Today I got to wake up nice and early and check out the Reichstag, really cool inside, an elevator takes you right up and there is even a cafe, the cool thing was going up the dome and you can see right into the parliment when they are in session. I decided to also check out Check Point Charlie today and it was also amazing, an older woman walking by stopped and told me her story about the wall, it turns out her aparment was in East Berlin and her window opened to West Berlin and she talked about how the Russians blocked off her window. It was a really interesting museum, very long, it turns out a lot of these places do not allow photography sadly, I did not realize that until halfway through haha. ... read more

It was sad to say "Auf Wiedersehen" to Hamburg and Fanny and Kolja, but off to Berlin. The ride was short and fast with and ICE train, hour and a half. The train was surprisingly full. The trainstation here is also amazing so big! After confusion of trying to get to the hostel it turned out the stop I needed was around the corner from the stop I was at. My goal for today was to see the Public Viewing in Berlin and I accomplished that! Besides being frisked twice to get in it was really fun, there were around 500,000 people I heard, I got to Berlin, to hostel then left right away to public viewing, I got there 2 hrs early and it paid off! I got right up close to the front, about ... read more

So going out this morining I got whats called Mett, a raw pork spread on bread yummm! Kolja and I road the ferry up the Elbe River and he explained a lot to me, him being from Hamburg can explin a lot. We alsowent under the Elbe as well, they had to build tunnels because you cannot build a bridge (prevents ships). Aparently Hamburg and Berlin are debating who has the best Kurrywurst, I will say Hamburgs was pretty good. After grabbing lunch with Fanny (which we did find a memorial to a Fanny Mendelsohn right by her work) we checked out some local stores, a five story version of Dicks Sporting goods and a six story Game/movie/electronics store, which was super awesome, they had almost any game and movie you could want, aisles of wii ... read more

First, my title I chose was because a resident of Hamburg is called a Hamburger. Anyways...arriving to Hamburg today was quite easy, I had to backtrack sadly back to Köln from Aachen, but very easy to get to and find. Train travel here is simply amazing. I finally arrived here at 15.30 and Fanny met me at the trainstation. The apartment they have is really nice and has a large guest room as well. It has been nice having someone to speak all day with in German and tomorrow I am excited to experience German high school, I will be in a Chemistry and Biology class tomorrow and on Wednesday I will be in a English class which should be fun as well, seeing the language from their point of view. Hamburg itself is a nice ... read more

So today I further explored the city thanks to a suggestion by the workers at the hostel. It is funny, I find today I keep thinking about my father, not just because of the cemetary, but also because at a German restaurant (where the picture of my dinner is from) they played the song "Sherry baby" on the radio. I found out Aachen is the ruling place of Charlemege and seeing his "Rathaus" was really cool, I was dissapointed to find out that you cannot take pictures inside, but the building alone is an archetectural beauty. On these old buildings the fence off statues that are inset and also put small metal spikes up wherever a bird (aka pigeon) could put a nest up. The city has more than I thought to offer, the hostel here ... read more