Back again! It’s your friendly, neighborhood Turnip! I’m stoked to revisit this site and get it back up and going.
Author: Turnip
Current song: The Nature of Reality – Oasis
Current location: Friedrichshain, Berlin
We need proof of life photos/entries. I feel this adequatly sums up my level of liveliness.
Current tunes: Pigeon Flying Over Berlin Zoo – Ian Anderson
Current location: Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt
6.4.16 – City Office of Development
THE morning started out as well as could have been expected, and by that I mean multiple people having trouble with transit. It’s something that is normal when changing places, feeling excited, and when transit just. does. not. work. But for our second outing we all managed to make it.
Upon arrival to Jannowitzbrücke, the station which nearly kills me every time I go there (seriously the way from the U-Bahn to the S-Bahn IS NOT FLUFFY PERSON FRIENDLY); I slugged my way up from the U8 to the S-Bahn tracks above to meet everyone who was there with a… well, not a smile, more of a sweaty grimace. We waited for the Berlin transit system to deliver our other members to us, no more than 15 minutes, before we trekked downstairs and across the river to our destination.
(At this point I would like to make a quick aside that GOING UP ALL THOSE STAIRS ONLY TO GO BACK DOWN, was -eugh.)
We walked along the Chinese embassy, turned the corner, and came to a door that I would not have looked twice at had I been passing it. This is something that seems to happen a lot in Berlin. Curiosities and wonderful tidbits of information hidden in the most nondescript places. It’s a unintentional treasure hunt every day. But there we were, at the City Office of Development, staring at several huge displays of Berlin, in a room (converted courtyard), probably bigger than one of Evergreen’s normal classrooms.
Our tour guide was a lovely older lady whose name escapes me at the moment, but she was obviously knowledgeable about the Urban Development, Berlin, and was eager to share. We were slowly lead around the room, all of us looking curiously at the models and amazed at the sheer size of them. Our guide talked to us and a discussed things with us for nearly 2 hours, so I can’t even begin to give you anything close to enough information.
(The above is not the main model, it did take up a whole wall though.)
The blue and brown and green and white of the immense city model that dominated the room would have kept my attention if it were not for the smaller, more colorful (to me at least) model, pushed to the side under a less lit area to the main model’s right. A relic of Soviet ideals, the “Stadtplan” for the GDR’s Berlin, the future that could have been. I don’t know why I liked it so much, it was showing less than half of Berlin, and in that less than half there was more space that I would have thought the GDR wanted. It also had more modern looking buildings in it’s design. I just really liked it for some reason.
Looking at these maps made me realize that Berlin is city I know I can never see all of and that saddens me a bit. But, because of it’s dynamic nature, I’m sure this city will keep me coming back for more.
I do have one important note for you all though:
DO NOT TRUST BERLIN PALM TREES.
Current tunes: Moonlight Serenade – Glenn Miller (not by my choosing this time, it’s on the cafe’s radio)
Current location: Cafe Katulki
German word of the day: Kuchen – cake
“Ich möchte ein Stück Kuchen bitte.”
Dearest Readers,
It’s been too long, far too long! At least that’s what a select few of you have been, very pointedly, telling me. I apologize, but I’ve been a bit busy of late, and school takes precedence over you I’m afraid (even those of you who are funding my education).
To start: I have arrived safely and have been in Berlin for 3 weeks now. My time has been filled with fun, confusion, stress, merriment, and homework. Primarily homework. Pretty much what one expects to encounter on a study abroad. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world. My Spain trip? Eh… that was primarily memorable for the people and some interesting experiences; this trip, this trip will stick with me for the rest of my days.
Because I am so late in writing this up, I will be breaking my “Previously on Turnip’s Travels” into a couple of posts. If you are only here for pictures and don’t want to read about my exciting life and journeys, the check out the “Pics or it didn’t happen (it happened)” tab. That is where you’ll find the visual aids to the journey. I’ll be including some photos in posts as well, for ‘emphasis,’ but not a lot.
I left the States on the 30th of March. I arrived to a drastically different feeling Philadelphia International Airport, not only because I was excitednervousanxioushappysadthings!, but because it was DEAD. I have never seen that empty an airport, save for Honolulu at 5am and Frankfurt on a particularly odd day. I got through check-in and security in record time, we are talking 15 minutes TOPS, and arrived at my gate 1 minute after that. My Lufthansa flight, which I expected to be packed to the gills, was completely empty. Well, at least the entire rear of the plane was. 46K was an island unto itself. The vast sea of seats that are normally filled on international flights held nothing but my preconceived idea of the people who would usually be there. My little oasis in the very rear of the plane was only bordered by a woman in 46A and a man, who for some reason I couldn’t figure out, moved from 30K to 35K.
My wonderful flight attended heard that I spoke German from the woman who I originally asked for a seatbelt extender, and then proceeded to ask me where I came from. Me, with my terrible, probably tinnitus having hearing and my tsunami of emotions, thought he asked me if I had a long night. This confusion was quickly resolved and we proceed to carry on the rest of my flight using only German. And I got to spend the rest of the flight with the seat arm up (well, partly up, the last row’s arms don’t fully fold up), and a row- nay! A section all to myself.
Upon arrival to Frankfurt on the 31st, I was going to wait an hour for a classmate to arrive, and travel on from Frankfurt to Berlin with him. A “simple” thing to do. Suffice to say, nothing is ever “simple” when traveling, and my poor traveling companion was almost left to his own devices in Frankfurt. I was on the train, having run into another classmate, who was actually in the same train car, and received a call from Kev.
“Has your train left yet?” he asked, slightly short of breath.
“No? Why? Where are you?” My confusion was high.
“Because I’m the hauptbahnhof and I think I’m at the right train…”
“Track –?”
“Yeah.”
Then came the one sentence that could have crushed the happy moment: “Last call.”
“Get on the train!”
“Which car are you?”
I told him as the last of the passengers are were beginning to board.
“It doesn’t matter, just get on the train, you can walk through to find us.”
“Hold on! I think I saw you, stick your head out!”
I stuck my head out of the door closest to me, we saw each other, I waved frantically, and he started running. Imagine, if you would dear Readers, that OJ Simpson airport commercial from the 90s, but in a train station. Kev made the train by the skin of his teeth, our first travel trial was over; we both sat down and watched the scenery go by.
(Our surprise traveling companion/classmate later told us in the dining car that the conductor had broadcast that Kev was running and to let him get on the train. I laughed.)
Upon arrival to Berlin Hbhf, Kev and I bid “good day” to our classmate and proceed to meet up with our lovely friend and classmate, Renata. The rest of the day didn’t really have anything noteworthy to report. We met Renata, who was going to share my hotel room for the night, put our things down, walked around the neighborhood, found our school, ate, and then I went to bed.
On Friday, April 1st the fun really started.