the swamp city

after spending a week in france, helen and i agreed that we were ready to move on to deutschland (aka...sausageland). we arrived at paris orly laughably early on may 3rd, and were surprised by how empty it was. i guess the staff felt like they should be doing something, so they gave me a very thorough pat down. no one trusts gingers!

everything else went smoothly and uneventfully...until we boarded the plane. about fifty passengeres had boarded, when suddenly the stream of people stopped. helen and i, comfortable in our seats, hadn't noticed anything, until a steward went on the loudspeaker and announced that a "problematic passenger" had created a scene at the gate and was being removed by the police. a few minutes later, we heard horrible screams coming from the gate, and they kept getting closer. helen and i were getting a bit scared, and after ten minutes of approaching shrieks, the steward finally closed the airplane's door as "a safety precaution."

then, everyone realized that the police were leading the woman away, and wanted to spy--so the entire plane rushed to the left side of the aircraft to see. i didn't see anything, but it was pretty hilarious to see a bunch of shameless adults rubbernecking like kids.

relieved to finally be off the plane a few hours later, we stepped onto german soil and into lovely warmth and sunshine--quite the relief after cold, rainy paris. we practically skipped to the s-bahn, and on the way kept catching whiffs of delicious-smelling sausage.

after dropping off our stuff at the "heart of gold" hostel, we scouted for a place that served german specialties. we found a promising place, and downed berlin specialty beer with raspberry syrup, pork sausage, sauerkraut, mustard, and potatoes. it was the perfect comfort food!

bursting with DEUTSCH food, we had a wander around the neighborhood, passing a synagogue that had been damaged during kristallnacht, the tv tower, and a pretty little park. we immediately deduced that berlin was a lot less pretentious than paris, and the germans with whom we interacted were largely friendly.

the two of us wanted an early night, because the next day was sure to be jam-packed. back at the hostel, we met one of our roommates--a lovely lad from manchester named jonathan--then popped in our earplugs and hit the hay!

the synagogue

the next day, we hustled down friedrichstrasse to get to the starbucks where the "free walking tour" of berlin meets up every day. randomly, we had run into one of helen's fellow edinburgh interns the day before (small world), and she joined us for the tour, which lasted about three hours. our tour guide was a scottish lassie named natasha, and she gave us the full low-down on berlin. apparently, it was built on a swamp, which explains the clouds of stink you occasionally have to walk through in the city. she also told us all about the third reich, the division of east and west berlin, and the fall of the wall. i'm way too lazy (and forgetful) to bang it all out here, so i'll just let the pictures do the talking

brandenburg gate

the very large holocaust memorial, located in the center of berlin. it's not clear whether the artist wanted the blocks to represent graves, a cityscape, etc etc...walking through it was very interesting, though. i thought it was a very poignant and approrpriate memorial

i believe it was after the memorial that we went to a seemingly random car park...but underneath was where hitler's bunker used to be, and where he committed suicide. unfortunately, it's all blocked off and caved in now, but it was still eerie to stand over the place.

building damaged in wwII

former nazi building

a remaining part of the berlin wall. look how thin it is!

these cobblestones mark where the wall used to run through berlin

checkpoint charlie (crossing point between east and west germany)

uh oh. i kinda forget what this is. a church??

bebelplatz, where the book burnings of 1933 occurred. there was a little memorial in the middle of the square; a glass panel showed an underground room, and if you peered down, there were empty library shelves

st. hedwig's cathedral in bebelplatz

our tour guide then took us to a sort of hidden war memorial, which had been sculpted by a local female artist. it's called "mother and her dead son," and at the base of the sculpture are the graves of an unknown german soldier, and an unknown concentration camp victim. i think it was my favorite part of the tour--

nearby, on "museum island," we saw this breathtaking church, which looked really old...turns out its only from like 1900. those cheating germans! they built it to look old, the sly dogs!

YAH, BEER!

i thought this was very a very cool mixture of old and new. the museum of contemporary art building is clearly pretty dated, but they've hung a neon sign among the pillars! look closely and you can see it

naturally, after the tour, helen and i were keen to find some munchies. we were also incredibly cold, because we'd dressed that morning in hopes of more sunshine--and instead got rain and freezing winds. we felt a bit foolish in our dresses, and had to squealingly run through the streets once it began to pour.

luckily, we found a sausage stand (haha), and got some currywurst unt brot (and bread). after wolfing it down, we still needed a place to warm up and sit for awhile, so we went to a giant chocolate shop we had passed on the tour. after droolingly wandering around it for a few minutes, i bought a bag of assorted chocolate chunks, shown below!

after i'd eaten over half of it. one chunk had peppercorns in it, another had chunks of raw ginger, and all were delicious!

the tv tower

finally full, helen and i hustled back to the hostel so that we could change clothes (my body was still riddled with shaking). then, we hit the road again! we tried to find the jewish museum, but instead got ridiculously lost and went in a gigantic circle. finally, helen asked a local security guard about where it was located, and it was clear on the other side of berlin.

close to where we thought the museum would be. i miss LA!

we regrouped by a fountain, and decided to trek to hackescher markt, famed for its shopping and nice little restaurants. on the way, we spotted some cool graffiti (berlin is COVERED in it).

see a familiar american?

after shopping for a little while, helen was jonesing for DAS BIER! we ventured into an "irish pub," and when she asked for a berlin brew, the bartender straight up laughed in her face and said, "you come to an irish pub for a german beer? that's brilliant!"

helen sheepishly asked for a pint, and the nearby drunk german men laughed at us and called helen an alcoholic. a wee bit embarrassed, we went to the back of the pub so helen could get toasted in peace. haha

fueled by DAS BIER, we decided to cap off the day with a visit to the bundestag, the parliamentary building that has great views of the city--for free!

the wait was a little long, since security was very strict (and oh-so-very-german), but as we waited we befriended a gigantic group of middle-aged slovenians standing next to us. they were really friendly and excited to talk to americans, and one fellow joked to me as we went into security that i needed to cough up my "hunting knife" before entering. good thing the germs didn't hear him, i might have gotten DAS boot to DAS face

front of the BUNDESTAG!

pretty sunset view from the top

as you can imagine, after the BUNDESTAG we were utterly drained. we needed some greasy sausage fuel, so we stopped at the train station on the way home and got some fast food wurst. it was highly delicious, of course, but my poor stomach was starting to get really angry at the vast amounts of fatty meat it was being forced to digest. i dunno how the germans do it--years of practice, i suppose.

anyways, that ends the action-packed berlin part EIN! come back soon for part ZWEI!

hoping you find german words as funny as helen and i do,
lilly

long-lost italy videos

before, when i tried to upload videos, i was doing it incorrectly....so here are a couple for your viewing pleasure!



benedict xvi performing the stations of the cross outside the colosseum. good friday, 10 aprile 2009.



the kind of eerie-sounding gregorian chants, and a shot of the crowd. we were packed like sardines.

but i am le tired: mont st. michel

alright, alright, back to business--euro-style. when we met last (before the wee london interruption), helen and i were out of our sleep-deprived minds in the paris train station, fighting off predatory men as best we could. we made it onto the train to rennes at 7am, and tried to snooze for the two hour ride.

i actually don't remember a lot of train ride, and i don't know if i slept or not. i was in a very nebulous state of consciousness. i do recall, at the end of the journey, looking out the window. i caught sight of my reflection, and immediately thought to myself, "i look like a drowned person." my eyes were sunken in, my skin was blue-white, and my hair was hanging limply. conclusion: heroin chic is not a good look for me.

after stumbling off the train, helen and i hurriedly tried to find the bus to take us to mont st. michel. we only had ten minutes to find it, and unfortunately got to the stop too late. thanks to a helpful frenchman, we learned that the next bus wouldn't be for another two hours. with time to kill, we got some coffee at the train station, then barged into a waiting room and fell asleep on the floor, amid disapproving stares.

finally finally finally, it was time to go catch the bus. we pushed our way to the front of a pack of asian tourists, and boarded the bus with relief. after an hour-long drive, we finally got to the town bordering mont st. michel!

we dropped off our bags, and walked down the road towards the mont. fortified with food from the local grocery store, we tried to summon up our energy and fully enjoy the scenery. bustling with people, the mont was a very popular destination. stupidly, though...it was closed for the day. as we are wont to do, helen and i just laughed, walked around the outside of the mont, and decided to come back the next day.

initial views of le mont

on our walk back to the hotel, we passed a tiny local market. after taking too many free biscuit samples, we bought a couple bottles of cheap local cider to imbibe later

by the time we got back to the hotel, i felt like i'd been put through a meat grinder. we decided to shower and take a nap.

four hours later, i was awakened by helen's gentle nudging. i must've been completely disoriented, because apparently (i don't recall this at all), i asked helen about the time. when she told me it was 8pm, i looked out of the sunny window and disbelievingly asked, "eight o'clock is that way?!" my poor brain was thoroughly cooked, i think.

we decided to go out for dinner in an effort to rejuvenate ourselves, so we dressed and went to a nearby place that was teeming with frenchies. the service was quite slow, but the food was good-- i nibbled on roast chicken with pommes frittes. we finished eating at 10:30, and walked back to our hotel under strangely light skies. the sun just wouldn't set.

back home, helen wanted to get her booze on. haha, i'm just kidding, we both just had small glasses of the cider, which was oddly bitter. here's a picture of helen boozing in bed

the next day, we knew we'd have to have an early start to smoosh in all the mont in one morning. the line to get into the mont was very long, and after waiting for over an hour, we finally got into the abbey. it was really beautiful inside, and had gorgeous views of the nearby sand/clay beaches. i'm too lazy to tell you the history of the place, so you can look it up for yourselves. here are some pictures!

sheepsies venturing into the road

mushroom head.

after thoroughly exploring the mont, we walked around the crowded little streets surrounding it. we grabbed a quick bite, then caught the bus back to rennes, and our train back to paris.

my friend ana, who's studying in paris, very kindly offered to take us in for the night. we happily dropped off our bags in her cool flat, then wandered into the local neighborhood for dinner. she lives in a very interesting part of paris, a section we didn't see when we first visited. it's close to the louvre, so on one side it's very posh and expensive, but in the other direction its extremely loud, vibrant, colorful, and diverse.

we went the cheapie route for dinner, and got some delicious donner kebab. we wanted to eat outside and enjoy the warm weather, so we ventured into a local park to nosh. on the way, we passed a man opening peeing into a bush, as well as throngs of ghetto teenage boys making kissy faces at us. after our delicious dinner, and a brief hour at an internet cafe, we headed back to ana's for a much-needed sleep.

the next morning, it was time for berlin! so i suppose i'll end here, and the next post will be thoroughly deutsch! until then, my pretties!

au revoir (for good this time...peace out, france),
leelee

a little london interruption

in desperately trying to keep up with my euroblobs, i've left out quite a bit about what i've been up to lately. thought i might fill ya'll in!

finally done with my classes last monday, i've spent the last 8 days with my glorious flatmates. look below for my oh-so-professional photojournalism...

tuesday: we embarked on the monopoly pub crawl. we had high ambitions, with 26 pubs to hit in one day. i became a bit apprehensive after it took us 40 minutes to find the first pub, worried that we wouldn't finish. turns out i was right, haha. elle, chris, and i only managed 10 pubs in 8 hours. the transport was the hardest part, it was really time-consuming. but at least we had a good time! i began my drinkathon with a shared pint of guinness, at 11am. oh me, oh my. the headache that came later in the afternoon told me that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

figuring out the bus. this picture pretty much sums up the day

the lord nelson. first drinks, 11am.

the blind beggar. any pub that lets the cat sit on the counter is all right with me!

elle and i dropped off after being unable to find the pub close to hyde park. i snapped this touristy photo as we made our way back o the tube. i dunno what this monument thing is.

wednesday: chris, elle, and i moseyed over to notting hill, and explored the famed portobello road. unfortunately, precious few of the market stalls were set up, but we got to look at the cool vintage boutiques and funky antique shops.

then, spur of the moment, elle decided to get another tattoo. none of the places in notting hill had openings, so we bused it to camden town, where the tatoo parlors abound. we found a clean-looking place, and chris and i walked around while elle got her wings done. finally fully inked, elle proudly ran out from the tatting room to show us her tat...but the blood pouch pretty much obscured our vision. yummy!

thursday: elle and i went to westfield (i hadn't been back since january!), and had a nice afternoon shopping. elle got some stuff, but i was content to window shop. in the middle of the brand-spanking-new mall, they had all these tables with t-shirts set up. we read a little sign, and that afternoon they were going to break the guinness world record of "amount of people folding t-shirts at the same time." needless to say, elle and i didn't stick around to watch what promised to be the most exciting record-break of the 21st century.

the tables

the posh part of the mall. it's really beauteous

on our way back home, we stopped at waitrose, a very chichi supermarket. i've been on a mission to find that nutella cereal i had in nice, and figured waitrose of all places would have it.

...EUREKA!! the cereal is called "swiss choco-bits," and i was completely giddy after buying it. i polished off the box a few days ago.

friday: my lovely flatties threw a little early-birthday party for me in the kitchen, balloons and all! i made a cake using the all-american funfetti icing and cake mix my mother sent me, and all in all it was a smashing success!

saturday: chris was leaving to go home, so in the morning we all woke up early to send him off. he's now working in an amusement park for the summer, which i definitely find amusing...since the fools in charge are trusting him with the lives of chillen. little do they know of his sadist tendencies.

saturday night, we girls were hankerin' for some american food, so we went to a diner place in shoreditch for milkshakes and burgers. then and only then, we headed to alex's friend dominic's flat, had a few drinks, and went out on the town!

we went to a club called "the star," and it was a really good time--we danced the night away! of course, i had to have a celebratory drink at midnight!

the girly-cakes. dang, i look horrible! hahaha

sunday: my actual birthday! it was made extra-special by the birthday box my parentals sent me, and letters/emails from relatives, along with the calls from friends. so thanks to you all! i had a wonderful birthday weekend.

that night, since i'm forever craving la comida mexicana, a group of us headed to "cafe pacifico," in covent garden. the food and margaritas were pretty good, but the poor british were slightly confused about what "carnitas" are. they seemed to think that they are beef. something must have gotten lost in translation when crossing the atlantic! haha, it was alright though, my beef tacos were tasty, despite the lack of authenticity. sorry to be a mexican snob.

nick illegally drinking in the tube station. elle harrassing him.

pretending to be mopey

girlies!

monday (yesterday): alex, lizzie, elle and i went to bethnal green park to romp around on the crazy jungle gyms and play a bit of tennis. of course, i'm ridiculously bad at tennis, but it was still fun! eventually, alex and lizzie headed off to oxford street, and i went to explore the nearby v&a museum of childhood.

monkeying around

the museum was quite small (i suppose since it's meant for children), but there were some really neat things inside. there were puppet theatres from the 17th century, gorgeous doll houses, 19th century bicycles, 1970s video games, etc etc. here are some of my favorite/not so favorite things

mechanical monkey musicians. i thought this was really, really creepy. made in france.

magnetic hair! you could give the beatles hairstyles/moustaches. 1960s.

beatrix potter peter rabbit teaset! i used to have that!!!

weirdest/coolest thing ever. they made earrings out of hummingbird heads! mom, want one?

much to my delight, the museum also had a new exhibit...of roald dahl/quentin blake proportions (it was called snozzcumbers and frobscottle)! i kept grinning as i looked at the various original drawings, reading the accompanying excepts from my favorites: the witches, the twits, the enormous crocodile, the fantastic mr. fox, matilda, james and the giant peach, charlie and the chocolate factory, etc etc etc. it was a pretty small exhibit, but very cool to see the original artwork from the books. good job, england.

funny side note: as i wandered around, i passed a section of the museum where some construction men were doing renovation. it was right next to the children's play area, and there were some young kids hanging around. i could only laugh as i heard the construction men repeatedly yelling hair-curling swears to each other, within earshot of unconcerned mothers and their youngins. haha, in america those construction guys would've gotten a bludgeoning.

anyways, after an afternoon of childhood throwbacks, last night alex & elle & walter & i meandered around soho for the night. we began at a japanese restaurant, then went to a place called "ku bar," which had good music and lots of dancing. then, at around 1am i was feeling pretty tired (because i'm an old lady), so i bused it back home while the rest of the lot stayed out. i was happy to get into bed!

anywho, that's the (not-so-little, i've realized) recap of the past week or so. hope you feel up to date oen my oh-so-exciting life, haha. much love to all, dear readers!

with only 17 days left in this beautiful country,
lilly

cannes you dig it? oh, and our paris all-nighter, and filthy french men

sorry for 4-day lapse between postings...i've been londoning and birthday-ing around these past few days; i shall write about it once i've finished on euroland, and who knows when THAT will be.

when i last left you, i'd been talking about our lovely days spent in nice and monaco. on the last day in southern france, helen and i decided to ditch nice and catch the train to cannes, just for a change of pace. it was on the way back to paris, anyways (we were catching a night train back to pah-ree, for the next morning we'd be going to rennes and mont st. michel).

after having one last bowl of nutella cereal, helen and i got to the train station. while waiting for the train, i was bored, and took the following picturre:

for some reason, i think train stations are cool-looking. so there you go.

after a pretty train ride, we made it into cannes in the early afternoon. it was sunny and warm outside, so we happily explored the town. a lot of it was designer shops and beachside restaurants, but we also saw the theater where they screen films for the festival:

supreme french cheeze.

like some sort of crazed addict, helen couldn't get enough sun. after walking quite a ways down the beach boardwalk, and seeing many topless ladies, helen decided to join them--fully clothed. meanwhile, i needed to find shade, so i plopped down on a bench and read for a while. after lunching at a nearby restaurant (which was hilarious, becuase i ordered a sandwich, and they gave it to me in a paper bag on a plate), we resumed our lounging.

finally in the REAL riviera! but i do miss the hollywood riviera i call home

hm, no nudity in this one. sorry!

cannes street

once separated, things began to get a bit sketchlicious for me. i was reading in a little park, close to the beach, when a 30-something man approached me. he didn't really speak english, just gestured towards my book as if to ask what i was reading. he seemed nice, and i was in a public place, so i figured nothing could really come of it. i showed him the title, we attempted to communicate, and largely failed. he smiled and walked away, and i pretended to read further, but couldn't help but feel like something else was going to happen.

sure enough, ten minutes later he returned with a friend. the friend had some of the worst teeth i'd ever seen, which i (rather unfairly) ALWAYS take as a sign of a villain.

with my hand firmly on my purse, i cautiously chatted with them for a few minutes--kind of. their english wasn't amazing, and i don't speak a lick of french. for a bizarre reason, i felt like i couldn't tell them my real name, so i said my name was "claire"--as if that would help if they decided to drag me off!

the first guy left, leaving mr. teeth behind with me. he sat next to me, and introduced himself as dimitri...but he kept insisting, "NO RUSSIAN!" he was from cannes, and we talked about his family, politics ("BUSH BAD! OBAMA GOOD!"), where we'd been traveling, etc. he was actually really nice, and we ended up chatting for about 40 minutes. he kept inviting me to drinks, and saying i was "tres beautiful," (LOL, skeaze) but there was no way in hades i was leaving that bench.

after awhile, the first guy came back, with another guy, as well. with the three of them in front of me, i began to feel a little panicky, but didn't know what i could do. i was already somewhere public, there were people around, and it was broad daylight. i figured the best thing to do would be to stay put. after conspiring together in french, they attempted to ask me something, but didn't know how to say it. i have the feeling it was something wildly inappropriate, because they kept giggling and looking guilty. then, when the two left, dimitri insisted that he didn't even know them, and that they weren't friends. so i have a feeling they were being lechers!

i knew helen would be coming back soon, and i couldn't wait to see her face when she saw me talking with a random older man. sure enough, as she approached, her face was frozen with shock and terror. she shook hands with dimitri, as did i, then we got the heck outta dodge. on the way to the train station, we both kept cracking up at what had happened...but there was more waiting for us in paris.

lucky us, we had first-class train tickets, so we enjoyed our luxury carriage during the 5 hour train ride. we got into paris at 11:30pm, and had 7.5 hours to kill before getting on our 7am train. we hadn't booked a hostel, so with bags in tow, we hit the town. in the metro station, a homeless man decided to sit on the bench next to us, repeatedly ask for money despite our uncomfortable "no's," and smoke a really stinky homemade cigarette. we were ready for some wine at that point.

we had done some research, and knew of a restaurant open 24-hours. hilariously, it was l'atelier, the place we had eaten at a few days before! not shunted into the back this time, we plopped down at an outside table and rubbed shoulders with hip parisians. we got a bottle of house rose, and nursed it for the next four hours. we just chatted and people-watched, but towards the end were both drifting into zombie-like states of conciousness.

we finally decided to try to get to the train station and sleep, so we packed up and walked down rue de la montparnasse. on the way, another homeless man called out to us, and began to follow us down the street. we both started panicking, and practically ran away, eventually losing him. being girls, at 4am, we were steely-faced and ready to fight whoever threatened us, haha.

we made it to the just-opened train station at 4:30, and were disappoitned to find that the benches had immovable arm rests separating the seats, probably in an effort to discourage tramps like helen and me from sleeping there. as we walked into the station, we were met with a pretty dismal scene--tired vagrants littered the benches, curled up into their seats. helen and i found a bench a bit apart from the rest, and i intwined myself in my backpack and purse while helen braved the disgusting floor.

for the next hour, drifting in and out of our panicky dozings, helen and i watched through half-closed eyes as people walked past us, staring. there was a guy behind us who wouldn't break his gaze. another guy came and sat right next to us, despite the vast amount of empty seats elsewhere. he then left, and an hour later came back, to the same spot. things were getting weird, and once helen and i "woke up," it worsened. a haggard man came up to helen, leaned into her face, and leeringly asked, "francais?" and then, "anglais?" helen practically screamed, "NO!" then as he stalked off, she dissolved into shrill, hysterical laughter. i was suppressing my laughter, because i didn't want any more attention drawn to us. we were sticking out like really tired, scared sore thumbs.

bursting with wine and water, eventually helen had to go to the bathroom. she left me with our things, and hurried off to find it. as soon as she left, a scary man (who might have only had one arm, i couldn't tell) approached, and tried to speak to me in french. i shook my head, making him mime long hair on himself and repeat "cheveux, cheveux, cheveux," which i assumed to mean "hair." i started feeling really uncontrollably angry at that point, at all the men who wouldn't leave us the hell alone, so i uttered a snarling, "NO" and glared at him until he walked away.

of course, when he left, the guy who insisted on sitting next to us came back. he tried to speak to me in french, as well, and i just shook my head at him and turned away. it was just completely ridiculous. finally, helen came back, and when i told her about what had happened, i confessed, "i was so upset i almost cried!"

at that point, we were both in a pretty healthy state of delirium, so we started to laugh at how pathetic i was, and laughed and laughed, loudly and hysterically, causing everyone to look at us. we tried and tried to stop, but couldn't--we'd catch our breath, and calm down for a second, then one of us would start again, and it would begin all over again. my stomach was all bunched up, and i was half-crying, but the laughing didn't cease for ten long minutes.

finally, calmed down, helen was hungry. she pulled out a baguette (remember, i told you not to forget about them!) that she had bought the day we went to nice. with a half-crazed look on her face, she pulled out the rock of bread, and spluttered out, "I'VE BEEN SAVING THIS BREAD FOR THREE DAYS!" which of course made us launch into more insane peals of laughter. i had to bury my face in my hands, and cried/laughed into them as quietly as i could.

much to our relief (and probably those around us), finally our train came into the station. we gleefully picked up our bags, said adieu to all of the mofos who had been hassling us, and boarded. at last, i felt like i could relax. i leaned my head against the window, and thanked my lucky stars that we'd made it through the night.

...with all the sketchiness (hopefully?) behind us, we made our way to rennes, which i'll tell you about in the next post. for now, i'm all storied-out, and need to do some birthday celebrating! thanks for reading our harrowing tales (parents, i hope you didn't pee yourselves too much). i'm off, but shall return faster than you can say "cheveux."

exactly 21 years old,
lilly