Berlin- Spring Break Stop #2

This was the shortest of our stops on our journey. We were here for all of about 24 hours but wow the things you can learn and explore in that amount of time! Berlin definitely was one of the most interesting places because of the vast amounts of history that occurred in the city. We arrived in the afternoon so we didn’t really have any time to explore the first day and we had a walking tour in the morning so we decided that we would just go for a local cuisine dinner and call it quits early. We stumbled upon this little German restaurant boy were we in for a surprise. We sat down and tried to attempt to order food. We decided that we would get the appetizer of sausage and pretzel to share between the table. I, loving sausage, was so excited to try some authentic stuff. When the dish arrived I was a little shocked because it came in a bowl….yes true life the sausages had been steamed so they were basically white, one of the worst colors I have seen to this day, and not to mention you had to de-case them before eating…YUCK! Then we moved onto the main course. I have this problem of ordering things I think I wanna like but actually don’t, example goat cheese. I have tried it many times before any it has not been my thing but being one of Chelsea and Christine’s favorite cheeses I too wanna get in on the action. So of course I get the goat cheese salad (so German I know but after the sausages I got nervous) lets just say the lettuce was delish? Hahaha although I can definitely say it wasn’t my favorite meal since being in Europe (by any means) it was fun to try the local food!

That night we carried on the tradition of pub crawling. We were so tired we bowed out at the third stop. Berlin is known for their nightlife and I’m sure it is amazing but I also think Sunday is not the best night to try it lol.

The next morning we had our walking tour! We began the tour at the gates to the city. This is where the embassy’s reside and also drum rollllllllllllll where the hotel that Michael Jackson dangled his baby from the balcony for the world to see!! Haha some good history right there (ps is the picture of the aldon hotel). We continued onto the memorial site for those who died in the holocaust. The architect for the project created these cement blocks of varying height that was meant to be left for interpretation of each individual of what was meant. I thought this was really cool because it got you really thinking about what happened in those times. Next we stopped by Hitler's bunker , but it was in a place you would never know if not told what it was. The people in Germany do not want to shrine such an awful person so this hiding place has been covered up and now a parking lot sits on top of this cave. Some other cool sites that we stopped at while on the tour was the site of the book burning riot, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Berlin Wall! After the tour we decided that we would visit a well known exhibit about the holocaust. It was said to give you an insider’s perspective on what happened in the holocaust. This exhibit was amazing and sad all at the same time! It was so cruel what happened in these times and how some saw nothing wrong with it.

After a long day of touring and seeing the sites we decided to pit stop at a little stand that served up authentic and native bratwurst! I ordered the original bratwurst, which really meant it was a currywurst with a curry ketchup! It was very interesting to say the least and also VERY curry-esc.

Once finished with our snack we tried to make it to the “TV Tour” which is basically a tall tower that allows you to see the whole city but it ended up having a 2 hour wait!!! We opted out and instead opted into get lost on the subway! Wooooo for subways! Hahaha after about an hour on the metro trying to get just anywhere we recognized we made it to somewhere we recognized! We ended up in this district that was close to the hostel and had some great little shops! One of the things I think that surprised me most about Berlin was the cleanliness of the city. Everything was spotless and I looooved it! Also you may not know but we decided that the Germans were simplistic people. I mean this in the sense that all their memorials restaurants, hotels, everything was simple to and to the point no extra frills needed to distract from the main point trying to be made.
After about 10 hours on the go we had to be on the bus at 10 to overnight it to Amsterdam. We decided that we had tried enough German food for the time being so we this time decided to go for Mexican! OMG it was amazing!!! I miss Mexican food more and more by the day hahaha. Next stop….AMSTERDAM!