After continental breakfast at Hotel Meininger on Saturday morning, the group gathered for a three-hour walking tour.
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| Being in Europe instead of North America, I ate a meat-and-cheese sandwich for breakfast (with peaches and yogurt). This must be a sign of adapting to the culture here, since never would I eat a sandwich for breakfast back home! |
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| Sights on our walk to our walking tour. The sun was shining! |
Our group was split into three smaller groups for the tour. My tour guide, Laura, has been living in Berlin for the past few years but is from England/France. She was very nice and knowledgeable about the city and its history: teaching us about the history of East and West Germany and Berlin. All the while, she kept us in the shade as much as possible, which was something we all appreciated immensely.
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| The US Embassy |
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| Brandenburger Tor (the Brandenburg Gate) |
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| Hotel Adlon, a famous hotel where celebrities and important figures have stayed... AKA the hotel of the balcony scene where Michael Jackson held his child. |
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| The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Interestingly, this memorial isn't what one might expect to commemorate the lives of those murdered in the Holocaust. There is no significance to the number of rectangular blocks comprising this site (2711), which was designed by an American. |
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| No two blocks are the same size. They are lined up in neat rows, though, designed with room for reflection. |
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| Now a carpark, this site is where Hitler's bunker was. |
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| The Finance Administration building, a typical example of German architecture, was designed to make others feel small and inferior. It used to be a headquarter location of the Nazis. |
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| More Berlin Wall |
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| Trabis, old and inefficient cars of East Germany. People used to have to place their names on waiting lists to purchase these cars years later. |
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| Checkpoint Charlie |
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| The divided history of Berlin |
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| Not exactly a German tourist attraction, but look at this section of McDonald's. This was most definitely the fanciest and best McDonald's I have ever been to, and although I didn't buy anything, I appreciated the separate McCafe (totally apart from the typical counter and with a vast assortment of options). Also, machines allow guests to place orders instead of waiting in line and talking to the cashier, though that is done as well. |
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| Laura was sure to recommend this place for chocolate... |
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| ...so, thinking smart, I took a picture of the street signs where it was located. I knew I wanted to return! |
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| Looking across to the French Cathedral (with the Berlin Concert Hall on the left) |
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| The German Cathedral had to be built bigger than the French one, of course. One thing I appreciated about this building as with the country in general is how Germany embraces its history. Bullet holes on the cathedral, for instance, have not been repaired and are not covered up. |
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| Humboldt University of Berlin, the site of the famous book-burning. |
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| As Heinrich Heine prophesied in 1820, history repeats itself sometimes. "That was only a prelude; there where they burn books, they burn in the end people." |
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| The tour ended at Museum Island, where I am pictured standing in front of the Berlin Cathedral. |
After the walking tour, we were free for the rest of the day; everyone split up to continue experiencing the city. I successfully navigated my way back to my hotel to and met up with my German friend Denis and his friend Soren, who drove over to Berlin for the day. It was nice to reunite after more than a year and in Germany, no less.
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| Our first destination was Curry 36, since I wanted to try currywurst. Although the workers did tease me for being American (not that I would know what they actually said), I appreciated dining here for the more "authentic" German feel the vendor had. All around were people speaking German, and it didn't feel like a tourist spot (though I saw one other woman take a picture of the restaurant, like I did). |
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| It ended up being really good! Don't tell the Danes, but currywurst is much tastier and more flavorful than the hot dogs I've had so far in Europe. |
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| Holocaust memorial statue I saw in a street leaving Curry 36. |
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| Being with actual Germans in Germany, we did what locals might do in the city: shop. Well, the boys bought clothes at this mall, which had an Eiffel Tower statue in the middle of it. In exchange, I made a deal that we would go to the chocolate store next. |
Leaving the mall, we were approached by a man who (I later found out) was demonstrating as part of a group wanting to form a political party. The man talked to Denis and Soren about joining while I stood there wondering what the sign that mentioned Obama said. Later, the fact that I was American came out, and I was handed an article about how the group wants to impeach Obama. Not knowing how to react in this situation, I didn't say much, but this definitely was an interesting experience that occurred in my day in Berlin.
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| Finally, I was back to the chocolate store! Depicted here is a chocolate version of the Reichstag, the German Parliament building. |
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| Fassbender & Rausch is the world's largest chocolaterie. The retail location was a chocolate heaven, full of goodies to buy and chocolate monument replicas to see. |
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| Though I'm not big on candy or chocolate (unless it's baked in a dessert), I loved Fassbender & Rausch and was compelled to make a purchase. There was so much to choose from, though, that I admit I left and came back while the guys got something to drink. Tough decisions were made! |
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| Then, it was back to the hotel. Had to take my chocolate back in hopes that it wouldn't melt! |
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| Later, I got dinner with a nice group of ISUP peers. We went to a restaurant by the canal that I had seen lit up the night before. I ordered a ciabatta sandwich with chicken and melted cheese (and even ate a few bites of the salad that came with). |
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| Despite how much more I wish I could have done and seen during my day in Berlin, I enjoyed spending some time with these two! Visiting European friends was actually something I considered when deciding to study abroad in Copenhagen, so it was cool to see a foreign friend in his country. |
