Berlin! Berlin! Wir fahren nach Berlin!.

---

Hallo ladies and gents!<span><span> I’m currently on a train from Berlin to Prague and after 2 hours on the train I finally snatched a seat.<span> The train was jam packed from Berlin to Dresden so Alvin and I had to stand up for the ride, which is not that comfortable when you’re running on 4 hours of sleep.<span> I’m using the train rides to write my blogs, watch some shows, and catch up on some sleep.<span>Today’s ride will only be 4.5 hours so it is one of our shorter journeys on this tour.



So I spent the past 2 days in Berlin.<span> Back stateside people were telling me that Berlin was like the Austin of Germany, except on a grander scale.<span> I can definitely validate that claim after visiting, Berlin is a city where the banality of communist East Germany collide with new age ice-cream eating techno freaks.<span> It really is like no other city I have been to in Europe.<span> It’s a city where they are open to ANYTHING, as you will read below.<span> The only law that seems to be enforced is jaywalking, which results in a 10 Euro fine. We stayed at a hostel here, which was surprisingly very nice and totally worth the price we paid, if any of you plan to go to Berlin I would definitely recommend the Circus Hostel.<span> Since I haven’t eaten a real meal today, let me talk about the food first.<span> Berliners live off a staple diet of currywurst and pommes(bratwurst cooked in curry and French fries) and doner kebaps.<span> It’s surprising how relatively thin everyone is considering they live off these foods, just shows the dividends to living in a city with strong public transport.<span> The first night we had some excellent doner kebaps, what made it distinct was this red sauce they used which added great flavor.<span> The currywurst and pommes were good as well, once I get home I will attempt to find a mayonnaise to top on my fries!<span> And obviously Berliners love their beer, there is no open container law so you wlll find people drinking on the streets.<span> We mostly had beers at the convenience store across the street from the hostel, they had a pilsner beer for only 0.70 Euros so we took advantage of that.



Berlin has a strong historical perspective, being the center of Nazi Germany as well the barrier between West and East Germany during the cold war.<span> We went on a walking tour on the 2^nd day and saw the main sights of the city, including the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, Jewish Memorial, and of course the Berlin Wall.<span> Our tour guide was really good, she gave us a lot of insight into what common misconceptions there were during the Nazi and Cold War era.<span> For me the most interesting revelation was with regards to the Iron Curtain.<span> I was always told that the Iron Curtain was a psychological term that represented the divide between West and East Germany, but in fact there was a physical Iron Curtain in the middle of Germany that was covered with land mines.<span> Some of the things I saw and learned were very depressing as you could imagine, as bright as the city is today Berlin has a very dark recent past.<span> Another important of history I learned was with respect to what happened when the Soviet Army invaded Berlin in 1945, where the Soviets raped about 80%!o(MISSING)f the women in Berlin resulting in over 2000 births. <span> Alvin pointed out to me that during this time the US would sterilize people who were considered “unworthy”, and that today the government is paying the families of these people for this. What I realized is that the history that I learned in school was skewed, and often we focus on the faults of others and try to cover up the misdoings of our past.<span> All in all, a very eye opening experience.



That’s all I have for now folks, plenty of stories ahead with the big reunion in Prague!

---