THE END

I'm sad to say that our trip had to come to an end. It truly was the opportunity of a lifetime and I know we all had a blast. I've only been back in the States for about 48 hours and I am already pining to go back. I'll never forget the great memories we all made in Berlin, and I can't wait until the next time I return. Thanks for the memories!

29 Juni 2012

This morning Katie, Liz, and myself set off bright and early for a whirlwind weekend trip through Belgium and Paris. Our train left at 7AM Friday morning and we arrived in Bruges, Belgium, around 3:30PM. We had plans to stay in a bed and breakfast, and one of the owners, Emmanuel, picked us up from the train station and drove us to their home. The property was gorgeous. It was a white house in the middle of a huge plot of land complete with chickens, cows, a pond, and rope swings. We spent the afternoon wandering through the woods and then biked into the village up the road for some dinner. That's right, I rode a bike! I am the most uncoordinated person under the sun but somehow I managed the bike without falling. My girly girl self probably looked so out of place in the woods and on a bike, but it was so fun. I'm glad we did it.

The next morning we got an early start and biked into Bruges. We spent the morning wandering through town and perusing through the shops. Bruges is called the "Venice of the North" and you could see why. Canals ran through the city that made for some pretty picture moments. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Bruges. I thought it was just be a little stop on the way to Paris, but I think I might have enjoyed it even more than Paris.

After many complications and much stress, the three of us were finally all at our Parisian hostel at about 10PM that night. We went out to see the city at night, and had a relaxing start to our visit. The next morning we got up bright and early to see all that we could before we had to leave. We visited Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower, but were unable to go inside any of them because of the incredibly long lines at each one. There was easily 1000 people waiting to get inside the Louvre at 10AM. Along the way, we had a delicious lunch of quiche, steak, french onion soup, and escargot. The snails were so good! And how can you go to France and not eat snails. It was a must. We then stopped and took a nap in the sun on the banks of the Seine River and wandered along shopping at all the street vendors. Then we boarded our 14 hour train back to Berlin and crashed.

Our last day of class was a late start. We visited the Soviet Memorial and went up to the top of the TV Tower for one last view of the city. Then a few of us went with Mr. Caldwell and ate African food for dinner. I had ostrich and it was delicious! Definitely wish we would've eaten at that restaurant earlier because I would've gone back a second time. After dinner, Connor, Will, Lauren, and myself spent the night out soaking up everything Berlin had left to offer us. We ended the night with one last view of the Reichstag before going back to our apartments, finishing packing, and starting our long day of traveling.

25 Juni 2012

Today we began our day at one of Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitations. It was built as a social experiment where everything a person needed was contained in one space. At one point, it held a school, a grocery store, and 530 functioning apartments. Unfortunately the experiment failed. While people still occupy the apartments, the grocery store and school are both closed now. I appreciate this building a great deal. While not necessarily appeasing to look at, the concepts and ideas that Corb had when creating it were revolutionary and for that, I enjoyed experiencing this Unite.

26 Juni 2012

First stop this morning was the Dutch Embassy by Rem Koolhaas. I liked touring this building because I could see the thought and intent behind the building and its concept and could appreciate the time spent creating all of those ideas. It is a well thought out project that I definitely enjoyed seeing.

We spent the afternoon at Treptower Park, which houses the Soviet War Memorial. It's a perfect example of the attitude that was felt towards the Nazis after the war. The Memorial is a massive statue of a Soviet solider holding a child while standing over a broken swastika. It conveys nothing else except for a message of pride in beating the Nazis. I enjoyed seeing this Memorial if for nothing else except for its sheer size.

That night Liz, Katie, and myself went to a Metric concert at the Postbahnhauf. It was such a great show! Good crowd, good music, good venue. Definitely was a cool experience.

27 Juni 2012

Today was all about the Berlin Wall. We went to Checkpoint Charlie and to the Wall Museum. While the area was full of history and should've been really interesting, it was too crowded and too full of tourists to really enjoy. The museum was cramped and hot to the point where you couldn't even really enjoy the exhibits. After that, we headed to the Wall Memorial which I did enjoy seeing. The footprint of the wall is outlined by corten steel posts that lead to a piece of the wall and no man's land that is still preserved. It was interesting to see some of the stories about people trying to escape to East or West Berlin while it was being built. 

28 Juni 2012

Mr. Caldwell took some of the students to Dresden to see some more modern architecture. Dresden was a city that was heavily bombed during World War II; 95% of it was gone and had to be rebuilt afterwards. Rather than moving past what had happened and creating new spaces and new buildings, they just rebuilt and reproduced what once was. But they didn't rebuild them to what they originally were. It's a very odd city to see. You think all the buildings are hundreds of years old when they've only been built in the last 100 years. The modern architecture we saw was very interesting though. We visited Daniel Libeskind's German Military History Museum and Coop Himmelb(l)au's UFA Cinema Center which was exciting. Seeing architecture in person that I've studied in class will always be unbelievable.