On to Berlin

The second part of my reading week adventure occurred in Berlin.  I wasn't expecting to love Germany as much as I did.  We stayed on the East Side of Berlin in a hostel that called itself "The grandest hostel in the world."  Grand Hostel Berlin was super nice.  Definitely the best hostel I've stayed in throughout the trip.  We were welcomed by the lady at reception, given a welcome drink, and shown places in Berlin to visit.  I chose peach iced tea for my drink...and if you know how much I love iced tea then you know it means a lot when I say hands down the best peach iced tea I've ever had.

Since we couldn't check into our room right away we decided to put our luggage in storage and do an afternoon walking tour.  There's a company called New Europe that offers multiple tours in Berlin, Rome, Barcelona, Paris, London, Amsterdam, etc.  We opted for their "Alternative Tour"  that afternoon after hearing good reviews from a friend.  The Alternative Tour consisted of riding the underground to various places around East and West Berlin and seeing the different forms of graffiti.  Graffiti in Berlin is part of the unification process, not gang-related like what we see in a lot of American cities.  I'll post some of my favorite pieces below:

East Side Gallery--artwork painted on the largest remaining part of the
Berlin Wall

After the tour we checked into our room and decided to check out the local area.  We went to a little Italian place.  No one spoke English, but I was able to order my margherita pizza so I was content.  For some odd reason I've been craving pizza all the time here, no idea why.  That night we planned our next day and got an early nights sleep.

The next morning we went on a traditional walking tour of Berlin.  We got to see the holocaust memorial, checkpoint Charlie, Hotel Adlon (where Michael Jackson dangled his son over the railing), TV tower, the palace restoration, and remnants of the Berlin wall. Aftwerwards we went to a German restaurant where I got pork schnitzel and we all got Berliner Weisse.  One of my best friends, Zoe, from Davidson told me we had to try it.  I got peach flavored :)

In front of Bradenburg Gate

Hotel Adlon, Michael Jackson's famous stunt

Holocaust memorial

Humboldt University

Us with our Berliner Weisse

Museum of Terror, remnant of the Berlin Wall

That night we did a pub crawl with New Europe.  Our pub crawl leader was name Hollywood.  He was a large black man, with a fur scarf and Prada bag.  Needless to say he was quite a character and made the pub crawl super fun.  We ended the pub crawl at a club called Maddox.  It was a large club and had a really fun atmosphere.

The next morning we did yet another tour with New Europe.  This time we went to a concentration camp.  Called Sachsenhausen.  It was interesting learning about the camp, but it was a really emotional experience.  It didn't feel right taking any pictures, so I only took a picture of the opening gates.

That night we headed back to London.  I'm really happy that I got the chance to go to Berlin.  It's definitely still unifiying both sides, but it's interesting to see the different feel you get in east and west. Overall I definitely liked Berlin way better than Amsterdam.