One Year Later

A year ago today I boarded the first airplane of many and started out into what would become one of the greatest adventures of my life.

When I left I had no idea what was in store for me. A year ago today I could have never imagined what it was like to live with an amazing host family, or to become so familiar with the trains, buses, trams, and even airports in Berlin that they would become second nature to me. 

I could have never imagined that I would stand with 100,000 people in St. Peter's Square as Pope Benedict gave his last blessing. I would have never imagined freezing by the canals of Copenhagen as my friends and I experienced the coldest, most miserable picnic ever. Now I have climbed the Duomo in Florence, and felt the wind in my hair as I rode the water buses down the canals in Venice. I have hiked to old castles in the Schwarzwald, picnicked on the windswept English moor in the rain, and had tea in the Pump Room in Bath where Jane Austen once navigated the complex social games of Regency England. 

I have traversed the ancient paths of Stonehenge, reveled in the majesty of the Cliffs of Moher, and understood how people can believe in fairies among the mythic landscape of Ireland. I've crossed the Westminster Bridge beneath the shadow of Big Ben, hiked the 510 steps to the top of the Cologne Cathedral, explored the vastness of the Prague Castle, cheered in the stands of the Colosseum where so much ancient blood was spilled, and peered excitedly through train windows in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Italy. I explored museums full of ancient artifacts, walked among the old Viking houses of Hedeby, visited both the Ostsee and the Nordsee in one day, and tasted some of the best beer Germany has to offer. 

I've come face to face with the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, antisemitism, and the Berlin Wall in both Nuremburg and Berlin. I stood where figures of myth and legend once stood, and, in doing so, I have gained an even deeper understanding of Europe, Germany, and, particularly, Berlin. I have seen a city struggling to emerge from the chains of its past, and it is truly incredible what the German people have accomplished--an ability to once more take pride in being German. 

Most of all, I came into contact with so many amazing people who I would never have met otherwise, from the woman who helped us when we were lost in Copenhagen, to my wonderful host parents Gerd and Elke, to the close friends I made in my program. Traveling and living in a foreign country forms deeper bonds than most people realize, and I will always cherish the memories of our times in Berlin and exploring Europe together. It is amazing how much hospitality was poured out to me from relatives, old friends, and people I had never met. Traveling taught me that all you have to do is ask, and there are good people willing to do everything they can to help.

So much changed in those four months that I lived in Berlin, and in the eight months after that too. I have grown as a person, become more confident in myself, and, most of all, I have had the world opened up before me. Living in Europe taught me that I can achieve the things I want to achieve. When popping off to Ireland for the weekend on a whim becomes commonplace, anything seems possible.

Heading into 2014, the year I graduate (a terrifying thought), it seems impossible for this next year to live up to everything I experienced last year. But after everything I did experience, I intend to embrace the coming year and find new adventures. Europe changed me and kindled an already existing passion for the diverse cultures of the world. But in all the places I traveled, and through all I experienced, one thing remained constant and was made abundantly clear to me over and over again--that God, the creator of the universe, cherishes his people, and that he is an awesome God.

Rachel Lamine

On to the English Countryside

Sooooo. Just ignore that I'm writing about what happened during the latter half of my trip to England almost six months later. At least I'm getting it done in the same year I suppose. Life really got away from me between working three jobs this summer and plunging back into the rigors of Grove City.

Either way, the second half of our trip to England was one of the most unforgettable few days of my semester. My mom and I were truly blessed to stay with our friends, John and Lin Griffin, in a tiny village just outside of Bristol for three days. It is crazy the way God works sometimes. My parents met John and Lin eight years ago while on vacation in the Caribbean. Three years later, my parents brought us kids along on another trip to the same location in the Caribbean where we happened to run into them in the airport. Five years after that, my mom emailed them about our England trip, expecting to maybe get dinner with them one night, but they invited us to come stay with them for three days! There is absolutely nothing like seeing a country with people who know and understand the area, so those three days I experienced some of the most mind-blowing events of my life.

John and Lin picked us up from an train station not too far outside of London on a sunny, May morning. After a quick visit to their daughter-in-law and adorable granddaughter, we were on our way across the rolling hills of the English countryside on our way toward Bristol.

I asked John what the plan was for the next three days. He simply smiled and said, "I guess you'll just have to wait and see."

The brilliant blue of the sky stretched endlessly, setting the fields alight in the bright baby green of spring. Some of the fields were painted yellow with what we learned was rapeseed, and sheep grazed gently between the hedgerows. I gazed hungrily out the window, unable to believe that I was traversing the same countryside that Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Thomas Hardy, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and so many others I admired had once walked.

A moment later, the car trundled over a hill, and John pointed and said, "Oh, look what we found."

It was Stonehenge.

Never have I had a moment of unadulterated awe, shock, and delight than I did just then.

Stonehenge is one of those places that I've seen my entire life in pictures, books, and movies, but to experience it in person was something I had never imagined for myself. I was like a kid, bouncing delightedly around the stones, imagining the windswept eons that this unknown stone structure had witnessed.

John asked my mom if Stonehenge was everything she had imagined, and she responded "well, I actually always imagined it being cloudy, windy, and raining." We teased her for the rest of the trip that we could always come back when the weather wasn't so nice.

John and Lin live in a beautiful house that was once a stable dating back to the 1600s in the tiny village of Wrington just outside of Bristol. John, who is a native of Wales and fluent in Welsh, made sure to point out "God's country," as he always called it, across Bristol Bay. That evening, I took a walk along the public footpaths that ran through the village, and could not help but feel a little like Elizabeth Bennet as I traipsed over the stiles in the purple haze of dusk.

The next morning we hopped in the car, and, in true John and Lin style, they told us nothing about where we were going.

The first stop was an old English manor house for tea and scones. Again, it was something sprung from the pages of a Jane Austen book.

Then, we were back in the car, on to Exmoor for lunch, and as we got there it started raining and the wind howled around me, tugging at me hair, the blustery, dismal atmosphere exactly as I'd always imagined in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. My mom and I were absolutely delighted.

Me, looking pensive on the moor.

Wild ponies on the moor!

We moved on to the Valley of Rocks, which reminded me of the grandeur of the Cliffs of Moher.

These goats were no more than a few feet from us.

Then, back in the car and on to Lynmouth, a small English fishing village that is a popular tourist destination for those who enjoy hiking and the outdoors. In 1952, a massive flood swept the village away, killing many who were vacationing there. Today it has been rebuilt.

Finally, we took a scenic route back through the wandering hedgerows and came upon what my mom called the "actually gorgeous" view (for which we teased her about for the rest of the trip again).

The next morning we drove to a bus stop (again, John and Lin told us nothing), but as we took the bus in to the city, I realized that we were heading to Bath, a city where Jane Austen resided for many years and was a prominent figure in both Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. My mom and I, as Jane Austen connoisseurs, were more than a little excited as we wandered the streets. Then, John and Lin took us to the Pump Room, and I could not stop grinning like an idiot.

A string trio played music while we ate tea and crumpets in the room where Jane Austen (and her characters Anne Eliot and Catherine Morland) had once played the social games of English society.

Me, John, Lin, and mom.

The Pump Room is so named because out the window, the old Roman Baths are located, and water used to be pumped out of the spring and consumed to improve one's health. Mom and I were privileged to be able to tour the ancient ruins of Roman Britannia.

We also took a bus tour of Bath itself. Bath is a unique city as most of the buildings are made out of a tan-ish stone which, unfortunately, turns black over time. Many cleaning measures have been taken in recent years to restore Bath to its original image.

That evening, Mom and I took a train back to London, where we spent one final day before flying out. I am very glad that we did, because it gave us a chance to visit the British Library, which was far and away the highlight of my London trip. The library had an exhibit (which, as an English major, I basically cried my way through) containing the oldest copy of Beowulf, the oldest extant copy of the New Testament (from 350AD!), the Magna Carta, original Beatles lyrics on napkins, the original score of the Messiah in Handel's own hand, as well as original works by Beethoven and Bach, the manuscript of Jane Eyre, poems in William Wordsworth's hand, and so much more. I was vibrating with excitement by the end of that trip, and I felt truly blessed to have been able to see such priceless treasures of literature.

My trip to England with my mom was one of the highlights of my semester, not only because I experienced so many wonderful things, but because I got to spend time with my mom, and we now share unforgettable memories of Europe.

This trip came at exactly the right time. Leaving Berlin was hard, harder than I had expected to be, but because I had something to look forward to before flying home, it made leaving just a little easier.

London outside the screen

I'm back to playing catch up again as I am already back in the USA, but I still have to let everyone know about my incredible trip to England with my mom. Then, I will finish up this blog with thoughts on my semester and on my return to the US. 

On May 1, my mom joined me in Berlin where I showed her around for two days. On May 4, at 7:30AM, we hopped on a Lufthansa flight that would take us to London, England.

As far back as I can remember, England has been a place of myth and legend in my mind. What I knew about England I knew from reading in novels and history book, or from watching BBC movies and TV shows. Since I was 16 I have obsessively been into Jane Austen's books and movie adaptations, as well as most other period dramas. My obsession with Doctor Who had given me a taste of modern England, and researching for my novel, which is based on Roman Britannia, gave me a taste for the more ancient history. It was unbelievable to finally be stepping foot in a country I knew so much about, only to find it different than I had ever expected.

Our first two days were spent primarily wandering the London streets, strolling through Hyde Park and St. James's, and meandering along the Thames.

Flowers in front of our hotel by Paddington Station

One of the Queen's swans in Hyde Park

Weeping willow in St. James's Park

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben in the distance

Big Ben!

Westminster Palace that Big Ben is part of.

Me in front of the Eye

221B Baker St. - the famous address of Sherlock Holmes. There is a Sherlock Holmes museum here now.

Below is pictured St. Paul's cathedral which mom is standing in front of. This is where Kings and Queens have been crowned and where the royal weddings take place, most recently the highly televised wedding of William and Kate.

But apparently they don't have this one. (I also got to watch Doctor Who LIVE on  BBC One on Saturday night!!!)

The Globe Theater, Shakespeare's original theater (rebuilt)

Tower Bridge - It was the only bridge in London not destroyed in WWII because German pilots used it as a landmark.

Tower of London

Adorable pigeons bathing in a fountain!

For the Harry Potter fans!

HMS Belfast was a battleship in WWII and has been open to visitors since the  1970s.

 I did a lot of theater in high school, and so we could not go to Londond without going to see a show. We were in the fourth to last row in the theater to see Wicked, but it was completely worth it.

On Monday we attempted to visit the British library but it was closed. That was possibly the saddest moment of my life, because, being an English major, English literature excites me more than most things in life. We were, however, able to return on Friday during our one day return visit to London, and I basically cried my way through the exhibit it was so good. The library had on display the oldest surviving copy of Beowulf, writing in Jane Austen's hand, as well as Wordsworth's, Oscar Wilde's, Napoleon's, and Ben Jonson's, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Magna Carta, the Lindisfarne Gospels, as well as the oldest extant copy of the New Testament. That was hands down the most incredible thing I experienced in London.

We also visited the British Museum where I was able to view the Sutton Hoo mask, another priceless artifact that I had known about for years but never seen for myself. 

Sutton Hoo mask - circa 650AD

And, of course, we could not miss our on fish and chips, which we ate at Dickens's Tavern.

On Sunday evening, mom and I took the Underground out to Hounslow, a poorer and more ethnic area of London. Mom's friend Rosemarie had helped to start a church for Indian people who had immigrated to London, and we participated in worshiping Jesus in Hindi (the language of India). Afterward, we joined in a time of fellowship eating good, homemade Indian food. We met an incredible young woman named Sarita who shared her testimony with us and showed us the charity shop she worked in that the church had started for the people in Hounslow. It was wonderful to get away from the touristy part of London and experience something completely different. It was incredible to see how God was working in the lives of the people of this church.

After three lovely days in London we headed off with our bags to London Waterloo station to take a train to meet our friends from Bristol who we were going to stay with for three days. London was nothing like I expected, but, at the same time, it was everything I expected. Now I will know what to picture when I read any of those books set in London.

Mom with our bags in the Waterloo station as we wait to catch our train to Bristol.

Ich bin ein Berliner (and no one thought he meant donut)

An urban legend has grown up around JFK's infamous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech that people in the crowd thought he meant "I am a jelly donut" and therefore chuckled at the silly American President. In reality, no one actually thought he meant that, but I have had a Berliner donut and it is quite yummy. Like basically every food in Berlin.

Because I've spend so much time attempting to catch up on blogging about the places I've traveled, I haven't had time to post about the little things I love about Berlin. So here is an entire post dedicated to the amazing food Berlin has to offer.

Unlike any of the places I have lived previously, Berlin is a city that offers food on every corner in the form of  Imbisses (Imbiss essentially means "fast food stand"). I can easily get a hot, filling meal on the go anywhere in Berlin for between 2-4 Euro. Today, I was in the area around Französicherstraße and Friedrichstraße when I decided I was hungry and wanted döner. Sure enough, I walked for five minutes in an arbitrary direction and found a döner stand.

But what is döner?

THIS. Also, with a hot chocolate beside it.

Above is pictured a döner kebap im brot which is actually a Turkish dish. Berlin has the largest population of Turkish people outside of Istanbul, and so döner has become so much a part of Berlin's culture that it is considered very Berliner, even though it isn't German. It is basically lamb, onions, lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes with garlic, yogurt, or spicy sauce all wrapped up into an amazing mess of yummy-ness. My friends and I would usually get this at least once a week because it is quick, easy, and only costs between 2-3 euro depending on where you go. And they are sold absolutely EVERYWHERE.

However, standing above all other döner and all other places in Berlin is Mustafa's, a tiny, tiny stand in the middle of Kreuzberg that has a half hour line at all hours of the day (I've been by there at 1AM and the line still stretches down the sidewalk) because of its reputation as the best döner stand in the entirety of Berlin. People swear by it, and so, of course, we had to try it. And it definitely was good. 

Here is my friend Alicia in front of Mustafa's. You can see how tiny it is.

Alicia, Lisa, and I with our döner.

Mustafa's does add potatoes and cheese to the döner which most other places do not, which makes it extra good. Also, someone must have done an excellent job getting the word out, because this place is so popular only through word of mouth. 

Another extremely popular, and extremely Berlin food is currywurst. Unlike döner, which is originally Turkish, currywurst is not only very German, but specifically Berlin. Like döner, there is a currywurst stand on every corner.

What is currywurst exactly?

THIS is currywurst mit pommes.

You HAVE to get currywurst mit pommes and the pommes mit mayo. That is the only way to go I have learned in the bajillion times I've eaten currywurst in Berlin. Basically, currywurst is sausage smothered in ketchup (but not quite the same as American ketchup) and powdered with curry powder. It sounds a little odd, but it is one of the best thing you will ever eat. Pommes is, obviously, fries and you can order them smothered in mayo. Yes, it is rather a heart-attack inducing meal, but SO WORTH IT. Also, you eat with the tiny fork and stand together with other people at a table.

That is also something that is very German and doesn't happen in many other countries. Table sharing. It is socially acceptable in a full restaurant to sit down at a table with other people. Waitresses will tend to seat people in different parties at the same table when a restaurant becomes crowded. And so, when eating currywurst standing up outside, people crowd around the tall, metal tables and eat until they are finished.

You can see what I'm talking about in the picture below.

Curry 36 is one of the most popular destinations for currywurst in Berlin. My friends and I were here many a time at 2AM (considering it is right across the street from our favorite bar) and it was always full. It is right down the street from Mustafa's too, and many times people will wait in the shorter line for currywurst and then eat their currywurst and pommes while waiting in line at Mustafa's. In my opinion, that is the way to live.

Berlin is very "multi-kulti" as they say in German, and full of every kind of food you can imagine. 

Sara and I eating Eis (ice cream) in Charlottenburg. Ice cream in Europe is not nearly as good as American ice cream.

Ritter-Sport chocolate. This has been my life-source during my stay in Berlin. I've had at least 3 of these a week. This is one I created myself at the Ritter-Sport factory. Because that's a thing. And its awesome.

Brandon and I eating Schawarma, also a Turkish food, in Kreuzberg.

Sara and I eating Gozleme at the Turkish market.

And, of course, nothing beats washing it all down with good, German beer.

There are so many more dishes that I don't have pictures of, like schnitzel, bratwurst, spaetzle, and the incredible spread of breakfast brötchen. That is definitely something I am going to miss about Germany. The excellent, excellent food.