If you haven’t noticed, I’ve kind of given up on keeping this travel blog.

I love the Danes.

has been great! Saturday (yesterday), I went with my CIEE group to Kreuzberg and learned all about the Turkish community in the area, which ended with a huge, delicious, FREE Turkish dinner. Then last night I hit up two clubs. FINALLY, I’ve experienced the real Berlin nightlife for people my age. I really forgot how much I love dancing till last night. Then today I went with my family to the lake and forest area. It was so nice just to get out, and the area kind of reminded me of Oregon.

Oh, and during my Turkish excursion, we went to a Man-Cafe. hell yes.

I went with my school to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp near Berlin today. I had never heard of it until I moved to Berlin, so I was really surprised to see how big it is, and how much there is left in it. This was the second concentration camp I’ve been to. The first one was Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland that I went to earlier in October. I’ve always had an immense interest in the Holocaust, so being able to visit these places was very fulfilling for me. However, from being inside, I can feel the evil that permeates through them. In some ways, I feel bad for visiting them, because I did not have to live through these horrible times, and in a way am using the unspeakable hardships of others as a spectator to suit my own interests. I do approach these places and these issues with the utmost respect, however, and see the importance of visiting these places to see a small piece of the horrors others went through and to help insure that something like this never happens again. It also makes me appreciate how relatively easy my life is, and how lucky I am that neither me or my family have fallen victim to such atrocities. 

About a week after visiting Auschwitz, I started having “flashbacks” and really taking in and processing what it is I’ve just seen. They make me sick. I assume something similar will happen for Sachsenhausen. The thought of what happened in these and all the other camps, as well as Europe in general during WWII disgusts me beyond words. Not only the unfathomable cruelties, but the logic and overall concept of the Holocaust blows my mind. When you think about it, even though the Nazis lost WWII, the Holocaust was basically a success…over 6 million Jews were killed. They basically succeeded in wiping out an entire race of people. Also, they killed millions more who were non-Jews (declared enemies of the state and their associates, those deemed socially inferior, and people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time). And most of these people were killed in camps that were very near or even inside of towns, and the townspeople just went along with it like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. That truly frightens me. 

Danke! Du auch!

Yeah actually I go to school at Portland State! Where in Germany are you?

Finance-wise, I have to choose between getting a tattoo in Berlin, or going to Denmark to visit my friend Mia.

I’m choosing Denmark. The tattoo can wait for Portland :)

A tiny snippet of the city of Chartres in France.

Paris.

The German language does not use the Oxford Comma.

This is a problem for me.

“Here in Germany we eat healthy, not like in America where all they eat is chips and mayonnaise.”

Upon leaving the school parking lot the first time i met her…

Her: The students who chose the apartment-stay option live out in the forest.

Me: Oh, that must be cool to live there.

Her: No. It is horrible. There is nothing to do in the forest and they will have to ride a bus to go to the clubs. It is a stupid decision. They should have stayed with host families.

“The apartment students don’t get to eat good food like this. All they eat is bread and McDonald’s.”

“You already ate? Did you to go McDonald’s and say ‘I’m American. I want a hamburger’ ?”

About the students staying in apartments…

“Sure they have their liberty. But really, what is liberty?”

Apparently she got in an argument with the telephone operator at her health insurance company, and she told me about it later…

“The lady on the phone wasn’t helping me. I tried to be nice at first, but she was being stupid, so I told her ‘I’m an educated woman, with a degree from a university, and a career as a teacher. You are nothing but a stupid secretary.’ I hope she goes home tonight, sits down, and thinks about how she’s just a stupid secretary.”

Hilde, the neighbor lady, came over for dinner one night. She speaks no English. So while Hilde was sitting right next to us, my host mom says in English…

“Hilde is a nice person, but she is really stupid.”

haha. oh I love my host mom :)

Here is a link to my favorite place on earth…Tacheles. It’s an old abandoned department store complex that has been taken over by artist squatters. It’s really dirty and full of amazing graffiti and street art, and you can go into the artist studios and look at their stuff, and buy things if you want. It’s totally post-apocalyptic and amazing. This link doesn’t do it justice.

Too bad there are kicking everyone out and demolishing it soon. OMG. I am sooooo sad. This place is amazingly beautiful, funky, and unique, and Berlin is at a major loss without it. I’m just glad I got to experience it before it’s gone.

Day 1: Friday the 10th

110 of us in the FU-BEST program through Freie Universität traveled on two huge tourist buses for about 16 freakin hours to Paris. We got to the hostel pretty close to midnight. I roomed with Laura, Anna, Lisa, and three other girls. Basically, other than two of the girls, all the rest of us just went straight to bed (after checking for bedbugs, of course).

Day 2: Saturday the 11th

We took a boat tour around Paris and saw a whole lot in just a little bit of time. Lisa and I graffitied the boat by writing “Lisa + Malia 4 Ever” in a heart on the back of one of the chairs. I had to change my hair style because my scalp was getting sunburned. What a surprise.

Then, we decided to climb the Eiffel Tower. And when I saw climb, I mean CLIMB. We climbed all the way up to the top of the second platform (from the second platform to the top, you’re required to take an elevator)…so then we took the elevator to the top. It was pretty cool, and the moment I saw the tower was when I really realized we were IN Paris. We had walked up 42 flights of stairs…and then we got to walk back down. I was dying. But it felt good…like we conquered the Eiffel Tower, not just visited it.

Afterward we roamed around some, and went to dinner (me, Lisa, Laura, Anna, Keith, Chris, and Trevor) at a little French Place. I ordered Beef Carpaccio. Biggest mistake of my life. It’s basically thinly sliced raw meat. I ate most of it, and then hid the rest under a lemon wedge. I thought I was gonna die.

Then we hit up the Arc de Triomphe, and went to the Eiffel Tower at night. It’s lit up at night, and the first five minutes of every hours, these Christmas light type things come on, and it sparkles. It was beautiful.

Day 3: Sunday the 12th

We went to a traditional mass with Gregorian Chant at the Notre Dame Cathedral (yes, just like Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame). Then Laura and I got dessert crepes at a little french creperie. Then Laura, Chris, and I walked around Paris all day and just explored the city. All I have to say, is Parisians in generally have been pretty rude. Of course, I’ll give every Parisian I meet a fair shot, but 90% of them I’ve come in contact with have proven the stereotype correct. Oh, and we went to this bridge that had tons of locks on it, and we realized they were love locks that had couples names on them…so Laura and I improvised and used a hair tie to symbolize our love for each other lol. Then we finished the night with a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant, and Trevor got a pizza…just like he eats EVERY DAY in Berlin.

Day 4: Monday the 13th

Our school program took us outside of Paris for the day to the town of Chartres, where we visited the famous Chartres Cathedral. It was beautiful, and our guide was adorable. I’d seen Chartres on the history channel before, so it was really cool seeing it in person. It also has a piece of cloth that was worn by the Virgin Mary, so that was cool to see.

Later that night I hung out with a different group of friends than usual: Reid, Rachel, Sijia, Hunter, James, Jojo, and then Ashley, Erica, and Jessica Su for a little bit. We got really cheap, but good wine (like I bought two bottles of red at 3.45 a piece…they had plastic lids so I just kept them in my purse like a classy lady) and went to Sacre Cour (a really famous Cathedral at the top of the hill). It’s a popular gathering place at night, and people eat, drink, hang out, and have a beautiful view of the city.

Then we went to the Eiffel Tower at night. I told Reid I’d give him a euro if he rolled down this one hill with cement at the bottom, and he did. But first, he gave me his money to hold, so when he came back up the hill, I just gave him one of his own euros. lol. Then the whole group decided to roll down the hill, so we drunkenly did that for about a half hour (and I still have bruises to show for it). All around, it was a freakin awesome night.

Day 5: Tuesday the 14th

Our school group went to the palace of Versailles that day, and took a tour (it was beautiful!). And oddly enough, it’s home to a collection of Takashi Murakami’s artwork, which seemed really out of place in the rooms of the palace, but I guess that contributes to the artists’ statement about commercialism. I was happy to see it, because I had learned about him in Contemporary Art History at Willamette University, but I kind of wish it wasn’t in the palace, because it was very distracting. Then we saw the gardens at the palace, which were HUGE. I didn’t see them all, but I did see an awesome watershow! And I had the best french fries of my life. Too bad all the vendors at the palace kept trying to rip me off. ugh.

Later when we got back, Keith and Lisa went with me on a mission given to me by my host mother for my time in Paris:

I had to go to the African sector and by fake hair for my 24 year old host sister.

The area was called Chateau Rouge. It was pretty shady. When we got there, we opened up a map because my host mother said the shop would be on one of three streets, and a policeman came over to us and asked us where we were going. When I showed him, he said “You really shouldn’t go there. It’s really dangerous. Please, don’t go there.” And I told him I HAD to go there, and he said, “well please, be careful.” Omg. I was terrified. But luckily Keith spotted a store pretty close to the metro stop, so I went in, showed the guy the lock of hair my host mother had given me as an example, and ordered TWELVE PACKAGES of it. So I walked home carrying two bags of fake hair for my host sister.

Then I got hit by a car.

I was walking (with the hair) on the sidewalk, and this minivan drives past me really fast and hits me with it’s sideview mirror! Then the guy stops, has his passenger adjust the mirror, and backs all the way up and just stops. How polite.

When I got back to the hostel, I put the twelve packages of hair on my bed, and then took off. Evidently, the roommates I didn’t know so well were weirded out by my massage packages of hair. I don’t blame them one bit.

Later, the normal group of us went up to Sacre Cour (where I had gone with the others the night before) and we sat on the hillside and ate bread, cheese, and fruit, and drank wine. It as a nice little french experience. Actually, I think we ended up drinking a little TOO much wine. haha. (We bought 7 bottles for less than 4 euros each lol).

Day 6: Wednesday the 15th

A small group of us went to the Louvre Museum. It was overly crowded with tourists, but I’m glad I went. I got to see the Mona Lisa! There was sooooo many people surrounding it though, that I just saw it from afar and used my zoom lense to take a picture of it lol. I hate crowds.

After the Louvre, Anna and I went to a little french cafe, and then traveled to this really old cemetery. The tombs were so cool! It was really peaceful there, and we saw the grave of Oscar Wilde! It had writing all over it from people telling him how much they love him, and lipstick kiss prints all over as well….so I decided to add one. Late that night, Laura, Trevor, Anna, and I went out to this pretty nice restaurant for dinner. Anna ordered a full platter of escargot….and she let me try one. At first I put it in my mouth, and it seemed fine…but then I bit into it, realized I had a freakin SNAIL in my mouth, and almost threw up. I swallowed it though. And Anna just downed them like a champ! I ordered a steak and tried to tell the waiter that I wanted it well-done…but instead I ended up with a raw, bloody steak. I hate the brown outsides, and gave the pink parts…so basically the whole thing, to Anna to eat. I am never ordering beef in France again. Good thing I had a cocktail to wash it down with.

Day 7: Thursday the 16th

We spent the morning traveling by bus from Paris to Caen in Normandy, where we each got hotel rooms we shared with one other person (Laura and I were roommates). They were so nice! Well actually, the girls’ hotel was nice. They boys’ kind of sucked. Haha. Oh well.  Then we had an audioguide tour of a really extensive WWII museum. Some of the things I saw and read about made me absolutely sick. The rest of the evening was free, so we went to Pizza hut (haha real authentic french food, right?) and roamed around the city.

Day 8: Friday the 17th

We went to Omaha beach and walked around on it. It was so crazy to think that so many men gave their lives in the exact place I stood. There was also a little D-Day Museum that went along with it. Then we went to the American Cemetery. That was quite a sight to see. There were thousands of white crosses (and some Stars of David) that were the graves of Americans who gave their lives in France, and many of them were unidentified soldiers. It was so powerful to see them. Made me really start to re-evaluate my own life and existence. Then we took one more stop to a place on Omaha beach that had the Nazi bunkers built into them (they look like the bunkers in Saving Private Ryan when they use fire to burn the nazis inside their bunkers). Getting to climb around inside them was probably my favorite part of the whole France trip. It’s so hard to explain how amazing it is to be able to stand right were someone you’ve learned about stood many years ago (but the weird thing is, it wasn’t even that long ago when you think about it).

Later that night, we went to a castle in the city of Caen, and went to this tiny french place for dinner crepes. The lady didn’t speak english, but she made all of us food, kind of like we were sitting in her dining room or something. She was really nice, as were most of the people in Caen. I drank tons of wine. Then Anna, Reid, and I went out for a drink at this Irish Pub, which wasn’t even that Irish. It didn’t have Guinness, and it played American Hip Hop music the whole time! lol

Day 9: Saturday the 18th

We drove home today. The bus drivers put on “Clash of the Titans” for us with german subtitles. That is a freakin stupid movie. I fell asleep, and when it ended I still knew exactly what went on. The best part of that movie though is when Hades appears and when they ask who he is, in the subtitles he says “Ich bin Hades.” haha. Epic.

Then the bus drivers put on “Speed” for us, which I thought was hilarious since it’s a movie about a bus that has a bomb on it, and we were watching it WHILE ON A BUS. That movie is so great though. So entertaining to watch with a crowd too…and especially with the german subtitles. Just really adds to it. lol. But then with about 10 minutes left, we took a break at a rest stop, and when we went back on, the bus drivers claimed that the dvd player stopped working. I don’t believe them. I think they just wanted to torture us.

We got in at around midnight, and I just slept at Laura’s host family’s house. I didn’t feel like walking all the way home with two huge bags of hair anyway.

At this grocery store in Poland, there was this sign over the produce that said:

Fruits and Vagetables

lmfao! I love foreign signs.

sounds good.