23 July 2012
On Friday I came back from Berlin after spending four days there. It was my first time abroad, and I found it really really weird not knowing what any of the signs said or anything like that. But it was also my first time flying, and I have to say it was one of the most exciting things I've ever done. I was nearly crying on the way there because it was so beautiful. The first day was amazing. We got a bus from the airport to the hotel, and our tour guide gave us a bit of a history lesson regarding the Berlin wall. The hotel itself was amazing, but we couldn't check into our rooms until four o clock, so we went out to a train station and sketched bits of the city that we could see. We went to the Hamburger Banhof (it's a gallery, not a fast food place) and looked around there, then headed back, checked in, and had dinner. After that we caught a train to the holocaust memorial and the Sony Centre. On Wednesday, we went to the Neue National Gallery and another gallery whose name I've forgotten. However, it was then that things began to go wrong. My friends started arguing and then one of them was getting picked on by one of the more popular girls, and my friend got told off for it. They left me behind as we were walking, so I was on my own for most of the day. Thursday was better. We went to what's left of the Berlin wall and looked at the street art there, taking photos and sketching them. In the afternoon we had a street art tour and we were taken to a lot of little courtyards where the walls were covered in little pictures and messages. We had a workshop as well, teaching us how to cut stencils and spray paint them. We did it on cardboard though, because street art is, in fact, illegal. At night we went to an artists' squat; basically a massive building full of artists who are living there illegally, making their living from the tourists who buy what they make. It was incredibly strange, but if they'd cleaned it up and got rid of the smell, I could see myself there. Not illegally, though. However, we also went out onto the balcony and into the garden, where a lot of people were smoking... Well, I don't think it was tobacco. I managed to breathe quite a lot of it in, and by the time we got back to the hotel, I felt sick, I was really dizzy, everything looked like it was moving when it wasn't, and I was crying for no reason. So yeah. That went well. Friday was a lot easier. We just had free time to spend in Alexanderplatz, a big shopping area, and I bought a Stetson. I've been after one for ages. Then we went back to the hotel, collected our stuff and left. I got home at eight thirty pm. I recently examined the damage and discovered that I have twelve blisters, a pulled muscle in my leg, I've done my knee and hip in, I've lost five euros, and I am emotionally exhausted. Yes, Berlin is beautiful and amazing and full of awesomeness, but I wouldn't go again with my teachers. Things go way too fast and way too far, and the experience on Thursday night was one of the worst of my life. So there you go. Four days squished into six hundred words. I guess now I should go back to bed and hope tomorrow is a good day.
Goodnight, my friends.
xxx
I Have Returned! • Opuss № I