The European Extravaganza!

(Pots)dam you! And: Sarah Saves Berlin!

So, we took the train in from Amsterdam Centraal Station yesterday to Berlin's Zoologischer (?) Station. The train ride was actually quite peaceful, and even though it was the same amount of time as the flight, it seemed to go much quicker (and was far more enjoyable!). We bought good sandwiches at the station prior to departure (Mom, they were just as good as you said they would be), avoided a fellow English-speaker (whatever "Joe" from Idaho, we don't want to know you! Sorry Fil!), successfully got our rail passes validated, and Steph had a mild heartattack when we arrived at Osnabruck station. We were feeling pretty confident when we go to Berlin, but that faded quickly when we realized that Steph's book was lying about a Tourist Info center in the rail station and the police woman that we approached for help was typically German (i.e., TERRIFYING! She seemed to take great pleasure in informing us that there wasn't a tourist center, therefore 'goodbye!'). With no map of the city and no useful German vocabulary to our names, we braved the U-Bahn and actually managed to make it to the hostel (but not before we encountered weird drunken (?) men making chicken calls on the subway, and a traveling accordion band as well. Also, when we reached the hostel, we knew we had to check in across the street, but across the street was a river and then some scary looking thicket (one of the very reasons we did not stay at JetPak hostel! Damn those German forests! We know there is a famous cake named after them... but honestly!). Thankfully (or so we thought at the time) a friendly German man, told us where we needed to go. We were so relieved to have met a friendly German (oxymoron?), but that soon dissipated when we walked into our tiny room only to find that he was our suite (overstatement) mate. In fact, he has the bunk right under me. We are also sharing the very close quarters with 2 German girls, a guy named Wayne (possibly American), and some guy who apparated during the night and sleeps on the sofabed under the window. On the one hand, we have a "private" bathroom (that we only share with those 5 other people), and we have an impetus to get up really early and stay out of the hostel. On the other hand, it's pretty sketch, and save for us & Wayne, everyone else appears to be German. This is very different from Shelter Jordaan in Amsterdam!

One nice thing about the hostel is that it provides a complimentary breakfast, which suits us just fine. We have noticed that not just have we travelled in distance, but also in time... backwards in time, as people in Germany are dressing like it is the 90s. We are talking about Doc Martin boots with tight pants, strange mullety hair, and just mismatching and unflattering cuts. Also, all the guys look to be either 14 or 40. Something must skip a generation.
We have yet to master actually leaving the hostel, as the only door we can find to get out is not the one we use to get in, and leads into an alley, but it does the job. We set off for the Jewish Museum, marvelling at how terrifying we found the city to be. (Note: our map using skills are dramatically improving!). Perhaps the most notable thing about the museum is its architecture; apparently it was designed to look like a lightning bolt. It is very disorienting to walk through, especially the Memory Void which features a modern art exhibit at the end called "Fallen Leaves". It is these little metal faces scattered all over the ground that you are meant to walk over. The Garden of Exile was also niceish (it smelled good!), if not still slanty and terror-inducing with respect to broken ankles. Most freaksome of all was The Holocaust Tower, in which you are thrown into a dark pit with only a tiny sliver of light at the top that you can never reach. Also disturbing (but in a different way), were the 2 men who made it seem as though we had stumbled into the "Barbie Museum" as featured in the movie Rat Race. Oh, and the fact that only 52% of people don't hold a grudge against Jewish people (according to the museum's informal survey). Still, a worthwhile visit and a good way to spend the morning... since it was not the hostel.

Next was the Topography of Terror exhibit which is situated next to the last vestige of the Berlin Wall. This was WRONGLY reccommended to us by Taryn, who said she had to go back twice in order to finish it. The highlight for us was the pink car with pigs stencilled on it, parked out front. We were done pretty much as soon as we started (we clocked it 20 minutes, and that was pushing considering how fricken hot it was outside), so we continued on our way to Hackescher Market where we were meeting a walking tour group at 3 pm. We stumbled our way there, and confusedly walked about the square trying to find something to eat. It's awkward approaching people when you don't speak their language, and even moreso when you want to eat something but don't recognize any of the words on the menu!

The tour was really awesome, and we were relieved that Taryn had finally given us some good advice! Seriously, our tourguide, Sarah, was so good that we forgave her for not being the male British guide we had seen conducting the tour earlier. She even managed to compensate for the horrible other Canadian girl (sadly, Steph snuck a look at her notebook -- which, by the way, who takes detailed notes on walking tours?-- and her name was Stephanie), whom we unaffectionately named "Poodle Girl" due to her unfortunate hair. The tour was 4 hours, which allowed us to take in all of the major sites/sights in the city. We both admitted that we would not have been compelled to walk that much today if we hadn't paid good money to do so. So, the sights that we saw were: Berlin Cathedral, the Museum Island (where all the important museums are that we won't bother seeing (especially the Pergamon... take that Taryn!)), War Memorial, Babelplatz (this was really cool!), a parking lot where a big palace used to be (and is currently hosting a beach volleyball tournament), Hitler's Bunker, Tiergarten, Bradenburg Tor, Reichstag (superficial view, we are going back for the real deal tomorrow), Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt, the Opera House, Humboldt University, and a lot more that we are probably forgetting (good thing we were both taking pictures!).

In Gendarmenmarkt where the tour finished, there were two teens busking for money. The song choices were extremely questionable (as are most things here), being that they were: "I Wanna Be Like You" (from the Jungle Book), "Light My Fire", and "Love Shack". Then a dueling busker appeared on scene, but he only played one song (the one with the words "Now I've gone and ruined it all by saying something stupid like 'I love you'). We decided it was time to leave, so we hobbled off back to the hostel, determined to find Doner kebaps that Taryn (we really need to stop taking her advice.... although she was right about this one) kept babbling about. They were very good, especially for €2,30 and being the first thing we had eaten since breakfast... 12 hours ago... Anyway, we are now on our way back to the hostel, and we thing we have walked about 10 km (at least) today and have potentially broken our feet. All we want now is some water and to lie down!

Tomorrow's agenda: Reichstag (it is free to go up to its glass dome), Kaiser Memorial Church, Einstein exhibit, Victory Column, and the dome in Berlin Cathedral. Maybe we'll take the subway a tad to spare our feet. So, as they say in German: Chuß!

posted by Laura @ 6:46 pm