Read on to see how these three quotes relate... : )
Let me proceed in chronological order. Which I guess would start with meeting the rapper MIMS. Some would call this random. I have instead deemed it randomly spectacularly awesome! Note the exclamation point haha. On a typical Berlin Wednesday night, Bianca and I could usually be found in our favorite spring quarter club called Q-Dorf. It was really the only club in Berlin we found that played good hip-hop and R &B. Not just the current, pop-like, mainstream stuff but all of the classic 90s neo-classical soul: 112, Boyz II Men. One Wednesday night we saw fliers that MIMS was going to be there the next Tuesday. For those of you who don’t know, MIMS is the rapper who sings “This is Why I’m Hot,” “Like This,” and “Move (If You Wanna).” We both had class the next morning but after about a 5 second debate decided it was worth it. We figured because we are something akin to dance goddesses in Berlin, where guys and girls alike tend to be a bit more rhythmically challenged, we might get MIMS’ attention from stage and might get a picture or something. Such low expectations those ended up being haha. We got there pretty early (midnight), and MIMS went on around 1 or 2. It was a pretty small venue to begin with so we planted ourselves right in front of the stage. We did get his attention pretty much right away, both because we were the only people who could dance and because we were singing all of the words. Loudly. And clearly haha….(Words are in English. We are in Germany…). But yeah haha, so then I get pulled onto stage and dance with MIMS for a song or two then chill on stage for the rest of his performance. After he is done performing, he and his entourage go to this VIP section behind the bar. Bianca is way cooler than me in situations like this (I tend to get spastic and star-struck) so I just kept my mouth shut and followed her as we proceeded to play it cool around the VIP entrance. Long story short, MIMS waves us into VIP and we hung out with MIMS and his entourage for the rest of the night. Once he found out we were American he really looked out for us, making sure we always had drinks and even offering to pay for our cabs home.
(TANGENT WARNING!) There’s a certain camaraderie with Americans abroad that I have really come to love. There are usually two kinds of abroad Americans that I have found in my time in Berlin. The first is the ugly, too rich for their own good, stereotypical American. These guys give the rest of us a bad name. They have little respect or knowledge of the country or culture that they have randomly dropped into, are annoyed when they cannot have their American conveniences like ice, people who speak English, and air conditioning and are pretty easy to identify because they are usually insanely loud. These are the people I choose to keep my English-speaking mouth shut around on the subway and glare at in a rude Berliner fashion. These are also the types that don’t engage with you when you try to forge an American connection because they don’t realize what it’s like to be an American abroad for very long. They don’t realize what it’s like to go days without hearing English. They don’t realize how difficult it can be to get ish done (open a bank account, register with the police, go to the doctor) in a country where you don’t speak the native language. They have never had an adaptor or a converter die and render ALL necessary electronics useless. They thus intrinsically have no comprehension of the strong sense of camaraderie one automatically has with fellow English-speakers who share your struggle. Americans that live in Berlin or travel a lot get it. The obnoxious ones don’t.
MIMS got it. He really looked out for us and instantly changed his attitude towards us to a very friendly and very protective one the instant he learned we were American. I think it’s because he is on tour so much; currently on international tour. He understands what it means to spend large stretches of time away from the land of Toaster Strudel and Hershey’s. Man I am starting to miss American brands haha. I could really go for a Reese’s peanut butter cup right now … ahhhh distractions!!!
Anyways, after hanging out with MIMS and struggling through class the next day a few hours after our big night out, we got swept into a final and papers frenzy. Bianca left right before finals so in addition to going to class, she had to take all of her finals and turn in two papers early. It was really sad when she left for me : ( . I had literally never been in Berlin without her; we had been with each other since friggin LAX, instantly bonded over delayed flights and lost British Airways baggage, and had become kind of inseparable ever since. It was sad. I cried. But luckily, I had something to take my mind off of the separation anxiety, because….
That weekend I went to Scotland!!! Met up with Gigi AGAIN, aka the best travel buddy in life.We are ridiculously good at traveling buddies, with the exact same let it roll off your back when travel stresses come and embrace the random adventures and weirdness in your soul type attitudes. When Gigi and I are together, we tend to do things like perform Irish jigs on large Gothic towers, or wrap plaid blankets around ourselves and pretend they’re kilts, or pretend we have English accents and see if any of the natives believe us. We became slightly obsessed with Scotland after our spring break in Poland when we realized just how hilarious the Scottish accent is. Since then, we had been sending each other pictures of random Scottish things we would see in Florence and Berlin (Gigi studies in Florence), then said one day how epic would it be if we actually got to go there? We both found cheap RyanAir flights, booked a hostel, and three weeks later were in Edinburgh. Such a crazy amazing trip that came together perfectly at the last minute.
I knew it was going to be a good trip when I heard some fabulous highlander accents at the Berlin airport. I had to wrap my Pashmina scarf around my face and keep my sunglasses down to keep them from noticing I was quite possibly going to implode of stifled laughter. I don’t know what it is about that damn accent that Gigi and I find so funny but it gets me every single time haha. Well then I got off the airplane, saw beauutifffulll rolling emerald green hills, and knew I was in a special place. Edinburgh was absolutely, unbelievably gorgeous. The old Gothic buildings and facades, cute town houses, cobblestone streets, and scenic old castles didn’t even look real. They honestly looked like something out of a movie. On the bus ride from the airport to the city center, I honestly had my jaw dropped the entire ride. It was so amazingly epically gorgeous. Epic is another great word I will probably use a lot with regards to Scotland. The Scottish are the people of the clan, a people very proud of being from some rough terrain and thriving in it. I got such a strong sense of country and national pride from both the Scottish and the Irish people that I met in Edinburgh. Not so much love for England coming from those two fields haha. But it’s alright, Americans and the English have had their historical differences as well : ) .
I feel that I should also mention my flight was at 7 am, and I had woken up at 4 to watch game 5 of the NBA finals. (Damnit Lakers? You couldn’t win for me when I get 2 hours of sleep for you? ) So I was a lil sleep deprived. But I swigged a huge cup of American-sized coffee at the Edinburgh airport (YAYYYY American influence in the UK!!!!) and set off for the hostel. Gigi and I had another epically loud hostel reunion very similar to our ear-shattering Polish and Roman ones. My excitement for seeing Gigi and being in Scotland was telling my fatigue to stop whining and go crawl under the hostel bed, so we immediately set off exploring. That day we mostly wandered around the city of Edinburgh, ducking into awesome vintage stores and getting giddier and giddier with each passing kilt. I also randomly ran into an American family that went to Mater Dei. Randommmmmmmmm?
We then decided to make the venture up to the Edinburgh castle. It had the most breathtakingly spectacular views of the city and the coast. It also made me realize how epic and bloody UK history is. Unlike my previous conceptions of Scottish history, bronze captions did not tend to say things like, “This is where Cameron MacLean did a fabulous little jig and won a set of free bag pipes.” They tended to be more along the lines of, “Here lies the pinky toe nail dirt of clan leader Cameron MacLean, all that was left of him after he and the rest of the honorable MacLean clan fought the English venerably the death at the battle of TheLochNessMonster. The dirty but very frilly English then impaled him, stuck his head on a gilded stick and paraded it around FancyTown while the FancyTowners drank milky tea, inhaled sugary crumpets, and looked on in silent approval. They may have killed him in body but will never dishonor his name. May his Scottish legend live on.”
After all of the brutal Scottish history, amazing Edinburgh castle, and one too many buttery Scottish shortbread cookies, I was in serious need of a nap and some real food. Food first of course, I am a Crisp after all. We ducked into a grocery store, got some slightly sketchy pre-packaged curry chicken, and ducked into a sketchy alley to sit on the steps and eat. First time having Diet Coke, not Coca-Cola Light in a very long time haha. We then headed back to the hostel for what turned into a 4 hour nap and then woke up just in time for the epic Budget Backpackers pub crawl, complete with 1 Aussie club, 2 Irish pubs, and a Scottish techno club called Opium. I had my first Guinness (Ever!!!) in the first Irish pub, Irishly named Malone’s. I get the feeling that Guinness is super hit or miss, but the ones that we had were deliicciousss. I kept referring to it as my foamy scrumptious beer smoothie, or something of that breed of ridiculous nature. The second Irish pub was Dropkick Murphys. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Google “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” and/or Dropkick Murphys. Please. I’ll wait.
Saturday our game plan was sleep and further Edinburgh exploration before our day trip on Sunday. Having checked the castle off our list, we basically just meandered up and down random streets, ducking into some fabulous vintage shopping and making sure to hit up the Starbucks (please don’t roll your eyes, my addition should not be shocking you anymore if you know me well enough to care to keep up with me in this blog haha). We saw the University, Princes street, accidentally stumbled onto the set of a Bollywood movie (so not kidding about that one haha), ate some heart-attack inducing greasy fish-n-chips, and then camped out in our favorite spot Malone’s to watch the English vs. USA game. Apparently, in Scotland, at an Irish pub, it was basically ABE (anyone but England). There was a group of about 5 English supporters hiding in a corner while the rest of the bar roared for the USA. My favorite part was when the bar played Irish drinking music over the English national anthem before the game. It was deliciously irreverent : ) .
The next day, we knew we wanted to see some Scottish countryside but really didn’t know where to go. We saw that St. Andrew’s had been a destination for a few different Highland tours, and it was off of that very basic knowledge that we made the pretty spur of the moment decision to jump on a train and a bus to the little seaside village/university town of St. Andrews. The Scottish countryside was so incredibly green and beautiful. Vast expanses of emerald green fields gave way to sparkling blue stretches of sea. Being around the ocean is something I have missed incredibly being away from Orange County. Going to the seaside was such a beautiful, calming taste of home. We got to the Lekars (Lehkerrss! Say it out loud. Doesn’t it sound a little silly?) train station and transferred to a bus whose driver was seemingly training for the Scottish Fortune 500. Really buddy, it’s a Sunday. No one needs to be anywhere that badly.
St. Andrews was such a cute, picturesque little village. The main street kind of reminded me of the San Clemente main street. We meandered up and down it, in and out of cute cobblestone alleys, and adventured through the ruins of the St. Andrews castle and cathedral. I kind of figured out that almost every Socttish town has some kind of epically old castle and/or cathedral. And when I say old I mean reaalllllyyyy old. Like pre-1000 AD old. It’s crazy to think about how much stuff in Europe has been around long before our country was even being thought up. But anyways, I will let the pictures do most of the talking for that day trip - any pictures with ocean in it are the ones from St. Andrews.
Gigi and I headed back for one last Guinness and a mellow night before my 6 am (yes, 6 am) flight the next morning. I had a few days to mentally prepare to leave Berlin and then I moved to Leipzig a few days later. It looks like that is going to have to come in a different post because this one is super long already but I promise it will come soon! And the Starbucks quote has to do with my current lack of Internet in Leipzig haha.... a struggle of which you shall soon find out : ) .... LOVE U ALLL!!!!!!!!-Court
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