Ich Bin Berliner!

Hallo All!

Since it's been so long, I'm breaking this into multiple entries for easier reading. This will specifically be about my adventure to Berlin waaaaay back in March.

To start off, we decided to save some money and take the night bus. You know what, I'm going to give some advice here, pay the extra 30 euro or so and take the train. The bus was cramped and there were some very loud Dutch girls who were talking and laughing the whole 10 hour ride there. Then the bus dropped us off on the outskirts of the city and we had to figure out how to get into the actual city of Berlin. Luckily, we were in Germany, so they have very organized and efficient public transportation. This is one of the reasons why I love traveling in Germany, they do things the way I like them. That is easy and it works.

We were able to check into our hostel early, and since it was still around 10am we cleaned up a bit then headed out to take on the city. It was gorgeous and sunny and Berlin was calling to us. We took the S-bahn to Brandenburg Gate, where we met up with a free tour. This was a fabulous tour, because not only was it free, but it was led by a hilarious man from Northern Ireland named Finn. It took up most of the day and included a lunch stop, but we saw the majority of the city and learned many hilarious anecdotes. At the end, of course he begged for a tip and showed us pictures of his not-so-starving puppy to entice us to give him more money. We each gave him 5 euro, and the rest of the group gave about the same so I don't believe his puppy will be starving anytime soon.

Afterwards, we had naptime then got some dinner at the cheap pasta place next to our hostel. We went out for a bit, but I was still tired from the bus ride the night before, so I went back to go to sleep early.

On Saturday morning, we again went to Brandenburg Gate, but this time to meet up with the same tour company to go on their Sachsenhausen tour. This one cost us 12 euro, but it was worth it to get someone telling us all of the information about the camp. It was the second time I've been to a concentration camp, and again it was a very moving experience. Afterwards, we needed some detox time to process everything we had just witnessed, so we rode back to Berlin in mostly silence and had more naptime.

On Sunday, members of my group were all leaving at different times, but my friend Gina and I were taking the last train to Amsterdam, so we had the day to explore Berlin more. It was again sunny, and we had wanted to go up the Reichstag, however the line was freakishly long so we nixed that idea. We then headed out to the zoo in search of Knut. Knut is the polar bear that was born in the Berlin Zoo whose mother rejected him so he was hand-raised by human from birth. Now, Gretchen will probably not like him, because many animal rights activists believe he is now too accustomed to human attention and the zoo really uses him as a way to make more money. Ok, well, maybe they have a point. Knut is pretty psychopathic. He spends all day pacing around the same area of his enclosure while the girlfriend they gave him sleeps. But he was an incredibly cute little cub back in the day, so I picked up a postcard of him to hang on my wall because I like cute furry things.

We also saw many other cute little animals until it was time to take the train back home. And this was the train that never ended. Finally, we got back to Amsterdam around 10 and both of us went home and went to bed, exhausted from our exciting weekend in Berlin. It has definitely become one of my favorite cities and is also on my list of cities I would not object to living in.

Ok, I think that is enough for this entry. Now you can take a short break and then read my entry about London!

Laura