Grockle – A Tourist :)

I’d be lying if I said I just got back from Easter break, because I didn’t, I’m just an inefficient blogger. Prepare yourself to be absolutely overwhelmed by how much I update in the next few days/weeks to make up for it. That statement may or may not be true. Regardless – Megan, Ally, Alex and I spent our whopping four-day Easter break to further explore Europe.

We revisited the wake-up-uncomfortably-early strategy that Friday, and were out of bed and onto the Gatwick Express to the airport at around 4-5am. After the key discovery of caffeine pills in the airport, we were on a flight Berlin-bound before we knew it. Once in the Berlin airport, we made a few vocabulary discoveries (Ausgang – exit!), found our way onto a train, and conveniently stumbled upon our hostel literally steps away. While a really clean, friendly, and comparatively awesome hostel, we happened to be located in the middle of some dusty fields desperate for post-war rebuilding/attention, so it was back on the train to Berlin’s city center to entertain ourselves.

After a delicious authentic lunch of “Berlin’s specialties” – pork sausages, sauerkraut, and meatballs, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day and hop on a tour boat to see the city from the river that runs through it. Berlin apparently has more water in rivers and canals than Venice, Amsterdam, and Stockholm combined, which was a pretty sweet fact since we have been/will go to two of those aqueous destinations. The river tour wound up and Megan navigated us back through the German public transportation system to our hostel.

That evening, we went out to a popular downtown area and found a delicious Thai restaurant for dinner. After a few different bars and stops around the area, we went to the super chic club, Watergate, which was RIGHT across the river from Universal Studios: Berlin – aww, my temporary employer. I was excited. And I took a picture. The club was really fun and we were very proud of ourselves for getting into such an exclusive venue.

Saturday morning we managed to get up at a very reasonable hour and catch a free walking tour of the city. Our tour guide was really energetic and informed about the city, and told great stories about Berlin’s history. I really appreciated hearing historical anecdotes that had happened so recently – it was a refreshingly different experience from the history from centuries ago in other cities. We saw the holocaust memorial, the site of Hitler’s bunker during the war, Checkpoint Charlie, where the Nazi book burning occurred, the BERLIN WALL (!!!) and tons of other noteworthy landmarks. We did some meandering around buildings that were still obliterated from the war, walked along the river, and then finally headed back to the train station to get on (dun dun dun) the night train!!

That’s right ladies and gentleman, we slept overnight on a train and woke up in none other than Paris, France :) Well, that’s how we thought of it in theory. In actuality we were in the smallest square footage of room, with triple bunked beds, located conveniently RIGHT OVER THE BREAKS… so every time the train stopped we were jolted awake and thought a war had broken out. Luckily, sleeping pills were provided, so over the 13 hour train ride, we packed in a few hours. We woke up with about an hour of travel time to spare, and the four of us awkwardly tumbled around the car trying to get dressed and get ourselves collected. It was okay though – we were in Paris!

Our first order of business after finding and checking into our hotel was to get to the Louve, considering it wasn’t the most beautiful day out. We navigated the Metro system (which made me appreciate our good ol’ London tube), and after a few switches and absurdly long hallways, we made it! Unfortunately, all of our other fellow tourists had had the same idea, so we abandoned ship and headed to Notre Dame; it was Easter after all. We were able to tour the church while the Easter service was happening, which was a pretty incredible experience. See Mom, I did make it to church on Easter! Thereafter we caught a hop on hop off bus down the Champs Elysses and stopped at Laduree for some incredible macaroons and tea, MMM. Our last stop of the day was l’Arc de Triumph, where we enjoyed awesome views of the city, and of course the Eiffel Tower.

That night for dinner, Megan and I were determined to find a restaurant from her itinerary list to ensure that our one meal in the city of lights would be fantastic. Many side streets and a little backtracking later, we found the first place on the list! It appeared to have been closed for roughly a decade. We settled with a bustling restaurant on that street with a delicious menu… completely unaware that we were smack dab in the middle of the gay district of the city. This fact became increasingly obvious to us over the course of our meal, but we were so distracted by our cheese plates, veal, delicious wine, and the hilarious wait staff to mind in the slightest.

Unfortunately, one choice I made at that meal proved to be a disaster later on. Of course, my “when in Rome/Paris!” attitude led me to order escargots at dinner, which might I add were delicious. The next morning, however, I woke up with terrible food poisoning :( I stayed in bed while Megan, Alex, & Ally went to the Louvre. I met up with them outside the Eiffel Tower, and we drove around Sacre Coeur, but at the end of the day I was really excited to just get home to London and be in my room again. Luckily, I’ve been to Paris and seen those sights before; I was just very disappointed I didn’t get to experience them with my friends. I guess this just means I have to go back? Cheers!