Okay so onto Berlin. Monica and I decided to go to Berlin, Munich, Salzburg and Vienna. What a trip. So here we go. Tuesday morning we left at 5 am. Why do trips always begin so early? Monica wanted to be at Hampton Wick at 5am but I convinced her to wake up at 5am, getting up at 4:30? Why bother going to bed? We were flying out of Gatwick at like 8:30am, so not bad. We didn't have any problems getting to Gatwick, and when we got to the airport, we went to check in, and omg the line at the EasyJet booths were unbelievable. Until we realized they weren't for Berlin. THANK GOD! There was no one in line for our check in, and we did that easily, expect that the stupid woman made us bring our bags to Zone G, or oversized luggage. We gave our bags to the guys there, and just wondered if we would ever see them again. It was a little scary.
Went through security fine, a little bit of a wait, but not bad, good plane ride, and we arrived in Berlin. I looked out the window and it was raining and I wondered if we even left England. Customs was simple, Monica got asked all the questions and they asked if I was with her. I said yes, they stamped my passport. Sweetness. So we collected our bags, thankfully they were there, and went to the train station.
We had to go on the train to reach our hostel, but no big deal. We got there though, and we are trying to buy tickets, but the machines are in GERMAN! It hit me at that second that we were in Germany. Oh boy. Some guy helped us though, and we got tickets, and then money and went on the train. We enter a compartment, and there is the guy who helped us... weird. So the train system in Germany is on the honor's system. You buy a ticket but no one collects them, asks for them or anything. So you can not buy tickets... but watch out, they do random searches, and if you don't have a valid ticket you have to pay 40 euros on the spot. So most people just buy tickets so they don't have to go through the hassle. We always bought tickets.
So we got to our stop, got off, went the wrong way, but we did find our hostel. It is off one of the main streets in East Berlin. I liked it at once, a very nice, clean place. I mean with these hostels, we kinda picked them randomly, well we looked at their location, what they offered, and if it was cheap we went for it. So we got lucky. We went up to our room, put our stuff away, and at once left again to start exploring. We went down to Friendrichstadt Street, our favorite street. We were on it every day, because well its the street that our hostel is off of. It's a very commercial street though, and leads to Unter den Linden, which leads to the Brandenburg Gate. It is also the street that has the trees that were 300 years old before Hitler cut them down, and then after the war they were replanted. So we are on the corner of Unter den Linden, and Monica is telling me about the trees, which I knew about but didn't realize that I was looking at the trees. So she told me, and said that it was one of his more stupid ideas, and I asked what did he do that wasn't stupid, and I would give her the whole trip to figure it out. Monica replied that he boosted the economy, and then I said he united the people under a new flag. We both then stopped talking, and then I said, "We are joking about Hitler on a street corner in Berlin... think we should stop? Monica agreed. It was quite funny.
So we went down to the Brandenburg Gate, where that guy um Kennedy, yeah whatever, he said something there. Anyway, I thought at first that Apollo was on top, but then I saw wings, and realized oh it's Victory. It's a very cool gate. We took a few pictures, and then caught a bus to West Berlin to validate our Eurorail passes and get reservations for the train from Berlin to Munich. We caught a bus from Unter den Linden, and went to West Berlin, and on the way saw the Reichstag, a palace, and then entered West Berlin. My first impression was, wow where exactly am I? The States? It's very 5th Ave looking, and then all the usual stores and fast food places. We got off at the train station, and went in search of the ticket counter. Very nice train station, and we found the ticket office. We inquired if anyone could speak English and all we got was a little. Well that was all we needed. Monica actually handled it, she took out her Eurorail pass, and the woman shook her head and said something like not here. Okay, cool. But then for some reason we moved on forgetting that we needed to make a reservation. So we got in another line hoping for someone who speaks English, and we got helped by this cute old woman. Monica still had out her Eurorail passes, we asked if she spoke English, she shook her head but pointed to the woman we just left. She took Monica's Eurorail pass, and brought it to her. Now some German woman are pretty mean looking, and this woman tops that list. She came over saying again that we couldn't validate our passes, but we both quickly said that no we know, we just wanted to make reservations. So that was handled thankfully, and we left.
We just explored one street in West Berlin, Kurfürstendamm Street. It's the 5th Ave looking street. I must say it did a very good job on the Christmas lights, there was a giant nutcracker, and a Santa Claus. We found something to eat, I thought I got a chicken sandwich, but I don't know there was something FISHY about it. It was either really cold chicken, or not chicken at all. Well the bread was good. After eating though, we got back on the bus for East Berlin, most of what we wanted to do was in the area of our hostel.
So we got back, and went to Alexanderplatz. Now by this time it's kind of dark out, and I said at once that we are coming back here in the morning, there are so many picture opportunities here. We saw the TV tower, the Old Red Town Hall, the Berliner Dom, a WWII memorial we think, a library, the Opera House, and I believe that's about it. I love Alexanderplatz, I think it's a cool place. But after walking around there for awhile, we went inside the Berlin Cathedral. The Berlin Cathedral is amazing. So beautiful! Very high ceilings, every inch of it is decorated, and there are tombs in the four corners. Well at least in two of them. Very nice looking ones, beats a place in the floor at Westminster any day. There was even a crypt, so you know our next stop. It was a crypt for royalty, and here we got a nice lesson in German. We figured out the words for son and daughter... it was an achievement. But some people buried here are kings Friedrich I and Friedrich Wilhelm II, their wives, and the mother of King Friedrich II, Prince Louis Ferdinand (died fighting Napoleon), and Admiral Price Albert who was supreme commander of the Prussian army. Also the Brandenburg family is buried here. But the most interesting thing is the dates... the earliest birth is 1525, and the earliest death is 1595. WOW! Some of these coffins were moved from another location when the Berlin Cathedral was built. It was hit by a bomb in WWII, so a lot of work has been done to help preserve these and fix the church which was just completed not too long ago. So there is your history lesson of the day.
Um after that we went to Checkpoint Charlie. The museum stays open late, so we went around like 6ish, maybe. I completely forget the time. So interesting though. I know about the Wall, but not in this much detail. The museum was built by a man who actually just recently died, but he wanted to do something for the people, and to honor those who helped people get over the wall, and show how far people will go to save others. He said (I watched a video) that he wanted to do his part in preserving their bravery, he felt he had done nothing in the Wars. All his friends were executed by Hitler, one was active in plotting his assassination that of course did not work. So this was his part. In the museum was a car that was rebuilt the way it was to transport people in the engine.. that was cool. Very igneous. The stories were unbelievable, how people tried to get over the wall. One family went in a balloon, one woman went in two suitcases, they built tunnels, the car thing, some hijacked a boat, one went in between canoes... it was so unbelievable. It was so fascinating though, learning all of this stuff. We really did have a educational trip. So we were there for a long time, just walking through all the rooms that just held so many personal stories, and models of the different ways people tried to get over. So unbelievable. I really liked that museum though, so full of info. But any time you are in a museum for awhile, my next thought was break time. We found a cafe, actually not far from our hostel, and we took a break.
While we were sitting there, we decided on our next adventure, and it was the Reichstag. You can take an elevator up to the dome and see all of Berlin. Wow, we didn't have to climb 300 steps, count me in! So that closed at midnight, but the last admission was at 10pm, so it was like 9:20, so we rushed over there. We were the last group in. On the way though, we were discussing if the Reichstag is still used today as a government building. I said it was, but Monica didn't think so. Well we got inside, and had to go through security... it is still used. We agreed on that one at once. The views at night were amazing, we both knew we would be back in the morning to get pictures, but I love seeing a city that high up. It was a cool sight, and hope you enjoy the pictures that I got up at 7:30am the next morning to get. But after the Reichstag, we went back to the hostel, showered and went to bed. It was after 11pm, and we had been up since 5am. It was a good day in Berlin though, and we both looked forward to our second, but alas final day in Berlin.
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