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Walk Thru Window
At the central bus station in Hamburg, I got a kick out of it Hey all,
So you're probably wondering just WHY I can't live without my Chinese roommates... well. Peng and Jueng just made their amazing dumplings and shared with me : ) I love authentic Chinese food, and I know I will miss them terribly when we leave.
Anyway, backtracking... so last Saturday Joe and I decided to take a day trip to Berlin. We started out very early in the morning, which I'm glad we did. It is 3 hours away by bus, so we got to sleep on the bus going there, and coming home. Since it was just a day trip, I didn't feel like I got to see everything I had wanted to see, but that's what you get on a limited budget. We did not get to see the part of the Berlin Wall that still stands, which I was very disappointed about ( I know, it's anticlimactic but I just wanted to go anyway) and also I wanted to visit the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, which was an hour away from Berlin. Other than that, it was a great day, VERY hot, in the upper 80's, but it was still nice. Berlin is very different from
Nothingness unterwegs...
Wind farm in the background.. I dont know why I love them so much Hamburg, in that it really feels like you're in a city in Berlin.. and it smells like Philly.. a lot.
The first thing on the list for me was Dunkin Donuts. I know, it's sad, but I've haven't gone more than a day without my dunks in over 2 years, nevermind 4 months! We found one right away, and I got my coffee coolatta. It tasted just like it did back home, and I was in heaven. Joe made fun of me, because I felt that the dunkin donuts building was the most beautiful one in Berlin.. and that's what deprivation does to the mind. We visited places such as Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, Charlottenburg Palace, and various churches and church museums. It took a lot of time to get from one place to another, since everything seems much more spread out in Berlin. One thing we did notice right away was that U Bahn stations were few and far between, and when there was one, there was only one opening per station: in Hamburg, you may find up to 4 per station. Where I live at the Berliner Tor station, there are 4 entrances to the station,
2 on either side of the street. Funny the simple things you miss. Joe and I got a laugh at the actual U Bahns, which were bright yellow. When the doors shut, we did hear the familiar "Zurueck bleiben bitte" except when the doors shut it sounds like an air raid warning/attack. We laughed at how stereotypical that was for the city we were in... and every once in awhile we ducked in fear, just for laughs.
Another thing about Berlin, were the numerous amounts of beggars on the streets. You see this also in Hamburg, but usually they just put cups out and don't really bother anyone. If they do come up to you, they aren't insistent and almost nice. In Berlin, we had, who we think were Bosnian women, who used their babies and young children as bait. They were everywhere- none spoke German, and all carried around a note card saying they've been there for 3 months and they need money for food yada yada yada... ALL of them had the same exact card.. so after awhile we pretended we couldn't speak English, which worked, until one of them spoke ein bisschen Deutsch. Almost got away
Crazy trees
I've never seen such tall thin trees before.. scot free. That was rather annoying, but we learned fast how to spot one coming and go the other way. Then, outside of Charlottenburg Palace, Joe and I were relaxing in the shade on a bench when a, you guess it, Jehovah's Witness came over and talked to us for about a half hour. Nice man, and we had a pretty good conversation, but I was just very surprised the number and diversity of people who would just go up and talk to strangers. The cool part though, when he asked us where we were from we said Hamburg, and he didn't even look strangely at us or question it. Go us!!!
When it was time to leave, we over estimated our time quite a bit. We were having a nice conversation over dinner and lost track of time. It was 7pm, and our bus left at 8pm. Now, in Hamburg, we would have had more than enough time to get there. We happened to be on the opposite side of Berlin than we needed to be, and there are 3 central stations.. we had to be at the furthest one, twenty minutes away. Add in 10 minutes of
Catchin flies
I had fun.. haha walking time, and the prolonged U Bahn stops (they don't board and leave half as fast as Hamburg does.. they actually sit there wait for people in Berlin, annoying!) we got to the station at 8pm, ran through the station (mind you my shoes had no bag and were a size too big) and by the time we got to the bus, the driver was outside closing up the storage compartment. Joe sprinted over and told him to wait for me (haha) because I just couldn't run anymore with my shoes falling off. We fell into our seats on the train and caught our breath after about 10 minutes. Note to self: Always under estimate time and location.
What is in store for this weekend, I don't know. According to South Park's law of physics, anything fun costs at least $8. We shall see... but all I know is I will be finishing up my finance term paper and cultural management presentation.. what else is on the menu has yet to be determined. Bis Spaeter!
Love, J
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