Berlin Excursion

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So, last weekend (the 1st through the 4th) our group had an excursion to Berlin. It was great to finally ge there and see it after reading so much abour it in history books and always hearing about it.

One of the best things about this excursion was, even though it was a Furman excursion, we didn't have to go to 8,000 museums and 40,000 other boring places while we were there. Frau Chew (our Furman professor here now), has an entirely different approach than Herr Whisnat (the Furman professor who was here before) did. We actually had most of our time there to ourselves, to see whatever we wanted to see.

First of all, I have to mention that we got to ride in first class both ways on the train, and it was amazing. It was ridiculously roomy, and they even had a plug for my laptop, so we plugged it in and watched a movie on the way.

Anyways, on the first day there, a group of about 6 of us went to visit the famous Berlin Zoo. It was unbeleiveably huge, and it really was amazing. At first I hesistated in going, but I was really glad I did. They had just about every exotic imaginable, and it was very well landscaped. It was especially nice to be there in the fall. We stayed until the Zoo closed, and then made our way over to Germany's most famous department store, KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens). It translates as "Store of the West" in English. It was basically alot like Macy's in New York, except it also had a bakery and a bunch of small cafes on the top floor. So, after that, the whole group met up for dinner, and we went to s restaurant called "The Potato Cellar," which sounds not so classy, but was actually really good. I tried venison there for the first time, and I really liked it.

It rained pretty much the entire next day, but we still got to see some cool things. First we had a guided tour of the Reichstag (German Parliment/Congress). The original facade of the bulding was preserved, but the inside is entirely brand-new, and really cool looking. Our tour-guide left alot to be desired though. After that, Jason and I took off by ourselves (everyone else were going to museums, and we weren't huge fans of that). First we tried to go to the Checkpoint Charlie Exhibit, but there was a huge line, and it didn't look that great. We did get to see a reconstructed Checkpoint though. Then we went to the Berlin Cathedral, and the new Sony Center at Pottsdamer Platz. Check out the pictures to see exactly what that was like.

The next day we had a bike tour of Berlin which was really cool, and we got to see a bunch of different things. Then a bunch of us headed over to Tiergarten (a huge park that used to be the royal hunting grounds), to check it out, and they also had a random war memorial there. After that we had another group dinner, and at this dinner I got to try caviar for the first time, which is also really good.

On the last day we just kind of followed the 2 AIB leaders around to check thing out. We got to se the east-side gallery (which is part of the old Berlin Wall, and walked around the "cool" neighborhood in Berlin, Kreuzberg, and then after that we got back on the train and headed back to Bonn. All in all, it was a great trip.

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