Berlin

Hello! Going to work on one trip at a time to update everyone. First: Berlin! Me and three friends went to Berlin a couple of weeks ago for about three days. Although we did not have the best weather while we were there, we made the most of it and had a really good time. We only saw the sun for probably a total of an hour while we were there, but we decided it fit the city very well. We took a quick flight from Geneva to Berlin and spent the first day mainly walking around and getting more familiar with the city.

Here is the German Parliament building. There was a really long line to go inside so we decided it wasn't worth it to wait.

After walking around a bit, we found the Brandenburg Gate which has grown to symbolize the divided city and the German reunification. There used to be nearly 20 gates into the city center of Berlin, but this is the only one that is still standing.

The gate was built 1788 but suffered a great deal of damage during WWII and was restored from 2000-2002.

The rest of the day we walked down the main strip of the city center--Unter den Linden which reminded me a lot of Champs Elysees in Paris. We headed back for an early dinner since we were all exhausted from our early morning. (We all had to catch the 4:40am train to the airport for our 7:00 flight).

The next morning we headed to the Berliner Dom which is the Berlin Cathedral.

The dome on top was hit by an aerial bomb during the end of the war. Originally, the dome was much higher, but was scaled down during the restoration. Many of Berlin's buildings had a similar heavy, dark feeling that you can see in this church.

The inside of the cathedral was very beautiful with a lot of gold embellishment. We were able to walk to the top of the dome and get an amazing view of the city.

This is a view from the dome of Berlin's famous TV Tower at Alexanderplatz.

View of the city from the dome. You can get a sense of the general dark, eerie feelings of the city that we felt while we were there. I have never felt how recent WWII was until I visited this city. There is definitely a heavy, almost tense, feeling there and a sense that the city is still trying to recover. 

After the cathedral, we headed to the German History Museum which was really fascinating. I was most interested in the Nazi history section. They had the actual tools they used to measure noses and hair and eye color to categorize people. It was extremely disturbing and again I could not believe how recently this had all happened. They were also having a temporary exhibit on Hitler. The exhibit was really neat because it focused more on the social situation of the city at the time and the many societal and economic influences that allowed him to come to power. 

That evening we found a really yummy German restaurant where I had some pork and potatoes (which I would learn is a favorite dish among the Germans...)

The next morning we headed to the Holocaust Memorial which my friend Cassidy told me was a must. I have to admit it was one of my favorite parts of the city. 

The memorial consists of 2,711 concrete slabs all of which are different. The coolest thing about this memorial is that there was no explanation given by the artist so that each person can walk away with their own feelings and interpretation. Everything, including the number 2,711, is supposedly arbitrary. If you can tell in the picture the ground is not flat so that where ever you are in the memorial you are either walking up or down. Still haven't decided my interpretation yet. 

Across the street we found the US Embassy! We were very excited to see a little piece of home. There are these bear all around the city of Berlin, all decorated differently. Here at the embassy they had the Statue of Liberty bear! 

We then made our way to the Charlottenburg Palace which is the largest and oldest palace in Berlin and was built at the end of the 17th century. It was built for the Prussian Empress Sophie Charlotte (who is buried under the Berlin  Cathedral, which I only later made the connection).The palace was damage during the war, but has been restored and now has a large garden area.

Knowing we were quickly losing daylight, we hurried to see Checkpoint Charlie which was the crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.  

Sign entering East Berlin.  

After snapping some quick pictures we ran back on the train to go to the East Side Gallery which is the largest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall.

It has now become an international memorial for freedom since over 100 painters from all over the world were commissioned to create there own art work along the wall in 1990. It is believed to be one of the largest open-air art galleries in the world. I took so many pictures, but will share some of my favorites.

"I painted over the wall of shame so freedom is ashamed no more. Inferno ruled too many years, until the people chose the light. I put my faith in you, Berlin, and give to you my colours bright!"

"Dancing to Freedom" Lindsay this made me think of you. Below is says "No more wars. No more walls. A united world."

"Gratitude to the killed and surviving refugees. Escape is a mighty method to destabilize dominion."

I took Cassidy's advice and I made myself and my friends walk to entire gallery. I am really glad that I did because this was by far my favorite part of my Berlin trip.

After defrosting from our walk, we made our way back to our hostel, ate some more yummy German food. I think I had the pork schnitzel that night with fried potatoes.

We woke up bright and early that next morning to head to Salzburg, Austria! Which will be coming soon!

Love and miss you all lots and lots.

A Bientot!

Paige

Lugano

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry about my last of posts lately, for the last two weeks I have had a lot of papers and finals. But it is over now! It is very strange to be finished with classes so early. The last month is free to focus on our big research project, which I hope to start working on soon after I recover from last week.

In the meantime, I want to share beautiful Lugano with you! Lugano is in southern Switzerland in the Canton Ticino. It is the Italian area of the country which was very obvious since everyone there speaks Italian instead of French and has amazing Italian restaurants everywhere. My group was there for five days, but my friends and I loved it so much that we stayed through the weekend instead of coming back to Geneva.

Lugano rests in a large valley and is surrounded by mountains. And of course has its own beautiful lake (lake Lugano) like most of the cities in Switzerland. One of the first days we decided to just start walking along the lake. We ended up finding this little hidden park on top of a hill that had an amazing view of the city. My friends Vanessa, Katherine, and Reena are taking in the view.

 

We stayed up there for a couple of hours and watched the sunset. It was so difficult to make myself leave. If I had had a tent I definitely would have stayed.

We all loved to spend time around the lake. One day we took some paddle boats out which was really fun. Below are some of my friends, Mallory, Laura, and Kady enjoying their ride.

The next couple of days were filled with lectures, but they were all really interesting. We heard from FOSIT which is the Cantonal mediator between the Swiss federal government and Swiss NGOs. They assess different NGOs and decide how to allocate Swiss federal humanitarian funding. We also heard from some NGOs who are doing a lot of amazing things including building schools in Nepal, building the first pediatric oncology hospital in Nicaragua, and a Swiss dentist who works in Burkina Faso.

My friends Katherine, Vanessa, and Andrew and I decided to stay over the weekend and explore the areas around Lugano. The weather was a bit cloudy and chilly but we still had so much fun. We took this small train outside the city up to an area really well known for hiking.

Even though the weather wasn't the best, I couldn't think of a better time to go because the trees were absolutely gorgeous. Fall has arrived!

We got off the train and decided to hike around for awhile. We found a really amazing trail that hugged the side of the mountain. When there were breaks in the tree line we could see out over the lake.

This hike was of my favorite parts of the weekend. I have never been so surrounded by so many beautiful trees. We ended up finding a great spot to rest and eat the lunch we packed. We stayed up there for quite a long time talking, laughing, and taking pictures...all of which we tend to do a lot.

The next day we went to a town outside Lugano called Lucarno. We heard there was good hiking outside Lucarno so we took a small regional train to an even smaller town called Intragna. This town is a part of the area called five valleys which is known for its hiking opportunities. We stumbled upon a lift that could take us up into the mountains.

We were all pretty scared. We were in a little glass box with nothing beneath us going really really high up. The worst was when the lift stopped mid climb which we think was an opportunity to take photos. Instead of taking pictures we just freaked out.

Here is Katherine and Vanessa on our way down the mountain. Poor Vanessa didn't have good hiking attire on that day, but she made it down like a pro.

Along the way there were little areas dedicated to the Blessed Mother which was so unexpected but beautiful.

Katherine and I mid hike. One of the most amazing parts of our hike was seeing all the houses tucked away in the mountains. We just stood in awe that some people wake up to these views everyday.

Another little dedication to Mary.

We then came along someones house! We decided this is where Snow White and the seven dwarfs must live.

There was a beautiful small river going along side this house.

We found the lift further down the mountain and decided to go ahead and take it down despite our traumatic experience earlier.

Here is a view of the lift that we took. The view was beyond amazing. Switzerland is slowly forcing me to get over my fear of heights.

The next day we caught the train back to Geneva. If you look on a map Lugano doesn't seem that far from Geneva, but because of the Alps we had to go to Zurich first then to Geneva. All in all the trip took about 6 hours. The train rides never seem long though and are actually really enjoyable. The views from Lugano to Zurich were unreal. Sorry about my hand reflection in the above picture, but I think it adds some character.

Another picture from the train ride with the Alps in the background. Again, that IS someones home...unbelievable. The trains rides are becoming one of my favorite parts because we always get to see so much that I would never get to see in a plane.

I really loved Lugano and was sad to leave. The last couple of weeks have been really crazy. I've written almost 30 pages (15 of those within the span of about 6 hours) and had three french exams since I last updated.

My friend Katherine and I are planning on going to Luzern which is in central Switzerland on Tuesday. We have heard it is a really beautiful, old city. Then on Sunday four of us are going to Berlin for a couple of days then heading on to Salzburg, Austria where The Sound of Music was filmed. The following weekend I am going to visit my friend Cassidy in Germany which I am really looking forward to. And somewhere in between all of that I will be working on my research!

Love you all and miss you very much.

A Bientot!

Paige

Desalpes!

Bonjour mes amis! I am so sorry it has been a while since I last updated. Last week was really crazy with three papers due and this week we were in Lugano where I didn't have access to internet.

I will catch you up on last weekend and work on Lugano sometime this week.

This past weekend was so wonderful because I got to spend it with my friend Cassidy. She is studying in Germany this semester so it was only a three hour train ride for her to visit! She got in Friday afternoon and I met her at the train station in Nyon. I think we almost knocked ourselves over when we bear hugged each other at the station.

Reunited and it feels so good! Just missing our other piece, Lindsay, who is holding down the fort in Chicago. She was definitely there in spirit.

Cassidy talks all about our weekend on her blog: http://ckgermany.blogspot.com/

She also has a really great video showing the festival we went to on Saturday morning.

I am going to focus on the festival we went to called Desalpes because it was my favorite part of the weekend.

We woke up really early to catch the train to Nyon and then the lift to St. Cergue which is up in the mountains above my town.

The Desalpes Festival is an old Swiss tradition where families march their cow herds down the mountain in preparation for winter. The herd owners show off their cows by giving them huge cowbells and even larger flower arrangements for their heads. How they got these things on the cows I will never know. Most of the time I thought about how funny my grandfather, who was a large animal veterinarian, would think this was.

Here they come! It was really interesting how it was just as much a show of the cows as it was for their owners. You can see in this picture how proud the men are of their herd.

This was a really cool part because we decided to walk up the hill a bit to get away from the crowd. We ended up running into a group that was coming down. We got to see them REAL up close.

Here is a closer look at how big some of the bells were. You can imagine how easy it was to hear when the next heard was on its way down.

We saw about five or six different herds come down all with different head pieces. In between our wait for the next group we walked around the little open air market that was set up all around the town center. There were traditional Swiss musicians, dancers, and craftsmen. I really felt like I was in the Swiss version of Silver Dollar City--minus the rides and funnel cake...

This was an amazing group of alphorne players. The little old man in front was tossing the Swiss flag along with the music. He looked like he had done this a time or two.

This was some type of Swiss game with a large bowl and a coin. We never fully figured out how it worked, but these two guys were very Swiss and loved talking with all the people that were crowded around them.

This little boy was so adorable I had to snap a picture! He was definitely dressed for the occasion.

This coming week we are meeting with a lot of really amazing organizations including Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). And on Thursday during French class we are visiting a school of chocolate!

Love and miss you all very much.

A bientot!

Paige