Last Day in Berlin, Germany & Pictures

My friends and I were up over 24 hours until returning to Lund this morning (Thurs. 11/12) around 9am. We woke up Wednesday for our final day in the city. We visited a statue of Karl Marx before heading over to the German Parliament Building, the Reichstag. After this the few of us met up with our other friends in front of the Brandenburg Gate before heading to dinner. We ate at a very good Vietnamese restaurant. Because our flight left so early in the morning (7am meaning we had to be there around 4:45-5), we didn't book a hostel but rather decided to stay out and enjoy the German nightlife the entire night. So after dinner we went on a pub crawl that covered 4 different bars and a club which was called Matrix. The bars/pubs were okay but the club was amazing...one of my favorite ones ever. It was huge and had many different rooms. One had popular oldies, another had more contemporary remixed/electro pop, and my favorite was a combination between trance, techno, house, and electro.

Our night out lasted from 8:30pm until 3:30am at which point we took the train to Berlin Schonefeld airport and eventually landed in Copenhagen before taking the train back to Lund. I slept from around 9:30am until 5pm meaning it was completely dark when I woke up. It was an amazing 3+ days. Being at Monday's Festival of Freedom was incredible and historic. Hillary's speech was great and Bon Jovi's performance was uplifting. Berlin has been one of my favorite cities so far and I look forward to going back someday. Below are pictures from the trip beginning with the most recent and ending with the first day (I borrowed a few of them from a friend).

Welcome to Berlin! (a sign inside one of the train stations)

The party group on Wednesday night inside Club Matrix.

Inside of Club Matrix in my favorite room!

"Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" -Ronald Reagan
(Gorbachev was at Monday's events)

A nighttime view of the Brandenburg Gate.

Just over 20 years ago Ghazal & I would be divided by the Berlin Wall in this picture. The brick line on the ground between us marks the former path of the wall. In the background you can see the Brandenburg Gate.

On top of the Reichstag building.

Inside the glass dome on top of the Reichstag building (German Parliament is below glass).

In the dome on the top of the Reichstag building.

In front of the German Parliament building, the Reichstag.

Inside a chocolate store in Berlin...here is the Brandenburg Gate made entirely out of chocolate!

A memorial beneath the ground in front of Humboldt University for the censorship and burning of books that once occurred at the school.

Ghazal, Alex, Jasmine & I in front of the TV Tower and Berlin Cathedral.

A closer view.

Chillin' with Karl Marx & Frederick Engels!

Group shot in front of the Berlin Wall!

(this is part of the longest stretch & was recently repainted)

This was an interesting picture on the Berlin Wall...

One of the panels of the Berlin Wall...it reads "Stay Free"
(note the tubing on the top of the wall...this was used to make it harder for people to escape since it was hard to grasp on to).

In front of the Berlin Wall in Germany.

Group picture at dinner inside the White Trash Fast Food Restaurant in Berlin.

A night view of the Berlin Cathedral and TV Tower.

In a square in front of Humboldt University (this was during our guided tour).

Checkpoint Charlie, which our guide said has become "Disneylandish".

Former site of the Gestapo (Berlin Wall behind).

Ghazal, Jasmine, & I in front of the Berlin Wall.

Below the ground where the cars are parked used to be one of Hitler's bunkers. This is the one where he committed suicide.

Between the concrete blocks making up the Holocaust Memorial.

Hotel Adlon! This is the priciest hotel in Berlin. It is directly across from the Brandenburg Gate. A Presidential Suite in the hotel, with bomb-proof walls and bullet-proof glass, costs around $18,000 per night. This hotel (and a room on this side) is also the one in which Michael Jackson held a baby out the window in 2002.

Fireworks at the end of Berlin's Festival of Freedom marking the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The fireworks came after Paul Van Dyk's song "We are One".

Brandenburg Gate during the Festival of Freedom.

Bon Jovi rocked the crowd with "We Weren't Born to Follow"!

Amongst the crowd in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany.

President Obama can be seen on the TV screen addressing the crowd via a video message.

Secretary of State Clinton! She gave a great speech. To her left is Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The Brandenburg Gate lit up at night while you can see the masses of people with umbrellas. It rained throughout most of the event.

Group shot in front of the Brandenburg Gate before the Festival of Freedom. From L to R: Khash, Vincent, Me, Jennifer, Ghazal, Jasmine, Clark, Alex.

The dominos that would be knocked over during the ceremony.

One of the dominos for the knocking over of the wall...this one commemorates the MTV music awards which were held in Berlin just days earlier. The big stars of the evening signed this domino.

A line of dominos for the Festival of Freedom. It was quite a sight seeing them all fall over.

Holocaust Memorial in Berlin known as The Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Ghazal, Jasmine, Alex & I in front of the Brandenburg Gate during our first day in Berlin, Germany.

Writing from Berlin, Germany

Hello! It is almost 2AM here in Berlin and I am down in the lobby part of our hostel (called The Generator). Its actually as big as some hotels! Today was the second full day of being here in Berlin, with one left tomorrow.

Yesterday we attended the Festival of Freedom celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There was a lot of coverage about it back at home in the states too. It was quite amazing though also very frustrating. It was cold (low 40s high 30s) and rainy...not a good combo. There were also tons of people which made it very hard to move. I was only able to see most of the stuff via television screens but saw some of the stuff going on around the Brandenburg Gate. I saw Hillary Clinton, Gordon Brown, Nicholas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, the current and past leaders of Russia, and other former world leaders speak! Bon Jovi and Paul Van Dyk also gave performances which were capped off by a firework show. During the event they also had 1,000 painted, larger than life dominos knocked over to illustrate the fall of the wall.

Today we took a 4 hour free tour (though we tipped the guy) around the city. It was great! We saw the Holocaust Memorial, site of a bunker where Hitler used to stay, the Reichstag, Opera House, parts of the Berlin Wall, and a portion of where the gestapo headquarters used to be. We later met up with Vishnu, Nora, Anita, Tim (who is from Berlin!), and Vishnus friend Andrew who is studying here. We walked around east and west Berlin for a bit and then hung out at a lounge.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day...we will be out all night since our flight leaves so early in the morning (it wasnt worth it to book a hostel). Going to get going now because of that. Goodnight!

Going to Berlin today!

Hi all...up late here getting ready to head to Berlin, Germany in the morning (5AM-ish!) for our 8AM departure out of Copenhagen. My friends & I here are anticipating one of the best days yet as we well be in Berlin for the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall with the activities for it taking place later this evening (November 9th)!

Here is a link to read about the schedule of events in Berlin (which include various heads of state, including Hillary Clinton, some well-known music artists, and others!):

http://www.mauerfall09.de/en/portal/9-november/festival-of-freedom-to-celebrate-the-20th-anniversary-of-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall.html

I'll update my blog during our stay in Berlin! Take care!

Update on Classes & Halloween w/ pictures!

Yesterday I attended the last two classes (of 5 total) on my schedule. They were: Scandinavian Models of Equality and an Intro course in Human Rights. The former deals with state feminism, women and politics, parenthood, work and equality, equal pay and gender segregation, sexual orientation/gender identity discrimination, sex work, assistant reproduction, the concept of 'honor killings', and xenophobia (I borrowed from the course syllabus!). The latter will explore the political, legal, historical, and ethical elements surrounding human rights. This will include exploration of concepts such as: non-discrimination, The Enlightenment, Universalism, religion, Islam, freedom of religion, colonization, and the rise of the nation-state. After the first day, both appear extremely interesting to me, yet I may only be able to choose one, as they conflict. As chances would have it, the overlap in time on the one day a week I have class!

In other news, in my Swedish Social Policy course my friend Jasmine and I received an A- on our final paper which we were exited about. We were allowed to work in pairs and that turned out to work well. My Democratization course has concluded its lectures and seminars but I am still working on a final paper due in early December. My other current class, Global Environmental Justice, is the only class that runs the whole term and has been focusing on climate change, the world-food system, and fossil fuels in recent lectures. In December we will visit the huge Climate Change debate in Copenhagen, Denmark at the same time President Obama will be there.

Of course, as a political science major and just the political junkie in general that I am, I couldn't help but watch the elections up until 4:30AM! So many important elections yet so many random, quirky ones too! Only ended up with a few hours of sleep today so I'm sure tonight will be an early one! Though the Yankee v. Phillies World Series game comes on at 2AM so that makes for another excuse to stay up!

On Saturday I had my first Halloween abroad and it was a good one! Swedish and American friends here in Sparta (the corridor where I live) had Halloween parties on Friday and Saturday night. It was hard to choose a costume- it was between a nerd, a really gory person, or a rock star! In the end I opted for the rock star...specifically, Paul Stanley from the band KISS! We all had a great time this weekend and met a lot of new people. Below are a few pictures from Halloween of my friends & I in costume! Hope you enjoy and aren't too shocked...it's not my usual look! haha :-)

Group shot on Friday (Oct. 30)!

I found my look-a-like! This is from Friday night. After meeting him, I realized my star was over the wrong eye, plus I didn't have my face painted white, that'd have to change on Saturday!

Paul Stanley from KISS caught partying with Amy Winehouse in Sweden!

On arrival Saturday night. A new & improved look! Here I am with a Mexican & an Aussie!

With cat woman & a priest!

One of my favorite Germans, Luise! :-)

It wasn't fun @ the end of the night taking all the paint off :-(

Turkey & London Recap w/ Pictures!

Sorry for the lack of blogging! So much has happened since my last post (including a great Halloween in Sweden) but I'll start with the Turkey/London trip, which we left for on Oct. 20 and returned from on Oct. 27. I apologize in advance for how long this blog is...

Istanbul has to be one of the best places so far and definitely the most different. We spent 4 days in the city at two different hostels. Our first one, the Sydney Hostel, was basically a hotel. The three of us (Ghazal, Rochelle, & I) had our own room and bathroom. There was an upstairs outdoor area on the roof with views of the city & Black Sea. The day we arrived we grabbed lunch and then cleaned up since we had just slept 6 hours in the London/Gatwick airport before boarding the 3.5 hour long flight to Istanbul. We then visited the famous Blue Mosque & Hagia Sophia which are right across from each other and were only a few minutes from our hostel. A guy we ran into gave us an informal free tour before trying to sell us things from his shop. At night we walked down one of the main streets in Istanbul and found a good, authentic looking restaurant to eat at. I had Turkish ravioli and a crepe.

One of the sad features of the city was the amount of homeless women and children that we'd see on the sidewalks trying to collect money. At times there might only be a 2-3 year old girl with a little bowl for change. At one point Ghazal put a couple coins in a girl's bowl which were then taken immediately out and put into her pocket. The whole situation was sad.

On our second day we visited the famed Grand Bazaar where there were hundreds of shops and endless souvenir options. It was quite a site. The annoying part of this was that every vendor would try to sell you his items, even if it meant following after you. One man tried to appeal to Rochelle by saying "You want a rug?" while another would try to start conversation with Ghazal by asking if she was Turkish. Another followed me down an entire street trying to get me to buy his knock-off cologne. When he finally got the point that I didn't want it he shared a few choice words for us. This must sound so negative! Overall the Turkish people were amazing and very helpful. They would go out of their way to try and find answers for us. We had lunch at a local restaurant along one of the streets. As I mentioned in my last blog there were cats everywhere! One of them joined us for lunch and was given some food :-) Afterwards we wandered through more streets, finding more vendors, a spice market, and other hidden-away stores which never seemed to end. Finally we reached another mosque located near the Galata Bridge, where we had views of much of Istanbul. At night we returned back to our hostel and then had dinner at a local restaurant where we had a very nice waiter who twice gave us all free tea. Later we went into town and got some dessert...Baklava...the famous dessert from the region!

The next morning we moved to our second hostel named Harmony. Here we had an enormous room accompanied by a shower that would overflow into the entire bathroom. Our third full day in Istanbul included a trip to nearby Princes Island. There didn't seem to be too much to do but we did have lunch on the shore with views of the Black Sea and the Istanbul coastline. It definitely beautiful. After a short walk around we cruised back to the mainland and got ready for a night of clubbing in the Taksim area! Upon arriving to this area we found out that the nightlife didn't really pick up until 1-2AM! All the clubs we were going to were so empty but eventually we found one with some good Turkish house music. We stayed for awhile and made it home around 4-5AM.

On our final day we visited the Topkapi Palace which was the home of the Ottoman Sultans for some 400 years. It had elaborate grounds but due to time constraints and money we decided not to do the indoor tour. Later in the day we traveled across the bridge to the Galeta Tower from which we had views of all of Istanbul. This was great! While it did cost 10 liras (the Turkish currency...about $6.50 USD) just to go to the top, it was well worth it! Afterwards we went back to town and had fresh squeezed pomegranate juice! Fresh squeezed juice stands along the streets were common place and would just just over $1. That night Ghazal and I visited one of the famed Turkish Hammams, or bathhouses. Many of these were built in the 1300-1700s. A bath and massage was a nice, relaxing way to end the trip. We did some final walking around after before heading back to the hostel. The next morning we woke up and took the bus to the Sabiha Gokcen International Airport before heading to London.

This is getting too long! I'll make London brief. We had about a day and a half there which began with our arrival at our hostel after a 1 hour bus ride from Gatwick to central London. We had dinner at KFC...how American! The next day was probably the longest, most tiring, yet productive day so far. In the one day we visited: Buckingham Palace, The Green Park, 10 Downing, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Tower of London, London Bridge, The Monument, the Swiss RE Tower, Bank of England, St. Paul's Cathedral, Royal Courts of Justice, Royal Opera House, Covent Gardens, and Piccadilly Circus! We were pretty tired by the time the day was over! Highlights were Buckingham where we arrived during a various elaborate changing of the guard ceremony...the Queen must have been home; Houses of Parliament were quite a site; and Piccadilly was like a mini NYC! Something we noticed that was odd was that in London when there was a delay on one of the subways, instead of saying there had just been an incident (as I'm guessing would be done in the US), at the time they said the delays were due to "person under track" which was quite frightening. It was also weird witnessing the whole driving on the opposite side thing! The British people were very nice & helpful in addition to their amazing accents! :-)

Our trip flew by but was amazing! Here are the highlights in pictures (in reverse order, starting with London):

In Piccadilly Circus!

A side view of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

The Swiss RE Tower in London. Such a neat looking building!

The Monument, London. In remembrance of the victims of the Great Fire of London in 1666.

London Bridge.

View of the Houses of Parliament from the Westminster Bridge.

In front of the Houses of Parliament. They were so much more elaborate looking in person!

Rochelle, Ghazal, & I with Big Ben in the background.

In front of Westminster Abbey in London.

A fall view of The Green Park in London which is directly to the side of Buckingham Palace.

Ghazal, Rochelle, & I in front of Buckingham Palace in London. Behind us you can see many of the people gathered for the changing of the guard ceremony.

View of Istanbul, Turkey from the Galata Tower.

The three of us on top of the Galata Tower. From here we had amazing views of all of Istanbul.

A Turkish guard at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. This palace was the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for some 400 years.

In the Taksim district in Istanbul. This is the center of Turkish nightlife.

I mentioned that cats were everywhere in Istanbul...

Sunset in Istanbul while leaving Princes Island.

Ghazal & I after arriving at Princes Island. You can see views of Istanbul in the background.

A black & white night shot of the Blue Mosque (AKA Sultan Ahmed Mosque).

One of my dinners! Here we have a beef kebab dish with veggies, served with tortillas.

With Ghazal inside the Yeni Mosque in Istanbul.

With Rochelle & Ghazal with views of Istanbul in the background. You can see the Galata Tower, which we visited, to the left of my head.

View of the bustling Spice Market with views of the Istanbul skyline in the background.

The three of us inside the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. There were thousands of shops and people in what seemed like a never-ending array of streets.

Here we are in front of the Hagia Sophia which was once the largest cathedral in the world. It went from a cathedral, to a mosque, and now to a museum and is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture.