our second stop was the emerald isle... unfortunately we only went to dublin and now we realise we should've planned to spend more time in ireland in order to see the irish countryside. though dublin was a quaint city, all we really saw were pubs and the so-called 'tourist attraction'--a local university with a nice courtyard. we had planned to take a daytrip to belfast in northern ireland but, of course, we woke up too late. oh and the best part was clara got banned "for life" from the quay's bar (in a picture below) because some idiot spanish bloke talking to her cursed at the bouncer. i was banned by association even though i was at the hostel at the time. the last night in dublin we ran into my first future classmate of mine, an incoming freshman at tufts...
amsterdam!! i love that city! everyone's at peace with the world and with themselves--what more can you ask for? clara & i had a good laugh when two policemen told us, when we were caught sitting inside a gated park in the rembrandtsplein, "it is illegal to sit on the grass." but you can smoke it! you have to love the dutch... you see all sorts of things in amsterdam... (ie to the right, a picture of a cat at a bar) In other news, we randomly ran into erin, debora, leo c, ricky, bira, zulas, & bfg at a great club, 'escape'. oh! and at the club i received my first invitation to a menage-a-trois. how flattering.
it's funny--we planned our entire trip around being in berlin on 12 and 13 july for the world's biggest rave, the love parade. i don't know if it's because we had such high hopes for it, but we actually ended up spending most of our time in the beautiful parks that surrounded the tiergarten instead of actually raving, as you will see in the pictures below. we arrived in berlin from amsterdam at about 7 in the morning and ended up leaving for venice that very night at around 9!
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temple bar district, dublin.
why we look so pale and sickly i don't know. really. maybe it's all that guinness. (notice that we took a picture in front of the 'forbidden' pub) |
rembrandtsplein.
"it's illegal to sit on the grass." |
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future tuftsies!
my classmate is sean, the one on my left. |
some random norwegian.
"doesn't norwegian sound like music?" um, no. |
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sunset in amsterdam.
i only wish i could remember this sunset in real life. i don't remember taking this picture! |
smokey's.
yes, i'm a tourist. |
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amsterdam centraal station.
the mighty backpackers waiting for our train to duisburg, germany, our stopover before berlin. (notice the 'backpacker cuisine' of mcdonald's i'm holding.) |
continue scrolling down for some reason i can't put a picture here.
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a mural painted onto the berlin wall in east berlin.
after having studied the cold war in-depth i just had to stop and photograph this compelling mural. |
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tiergarten.
i'm such a party animal... |
the love parade... or what we saw of it.
everyone amasses around this very monument. |
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the tiergarten park again!
the truth is i was the one that wasn't very into the rave... clara, poor thing, kept me company as i sulked in the park. |
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Free
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