Giving thanks

Had one of my best nights in Barcelona today even though we weren't doing anything special. Just a nice paella dinner with white wine at Can Majo, a slightly tipsy (speed) walk along the beach to the cinema, lots of gasping at Finnick and JLaw and plenty of giggling and laughing at each other.

Thanksgiving was yesterday, but I'd like to give thanks for this other family I have, where we're more than just exchange buddies/flat mates. Thank you for being there through everything - all the new sights and sounds of each city, for the sleepy train rides, for the late nights we spend being alcoholics or simply just being next to each other and on our laptops, for the dumb as hell jokes we make about each other,  for sitting through my crying and yelling and really, for just being yourselves.

Exchange is coming to an end in about 2 months for me/ 1.5 for the others and we're all dreading the counting down and return to reality. During one of the Saturday dinners at granny's before I left, Chia Ming jie told me that exchange was going to be the best few months of my lives and I thought to myself - How would that be possible? I've had my best few years in Suzhou/ I wasn't going to have Angela nor Kenryu in Spain with me, how could anything possibly top all that I've already had without them?

But now I see it happening. I feel myself becoming more independent and all that freedom's allowing me to understand myself better and immerse myself in Barcelona and her culture. I'm loving what I see in Barcelona and the little things I get to do here. My family's touching down in Barcelona tomorrow and I can't wait to see them and take them around to show them all that I've seen and learnt.

Feeling plenty thankful right now and I hope I never stop feeling this way.

Germany: Berlin (wall)

Officially cooked an award-winning French toast ever today. It really has got to be illegal to eat such bad French toast. I didn't think it'd be possible to screw it up because isn't it just eggs/sugar/honey/milk/bread? Ah whatever I'm just glad that painful ordeal is done and over with.

Saw one of the most amazing sunsets ever in Berlin on our way to the East Side Gallery to see the Berlin wall. We'd just stepped out of the metro station after getting fined for not buying tickets (an awful 40 euros) so that was our lesson to neverr take gantry-less transportation for granted. Well anyway we were so upset/annoyed after that that we didn't even know how to feel about the sunset. Basically this mix of happiness and blissfulness and inability to be content with life because we were 40 euros poorer.

Germany: Berlin

I've got a billion photos to post from Germany, Italy, Portugal, Pyrenees, Paris and Sweden that I think I'll finally get down to because I've been waiting forever for my rice to cook (forgot the water) and I'm almost done with eating my dishes so.

Berlin really wasn't what I'd expected it to be. I took History HL back in the IB days where things were supposed to be as hard as it gets but I found out how wrong I was when I entered uni. And anyway we learnt about Hitler and I guess I pretty much expected to see remnants of the war lying around every corner.

(Also stopped in the middle of typing to pour freshly boiled water into my cup of honey so I could get amaze balls honey water. But, as life would have it, the kitchen light died (okay this is normal now) and so I was pouring water in the darkness and managed to pour so much it overfilled, then tried to sip it up, forgetting that it was a hundred degrees and so now I'm back with a dead lip)

Plus, the weather was terrible the entire time we were there and that really didn't help. But it was great anyway finally going there to relive my history days and see Berlin for myself after spending countless of sleepless nights going through stacks of History notes. Aaaaand the food was amazing. Really seems like the only way cities impress me is through their food but no really, currywurst is my life now.

Our hostel was really near (10 mins walk) Curry 36 and Mustafa's Gemusekebab, and since they're right next to each other and the queue at the kebab store takes forever, it only makes sense that you queue at the kebab store and have a friend run over to buy some currywursts for everyone to nibble on while in line. Which is exactly what we did. Just that we were running late for our Sandeman's tour and the queue would have taken another billion years so... we settled on going back for kebabs another time. And when we did, we got there at 11pm-ish and the queue was waaaaay shorter. Plus the guys at the kebab store saw us snapping a billion photos of them and even came out and took a photo with us - much to the annoyance of the other customers behind us in the queue.

This really was 'the bomb' and actually cheaper than most of those we saw around Berlin. And trust me - I looked out for a loooot of currywursts.

Right and so everyone says that Mustafa's got the best kebabs and yaddah yaddah but I ate it after feasting on Burgermeister so I'm really not the one to pass a judgment on it. But if it helps, everyone else (in the flat) said it was really good soooo. 

We went to Flohmarkt am Mauerpark, which is this flea market which sells all sorts of crap. My absolute favourite were the little negatives that they'd put in plastic frames. I was so obsessed with flipping through them and trying to get a shot of them that I completely forgot to buy one. Until we were back at the metro station ready to rush off for lunch. FML. But in any case they had 3eur vinyl records, tasteless corn, oooold maps, clothes, postcards and really, everything.

And because no trip to Germany would be complete without pork knuckles........ we had them at Auguster am Gendarmenmarkt and they were pretty amazing. The 'Freshly baked roast of pork crisped outside' were meh but for dessert we had the Emperor's pancake 'Kaiserschmarrn' with plum compote and thaaat was yum. 

Stumbled upon these black and white photo booths near the Topographie des Terrors museum and obviously had to have a go at them. 

Burgermeister's another one of those places you have to hit up when you're in Berlin. Still the number 1 supporter of Buns but this was absolutely delish. We all got the classic Burgermeister burger while Jo had the tofu one and even she said that was good too.

Jolene standing in the middle of some street attempting to get some decent light for her photos of the burger because #asian. 

While all the food and flea markets are great, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe definitely goes on the top of the list of places to see in Berlin. It was one of those that were extremely thought provoking and difficult to walk through, with parts that make you tear up, but absolutely necessary to visit. 

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Made me tear up

The Sagrada Familia, a work of art that hasn't been completed even after 132 years. Visited the no.1 tourist spot in Barcelona quite a while ago with Jolene and Daryl and we stayed there forever just taking photos, listening to the audio guide and walking around. 

We paid 16.90 for our student tickets we bought online because really, the queue. I can't even. But anyway Jo and Daryl didn't have their student cards with them but the people at the doors didn't check 'cos I guess they had another 500 people to deal with trying to enter the Sagrada Familia too.

Probably one of my favourite parts of the church. I guess we were lucky enough to have gone at a time when the light streamed in like that :')

Honestly the most beautiful church I've ever been in, even though we've been to far larger and older cathedrals and churches. Immensely impressed by Gaudi's ingenuity.