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Published: August 8th 2008
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Berlin Bear
The symbol of Berlin is the bear, so they are all over the city. I made it! Yes, thats right, the girl who got lost in Carlsbad last week, even though she's lived in San Diego her whole life, managed to make it, not just half way around the world, but across a country in which she doesn't speak the language and navigate a foreign city. Aren't you proud of me?
As you may be able to tell, I have officially made it to Berlin, after a 10 hr flight from LAX to Frankfurt and a 4 hr train ride from Frankfut. The journey was, um, interesting...a lot less people speak English then you would think, and I don't speak a word of German. I managed to navigate mainly by walking up to "Service Points" in train stations and bewilderedly thrusting a piece of paper (in Frankfurt, my rail pass, and in Berlin, a paper I had written the address of the hostel on) at the nice looking German woman who proceeded to explain what I needed to do, very slowly, at least twice. Oh well, so a few Germans think I'm an idiot...at least I made it to my hostel!
I am now sitting in a room with four beds, in a
hostel named "SleepCheap" (not sketch at all, right?) and have come to the conclusion that most random, solo travelers are male. How did I reach this conclusion, you may ask? Well, when I booked a bed in a coed dorm and ended up with 3 male roommates, I figured it out pretty quickly. Right now one of said roommates is out, another is sitting on his computer and the third is asleep...I think. There is a good chance he is also dead. For those of you GDubbers reading this, remember old man Schenly? Ya, this guy could be his twin. Except he speaks German, or maybe it was Spanish he was trying to speak to me in, I couldn't really tell... For those non-GW kids, think very skinny old man (looks like he's about 90) with a little gray hair left on his head. A few seconds ago he sounded like he was trying to hack up a lung, and there hasn't been any noise from his bed since then. Which is why I say he might be dead. Oh well, I guess we'll find out in the morning!
As I am writing this I am chowing down on
what I think is a large German version of a panini. The meat is a fried chicken? patty, which kind of looked like a hash brown, and there is a bunch of what the man called "salad and sauce". Did I mention I don't speak German? Well, at about 11 pm there is not a ton open, so the first non-sketcy looking place I found after wandering down the street aways (I passed up the Turkish place with the large group of drunk men) I went in to. The guy rattled something off in rapid German, to which I confusedly admitted I didn't understand. He spoke a few words of English, so when he figured out I wanted something to eat, and we both realized I would not be able to name anything, he just made me this sandwich. Its actually really good, and he was very nice. He wanted to know why I didn't have a "Deutsch-English book". Thats a very good question...why didn't I think to get a German-English book before I came? Probably the same reason why I didn't get a map of Berlin even though all I had was the address to the hostel I was
A picture...
of a cool building. supposed to be at. I'm not very good at thinking ahead.
In conclusion, I am a complete idiot (not really a new fact for most of you 😊) but I managed to make it to where I need to be, and now just have to wait until Bethany and company come tomorrow and then the real adventures will begin!
So its about 10 minutes to 9 am here in Berlin, and I woke up really early (I still haven't quite adjusted to the time difference!) and went for a walk. Berlin is asleep right now. There is no other way to describe it. There are very few people in the street, window curtains are drawn shut, and even the sky is overcast, like its having a hard time waking up!
Yesterday, before Bethany and crew got here, I went on a 4 hour walking tour of Berlin. It was one of those English tours they always adverstize in hostels, and I figured it was a good waz to see the city, stay out of trouble and pass the time, all in one! It was amazing to walk around...talk about history! Whenever I get a camera
Tour Group
So you can't really see them, but this is an aerial shot of the tour group. The guide was born in east Berlin before the wall fell. cord I'll upload pictures, but for now, I'll try to do some justice describing it. Where to start...well, the tour guide was a 28 year old woman who was born in East Berlin, obviously before the wall fell. She had some interesting childhood stories, which I won't bore you all with here, but if you want to hear any, let me know. We started walking around, saw museum island, which is also next to where the palace of the royal German family was, before the socialists destroyed it, eventually made our way to Brandenburg Gate, which is next to the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window a few years back (aren't you so proud to be an American??), saw the contreversial memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe and ended by seeing the longest piece of the Berlin wall still standing in the city and checkpoint Charlie, one of the checkpoints between East and West Berlin. There was a lot that we covered in between all this, but the most amazing--and surreal--part for me was that we were wandering around somewhere where 20 years ago, no one could freely go. We walked past Berliners who were
going about there normal business, who just happened to pass by one of the oldest churches in Germany, or some other big historic monument.
It was also surrel to walk around the memorial to the dead Jews of Europe, and be told that after it was constructed the dug underneath to make an information center only to discover that the bunker of Goebbel family. For those of you who don't know--forgive me if I get this wrong!--Goebbel was a high ranking Nazi commander and a few weeks before the war ended, when it was clear that Hitler would lose, him and his wife committed suicide in this bunker, only after killing their 5 children with poisin, because ''the world without nationalism wasn't worth living in.'' Talk about history. Just down the street, under the parking lot of an apartment building, was the site of Hitler's bunker. Until 2006 nothing marked the spot, but they finally put a small sign with basic information on it up that year.
I don't think I can possibly do this amazing city justice with just a few words, but as soon as I can get pictures uploaded I will.
I think the
Map of Berlin
Map of how Berlin looked when divided. rest of my group is all awake now, so farewell for now! 😊.
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Sammy
non-member comment
Oh Veronica..I am glad to hear you have made it to Berlin alright. And you managed to find a hotel, I'm impressed! I keep getting very sad everytime I read your's and Bethany's travel blogs, and I keep telling myself I will see you guys in January. But I got a webcam, and a skype account! So we should def talk when you have time. And you never called me before you left, loser. I hope you find/have found Bethany ok.