Hallo Berlin!

Hello everyone!

Surprise, surprise, I’m in Europe again. I don’t know what it is about this continent but everything feels at ease when I’m here. I landed at 7 am and far be it from me to waste my only free day. So I walked to the concierge, asked her what I needed to see and that I could take 12 hours to do it if need be, I only had one day and I planned to make the most of it. She pointed me to a bunch of areas and told me it was too far to walk so I should take the tube. Yeah. Right. I would have missed all this!!

I started off walking towards the East Side Gallery which is basically a long remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall which has been repurposed with murals on one said. And plain old graffiti on the other. What’s so crazy is literally people were dying to get over the wall, and now in 2019 the parts of the wall are broken down and you just walk right through the gaps. Progress for society in general, but let’s face it WWII wasn’t that long ago so it’s simply wild how times have changed. I’m not kidding you, the lady behind me on the plan was alive during the war and sharing how she remembers the wall and thankfully she was on the west side.

If there’s one thing I learned from Tanja, it’s when you think you can’t walk anymore you’ve got another mile in ya. So I was like okay, the next big monument is only 2 miles away. I can walk that. Honestly, I just didn’t want to miss out. And I was walking by the water so it was lovely. That’s how I found this cute little town!

I made it to the Berlin cathedral but as luck would have it, it was partially under construction just like most of London was this summer. So I got one good photo and carried on.

Also another thing about Germany is that people here are so friggen tall!! I’m not sure what’s in the water here. Seriously, my 5’5’’ frame is nothing on these German Giants? Don’t believe me? Look at this photo outside the war memorial.

I think this is what the world must feel like for Kelly  . Im not sure I like this feeling hahaha. But on the flip it is kinda of nice to no longer be “average.

This war memorial was actually really interesting, as it changed throughout the times and was bombed and reconstructed over and over again, each time the memorial changing to honor different groups of people. Ultimately, the human remains of a concentration camp prisoner and a war soldier are buried here and the memorial has a statute of a mother holding her dead son. I guess it’s true when they say no one really wins a war, ultimately everyone loses…

I continued walking until I came across the Brandenburg Gate and then walked over to the Reichstag Building aka the neo-renaissance parliament building. By this time I had hit mile 9 and was started to get tired, but there was still so much to see and literally a whole park was right there! It’s called Tiergarten.

That’s the one thing I can’t get enough of, you’re smack dab in the middle of the city and yet off to the side you’ve got a mini forest. No one told me the sun set at 4 pm here! So I got a warm street pretzel and continued exploring. Also, not going to lie, you haven’t had bread until you come to Germany. I’m not sure what they sell us in the US and I’ve never been a really big bread person, but be prepared for me to come home in 10 days looking like the Michelin man because IT IS SO FRIGGEN GOOD. 

By this point I was tired and cold, but I still couldn’t bring myself to go home. I wanted to explore more, so I kept walking along the park until I came to a Soviet War memorial. I know I’ve been to countries with hard histories, but coming to a space like Berlin I feel like it’s constantly present. I wonder what it’s like for Germans growing up here, if these reminders are as striking as they are to a foreigner.  If they itch and chafe or they’re like the Hollywood sign, where you don’t even notice it’s there until someone else outside LA comes to see it.

After waiting until I was practically frozen solid, I walked back to the city center and stopped at the Adlon Hotel for a nice cappuccino to thaw my hands. One thing I’m sure of is I cannot stay in a cold country. A certain someone came to this hotel as a bodyguard for Steven Spielberg, so I simply couldn’t resist taking a peek inside. Honestly since I was on the company dime, I was SO tempted to eat dinner there, but I figured I better not abuse the system so I can hopefully go on another trip this spring. I figured a $3.50 cappuccino (outrageous here when you can get them for $1.50-$2 at a no brand café) wouldn’t raise too may eyebrows.

By 6:00 pm I accepted defeat and called an uber back to my hotel, it was too cold and I walked over 10 miles so I feel like I did my fair share of exploring. I’m really nervous for this conference tomorrow but mostly excited! I think it’s going to be great! Guess I better get to sleep now.

Love you lots,

Carolyn

Salamanca

Hi Everybody,

This is the last blog post of this adventure and I’m quite sad about it. I can’t say that I’m excited go back to the reality of exams and school starting but at the same time I am looking forward to seeing everyone back at home. Kelly told me the other day that she’s “getting tired of this” lol! I guess me traveling for too long and the time difference has really impacted our communication. However, my friends on the east coast and in Europe have really been benefiting from the time zone change. Guess it’s time to start bugging a different lot of friends now.

Salamanca was wonderful. It wasn’t the trip I expected but it was heartwarming all the same. My host mom is taking care of her sister full time right now, and her sister Irene is hooked up to oxygen. So most of my days were spent watching television and getting angry at the telenovela protagonist when he/she did something dumb or trying to guess the outcome of the movie before it finished. It was a real party at our household lol! 

Here's the balcony view! So as you can see, staying at home during the trip wasn't bad at all when you've got a view like this, plus great company. 

Since we were watching so much tv, there were ads and I saw one for this movie called “The Danish Girl” set in the late 1920s. It looked so good, so I told everyone about it and then Irene told her daughter about it and before I knew it there were half a dozen of us around Spain sitting down to channel 5 at 10pm. Weeelllll the movie was about a transsexual married man in Paris and his artist wife. I was like of course this happened to me! There was no way you could have known the subject based off of the 60 second ad. Luckily Espe and Irene are super modern and loved the film. Unluckily it opened a whole can of worms for dialogue and I had to explain the medical logistics of a sex change with two eighty year old women. You can’t make this stuff up if you try!

Keeping up with these ladies was not easy I don’t know how they do it. Every day they went to bed at 3 am or past 3 am and were up by 8:30 or 9 am. I literally was like the loser kid who couldn’t keep up with the older siblings and went to bed early at 1:30 am, always halfway through a movie of course. 

But guys, I lived like a total princess, didn’t have to clean, didn’t do my laundry, didn’t have to cook. The only thing my host mom let me do was set the table and bring the dirty dishes to the kitchen. Love her! Can I just bring her to LA with me? Let’s just say apartment living is going to be a rough transition after this first class service.

Coincidentally one of the Polish women I lived with in Malaga was doing a second program in Salamanca. On my last day we met up for chocolate and churros. Espe was so excited to meet another one of my friends that we sat there for three hours! 

I had so much fun walking around the plaza with Espe afterwards looking for my old hang out spots. 

I even went to the University of Salamanca because legend says that if you find the frog you get a year of good luck in your studies. I’m not sure if it totally counts since this is my second time finding it, but I’m going to take it since I couldn’t remember exactly where it was after five years.

We went to the cathedral.

And the library.

Then the Plaza Mayor.

Back during study abroad on my walk home from school I would stop at this one shop to get gelato at least three or four times a week. I swear I tried all the flavor twice. So I couldn’t walk home from the plaza without a gelato! It's tradition!

Irene was so excited to hear about our adventures when we got home. We were all getting kinda of sad but I tried to keep the conversations light and funny. We even put on a silly cooking competition with celebrities from olden times who were quite the characters. We were sitting there laughing and eating our dinner there was a fireworks show that we could see right out the window! Not a bad send off for a princess hahaha. Irene joked that she had them ordered just for me. 

Let’s just say that leaving today wasn’t easy, but I know that I’ll be back. Someway or another I always end up in Spain again in my travels. So until next time Espana!

Love you lots,

Carolyn

Leaving Malaga...For Now

Hi Everyone!

Okay I didn’t mean to fib when I said I’d keep you guys updated. But if anything, it was simply because there really wasn’t anything to update you all on. Today is my last day in Malaga, and while I’m so excited to make the grip to see my host mom in Salamanca, I’m feeling pretty nostalgic about my time here in this little beach town. I’ve grown quite attached in the past two weeks.

This week was pretty much a version of groundhog day on repeat, and I mean that in the best possible way! I would wake up and get some studies don on the balcony I love so much. 

Around noon I would head out to the beaches near school and get a front row view of the ocean while I munched on salads or sandwiches for lunch. 

I must have done something good because this week I was the only student in my class, so I pretty much got private lessons for three and a half hours every afternoon. I’m not kidding when I say that my Spanish got so much better only in two days. I was kind of hiding behind Silvia in that she would help me or answer the questions I didn’t know. Well, since I was on my own, it was on me to either figure it out or admit that I had no clue what the word was. We talked about so many cool topics like the jail system, or international law, or judges vs magistrates. I really loved going to school every day, but I guess that is not too surprising since I love to learn.

Anyways, I digress a bit. After classes I would take a book to the beach and usually lay out in a kind of shady spot, even my brown skin is no match for this Spanish sun, I’m not sure how all the people sit out there tanning for hours because it’s hot! After finishing my first year at law school I thought I would never read for fun again! But apparently that’s not the case here, I get through about half an easy beach read a day! It’s so nice to remember that I can enjoy books instead of having the constant desire to use their pages as fuel for my next bonfire.

So here I am, living the life reading books on the beach every afternoon after class and then at sunset I would walk home usually with an ice cream in hand along the beach. You can’t make this life up! Seriously I think I just need to retire to a beach town because I’m loving this lifestyle. 

By the time I would make it home, the Polish ladies would be home and I’d sit out on the balcony with them until 11:30 pm or midnight just chit chatting about various and sundry things. It was so pleasant, and they always had something from their home to share with me. I tried a warm apple dessert drink, homemade cherry marmalade, lots of chocolate. Best $4.99 bribery I’ve ever spent to join these balcony sessions lol!

So you see? My days were exciting but not exciting at all as I fell into this rhythm. Before I knew it the week was over and here I am catching you all up to speed while I wait for my plane. Mr. Habib must have had some effect on me, because even when I try to be chill, I still find myself at every airport two hours early! Lol! You’d think I’d be a pro by now, but I always figure the one time I don’t leave two hours something will happen and I’ll definitely miss my flight because of Murphy’s law.

I’m definitely excited for the last four days of adventure to come! Definitely leaving this vacation with a bang.

Love you all,

Carolyn

Saturday With Silvia

Hi Fam!

Today is Silvia’s last day and I’m trying not to think too hard about it. We’ve become fast friends over the course of the week so of course we would spend her last Saturday in Malaga together. I was a lazy butt and slept in this weekend so I met up with Silvia around 11 and we decided to explore a part of town called Soho. I don’t think they know what Soho actually is lol! But the town was full of locals and cute little cafes and it was literally right next to the city center and yet there were no tourists, minus us of course. We kept seeing signs for a flamenco show but no one could actually tell us where to buy tickets. We should have known better than to listen to a Spaniard telling us the place to buy tickets was “five minutes away.” We probably walked for about 15 minutes before we came remotely close to the ticket booth. Oh well haha.

Afterwards we decided we deserved a little tapas break and had a local tapa “berenjas con miel.” Yup, that’s eggplant with honey. Honestly I was like well if it’s a traditional Malaga food then I should try it. OMG it was so friggen good. The eggplant was lightly fried and cut thinly so it got crispy. And then it was a mix of salty and sweet. Also their honey here is dark, which I had never seen before, and definitely not as sweet as our honey back home. We pretty much finished the plate between the two of us! I’m sorry for all the times I said I hated eggplants, this trip is definitely proving me wrong.

Spain has a super famous beach right next to the city center, so we decided to laze around and enjoy the sun for a bit. Silivia told me I had to get in the water and it was SO COLD. I literally hopped in and out. Warm Hawaii bathwater ocean it was not. But the sun helped dry us off rather quickly. The crowds at this beach was insane! Definitely glad I’m near the more local beaches with less people and tourists.

Afterwards we went to the flamenco show, and I know it was a total touristy thing to do but we really enjoyed it! The rhythms are so insanely complex I couldn’t figure out how to tap along, and that’s with so many years of musical training. So you can imagine what it must have been like! The guys and the girls danced while a man sang. Up on stage the performers are so enthralled in the music and the steps and they’re always watching the dancer. If I didn’t know better I’d say the whole thing was improved just by the intensity of their gaze upon the dancer’s feet, watching his or her steps. It was a great show and we got out just in time for sunset on the port.

It was so nice to have a personal photographer again! Lol…here’s some snaps. 

We had more tapas for dinner and watched the sun go down over the city. The sky was putting on quite the show for us! 

Unfortunately Silvia had an early flight so we had to say goodbye at 10:30 pm and I caught the bus home, feeling sad but also super happy that I made a new friend!

Will keep you guys updated.

Love,

Carolyn