Well. First off, Berlin is not as far away as I thought. It's only three and a half hours away by train, which is way cool. The first night we unpacked and walked around as a group as a way to get oriented. We ended up at a very cool Mexican restaurant (I miss you Teca!!!) for dinner and it was quite delicious. Then we walked around for a while more and eventually found our way back to the Hostel (which is entirely Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy). We decided to watch a movie as well, since it was relatively early. V for Vendetta. Still love it.
The next day (Friday) our Lehrer, Klaas, took us on a four hour walking tour of the city. We saw Checkpoint Charlie (I got a fake East Germany stamp in my passport... it was exciting) and we saw the Reichstag etc. The weather was pretty crappy all weekend-always just on the verge of rain- but it was still pretty nice. After the official tour ended, Ericka, Nick and I just wandered for another couple of hours, stopping at anything that looked interesting. Then I took a nap for a little bit before dinner. Around seven we went out for Italian. After that it really did start raining, but Ericka wanted to find a Salsa club, so we ended up walking way far across town. And never found what we were looking for. Apparently the 'Berlin Party Map' is a tad bit deceiving. It doesn't do a good job distinguishing between bars and clubs. Oh well. We did find a Ben and Jerry's. That was way cool. We came back and crashed in a major way.
The next day we planned to go to the Jewish Museum, which was really quite cool. There were no right angles anywhere in the building. Ceilings, walls and the floor all slanted in some way, and it was designed in the shape of a zig-zag. It was a pretty cool museum, though they glossed over some things in fairly major ways. Like the Holocaust. That got one corner of one zig in the zig-zag. Ericka and I both thought that we had missed something, so we each backtracked to see. Nope. They glossed over the Holocaust in the Jewish Museum. Oh well. After that we walked around for a while longer. We went to the Sony Center where there was a big party for Kinder Chocolates' 40th Anniversary, and to Legoland.
In the evening several of us, including Klaas, decided to go to a South African restaurant. Well, we got lost twice on the way (oops) and they couldn't seat us togerther anywhere but on couches (which was a little awkward to eat) and the wait was incredibly long. But it was some of the best food I have ever had. I got roast beef and vegetables, which included tomatoes, potatoes and Mangos. It was delicious! And the prices were pretty reasonable too. Maya was sitting next to me and she got pumpkin mango nut soup. That was really really good as well. And I tried antelope... all around, the food was amazing. I now need to go to South Africa. I got icecream at the end... it tasted like cake batter. Soooo good. It was such a perfect way to end the trip. I loved it. After that I came back and went to bed (it was like, midnight-thirty by the time we got back). Such a good trip.
Berlin Favorites:
Traffic lights in East Germany
South African Food
Giant Lego Giraffes
Lots of other stuff too, but we have to leave...
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