Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Berlin, Germany

Night 1 - 11:18PM

Tonight we decided to take it easy and get our barrings/sleep. 11:30pm to 9:30am to be exact. We found a free 3.5 hour tour to go on tomorrow, hopefully seeing sights like the Berlin wall remains and check point charlie. Tonight we got to our hostel, was a bit expensive but there is a plasma screen downstairs along with a game room and a bar with a "winter garden". I guess it's just an indoor place to drink and smoke. So we did.




I got a large beer, 3 euro or so. Pretty good, not as good as the one from Stockholm but better than most American beers. It was called the Berliner. Then we did some of the usual, check the Internet, Pat played billiards, and watched Family Guy in German. After that we sung some karaoke with random people who barely spoke English, which was terrible and hilarious. Now we are upstairs figuring out exactly what to see/do tomorrow other than the tour and getting ready for sleep.



We ate at a Thai place tonight. I got sweet and sour chicken with pineapple, yellow peppers, white rice, and a cola. It was about 10 euro total but I paid 20 Euro to pay back all of the guys because I owe them all money. I'm trying to spend less money but to no avail.


Sleeper Train from Berlin to Krakow - 9:25pm


Remember that whole money thing? Well, I paid for dinner tonight. I know. I have no idea, but to justify a bit I consider this an even with Alex, maybe half of what I owe Mike and 10 Euro off the 50 I owe Pat. It's a start.

We woke up to 3 alarms this morning around 9:30am and went downstairs to get the buffet breakfast and checkout. The breakfast was 6 Euro and there was orange juice, ham, some other meat type objects, plus yogurt and oats. The yogurt was fantastic and was the best part of the meal. After that was done we headed out to find the free tour we looked up the night before. The girl who led the tour was Scottish and named Natasha. The tour guides work on tips alone so they have to make it good, and it was.

It started off in Pariserplatz Square in front of the Brandenburg gate. The gate is massive with many columns and a statue with Victoria riding on a chariot on the top. We heard the story of it (the statue), how it was stolen by Napoleon then taken back and how it was renamed Victoria to symbolize victory over France, and how its head now looks straight at the French Embassy in Berlin as if to say, "Yeah, whats up assholes, we beat you." Then we saw the outside of the German Parliament. Also very big, columns, big dome, glorious, you know the deal. Then we went to a holocaust memorial called "the memorial to the martyred Jews of Europe." It was made up of many rectangular blocks of different sizes. It was interesting because everyone got quiet and it was very claustrophobic in the middle.

We then went and stood above the bunker where Hitler killed himself. Apparently people who live in the apartments behind it have their dogs shit on the ground over it. Take that Hitler. We also saw the neonazi book burning site. Oddly enough I had read something about it earlier and turned to Alex and said earlier in the day, "This is just the beginning. Wherever they burn books, people will eventually be burned." Then not 5 minutes later the tour guide read a plaque that said the same thing. It was impressive. The memorial was a transparent square in the middle of the courtyard that you can look down into and see empty bookshelves.


After that we ventured over the checkpoint Charlie which was the main American checkpoint during WW2. Then we stopped to get cappuccinos and Pastries. People in Europe love that shit AND their espresso doesn't taste horrible. F you Starbucks. Anyways...

Somewhere in there we also saw the biggest piece of the lasting Berlin Wall. It wasn't that impressive in stature, but it was definitely worth it to see. I have wanted to see the actual wall ever since I went on a field trip with one of my history classes to the JFK museum and saw a piece of it encased in glass. All throughout the city you can follow cobble stone lines on the street that represent where the Berlin wall used to be. It was over 60 Km in length, which is just crazy. It was such a recent part of history and it effected so many lives. Very hard to believe. Also went to Museum Island where we saw the Berliner Dome, which again was huge (more huge than usual) and really beautiful. We also saw some cathedrals, some Catholic (French Huguenots) and some Protestant (for most North Germans.)

We tipped the women 20 Euro at the end and she deserved every penny...or Euro...yeah. Everything we even thought we wanted to see was on the tour. Berlin is a city thriving after such a harsh past, and an inspiration to all who see it. This I believe.





After the tour we got food at this German place where no one spoke English, which was cool. We caught on to how to order and such. I had a beer, can't remember the name of it but it was decent and 3 Euro. To eat I got some beef thing with gravy and red cabbage put on a ball of potato/rice. When you put all that on the fork together it was great. We had a sausage/kraut appetizer that was really amazing as well. Germans know how to make kraut better than anyone. Ever. After that we went back to our hostel, drank some espresso and talked to a guy from DC who was traveling on business with his male friend from Sweden. (not gay) We talked mostly about language barriers, how the English language was horrible to talk and write with, and about women from many different countries. We then ventured to the train station (took the S-Bahn) which is like a subway. Waited there for 40 minutes and then got on the sleeper train.

The room in the train is about 6 feet by 6 feet with 4 beds. The beds are in a bunk fashion. We got sheets for them which decently look clean. Our backpacks fit in the aisle and overhead storage, so in short, it's cramped but its doable. The beds are big enough for Alex to stretch completely out and he is 6'2, so they work fine. We should be waking up around 8:15am tomorrow to make sure we get off at Krakow because it's not the last stop, so if we sleep through we are not going to end up in Krakow.

I'm really excited to see Auschwitz and that is all I'll say about it now, and I'll have more on it when I see it. The tour guide told the group today that everyone on this earth should see a concentration camp during their lifetime just so they can experience just a fraction of the horror that occurred there. Okay, going to sleep now. Night. - 11:14pm



ONWARD TO KRAKOW!

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