Guten Tag der Berlin!
Hope all is well back home, this well be my last update from Germany! We both finished camp this week, Josh in Berlin and me in Lauenstein again, and we definitely were able to prove that whole “save the best for last” thing wrong. We both had trying weeks that tested us. I was by myself at a camp with 11 kids who were sent to English camp more so that their parents could have vacation than because they wanted to be there. On top of that it rained every single day, so my arsenal of outdoor games for Summer camp was useless and I had to do everything indoors. I also felt more like a doctor than a camp counselor seeing as I had one kid get sick in the middle of the night, my assistant sliced his foot open on glass and bled everywhere, and I had one kid get hit in the mouth with a billiards ball and have to go to the hospital. Needless to say, I could use a little time to recoup. Josh had a lot of young kids that didn’t speak English, which makes instruction extremely difficult. But, as we always do, we made it through and we can both successfully say that we helped molded young German minds all summer!
While we both found ourselves struggling every once in awhile, I think we have both learned a lot from this experience. I personally have learned how to communicate better, how to manage stress, and that my mother is a saint for doing this for 16 years because I could barely do it for 6 weeks. I had some great kids who I had a blast getting to know and I had some kids that I definitely will not miss, but each kid helped to make the weeks interesting. I’m so thankful for the opportunity because, even though it was a job, it offered me the chance to see Europe and I met so many great people in our time.
Germany has become a little home away from home for us on our adventure and there are things that I will miss about it. I will miss the fact that even the crappy beer isn’t terrible. I will miss getting a half liter travel beer for Euro for the train before going out or on a trip. I will miss being able to get a bratwurst or currywurst almost anywhere, at any time of the day/night. I will miss how even if people don’t speak the same language as you they always find a way to help you out. And, of course, I will miss all of the awesome people that we have met while we’ve been here.
We have one more night with the team in Berlin and then it is off to Rome for four days where we will do our best to enjoy as much pizza, spaghetti, red wine, gelato, Roman history, and Italian men (well the men for me, and the women for Josh) as we can :) Then, on Thursday, we’ll be homeward bound! It will be an extremely bittersweet ending to our long, adventurous summer but I can confidently say that we are both ready to get home to our families, friends, and our normal lives.
Well I suppose that’s it for this time. See you all sooooon!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Almost home!
Hallo Everyone!
I’m writing from Hannover this weekend! Josh and I were at an overnight camp in Lauenstein, a small town about 3 and a half hours outside of Berlin this week for a camp. The camp site was amazing. We both were jealous that we didn’t have places like that to go to when we were kids! There was a trampoline, two giant fields with soccer goals, a playground, ping-pong, billiards, a natural swimming pool and mini golf. We had twenty six kids from Sunday night through Friday afternoon and we had such a good time with them! It’s interesting how much more you get to know and interact with the kids during an overnight camp as opposed to a day camp. Our group of kids was really good and we were lucky that we didn’t have any issues with them besides them just doing normal kid things. We were able to spend a lot of time getting to know each kid by talking to them about themselves, playing games with them, watching friendships develop, and watching them interact with each other. The kids taught us a hide and seek game that they played for hours on end and we eventually played with them. Watching them have fun just playing around and playing with them made me miss being a kid!
After we left camp last night we went to Hannover to stay for the weekend. We both decided it was Beer-thirty and we set out to find a good place to sit down and have a good cold drink. We found an American Grille and had wings, chili cheese fries and beer from the tap. The best part about the whole thing was that when we went to the bathroom before leaving it said “restrooms” on the wall. Now, to those of you reading this that probably doesn’t seem like anything to get too excited about, but for the past two months we have had to call the restroom the toilette because when we ask for the restroom we get looked at like we’re from another planet. After the American restaurant we went to an Irish pub where the owner is from Ireland and speaks perfect English...needless to say, we’re missing hearing our native language. Josh went back to Berlin today and I am in Hannover alone tonight and then start camp again on Sunday. We have one more week of camps left and then it is off to Rome, where we will spend four days and then it is homeward bound!!
Even though we have been having the time of our lives it will definitely be nice to be in one place for longer than a week and be able to read the signs, speak the language, and be able to talk to strangers without first having to ask if they speak English. 12 days and counting until we sleep in our own beds and are able to see all of our family and friends!
Talk to you all sooooon!
I’m writing from Hannover this weekend! Josh and I were at an overnight camp in Lauenstein, a small town about 3 and a half hours outside of Berlin this week for a camp. The camp site was amazing. We both were jealous that we didn’t have places like that to go to when we were kids! There was a trampoline, two giant fields with soccer goals, a playground, ping-pong, billiards, a natural swimming pool and mini golf. We had twenty six kids from Sunday night through Friday afternoon and we had such a good time with them! It’s interesting how much more you get to know and interact with the kids during an overnight camp as opposed to a day camp. Our group of kids was really good and we were lucky that we didn’t have any issues with them besides them just doing normal kid things. We were able to spend a lot of time getting to know each kid by talking to them about themselves, playing games with them, watching friendships develop, and watching them interact with each other. The kids taught us a hide and seek game that they played for hours on end and we eventually played with them. Watching them have fun just playing around and playing with them made me miss being a kid!
After we left camp last night we went to Hannover to stay for the weekend. We both decided it was Beer-thirty and we set out to find a good place to sit down and have a good cold drink. We found an American Grille and had wings, chili cheese fries and beer from the tap. The best part about the whole thing was that when we went to the bathroom before leaving it said “restrooms” on the wall. Now, to those of you reading this that probably doesn’t seem like anything to get too excited about, but for the past two months we have had to call the restroom the toilette because when we ask for the restroom we get looked at like we’re from another planet. After the American restaurant we went to an Irish pub where the owner is from Ireland and speaks perfect English...needless to say, we’re missing hearing our native language. Josh went back to Berlin today and I am in Hannover alone tonight and then start camp again on Sunday. We have one more week of camps left and then it is off to Rome, where we will spend four days and then it is homeward bound!!
Even though we have been having the time of our lives it will definitely be nice to be in one place for longer than a week and be able to read the signs, speak the language, and be able to talk to strangers without first having to ask if they speak English. 12 days and counting until we sleep in our own beds and are able to see all of our family and friends!
Talk to you all sooooon!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Week off update!
Helllllllooooooo out there!
Last week we both worked at different camps and neither of us got to go to Frankfurt to watch the US women’s world cup game. I put on all of my red white and blue and painted my face with another counselor who I worked with and went to a local bar to watch the game. Josh also watched the game, but at the house of the people he stayed with. It was a bummer that we didn’t get to watch it together, but it was still cool being able to show our American pride in an foreign country.
Josh was in a small town called Waffensen last week for camp and I was in Wolfsburg again. We both had a some what difficult week as far as the kids that we had. The language barrier is more of an issue in the smaller towns outside of Berlin. I had a group of kids who really didn’t want to participate in any camp activities and who refused to speak English with me. They also figured out that I really didn’t speak any German, so they could say whatever they wanted to about me and I wouldn’t know what they were saying. They thought that, that was really funny, but I reminded them that there were other counselors there who spoke German and they told me everything :).
While we were in Wolfsburg we went to two different water shows at the Autostadt, the grounds of the Volkswagon facility. The show runs all summer and changes each week. The first show was incredible, but the second show was amazing. The Bellagio does not even compare to how incredible it was. There was fire and water and lasers. They projected parts of movies and images on walls of water and had everything synched to amazing music. Each show was probably 30 minutes long and at the end we always wanted it to keep going! We all met in Berlin again this weekend and went out on Friday night. We went to this great little bar that we call the 24 hour bar. It is a little hole in the wall that has such a diverse range of people that go there. There were old men who had been going to the bar for 27 years, Turks, British people, old women and men, young people, and of course us. We once again stayed out until the sun came up and then decided to leave. On our way home from the bar I realized that my wallet was no longer in my purse. I’m not sure where I lost it, whether it was at the bar or on the train somewhere, but it was gone and all of my stuff was gone. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to go to prague still, but my boss was gracious enough to give me an advance on my next week’s pay and we were able to make the trip with what she gave me!
We’re stayed in an old school house that was turned into a huge hostel and it was packed full of people around our age. Our first day we went down to old town Prague which is full of really old buildings that are so incredible to look at. It is such a fairytale kind of place that I kept expecting people in huge dresses riding horses to come around the corner. We visited the Charles Bridge and the old Castle and Church. Everything was so picturesque and incredible that we were in awe the whole time.
On our second day we went down to the old Jewish Quarters of the town and walked around the areas where we had been the day before. Just walking around through all of the streets we saw such beautiful buildings. A lot of the buildings have extremely old architecture and some have gold coating or intricate drawings/paintings on the sides. After we walked around for a little bit, we went back to the hostel and relaxed a little bit and then we went back out on the town. As most of you know, Absinthe is illegal in most of the States and there are a lot of rumors about how strong it actually is. Well, Absinthe is not illegal here and the Czech Republic is notorious for having the best Absinthe in all of Europe, so we thought we better get some. All over town we’d seen Absintheries where they sell and make drinks containing the alcohol. Josh wanted to buy some to bring back with him and we both wanted to see if all of the rumors were true. We went into one of the shops and ordered an Absinthe Lemonade and an Absinthe Energy (Absinthe with Red Bull) and sat down to drink them. They didn’t taste that strong or different from other types of alcohol, but after we finished the drink we both felt a little funny. It didn’t seem as strong as we all of the rumors made it sound, but it was definitely strong and didn’t have the same effects of straight alcohol.
We got back to Berlin yesterday after a 5 hour bus ride and we were so happy to have the flat to ourselves that we stayed in and watched CNN all night because it was the only English station we could get. I feel so informed on world and American news that I don’t even know what to do with myself. We got up this morning and went to some friend’s house in another part of the city and had coffee and tea and they made lunch for us. Berlin is starting to feel sort of like home and our comfort zone in all of this. People were even asking us for directions yesterday and we were actually able to help them out a little bit. It’s funny that only a couple weeks ago we were the ones that were completely lost in this big city.
Josh is at the Real Madrid and Hertha BCS game tonight. I couldn’t go with him because I didn’t have the money to get a ticket, but he went and scalped a ticket for a pretty good price! He was like a little kid in a candy shop all morning because he was so excited to go watch Real Madrid live! Tomorrow we’re going to rent bikes and go see some of the sites around Berlin and then Sunday it’s off to the next camp, which we work together!
Hope all is well with everyone state-side!! Miss you all and see you soon :)
Last week we both worked at different camps and neither of us got to go to Frankfurt to watch the US women’s world cup game. I put on all of my red white and blue and painted my face with another counselor who I worked with and went to a local bar to watch the game. Josh also watched the game, but at the house of the people he stayed with. It was a bummer that we didn’t get to watch it together, but it was still cool being able to show our American pride in an foreign country.
Josh was in a small town called Waffensen last week for camp and I was in Wolfsburg again. We both had a some what difficult week as far as the kids that we had. The language barrier is more of an issue in the smaller towns outside of Berlin. I had a group of kids who really didn’t want to participate in any camp activities and who refused to speak English with me. They also figured out that I really didn’t speak any German, so they could say whatever they wanted to about me and I wouldn’t know what they were saying. They thought that, that was really funny, but I reminded them that there were other counselors there who spoke German and they told me everything :).
While we were in Wolfsburg we went to two different water shows at the Autostadt, the grounds of the Volkswagon facility. The show runs all summer and changes each week. The first show was incredible, but the second show was amazing. The Bellagio does not even compare to how incredible it was. There was fire and water and lasers. They projected parts of movies and images on walls of water and had everything synched to amazing music. Each show was probably 30 minutes long and at the end we always wanted it to keep going! We all met in Berlin again this weekend and went out on Friday night. We went to this great little bar that we call the 24 hour bar. It is a little hole in the wall that has such a diverse range of people that go there. There were old men who had been going to the bar for 27 years, Turks, British people, old women and men, young people, and of course us. We once again stayed out until the sun came up and then decided to leave. On our way home from the bar I realized that my wallet was no longer in my purse. I’m not sure where I lost it, whether it was at the bar or on the train somewhere, but it was gone and all of my stuff was gone. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to go to prague still, but my boss was gracious enough to give me an advance on my next week’s pay and we were able to make the trip with what she gave me!
We’re stayed in an old school house that was turned into a huge hostel and it was packed full of people around our age. Our first day we went down to old town Prague which is full of really old buildings that are so incredible to look at. It is such a fairytale kind of place that I kept expecting people in huge dresses riding horses to come around the corner. We visited the Charles Bridge and the old Castle and Church. Everything was so picturesque and incredible that we were in awe the whole time.
On our second day we went down to the old Jewish Quarters of the town and walked around the areas where we had been the day before. Just walking around through all of the streets we saw such beautiful buildings. A lot of the buildings have extremely old architecture and some have gold coating or intricate drawings/paintings on the sides. After we walked around for a little bit, we went back to the hostel and relaxed a little bit and then we went back out on the town. As most of you know, Absinthe is illegal in most of the States and there are a lot of rumors about how strong it actually is. Well, Absinthe is not illegal here and the Czech Republic is notorious for having the best Absinthe in all of Europe, so we thought we better get some. All over town we’d seen Absintheries where they sell and make drinks containing the alcohol. Josh wanted to buy some to bring back with him and we both wanted to see if all of the rumors were true. We went into one of the shops and ordered an Absinthe Lemonade and an Absinthe Energy (Absinthe with Red Bull) and sat down to drink them. They didn’t taste that strong or different from other types of alcohol, but after we finished the drink we both felt a little funny. It didn’t seem as strong as we all of the rumors made it sound, but it was definitely strong and didn’t have the same effects of straight alcohol.
We got back to Berlin yesterday after a 5 hour bus ride and we were so happy to have the flat to ourselves that we stayed in and watched CNN all night because it was the only English station we could get. I feel so informed on world and American news that I don’t even know what to do with myself. We got up this morning and went to some friend’s house in another part of the city and had coffee and tea and they made lunch for us. Berlin is starting to feel sort of like home and our comfort zone in all of this. People were even asking us for directions yesterday and we were actually able to help them out a little bit. It’s funny that only a couple weeks ago we were the ones that were completely lost in this big city.
Josh is at the Real Madrid and Hertha BCS game tonight. I couldn’t go with him because I didn’t have the money to get a ticket, but he went and scalped a ticket for a pretty good price! He was like a little kid in a candy shop all morning because he was so excited to go watch Real Madrid live! Tomorrow we’re going to rent bikes and go see some of the sites around Berlin and then Sunday it’s off to the next camp, which we work together!
Hope all is well with everyone state-side!! Miss you all and see you soon :)
Friday, July 15, 2011
Weekly Update 2
Hellllllooooo from Wolfburg, home of Volkswagon, and our home for this week!
We both had our first week of camp last week and it went really well! Josh was at an overnight camp at a lake with two other counselors and I worked at a day camp close to our flat with three others. Josh said that it was the most fun he had ever had with kids. While the language barrier was hard at first they figured it out and were able to connect with all of their kids and everyone had a great time! They swam at the lake, played games, sang songs, rock climbed, and Josh led lessons in all sorts of different sports. While I think we needed a break from being around each other every waking second, it was weird being away from each other for the week and not being able to talk at all! My first week was at a day camp and I had a group of kids that were anywhere from 10 to 12. We did most of the same things that the overnight camp did, but I didn’t have to take care of the kids overnight! I don’t know how they did it, because I was exhausted by the end of each night. Keeping kids busy and entertained is a lot harder than it sounds!
After all of the counselors returned to the flat from their camps that they’d been at all week, we all went to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner and to smoke some Shesha (hookah). The food was incredible and it was good to have everyone back together and to share stories from the week. We really are like one big family because we were all so excited to be back in the same place and to spend time together! After dinner we went over to a local Berliner’s, a girl who works with us, house and met some of her friends that we later went out with. We have heard that Berlin’s night life is the best in the world and we found out that it definitely is. We got to this local club on the east side around one in the morning and danced the entire night. When we walked out of the club, the sun was up and people on the train were going to work. My body hurt so bad from dancing the next day that I had a hard time moving!
Saturday a couple people went sight seeing and a couple of us stayed around the flat and went to lunch at a Korean restaurant. I got to Skype my sisters and my mom for the first time since I’ve left and it was so good to finally be able to talk to them without having to type! We were going to go out again that night, but all of us were so tired that we stayed in and we watched soccer games and just hung out because we all had to be at our next camps by Sunday.
Josh and I worked together this week in Wolfsburg and it’s been a lot of fun! We have never worked in a situation like this before together so it’s interesting to see how the other works. We’ve been staying at a house that is more like a cabin in the woods and it isn’t the nicest conditions, but who are we to complain?! We went out on Wednesday night to a local bar where we watched the US Women’s team play France in the World Cup semifinals. We were those loud Americans that every European stereotypes. We were screaming and yelling and jumping up and down, but when the US won all of the locals in the bar started clapping for us and cheering also! Sooooo that brings us to this weekend. The US is playing in Frankfurt for the World Cup and we have been trying to figure out how to get there since we watched the game. It’s not looking promising for both of us to go together because of the work schedules. I may be able to go with another group of people, but Frankfurt is 3 hours from where we are at and we have to work Monday morning. It would be incredible being there in person, but even just being in the same country and going to one of the many public viewings would be so fun! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we figure out a way to make it happen.
Stay posted for updates!! Talk to all of you later :)
We both had our first week of camp last week and it went really well! Josh was at an overnight camp at a lake with two other counselors and I worked at a day camp close to our flat with three others. Josh said that it was the most fun he had ever had with kids. While the language barrier was hard at first they figured it out and were able to connect with all of their kids and everyone had a great time! They swam at the lake, played games, sang songs, rock climbed, and Josh led lessons in all sorts of different sports. While I think we needed a break from being around each other every waking second, it was weird being away from each other for the week and not being able to talk at all! My first week was at a day camp and I had a group of kids that were anywhere from 10 to 12. We did most of the same things that the overnight camp did, but I didn’t have to take care of the kids overnight! I don’t know how they did it, because I was exhausted by the end of each night. Keeping kids busy and entertained is a lot harder than it sounds!
After all of the counselors returned to the flat from their camps that they’d been at all week, we all went to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner and to smoke some Shesha (hookah). The food was incredible and it was good to have everyone back together and to share stories from the week. We really are like one big family because we were all so excited to be back in the same place and to spend time together! After dinner we went over to a local Berliner’s, a girl who works with us, house and met some of her friends that we later went out with. We have heard that Berlin’s night life is the best in the world and we found out that it definitely is. We got to this local club on the east side around one in the morning and danced the entire night. When we walked out of the club, the sun was up and people on the train were going to work. My body hurt so bad from dancing the next day that I had a hard time moving!
Saturday a couple people went sight seeing and a couple of us stayed around the flat and went to lunch at a Korean restaurant. I got to Skype my sisters and my mom for the first time since I’ve left and it was so good to finally be able to talk to them without having to type! We were going to go out again that night, but all of us were so tired that we stayed in and we watched soccer games and just hung out because we all had to be at our next camps by Sunday.
Josh and I worked together this week in Wolfsburg and it’s been a lot of fun! We have never worked in a situation like this before together so it’s interesting to see how the other works. We’ve been staying at a house that is more like a cabin in the woods and it isn’t the nicest conditions, but who are we to complain?! We went out on Wednesday night to a local bar where we watched the US Women’s team play France in the World Cup semifinals. We were those loud Americans that every European stereotypes. We were screaming and yelling and jumping up and down, but when the US won all of the locals in the bar started clapping for us and cheering also! Sooooo that brings us to this weekend. The US is playing in Frankfurt for the World Cup and we have been trying to figure out how to get there since we watched the game. It’s not looking promising for both of us to go together because of the work schedules. I may be able to go with another group of people, but Frankfurt is 3 hours from where we are at and we have to work Monday morning. It would be incredible being there in person, but even just being in the same country and going to one of the many public viewings would be so fun! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we figure out a way to make it happen.
Stay posted for updates!! Talk to all of you later :)
Monday, July 11, 2011
Last week's update!
Hello all!!
This is my blog from last week that I meant to post, but didn't get a chance to because we didn't have wi-fi!
It’s been very busy here on our side of the world. We were training all week long last week learning songs, games, activities, and prepping for the first week of camps! It’s been a little intense at some points, but we’ve also had a lot of fun. There are 11 counselors and we all get along so well. We’ve decided our situation is a little like a season of the Real World. We’re a bunch of strangers living, working and partying together. Every day after we trained we would do something fun as a group together. One night we went to see Transformers 3 at the Sony Center in Berlin. The next night we went back into town and found a couple local bars that we hung out at until we decided to go back home. However, the trains were not operating like we thought they were and it took us two and a half hours to get back to the house where we were staying. On our last night of training our boss and her family threw a German style barbeque for us. After eating the amazing food they cooked for us all week I didn’t think that they could top themselves, but I was wrong. They brought out pork, sausages, cheese steaks (literally seasoned cheese formed into a steak like shape), cheese and herb wraps, breads, and potato salads. I don’t know if I’ve ever eaten so much in my entire life. I was literally in pain I had eaten so much, but it was so worth it because everything was so delicious! The group stayed up and drank and sat around the fire early into the morning, some of them even got to see the sun start to come up!
Last Saturday we moved into the flat in Berlin. We’re in a part of Berlin called Charlottenberg, so we’re about 10 or 15 minutes on the Metro from the heart of the city. The flat is amazing, It has two huge rooms with tall ceilings and windows. The kitchen is big too and we have a big bathroom for everyone to share also. When all of the counselors are here the sleeping quarters are a little sparse and some of the boys have to sleep on air mattresses. All of the girls have beds though so I can’t complain too much :) The weather around here has been terrible though. I had to go buy some warmer clothes because, silly me, I prepared for Summer weather. Who would have thought it was going to be 50 and rainy all weekend and most of the week?!
Josh started camp Sunday. He’s working an overnight camp this week, so I’m sure he’s going to be exhausted by the end of the week. We talked to one of our bosses who helped to open their camp on Sunday and he said that the language barrier was proving to be a difficult thing at the camp. Apparently none of the kids really wanted to do anything because it was the first day and the weather was not very great. I’m sure as soon as the kids loosen up and they get more comfortable with being away from home they will be fine. Josh is amazing with kids and has a special talent for making people feel comfortable so, so I’m sure he’ll have those kids wrapped around his finger by the end of the week!
I am staying at the flat in Berlin this week and working at a day camp in Zahlendorf, about 25 minutes away. We had our first day of camp on Monday and it was a little more difficult than I expected. I have 9 11 to 13 year olds and almost all of them speak a pretty good amount of English which helps a lot! We had a lesson on the 4th of July as the first day of camp was our country’s independence day and I had to acknowledge it somehow. This is the first time a lot of the counselors who are here, including myself, haven’t celebrated the 4th somehow. While it is a little weird I don’t really mind missing out on the fireworks!
I’d like to send a big shout out to the amazing people of Berlin!! Every single person we’ve met here has been so incredibly friendly and helpful and I know that we could not thank them enough. From the Bartels who housed and fed 11 of us for the week to all of the random strangers who have helped us with directions or which trains to take to the man who helped a group of us figure out the trains and even paid for half of our cab fare. All the people have been willing to help, even if we can’t figure out how to communicate verbally, they find a way to help us. If we look lost at all someone will notice and help us out in the drop of a hat. Being in such a friendly city has helped make Berlin feel a little like a home away from home in our long adventure. So, thank you Berlin for being so kind and welcoming!
Until next time. Love and Hugs, Mackenzie and Josh
This is my blog from last week that I meant to post, but didn't get a chance to because we didn't have wi-fi!
It’s been very busy here on our side of the world. We were training all week long last week learning songs, games, activities, and prepping for the first week of camps! It’s been a little intense at some points, but we’ve also had a lot of fun. There are 11 counselors and we all get along so well. We’ve decided our situation is a little like a season of the Real World. We’re a bunch of strangers living, working and partying together. Every day after we trained we would do something fun as a group together. One night we went to see Transformers 3 at the Sony Center in Berlin. The next night we went back into town and found a couple local bars that we hung out at until we decided to go back home. However, the trains were not operating like we thought they were and it took us two and a half hours to get back to the house where we were staying. On our last night of training our boss and her family threw a German style barbeque for us. After eating the amazing food they cooked for us all week I didn’t think that they could top themselves, but I was wrong. They brought out pork, sausages, cheese steaks (literally seasoned cheese formed into a steak like shape), cheese and herb wraps, breads, and potato salads. I don’t know if I’ve ever eaten so much in my entire life. I was literally in pain I had eaten so much, but it was so worth it because everything was so delicious! The group stayed up and drank and sat around the fire early into the morning, some of them even got to see the sun start to come up!
Last Saturday we moved into the flat in Berlin. We’re in a part of Berlin called Charlottenberg, so we’re about 10 or 15 minutes on the Metro from the heart of the city. The flat is amazing, It has two huge rooms with tall ceilings and windows. The kitchen is big too and we have a big bathroom for everyone to share also. When all of the counselors are here the sleeping quarters are a little sparse and some of the boys have to sleep on air mattresses. All of the girls have beds though so I can’t complain too much :) The weather around here has been terrible though. I had to go buy some warmer clothes because, silly me, I prepared for Summer weather. Who would have thought it was going to be 50 and rainy all weekend and most of the week?!
Josh started camp Sunday. He’s working an overnight camp this week, so I’m sure he’s going to be exhausted by the end of the week. We talked to one of our bosses who helped to open their camp on Sunday and he said that the language barrier was proving to be a difficult thing at the camp. Apparently none of the kids really wanted to do anything because it was the first day and the weather was not very great. I’m sure as soon as the kids loosen up and they get more comfortable with being away from home they will be fine. Josh is amazing with kids and has a special talent for making people feel comfortable so, so I’m sure he’ll have those kids wrapped around his finger by the end of the week!
I am staying at the flat in Berlin this week and working at a day camp in Zahlendorf, about 25 minutes away. We had our first day of camp on Monday and it was a little more difficult than I expected. I have 9 11 to 13 year olds and almost all of them speak a pretty good amount of English which helps a lot! We had a lesson on the 4th of July as the first day of camp was our country’s independence day and I had to acknowledge it somehow. This is the first time a lot of the counselors who are here, including myself, haven’t celebrated the 4th somehow. While it is a little weird I don’t really mind missing out on the fireworks!
I’d like to send a big shout out to the amazing people of Berlin!! Every single person we’ve met here has been so incredibly friendly and helpful and I know that we could not thank them enough. From the Bartels who housed and fed 11 of us for the week to all of the random strangers who have helped us with directions or which trains to take to the man who helped a group of us figure out the trains and even paid for half of our cab fare. All the people have been willing to help, even if we can’t figure out how to communicate verbally, they find a way to help us. If we look lost at all someone will notice and help us out in the drop of a hat. Being in such a friendly city has helped make Berlin feel a little like a home away from home in our long adventure. So, thank you Berlin for being so kind and welcoming!
Until next time. Love and Hugs, Mackenzie and Josh
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Oh my gosh, this can not be our lives right now!! As we were laying in front of the Eiffel Tower last night we just kept saying how blessed we were and that we can't even believe that we are so lucky as to be doing all these amazing things!
Before making our way to Paris we stayed the day in Girona, Spain. The old city was really cool and so old it was sort of hard to grasp. The cathedral at the middle was built in the 14th century and is still standing and looks so amazing! We spent time looking all around the Cathedral and then we walked around the city and along the river that runs through it. That night we had our last meal in Spain..Bikini's, Calamari and of course some Sangria. Bikinis, as we discovered, are basically a breakfast sandwich on texas toast that are panini'd. They were really good, but not very Spanish! I miss the Spanish Sangria already though. We stayed up all night long because we had to be to the bus stop to go to the airport at 3:30 in the morning. While staying up all night was probably not the best idea, we were afraid to over sleep and miss our flight!
Once we arrived at the airport in France we had to take a bus an hour and a half to Paris. You know your flight is way too early when you are in one country in the morning, but you're driving through another country's morning rush hour traffic at 9:30. Although we had arrived in what we thought was the City of Lights, it looked more like the city of umbrellas and rain jackets. The rain was coming down hard, and we were worried it would put a damper on all of our plans. However, by the time we got checked into our hotel and ate some lunch, the rain had gone away and we set out to start our day, which was a long one!
The first stop was the Catacombs. The Catacombs are a set of hundreds of underground tunnels that run underneath Paris and where the remains of over 6 million people who over populated the cemeteries of Paris in the 18th century were put. The tour was extremely eerie. It was really cold in the tunnels and the ceilings were dripping with water from the ground above. The bone room was so organized and methodically laid out. Each set of remains was placed in a specific pattern and the faces of the skulls were set up to face us. The lights were dim and all of the corners were dark. It was a weird feeling walking through mass graves like that where people who had had families and lives were just placed anonymously after they passed.
After the catacombs we made our way to the Louvre. The outside of the Louvre was incredible by itself. There were so many people in the main courtyard area. The courtyard, the building, and the pyramid entrance were all so huge, but amazing to look at also. There are fountains all through the courtyard and glass pyramid at the center is a modern contrast to the Royal Palace like building that wraps around it. Once we got into the museum we were, once again, in awe of the beauty of the building. Every single hall of the museum was incredibly big and had countless rooms off of the main hallway. Neither Josh nor I consider ourselves art lovers or connoisseurs, but the pieces and exhibits were fascinating. We first saw the paintings, which were all so intricate and extravagant no matter what the story they told was. Each piece had its own personality and style, and seeing each different piece was really interesting. In this hall is where the original Mona Lisa is located. There was such a buzz about the painting and a bunch of people stood around the piece taking pictures; Josh and I thought it was cool to see it, but she was incredibly simple compared to her neighboring pieces. Next was the sculptures where we saw the Venus de Milo, a sculpture from 120 BC greece. Then we were off to the ancient Egyptian hall where there were pieces from different tombs, sarcophaguses, clothes, books, jewelry, etc. We also saw the Code of Hammurabi, which is the oldest set of written laws in the history of the world. All of it was so interesting and incredibly old that it was sort of mind blowing. After two hours our Museum ADD set in and we were so exhausted that we left.
From the Louvre, we set out to walk over to the Arc de Triomph which we could see from the museum, but we realized the Eiffel Tower was just as close so we decided to go over that way. It was my birthday, and I wanted to be able to say that I had a baguette and a bottle of wine in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower on my birthday. When we arrived at the site we were in total awe of the structure. It was huge!! The Eiffel Tower is such a romanticized structure that it was amazing to actually be standing at the base of it. We of course had a small photo shoot before grabbing a baguette and some wine from a corner store and headed to the grass; however, the park in front of the Eiffel Tower is the only place in Europe that we have discovered that you can not drink in public. We were so bummed, but there were cops everywhere telling people to stop drinking that we weren’t about to chance it! While we laid in the grass people watching, eating, and loving life we realized that we are so incredibly blessed!
We had planned on waking up early the next to go back to the Tower to climb up to the top but, like Josh said, I don’t think we realized how tired we actually were because when we woke up it was noon and we had spent the morning catching up on sleep instead of exploring. When we did finally set out we hit the streets running! We went to the Eiffel Tower and climbed the over 600 steps up to the second floor. The views from the first and second floors were indescribable. We could see everything in Paris and it felt like we were at the top of the world! We took the elevator up to the top of the structure and it was even more incredible than the floors below. I don’t know that there is any better way to see the entire city of Paris than from the top of the Eiffel Tower. You can see literally everything in the city and it all looks so small. It is really hard to describe the feeling of actually being on the top of the tower that had before seemed like such a storybook place. We made our way back down and before we got all the way down we had crepes and coffee at the cafe on the second floor.
After the Eiffel Tower we went over to Notre Dame. We couldn’t be in Paris and not see where Quazimodo had lived! The church was huge, as are the other European churches we’d seen. Notre Dame was much more gothic and had something different than the churches we’d seen before. While we were walking around on the inside they actually started a small mass which was interesting. They were playing the small organ and the sound seemed to fill every crevice and arch without echoing. Hearing the grande organ would have been something special. Since we were super motivated tourists, after we saw Notre Dame we got on the metro to make our way to the Arc de Triomph, however when we finally arrived at what we thought was our destination we were at the Grande Arch instead. The Grande Arch was really quite the grande piece of architecture. We it really was a giant arch in the middle of a huge plaza where there was a mall, which put all American malls to shame, and a bunch of business buildings. We ate at the mall and we walked around for awhile and still hadn’t seen everything!
We wised up after our mishap and found the correct arc that we had been looking for in the first place, after the mall closed. While we were standing outside of the round about and watching the madness for a little bit, we decided that you sort of have to have a death wish to enter the unruled disorder that is considered a street. There are no lanes, or traffic signals, and there are 12 exit spots around the street. It is literally madness. We walked from the Arch de Triomph down to a park called Pont Neuf to meet some girls that we met in Barcelona to go out with them.
We met up with the girls and took them back to our place so they could stash their bags in our room while we were out. We got in a cab and headed from our place down to the crazy roundabout that we’d seen earlier...it was just as insane to drive through it as it was to watch. I’m pretty sure the cab driver was loving scaring us because me and the girls were freaking out in the back seat while Josh was just laughing at us in the front seat. We stayed out until 6:30 in the morning because the girls didn’t have a place to stay and they wouldn’t let them come into our room. We met so many interesting people in the streets and bars of Paris and then we watched the sun come up as we drove back to the hotel. Thank goodness it was our last day because we were so tired that we didn’t want to do anything touristy. We had been doing as much as we could everyday during our two weeks that by the final day before we left for Berlin we were touristed out. We actually went and saw a movie at a place close to our hotel until we had to catch the train. Doing something normal that we would do at home was a nice feeling.
The train to Berlin was a 13 hour overnight train ride. Our cabin was totally packed and it was difficult to get any real sleep, but the scenery until the sun went down was amazing. I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything was. Once we arrived in Berlin, we made our way to Michendorf (the place that we’re staying for the week of training) and as soon as we got to the house all the other counselors that were already here invited us to go into the city with them. Naturally we didn’t want to skip this opportunity so we headed out with the group to the Christopher Day Street Parade, Berlin’s LGBT pride event. The parade was incredible and we had an amazing time getting to know our new friends. We’ve been training since Sunday and after training everyday we go out and do something fun with the group. Yesterday we went to Potsdam and walked around the town and then watched the opening game of the world cup at a little restaurant. Last night we went to a lake nearby and had a fire when the sun went down.
It’s so nice to be in a house for a little bit and know that we’re going to have a solid group of people with us all summer. We can already tell we’re in for the best summer of our lives. We move into a flat in Berlin with everyone on Saturday and then on either Sunday or Monday we will start our first official camp!
Well, if you’ve stayed with me through that disgustingly long update, thank you! and stay posted for more of our crazy adventures :)
Before making our way to Paris we stayed the day in Girona, Spain. The old city was really cool and so old it was sort of hard to grasp. The cathedral at the middle was built in the 14th century and is still standing and looks so amazing! We spent time looking all around the Cathedral and then we walked around the city and along the river that runs through it. That night we had our last meal in Spain..Bikini's, Calamari and of course some Sangria. Bikinis, as we discovered, are basically a breakfast sandwich on texas toast that are panini'd. They were really good, but not very Spanish! I miss the Spanish Sangria already though. We stayed up all night long because we had to be to the bus stop to go to the airport at 3:30 in the morning. While staying up all night was probably not the best idea, we were afraid to over sleep and miss our flight!
Once we arrived at the airport in France we had to take a bus an hour and a half to Paris. You know your flight is way too early when you are in one country in the morning, but you're driving through another country's morning rush hour traffic at 9:30. Although we had arrived in what we thought was the City of Lights, it looked more like the city of umbrellas and rain jackets. The rain was coming down hard, and we were worried it would put a damper on all of our plans. However, by the time we got checked into our hotel and ate some lunch, the rain had gone away and we set out to start our day, which was a long one!
The first stop was the Catacombs. The Catacombs are a set of hundreds of underground tunnels that run underneath Paris and where the remains of over 6 million people who over populated the cemeteries of Paris in the 18th century were put. The tour was extremely eerie. It was really cold in the tunnels and the ceilings were dripping with water from the ground above. The bone room was so organized and methodically laid out. Each set of remains was placed in a specific pattern and the faces of the skulls were set up to face us. The lights were dim and all of the corners were dark. It was a weird feeling walking through mass graves like that where people who had had families and lives were just placed anonymously after they passed.
After the catacombs we made our way to the Louvre. The outside of the Louvre was incredible by itself. There were so many people in the main courtyard area. The courtyard, the building, and the pyramid entrance were all so huge, but amazing to look at also. There are fountains all through the courtyard and glass pyramid at the center is a modern contrast to the Royal Palace like building that wraps around it. Once we got into the museum we were, once again, in awe of the beauty of the building. Every single hall of the museum was incredibly big and had countless rooms off of the main hallway. Neither Josh nor I consider ourselves art lovers or connoisseurs, but the pieces and exhibits were fascinating. We first saw the paintings, which were all so intricate and extravagant no matter what the story they told was. Each piece had its own personality and style, and seeing each different piece was really interesting. In this hall is where the original Mona Lisa is located. There was such a buzz about the painting and a bunch of people stood around the piece taking pictures; Josh and I thought it was cool to see it, but she was incredibly simple compared to her neighboring pieces. Next was the sculptures where we saw the Venus de Milo, a sculpture from 120 BC greece. Then we were off to the ancient Egyptian hall where there were pieces from different tombs, sarcophaguses, clothes, books, jewelry, etc. We also saw the Code of Hammurabi, which is the oldest set of written laws in the history of the world. All of it was so interesting and incredibly old that it was sort of mind blowing. After two hours our Museum ADD set in and we were so exhausted that we left.
From the Louvre, we set out to walk over to the Arc de Triomph which we could see from the museum, but we realized the Eiffel Tower was just as close so we decided to go over that way. It was my birthday, and I wanted to be able to say that I had a baguette and a bottle of wine in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower on my birthday. When we arrived at the site we were in total awe of the structure. It was huge!! The Eiffel Tower is such a romanticized structure that it was amazing to actually be standing at the base of it. We of course had a small photo shoot before grabbing a baguette and some wine from a corner store and headed to the grass; however, the park in front of the Eiffel Tower is the only place in Europe that we have discovered that you can not drink in public. We were so bummed, but there were cops everywhere telling people to stop drinking that we weren’t about to chance it! While we laid in the grass people watching, eating, and loving life we realized that we are so incredibly blessed!
We had planned on waking up early the next to go back to the Tower to climb up to the top but, like Josh said, I don’t think we realized how tired we actually were because when we woke up it was noon and we had spent the morning catching up on sleep instead of exploring. When we did finally set out we hit the streets running! We went to the Eiffel Tower and climbed the over 600 steps up to the second floor. The views from the first and second floors were indescribable. We could see everything in Paris and it felt like we were at the top of the world! We took the elevator up to the top of the structure and it was even more incredible than the floors below. I don’t know that there is any better way to see the entire city of Paris than from the top of the Eiffel Tower. You can see literally everything in the city and it all looks so small. It is really hard to describe the feeling of actually being on the top of the tower that had before seemed like such a storybook place. We made our way back down and before we got all the way down we had crepes and coffee at the cafe on the second floor.
After the Eiffel Tower we went over to Notre Dame. We couldn’t be in Paris and not see where Quazimodo had lived! The church was huge, as are the other European churches we’d seen. Notre Dame was much more gothic and had something different than the churches we’d seen before. While we were walking around on the inside they actually started a small mass which was interesting. They were playing the small organ and the sound seemed to fill every crevice and arch without echoing. Hearing the grande organ would have been something special. Since we were super motivated tourists, after we saw Notre Dame we got on the metro to make our way to the Arc de Triomph, however when we finally arrived at what we thought was our destination we were at the Grande Arch instead. The Grande Arch was really quite the grande piece of architecture. We it really was a giant arch in the middle of a huge plaza where there was a mall, which put all American malls to shame, and a bunch of business buildings. We ate at the mall and we walked around for awhile and still hadn’t seen everything!
We wised up after our mishap and found the correct arc that we had been looking for in the first place, after the mall closed. While we were standing outside of the round about and watching the madness for a little bit, we decided that you sort of have to have a death wish to enter the unruled disorder that is considered a street. There are no lanes, or traffic signals, and there are 12 exit spots around the street. It is literally madness. We walked from the Arch de Triomph down to a park called Pont Neuf to meet some girls that we met in Barcelona to go out with them.
We met up with the girls and took them back to our place so they could stash their bags in our room while we were out. We got in a cab and headed from our place down to the crazy roundabout that we’d seen earlier...it was just as insane to drive through it as it was to watch. I’m pretty sure the cab driver was loving scaring us because me and the girls were freaking out in the back seat while Josh was just laughing at us in the front seat. We stayed out until 6:30 in the morning because the girls didn’t have a place to stay and they wouldn’t let them come into our room. We met so many interesting people in the streets and bars of Paris and then we watched the sun come up as we drove back to the hotel. Thank goodness it was our last day because we were so tired that we didn’t want to do anything touristy. We had been doing as much as we could everyday during our two weeks that by the final day before we left for Berlin we were touristed out. We actually went and saw a movie at a place close to our hotel until we had to catch the train. Doing something normal that we would do at home was a nice feeling.
The train to Berlin was a 13 hour overnight train ride. Our cabin was totally packed and it was difficult to get any real sleep, but the scenery until the sun went down was amazing. I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything was. Once we arrived in Berlin, we made our way to Michendorf (the place that we’re staying for the week of training) and as soon as we got to the house all the other counselors that were already here invited us to go into the city with them. Naturally we didn’t want to skip this opportunity so we headed out with the group to the Christopher Day Street Parade, Berlin’s LGBT pride event. The parade was incredible and we had an amazing time getting to know our new friends. We’ve been training since Sunday and after training everyday we go out and do something fun with the group. Yesterday we went to Potsdam and walked around the town and then watched the opening game of the world cup at a little restaurant. Last night we went to a lake nearby and had a fire when the sun went down.
It’s so nice to be in a house for a little bit and know that we’re going to have a solid group of people with us all summer. We can already tell we’re in for the best summer of our lives. We move into a flat in Berlin with everyone on Saturday and then on either Sunday or Monday we will start our first official camp!
Well, if you’ve stayed with me through that disgustingly long update, thank you! and stay posted for more of our crazy adventures :)
Paris, The City of Lights
Oh my gosh, this can not be our lives right now!! As we were laying in front of the Eiffel Tower last night we just kept saying how blessed we were and that we can't even believe that we are so lucky as to be doing all these amazing things!
Before making our way to Paris we stayed the day in Girona, Spain. The old city was really cool and so old it was sort of hard to grasp. The cathedral at the middle was built in the 14th century and is still standing and looks so amazing! We spent time looking all around the Cathedral and then we walked around the city and along the river that runs through it. That night we had our last meal in Spain..Bikini's, Calamari and of course some Sangria. Bikinis, as we discovered, are basically a breakfast sandwich on texas toast that are panini'd. They were really good, but not very Spanish! I miss the Spanish Sangria already though. We stayed up all night long because we had to be to the bus stop to go to the airport at 3:30 in the morning. While staying up all night was probably not the best idea, we were afraid to over sleep and miss our flight!
Once we arrived at the airport in France we had to take a bus an hour and a half to Paris. You know your flight is way too early when you are in one country in the morning, but you're driving through another country's morning rush hour traffic at 9:30. Although we had arrived in what we thought was the City of Lights, it looked more like the city of umbrellas and rain jackets. The rain was coming down hard, and we were worried it would put a damper on all of our plans. However, by the time we got checked into our hotel and ate some lunch, the rain had gone away and we set out to start our day, which was a long one!
The first stop was the Catacombs. The Catacombs are a set of hundreds of underground tunnels that run underneath Paris and where the remains of over 6 million people who over populated the cemeteries of Paris in the 18th century were put. The tour was extremely eerie. It was really cold in the tunnels and the ceilings were dripping with water from the ground above. The bone room was so organized and methodically laid out. Each set of remains was placed in a specific pattern and the faces of the skulls were set up to face us. The lights were dim and all of the corners were dark. It was a weird feeling walking through mass graves like that where people who had had families and lives were just placed anonymously after they passed.
After the catacombs we made our way to the Louvre. The outside of the Louvre was incredible by itself. There were so many people in the main courtyard area. The courtyard, the building, and the pyramid entrance were all so huge, but amazing to look at also. There are fountains all through the courtyard and glass pyramid at the center is a modern contrast to the Royal Palace like building that wraps around it. Once we got into the museum we were, once again, in awe of the beauty of the building. Every single hall of the museum was incredibly big and had countless rooms off of the main hallway. Neither Josh nor I consider ourselves art lovers or connoisseurs, but the pieces and exhibits were fascinating. We first saw the paintings, which were all so intricate and extravagant no matter what the story they told was. Each piece had its own personality and style, and seeing each different piece was really interesting. In this hall is where the original Mona Lisa is located. There was such a buzz about the painting and a bunch of people stood around the piece taking pictures; Josh and I thought it was cool to see it, but she was incredibly simple compared to her neighboring pieces. Next was the sculptures where we saw the Venus de Milo, a sculpture from 120 BC greece. Then we were off to the ancient Egyptian hall where there were pieces from different tombs, sarcophaguses, clothes, books, jewelry, etc. We also saw the Code of Hammurabi, which is the oldest set of written laws in the history of the world. All of it was so interesting and incredibly old that it was sort of mind blowing. After two hours our Museum ADD set in and we were so exhausted that we left.
From the Louvre, we set out to walk over to the Arc de Triomph which we could see from the museum, but we realized the Eiffel Tower was just as close so we decided to go over that way. It was my birthday, and I wanted to be able to say that I had a baguette and a bottle of wine in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower on my birthday. When we arrived at the site we were in total awe of the structure. It was huge!! The Eiffel Tower is such a romanticized structure that it was amazing to actually be standing at the base of it. We of course had a small photo shoot before grabbing a baguette and some wine from a corner store and headed to the grass; however, the park in front of the Eiffel Tower is the only place in Europe that we have discovered that you can not drink in public. We were so bummed, but there were cops everywhere telling people to stop drinking that we weren’t about to chance it! While we laid in the grass people watching, eating, and loving life we realized that we are so incredibly blessed!
We had planned on waking up early the next to go back to the Tower to climb up to the top but, like Josh said, I don’t think we realized how tired we actually were because when we woke up it was noon and we had spent the morning catching up on sleep instead of exploring. When we did finally set out we hit the streets running! We went to the Eiffel Tower and climbed the over 600 steps up to the second floor. The views from the first and second floors were indescribable. We could see everything in Paris and it felt like we were at the top of the world! We took the elevator up to the top of the structure and it was even more incredible than the floors below. I don’t know that there is any better way to see the entire city of Paris than from the top of the Eiffel Tower. You can see literally everything in the city and it all looks so small. It is really hard to describe the feeling of actually being on the top of the tower that had before seemed like such a storybook place. We made our way back down and before we got all the way down we had crepes and coffee at the cafe on the second floor.
After the Eiffel Tower we went over to Notre Dame. We couldn’t be in Paris and not see where Quazimodo had lived! The church was huge, as are the other European churches we’d seen. Notre Dame was much more gothic and had something different than the churches we’d seen before. While we were walking around on the inside they actually started a small mass which was interesting. They were playing the small organ and the sound seemed to fill every crevice and arch without echoing. Hearing the grande organ would have been something special. Since we were super motivated tourists, after we saw Notre Dame we got on the metro to make our way to the Arc de Triomph, however when we finally arrived at what we thought was our destination we were at the Grande Arch instead. The Grande Arch was really quite the grande piece of architecture. We it really was a giant arch in the middle of a huge plaza where there was a mall, which put all American malls to shame, and a bunch of business buildings. We ate at the mall and we walked around for awhile and still hadn’t seen everything!
We wised up after our mishap and found the correct arc that we had been looking for in the first place, after the mall closed. While we were standing outside of the round about and watching the madness for a little bit, we decided that you sort of have to have a death wish to enter the unruled disorder that is considered a street. There are no lanes, or traffic signals, and there are 12 exit spots around the street. It is literally madness. We walked from the Arch de Triomph down to a park called Pont Neuf to meet some girls that we met in Barcelona to go out with them.
We met up with the girls and took them back to our place so they could stash their bags in our room while we were out. We got in a cab and headed from our place down to the crazy roundabout that we’d seen earlier...it was just as insane to drive through it as it was to watch. I’m pretty sure the cab driver was loving scaring us because me and the girls were freaking out in the back seat while Josh was just laughing at us in the front seat. We stayed out until 6:30 in the morning because the girls didn’t have a place to stay and they wouldn’t let them come into our room. We met so many interesting people in the streets and bars of Paris and then we watched the sun come up as we drove back to the hotel. Thank goodness it was our last day because we were so tired that we didn’t want to do anything touristy. We had been doing as much as we could everyday during our two weeks that by the final day before we left for Berlin we were touristed out. We actually went and saw a movie at a place close to our hotel until we had to catch the train. Doing something normal that we would do at home was a nice feeling.
The train to Berlin was a 13 hour overnight train ride. Our cabin was totally packed and it was difficult to get any real sleep, but the scenery until the sun went down was amazing. I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything was. Once we arrived in Berlin, we made our way to Michendorf (the place that we’re staying for the week of training) and as soon as we got to the house all the other counselors that were already here invited us to go into the city with them. Naturally we didn’t want to skip this opportunity so we headed out with the group to the Christopher Day Street Parade, Berlin’s LGBT pride event. The parade was incredible and we had an amazing time getting to know our new friends. We’ve been training since Sunday and after training everyday we go out and do something fun with the group. Yesterday we went to Potsdam and walked around the town and then watched the opening game of the world cup at a little restaurant. Last night we went to a lake nearby and had a fire when the sun went down.
It’s so nice to be in a house for a little bit and know that we’re going to have a solid group of people with us all summer. We can already tell we’re in for the best summer of our lives. We move into a flat in Berlin with everyone on Saturday and then on either Sunday or Monday we will start our first official camp!
Well, if you’ve stayed with me through that disgustingly long update, thank you! and stay posted for more of our crazy adventures :)
Before making our way to Paris we stayed the day in Girona, Spain. The old city was really cool and so old it was sort of hard to grasp. The cathedral at the middle was built in the 14th century and is still standing and looks so amazing! We spent time looking all around the Cathedral and then we walked around the city and along the river that runs through it. That night we had our last meal in Spain..Bikini's, Calamari and of course some Sangria. Bikinis, as we discovered, are basically a breakfast sandwich on texas toast that are panini'd. They were really good, but not very Spanish! I miss the Spanish Sangria already though. We stayed up all night long because we had to be to the bus stop to go to the airport at 3:30 in the morning. While staying up all night was probably not the best idea, we were afraid to over sleep and miss our flight!
Once we arrived at the airport in France we had to take a bus an hour and a half to Paris. You know your flight is way too early when you are in one country in the morning, but you're driving through another country's morning rush hour traffic at 9:30. Although we had arrived in what we thought was the City of Lights, it looked more like the city of umbrellas and rain jackets. The rain was coming down hard, and we were worried it would put a damper on all of our plans. However, by the time we got checked into our hotel and ate some lunch, the rain had gone away and we set out to start our day, which was a long one!
The first stop was the Catacombs. The Catacombs are a set of hundreds of underground tunnels that run underneath Paris and where the remains of over 6 million people who over populated the cemeteries of Paris in the 18th century were put. The tour was extremely eerie. It was really cold in the tunnels and the ceilings were dripping with water from the ground above. The bone room was so organized and methodically laid out. Each set of remains was placed in a specific pattern and the faces of the skulls were set up to face us. The lights were dim and all of the corners were dark. It was a weird feeling walking through mass graves like that where people who had had families and lives were just placed anonymously after they passed.
After the catacombs we made our way to the Louvre. The outside of the Louvre was incredible by itself. There were so many people in the main courtyard area. The courtyard, the building, and the pyramid entrance were all so huge, but amazing to look at also. There are fountains all through the courtyard and glass pyramid at the center is a modern contrast to the Royal Palace like building that wraps around it. Once we got into the museum we were, once again, in awe of the beauty of the building. Every single hall of the museum was incredibly big and had countless rooms off of the main hallway. Neither Josh nor I consider ourselves art lovers or connoisseurs, but the pieces and exhibits were fascinating. We first saw the paintings, which were all so intricate and extravagant no matter what the story they told was. Each piece had its own personality and style, and seeing each different piece was really interesting. In this hall is where the original Mona Lisa is located. There was such a buzz about the painting and a bunch of people stood around the piece taking pictures; Josh and I thought it was cool to see it, but she was incredibly simple compared to her neighboring pieces. Next was the sculptures where we saw the Venus de Milo, a sculpture from 120 BC greece. Then we were off to the ancient Egyptian hall where there were pieces from different tombs, sarcophaguses, clothes, books, jewelry, etc. We also saw the Code of Hammurabi, which is the oldest set of written laws in the history of the world. All of it was so interesting and incredibly old that it was sort of mind blowing. After two hours our Museum ADD set in and we were so exhausted that we left.
From the Louvre, we set out to walk over to the Arc de Triomph which we could see from the museum, but we realized the Eiffel Tower was just as close so we decided to go over that way. It was my birthday, and I wanted to be able to say that I had a baguette and a bottle of wine in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower on my birthday. When we arrived at the site we were in total awe of the structure. It was huge!! The Eiffel Tower is such a romanticized structure that it was amazing to actually be standing at the base of it. We of course had a small photo shoot before grabbing a baguette and some wine from a corner store and headed to the grass; however, the park in front of the Eiffel Tower is the only place in Europe that we have discovered that you can not drink in public. We were so bummed, but there were cops everywhere telling people to stop drinking that we weren’t about to chance it! While we laid in the grass people watching, eating, and loving life we realized that we are so incredibly blessed!
We had planned on waking up early the next to go back to the Tower to climb up to the top but, like Josh said, I don’t think we realized how tired we actually were because when we woke up it was noon and we had spent the morning catching up on sleep instead of exploring. When we did finally set out we hit the streets running! We went to the Eiffel Tower and climbed the over 600 steps up to the second floor. The views from the first and second floors were indescribable. We could see everything in Paris and it felt like we were at the top of the world! We took the elevator up to the top of the structure and it was even more incredible than the floors below. I don’t know that there is any better way to see the entire city of Paris than from the top of the Eiffel Tower. You can see literally everything in the city and it all looks so small. It is really hard to describe the feeling of actually being on the top of the tower that had before seemed like such a storybook place. We made our way back down and before we got all the way down we had crepes and coffee at the cafe on the second floor.
After the Eiffel Tower we went over to Notre Dame. We couldn’t be in Paris and not see where Quazimodo had lived! The church was huge, as are the other European churches we’d seen. Notre Dame was much more gothic and had something different than the churches we’d seen before. While we were walking around on the inside they actually started a small mass which was interesting. They were playing the small organ and the sound seemed to fill every crevice and arch without echoing. Hearing the grande organ would have been something special. Since we were super motivated tourists, after we saw Notre Dame we got on the metro to make our way to the Arc de Triomph, however when we finally arrived at what we thought was our destination we were at the Grande Arch instead. The Grande Arch was really quite the grande piece of architecture. We it really was a giant arch in the middle of a huge plaza where there was a mall, which put all American malls to shame, and a bunch of business buildings. We ate at the mall and we walked around for awhile and still hadn’t seen everything!
We wised up after our mishap and found the correct arc that we had been looking for in the first place, after the mall closed. While we were standing outside of the round about and watching the madness for a little bit, we decided that you sort of have to have a death wish to enter the unruled disorder that is considered a street. There are no lanes, or traffic signals, and there are 12 exit spots around the street. It is literally madness. We walked from the Arch de Triomph down to a park called Pont Neuf to meet some girls that we met in Barcelona to go out with them.
We met up with the girls and took them back to our place so they could stash their bags in our room while we were out. We got in a cab and headed from our place down to the crazy roundabout that we’d seen earlier...it was just as insane to drive through it as it was to watch. I’m pretty sure the cab driver was loving scaring us because me and the girls were freaking out in the back seat while Josh was just laughing at us in the front seat. We stayed out until 6:30 in the morning because the girls didn’t have a place to stay and they wouldn’t let them come into our room. We met so many interesting people in the streets and bars of Paris and then we watched the sun come up as we drove back to the hotel. Thank goodness it was our last day because we were so tired that we didn’t want to do anything touristy. We had been doing as much as we could everyday during our two weeks that by the final day before we left for Berlin we were touristed out. We actually went and saw a movie at a place close to our hotel until we had to catch the train. Doing something normal that we would do at home was a nice feeling.
The train to Berlin was a 13 hour overnight train ride. Our cabin was totally packed and it was difficult to get any real sleep, but the scenery until the sun went down was amazing. I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything was. Once we arrived in Berlin, we made our way to Michendorf (the place that we’re staying for the week of training) and as soon as we got to the house all the other counselors that were already here invited us to go into the city with them. Naturally we didn’t want to skip this opportunity so we headed out with the group to the Christopher Day Street Parade, Berlin’s LGBT pride event. The parade was incredible and we had an amazing time getting to know our new friends. We’ve been training since Sunday and after training everyday we go out and do something fun with the group. Yesterday we went to Potsdam and walked around the town and then watched the opening game of the world cup at a little restaurant. Last night we went to a lake nearby and had a fire when the sun went down.
It’s so nice to be in a house for a little bit and know that we’re going to have a solid group of people with us all summer. We can already tell we’re in for the best summer of our lives. We move into a flat in Berlin with everyone on Saturday and then on either Sunday or Monday we will start our first official camp!
Well, if you’ve stayed with me through that disgustingly long update, thank you! and stay posted for more of our crazy adventures :)
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Livin' the Life
hello again! Unfortunately I must once again apologize for my poor attention to our blog. It’s proven a lot harder than I thought it would be to stay on top of it with how busy we’ve been and our lack of consistent internet connection
When I last updated we were in Marrakech and we have been extremely busy since then. The first stop after Morocco was Barcelona, Spain. However, we first had to get to Barcelona in order to enjoy all the great things it has to offer. Our return tickets put us in Madrid and then we were were planning on taking the bus because it was really cheap, but we realized it would take us 7 hours on the bus to arrive in Barcelona and we didn’t want to lose an entire day of exploring. So we bit the bullet and decided to pay for the much more expensive train ride. We got to the train station, which was a mad house and got our tickets. When we finally got to the terminal to board the train we just sat back and watched for a little bit as to how it would work. They announce your platform number twenty minutes before the train leaves and as soon as they announce it everyone who is on your same train rushes, sort of stampede like, to get to the train. We got on the train, but weren’t supposed to be sitting together so we had to split up, which turned out to be a good thing. Josh sat next to a man named Manu who was from Madrid and spoke perfect english luckily. He took Josh and I back to the “cafeteria” car, and treated us to a couple drinks because “we were guests to his country and he needed to show us just how great Spainards are”, even though we weren’t even close to doubting how nice the Spanish are. We spent the 3 hours chatting up our new friend and he actually helped us get to our hostel once we were in Barcelona.
Manu, and about a million other people, were in Barcelona for a huge music festival that was going on that weekend called Sonar. So from the second we stepped off the train the city was buzzing. Our hostel was full of other young kids who were there for the festival and also for visitng. Two girls who were in our room of 14 strangers were doing what were doing and traveling around for the summer. Fionna and Julia, are cousins from California and they had also just arrived in Barcelona. As soon as we got settled, all four of us went out for dinner and to explore a little. The girls introduced us to the Spanish version of a gyro, and it has been our meal of choice pretty much ever since! We decided we were going to try and go to one of the many clubs that was along the water front so we made our way to the boardwalk. When we got there though we were denied by several clubs because we weren’t dressed nice enough. After we decided it was hopeless to get into the clubs in what we were wearing we went back to the hostel for a little wardrobe change. We hit the streets in a much more fashionable sort of way in search of what was supposedly Barcelona’s best club, Razzmatazz. It seemed pretty illusive as no one we asked could help us get there. When we finally found the gem of the city’s nightlife, we were not disappointed. It was huge inside with four floors and it was extremely packed. The first floor, with a huge dance floor was where we spent most the night. We danced on top of the speakers for hours until we literally could not stand anymore and then we called it a night.
The next day the girls left and Josh and I went to La Sagrada Familia, a church that construction first started on in the early 1900’s and is still being finished. The outside of the church is unlike anything any church I’ve ever seen before. Josh and I were both in awe and the sheer size of the building. Every single part of the building has a specific meaning and no detail was spared in the stories of the bible that are depicted in the crevices of the walls. If we thought the outside was amazing, then there is no way to put into words how incredible the inside was. Antoni Gaudi, the architect of the church made the inside to feel like a forest with tree-like and natural shapes, and so much natural light. Everything is done on a grand scale and made us both feel so small in comparison to the gigantic features of the place. We just sat and took everything in for awhile because it was all so magnificent. We rode the lift to the top of the building and were able to see the entire city which was another awesome view. To get down to the bottom we decided to take the stairs, which was really not a good idea with my fear of falling to my death. The stairs are a tight spiral staircase which has no railing on the inside. I was fine with walking down the stairs until the girl behind me said “wow, if you fell down there you would totally die.” Let me thank you girl in the staircase because you helped start a panic attack for me and we weren’t even half way down what seemed to be the 400 foot tall tower. Needless to say I was very happy to reach the bottom.
After the church we visited another Gaudi site, Parc-Guell. The park is huge and it has all sorts of interesting architectural monuments. There were stair cases, hallways, benches, and all sorts of different things. One of the coolest was at the very top of the park and you climbed to the top of this monument thing and could see the entire city, the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains behind you. The view was incredible and we both sat there for a second saying “is this really our life right now?!” That night we were exhausted so we sat in the main room of our hostel and uploaded all of our pictures to Facebook and sort of wound down. As we were sitting there the tables started to fill in around us and we were joined by a couple girls from England and a group of guys from Belgium. We have both said that one of the best parts of the trip is all of the cool people we’ve been able to meet along the way. They have all traveled so much more than us and speak so many languages and even if the communication is difficult between groups, they are all so extremely kind.
Our second day in Barcelona, we were ready for a relaxing day, so we headed to the beach for a day in the sun, which we took full advantage of. We sat on the beach until the sun went down and we were basically forced to leave. It was nice to finally sit down and have “vacation” time from running around all these cities we’ve been in. The day after our beach day, we left Barcelona and headed to a small town in the Costa Brava area of the country, called Lloret de Mar. The town was definitely a vacation spot for many Europeans and we were able to enjoy another couple hours on the beach. The town kind of reminded us of a sort of South Padre area for the European travelers. The beaches were gorgeous and town itself had a lot of really cool shops. While we were laying on the beach looking at all the amazing things around us we were definitely realizing how lucky we are to have this opportunity that not many people do. We’re seeing things that up until now have just been in our dreams! To add to how great spending the day on the beach was, it was also Josh’s birthday!! Shout out to my best friend and travel buddy, I wouldn’t want to be doing this with any other person and he has been great the entire time!
We’re currently en route to Girona, Spain for the day and then in the morning it’s off to Paris!! We can’t wait to spend time in Paris and see everything that the city has to offer. So for now, Adios!!
Ps. I promise I’ll be better about updating you guys on what we’re doing so that we don’t have these novels of post anymore!
When I last updated we were in Marrakech and we have been extremely busy since then. The first stop after Morocco was Barcelona, Spain. However, we first had to get to Barcelona in order to enjoy all the great things it has to offer. Our return tickets put us in Madrid and then we were were planning on taking the bus because it was really cheap, but we realized it would take us 7 hours on the bus to arrive in Barcelona and we didn’t want to lose an entire day of exploring. So we bit the bullet and decided to pay for the much more expensive train ride. We got to the train station, which was a mad house and got our tickets. When we finally got to the terminal to board the train we just sat back and watched for a little bit as to how it would work. They announce your platform number twenty minutes before the train leaves and as soon as they announce it everyone who is on your same train rushes, sort of stampede like, to get to the train. We got on the train, but weren’t supposed to be sitting together so we had to split up, which turned out to be a good thing. Josh sat next to a man named Manu who was from Madrid and spoke perfect english luckily. He took Josh and I back to the “cafeteria” car, and treated us to a couple drinks because “we were guests to his country and he needed to show us just how great Spainards are”, even though we weren’t even close to doubting how nice the Spanish are. We spent the 3 hours chatting up our new friend and he actually helped us get to our hostel once we were in Barcelona.
Manu, and about a million other people, were in Barcelona for a huge music festival that was going on that weekend called Sonar. So from the second we stepped off the train the city was buzzing. Our hostel was full of other young kids who were there for the festival and also for visitng. Two girls who were in our room of 14 strangers were doing what were doing and traveling around for the summer. Fionna and Julia, are cousins from California and they had also just arrived in Barcelona. As soon as we got settled, all four of us went out for dinner and to explore a little. The girls introduced us to the Spanish version of a gyro, and it has been our meal of choice pretty much ever since! We decided we were going to try and go to one of the many clubs that was along the water front so we made our way to the boardwalk. When we got there though we were denied by several clubs because we weren’t dressed nice enough. After we decided it was hopeless to get into the clubs in what we were wearing we went back to the hostel for a little wardrobe change. We hit the streets in a much more fashionable sort of way in search of what was supposedly Barcelona’s best club, Razzmatazz. It seemed pretty illusive as no one we asked could help us get there. When we finally found the gem of the city’s nightlife, we were not disappointed. It was huge inside with four floors and it was extremely packed. The first floor, with a huge dance floor was where we spent most the night. We danced on top of the speakers for hours until we literally could not stand anymore and then we called it a night.
The next day the girls left and Josh and I went to La Sagrada Familia, a church that construction first started on in the early 1900’s and is still being finished. The outside of the church is unlike anything any church I’ve ever seen before. Josh and I were both in awe and the sheer size of the building. Every single part of the building has a specific meaning and no detail was spared in the stories of the bible that are depicted in the crevices of the walls. If we thought the outside was amazing, then there is no way to put into words how incredible the inside was. Antoni Gaudi, the architect of the church made the inside to feel like a forest with tree-like and natural shapes, and so much natural light. Everything is done on a grand scale and made us both feel so small in comparison to the gigantic features of the place. We just sat and took everything in for awhile because it was all so magnificent. We rode the lift to the top of the building and were able to see the entire city which was another awesome view. To get down to the bottom we decided to take the stairs, which was really not a good idea with my fear of falling to my death. The stairs are a tight spiral staircase which has no railing on the inside. I was fine with walking down the stairs until the girl behind me said “wow, if you fell down there you would totally die.” Let me thank you girl in the staircase because you helped start a panic attack for me and we weren’t even half way down what seemed to be the 400 foot tall tower. Needless to say I was very happy to reach the bottom.
After the church we visited another Gaudi site, Parc-Guell. The park is huge and it has all sorts of interesting architectural monuments. There were stair cases, hallways, benches, and all sorts of different things. One of the coolest was at the very top of the park and you climbed to the top of this monument thing and could see the entire city, the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains behind you. The view was incredible and we both sat there for a second saying “is this really our life right now?!” That night we were exhausted so we sat in the main room of our hostel and uploaded all of our pictures to Facebook and sort of wound down. As we were sitting there the tables started to fill in around us and we were joined by a couple girls from England and a group of guys from Belgium. We have both said that one of the best parts of the trip is all of the cool people we’ve been able to meet along the way. They have all traveled so much more than us and speak so many languages and even if the communication is difficult between groups, they are all so extremely kind.
Our second day in Barcelona, we were ready for a relaxing day, so we headed to the beach for a day in the sun, which we took full advantage of. We sat on the beach until the sun went down and we were basically forced to leave. It was nice to finally sit down and have “vacation” time from running around all these cities we’ve been in. The day after our beach day, we left Barcelona and headed to a small town in the Costa Brava area of the country, called Lloret de Mar. The town was definitely a vacation spot for many Europeans and we were able to enjoy another couple hours on the beach. The town kind of reminded us of a sort of South Padre area for the European travelers. The beaches were gorgeous and town itself had a lot of really cool shops. While we were laying on the beach looking at all the amazing things around us we were definitely realizing how lucky we are to have this opportunity that not many people do. We’re seeing things that up until now have just been in our dreams! To add to how great spending the day on the beach was, it was also Josh’s birthday!! Shout out to my best friend and travel buddy, I wouldn’t want to be doing this with any other person and he has been great the entire time!
We’re currently en route to Girona, Spain for the day and then in the morning it’s off to Paris!! We can’t wait to spend time in Paris and see everything that the city has to offer. So for now, Adios!!
Ps. I promise I’ll be better about updating you guys on what we’re doing so that we don’t have these novels of post anymore!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Updates
Hello friends!
First of all, let me apologize for the delay in updates. It turns out that Europe/Africa are not as connected as we thought they would be. Wi-fi is either non-existent in the places we stay, really expensive, or by the time we get internet connection we’re too tired to do anything besides email our moms and check our bank accounts to make sure we have enough money. We had one more day in Madrid, two days in Marrakech Morocco, a day of travel and about 12 hours of sleep in all of that time. So, this might be a long blog while we try and catch you up!
Madrid was amazing to say the least. On our second day we went on a tour of the Santiago Bernebau Stadium, where Real Mardid (Josh’s favorite futbol team) plays all their home matches. It is another one of Madrid’s amazing marvels that was incredible to see. Sitting in the stands at the top of the stadium we realized that even though the stadium seats over 100,000 people any seat is the best seat in the house. The pitch was pristinely taken care of and it made even the most impressive American stadiums seem small. We walked through the museum of the team and saw all of their old jerseys, stadiums, cleats, players pictures, and most impressive was the trophy collection. Every room seemed to have another 10 huge trophies. We then walked down onto the field and then through the locker rooms. Josh was like a little boy the entire time; so excited and awe struck. He was captivated by every item in the museum and each stop we made on the tour. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to play a game in front of a packed stadium.
From the stadium we went to Parque de Retiro. It is a little like the Central Park of Mardid. The grounds are amazingly kept up; there are gorgeous flowers, trees, bushes, lawns, statues, and at the center of it all is a man made lake and monument to one of the kings. The lake was full of people who had rented boats and were paddling around and the grass was covered with locals laying out enjoying the day. We walked all over the park and we didn’t feel like we’d seen it all. When we got back from the park we went out to find a strip mall that was supposed to be at the top of our street but, once again, we got lost. We seemed to get lost and wander a lot while we were in Madrid, but we decided that that was when we found the best things and we saw the actual culture instead of just what the actual tourists saw. We’ve kind of decided that as long as we kind of just go with whatever happens everything will turn out fine!
We slept at the airport in Madrid because our flight was so early and we actually had a lot of company. The entire terminal was full of people sleeping, or trying to anyways. We saw two people sleeping on the baggage conveyor belt and some guy had brought his own woven rug to sleep on. We didn't sleep much, again, and in the morning we flew to Morocco! As soon as we arrived in Morocco we could tell we were in a different world. It looked like a scene out of a movie and that was just at the airport. We took a cab to an area close to the hostal and then walked deeper into the side alleys to actually get there. The buildings were all made of clay and the streets were cobblestone and lined with countless little shops. We sort of felt like Aladdin should be jumping across the roofs above us followed by his monkey friend, Abu. The hostal was amazing though. We walked in and were immediately served Mint tea and breakfast which was delicious. The middle of the hostal was open to the top floor sort of like a courtyard and it was filled with colorful couches and tables. While we were eating we started talking with some guys who were also staying there. One of them was a man named Matthew who was visiting the city by himself and the other two were guys from Mexico who just decided to come to Morocco on a whim.
Matthew, Josh, and I decided to go shopping in the Souks of the Medina later that day, and boy was it an experience. The souks are the little shops that line the side streets off of the main square in the middle of the city. We entered them thinking it was just going to be an easy walk through, but we quickly realized it was more of a maze than we thought. All of the shop owners are trying to bargain with you even if you aren't interested in buying what they're selling. There are motorcycles that zip in and out of the people and there is barely enough room to move at some points in the streets. We were constantly on edge trying to make it through without an issue. We then decided to go to the Tanneries, which is where they make the leathers for the bags, and we again got swept up trying to sell they're products. We went through one of the tanneries and the smell alone was enough to make us want to get out of there. The owner had even given us mint to hold to our nose like a gas mask, but even that didn't make the smell of the pigeon poop conditioner any better. We made our way back to the main square and then to our hostal. Morocco has got to be one of the hotter places I've ever been and it's almost impossible to find any reprieve as there is no air conditioning anywhere. The area where we were staying, besides our hostal, was essentially third world. It was dirty and old and the people struggled to make money every day. Unfortunately everyone, including little kids, was begging for our money and it was a constant annoyance. Our hostal was one of the only places that we were able to go where no one bothered us; we started to consider it our safe zone.
The second day in Marrakech we went on a day long excursion to the Cascade waterfalls. Once again everything was about making money until we got to the hiking part. We went on a visit to a Berber family home where were served homemade bread and more Mint tea (their famous drink and drink of choice everywhere) and then got to pet camals and saw a Moroccan herb garden. The hike was amazing and the waterfall at the top was gorgeous! Even though the water was freezing Matthew, who had also gone on the trip, and I stood underneath and played around in the water for a little bit. On the way back from the hike we stopped at this bridge that crossed the river, it was about 30 feet up and was made of tree branches. Josh crossed it to the other side, but there was no way he was convincing me to do it! We got home and when it was dark we again went out to the square to buy bread for dinner. At night, the square turns into almost a whole different city. There are food stands and performers and everyone from Marrakech seems to flood the streets. Because it is so insane we felt as if we were a little uncomfortable, but it was so amazing to see the transformation of the streets and the liveliness of the people. When we got back to the hostal we decided to smoke some Shesha (sp?). It is hookah, which is flavored tobacco, and it's extremely famous in Morocco. We sat on the terrace of our hostal with some guys from London and Matthew and smoked and drank Mint tea. It was the perfect way to wind down after our crazy visit to Marrakech!
First of all, let me apologize for the delay in updates. It turns out that Europe/Africa are not as connected as we thought they would be. Wi-fi is either non-existent in the places we stay, really expensive, or by the time we get internet connection we’re too tired to do anything besides email our moms and check our bank accounts to make sure we have enough money. We had one more day in Madrid, two days in Marrakech Morocco, a day of travel and about 12 hours of sleep in all of that time. So, this might be a long blog while we try and catch you up!
Madrid was amazing to say the least. On our second day we went on a tour of the Santiago Bernebau Stadium, where Real Mardid (Josh’s favorite futbol team) plays all their home matches. It is another one of Madrid’s amazing marvels that was incredible to see. Sitting in the stands at the top of the stadium we realized that even though the stadium seats over 100,000 people any seat is the best seat in the house. The pitch was pristinely taken care of and it made even the most impressive American stadiums seem small. We walked through the museum of the team and saw all of their old jerseys, stadiums, cleats, players pictures, and most impressive was the trophy collection. Every room seemed to have another 10 huge trophies. We then walked down onto the field and then through the locker rooms. Josh was like a little boy the entire time; so excited and awe struck. He was captivated by every item in the museum and each stop we made on the tour. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to play a game in front of a packed stadium.
From the stadium we went to Parque de Retiro. It is a little like the Central Park of Mardid. The grounds are amazingly kept up; there are gorgeous flowers, trees, bushes, lawns, statues, and at the center of it all is a man made lake and monument to one of the kings. The lake was full of people who had rented boats and were paddling around and the grass was covered with locals laying out enjoying the day. We walked all over the park and we didn’t feel like we’d seen it all. When we got back from the park we went out to find a strip mall that was supposed to be at the top of our street but, once again, we got lost. We seemed to get lost and wander a lot while we were in Madrid, but we decided that that was when we found the best things and we saw the actual culture instead of just what the actual tourists saw. We’ve kind of decided that as long as we kind of just go with whatever happens everything will turn out fine!
We slept at the airport in Madrid because our flight was so early and we actually had a lot of company. The entire terminal was full of people sleeping, or trying to anyways. We saw two people sleeping on the baggage conveyor belt and some guy had brought his own woven rug to sleep on. We didn't sleep much, again, and in the morning we flew to Morocco! As soon as we arrived in Morocco we could tell we were in a different world. It looked like a scene out of a movie and that was just at the airport. We took a cab to an area close to the hostal and then walked deeper into the side alleys to actually get there. The buildings were all made of clay and the streets were cobblestone and lined with countless little shops. We sort of felt like Aladdin should be jumping across the roofs above us followed by his monkey friend, Abu. The hostal was amazing though. We walked in and were immediately served Mint tea and breakfast which was delicious. The middle of the hostal was open to the top floor sort of like a courtyard and it was filled with colorful couches and tables. While we were eating we started talking with some guys who were also staying there. One of them was a man named Matthew who was visiting the city by himself and the other two were guys from Mexico who just decided to come to Morocco on a whim.
Matthew, Josh, and I decided to go shopping in the Souks of the Medina later that day, and boy was it an experience. The souks are the little shops that line the side streets off of the main square in the middle of the city. We entered them thinking it was just going to be an easy walk through, but we quickly realized it was more of a maze than we thought. All of the shop owners are trying to bargain with you even if you aren't interested in buying what they're selling. There are motorcycles that zip in and out of the people and there is barely enough room to move at some points in the streets. We were constantly on edge trying to make it through without an issue. We then decided to go to the Tanneries, which is where they make the leathers for the bags, and we again got swept up trying to sell they're products. We went through one of the tanneries and the smell alone was enough to make us want to get out of there. The owner had even given us mint to hold to our nose like a gas mask, but even that didn't make the smell of the pigeon poop conditioner any better. We made our way back to the main square and then to our hostal. Morocco has got to be one of the hotter places I've ever been and it's almost impossible to find any reprieve as there is no air conditioning anywhere. The area where we were staying, besides our hostal, was essentially third world. It was dirty and old and the people struggled to make money every day. Unfortunately everyone, including little kids, was begging for our money and it was a constant annoyance. Our hostal was one of the only places that we were able to go where no one bothered us; we started to consider it our safe zone.
The second day in Marrakech we went on a day long excursion to the Cascade waterfalls. Once again everything was about making money until we got to the hiking part. We went on a visit to a Berber family home where were served homemade bread and more Mint tea (their famous drink and drink of choice everywhere) and then got to pet camals and saw a Moroccan herb garden. The hike was amazing and the waterfall at the top was gorgeous! Even though the water was freezing Matthew, who had also gone on the trip, and I stood underneath and played around in the water for a little bit. On the way back from the hike we stopped at this bridge that crossed the river, it was about 30 feet up and was made of tree branches. Josh crossed it to the other side, but there was no way he was convincing me to do it! We got home and when it was dark we again went out to the square to buy bread for dinner. At night, the square turns into almost a whole different city. There are food stands and performers and everyone from Marrakech seems to flood the streets. Because it is so insane we felt as if we were a little uncomfortable, but it was so amazing to see the transformation of the streets and the liveliness of the people. When we got back to the hostal we decided to smoke some Shesha (sp?). It is hookah, which is flavored tobacco, and it's extremely famous in Morocco. We sat on the terrace of our hostal with some guys from London and Matthew and smoked and drank Mint tea. It was the perfect way to wind down after our crazy visit to Marrakech!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Josh and I just got done enjoying some delicious Paella and Sangria on Gran Via in Madrid to end our day. We've decided that our plane must have crashed and we somehow landed in Heaven. Yes, it's that good, and it's only our first day. We are both doomed to fall in love with every single place that we head on this amazing adventure of ours.
The flight over here was loooooong. Although it was only six hours, technically, we were stuck with middle seats on our giant aircraft in the middle of a group of traveling high school juniors. Josh got about an hour of sleep and I got about two and a half. Needless to say, upon our arrival we were not very well rested and we soon realized that we were in a world far from our own. The Madrid airport was easy enough to navigate, it was getting out that was the trouble. We set out to find the Metro station (the local subway system) so that we could get to our hostal. However, we could not find it because it was underground, who would have figured right?! and we also missed all of the signs, mainly because we couldn't read anything. Once Josh finally asked for directions and saved us lots of trouble we found what we were looking for and were on our way.
We then arrived at our hostal around noon and were informed that we could not check in until 2 because they were cleaning. This also meant that we could not change out of what we traveled in, which for me was extremely American :/ oooops! Women here do not wear short shorts really and no one wears running shoes, like Josh and I had on. We dropped our bags off and walked around the city for a little before we found a little Cervezaria in the local part of town. We couldn't really speak to the waitress, but she brought us some of the best beers either of us had ever had in our lives (I think this is when our Madrid love affair began). When we finally got to check in we went took a short nap, showered and then set off to find the Royal palace. Our hostal owner told us it was “an easy five minute walk. to the right and over the bridge” 40 minutes and two Metro trains later we were at the Royal palace. Let me tell you, it was well worth the search. The Palace grounds were lush with green bushes and huge trees and then there was the palace in the background. It was probably one of the coolest things either of us had ever seen. I don’t know how many times I told Josh “I wish I was a princess”, but I still want it to be true. Next to the Palace was an amazing Cathedral that had both of us awe struck. The inside was amazing and it was bigger than any church I’ve ever seen. It made me feel impossibly small under it’s painted ceilings. We then wandered to Plaza Mayor and then eventually back to our little hostel. We walked around for nearly 4 hours and we were in shock every second of it. Madrid is an amazing place and we can only hope that the rest of the trip is as good as our first day! So, now we say good night to the hustle and bustle of the busy Madrid streets and wish you all a great rest of your day!
Ps. check fb soon for some pictures from our adventures!
We then arrived at our hostal around noon and were informed that we could not check in until 2 because they were cleaning. This also meant that we could not change out of what we traveled in, which for me was extremely American :/ oooops! Women here do not wear short shorts really and no one wears running shoes, like Josh and I had on. We dropped our bags off and walked around the city for a little before we found a little Cervezaria in the local part of town. We couldn't really speak to the waitress, but she brought us some of the best beers either of us had ever had in our lives (I think this is when our Madrid love affair began). When we finally got to check in we went took a short nap, showered and then set off to find the Royal palace. Our hostal owner told us it was “an easy five minute walk. to the right and over the bridge” 40 minutes and two Metro trains later we were at the Royal palace. Let me tell you, it was well worth the search. The Palace grounds were lush with green bushes and huge trees and then there was the palace in the background. It was probably one of the coolest things either of us had ever seen. I don’t know how many times I told Josh “I wish I was a princess”, but I still want it to be true. Next to the Palace was an amazing Cathedral that had both of us awe struck. The inside was amazing and it was bigger than any church I’ve ever seen. It made me feel impossibly small under it’s painted ceilings. We then wandered to Plaza Mayor and then eventually back to our little hostel. We walked around for nearly 4 hours and we were in shock every second of it. Madrid is an amazing place and we can only hope that the rest of the trip is as good as our first day! So, now we say good night to the hustle and bustle of the busy Madrid streets and wish you all a great rest of your day!
Ps. check fb soon for some pictures from our adventures!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Bon Voyage!
So, this is it. It's official, we're leaving!! We leave Denver in an hour and head to Newark where we have a five hour lay-over. And since we've heard the Newark airport is the best place on Earth, we're reeeeally looking forward to spending five hours there...or that's just what we keep telling ourselves anyways. From Newark it is off to Madrid! We can't even wait to begin our adventures and start our amazing summer. Well we're off to board, so stay posted to keep track of us!
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