Weekend in Berlin!

We started off our Berlin weekend on Thursday afternoon taking a 4:30 train and with an extra person with us, our friend Nick who is also on our trip. It was about a 3 and a half hour trip to Berlin and we took the ICE train which is the high speed German train, which was really cool. We arrived in Berlin that night and made our way to our hostel for the weekend. We stayed at Schlafmeile Hostel and the interesting thing about this hostel was that our room was right on the street. Instead of the normal rooms as you go up, the rooms went horizontal along the street, so we entered our room from the street. It was a different experience, a little weird at first, but ended up working out well.

The next morning we got up and ate breakfast at the hostel's cafe, where we got this great breakfast for 4 euros. After, we got on the metro and made our way to the center of the city. We were going to visit the Berlin zoo first, but when we got up to the street there was this beautiful and interesting church right there. It was a church that had been bombed completely and all that was left was the main tower. They decided to keep the tower there and built a new, very modern church right next to it. We walked into the ruined church and it was interesting to see how the paint was chipped, pieces missing and great holes in the structure that used to be stained glass.

So, we spent some time there and then we went through some souvenir shops where we got some German gear for the game later that day. We spent a little bit more time than we thought in this area, so we decided, because we wanted to watch the game later, that we would go to the zoo after the game. We were back on the metro and we headed to the center of the city, where the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag was. We got a few pictures of the Gate, but were obstructed because of tents and poles where they would set up an outdoor public viewing of the soccer games.

Next, we went to the Reichstag, which is now the German parliament building. We were going to go up into the top of the dome, which is all glass so you get good views of the city, but the line was really long and we didn't have the time to wait. It was okay though, we got some pictures outside and we saw the building which was really pretty.

Next, we made our way to lunch where we had some good German food and were able to watch the game.

Next, we went to the Berlin Zoo and had a lot of fun. We got a lot of pictures of all the animals there.

After the zoo, we went to Potsdamer Platz and had dinner at VA Piano, a really good, and cheap, Italian restaurant. Outside of the restaurant was a portion of the Berlin Wall. They had guys there dressed up in old East Berlin uniforms and you could get all the stamps that were required in a passport to go from East to West Berlin. Our first day in Berlin was great.

The next day we got up, ate breakfast at the same cafe, and made our way to the opposite side of Berlin to the Schloss Charlottenburg. This was a palace that the King and Queen of Prussia used to stay sometimes. It was a really pretty palace.

We only toured one wing of it, but we also went to the gardens behind it, which were absolutely gorgeous.They were huge, and we had a great time wandering through there.

Next, we got lunch right by the palace at this restaurant that actually brews their own beer and has two locations in all of Germany and they are both in Berlin. It was amazing food, but it was definitely a one time deal since we would never find this restaurant anywhere else.

We made our way back to the other side of Berlin and visited the East Side gallery, a section of the Berlin wall that was kept up and artists painted different things all over it. It was pretty awesome.

After that we went to the main shopping area of Berlin. We went to the KaDeWe, an 8-story department store that supposedly had really good shopping. As we go in, we find out it is definitely not a college students department store. When we saw shirts for 400 euros we decided it would be best to leave and find other places to shop. We walked down the street and went in a bunch of different stores. When we all started getting a little hungry we went back to Potsdamer Platz and went to the Sony Center where they had a bunch of restaurants and shops. It was a really cool place to be as it was getting dark. The lights there were really cool.

After another good meal, we made our way to our hostel, got up the next morning and caught our train back to Muenster. Another successful weekend!