Reflections from Berlin: Two Weeks of Adventure and New Found Friends

Nearly 3 weeks ago, I and two of my friends set off from Dublin Airport to Berlin aka capital of Germany. Part of me was nervous, yet excitedly anticipating what would become some of the best weeks of my life.

Apart from a minor hiccup with an angry drunk man swallowing naggins by the dozen and playing Christian pop on his mini radio on the bus, things went off quite smoothly! As the plane set off I recognized the butterflies in my stomach as a good omen of what was to come.

The reason we went to Germany was to undertake a language course to improve our German. We all do French also but because German is one of our option subjects at school, we had less exposure to the language and therefore needed a greater level of competency.

We started off our two weeks with the touristy things, visiting Brandenburger Tor ( the big gate that is always associated with Berlin ), the Victory Column in Tiergarten, strolling through Tiergarten itself and marveling at its size, and took a ride in a massive Ferris wheel that gave us a birds eye view of the beautiful city itself. And even though I was scared out of my mind that I would fall, it was one of those oh-my-god-I’m-really-here moments that you dream about.

If I were to describe everywhere we went sightseeing in detail, you would be reading this article forever! So here are some of the highlights of what we saw : Rittersport Chocolate Museum ( which was probably my favourite place!), The East Side Gallery, a section of the Berlin Wall that artists have illustrated to express their views about life before and after the fall of the wall, Chaostherie ( best vegan diner in Berlin), Haus Schwarzenberg, one of the last areas that has not been gentrified + a place for artists to gather, Alexanderplatz where the iconic Fernsehturm/TV tower is located and last but not least Schlachtensee, where we went swimming with friends on our last night, one of the cleanest lakes in Berlin.

Probably one of the most amazing parts of our experience was the friends we made. Alpadia Schule, where we undertook our course, was incredibly international, a buzzing hive of people from all over the world.

The first morning I entered Alpadia, I had no idea where my classroom was and was anxiously searching for room 407, when a tall, sallow skinned brunette asked me where room 407 was. Being in the same boat as her, we decided to look together and quickly struck up a conversation. Her name was Claudia, she was my age and Italian from Turin in the north of Italy. She quickly became one of my best friends during the two weeks, sharing exactly the same humor and ideas as me, which led to many never ending conversations about culture, food, travel, boys (!!) and our own lives. We have even made plans to visit each other!

Myself, Sophie and Gráinne quickly established ourselves in a group of many different cultures. One day we were getting burgers when a short inquisitive boy walked up to us and asked us if we were students at Alpadia. We said yes and invited him to sit and thus a friendship was born! His name was Daniel and he was Mexican. Claudia, Daniel, I and my Irish friends then made friends with Pedro from Madrid, Amelie from Geneva, Ma Tes from Prague and Giada from Lugano ( Italian region of Switzerland).

One of the best things I took away from this experience was the people I met. These people opened my eyes up to their cultures, their lives and their languages and allowed my curious mind to ask as many questions as possible to them. I think myself that one of the most important things in life is to try to learn about as many ways of life as possible and I did just that on this trip. The nights I spent with these people are ones I shall never forget.

One night, for example, which I remember quite fondly is when on a Monday night, we found a dingy little bar in Kreuzberg, of which we were the only people in. I decided to show everyone how to Irish dance, meaning your average Ceili dancing! We pushed the chairs and tables back, we asked the owners if we could use their sound system and then a familiar Irish reel blared out through the speakers! Everyone got so much joy out of spinning round and round with their respective partners and it taught me that a lot of happiness can be made with very little. Of course then, everyone had a dance to teach us! We were given a Reggaeton lesson by Daniel from Mexico and rumba and salsa lessons from Ma Tes the Czech guy. The feeling of dancing and laughing so much is one I definitely don’t want to forget.

Another night we met up with a bunch of Filipinos for Fête de la Musique, a festival of people busking for free all over Berlin. We went to a biergarten in Mauer Park, had an ( alcohol free for me ) tipple, and talked long into the night and exchanged conversations about our various periods of colonialism ( England and Spain I’m looking at you! ) and laughed long and hard about the Irish and Filipino languages.

Apart from making friends and partying long into the night and making it home before curfew on the U7 to Rathaus Neukölln, our standard of German improved greatly. The teaching method in Alpadia was the teaching of German through German, basically meaning that we were exposed to German all the time. It helped as well that I had an amazing teacher, Darina, who encouraged us with every step we took.

Our Gastmutter (hostmum) Simona was absolutely amazing too. She was the closest thing we had to a mum while we were in Berlin and looked after us fantastically. Her dog Lucy was gorgeous too!

At the risk of making this article too long, I wish to sum up my experience of Berlin in 5 points:

1. Travel. Go abroad. Travel opens your mind to whole other worlds and you will feel enriched after it.

2. Make experiences. Make moments you won’t forget, and just remember it doesn’t always have to cost money to be a great moment.

3. Make as many friends as possible in life. You never know when you might be in need of a tourist guide when you’re travelling! These people will make your experiences far better.

4. Make time to learn a foreign language. The benefits are wide ranging from better cognitive health to travel opportunities, to making new friends in that tongue, and good for CVs!

5. Live every moment to the most and take advantage of every good thing/opportunity that comes your way. I think that at the end of one’s life, you’ll only regret the things you didn’t do!

And that’s it, thank you very much for reading this!

-Mary-Kate Carolan, lead writer