Bryan Patterson: Making Your Experience Yours

My last day in Berlin consisted of a solo trip to see a museum section of the Berlin wall and going to buy some souvenirs. My flight did not leave until the late afternoon, so after waking up, and saying my goodbyes to the group, I headed off alone. I had seen other parts of the Berlin wall, but I had not completed one of my goals yet: I wanted a piece of it. I had taken up the hobby of collecting rocks from where I went. It was often a bit cheaper than souvenirs, but a bit of a problem when going through security at some points.

I set out, taking off towards the metro stop near the hostel. When I got there, I realized I had begun at the end of the memorial / museum complex. So I began walking through this park. I began walking and soon realized that I did not have enough time to tour the entire place. So, I began around site B, and I just began to read the displays, look at the remnants of the soviet wall, and just walk around and think. I remember finding a tall, rusted metal wall. It was at least two stories high. I figured out later, through one of the signs, that this wall was a replica of the soviet construction at one point in time.

 As I walked around the grounds, I found bases to light fixtures, guard boxes, houses, and a church. Most of them were simply concrete, or brick and some structural cables running through them. The walls of the nearby buildings had photos of what this area looked like in different years during the Cold War. It was fascinating to see how the wall grew from simple barbed wire to a multi-layered structure with guard towers and such over the course of many years. One of the things that I found most interesting on these grounds were these small stones that seemed to be located every couple of feet on the site. These stones were in columns, some were longer than others, but they all ran across the border. They were markers showing the tunnels that were built on this site alone for people to escape. 

As I reached the end of the site, I returned to where I had begun my journey. I had failed in finding a piece of the wall that I could take. That may or may not be a good thing considering the wall is technically considered a world heritage site, so destroying it in any way could mean prison time and a hefty fine. Yet I still had one job to do, which was find two German steins for both myself, as a gift to my cousin, and for my suite-mate in Ireland, Keely. I hopped on the metro part of the way, but I did not think my ticket was bus compatible, so I began to walk when I was supposed to get on the bus. I finally got to the souvenir shop and I bought my souvenirs. I then made my way back the hostel and rode the train back to the airport with some of my travel companions, ready to fly back to Ireland.

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In the fall of 2016, I traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to study in Ireland. I studied at Maynooth University, a small university about forty minutes outside of Dublin. While I was there, I got the chance to go explore. I spent all my money on ‘authentic’ food in hole in the wall restaurants and those stupid souvenirs that now are just sitting in a box somewhere. Yet, this was a startling experience for me because it was so different from what I prepared myself for. One piece of advice that I remember being given repeatedly was “Don’t be a tourist.”  This advice was useful in getting a better experience in many of the places I traveled, but I found out through experience that it is not practical in every situation because you will regret not doing these things like being in Paris and not seeing the Eiffel tower, or the Notre Dame Cathedral.

 One of Mentley’s ‘rules’ was no McDonalds. Great advice, until the local people take you there. Granted it was 11 at night, but I still found the experience to be rather humorous considering it was one of the first nights I was in Ireland. All those travel tips and tricks about Ireland, and even traveling Europe, as a whole, all ended up being useless due to their lack of validity. And the worst one of all, I did not meet any leprechauns. Joking aside, I think having those presumptions before coming to Ireland, changed my experience a bit because I felt pressured to not be me. This was both a helpful guide and a hindrance because I felt lead to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. But on the other hand, in the back of my mind I felt like I was not having the ‘right’ experience if I did not like doing something. These feelings were both originating from other people and myself.

One thing that I got to develop over the course of my traveling all over Europe was making my experience mine. I desired to travel with other people while I was overseas, but this ended up being harder than expected. I found it difficult to find the motivation to go somewhere alone because I wanted to do something, not just go sight-seeing alone. Yet after my time in Berlin, I began to become more comfortable going places on my own. While traveling to destinations alone I met people there, but they were things that I wanted to do, places I wanted to go, spaces I wanted to experience, with or without other people. And while on these trips I developed the idea of being independent, in that I chose sometimes to just do me and not follow the footsteps of the people I was comfortable with, whether that be myself or other people. 

This idea of being independent drove me to push myself to go to Normandy and Paris. Going to Normandy was a trip that I had wanted to go on since before study abroad was even an option, for no other reason than to simply me wanting to be there. The trip almost completely fell through, but I pushed through and found my way and I had one of the most memorable excursion on my breakaway.

Getting out of my comfort zone and doing things for myself led me to some difficult tasks. I had to navigate the French rail system, while not speaking any French. I went out to a pub with people that I did not know that well and got put in some situations I was not too comfortable with. While abroad I had chosen not to drink. I just had to get used to the idea of hanging out with people in clubs and pubs and going on bar crawls, because that was how people socialized in Europe because it is a huge part of their culture.  I would not have gotten to see so many amazing sights and get to experience certain places and meet so many people if I had listened to my pre-trip self and only travel with people.

Feeling lost and confused, only to find my way and be successful in the end. I think there is a balance of listening to advice and making your experience yours. I do not think my abroad experience would have been as memorable if I had focused more on what experience I was supposed to have. Either because I was doing stuff I thought I was expected to do and not what I wanted to do, or I was so drunk that I wouldn’t remember my name, let alone where I was or what I was doing or who I was with. I saw Doctor strange in Prague, I went to McDonalds, I got a pumpkin spice latte, I traveled to my destinations, I went on my excursions, I ate my food. I experienced MY trip. 

Bryan Patterson is a sophomore honors Biology major with an emphasis in Pre-physical therapy and a minor in Chemistry. He studied abroad at Maynooth University in Ireland during the Fall semester of 2016. He plans to move on to pursue Biology research in the field of prosthetics.