Vienna and Berlin

Hello!

So today is Tuesday. Let's recap the weekend!

Vienna was AMAZING! It was so gorgeous and it reminded me a lot of Prague. It's such a cute little town. Emi and Fabi who me and Brittney couch surfed with were so nice and a lot of fun to hang out with. They showed us around the city, and we saw Stephansplatz, the Rathaus, and some other cool parts of the Old Town. I love love loved the Old Town. It's one of the prettiest I've ever seen. It was pretty cold in Vienna though, so we spent a lot of Friday in a coffee shop. Saturday we got up and went walking through the shopping streets of Vienna. We wound up in a cool flea market and poked around for a while. From there we hopped on the Bahn to Schönbrunn Castle, where the royal family had their summer home. It was so pretty, although we didn't go in because it was expensive. Instead we walked around the gardens which were GIGANTIC, and we hiked up a hill to some gate thing, and there was a gorgeous view over the city. I really loved this castle. From the castle we walked over to the Danube Island, but it was cold, so we quickly walked away from there to the Prater, which is like a year round carnival or small amusement park. It was so cool because it was dark and cold and hardly any people were there. It was eerie walking around without masses of people like at Kennywood. It was free to go there, but the rides were expensive so I only rode one, called Ecstacy, which basically spun me and flipped my upside down in every way possible at very high speeds. It was a lot of fun! After we were done there we met up with Emi and she showed us a pub to go to. Instead we went and grabbed some food and mulled wine at a little cafe, and then we went to McDonalds. We ended up going home early that night and hanging out with our couch hosts some more. Sunday they helped us out with our German homework and we came home. I got home around 7 PM or so. I watched the FC Koeln game with my host family, they won and there was a streaker haha, and then we had spaghetti and I went to bed early.

I got up Monday morning around 5:15 and ran to catch a train to Berlin at 6:49. November 9th 2009 was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. There was a big celebration in Berlin, so we decided to go with our professor Laurel. We didn't realize how huge the celebration would actually be! Hillary Clinton was there, along with the British Prime Minister, the French President, Gorbachow, Angela Merkel, and a bunch of other people. There were 1000 dominos stacked along the former border of the Berlin wall from Potsdamer Platz, past the Brandenburg Gate, to the Reichstag. Each domino was decorated by different school classes or groups or people, etc. and they were all gorgeous and conveyed a great meaning. Also, there were several angels standing on top of different buildings watching over the city, probably a reference to "Himmel über Berlin", the story for which City of Angels was based. Within about 10 minutes of arriving in Berlin we met a girl from the Associated Press and gave her an interview. Then we basically just walked around! It was a great celebration. We had some more mulled wine in souvenir cups, and we browsed the Christmas market. Emily and I also walked through Parisienplatz where most of the festivities were taking place (Brandenburg Gate), but it got too crowded so we met up with the rest of the group. We met some people from NBC and they taped us singing and dancing and - SURPRISE - when we woke up this morning we realized we'd made national news with Tom Brokaw on NBC! I've never even made American national news in the US, let alone from Berlin!! How exciting! I'll post the link. Look for me right around the 3:20 mark after a clip of Hillary Clinton!!! I'm with a group of PCIC kids singing and dancing and I'm right up front on the left..you can't miss me!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33809427#33809427

Check it outtt!!! I'm so excited! How lucky am I to be thousands of miles away from home celebrating a historic event and wind up on the news! Definitely something I'll never forget. And I got to watch the dominos fall from right up front :-) It was freezing last night in Berlin and it was pouring down rain. We were drenched, so after the dominos came down we ran to Dunkin Donuts to try and dry off. We weren't very successful. We took the 00:32 train back to Cologne and we made it home after 7. It was nice because I had a couchette, which is basically a bunk, so I was able to get under the covers and sleep on the train. I went to starbucks in the Hauptbahnhof, and the straight to school. Then I decided I was tired and my socks and shoes were still soaked through as well as my pants and coat, so I came home early. And that's when I realized I was on the news! Thanks facebook!

Anyways, tomorrow is 11/11, a huge holiday in Cologne because it kicks off the season of Karneval which ends in a huuuuuge party the weekend before Ash Wednesday. 11/11 is just the first taste of the big party that'll happen in February or so. We don't have class tomorrow, and our only assigment is to wear a costume and take lots of pictures. And I'm sure we'll have a beer or two as well! Should be a blast! Talk to you soon!

Jess