Berlin, Day 3

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We woke up today just in time to make the breakfast buffet that our hotel had for all of its guests. It’s about 14 euros, but I guess it was worth it because it did have some excellent food for everyone to enjoy. There were a variety of breads, cheeses, and hams, followed by creams, nutella, and peanut butter in the slot next to the sandwich area. 3 types of cereal were laid out right next to the hot food platters, which had pancakes, eggs, and sausages all hot and ready for consumption. Finally they had a yogurt station, with 5 different kinds off flavored yogurt and an assortment of toppings. Needless to say, I got my money’s worth…. Adam was struggling to get in more food because he told me that he hasn’t been eating like his normal self ever since his trip to India. He says he could have contracted something there, because he just hasn’t retrieved his normal appetite yet. I’m sure it will come back soon though.



After breakfast was over, we went back to our room to get ready for the bus tour that we were going to take of our surroundings. It’s a hop on/hop off kind of deal, with 20 euros for a day pass around half of Berlin, which we thought was a good deal. The bus would take us to a lot of the places that we’ve been to already, but we did get to see a lot of other cool places like Humbolt University and St. Hedwig’s Cathedral.



We stopped outside of a mall so that Adam could go to the bathroom, and we ended up finding this nice German restaurant inside. We both started out with two large glasses of Pilsner, a type of German beer that tastes like a cheap knockoff of Heineken. Although the beer wasn’t all that special, we both had a variety of German sausages and mash for lunch. German food resembles Polish food in a lot of ways, and I absolutely love it. In a way, it’s nice to see that Germany is as integrated as it is today, I’m hoping that it truly is a sign that people here have really made an effort to completely move away from their horrible past and try to make amends for everything that their ancestors did to others.



There wasn’t much to see at the mall that day because many places were closed for some reason, but Adam and I got some gelato and then he bought a painting of one of his favorite characters from the show Game of Thrones, and I must say it looks very realistic. We took the hop on/hop off bus back to the hotel, and hung out there for awhile.



We were looking for someone German to eat for dinner, and the receptionist recommended this place called the Berliner which was about a 10 minute drive away from us. I was so hungry I could’ve eaten at any one of the restaurants located just around the block, but Adam really wanted to go so we both hopped on a taxi and went. I’m all for trying cultural foods if they taste good and are satisfying.





I ordered sausage and mash (again, because it was so good the first time) with loaded potato soup and a pilsner while Adam ordered some combination of steak, mash, and vegetables with a mixed drink. It was a good meal but the service was subpar, no one seated us when we showed up at the door…. There were a ton of open seats available in the restaurant but the waitress told us that we had to sit at the bar! I didn’t mind it too much but that ticked Adam off, he kept saying that in America this kind of service would get someone fired, which is totally true. To make matters worse, some German punk around our age was staring at us from across the bar and shaking his head when we made eye contact…. I ignored it but Adam stared into this kid and shook his head in reply, with a glaring, intimidating face. I was worried that there would be an altercation…. Luckily though, as we were leaving, the kid and his friend also left too and they actually held the door for us. Despite their polite gesture, they looked back after we had gotten into our taxi and glared again. Adam was furious… He tried letting off some steam by talking to me about the situation, and said angrily that Germans are stuck-up people with racist undertones (something to that degree) and the taxi driver heard and grunted his disapproval. We got back to the hotel and tried finding bars to drink at afterwards, but we were told that we wouldn’t find any…. No matter, we would get some sleep and recharge for the next day.

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