Berlin

After weeks of travel and many stops, we arrived at our last destination, Berlin. This last city was like nothing else on our trip. It was even more international and diverse than Amsterdam and had something original around every corner. They say that Berlin is bigger than Paris, stays up later than New York, and is wilder than Amsterdam and we certainly wouldn't disagree with that statement.

We took the train from Amsterdam to Berlin which was quite the pleasant train ride aside from the snag we hit in our transfer in Amersfoort. We misunderstood our tickets and thought that the departure time on them was from Amsterdam, however, it was the departure time from Amersfoort and we missed the train we had bought tickets for. Nonetheless, we were able to get on the next train and travel through the countryside to Berlin. Once in Berline, we stayed in an amazing hostel called East Seven in East Berlin. It was in a great neighborhood, close to a metro, walking distance from sights, and may have been our favorite accommodations. We give it the Stu and Kathlene seal of approval.

Our first full day in Berlin was cold and wet. The precipitation went from rain to ice to snow. We went and wandered the area south of the Tiergarten enjoying the hollow tooth, the Berlin Zoo, some shopping, a christmas-theme festival and the Sony Center. The 'hollow tooth' is an old church that was damaged during the war and left standing as a reminder of the damage the city suffered. The Berlin Zoo is one of the world's largest and oldest zoos and was a lot of fun to see. They had quite the impressive aquarium with sharks, manta-rays, all sorts of tropical fish, starfish, coral, sea-horses, and puffer fish. The best exhibits were the lions, tigers, polar bears, and the panda! The panda was so very cute and named Bao Bao. When we arrived to his enclusore it was feeding time and he was munching away on his bamboo putting on a show. I don't think I had ever seen one before and may have gotten a little picture happy. Did I mention how cute he was?

The shopping around the zoo was quite impressive with giant department stores like the famous Ka De Wa. In our shopping wanderings, we also came across a christmas theme festival selling traditional ornaments and all sorts of beverages and confections beside a snow covered hill for tobogganing. It felt a bit like home and we thoroughly enjoyed getting a quick supper there and wandering through christmas. We ended the day by seeing Inglorious Bastards at the Sony Center where we were able to buy beer and popcorn and sit in the most comfortable movie-theatre seats to enjoy some fictional German history. It seemed fitting.

The next day we wandered down Unter den Linden to see most of the main sites. We crossed paths with the famous TV Tower of Berlin, the grandiose presbyterian church called the Berliner Dom, the University, the Brandenberger Tor, and the Reichstag. Unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy the Brandenberger Tor or the Tiergarten as much as we hoped we would because U2 was playing there to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The U2 concert actually turned out to be a bit ironic. The concert was meant to be free, but they only gave out 10,000 free tickets and then put up a 2m wall all around the Brandenberger Tor. There was a lot of criticism for erecting a wall around a free concert commemorating the destruction of a wall.

Nonetheless, we learned quite a bit of history about the wall by visitting Checkpoint Charlie, an old checkpoint between east and west berlin where one of the only portions still stands. All around the checkpoint they had boards filled with information and photos of Kennedy, Truman, and Stalin, and the many other political figures who came to play in almost 30 years of cold war. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Berliners during the time of the wall, seperated from part of their country, their family, and loved ones. Berlin is quite a different European capital because of this piece of their history and it shows everywhere.

On our last night in Berlin, we chose to join a pubcrawl to get a taste of some of that infamous Berlin nightlife. The pubcrawl we went on explored East Berlin and started at a small soviet pub with red soviet flags and propaganda on the walls and ceiling. What made the pubcrawl really interesting was that it was oriented around Oranienburger Strasse, behind the Hackescher Markt which is an area that really must be experienced to believe. At first it appears to be an ordinary, quieter neighborhood, but then at a second glance you notice oddities and amazing pieces of architecture like the Jewish Centre, formerly the biggest Synagogue in Berlin. The oddity of the area appears once you notice your in the city's red light district and there are corset-clad ladies of the night on many corners. The entire area is filled with bars, pubs, and neat restaurants. But, the coolest thing on Oranienburger Strasse (and our pubcrawl) was the artist's squat. What the hell is an artist's squat? I hear you cry. Well, this one is a six story building quite like a block of warehouse style apartments. Every wall, every door on the stairwell, and through the corridors, is covered in grafitti art. Absolutely covered! In this graffiti-covered complex we discovered heavy metal concerts with fire-breathing dragons, a mellow bar, a clothing shop filled with goths, and a art gallery housing some very impressive modern art and a drum circle. It was really like nothing we'd ever experienced before and like nothing anywhere else in the world.

Berlin was a surreal and excellent way to end our adventure.

Hasta la proximá vez,

Kathlene and Stu