A word of warning: This is going to be the longest blog post ever. I have a week and a half of adventures to relay to you, so make a cuppa tea, sit back, and let's go back in time to April 17th at 7:48 PM in Dublin, Ireland.
From the journal of Sarah M. Kosch (just an fyi: the 'We' in Ireland equals myself and my fellow study abroaders Meghan, Kait, and Nikki along with my visiting friend and coworker at the Englert, Kristal. Kristal was only with us for the Ireland leg, though [because she went home, not because she got lost]):
Day 1:
Well, our hostel is pretty shitty, but I guess that's what hostels are good for, eh? But otherwise Ireland has been phenom. This morning was a little nuts trying to catch our bus by bus at 4:30 AM to get to the airport, but we made it a-okay. Our first stop after dropping off our bags at the hostel was to hit up the Jameson Distillery where we had a tour and quite a bit of whiskey. I was in a good place. We then proceeded to the Guinness Factory where we walked around, pulled our own pint, and then checked out the Gravity Bar with its 360 degree view of Dublin. By this time we were starving and pretty exhausted so we had dinner at a pub and now we're back at the hostel laying low. Tomorrow is our Galway bus tour and it's Kait's birthday! We will be going out fo sho!
Day 2:
Wow, so Galway stole my heart. Breath. Taking. We stopped at a Bronze-age tomb and a little town called Doolin (our awesome bus driver PJ's hometown) for lunch, then onto the Cliffs of Moher. Goodness is was easily one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. The misty Atlantic stretching into infinity past the towering cliff faces. So grand. So awe-inspiring. It's nominated to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and it's got my vote hands down. We stopped at another cliff without barriers so we could get right to the edge. I could've stood in one spot for hours. Last we stopped at a fairy castle, and with the oncoming twilight and high tide, it was a legit Kodak moment. When we got back to Dublin we had dinner at an American style diner (which I did not choose, thanks - I hate going to places like that when we're in EUROPE) and my chicken basket made me sick or the water here or something, but the point is that our crappy hostel ran out of toilet paper and I had to use paper out of this notebook. I think I've gotten as low as I can go. Anyway, Meghan and Nikki came out with Kait and I while Kristal rested with a migraine and we heard an Irish man sing Galway Girl. What better birthday present than that?
Day 3:
This morning was slow-going, but we finally got on the move and took a peek in Trinity College, but people were graduating so we felt like we were intruding. Now we are sitting in Saint Stephen's Green and soaking in the sunlight. It's beautiful weather once again. Ooh note to self: Buy leather jacket. I borrowed Kristal's last night and it was way bad ass. Ooh another note: I keep thinking about how Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker lived here and walked these streets and maybe even sat in this green! It's making me want to write poetry. (note: the version appearing here was later revised on the flight to Berlin)
To Dublin
First things first-
The hostel smells like piss.
The key: Don't stay.
The promise: The grass is greener.
I sit in damp earth and pick clovers.
I feel sunshine and sweat and let the green soak into my unwashed and will stay dirtied body
(when showers are dirtier than me what's the point?)
The point is I met an old man at the pub and he told me he saw an American woman drink four pints of Guinness and walk across the river Liffey. "Right over the water," he said. "Then she walked back and had four more." He said he didn't know what happened to her after that. "She probably walked home," chimed in his friend. I laughed with my pint in my hand and loved the twinkle in their wrinkled eyes. Later, my own chime sounded but it was too late for puns. Still - stout floats eternal.
Secondly, minute details and our vision is stolen by misty ocean days and cliffs that plunge my stomach just by looking.
You say breath.
I say taking.
Whiskey warm and a bus driver named PJ. We bounce down narrow roads and take pictures to try to hold onto the shifting landscape. No matter, something always eludes us - Illusions in digital - the blue is never quite right.
Third night in the hostel I dream about Nebraska kisses and the way the stars look above a campfire. I'm not homesick, just homebound with familiar videos on repeat in my head. I dream of hot showers and clean hair and fall asleep in somebody else's blankets.
In the morning, I go out early and buy water just to have an excuse to say good morning and smile and hear the cashier say, "Have a good day, love," and I love this place with the dirt and the train tracks and the alleys of broken glass and the silver knots that mean eternal love.
I slip it on.
I make it a part of myself.
The film reel rolls on and shifts to open hands on my heart.
Later: After the park we wandered to Saint Patrick's Cathedral and the Dublin Castle, both of which weren't all that spectacular. Kristal kept saying how she told us Dublin could be explored in half a day. I guess she's right, but I'm glad we spent all day there today. Kristal, Kait, and I split off to see the Writer's Museum, though Kait ended up not wanting to pay so it was just Kristal and I. It was sooooo neat though. There was a first edition of Dracula and a ton of stuff about Oscar Wilde and I learned a lot about other Irish writers like Joyce, Yeats, Beckett, etc. Note to self: I really need to read Ulysses. After that we wandered around sort of shopping until we met up with everyone for dinner at O'Neil's where I had Irish beef and Guinness stew - omg so good. I need to find the recipe when I get back to the states. We hung out at the pub and watched a football match for a bit, left to do a bit more shipping and then came back to the hostel to figure out how to pack everything that we've bought. Tomorrow - Germany!
Day 4:
(on the plane) I must mention what a lovely morning I had in Dublin. I woke up earlier than everyone else and didn't want to just lay there so I got ready for the day and went on a walk. I was just in such a wonderful mood soaking in the morning. I talked to the cashiers when I bought some water and snacks for later and tried to get one more fix of Irish accents, walked along the River Liffey and sat on a bench thinking for while, then decided to stop at a souvenir shop I'd passed (there aren't a whole lot of them in Dublin, but I sort of wanted to get a legit Claddagh ring). The shop I saw didn't have any, but a little jewelery store down the way had some decently priced ones. The shopkeeper was so charming and helpful and we chatted about my travels and I told him I knew you weren't supposed to buy Claddagh rings for yourself but he said that's just an old wives' tale. I ended up getting a Trinity Knot which means eternal love. I guess since I got it for myself it symbolizes eternal love for myself, but it could also represent that I believe eternal love exists. I'm thinking the latter. Anyway, it was the perfect way to say goodbye to Dublin and probably my second favorite thing that's happened this trip after the Galway tour.
We are now on our flight to Berlin and I'm trying to get over my anger at Ryanair after they made me check my backpack, claiming it was too big to be a carry-on, even though it wasn't any bigger than Meghan, Nikki or Kait's. Plus I watched so many people with way bigger carry-ons board the place. (insert profanities) 35 euros down the tube.
Later in Berlin in the evening:
Showers, showers, showers! Praise the good Lord Jesus I'M CLEAN!!!!!!!!! 36 Rooms Hostel is so much more legit than the Dublin hostel. During the taxi ride from the airport we listened to the cab driver's Johnny Cash CD the whole ride. Lolz.
Yet later:
We walked around and looked for food and ate at a pizzeria. They guy didn't speak English so I had to try to pronounce zupa di broccoli and explain I wanted soupen. Then we went for a walk and found a place with 3.50 euro cocktails. It was a Mexican cantina. In Germany. We are unbelievably diverse. It was called Que Pasa and we drank yummy drinks. And I did drink German beer at dinner so don't worry, I'm not missing the true German experience.
Day 5:
Went on a free walking tour and gained a new and expansive appreciation for Berlin and its history (see facebook album for further info). After the tour we went to see a part of the Berlin Wall that had the two walls and the death strip in between. It's something I never fully understood the significance of until I saw the way the wall could divide even a neighborhood in half, cut through a graveyard, make a church inaccessible because it was in the death strip, and just change people's lives and separate them from loved ones for decades. After the wall we made our way to meet Meghan's friend Shannon who works in Berlin. We ate dinner at a sandwich place that had these sort of paninis with cabbage - it was so good and now I'm craving anything with sauerkraut. We chatted with Shannon and her roomies for a bit - poor girl had re-torn her acl after having surgery - and then went to Que Pasa for another round of cheap, fruity drinks. "Give me two pina coladas, I gotta have one for each hand"..Done. In German.
Day 6:
I'm currently on the U ban (German metro) headed towards the last stop on the line which is where Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is. I'm very excited to experience this. I keep thinking about the Holstein classes I've taken, and I can't believe I'm physically going to visit a place that we've talked about. I feel like I used to have such a prejudice against Germany, but I'm so glad yesterday I got to hear their story. I'm realizing how much they've taken responsibility for what happened in the Holocaust and how they are doing so much to make sure people never forget the victims. There are so many memorials here and I think it will at least help to prevent history from repeating itself again. And I think it's quite respectable that they're trying. Obviously, not every individual in the country feels the same way, but then again, not every individual was guilty in the first place. It's easy to blame, but hard to accept blame especially when there can never be one clear answer about who's really responsible. It's also amazing how recent all this history is. 1945 was not that long ago in the grand scheme of things, and the Berlin Wall has only been down for twenty years. Reconstruction in Berlin from WWII was still being finished 3-4 years ago. It's easy to think that all this is dry words for the history books, but people are still living through the effects. Alright the U Ban's getting bumpy. More after the Sch. visit.
Later:
I'm too exhausted to talk about the camp right off the bat. We toured it, came back to the hostel for a siesta, and then went to dinner at an Indian restaurant with Hindu Buddhas out front. Then Nikki and I wandered around looking for ice cream and I said 'hallo' and 'danka' (hello and thank you) to the clerk and felt accomplished.
Anyway, the camp. I wasn't affected as much as I thought I'd be. The tour was a bit rushed and I didn't get to really spend time at the exhibits. I was struck by how lovely and calm the scenery was in comparison to the history. One thing that scared me, though, was the extermination bunker because this camp wasn't a death camp so they wanted to keep the other prisoners from knowing people were being killed. They disguised the extermination bunker as a doctor's office complete with a waiting room playing classical music. There was a hidden room and when the prisoner went to have his/her height measured against the wall, they were shot in the back of the head. There was a small gas chamber where about 30 women were killed and an infirmiry and morgue where autopsises and experiments took place. The morgue was the part I really felt the weight of those who had laid there - probably because I managed to get away from the tour group for a moment and have some time alone.
I was sort of bothered by our tour guide's way of talking about the camp and making it seem melodramatic - yes it was horrible, horrible, horrible but there's so much more to it and so many angles to consider. To say the Germans were sadistic (as the tour guide kept emphasizing) is too easy. Obviously, we all have some sort of capacity for darkness. How much of an effect does the environment and situation have? What would I have done in the place of a German wanting the best for my family and friends? I don't think there's any answer but that just proves we can't make blanket statements about everyone. Or can we? The doctor's office extermination bunker was sadistic, no way around it. The things that happened are beyond words. I don't know what to feel or how to respond. It's just too bug. Too, too, big, like the overwhelming height of the stones in the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. Big and cold and rough and impossible to get ahold of.
Day 7:
Slept in, took a shower, got ready and started of to enjoy our last day in Berlin. We went souvenir shopping, I ate a real bratwurst from a street vendor (mmm), more shopping, and ate a last meal at a fancy German restaurant. Now we're back at the hostel repacking. We'll pay Que Pasa a farewell visit, and we have to be out of the hostel tomorrow by 4 AM. Whew, Barcelona here we come! They better let me take my backpack on as a carry-on or imma start throwing punches.
Day 8: Easter Sunday
Note to self: Never, ever fly at 7 AM again. A) I looked blankly at the security clerk and asked her to speak English and she laughed at me and told me 'laptop' was English. Fail. B) I got through security and faced a glass wall and asked a guard where to go. He pointed at the green arrow above his head. I'm glad Berlin's last impression of me was that of stupider than usual American. Eventually we made it to Spain, found our hostel after a scare of not being sure it existed (google maps actually failed us and gave us directions to the hostel's old location). Our hostel is amazing. The guy who runs it is named Hugo and he's so nice. He's making everyone paella for dinner. We took a bus tour of Barcelona, but I kept dozing off so I missed a few key aspects. And by a few I mean a lot. The city is extremely pretty, though, and has a distinct vibe. I found a cathedral for Easter mass, but I had to stand in the back because the security guard couldn't understand I wanted to get in for mass and I didn't know how to say it in Catalan.I got so homesick there because I just missed being with the fam on Easter and it sucked feeling unwelcome at church. I love all this traveling, but I'm ready to be home. I miss the people I can spend forever with and not turn into a rabid bitch around. Constant time with my traveling companions is driving me bonkers.
Day 9:
Kait and I went to a cafe down the street for breakfast. I was loving my huevos, tocino, papas fritas, y cafe con leche until something dropped from the ceiling onto my arm and started crawling. I started shrieking and flailing but I didn't know how to say 'cockroach' in Spanish to explain my crazy behavior to the confused-looking waiter. (shudder) Thank God I was wearing long sleeves.
We took the metro to find a tram and go to the top of Mount Tibadabo. The view was gorgeous! There's an amusement park at the top, and even though we didn't ride any rides, it was such a fun atmosphere. From here we separated and Kait and I went to go find the Pedrero and Sagrada Familia, both designed by Gaudi. Kait and I stopped for a crepe and took pictures of a church we assumed was the Sagrada Familia before we realized it was just a random, pretty church. We then found the real Sagrada Familia (beautiful) and then wandered our way past the Arc de Triomf, Zoo, Parc de la Ciutadella, and a maze of narrow alleyway markets to the Museo Picasso which was amazing and now I want to learn more about Picasso. We wandered around the streets after and eventually got dinner at the same place we had lunch at yesterday. I had paella and this crazy delicious pork dish, and we shared a jug of sangria. Much great conversation ensused, as to be expected. It was pretty much the perfect day.
Day 10:
Hit up la playa for some fun in the sun, and had a little too much fun because we are now all quite crispy, but the beach was lovely minus the annoying hawkers wandering around repeatedly trying to sell massages and sandy coconut. We applied aloe vera and continued our day with shopping on La Rambla. I miss British sales people who ignore customers until we approach them. The shop keepers on La Rambla made me not want to buy anything because they were all up in my grill and some were incredibly creepy. Hugo made dinner for us again (seriously, this hostel is too good to be true). We're getting all packed up (well, I'm not because I'm writing) and tomorrow I want to buy fresh strawberries from the market and walk to a park in honor of Adam Winters and his past adventures to Barcelona. :)
Day 11:
Woke up, packed, wandered down La Rambla, shopped at the market, bought fresh (non-sandy) coconut, had lunch sitting under palm trees, wandered to the docks, wandered to Parc de la Ciutadella, wandered to buy helado, wandered to dinner, wandered to the hostel to pick up our bags and bid Hugo goodbye with heavy hearts, wandered to the airport, long, long, long trip home. So tired.
Present day reflections: If I were to put a soundtrack to this trip, it would switch back and forth between Dashboard Confessionals 'Everybody Learns from Disaster' and Garth Brooks 'Two Pina Coladas'. It was definitely a whirlwind, definitely exhausting, but definitely worth it all.
And now ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for: Let's talk about the Royal Wedding, yeah?
I had one day in between getting back to London and the wedding, and that was spent in the company of my friend Sarah Albert, visiting from Edinburgh, Scotland, where she has been studying all year. Friday, Little Sarah, my roommate Kari, Meghan, Nikki, Kait and I made our way to the bus stop at 4:30 AM, got to Victoria Station and walked to Buckingham Palace. I estimate we got there by 5:30, and there was already a crowd gathered - early birds like ourselves, over-nighters, and the crazies that had been camped out there for days. Sarah and I got separated from the pack early on because I had no desire nor will to fight for a place up front. We instead settled in a nice spot pretty close to the mall behind a group of 4 mums, 1 grandmum, and 13 children who had spent the night there. The mums reminded me of Jackie Tyler from Doctor Who and were entertaining to watch as they donned Union Jack wigs and scarves and defended their circle of lawn chairs and yoga mats with immovable strength. I felt very safe, even when the ever-moving crowd threatened to flip me over one of the lawn chairs and snap my legs in half. The Jackie Tylers yelled at everyone to stop pushing and I was saved. It was my honour to return the favour when some sassy loud mouth behind me talked about pushing through their circle. I was set to defend those thirteen children like my own. The kind/sane people in our section (myself and Sarah, the Jackies and kids, two Canadians behind me, and a mum, daughter, and boyfriend to my left) joined forces to protect each other from the baddies (the sassy loudmouth, other shameless shovers, and a drunk American woman) and keep our hard earned places from being stolen.
At 9 AM things started happening. Cars came in and out of Buckingham Palace, and even though we didn't know who was in them, we cheered and waved anyway. As it got closer to 11, the excitement intensified. One of the Jackies had someone on the inside and a headset, and she reported to us when Kate got into the car 'looking radiant.' I was able to catch a glimpse of white as she drove past. Last the Queen drove through and the sight of her bright yellow dress cheered me to the core.
I bought a program for 2 quid and followed along as the wedding was broadcasted from loudspeakers. Miraculously, the loud people around me shut up for the 'I will's' (after much aggressive shushing from multiple parties) and as we cheered from the street, I felt so happy to be able to share in this with the British. I don't think I'll ever be able to sing 'My Country Tis of Thee' again without switching to the words of the English national anthem. God save the Queen.
When the ceremony was over, we waited for the wedding procession to take their loop around London and return to Buckingham Palace. I had a perfect view of Kate and Will's open top carriage, and the rest of the Cinderalla-esque carriages of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh and the other members of the wedding party.
The crowd then began shifting for the balcony kiss. They barricades where to be taken down so people could get closer to Buckingham Palace, but some barricades weren't and in the mad rush of the crowd, Sarah and I leapt over a fence and barricade and joined the queue, getting separated in the process. We waited in eager anticipation and when one of the curtains on the door of the balcony rustled, everyone freaked out and soon the newlyweds emerged, smiling and waving. The rest of the royal family came out as well and we all watched as William kissed Kate. More smiling and waving ensued, then another kiss, and then there was a flyover by the air force.
Getting out of there was a nightmare, and I was sure I was going to pass out, but I eventually made it to open space and was able to breathe and move normally again. Now that I'm no longer sick to my stomach, sore, and utterly exhausted I can easily say I'm glad I went. It feels pretty good to be present for a fairy tale come true.
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