Elena Cresci

Tag Archive for travels

This time last year…

August 31, 2010 Blog No comments

I know Mondays are normally reserved for my Movie Monday posts, but I have something a little different on my mind this week…

Namely that, this time last year I had just begun my German adventure and was on the induction course in Altenberg meeting the people that were to become some of my best friends in the course of my year abroad.

Although I’m certain that my business with Germany is by no means done, I can’t help but feel a little sad and nostalgic. So much has changed since I left for Dortmund, from some personal situations to my sewing and to my career aspirations. I actually have a plan for when I’m done with University now, whereas I didn’t have a bloody clue where I was going with my life this time last year! I’ve met the most amazing people, and I can’t wait to visit them in their respective locations.

Not to mention that this blog was pretty much in its infancy back then! I feel like it represents me much more accurately as a person now, and I’m more at ease with writing it than I ever was back then.

So tonight, as I chill out to watch The Shawshank Redemption for next week’s Movie Monday, I’ll be wearing my I <3 U Dortmund t-shirt – which you can buy here (for those who don’t know, the U is the old brewery in Dortmund which has become the symbol of the city) – and reminiscing about those good old German days. I’m actually wearing it with a skirt I made in preparation for Self Stitched September! Please excuse my heavily bruised legs, it’s been a crazy few weeks at training!

Speaking of Dortmund, please do go check out my article about it over at Third Year Abroad!

Berlin, I love you

April 22, 2010 Blog No comments

I’m such a Berlin fan. The first time I went was when I was in Year 12, so about 4 /5 years ago now, and I still believe that my visit played a big part in my choosing German over French as my degree subject. Berlin’s a city steeped in history – when you consider modern history alone, not only has it seen 2 World Wars, it’s been a city completely divided, politically and physically. Until 20 years ago, there were essentially two Berlins, that of the West and that of the East. We didn’t get a chance to this time round because of money issues, but if you ever do go to Berlin, make sure you go to the top of the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) and have a guess as to which half was part of the DDR/GDR (Deutsche Demokratik Republik/ German Democratic Republic) and which part was Western territory.

I was really chuffed that Sam and Lynz came to Berlin the same time of us – it was nice to have a little taste of home! The hostel we stayed in was quite possibly one of the best that I’ve stayed in so far. Hostel Aloha is such a fun hostel to stay in. As we were running on a tight budget, we cooked for ourselves most nights, which meant that there was a whole lot of socializing going on as we cooked and ate in the communal areas, which obviously led to communal drinking, ha! From other Brits, to three Swedish lads and a Canadian on a Europe trip (who might come visit us in Dortmund!), we met so many fun people – not everyone was so fun though, there was one jumped up Gap Yah-type arsehole who came out with so much crap that everyone pretty much steered clear of him.

We also went on an awesome free walking tour with the most energetic tour guide EVER. He clearly loved Berlin (lucky him getting to live there!) and knew so much about the city. We went pretty much everywhere touristy, even to where Hitler’s bunker used to be, which is now a car park where people take their dog to do its business (fitting).

Other fun things to do in Berlin :

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Go play in KaDeWe – whether in the toy section or just the old ‘guess the pricetag’ game! Make sure you have a brownie while you’re at it!

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Go to the Fleamarket in Mauerpark on a Sunday. Full of TREASURE! Lots of indie hipsters there too, made me giggle.

Get to Museuminsel and go to the Pergamon Museum (often confused with the Pokemon Museum) and go see all the old stuff! No really, it’s worth a visit, but if you’re a student, don’t forget your student card like silly me did.

Buy matching sunglasses and get lots of stares for wearing them everywhere.

And I wish to goodness I could remember where this place was, but there’s this amazing wine bar where you pay 2 Euro Pfand and then pay how much you thought you drunk into a big pot at the end. SUCH A GOOD IDEA. The staff were really funny, so don’t rip them off because they’re so nice!

I didn’t really want to leave Berlin – I can really see myself living here one day. I’m thinking of perhaps applying to be New Berlin tour guide the Summer after I finish my degree – if it means a Summer in Berlin, then I’m in!

It’s a Feckin’ Fairytale

March 15, 2010 Blog No comments

BRUGES.

Oh my. What to say? Just a little bit epic. First things first : Bruges is not really a dump, it really is a feckin’ fairytale. I couldn’t quite believe how pretty Bruges was; cobbled streets, cute chocolate shops and a picturesque square… Colin Farrell, you lied to me!

Ciaran chose to go to Bruges for his 21st, and what a brilliant choice it was. Naturally he pretty much chose Bruges because of the film In Bruges, and it was fairly clear that we weren’t the only ones. Tourism took a surge upwards after the film was released by all accounts, and I imagine the locals get a little tired of silly Brits running around quoting the film word for word. By the way, if you haven’t seen In Bruges, then you should.

The highlight of the trip was giving Ciaran his long-awaited present. There’s an in-joke stemming from when we had a messy weekend in Amsterdam that Ciaran has a thing for waistcoats – I joked a while ago that I would make him a waistcoat for his birthday… and I did! (This is also the reason I didn’t post at all last week – time consuumiiiing!)

Look how happy he is! Unfortunately don’t have any pictures from the back, I was an idiot and forgot my memory card for my camera so didn’t get any proper pictures. Now, as Ciaran was semi expecting this, I tried to keep details such as fabric as secret as possible, meaning no posting on the blog about it. Now, due to a silly mistake on my part I ended up with about, oooooh, an extra 4 metres more than I needed… so I decided that matching skirts needed to be made.

These are the quickest damn skirts I’ve ever made!! Sadly they were a size too big, major fiddling had to be done to hide that, but it was OH SO FUNNY to see Ciaran’s face when we walked out wearing matching skirts. Now if that ain’t stashbustin’, I don’t know what is!

Here are some pictures courtesy of Beefagio’s camera of Bruges – such a feckin’ fairytale!

We were tourists and climbed up the tower, which was ridiculously narrow, but it had an amazing view from the belltower, and also a quote from In Bruges (albeit misquoted as I found when I went on IMDB…), pretty standard I’d say! If you were wondering why Birthday Boy is green, that would be because it was Wales vs Ireland that day… and Ireland won. Nothing more humiliating than being the only Welshies in an Irish pub full of students from Dublin when Wales loses.

All in all, amazing weekend. I rather liked Bruges, certainly was my cup of tea.

GRIM

January 31, 2010 Blog No comments

I’m feeling rather grim today due to Bierbike Koeln 2010 (also known as Bierbike Round 2) – it was lots of fun, but we didn’t get an awful lot of sleep.

Anyway last time round we never really got a decent picture of us on the Bierbike, so (courtesy of Beefy’s camera because mine was DEAD before the first loo stop) VOILA :

DAS BIERBIKE. It was actually more of a squish than this picture lets on, as this was a loo stop and all!

You’re probably all thinking that we were bloody nutters to be doing Bierbike in the freezing cold, and you wouldn’t be wrong. There was one point that I thought my toes were going to fall off and/or I was going to die frozen to the Bierbike, forever immortalised as an example of British stupidity when it comes to appropriate winter dressing. Ok, in all fairness my top half was fine due to my lovely coat, but the purple tights didn’t give much warmth, and the peep toe booties didn’t insulate a great deal. I win at dressing for wintery Bierbike rides!

I officially hate travelling

January 5, 2010 Blog No comments

So after a lovely Christmas at home, I’ve been struck with the same problem as when I tried to get home from Germany – delays, cancellations and snow, everywhere!!

We were meant to have flown at quarter to seven last night – but as the time ticked closer to our departure and they still hadn’t told us which Gate to head to for boarding, it became increasingly obvious that our flights was likely to be cancelled. Eventually we were told to head to Gate 91, in which we were checked in for boarding, got onto a bus that was supposedly meant to take us to the plane… except we had a little tour of the runway for about half an hour before being ferried back to Gate 91 by a very angry bus driver. We joked that he didn’t know where he was going, that he’d got lost, but I think we might have been close to the truth there, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a serious lack of communication which meant that he didn’t know where to go because no one was telling him. He wasn’t the only one, no one was telling us what was going on. No announcement from Easyjet, all we got was an angry speech from a Gatwick employee telling us that it was nothing to do with them, the problem was with the carrier.

Three flights got cancelled last night, leaving a serious amount of angry Easyjet customers. One German guy attempted to take the lead, announcing that everyone should stick together and that they had to give us all a flight or no one would go. I was struck by how selfish he was speaking only in German, presumably not counting in those who couldn’t speak German/weren’t German in his little plan, and what was he expecting Easyjet to do, conjure up a plane and a slot in which the entire flight (or just the Germans on said flight) could fly?

We ended up getting free accommodation for last night and a free transfer to a flight for tomorrow morning. Unfortunately had to pay for today, but what can you do? We’re well and truly stuck, and being as all three of us (Beef, Gravy and I) are from Cardiff, there really was no point in us going home. So that’s a right kick in the teeth, I wanted more time at home, but not like this.

And now we have all these weather warnings about snow – app. it could be up to 16 inches in London. After London Gatwick and Easyjet’s handling of the snow before Christmas, I have my doubts about our flying tomorrow.

This is so frustrating!!! Anyone else been stuck because of snow? How’s it been affecting everyone else in the U.K? I heard that all the schools are closed, surprise surprise. I hope none of you are snowed in!

An unhappy bunny

December 18, 2009 Blog No comments

(at least there’s a cute bunny picture)

So really, I should be posting this from the comfort of my home, cuppa in one hand, Cadbury’s in the other…

But nope, afraid not. London Gatwick cancelled a hell of a lot of flights today, mine being one of them. Cue frenzied passengers attempting to find their luggage, queues for the only internet cafe in the airport and crazy crazy plans. A few of us sorta stuck together trying to find a solution, from getting the train to London to hiring a car and driving. None of them worked out, but I think everyone managed to find a way back in the end. Luckily I got to an internet cafe just in time (in a really seedy smoky gambling place in Cologne whose owner had a barely intelligible accent) and managed to get myself on a flight for tomorrow. Only just though, as when someone tried to do the same five minutes after me, it kept timing out and showing an error message. Still a little worried that I’ll get there and something won’t be right.

I’m thoroughly disappointed not to be at home to be honest. It’s not that I hate it in Germany, I love it, but I’ve been looking forward to these two weeks for so long that it was a real kick in the teeth when we heard that the flight had been cancelled. It’s hard not to chalk it up to the U.K’s general reaction to snow – remember earlier in the year when everything shut down due to snowfall, while the rest of Europe were baffled at the whole commotion? Wile I understand shitty weather conditions are not something you want to be flying in, with that sort of track record, can you blame people for being angry?

The worst part is that I’m missing the grading back home. A lot of people are going for important grades, and I wanted to be there to support everyone, especially the boy. It’s hard not to feel like a bit of a let down, even though it’s not my fault. I really did try everything I could think of to get back home today.

I’m going to get a pizza now to cheer myself up here’s hoping tomorrow goes a little better

Frankfurt!

December 7, 2009 Blog No comments

Long time, no travel update!

So a few weeks ago we were in Frankfurt for the weekend. Found a brilliantly cheap way to get there by using the “Quer-durchs-Land” ticket that you can get from Deutsche Bahn. It basically means you can travel through all of Germany for about 50 euros for 5 people, but only on the regional trains. We paid 44 euros for 3 people, so effectively we paid 14 euros for a ticket that would normally cost 60 – 70 euros. Bargain! The only snag is that it takes ages to get there – 5 hours and a half to be precise – but you can’t exactly be picky when you can’t afford an ICE.

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Plus who needs an ICE when you have 5 and a half hours of the Dictionary Game (consisting of choosing random words from the dictionary and saying them in a funny voice) and endless fun bothering Beef? Beef and Graves contented themselves with taking the piss out of how my head sorta falls forward when I’m asleep on trains – it’s never boring when members of Team Fabelhaft are around!

As luck would have it, some Swansea ladies were in Frankfurt that weekend too – in the same hostel no less! It was great to see some faces from home and catch up on how everyone’s been doing in their respective places in Germany. Reunions = viel Spass!

Frankfurt itself was awesome. Very much what you’d expect from a big city; towering skyscrapers, a busy shopping centre and lots of people! Fun fact : while our hostel was brilliant (except for when there were Spanish people shouting at 5 am outside the hotel ‘PAPIIIII PAPIIIIIII’, so annoying!!), it was in the middle of the red light district! Didn’t bother us, it was fairly amusing to have random guys try to proposition us through the window when we were sat in the Hostel’s bar, and it made for a funny night visiting the sex shops and the strip clubs (well, a strip club in my case, those places are expensive even if you don’t pay the strippers!!)

Heidelberg!

November 7, 2009 Blog No comments

What do you do when you see these steps going up to the Heidelberg Schloss?

Run up them of course!

WIN!

I think the view should say more than I could about Heidelberg – it’s a total fairytale.

Loved seeing a bit of East German Ampelmann!

Mannheim

October 25, 2009 Blog No comments

I made a little trip to Mannheim as it’s one of Swansea’s partner universities – meaning that there are a few Erasmus students from my year there, so visits were required! I organised it a bit off the cuff really, because I knew I wouldn’t do anything at all if I didn’t organise something! Decided to travel via Mitfahrgelegenheit as it’s far cheaper than getting a train!

Mitfahrgelegenheit basically translates to a lift! I love how sometimes the German word is ridiculously long compared to its English translation! Anyway, the deal with a Mitfahrgelegenheit is that people offer lifts via this website – so say I was to travel from Cologne to Berlin… I’d put an advert on the website detailing the dates, times, stops etc. and then people can contact me to reserve a spot in the car. You pay a little bit of money, but it generally ends up being a lot cheaper than getting the train. Kind of like pre-arranged hitchhiking!

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I had to travel to Cologne for my first Mitfahrgelegenheit, and got to go on one of the DOUBLE DECKER TRAINS!!! I remember getting ridiculously excited when I saw them in Berlin and ridiculously excited again when I got on one on the way from Cologne to Dortmund… New things are exciting! This leg of the journey was free because of my Semester Pass, so all in all, I paid just under 30 euros to get to Mannheim and back. Pretty nifty I think! Initially, I had a few ‘ooh is this safe’ thoughts, but it’s a pretty sound system, clearly very popular and works really well.

I met Cara and Ed at the Hauptbahnhof and we headed back to their halls. Ate at this fab Italian restaraunt and I had Pizza. Again. I never thought I’d eat so much pizza in my life! I do live above a Pizzeria though… two in fact… I’m going to be so sick of Pizza by the end of this year aren’t I? Either that, or really really tubby. Pizza fat! Or I’ll just smell of salami and cheese all the time…

So after Pizza, a few drinks at the local student hangout where I saw my first two instances of SOCKS AND SANDALS since arriving in Germany. I don’t know if it should count though as it was a part of fancy dress… Humm, I’ll take a win where I can get one!

The next day I got to explore not only Mannheim, but Heidelberg too. I thought Mannheim was pretty, though Cara told me that not many people do, though I pointed out that people don’t think Dortmund’s that pretty either. The best comparison back home really is the way people see Cardiff and Swansea; Swansea’s not as pretty and shiny as Cardiff (except for the Mumbles and that), but I love the place to bits. Sure, I grew up in Cardiff, but Swansea has this wonderful homely feel and an atmosphere that makes it perfect for a student city. I’m inclined to think that Dortmund is in the same mould as Swansea : not super pretty, but it’s home and you love it lumps and all.

Off topic now! So! One thing that Mannheim trumps Dortmund in is in the ‘prettiest University’ category…

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…but Mannheim has no Monorail, so nyer nyer nyer! But it does have REALLY CREEPY STATUES. Cara found it hilarious that I was so freaked out by them – yes, I’m a wuss, but ever since I saw that Doctor Who episode ‘Blink’, I can’t quite shake that creepy feeling I get from statues. Blank staring eyes, weird poses… uurrrghhh. It seemed as though Mannheim Uni was out to freak me out, with a corridor FULL OF BLOODY STATUES!!

That would be Cara mocking me because I wouldn’t step into said corridor. Freaky stuff…. but that wasn’t all! I get outside and notice the faces carveed above the arches…

ARE YOU TRYING TO FREAK ME OUT MANNHEIM UNIVERSITY?

SERIOUSLY NOW!

…ahem. Honestly though, I liked Mannheim, it was lovely, and the University was gorgeous. I had a hard time imagining studying there because it was so regal and grand.

I think Heidelberg deserves a post by itself because it was so pretty (and there was only one creepy statue involved, huzzah!)

School Holidays Rule!

October 23, 2009 Blog No comments

Well I can’t sleep, so I thought this would be a good time to finally update on a bit of what I’ve been up to the past few weeks.

These past two weeks have been the autumn school holidays, so two weeks off! I think one of the bets bits about school were the breaks. Except for when you come to the end of them and you wonder where all that time went… I’m getting that familiar feeling about now as we’ve got to be back in school on Monday!

These past two weeks have been ridiculously full of travelling – I’ve visited Muenster, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Amsterdam and tomorrow I’m going to Bonn and Cologne! Despite Nordrhein-Westfalen not being my first choice when I had to pick the areas I wanted to go to on my Assistantship application, I feel really fortunate that I got placed here. I felt lucky when I found that I’d been placed in a city, but now that I realise how many great places there are to go to in NRW, I feel luckier still. Mind you, I didn’t spend that much time in NRW last week…

I’ll start where we started the school holidays – over in Muenster! Beef and Gravy are living in the same place now, just 20 minutes drive outside Muenster city centre. I FINALLY bought a camera at their local supermarket, so I can finally take pictures of the places I’ve been! The night out in Muenster was really, really mental. We went to this club called Heaven which was inside of a warehouse on Muenster marina. I got a bit homesick walking towards it, because it reminded me so much of Cardiff Bay!

The next day we got to a little (hungover) exploration of Muenster city centre… I couldn’t believe how pretty Muenster was! Cobbled streets, old timey buildings, old timey font on the signs… It’s definitely a lot prettier than Dortmund is.

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Beef told us that Muenster was rebuilt to look like its former self after it was bombed in the war. I found it to be quaint, almost like something out of a storybook (though that was before I visited Heidelberg, but that’s another blog post). It wasn’t all quaint and cute though. Something freaked me out about St. Lambert’s Church in the city centre.

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It’s a shame it was such a dull day, I’m sure Muenster is stunning in better weather. Anyhow, looks like your standard church right? Look again.

See the three cages? These are the remains of the Muenster Rebellion – which wikipedia tells me ‘was an attempt by radical Anabaptists to establish a communal theocracy in the German city of Münster.’ Basically, three of the most prominent members of the rebellion were caught, tortured and executed and their remains placed in three cages on the church. As you can see, while the remains aren’t there anymore, the cages still are… how creepy is that??

We only really saw the Old City, had to take shelter in an Italian restaraunt because it started pouring down with rain. We’ll be returning at some point I guess, specially as that’s where Beef and Gravy are living!