So I've decided to split my study tour entries into a separate post for each city. Why, you ask? Well, it would be one reaaallly long entry and I don't feel like writing that much right now. I am currently in Poznan, Poland hanging out in my hotel room having some hermit time. Being with a group of 30 people for 5 days straight is exhausting... especially when some of them aren't exactly who you'd choose to hang out with... but I digress.
We left Copenhagen around 8AM on Sunday morning and began our journey south to Germany. We took a ferry from the south of Denmark to the north of Germany and then continued our bus ride to Berlin, arriving at our hotel around 3:30PM. After unpacking and hanging out for a bit, we went on a very long walking tour of Berlin's highlights and ended up at our restaurant for dinner. We had some traditional German food, including pork of some kind, potatoes, and sauerkraut (which I've discovered I love). Three other girls and I shared a pitcher of the restaurant's special brew (which was delicious and quite wheat-y). Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and crashed.
Monday morning we went to a human gross anatomy lab. On our walk to the building, all of a sudden I hear "OMG SAM!" I ended up seeing one of my very good high school friends, Marie, in the middle of Berlin! She is studying in Dublin and is traveling around Europe - how weird! We didn't really talk because we were both so surprised to happen upon each other in Germany after not seeing the other in about 2.5 years. What a coincidence! After that impromptu reunion, we parted ways and I caught up with my group. The anatomy lab was really awesome - it didn't smell as bad as the U of M one I went to last semester, and we got to hold the different organs and parts of the brain. Afterwards, I grabbed lunch from an Asian noodle cart (had Sriracha for the first time in FOREVER) and grabbed a "lunch beer" with of my groupmates. The weather was amazing, so we sat outside and talked until we needed to meet for our bike tour. The tour was AMAZING and I'm so happy we did it. Our guide was amazing (and very attractive too!) and so knowledgeable. Here are some pictures from the tour:
Check Point Charlie!
That night I went out to dinner with my friends Nina and Wendy and Nina's old German exchange students she housed that live in Berlin. After that, Nina, Wendy, and I, along with two other girls from our group, went on a phenomenal pub crawl. We got really great drink specials, free shots, and met a good group of people (mostly older than us, but some close to our age). We ended at a really sweet club in the red light district, and I didn't get home until about 4AM. Though it was an amazing night, I probably should have come home earlier since I was miserable the next morning. However, I guess since I was only in Berlin once, I had to live it up!
Tuesday we had 2 academic visits. First, we went to a research center that I really didn't enjoy (not just due to my lack of sleep and slight hangover). Though their research was interesting, it was completely unrelated to what we're learning about (to the point where they couldn't tell us how it was practical to medicine) and took far too long. Did I mention we saw another MRI? Ugh. Anyway, after some lunch, we went to a family planning center and had an amazing lecture and tour. It was really interesting to see how family planning is carried out/viewed in Germany. Afterwards, we grabbed another traditional German meal with another group that's in Berlin and then I called it an early night since I was pretty exhausted from the fun I had had the previous evening.
Wednesday we visited the Jewish Museum and got lunch at the Reichstag (German Parliament building). The meal was AMAZING!! Who knew a government building could have a four star restaurant on its roof?? My favorite part was the banana ice cream and chocolate molten lava cake. Omg I'm still drooling. Here are pictures of teh building and it's really awesome dome where you can look into parliament (a symbol that the people are always in charge!).
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