the best pizza and gelato I've ever had in my life. The best pizza in Florence is Gusta pizza, cooked in a brick oven and tastes like a cloud. Not only was it amazinggg,but it was also a huge pizza for a cheap price and really fast! We left our mark on our number like many others and actually my friend from Clemson found it the next week! I also ran into another girl from Clemson while in Florence AND met up with my suitemate from last semester who is also studying abroad there. What a small world.

 

 

Florence's night life is also fun and lively. I went to the Lion's Fountain bar and it was covered in shirts from colleges in America! Naturally I had to sign the Clemson shirt and there also was a terrible towel! Got to represent all my allegiances.

 

 

 Florence ended up being an amazing city. Not only is the city itself great, but it is in perfect location to many other places. I definitely could have spent more time in Florence and I was sad to leave .