On the second day in Berlin, Oli and I didn't sleep in too late because we wanted our free breakfast at the hostel, so we had an early start on the day. The one tourist place I really wanted to see was Checkpoint Charlie, which wasn't very far away at all. It was pretty much just a big tourist trap, but it was fun seeing the old guard house, and there was a historical timeline put up where the wall had been so we could learn a little about it without having to pay to go into the museum. I paid 2 euros to get my passport stamped with an East Berlin stamp, but it was definitely cool enough to be worth it!
Unfortunately there were no actual pieces of the Wall there (except for "pieces" for sale in the Gift Shops), and I really wanted to see it because I had no idea how high it was or anything. The wall's path was marked with brick on the road, so Oli and I decided to just follow it for awhile and see what we found. (I felt like I was back on the Freedom Trail in Boston!) After about 5 minutes we found some old pieces just lying by the side of the road, so we climbed around on them and took pictures (see above - photo credits to Oli.) I could have easily just chipped a piece off and had an echte piece of Die Mauer, but it didn't occur to me at the time, and I don't really want to carry a chunk of concrete with me back to the States. Also, the real wall pieces didn't have as much graffiti as the ones for sales in the Gift Shops presumed. Suspicious...
Then we went to a shopping center platz to meet some other members of the group for lunch. Resident Evil: Apocalypse was just released here, and I wanted to teach Oli the American art of getting really messed up before a scary movie and then going to see it in theaters, but we ended up being too tired later that night. :-( Maybe when I'm in Hamburg we can go. We had lunch at Vapiano, which is the same pasta/salad place we went to when I was in Hamburg. It's so delicious! Definitely gonna be one of those places I miss when I'm back in the States.
Then we went shopping in this giant department store called Ka-Da-We. It's kinda like Karstadt but bigger. It's not really a department store because smaller companies sell their goods within it, but it's not set up like a mall either with separate stores for each brand. I guess we don't really have an equivalent in America. Anyways, there was a gourmet foods floor with international food, so we decided to go check it out for Poptarts. As we were approaching the floor on the escalator, a giant display of Poptarts stood right in front of us! They must have just gotten a new shipment in, because they had almost every flavor available. (Although half of them were the unfrosted type - what's up with that? Germans need to get fatter.) Unfortunately they didn't have strawberry either, but of course that didn't dampen my mood! I picked out Raspberry and Wild Grape. They were about 9 euros a box, so I couldn't go too nuts. Oli was sweet and bought them for me, so I gave him some to bring back to Hamburg because he'd never tried them before. He said he liked them but they tasted more like cookies than breakfast food! lol
We wanted to meet up with everyone again to see "die alte Kirche" (The Old Church) which was rather amusing because there was an old church around every corner and Oli and I had no idea which church the rest of the group actually wanted to see. But we met up with them and found this church, which was indeed quite old but also under construction. We couldn't get inside either. :-( Everyone else wanted to go see the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, but we were more in the mood for a Schläfchen (nap) so we went back to the Hostel.
We met up with Robin later that evening and got dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant nearby. I only had Ethiopian once in Boston, but it's so good! Unfortunately I was the only one who got authentic Ethiopian food though! For some reason it also took about an hour for our food to arrive. I didn't care too much, but Robin got upset and tried arguing with the waiter in German lol. I got the authentic vegetable dish with doughbread that you eat with your hands. I'm not sure what the official names for everything was, but if you ever get a chance you should try out real Ethiopian food!
Then we had a bit of Vorglühen and hanging out with Robin, but I felt bad for Oli because we ended up talking in English pretty much the whole time. His English is quite good, but Robin and I were speaking quickly and using American phrases and slang. It's the same as when I was around Oli and his friends in Hamburg. I could only understand a little bit of what they said.
Oli and I decided to go to this House Boutique club we'd gotten a flyer for on the street, and Robin went back to his apartment. We didn't set out until after midnight, which is pretty typical for clubbing here in Germany (since the clubs actually close at a normal time, not 2 am!) It took us awhile to find the place because it was in the back of some building overlooking a river. We almost went into the Ü40 (age 40+) party by mistake! We found the right building, and we also spent a little time on a dock by the river looking at the Berlin skyline and the stars out that night (romantisch!) I've never been into a pure House club before. I was expecting more of a stereotypical dance club like the night before, but this was more like what I'd imagined Germany would be like. The songs were all House, no Club or Pop or Eurodance, which I find a little slow for dancing but quite nice to listen to. We still danced anyways, because of course there was a fog machine and strobe lights and a giant artistic movie being shown on one of the walls. I knew a few of the songs, mostly from Cosmic Gate and Super8, and they played one of Oli's favorite songs too. Right before we left they played "Nein, Mann" (my faves German club song), so of course we had to obey the lyrics and not go yet!
We didn't do too much on Sunday. We had our free breakfast and then sat down to do some planning on our Amsterdam trip. It's only 4 hours from Hamburg, so Oli said he thinks we can just drive there. The hostels are rather pricey (and most of the einzelzimmer are already booked for the weekend), so we might go for a hotel room too. I want one close to the Red Light District! lol. We can also get a walking tour of the Red Light District led by a former prostitute. I also want to check out the Anne Frank house and maybe the Van Gogh Museum. Since we're driving, I'll get a chance to see a lot of the countryside too! Maybe I can see some of those cool old windmills. Photo opp!
So that was my Berlin trip. I'm definitely gonna go back again before the semester is up!
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