Philharmonie

Already Friday, I think I only have 7 weeks left… boy is time flying! This weekend I will be in Berlin, celebrating Birthdays and we were invited to go drinking with the group of HTW student at Berlin’s Oktoberfest so that and along with all of the homework I have to do, should make for a fun weekend!

This week went by smoothly; on Monday we went to HTW and met with the engineering students that are going to help us with out projects. There school was so much nicer than Wentworth, it is in an old factory complex on the Spree River, and they had green walls! There lecture classrooms were also set up differently, the desks folded down from the seat in front of you.

Wednesday we went on a field trip to a Music School, which use to be where the King stored his horses and carriages. There were some cool acoustical elements, and one of my fellow classmates played the piano for us so we could test out the acoustics.

On Thursday I went to the Philharmonie and got to listen to the whole Orchestra, it was an amazing experience. I have never seen a professional orchestra perform before, so it was just breathtaking. The group I went with all dressed up too and it made for a nice night. 

On the way back to the U Bahn, we stopped into Potsdammer Platz and got to see it all lite up at night, it changes between blue and purple. The whole complex is just out of this world, and I could never imagine it in Boston or the United States for that matter.

I have been trying to use German, and I ordered perfectly in German at the Philharmonie, 2 red wines, and she thought I was speaking English and just got very upset with me, so that was disappointing, but least I can order at the Backeri.

Observations:

Germans don’t like to go out of their way to talk to you or ask you if you need help unless they need something from you.

Germans don’t believe in dryers and are kind of behind in personal technology, no Kindles here!

The deposit for bottles here is .25 cents!

Germans think swimming when it is 80 degrees out is sheer madness!

You see the same beggars on the train time after time again, and musicians

BARCELONA: Gaudi, Seafood, Beach, and SANGRIA!!

That is what I would sum Barcelona up as! It was such an amazing trip. Barcelona is such a beautiful Mediterranean city.

The night before we left for Barcelona, most of us when out for Michele’s 22^nd birthday to this German restaurant.  It was such a good time, and I shared a bottle of Dark Red Riesling with someone and it was so yummy. When we got back to our flats, Carlie had bought a tart for Michele, so we sang happy birthday to her and I called it a night.

….Well 4am came, and my alarm clock went off. But I didn’t wake up till 5:30 when Carlie woke us up!! So Julia and I got ready in 10 minutes and ran out the door, and thankfully didn’t miss our flight. We took easyJet, which is a budget airline, very similar to Southwest except more cheap!! So we landed in Barcelona before noon and figured out how to get to our hostel. It took a bit to check in, but the place was really cool in an old gothic building in the heart of Barcelona and very close to the beach. I went with a group of 13, so we settled into our rooms and then went to the beach and grabbed lunch at Ryan’s Pub. We had Sangria, that wasn’t very strong, and had a very fun waitress! After that I laid on the beach for a bit and then the whole group of us got ready and went to a Flamenco show!!

The show was really fun, but not worth how much we paid. Nonetheless, it was still a good show. There was a group of 4 girls and a guy, and there were the best dancers, especially one of the girls. If you don’t know what Flamenco dancing is, it is just went girls were fancy dresses, were tap shoes, and everyone screams OLEY!! After the show we broke up into smaller groups and got dinner. I tried Paella, which is Spanish rice with seafood, it was really yummy and great with Sangria. I was exhausted from such an early morning, so I called it a night.

On Friday morning, I got up early and went with a smaller group of people to check out this market we learned about in school. It was an old building that they re-used as a market by putting this curved colorful tile canopy over it. I was a little disappointed to find that it was more of a grocery store than a market, but it was still a really cool thing to see. Afterwards we bought tickets to hop on a tour bus to take us around Barcelona, it was one of the ones were you can sit upstairs and be outside, and they told you all sorts of facts in between stops.

We got off at Gaudi’s most famous villa and took pictures, and then headed to the Sagradia Familla, which is an amazing and out of this world temple (church). It has been under construction since the 19^th century and won’t be finished until 2030, but what is finished just takes your breath away. There was a bit of a line to wait in to get into the church, but it went by fast. Because it is under construction you can only see parts of it, but we did take an elevator ride up in one of the towers that offered really good views of Barcelona, and an interesting climb back down to the ground. Afterwards we grabbed lunch at an outside Italian café, and then got back on the bus.

The next stop was Park Guell, also by Gaudi. We took the long way to get there but after climbing a hill we reached the park. It was full of native vegetation, and of course Gaudi’s mosaics. We explored the park for a while, and then got back on the bus for a long ride to Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion.

We have studied this Pavilion so much in school, so to see it in person was like an out of body experience. I was disappointed a bit because it looked like the pavilion was just dropped into an abandoned parking lot. But it was still nice to finally see. Afterwards we jumped back on the bus and took a night spin back to the hostel.

I got dinner with a group of people by the ocean, and it was a 3-course meal for 15 euro including sangria. I got mussels, sea bass and potatoes, and ice cream.  They had these huge sangrias full of fruit there, so I splurged and got one and very much enjoyed it. I then went out with most of the group to a bar next to our hostel, free shots!, and hung out there for a while before calling it a night.

Saturday we slept in a little later, and then headed off to the Picasso Museum. It featured all of his work from the beginning of his career. The museum was in an older building that was beautiful. The collection was also cool to see because I hadn’t seen much of his early work. Afterwards we planned to head to the beach, so we got large Sangria “juice boxes.”

It was a beautiful day for the beach. I got a massage on the beach and enjoyed the beautiful Mediterranean sea. Michele and I collected pretty rocks and then swam out to this man made rock island. Upon arrival on the island, I cut off my foot =(.  But the island was really cool and had a beautiful view of the city. Once we swam back, more people joined us on the beach so we went and grabbed lunch at Ryan’s Pub again. Our waitress remembered us!! So we took a group photo with her.

Some people went shopping, but a few of us stayed on the beach. Ironically we were circled by a group of girls tanning without their tops on. Hahah. We stayed at the beach for a while, and then did a lot of fun shopping. Then went back to the hostel to relax, and found dinner in this cute littler square. More mussels and sangria!! After that we grabbed a nightcap and then called it a night because we had an early flight.