Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

We decided to visit Sachsenhausen concentration camp while we were in Berlin.  The camp is located about an hour’s train ride outside of Berlin, and was free to visit. We went on a freezing cold, grey day, which made the whole experience extra bleak but seemed appropriate given the nature of the camp.  It made…

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Wir liebten trinken Glühwein in Berlin!

We arrived in Berlin in the morning and realised that we had been given slightly wrong directions to our Airbnb place…and our phone was refusing to load Google maps.  3 hours after we got on the train at the airport we managed to find our apartment and promptly collapsed!  We managed to revive ourselves that…

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Passing Guinness Academy

We left the beautiful northern shores of Portstewart to head for the city of Dublin where my friends Edwina and Ebenezer live. I was really excited to see them and spend time with them as it had been five years since I had last seen them in Ethiopia.  On our first day there, we headed…

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A Giant’s Causeway

From Belfast we headed right up to the top of Ireland, to stay with our friends Samantha and Nicole and their daughter Lucia.  Sam and Nicole run an ice cream shop called Morelli’s to Go in Portstewart, a beautiful seaside town which is very close to the famous Giant’s Causeway.  We had an amazing time with…

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Titanic, IKEA and the streets of Belfast

We arrived in Belfast very early in the morning one weekend to stay for a few days with Reuben’s friends Mark and Elaine and their children Ben and Katie.  It was lots of fun staying with a family – we got to visit Santa, watch the fabulous movie  “Arthur Christmas” and go to their church…

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An afternoon in Glasgow

After saying goodbye to Claire, we took a train to Edinburgh and then a bus to Glasgow for a quick catch up with Reuben’s friends Helen and Wesley. We had an afternoon and evening free before our early morning flight to Belfast, so thought we would pop over to see them.  Although we only had…

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Snow, an island and a house at the beach…

Our trip through Great Britain continued with a train ride to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, where we met our good friend Claire, who had found us a lovely little place by the beach.  It was so lovely to be tucked up inside, watching the waves (and occasionally running outside to delight in the snowflakes!)  It was fabulous to…

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Adventures in Scotland

We travelled by bus to Scotland to visit my friend Laura and her father Ian. Laura and I have hung out in Ethiopia and New Zealand together, so I was excited to get to see her in her own country! On our first day, Ian took us to the little town of Callander at the…

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Hakuna Matata

Our last two days in London were awesome! We started our final two days by going to the Tower Bridge and taking the elevator to the top to see the exhibition there. They had an exhibit about Olympic cities…Europe seems to have been pretty over-represented!  We also checked out the engine room below before heading…

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Piako visits Germany

Piako visited Germany at a very cold time of year – but he still loved the Berlin Wall.  He also like partying for pre-Carnival in Cologne!