Ich bin ein Berliner!

It was a bit sad to leave Munich and the wonderful hospitality we got from Konsta (and his brother) but it was time to move on. Duncan is traveling til November too, so we all decided to go to Berlin together! The train was nice, much easier to store our luggage (probably because we sent home about 50 pounds!!). Amanda and I watched Quantum of Solace and played cards. When we arrived, Amanda spoke with a travel agent and found a place for the 3 of us to stay. It was close to the station, but also close to downtown! The room was set up for 5 people, but we only had one roommate on the first night- an elderly lady who was extremely quiet when she read, but apparently likes sleeping with the light on. After settling in on Wednesday, we walked around the town, checking out all the sights.

Brandenberg Gate.

Duncan had his first kebab, and it was delicious!! Once the sun started to set, it got really cold. Amanda and I weren’t ready for the cold weather in Europe to begin, but we dealt with it anyway! We went to a coffee shop, Balzacs, and enjoyed some hot coffee and comfy seats. When we got back to the hostel, the 3 of us bundled up and watched a couple episdoes of Weeds- our new addiction. The next day, our full day in Berlin, we woke up in time for the free breakfast: cereal, toast, pb and jelly (Amanda was really happy they had peanut butter!), bread rolls, cheese, meat, coffee, hot cocoa powder (not hot sand!), and orange juice. I think it was the best free breakfast we’ve had on this trip!! I was excited for today because we were going on the free walking tour of Berlin : ) I’ve been on these free tours in a few other cities and they were one of my favorite things! Anyways, our tour guide, Mick, is from England but now lives in Berlin. He loves history, so we learned a ton on our tour! He kept the tour interesting and funny. We saw everything important and so much more

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This is Checkpoint Charlie, one of the entrances from East Berlin to West Berlin.

It took a total of 5 hours to see it all. Mick even told us about the Opera house and how great it was (and cheap!) so we decided that the opera was going to be our night activity. We rested up for a short while, then threw on layers and layers of clothes (Amanda and I were freezing!) and went searching for a restaurant.

We probably should have left earlier because after enjoying our delicious meals and drinks- beer with a shot of raspberry sauce! (recommended by the one and only Rick Steves)- we only had about 5 minutes til the opera started. So after getting stuffed, we RAN to the opera house. We got in a few minutes late but made our way up to the balcony and watched Salome, our first German opera. Amanda understood about 60% of the opera, and it helped that you could read the lyrics. It was hard to follow at times, but the performers and music were amazing! Good fun, especially for only 3,50 euros! After the opera, we walked back to our hostel - in the freezing cold! We were exhausted from a long day of walking and went to bed.

We had to check out of the hostel by 10am, so we woke up early and had breakfast. Then we locked our luggage up at the hostel and walked into the city one last time. The Reichtstag building was open to the public and you can climb up and have a nice view of the entire city.

On the way over, we walked through the train station - at least we tried to walk through, but had to turn around half way through when we found out there was some mysterious suit case on one of the platforms down stairs. There were police and military men everywhere and sections were blocked off. Hopefully they would get it sorted before we had to leave Berlin!

We walked up the Reichstag - now known as the Bundestag - and enjoyed a free audio tour pointing out all the sights we saw the day before. I really like hearing about the things we are looking at because it makes it more interesting and I feel more knowledgeable!

After we were finished we got our luggage and made our way to the train station where thankfully the ‘mysterious case’ had gone away and waited for our train. Then on to Hamburg!

Auf Wiedersehen!
A&A + Duncan