Berlin!

Every time I tell people I am living in Germany, they always ask “have you been to Berlin yet?” Finally I can proudly answer yes!  My friend Barynia and I travelled to Berlin to visit a couple of her friends, Amanda and Isabel, who happen to be studying abroad there.  I took advantage of another glorious German long weekend and headed to Berlin by train (expensive ticket, but I couldn’t find a Mitfahrgelegenheit) on Thursday afternoon.  B and I met up with her friends at the Berlin hbf and we headed out for dinner and some drinks.  We had a big day ahead of us on Friday, so we called it an early night.

Friday morning, B's sister Nathalia flew in from the states to visit for a week or so.  After gathering Nathalia, and taking a little nap, we all headed out to the city to find somewhere to eat a nice German lunch.  We didn't find anything super authentic, but we found a reasonabily priced place where we could eat outside!  I had delicious Currywurst and potato salad and a Bohemia Dunkel bier to wash it all down.  Quite delicious!  After lunch, we were right around the corner from the Berliner Dom so we headed over there to check it out!  This cathedral is super gorgeous, and has undergone many renovations since it's time of establishment in the 1450s.  (It's still hard to wrap my mind around simply the age of things over here).  We toured around the inside, saw and heard a massive organ, and eventually climbed our way up some rickety stairs to the observation deck where we were rewarded with an awesome 360° view of Berlin!  Then we headed back down and had to go through the crypts on our way out.  I'm not a huge fan of crypts, they're creepy and smelly.  After some lounging on the grass in front of the Berliner Dom, we began making our way to the Schloss Charlottenburg.  This baroque palace and the huge palace grounds were really breathtaking.  So much European beauty in one day!  We topped off the evening with delicious burgers at Kreutzburger!

 The "TV Tower" and me and my Bohemia Dunkel

Museum Island really is an "island"!

Me out front of the Berliner Dom! 

The insane organ inside the Berliner Dom!

View from the top! 

Schloss Charlottenburg

Bearcats in Germany!

Breathtaking!

On Saturday we got up and headed to the Brandenburg Gate, where we were meeting up for a free city walking tour.  These free tours are great and they are available in every city I've gone too!  On our 3.5 hour tour we covered: Brandenburger Tor, Pariser Platz, Reichstag, Holocaust-Denkmal, Potsdamer Platz, Die Berliner Mauer, Checkpoint Charlie, Friedrichstraße, Gendarmenmarkt, Bebelplatz, Staatsoper, Unter den Linden, Neue Wache, Museumsinsel.  We did A LOT of walking. I did A LOT of picture taking. Behold.

Holocaust Memorial 

Me in front of a rather unexciting section of the Berlin wall 

Where Einstein and the Grimm brothers studied! 

War memorial

Our tour ended around 3 and we headed back to where the tour started, the Brandenburg Gate, because we had seen a HUGE public viewing being set up for the Germany vs. Portugal Eurocup game.  What better place to watch some Fußball than on a jumbotron in front of a historic monument with thousands of screaming Germans?! Our thoughts exactly.  I had a bit of a brain-fart though because when I looked online to see when the game started, I somehow saw the time in EST aka we were 6 hours early to the public viewing.  Not a huuuge problem, but we could have checked out a few more cool Berlin sites.  Instead we drank beer and befriended Dutch people during the Netherlands vs. Denmark game that was showing before the Germany game.  Fair trade, since the Dutchies bought us beer.  The Germany game was like a giant party.  Screaming, whistling, chanting, beer, brats, blow horns, fireworks, you name it!  After the victory, we celebrated the night away!

And this was only the beginning... see the Brandenburg Gate in the background?

Sunday morning we woke up (slowly) and headed to the Flohmarkt am Mauerpark.  We didn't have nearly enough time to give this flea market justice.  It was HUGE and so overwhelming that I didn't buy anything except for some freshly squeezed OJ. Which was delicious by the way.  B and Nathalia had to catch a flight to Barcelona (how glam) so they headed to the airport around 1:30.  Amanda, Isabel and I grabbed some lunch and then I waited for my Mitfahr back to Wuppertal.  And I waited.  Annnnd I waited.  And after about 1.5 hours and numerous phone calls I finally gave up on my Mitfahr and ponied up 78€ for a train ticket back.  I can't really complain though because I saved a lot of cash by having kind hosts and not having to stay in a hostel, but being stood up was kinda like a rotten cherry on an otherwise scrumptious sundae of a weekend.  I wanted to use a Berliner metaphor instead, but I'm not that wordsmithy.  In any case, I had a great weekend and I highly encourage visiting Berlin if you get the chance!  It's got so much interesting history and it's still growing, changing, and expanding!