Pictures and Stories from my Semester in CPH: Berlin chapter 2

So this is a little more delayed than it was supposed to be. Oops. School got busy late last week (apparently that's why I'm here...) and then I had a busy/fun night going out in Copenhagen with my friends and an alllll day/alllll evening long birthday party for my host sister, Stine, who turns 21 next week.

On Saturday we got out of the hostel by 11am, I think and decided to walk around and see some of the places we saw on the tour and catch some new parts of the city. Claire really wanted to see a German art museum so she had asked her art history professor here for some suggestions.

Somehow nearly all of the museums were either closed or had some other problem. We think they were all getting ready for the high season of tourists, which starts in April/May. One museum had only one exhibition open (and it was the sort of lame one), one museum was having it's grand re-opening that weekend so the lines were out of control and a couple were closed. The Berliner Galerie, however, was open for business so we packed it up and headed to the museum. There are a couple pictures below of some of the artwork.

By the time we were finished there it was about 3pm, starting to rain again and we were beginning to get hungry so obviously a trip to Dunkin' was in store!! Some bagels, muffins and coffee was consumed and we continued on to go to the Berlin Holocaust Museum. It's actually located underneath of the memorial I talked about yesterday--the one with the huge concrete slabs. It's a self guided tour but we also used the audio tour, which was extremely interesting. We spent almost two hours in the museum just because all of the pictures, videos and stories were supplemented so much by the audio tour.

By the time we were finished it was dinner time so we walked around trying to find an authentic German meal. We had stopped in a souvenir shop and asked the people working there and they directed us to an area closeby with options. We ended up at a small restaurant/bar that was great. Jesse and I both had German sausage with potatos and cabbage (I tried it....but didn't finish it....it was kinda gross), Mary got some sort of beefsteak and Claire got something like cabbage stuffed with meatloaf (hey guys correct me if I'm wrong...?) then we split desserts. It was delicious and it was nice to have a real meal. In an attempt to cut down on costs/time, we decided to bring food from home that we could share. We had lots and lots and lots of PB+J sandwiches, crackers, and chocolately biscuit type things all weekend. It was easy to just throw it in our backpacks and eat it as we were walking. That way we didn't waste time having to wait at a restaurant. We also got to see the Brandenburg Gate at night, which is beautiful, and we also went up to the top of the Reichstag (Parliament building) to look out over the city.

Our train on Monday left at 3:15pm so we had a good chunk of time to walk around a little more. It was a beautiful day...blue skys and no rain! We went back up to the top of the Reichstag since it was such a nice day out and also headed back to Checkpoint Charlie.

On our tour, the tour guide mentioned that you can get your Passport stamped pretending like you're actually going through Checkpoint Charlie. We were waiting to cross the street when we happened to be standing next to one of the stands. At this intersection, there wasn't really a crosswalk, you just sort of looked both ways and waited till there were no cars crossing and went. I am always the last one to cross...because I am paranoid I'm going to get hit by a car. So as we were waiting, Claire, Jesse and Mary bolted across the street as I looked both ways for the 1000th time. At this point, the guy acting as Checkpoint Charlie saw fresh meat and attacked. He asked me if I wanted a stamp and I told him I didn't trust that it would be okay. We went through the usual "where are you from?" ... "The States" nonsense and he told me everyone from America gets their passport stamped. I still didn't really trust him and he continued to pressure me. Meanwhile my friends finally realize I'm not with them, so we're screaming back and forth across the street and I finally give in and get the stamp. He was really funny....we got a picture (on Claire's camera...hopefully she'll upload sooooon so I can get it!) and we were on our way.

That was pretty much the end of our trip, but of course we needed a little excitement...so as we were trying to get back to the bus station (which involved like 3 different trains) Claire and I were worried we were going to be late so we were rushing, Mary and Jesse were being lame and telling us to relax so we decided to make it The Amazing Race. Obviously my team won. We made it to the bus but this time it was a completely full double decked luxury bus. We were assigned the back row again and as we were getting in there about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to leave, Claire thought she lost her Passport. Luckily for everyone involved it was in a different pocket or bag or something.....but we made it back okay....we got into Copenhagen around midnight or so. It was a really fun trip and it was nice to have a break from Denmark. We leave for London/Oxford this Sunday. We get back on the 27th, and I'll be here for a night before I go visit the family in Austria. I'll try and post about London during my night here, otherwise I'll do it during my first few days of vacation in Austria. Here are some more pics from Berlin: