The one in Berlin

So we arrived in Berlin at 4:30 in the morning. What do you do at 4:30 in the morning? Really though, what do you do? Well, we decided to freshen up in the bathroom for a good 45 minutes or so and then finally the cafes in the train station started to open. We grabbed a bite to eat and either some juice, tea, or coffee. Then we sat around and enjoyed our breakfast while writing in our journals or reading. Then we went back up and got more to eat and drink. I may be mistaken but some of the girls might have even gone up a third time. We really had a lot of time to kill. At 8 in the morning we headed out to find our hostel. It was about a 20 minute walk but we found it without a problem. The hostel was great and really clean. Actually, they overbooked on accident so we ended up getting a private room for 6 instead of a shared room for 10 at the same price. Win. We loved the hostel.

Because we had a wonderful room with wonderful beds, it was time for a quick hour nap. It was amazing and well worth it. We got up and headed out to find some lunch before our free walking tour. And this time, we were going to get to the free walking tour early because there was no way we were going to miss it this time. We asked the nice guy at the reception desk where you recommended for lunch and he pointed us in the direction of a donner kebap stand a few blocks away. This was our first take of a donner kebap. Wow. It was cheap. It was quick. And it was fantastic. Horrible for you but fantastic. Basically all it is is a bunch of meat shoved into a pita like a gyro and then on top they put lettuce, tomato, onions if you want them, and then spread a garlic and yogurt sauce on the inside layers. I'll repeat; Wow. It was wonderful.

We headed to the pick up point of our tour after lunch where we met our tour guide, Matt, and then we followed him till we made it to the starting point in front of the Museum. It was on one side of a very large square. Now this square was full of interesting facts: 1. The Museum was the first national museum that the Germans built and it took them 2 years to name it. When they finally did, they came up with "The Museum". 2. In front of The Museum is one of the 8 wonders of the world: the largest single piece of granite found in the world with it's 8 meters in diameter, it looks like a giant cereal bowl and was supposed to be a main attraction in The Museum but it wouldn't fit through the columns to the entrance of The Museum. 3. The square was one of the main locations used for rallies and speeches for the Nazis. Hitler often times stood on the podium in front of The Museum and preached unity with one government and one ruler: one united Germany. Too bad everyone fell for it.

At the meeting point, we also met a lot of the other people on the tour including a group of 4 guys from the US who where studying in London. 2 of them even go to U of I and 1 lives in Naperville! It's a small world wherever you go. We enjoyed the tour with our new friends.

A few other interesting facts that I learned include understanding how Hitler killed himself the day after he was married in his bunker, how the street behind the main Catholic church in the city is called "the street behind the Catholic church street," and also that the Germans number every tree in Berlin with a tag. I even got a picture with tree number one!, I also saw the most expensive and lavish hotel in Berlin where Queen Elizabeth always stays and Michael Jackson uses to hang babies out of the window, and then I saw checkpoint Charlie and a few pieces of the Berlin Wall.

Overall, Berlin is a very interesting city filled with history. It is much more spread out than any of the other cities I've seen in Europe. Other cities have small buildings separated by small alleys and streets with a few grand or larger buildings every now and then. But Berlin has only large buildings separated by large streets and occasionally even larger people. I really enjoyed the city but one day certainly wasn't enough to get the right feel for it.

After the walking tour, we ate some German bratwurst for dinner and went back to the hostel to shower before our night out in Berlin. Our friends from earlier that day came to meet up with us at our hostel and we had a good time discussing mutual friends and swapping stories. We found a pretty crazy bar that had rings of actual fire hanging from the ceiling. We hung out there for a few hours before heading back to the hostel to catch about 3 hours of sleep before moving on to Prague.