This summer, Ann Savage, along with several other members of the Austin College women's basketball team, will be globe-trotting with stops in Europe, as well as South America and Central America. Periodically this summer, Ann will be providing updates from her whirlwind travel itinerary.
Last week, Ann and her teammates Bryce Frank, Mikayla Gascich, and Caitlyn Collins traveled to Berlin. The quartet came to Austin College as members of the same recruiting class, and are traveling the world heading into their senior year (though Savage has two years of basketball eligibility remaining). Berlin was the final stop in their tour of Europe, and now Savage and Gascich have headed to Peru for most of June, volunteering to work with children as part of their GO Fellowships. Finally, members of the basketball team will be heading to Costa Rica for a team trip later this summer.
In case you missed it, here's PART ONE. And here is PART TWO.
Here's Ann's final check-in from London and Berlin...
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After getting back from Amsterdam we finished our time in London with a few more plays, museums, and sights. On Wednesday we celebrated Caitlyn's birthday with Madam Tussauds Wax Museum, a trip to the Chiswick Gardens, and a huge hit, watching Mamma Mia that night. Everyone's favorite Shakespeare play was As You Like It. We watched it last semester in class to prepare for our trip so we enjoyed how the actor who played the male lead from the play in class was now playing the female lead at the Globe.
We went to Stonehenge later in the week, walked around it and learned about the history of how it came to be. We finished our time in London on Saturday and left for Berlin early on Sunday. After learning that the gas pumps at the airport had been struck by lightening the day before, we were barely able to leave the airport. Numerous flights were canceled and all were delayed, but we were fortunate enough that our plane did leave.
When we arrived in Berlin we walked around the area with their Parliament Building, Brandenburg Gate, and Tiergarten Park. We happened upon a demonstration where people were dancing throughout the streets protesting the political party that opposes immigration, minority and women's rights. It was quite a shock to see as we did not know what was going on when we first arrived.
We went to two of the five museums in Berlin's Museum Island. Some of the sights we saw were the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, Checkpoint Charlie (where people crossed to the other side of the wall), and our favorite, the East Side Gallery, where artists were commissioned to paint murals on the wall.
We had some interesting food experiences in Berlin. At one German restaurant Caitlyn ordered a salad but the German's idea of a salad consisted of about three pieces of lettuce with tons of strips of sausage and a couple other toppings pilled on top. At another restaurant Bryce ordered jelly for dessert. We thought it must be an incorrect translation since we were looking at an English menu, but what came out was literally strawberry jelly with a scoop of ice cream on top.
Mikayla and I left Berlin on Wednesday so we could get home before both of us leave to do our GO Fellowships. Caitlyn and Bryce were supposed to leave on June 1 but the airport struggles continued and their flight was canceled. Mikayla and I decided that they were the ones with bad luck because the only flight that we did not have any issues on was the one that they did not fly with us.
We had a fantastic May Term experience in London, Amsterdam, and Berlin, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to travel while they are at Austin College.