Berlin- Day 1

Brandenburg Gate

And so the recount of the adventures that occurred on Spring Break begins. I wrote in my journal every night and many nights the whole "Dublin Wolfpack" journaled together (one of the best memories of the trip), so this should be a pretty detailed account. Buckle up because a lot happened!

On March 6, 2010, Brittany, Stevie, Laura, and I headed to the airport to catch an Aer Lingus flight to Berlin. We ended up running for the bus that brought us to the airport which was not necessary because we got there very early. We used this time to chat and ponder how safe it was to get on a plane where they allowed my razor through security. They also didn't even check our passports until we boarded the plane. I'm here to tell you that the Irish are really as easy going as you hear. Another interesting thing about a lot of flights in Europe is that you board the plane on the tarmac. I don't know if this is typical or if I am just taking really cheap airline carriers that can't afford those little hallways. I don't mind the tarmac and have been know to give a little Miss America wave when walking down the stairs from the plane.

We landed in Berlin a little late but I didn't mind because I was excited to be in the Heidi Klum's homeland and to get my passport stamped. I was also energized because in anticipation of coming to Central Europe I listened to the soundtrack to The Sound of Music on the plane. I think Laura might have been embarrassed as I mouthed the words and teared up a bit during "Edelweiss." We then took a train to the subway a finally ended in the heart of Berlin where we used the compass on Laura's luggage to find our hostel.

One of the highlights of Berlin was all the David Hasselhoff glory. As we approached our hostel there were a group of boys dressed up like David Hasselhoff, complete with wigs and life preservers. I, of course, have a soft spot in my heart for "the Hoff" because he too went to Lyons Township High School and graced the Reber Center stage. I was even voted "The Next David Hasselhoff" for senior superlatives along with my friend Robert Montgomery. People ask me why I was given this honor and I tell them it is because I have great hair and look good in a bathing suit.

In Berlin we stayed at the City Hostel and it was very nice and had a great location. The first four to arrive got a room to themselves and when Jen and Stacy came all six of us were together like we were at camp. Over the entire trip our good luck with hostels and hotels continued.

City Hostel Berlin

The first thing that we wanted to do when we got there was find some dinner and we asked the front desk worker where he recommended. He sent us pretty far away from the hostel and we couldn't really find any good authentic German restaurants so we ate at an Asian fusion place. It was good food, although spicy, and the waitress didn't bring us water for the longest time. The four of us were all happy to be on vacation and that night there was a lot of laughs.

After dinner we went to see the Brandenburg Gate lit up at night. We took some pictures there, and I even took pictures for another group of people and counted to three in German. I thought that this was amusing but I think the other girls were just embarrassed.

We walked around that area and did some souvenir shopping then headed to find some dessert. There was a nice Italian place that seemed to have good gelato so we headed in there. We got inside and I kinda thought that it smelled like dog so naturally I said something to the other girls. This started a question of whether we could stay there due to the aroma of man's best friend so I tried to tell them that it only smelled like bread. This gave us one of the best quotes from Laura: "smells like bread...rubbed in dog." We decided to stay there and ordered two things of ice cream, one of which looked like spaghetti but was really ice cream.

We got back to the hostel and checked our email and called our parents. Checking our emails and responding became quite hard during the trip because the keyboards there are very different, the biggest difference being the switching of the z and y keys. Also, whenever I tried to type an apostrophe I got an "a" with an umlaut. I hope this explains some of the typos you may have received over the past ten days.

We turned off the lights early but kept talking a laughing like we were at a sleepover. All in all it was a good start to the Spring Break adventure!

The Spring Break Adventure continues with Berlin- Day 2.