Berlin, Germany

First off, I would like to direct you all to either my Facebook photo album or my Webshots to see photos from my trip to Prague Castle last week with Jon and Nicole, as well as my Berlin pictures from this past weekend, which is the focus of this blog entry.

On Friday morning, I awoke at a very early 5:30am in order to shower, cook some food, and finish packing in time to get a 6:30 bus with the group to the train station. We arrived at the train station at 7:00 and our train departed at 7:20am. I was in a cabin with Barbara, Heather, Rebecca, Chelsea, and Jessica. About two hours into the 5 hour trip, I went to the dining car with Barbara, Nicole, Sheri, Matt and Belle. I had the smallest and most disgusting cappuccino I've ever had in my entire life and payed like $5 for it. Absolutely ridiculous.

We finally arrived in Berlin and after stumbling around for a bit, we finally found out how to get to our hostel and made our way there using the S-Bahn (above ground metro), the U-Bahn (typical metro), and one really crowded bus. After relaxing a bit in our hostel, which was fairly nice by the way, we went into the city for dinner and a little random site-seeing. We had dinner at an Italian place and I had a really good pizza. Most of us called it a night early Friday because of how tired we were, but a few stayed out.

Barbara and I in front of the Berlin Cathedral:


Saturday Dr. Kabat took us to the more important historical sites in Berlin, starting with Checkpoint Charlie, which was where you had to cross to get between the American and Soviet sectors. I bought my parents this little thing with a chunk of the Berlin wall at the Checkpoint Charlie museum shop. We then had a "family meal," which means the students didn't pay. I had pretty good veal schnitzel. After lunch we made our way to the Brandenburg Gate where, lucky us, a parade of socialists that had passed us while we were eating had stopped and had a rally. Hooray. After taking pictures there we headed to what I wanted to see most, second only to the wall, which was the Reichstag which is once again being used as the seat of Parliament (the Bundestag I think). We finished out the day by visiting the Holocaust memorial, which was interesting to say the least.

Me in front of the flags of Germany and the EU, taken in front of the Reichstag:


Some people went out afterwards, but myself, Barbara, Jon, Sheri, Matt, and Belle all went back to the hostel as we were again tired and did not feel like spending $5 on one beer. We had dinner at a small place down the street from our hostel at about 8:30 Saturday night. Barbara and I both had some pork schnitzel and it was delicious. Some of the people that went out had come back when we finished dinner, and then went back out. Here we lost Jon and Matt and added Cary. Barbara, Cary, Belle and I went back to the hostel and played table soccer and pool.

Sunday a few of us went back out to find pretty much the only large section of the Berlin Wall that was still standing and had no problem finding it. The only thing I wanted to see in Berlin that I didn't get to see was the Olympiastadion, which is where the World Cup final was held this year. No big deal though. While we were out Sunday I bought myself a German flag and a Germany shot glass. We all wanted to find a chocolate store to get some good German chocolate and we luckily found a place. I bought a plain chocolate bar which is so freaking good, and a Mocca-Rum chocolate bar, which is good, but not fantastic. A few people bought the eyebrow raising "Chili" chocolate. It's actually pretty decent, but is surprisingly very spicy, but not until you swallow it.

The Berlin Wall:

"I was waiting for the communist call,
I didn't ask for sunshine
And I got world war three.
I'm looking over the wall
And they're looking at me!

Oh now I got a reason
and I'm still waiting.
Now I got a reason to be waiting,
The Berlin Wall"
-- Sex Pistols - Holidays In The Sun

Our trip came to a close around 3:30 once we got back to the hostel and waited for everyone to get there. We then headed to Hauptbanhoff (sp), our train station. There was a little drama with our reserved seats, but once we got it straightened out, we had a nice train ride back through gorgeous countryside and got to see the city of Dresden at night, which was just amazing.

Once we got back Sunday night we received some bad news when Chelsea checked her e-mail. Because of some random EU Regulations, our flight to Paris got cancelled. So, fall break is only to Rome now, which is only 4 days out of the 11 days we get off. Really did not want to spend all that time here in Prague, but what are you going to do. We're planning on going to Paris for a weekend whenever we can. Right now we're looking at a 6:30am flight to Paris on 11/2 and then coming back on a flight leaving Paris at 8:20-ish PM on 11/4. Hopefully that'll work out. If not, we still have trips to Poland, Vienna, Brussels, and various other day trips.

Until next time kids. Hope you enjoyed it.