Easter Holidays

Bath Abbey; The Roman Baths

Over the Easter Holiday, I had many fun adventures. I went to Bath in England, Berlin in Germany, and Sicily in Italy. It's been an exciting couple of weeks and in a week, I'll be back at uni to start revising for exams. But until then, I will just be relaxing and enjoying the rest of the break.

The Royal Crescent-Bath; The Pump Room for Afternoon Tea

Bath is a city in southwest England which is famous for its natural hot springs (the only ones in the UK!). It was originally established by the Romans in the 1st century AD where a spa house and temple were built around the natural springs. I went with a friend to the city for a few days and stayed in a bed and breakfast. We did a walking tour of the city and went to a charity comedy show in the evening on the first day. The next day, we visited the old Abbey church and then later went to the location of the first Roman Baths which was set up like a museum so people could learn about its history. We walked by the Royal Crescent, across the three-arched Pulteney Bridge, and had posh afternoon tea in the Pump Room. Jane Austen lived in Bath for a few years and set some of her novels in the city. Being a Jane Austen fan, it was exciting to visit the city she knew and wrote about. On the last day we did some fun shopping!



The Holocaust Memorial-Berlin; A painting on the East Side Gallery

The next day, I got a 6am flight to Berlin and stayed in the city with a friend who's studying there for the year. We went to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche which is a church that was bombed during WWII. A new concrete church with blue stained glass windows is next to the old church. After that we went to the East Side Gallery which is a section of the old Berlin Wall that is now painted by several artists from around the world. Then we went to Gendarmenmarkt which is meant to be the most beautiful square in Europe. It consists of a performance theater flanked by two identical churches (the French and German Cathedrals). After that we made our own bars of chocolate at the Ritter-Sport shop. In my bar I put strawberry pieces, cocoa nibs and roasted hazelnuts with a milk chocolate base. It was delicious!! Also on the trip we did a walking tour of the city and learned about the history of the city. We started at Brandenburg Gate, to the Reichstag building, to the Holocaust Memorial, to Hitler's old bunker where he committed suicide, and then to the only remaining building of the nazis-the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) base. We saw Checkpoint Charlie, Museum Island, the TV tower and a few other bits. It was really interesting to learn about all of the history of the city-such a great experience!



The day after my return from Berlin, I left with a friend to Palermo in Sicily. Palermo is a pretty big city and very busy with traffic. The motorbikes are always zooming past, the polizia sirens and horns always blaring, and people's washing hanging out in alley ways. Although the city itself felt quite stressful, the little towns outside were really relaxing and pretty. The ones we went to were Cefalu and Mondello. The weather was great for the whole time we were there and the sunshine felt so nice!

Fontana Pretoria- Palermo; Mondello