On the Brink

Being on the brink of finishing university feels like a rather precarious position to be in right now.  I feel a bit like I'm perched at the edge of a cliff, being slowly nudged further forward as the days and weeks roll slowly over.  Towards a drop I can't see, I can't anticipate - towards something completely alien and utterly alienating.  

I don't want to be a graduate because once I graduate, that's it.  I'm out there, in the world, without the comforting bubble and loosely cradling rhythm of university terms, reading lists and student loans.  I have to make bigger decisions than what to have for breakfast, what club to go to on the weekend or whether or not I should skip my lecture.  Soon, I will have to be a real adult with real responsibilities and God help me I will even have to pay council tax. 

I feel like I should be excited.  I feel like I should be taking things in my stride by now, bowling through final term with renewed almost-a-graduate gusto.  I feel like I should have plans.  But the truth is, I'm fucking terrified.

I don't want this blog to only be one roughly polished, palatable portion of my life.  Because at the moment, that part is buried under the confusion and turmoil of being on the brink.   
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Berlin: Episode I

Towards the end of February I embarked on another German adventure (following January's excursion), this time with my family, and this time to Berlin.  Having visited around 4 years before on a school trip, I was more than excited to go back and see all the sights with an extra bit of life experience in tow, and no teachers to set the itinerary.

We arrived to a beautifully bright and bitterly cold day, making our way out of arrivals and onto the train station platform where we attempted to make some sense of where we were and where we needed to be - the apartment we had booked for our trip which was located in the region of 'Bernauer Straße'.

 

A train, a tube, some (very) broken German and a short walk later, we arrived at our destination: a simple but spacious apartment filled with afternoon sun and complete with balcony.  

After a much needed cup of tea (you'll never catch my mother without her own teabags when we're abroad) we ventured out to the first destination on our rather lengthy list - Checkpoint Charlie.  This was one of the most famous crossing points between East and West Berlin during the war. 

There wasn't a great deal to see around Checkpoint Charlie, but it's worth a quick visit for sure, especially as there are on-street photo booths to have fun with...

... you can see my enthusiasm really peaks in the latter half of the shots (haha).

 

From there, we took a short walk towards another landmark, the Brandenburg Gate.  

A neoclassical monument, suitably impressive by day or night.

The next day was grey and drizzly.  Which meant, of course, we had golden buttery croissants and fresh fruit for breakfast.

Before gearing up for the rain and checking out our most local tourist attraction: the Berlin Wall Memorial located on our doorstep at Bernauer Strasse.

Plenty of audio visual treats here, including recorded testimonies from residents who had lived on Bernauer Strasse during the time of the Berlin wall, and huge images of the street during the 60s and 70s.

Then we headed towards the tram to go and visit the Stasi Museum.

Unfortunately, there was a no photo policy inside, unless you paid for a photo pass, which I thought was probably reserved for the hardcore photographers, ie. not me (however I did take a couple of sneaky snaps on my phone - see below)! But the Stasi museum is also well worth a visit if you're in the city.  The building itself used to be part of the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security, and there's quite a few rooms laid out exactly as it would've been back in the day. 

And that completes episode 1 of my Berlin diaries.  There'll be another one or two coming your way soon - but you'll have to bear with me, I've also got a couple of dissertations to write.  The life of a student, eh!

Ruby x

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A Girly Weekend in Munich

As you may or may not know, Chiara, one of my housemates is originally from Munich, and a couple of weeks ago we all went over to stay with her for a weekend of sightseeing, eating and drinking.  And in true Chiara style, we couldn't have been better taken care of.  We were picked up from the airport and chauffered like queens, arriving home to a delectable spread of traditional Bavarian food and plenty (I mean plenty) of wine.   

Having filled ourselves to the brims with food, we put on our glad rags ready for our first night out on the town... of which I have some pictures that nobody wants to see - hence, the night was a great success!   

Saturday morning we rose not so bright-and-early (but still before midday) to a sparklingly sunny day.  We slowly got ready to face the day, which began with more traditional Bavarian food with Chiara's mother and aunt at a beautiful restaurant with a roof terrace that looked out onto the River Isar.    

I had an enormous portion of pork, gravy and knödel - potato dumplings - with a sauerkraut style salad to accompany it.  And, as if that wasn't enough, for pudding we were all introduced to  kaiserschmarrn, roughly translating to 'Emperor's mess'.  But it was an utterly delicious mess.  Think chunky pieces of fluffy pancake, sprinkled with powdered sugar and fried with butter and sliced almonds.  Yeah, I know, we were all in love.

Stomachs filled once again, we headed off to get the train into the city centre to see the sights.  We started with the town hall (above) before climbing the Alter Peter - a tower of no less than 299 steps...

...which was 100% worth it.  We went at the perfect time in the afternoon when the sun was just starting to set, so we got an incredible view of a winter sun-soaked city, bathed in ochre tones.

We finished off the day with a couple of other churches, a little bit of shopping, and a wander through Hofbräuhaus am Platzl - which gave us a tiny snippet of what Oktoberfest would be like (beer, music, beer, laughing, beer etc.).  

Saturday evening we headed out on the town once again... and Sunday we made our way to Austria.  To be continued... 

Ruby x

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Pizza date @ Franco Manca Brighton

October, where did you go?! Apologies for my lack of... well, anything.  To be frank, third year is actually quite hard, and blogging has had to take a little bit of a back seat.  But I'm hoping now I'm settled back into the routine I can manage to keep up with at least a couple of posts a month.  You might just have to be a little patient with me.

I turned 21 on the weekend, and to kick things off my wonderful mother came to visit me in Brighton for the day on Friday.  We had tickets to the TEDx Brighton conference (if you haven't heard of the TED talks go and have a little search on YouTube, they're great) which was, in a nutshell, amazing.  However it was a considerably long day - we met at the train station at 7.30am before grabbing a coffee and heading into the Dome for the day to begin.  By the lunch break at midday we were both starving, and headed out on the hunt for something cheesy and delicious.

And Franco Manca was where we ended up!  I had wanted to go here for ages, having heard from everyone that it was one of the best places in Brighton for pizza.  Italian wouldn't usually be my first choice, however, anything with sourdough in the name and I'm there.  All of the pizzas at Franco Manca are made on a stonebaked sourdough base.  There are 7 to choose from, and every day there are two specials (one meat, one veggie) as well as special additional toppings, starters and a dessert.  The service was efficient and the staff chirpy, the food speedy, delicious and really reasonably priced - you're looking at around £6/£7 for a generously proportioned wheel of goodness.   

 The restaurant itself is light, airy and filled with beautiful smells of cooking carbohydrates.  

...(hence my happy face)...

If you're ever in Brighton and craving pizza, I can't recommend Franco Manca more.  Bellissimo!  

Ruby x

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