Berlin! Part One.

Being home (well, now being back in Westminster for my job) has made me shamefully forget to blog about Berlin.  I can't believe that happened, considering it was the place I was most excited to visit.  So...I'll try to do it now!

It started with a 12-hour bus ride that began only about 6 hours after getting back from Venice and Vienna, which also involved bus rides.  Somehow, Caitlin ended up getting there on a plane, but Dani, Laura, and I decided to use Orangeways again, because it's super affordable.

It is darn near impossible for me to sleep on a bus.  I was rather miserable, although I managed to get little 30 minute power naps.  Somehow, Dani was out a lot of the time.  I'm jealous of her ability to sleep on forms of mass transportation.

One thing I noticed when nearing Berlin is the strange appearance of the trees.  So many of them seemed rather dead- abnormally so. But then I saw a sign that said Berlin was however many kilometers away and was distracted by my excitement, because this was. after all, the city I've always wanted to go to!

We arrived at the bus station, which was overwhelming because we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and the directions we had for the hostel made no sense.  We finally figured it out and made it to the subway station, where we spent an embarrassing 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get tickets.

Eventually, after a few wrong turns, we made it to Heart of Gold Hostel.  It was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy themed.  Caitlin was awaiting us, as her flight had not taken 12 hours, and we then signed in and went to our room, which we shared with two other people.

Dani and I had tickets for the Berlin Philharmonic that night, and I was so excited.  I'd ordered the tickets online and was amazed that they only cost 7 euro apiece.  However, the description of the event was in German, so I had no idea what I was getting us into.  It was not the Philharmonic at all, but rather, a documentary about a composer whose name I no longer remember.  It was interesting- at least, the parts that were in English were.  I think the man was there afterwards to answer questions, but that was in German and we felt awkward and left.

We were due to meet up with the others at Potsdamer Platz soon, but took some time to wander through the magnificent Sony Center on the way back.  There was a giant giraffe (life sized?) made of legos! And there were some big ads for some German thing that happened to say "Ich bin ein Berliner," so we obviously had to take photos in front of that, and while I was looking for an ATM, we stumbled upon a pretty cool alien sculpture that argued for the existence of extraterrestrial life.

A girl from our hostel joined us for dinner, and we went to an Italian restaurant that was pretty good.  The service was weird, though, as Dani had to crazily gesture to get the guy's attention so we could order dessert, which ended up being some awful gooey pudding that congealed and changed color as it cooled.  Not quite how it seemed in the photo on the menu.

It was dark by then, but we were near Brandenburger Tor and just had to see it lit up beautifully in the night.  Our new hostel friend took photos for us.

The next day was full of random exploration with the goal of hitting as many landmarks as possible.  We walked down Friedrichstrasse, admiring the shops and ogling the fancy German cars in the windows, etc.  I especially enjoyed the Ampelmann street lights and the fancy manhole covers that doubled as maps. 

We visited Checkpoint Charlie and a small museum nearby that explained the spy tactics of the SS, which was pretty cool, and then went over to the Topographie des Terrors, a museum that took us through all stages of Nazi occupation of Germany.  Afterwards, I drank Spezi, which I'd discovered and fallen in love with the night before at dinner.

On the way to go get some lunch, I took a photo at Checkpoint Charlie for 2 euro, and as you can see, it's rather corny, but I had to do it.

And then I ate my first Bratwurst in Germany!! And it was AWESOME!

Our journey continued on towards Museum Island, and we saw the location of the famous book burning, where ironically a book sale was happening, so we spent some time browsing there and I bought my dad some old German Mark that he'd requested.  We also visited the memorial to the victims of war and tyranny that was located nearby.

We went onward to the Berliner Dom, where Caitlin and I frolicked in the fountain before we all paid a nominal fee to go inside.  Totally worth it.  We explored the crypt below the church and climbed up and up and up in the midst of a rather loud of of Spanish boy-children to get to the very top, where we had spectacular views of the entire city.  

For dinner, we asked our hostel for a recommendation of a nearby German restaurant.  We found it with relative ease and it was a great experience.  I ate fried cheese spaetzle, which I later tried to recreate at home but epically failed.  Laura drank Afri-cola, which is French, apparently, and the waiter thought it was funny that we had no clue what it was.  It tasted rather good, but I stuck with my Spezi.  

We wandered back through a park, where we played for a while. That was fun.  Even though we're all 19 or 20 years old, playgrounds are still rather appealing.  

And we watched the sunset before going back to the hostel for the night.