it's bath time!

 the crew for the weekend (pete, lisa, jerome and myself)

the bath abbey

bath is a beautiful town almost directly west of london and accessible by train in 1.5 hours.  it is a town that has natural hot springs where the ancient romans settled and built many bath houses which is how it got its name.  since 1987 it's been a unesco world heritage site so that's how you know it's definitely worth seeing :)

the flatmates (pete & lisa), jerome and i headed there this two weekends ago because it was about time that we ventured outside of london to see what else the uk had to offer.  we ventured to the paddington train station very early in an attempt to catch our 7am train out minus some minor eff ups that happened along the way.

the ticket machine outside the station decided not to print off the tickets, so with about 10 minutes left, we thought we'd be fine printing at another machine.  wrong.  we were rejected again at another machine with now about 6 minutes before the train departs.  we were at the complete opposite end of the platform so the guy working gives us the route we needed to run, so we took off for the ticket office.  inside the ticket office, i got some flack from the ticket man because i'm trying to tell him politely that we need these tickets now since the train is leaving but he doesn't get a damn.  he wrote out our 4 tickets and now we had about 2 minutes to sprint onto the train.  did i mention at this point it's only lisa, pete and i?  where was jerome?

jerome was so kind as to text us when we were training there to ask if we wanted any coffee because he was already at the station and that he was at the mcdonalds.

so after getting the piece of paper that was our 'ticket' the last piece of the puzzle was finding jerome. that is precisely when i received call from him saying 'i've made a really big mistake...i'm at the victoria station.'  we were waiting for him at the paddington one...hahahaha.  luckily trains depart every 30 mins to bath so we waited for jerome to get to the station then off we went!

we started our morning off with a walking tour led by these honorary guides.  i learned that nicolas cage at one point owned a house there.  many of the buildings also had soot on them because they primarily used coal for a long time to heat.  what else...oh, not all of the houses had bathrooms in them, so sometimes they would build a bathroom shed type thing and attach it to the side of a house. that would literally be my worse nightmare to be going #2 then falling through the floor of this little bathroom shack. the guide said it has yet to happen, but still!

 the metal square in the ground is actually a hole where they used to store coal

 the use of coal has left the buildings quite dirty though nothing that running some water down can't take care of!

 

 the royal crescent

 can you spot the bathroom??? (hint: It is gray and shingle-y looking)

we also visited the star pub in bath that has been unchanged for the last 100 years!  i loved it.  dark and dingy with a few small rooms that were connected with seating.  there were lots of old english men there just chilling which is a sign of a good pub.  we had a quick drink there then headed to the roman bath house.

the bath house was a tourist zoo but i'm glad i saw it.  it's been there for so long!  we're talking like 60AD or something crazy. the romans also took their baths very seriously.  they had a series of rooms with pools at different temperatures that you would move through.  everything was just so grand and built with such beautiful detail i was in awe walking around.

 there were so many asian tourists.  i had to.

the coolest thing that jerome and i saw were these 'curses' carved in tablet that people had written to the goddess minerva because someone wronged them at some point.  most of the curses were inscribed in latin but they had this one which was they think was british celtic, which would be the only example ever of it, so it couldn't be translated!

after that we met up with we met up with pete and lisa at a bath!  we couldn't leave without experiencing one.  we went here.  it was pricey but worth it.  they had pool on the roof where you got views of the abbey which was just unreal!  we had 2 hours so moved around from pool to pool and from steam room to steam room.  sadly the mint and eucalyptus one was out of order that day but the others were nice.

refreshed and ready for dinner!

the next day we went to bristol since it was nearby.  bristol is one of the larger cities in the uk so it had a much different vibe than bath.  it was raining that day so that also made sightseeing a little less fun.  bristol is a port town and home of the ss. great britain now!  that ship's use changed throughout time from bringing immigrants to australia to carrying coal and eventually was just a storage warehouse when it ended up in the falkland islands.  you could actually walk around the ship and see the different decks which was cool.  the cabins and size of the beds were tiny!  you were basically in a coffin with no lid.

 the underbelly of the ship!  we were below the water level.  this is the best solution they've come up with to preserve the ship and prevent rust from developping.

after that we hiked up a hill (with out luggage) to the clifton suspension bridge which sits above the avon river.  i don't think there's really anything significant to learn about the bridge but it was nice to look at.  we walked across it and back since it's only 400m long.  on the wikipedia page it said that in 1885, there was a girl who tried to commit suicide by jumping but since she had a skirt on, it acted as a parachute and she survived! 

soon it was time to head to the train station to make our way back to london and come to terms that the weekend would be over soon.

berlin

this last weekend, i met up with grace (my friend who was previously living in dublin for the year) in berlin!  we had discussed potentially visiting the city together when i was staying with her in april so it was great to actually have it come to fruition!  our flights arrived not long after one another so we rendezvous'ed at the airport then headed into town!

we stayed in the mitte district which is right in the middle of everything.  very artsy, lots of great asian restaurants around and quite hipster.  our airbnb guy was great--he had everything including a straightener & blowdryer for the ladies, two bikes that we could take out with locks, a netbook with a paid for spotify account and wireless printer.  jürgen is the man!

vietnamese lunch at monsieur vuong

the first day we spent checking out the touristy bits.  we stumbled upon checkpoint charlie and yes, we paid for the stamps in our passport!  judge away, but i thought they were cool looking, and i'm a stamp whore.  so there.  it's crazy to think that the wall only came down in 1989.  i have a friend (amelia) that i met in egypt who has lived in berlin the last 4 years now and said that berlin is still divided despite the wall not being there anymore.  for instance, people in the east still tend to make lower wages than people in the west.  there are also nicknames for people on each side.

we also headed to the topography of terror which is on the old grounds of the gestapo's headquarters.  there were a lot of informative panels but what surprised me was how much they actually revealed in some of the pictures.  there were pictures of people that were hanged, shot, etc. which were a bit jarring to see.  i guess it's good that they didn't try to cover up anything but rather acknowledging what happened.

part of the wall at the topography of terror

the exhibit at the topography of terror read the caption

the wall had a pipe on top to make it extra hard for people to climb over and on the left, they had it stick out so it would be harder for vehicles to hit it

the travel guide also had a few landmarks to check out so we followed that and saw an old watchtower that was still intact, the parking lot which is now above the bunker where hitler committed suicide, the holocaust memorial and finally the brandenburg gate.

one of the old watchtowers

the parking lot above hitler's bunker

holocaust memorial

a brick path shows where the wall once stood throughout the city

that night for dinner, we ate at one of lonely planet's recommendations: katz orange.  it was this organic farm to table situation and delicious!!  12 hour roasted short ribs?  yes please.  it was perfect way to end our first day.  side note: grace and i didn't really eat much german food while we were there, haha.  most of it ended up being asian because there was a lot around, and it was all so cheap!  well, i say that in comparison to dublin and london prices.

short ribs with yogurt sauce, cauliflower with bacon and goose fat fries

it was also necessary to end our evening after dinner because i started having trouble walking.  on thursday, while in london, i thought it would be great to enjoy the outdoors so i went with tish (coworker) to do our own bootcamp during our lunch break.  while trying to fitness, i notice that something bit me and i had a little blood by my left ankle.  i wiped it away and continued exercising.

fast forward to friday afternoon in the topography of terror, the bug bite has now gotten worse (probably also due to me itching it a bit) and my foot has slowly gotten more and more swollen!  it hurts a little to walk, but i push through because i'm in berlin and i'm not about to stay at home.  we get back to our flat after dinner and i ice my foot, put itch cream on it and hope it gets better in the morning.  well, it doesn't.

it is still massively swollen, i have kankles and it really hurts to walk.  grace was amazing and went out to find me some pills from a pharmacy and after enough 'warming up' time, i'm able to slowly hobble around.

kankles!!!

saturday we spent taking it easy because of my leg, so we do a bit of birkenstock shopping.  we're oregon hippies and they were much cheaper in germany!  we headed over to the east side gallery where a good part of the wall is still standing.  some of the artwork on the walls was so intricate and beautiful.

sights on our walk

east side gallery

for dinner we met up with my friend amelia and had a great time catching up.  it's been about 5 years since cat and i were in egypt so we had a lot to talk about.  i've been very lucky to meet people on my travels that i've been able to see again!  with grace moving to foster city, we're pushing for our next rendezvous with amelia to be in san francisco :)

amelia and i

i woke up on sunday and the foot was still not better.  it was still extremely swollen and the area where i was bit was turning colors, my skin was hard, and it had now begun traveling up my shins a bit.  so...we went to urgent care!  the germans could work a little more on being polite.  for example, i call the hospital and ask if the man speaks english, he says yes, and i say, 'i think i need to come to the hospital.' homie says 'ok, what happened?' so then i start explaining what happens for him to interrupt me, annoyed sounding, slightly yelling, saying 'why are you telling me this!? what do you want me to do!?' are you freaking kidding me!? did you not just ask me what happened!? ughhhh. anyway, i went in, they took blood, i almost fainted (stood up too quickly after they took blood), confirmed it wasn't an infection and off i went with 600 mg ibuprofen pills and a prescription for anti-inflammatory gel.  i fear for my hospital bill!  thank goodness for grace!  she was amazing and kept me sane throughout this ordeal.

the ibuprofen helped so i was able to continue sightseeing, albeit at a slower pace.  we went to mauerpark based on amelia's recommendation.  on sunday, there is an irish guy who sets up this karaoke mobile in this stone amphitheater that seats 2,000 people.  we got there just before it kicked off and it was packed!  people raised their hands and he'd just randomly pick a person and they'd go down and sing their heart out.  we watched for a while and really enjoyed it!  most people sang english songs though one guy sang a german one.  i guess he's a regular!  the park also has a big flea market on sundays which we caught the tail end of.

this guy sang new york, new york. it was great!

to end our trip, we visited their parliament building, the reichstag, at 9:30pm because you have to make reservations to go inside and see the dome.  they are very serious about their security--we had to bring our passports!  the building is very old and then you have this huge modern dome that has been built on top after the reunification of the country.  because we were there at night, we had great views of the city though they don't have much of a skyline.  the dome has this prism of mirrors that sits right on top of the chamber where the bundestag meets.  we learned from the audio guide that the mirrors are used to help bring light into the chamber, and then they have this huge sun screen that moves around the dome so they don't get glare!

the reichstag

see the seats below?

we found ourselves in the mirrors

my camera sucks, but so does their skyline

i had such a great time in berlin with grace despite the drama with the foot!  i said bye at the wee hours of the morning to grace.  she heads to stockholm to continue her last bit of traveling before she returns to the land of the free while i headed back to london to start work.  monday was rough to say the least, but worth it!

our last night! brandenburg gate in the background.