Sorry, it has been a while since my last post. This week is midterms and next week is spring break, so there will be plenty to talk about, which is why I am trying to finish Berlin.
Apologies if this post is more of a skim of what we saw as opposed to the minute by minute account you have probably grown accustomed to.
Saturday morning, we woke up and hiked over to the "pompous" Charlottenburg Palace. A summer home for the Hohenzollern family, the palace was just a massive expanse of yellow real estate. From the palace, we decided to walk down the street to the U-bahn station and try out Berlin's public transport. Along the way to Potsdam Square, we stopped off at Kurfurstendamm. Ku-damm as it is known in Berlin is the "rodeo drive" of Berlin and we were there merely to say we had seen it and grab some starbucks. We also happened to find the ruins of the famous church there (King Wilhelm), but of course, it was under construction...
From Ku-damm, we re-boarded the U and passed along to Potsdam Square. We spent some time photographing the line on the street marking where the wall was and of course, I straddled the line. From the square, we dropped off luggage at the hostel and made our way toward the Topography of Terror.
The former site of SS headquarters during Nazi control, the topography of terror is now a museum devoted to remembering those who died from war and tyranny. The free museum at the location was very thought provoking and we spent more than 2 hours examining the exhibits.
From the museum, we passed Checkpoint Charlie (a huge tourist jam) and made our way through much less popular East Berlin toward the East Side Gallery. The East Side Gallery is the largest standing portion of the wall (1mile) and is now used as a canvas for spray paint artists from all over the world. The walk to the Gallery took us forever and was more than we had anticipated. After walking half of each side of the wall, we turned around and headed back toward Alexanderplatz after stopping in the Ostbahn train station for a McDonald's appetizer.
Freshly re-fueled, we walked north toward Alexanderplatz stopping at a Megamall to use the restroom and see some German shops. We passed through the crowded square which was undergoing construction and walked toward the TV tower. On the steps in front of the TV tower, we sat for a while and watched the Berlin youth in some sort of Dance gang practice party. It is very difficult to explain, but very interesting to watch. After about 20 minutes of rest, we looked for a grocery store to stock up for the next day's train ride.
Hungry for dinner after grabbing snacks, we headed back to Happy Noodles to try some more of the enticing menu items. Thoroughly stuffed, it was back along Unter den Linden to the Bebelplatz, which we missed the first time. The walk back to the hostel was rather uneventful, but getting there was a huge relief. Unbeknownst to us, we had walked over 20 kilometers on what was supposed to be our easy day because we had used public transportation...
Sunday morning we set our clocks back to adjust with the rest of the world and left the hostel bright and early to see the last bits of Berlin before the train at noon.
We passed the Berlin Philharmonic building before heading to find Fassbender and Rausch- Europe's largest chocolatier. After some misdirecting, we found the shop, only to find that it did not open for a few more hours. Passing the Gendarmenmarkt and Brandenburg Gate, we attempted to find the "Ghost Subway Stations" deciding that what we had found was close enough. As we stopped for a light breakfast, we checked our notes and decided we had done it all.
The last walk to the Hauptbanhof was easy and peaceful as we strolled through the Gate and passed the Reichstag. Getting to the train station thirty minutes early, we headed to McDonald's to get wifi and relax. As we sat in our booth, we realized that Europe doesn't adjust to daylight savings at the same time and we were two hours early to our train.
We killed the time talking about baseball, marketing, and social media before grabbing a lunch to go and heading to the train.
Berlin is probably my favorite city to this point due to the historical relevance that it holds. Even though the city was huge and expensive, there were so many interesting places to visit and things to see that living there would be a fun experience.
Unfortunately, this post and the last one do not have pictures due to time crunch. I will try to do a post in the coming week of pictures from the trip as well as updates on our trips to the Opera (Marriage of Figaro) and to Krakow, Poland (Auschwitz-Birkenau included).
Off to study for midterms!
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