My trip started off with a Thursday night arrival to Berlin after a decent flight (i.e. I slept through most of it) from the US to Amsterdam. As luck would have it, two guys from church were traveling through Berlin on an epic European post-graduation adventure just before I arrived and they were staying at the same hostel as me. We found a nice outdoor restaurant and shared a pizza, some beer, and I got to hear about the places they had been to already. I spent Friday sightseeing around Berlin. The highlights for me were Tiergarten (a really big and beautiful park near the Parliament building), Mitte (the area with a lot of old historic buildings), and sitting along the river while enjoying a beer and people watching (see below for the view from my seat!). After a late lunch/early dinner of döner kebab I took the subway across town to see Die Entführung aus dem Serail, an opera by Mozart that I bought tickets to see in April. This was my first trip to the opera and I really enjoyed it! I had been listening to this particular one a few timesand knew enough of the story to keep up with what was going on even though it was all in German.
.JPG)
Friday afternoon in Berlin with a view of Mitte :)
On Saturday morning I went early to the main train station to catch an express train to Wittenberg, also known as "Lutherstadt" since this is where Martin Luther essentially started the Reformation. The town was very photogenic and walkable (my favorite part about small towns in Europe!) and I enjoyed strolling around. The main sights are the two churches and the Luther museum. My first stop was at Stadtkirche, the church where Luther did a lot of his first protestant sermons and got the movement really moving. I also went to the Schloßkirche, the church that Luther nailed his 95 theses onto. Unfortunately the original church burnt down so this one was rebuilt essentially as a memorial for Luther and he was also buried at this church. Schloßkirche was much more decorated and fancy but I think I liked Stadtkirche because it felt more like a Lutheran church, less decorated and simpler and you could feel like at any moment Luther himself could start doing a sermon. After checking out the churches I had a really awesome German lunch and went to the Luther museum. I had to go quickly since I had to get to Berlin by 5pm but I thought the museum was really nice. All in all it was a great day trip!
.JPG)
Quote from inside the Luther museum
From Saturday night through Thursday I was really busy with the conference since I was a student volunteer and had a poster to present. I really enjoyed the meeting and was happy to have met some really great scientists and students. There was also a really great student party on Tuesday and lots of chatting over beers after a full day of volunteering. Can't wait to go back to the Europe SETAC meeting again next summer!
On Thursday evening I took a flight to Stockholm for a weekend holiday with one of my old friends who is currently at school in Munich. I saw him last year in Germany so I posed the idea of meeting somewhere that neither of us had been. We both agreed on Stockholm since neither of us had been to Sweden and had heard lots of great things about the city. We had 3 full days of sightseeing and overall my impression of the city is very positive! It's quite a beautiful scene since the city is basically comprised of a lot of small islands. It's often referred to as the Venice of the north and even though I haven't been to Venice I can see why they say that! Highlights of this trip were walking through the old city, the smell of the sea during a boating tour through the canals, watching the sun set over the city from a roller coaster at 10:30 pm, and having a beer with Scott and two of his friends at a neat outdoor floating bar.
A beautiful view of the old city and the palace that Scott took
All in all I had a really excellent time! Europe is such a great place and I look forward to returning (hopefully sometime soon!), especially to Germany. Until then, time to get back to work and to get ready to sweat this summer here in Florida :)
.jpg)
