Yo yo yo
So I just got back from Berlin, well actually I did Wednesday night but whatever. Let me tell you all about it
First off our hostel was amazing, almost brand new, super modern and nice. The 4 of us got a 4 bed room which was prety awesome, electronic keys got you onto your floor, then your hall AND into your locker Pretty sweet, had our own bathroom, hardwood floors, this was like he Taj Mahal of all hostels even though it was my first. We went and checked out the bar upstairs and got our free welcome drink. It was a pretty cool place 3.50 euro all you can eat breakfast every morning that wasnapos;t to shabby.
First day out in Berlin we went on the FREE city tour which was like 3.5 hours long, we started off where we saw the Bradenburg gate, very famous, right next to it happen to be the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from, pretty cool haha. Then we saw the Reichstag which is the German parliament building, where Hitler took over politically. Itapos;s probably a good time to mention that pretty much everything in Berlin has been rebuilt and is not original, haha. Then we saw the Holocaust Memorial which was pretty intense and cool. Then we saw where Hitlerapos;s bunker would have been, some East Berlin "luxury" apartments. The Luftwaffe headquarters with a nice communist mural of how happy people were, HA Then we saw the Berlin wall, well whats left of it. Not much to see actually and itapos;s behind a fence. Then we saw Check Point Charlie which was a gate along the Berlin wall between, thereapos;s some random guy standing there with an American flag, very very touristy there. Then we saw where some famous 20,000 book burning took place, there was a memorial there for that too. Saw a couple of old buildings one was some gift from Germany to France, I think it was. Then we saw this old old building that has had many uses but now itapos;s a memorial for this author. She was a pacifist and her son really wanted to fight for Germany in WW1 and she kept saying no, but he kept asking and asking so because of his persistence she was impressed and let him go fight. 2 weeks later she gets notice that he died and she never forgave herself and in WW2 she lost her husband and her father I think it was, so its just a big room with a statue of her holding her deceased son and grieving and thereapos;s a hole in the ceiling above her. Then we saw this big famous square with a statue of some German poet, 1 church built for the French and one for the Germans. Then finally we saw the Berlin Dome which is this big church, and some other old museum. All by the old East Germany parliament building but itapos;s gone now because it was filled with asbestos and now they are rebuilding this old Prussian palace that used to be there. Then right when the tour ended all of these police showed up and so we were all like uhhh? And it was this huge huge protest about the government watching people, kind of ironic after listening to a tour about the end of communism.
That night we went on a pub crawl, 4 bars and 1 club. Free beer for the 1st hour, and orange juice and vodka shots between each bar. I think we had 20 after the 1st round haha. 1st bar was interesting, very alternative. 2nd bar was a little better but still eh. More OJ Vodka shots, 3rd bar was better, got 1 beer, and you got 1.50 euro everytime you returned a bottle and I found one Muhaha. Then 4th bar for some reason I decided to buy a double rum and coke AND a vodka cranberry and this was my downfall. Then on the train to the final club one of the people was passing around the bottle so I ended up drinking more then. They then decide to tell us the bouncers at the club are hardcore and will make you do stuff. So we get there and they make me stand on 1 leg, I fail So I ran to the back of line with my friends and I try to practice and we get up there and he asks my friend if she is fine and she goes ya, and weapos;re in Last thing I remember until being dragged out by my arm. So I donapos;t know what to do at this point so I sit on the curb across the street for a while, wander around, next thing I know Iapos;m on the train to somewhere. Then I fall asleep, get off at some stop, puke. Then I get on some other train, off, on. I donapos; even know. I finally compose myself enough to look at a map and figure out where to go, so I realize I need to go to one station to get on another train to another station. I finally get there and Iapos;m looking at the map and someone yells my name, and itapos;s Amira I found my friends, yay Ha my friend Sarah managed to get us home. While we were waiting at a stop some guy walks up to Amira and is like "Nice Bobbies" so I dragged her and ran and ran Ha.
Next day we got up a little bit later, since we went to bed at 6am. So we went to this square and there was this little German festival going on so we tried these potato pancakes, interesting. Then we went and saw the Reichstag, the German parliament building. Walked through this HUGE park and saw the Victory column and some Russian monument and a Bismark statue. Then we went and saw this pretty much demolished church and a new one built next to it. Then went to bed pretty early haha.
Monday we went to this small town outside of Berlin calls Potsdam, which is a city with this HUGE park and gardens with ton and tons of palaces and buildings built by Kaisers and kings and blah blah. Was really pretty and cool, saw a lot of old buildings and pretty fountains and such. Then went shopping which turned to be pretty unsuccessful.
Tuesday we went on a tour to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. It wasnapos;t a death camp but over 50,000 people were killed here. It was pretty intense and eye opening to see stuff and hear stories. Saw old barracks for the prisoners, the hardcore prison, the mess hall for the officers, the main entrance and roll call area. The infirmary, the execution trench, "Station Z" where they killed a lot of people by gassing and shooting them and then burned them. A memorial built by the communists when they took control of it. Then that night we went to a traditional German restaurant and got Schnitzel Which is like a piece of fried fish but its pork or beef, something like that. Then that night we went on a quest to try this "Red beer" which went some French people moved to Germany, they didnapos;t like the beer so added syrup, one was green and one was red. 3 of us got red and 1 got green, Red was very fruity and pretty good, green was well green. Ha.
Next day did some shopping and left for home We got to ride on a ferry from Germany to Denmark there and back which was pretty exciting, it was a pretty damn big boat, lots of cheaper liquor sold on it. The trip was very very fun and pretty educational. Found out that the German people arenapos;t that friendly.
Now this weekend going to Oslo, thatapos;s Norway if you didnapos;t know, on a cruise Should be fun
central east correctional center, central east elca synod wisconsin youth, central east europe.
