The Last of Germany

Home safe and sound from Germany! Unpacked (kind of) last night and doing laundry today and such. Getting ready to pack for leaving for Egypt for next week! Let me catch up on the last week of my trip to Germany. From Tuesday to Thursday of last week we were in Berlin. We took the bus and almost missed it on Tuesday morning! We had to run to catch it. The bus ride wasn't bad. Went through a lot of pretty countryside with many windmills. We arrived in Berlin in the East Train Station and luckily our hostel wasn't too far away.

We stayed in the eastern part of Berlin. We couldn't check in until 4 o'clock, so we left our bags in a closet at the hostel and walked around the city.  

  We started at Alexanderplatz, where the Berlin TV tower is located. The TV tower is 365 meters high- one for every day of the year. We went up in the tower and took a look around Berlin. The view was amazing! You could see all around the city. 

We decided to go look at the Berlin dome (large church) next. We walked to the Dome and my camera ran out of battery. Not cool! I was so mad that I forgot to charge it the night before! So I stole my Mom's camera for the rest of the day. So it worked out OK. After walking by and taking a look at the church we just decided to continue walking down Unter den Linden- the main road in the center of Berlin. 

We walked by the Bebelplatz- where the Nazis burned the books in the 1930s (1933 I think??), the Germany History Museum, site of one of the many assassination attempts on Hitler, and the Berlin opera house. When we were taking a break sitting on a bench, and English tour walked by and the guide sounded really informative, so we asked him about the tour company he was with. We would take that tour the next day. After meeting the tour guide, we decided to go explore another part of the city. 

I suggested the Berlin zoo. My mom and Arjang made fun of me for wanting to go to the zoo, but it was really cool. The Berlin zoo is very large and has lots of animals! We saw the famous polar bear Knut too!! After that Arjang took us to a Vietnamese restaurant he and his friends always visit when they are in Berlin and then headed back to the hostel for the night. The hostel was OK, but the bunk beds were uncomfortable and very very squeaky. So everytime one of us rolled over, it would wake everyone up. Yeah, no one slept really well.  

The next day, Wednesday, we took a free 3.5 hour walking tour through Berlin with Epsin- our tour guide. It was an English speaking tour and we had people from England, the US, Australia, Ecuador, and Africa. Our guide was a tour guide by day and the singer in 2 rock bands by night. After the tour he was going to work on recording an album with one of his bands. The tour was really great. Lots of interesting facts and sites. 

We saw some of the same things we did walking around the day before, and the Brandenburg Gate, the location of Hitler's bunker, a large section of the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. 

     Since the tour is free, at the end you just tip the guide whatever you felt it was worth. 

After the tour we went up onto the roof and in the glass dome of the Reichstag- the federal building of lower German parliament. It was another great view!! 

     The glass dome is supposed to represent transparency in government, and there is a series of mirrors which was supposed to reflect light into the chamber where votes were cast in order to shed light on governance. We then went to another Vietnamese restaurant, this one recommended by our tour guide, for dinner. After that, Arjang and I dropped Mom off at the hostel and Arjang took me to a Reggae bar to meet with some of his friends. The bar was pretty much just a little shack. It wasn't exactly my scene, but it was cool. After the bar we walked to a Shisha (hookah) bar and hung out for a while. We sang Happy Birthday to Arjang after midnight because it was his 23 Birthday on Thursday! On Thursday morning, we got up and checked out of the hostel, put our bags in a locker at the train station, and went to see the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church. 

     This is the one which a large part of it was destroyed in WWII, and when they rebuilt it, they left the steeple with the damage as a reminder of war. We were going to walk through the Tiergarten (large park) after that, but it was raining. 

Instead, we went to the Pergamon Museum. The Museum had a ton of Greek and Roman statues and art, as well as a whole floor of Islamic art. The Islamic art was my favorite and what I found most interesting.  

After the museum, we took the train to Curry 36, a very delicious, somewhat famous, currywurst place. After that we went to the train station for icecream. The best icecream I think I have ever had!! Finally, we made our way back to the East Train station and caught the bus home. Friday, we slept in and Arjang's mom picked up my Mom from his apartment in the afternoon. Arjang and his friend were having a Birthday part in his apartment that night and Mom didn't want to be around for it. Arjang's mom speaks very little English and my Mom speaks very little German, so they had a hard time communicating, but I think she had fun. At Arjang's, we had a bunch of beer and to eat- pasta salad and garlic bread. The party was a fun. Most of Arjang's friends spoke some English, so I got actually got to talk to people! yeah! Although incredible drunk Germans trying to speak English is really, really funny. Saturday, we slept in again, and then got up, packed stuff up, and Mom came back in the afternoon. We then went to a nice steakhouse for our last dinner in Germany. White asparagus is in season and it was really delicious! After dinner, Arjang and I went to the stadtpark to the planetarium and saw a laser light show in their imax theater. It was lasers and smoke and trippy patterns all set to Pink Floyd music. Very interesting! We then finished packing and went home the next day. I'm glad to be home, but I do miss everyone walking around in the middle of the day with a beer. Oh Germany!