And we are off on our global tour! First stop, Berlin. After catching the bus for Dublin at 1am..we were in for an exhausting weekend! We made it into Berlin at about 2pm and wondered around the train station until about 3pm. We were so completely confused and lost! Aside from not speaking the language we couldn't figure out how the trains were running and what the process was. Once we finally figured out where we were going we continued on to our hostel. It was a very cute, hippie, chill type atmosphere, with stuffed animals decorating the ceiling. I mean what more could you ask for? We were completely beat once we got there because we had been traveling for over 12 hours so we just walked around the area near our hostel, got dinner and got to bed early that night.
The next day we got up and took a tour of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, and that was an experience that will be getting an entire blog post dedicated to it. It was unreal. I also had the best meal of the trip that night! There is a picture where I will explain in more detail. Also that night we hung out with a boy from Japan and a boy from Colorado who we met on the tour. We just walked around the city and went to the coolest restaurant ever! Explanation to come later...
The next day we got up and did another tour, this time of the city of Berlin. This tour was extremely informative, almost too much so. He told us so many facts and stories that I thought my head was going to explode.I have included pictures from the tour so you can see some of the things I saw. After the tour had finished we just walked around the city of Berlin and got lost many times, that city is so confusing! Once it got dark we went to a really cute restaurant, sat outside under the heat lamp and had a very relaxing dinner!
We then headed for home Monday morning and spent the entire day traveling. If I never take another bus again, it will be too soon!
We then headed for home Monday morning and spent the entire day traveling. If I never take another bus again, it will be too soon!
This is a picture of the Berliner Dom, which is a Cathedral in the heart of Berlin. This building was so breathtaking.
This was such a cool memorial, it was a glass plate on the ground in the middle of a square and this was the view when you stood over the glass and looked down. It is a room underground full of empty book shelves with enough room for 20,000 books, in memory of the 20,000 books that the Nazi's burned during their famous book burning ceremony.
I was told that I had to try a German bratwurst while I was there and as you all know my love for hot dogs, I was quite excited. Don't let this picture fool you, it was quite delicious!
The Brandenburg Gate: it is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. It was a very dangerous place to be during WWII and was partially destroyed but it has been restored and it back to it's original structure.
This is the inside of the Jewish Memorial in Berlin, there is a mix of large and small stone blocks, made to look like graves, placed all throughout this space. They get bigger as you walk through the monument and you are meant to feel the feeling of isolation and confinement that the Jew's felt during the Holocaust.
This is a picture from the outer edge of the memorial.
You try waking up at 1am to travel and see what you look like..
Me in front of the Berliner Dom.
This was inside one of the chocolate stores. Completely solid. Amazing. There was also a model Titanic and Brandenburg Gate.
The longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall.
A mark on the ground where the wall used to stand. It is right in the middle of a sidewalk that thousands of people walk over every day. It's amazing how different a place can be just 10 years later.
Colleen and I in front of Humboldt University, a very famous University with students such as Albert Einstein and Karl Marx.
This was the greatest thing I ate the entire weekend.
It was called Doner im Brot. There was a huge piece of meat on a stick that a man (who made it known he knew who Obama was) would carve off, then they put it in this bread shell with a delicious mystery sause, feta cheese, tomato, lettuce, and onion. So good.
Colleen and I in front of the Berlin Wall. We were disappointed, we didn't get to see the cool graffiti part.
This was our hostel, it was decorated like New York city!
Yes, this is how I have been sleeping on my travels. With people I don't know and who don't always speak English. Good times.
This is Check Point Charlie, the most well known crossing point between East and West Berlin. There are guards who stand there and take pictures with you, as you can see a nice Asain man is taking full advantage of that.
This was near a museum somewhere, I just thought it was pretty.
There was so much graffiti all over the city!
I really enjoyed Berlin, but Germany wasn't my favorite country I had ever been to. I think the whole language barrier made it harder on me also. But anyhow, I loved it and had a really great time! I'm going to do a whole blog post about Sachsenhausen because I think it's important.
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