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Published: March 26th 2010
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My life is seriously a dream. Right now I’m sitting on a bench overlooking the Loire River outside the university, enjoying the sunshine. This morning I went for a beautiful run with Annie and Denise, and then later on my bike ride here I think I rode through some sort of strike (perhaps why my host sister doesn’t have class this afternoon?) There were police everywhere directing traffic and I had no idea who I should follow since I was biking.
Yesterday Allison and I got home from our long weekend in Berlin to visit our friend Megan who’s in DG with us. Berlin was absolutely amazing. We left Thursday right after class and that week was super hectic and sadly neither of us had had time to really research Berlin a lot before we were already on the plane there! But nonetheless it was fabulous. I had my guidebook so we could map out the main things which we diligently starred things that sounded interesting on our trip. Megan and her boyfriend Andreas met us in the airport in Berlin, which was really nice of them because the metro/tram system was a little confusing. They took us back to
our hostel (right next door to where their apartments were—really convenient) where we situated our things, then went out to a quick dinner nearby and then passed out on our beds—it had been a really long day! (even though the flight was only 1.5 hours we had to take a train to Paris wayyyyy early so we were in the airport for a while.)
The next day we got up before too late and took a guided bus tour of the city which kind of helped us get oriented. It ended up taking slightly longer than we thought, but was interesting. Afterwards we went to the National History Museum in Berlin which was really cool. We only ended up having 3 hours before closing which really wasn’t enough (and closing meant closing. We left the exhibit at 6 sharp, then I went to the bathroom and I think I almost got locked in—a man yelled in while I was there to which I just replied “I’m still in here” literally at 6:02.) But the museum itself was really cool because it’s all the history of Berlin from 2000BC up until after the fall of the wall (in 1989). I
feel so educated on Berlin history now, it’s excellent.
Allison and I grabbed some chocolate cake for dinner, saw the Brandenburg Gate at night and took a nice stroll back to our hostel where we went to bed early so that we could get up the next day and climb to the top of the Reichstag—basically city hall.
Except the next morning we snoozed the alarm a few to many times, then apparently stole breakfast from our hostel (we thought it was complementary, but apparently you should have requested it when you booked your room—we learned this afterwards) and by the time we got moving it was still early (maybe 10ish?) but there would probably already be a line, and it was raining. (The point is that there’s a really pretty view from the top.) So we switched around what we wanted to do as we were lost on the metro system and started our day at Checkpoint Charlie—a museum where there used to be a border crossing from East to West Berlin—it was super interested and I learned a lot more about the crazy division of Berlin after WWII and how the Soviets were crazy. Literally they
put the wall up in the middle of Berlin overnight. People got up the next day to go to work and they couldn’t because there was a huge wall in the way.
Later that day we went to the Reichstag and waited in line for what seemed like an eternity to climb. Sadly, Allison is fairly terrified of heights, so when we got almost to the front of the line and saw a glass hallway we had to walk through towards the top of the building, she let me make the climb myself and met me in the souvenir shop after. It was sad to leave her behind, but the Reichstag was really cool! There was a big roof terrace with a huge glass dome on top--I climbed to the top of the dome and took some really great pictures of the city!
Later, we went to the DDR museum which was really small but showed what it would have been like to live in Communist Berlin/Germany. We even got to see a propaganda video from the 80s about how the Soviets are doing well with providing housing for everyone and how people like it. Which was obviously
not true..
That night we went out to a club with Megan, Andreas, and some of their friends which was really cool. Berlin is known internationally for its nightlife, and this is the night we learned that Andreas was very very wealthy. (He bought us a 160 euro bottle of rosé champagne. When Allison and I found this out our eyes were literally popping out of our heads.) So probably the nicest/most expensive champagne I will ever have (or the most expensive food I will ever taste) but it was very fun and Andreas was really nice. The club itself was really nice too—a big dance floor with tables and leather chairs around, a huge disco ball and a “disco dove” as I call it—basically a disco ball shaped like a dove, and large white sheets draped over the ceilings. It was so much fun seeing Megan again and hanging out with her friends in Berlin. We left at about 3:30, and people were still just getting there, ready to start the night. It was awesome for one night, but I don’t think I could have such late nights for an entire semester.
The next day, needless to
say, we slept in, and then met up with Megan to see the Queen of Prussia’s first palace, Charlottensburg. My guidebook said we could see the Prussian Jewels there, but sadly we didn’t find them. We did get an audioguide of the Palace though, which was really cool. (Especially the first floor because a fair amount was original, but almost nothing on the second floor was original because of the bombings during WWII.
Afterwards the three of us went to have some traditional German food for lunch/dinner/afternoon snack. I had veal sausages and a soft pretzel, then Allison and I split Apple Strudel for dessert. It was fabulous. The three of us sat and chatted and just caught up for a while, which was really fun. We walked part of the way back, stopping at a famous church that was bombed and almost completely destroyed during WWII (sorry I can’t remember the name! But I remember our bus tour guide told us they called nicknamed it “the hollow tooth” which I don’t believe for a second, so obviously that name stuck). They were going to tear it down after the war, but a bunch of West Berliners protested and
now it’s kind of a memorial—we were there too late to actually go in but we got to look around the outside. (And there’s not too much inside anyway, it’s mostly destroyed.)
All in all it was a fabulous weekend in Berlin—we did everything we wanted to do and are ready to hit the ground running with these next two weeks of hard classes!
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Berlin is Beautiful
You packed in lots of fun in the few days you were in Berlin! The nighttime photo of the Brandenburg Gate is beautiful! And your climb to the top of the Reichstad sounds terrific. So sorry you had to do it solo. The night life in Berlin is well known. Nice you were able to experience it with people who knew where to take you to a good spot. Lucky you!