Last Reminiscing about Germany Entry

Berlin!

After taking a less than $30 flight to Berlin, we were ecstatic to be there! The hotel/bed and breakfast we booked happened to be awesome! The room was very nice and the staff was very friendly and helpful. We were eager to get out on the town though; Zeb and Amanda were really looking forward to some good German beer.

Upon wondering the streets our first night, I was relieved of map duty. My failed attempt to get us first to the hotel, and now to the pub our gracious host at the hotel suggested confirmed my lack of directional skills, at least in Europe. Eventually however we found where we were going by following Amanda’s directions. It was a very traditional German pub with lots to offer, even music for Zeb and I to sing a long too. I believe that Amanda was amused. We were fed well and had some good laughs. By the end of the evening, although we had not really done too much, it was time for a little shut eye. We felt that a little sleep may prepare us for the “free” (tips accepted) walking tour the next day.

Early the next morning we headed off to the meeting point for our tour. I had been on a similar tour in London and was prepared for all the walking we would be doing and all the information that would be thrown at us. Sure enough, I was correct in my assumption. We found ourselves walking from one side of Berlin to the other and most of the way back. We stopped at the arc, we followed part of the Berlin wall, we stopped at an amazing Jewish memorial, we stopped atop Hitler’s bunker, we stopped at Checkpoint Charley and saw many other various historical points all a long the way. The walking tour was so long that we even took a break for lunch. It was a good and interesting workout for the mind and body. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what my favorite part was. Each point was significant in its own way. When the tour was over there were plenty of places the three of us wanted to revisit and explore on our own. Two days in Berlin was clearly not going to be enough time. Even the time after the tour wasn’t going to be enough to see even a few of the sights… we had to get back to the hotel and prepare for our evening. We had booked dinner at a blind restaurant.

What is a blind restaurant you ask? Well, it deals with eating in the dark. The wait staff is blind and has experience showing people to their tables. It was the blind leading the blind. The menu (which you read in the light before you got to the table) was made up of riddles that only alluded to what you might be eating. The fun part was guessing when you tasted the food when you couldn’t see it. I thought the blind restaurant in London was better, but maybe it was only because my first time was in London only a few months earlier.

Following dinner it was time to hit the town. We had seen an advertisement for a pub crawl done by the same group that did our walking tour that we were interested in, but we thought for sure that we had missed it and we were going to be exploring on our own after dinner. Amanda helped us find what we had identified on the map as the street with the most clubs and pubs. Once we were there we spotted a huge group of about 50 people or more. We had hit the jack pot! This was our group headed to the next bar. We were pretty happy that luck was on our side. Upon paying our 10 Euro for the night we received wrist bands and a little plastic shot glass. The drink deals were pretty good for our group and we stopped for shots in tunnels on the way from one club to the next. We were all feeling pretty happy by the end of the night. The group was made up of people from everywhere! There were people from Italy, Mexico, Israel, and about a million other places it seemed. There were even people that grew-up in Berlin that just liked hanging out with travelers. Overall it was a good night. My biggest disappointment was one of the guys I met from Israel that had it in his mind to call me Sarah (Palin) all night because I had said I was from Alaska. I think Amanda’s biggest disappointment was going back to the hotel. Although none of us were truly ready to leave that night we knew we had a long day ahead of us trying to squeeze in seeing a concentration camp and get on a plane to go back to Frankfurt.

The following day we tried to squeeze in too much! After getting stuck talking to some old guy about the Holocaust and who knows what else, seeing just a small part of the concentration camp (which you have to see to believe), and then almost missing our flight because of a train accident that we were not involved with, but had trains delayed because of... we had a lot go on that day. By the end of the day we were pretty happy to relax on the plane and prepare for our last few days in Germany back in Frankfurt.

Overall it was a great trip to Germany! I can't wait to go back and spend more time there one day!