Burr Burr Berlin.

After a great 2 full days in Prague, I got on the Deutsche Bahn at 2:00 heading to Berlin. Even though Ariela had told me that German trains are always on time, my train left about 20 minutes late, and then in the middle of the 6 and a half hour trip, broke down for 2 hours. The delay was justified by the fact that the delay and the break down both happened in the Czech Republic and not in Germany! Anyhow, on my now 8.5 hour train ride, I met two awesome guys. One from San Francisco, and one from Dresden Germany. We kept each other company during the trip, and then once we got to Berlin we all went for a good German beer. One great thing that we found out is that with the Deutsche Bahn if your train arrives over 2 hours late you get 50% of your money back! So we did that, and got some spending $ for the trip.

In Berlin I stayed at St. Christopher's a perfectly located hostel with a great bar downstairs, great music and a good breakfast. Over beer the night before, Galvin (SanFran) and I decided we would meet at the free walking tour the next day. For the tour we had a great guide named Finn from Ireland. He was really funny, and did a great job keeping us all entertained despite how cold it was outside! By the end of the tour my feet were so frozen, but it was worth it to learn and see everything I did.

After the tour I headed back to the hostel, and on the way I picked up a delicious bratwurst at Curry 40, a great little sausage stand on the corner. It comes as a big sausage on a little bun, with mustard, and if you want, you can have ketchup too. For one euro it was the perfect little snack. That night I went down to the bar for a hot chocolate (I was still frozen!) and by chance I met Vaughn and his dad Jeff from Madison, Wisconsin. Vaughn was living in Amsterdam working with young baseball players, and his dad was visiting him. We chatted down at the bar until around 12 or so, when they caught the metro back to their hotel. Since Vaughn was living in Amsterdam, he gave me lots of tips of places to go, beers to try, and food to taste. Thats one of the great things about traveling, is that you always meet different people from different places.

The next day I ventured out with a different guy from San Fran (McCoy) and we went down to the East Side Gallery, which is a 1.3km piece of the Berlin Wall that was painted by 160 artists from around the world. There were so many cool paintings that we spent a while soaking that all in, and taking pictures.

McCoy and I also decided to go check out another tour called the "Alternative Berlin Tour" it started at 2:00 and would take us around to some different squats, (abandoned buildings etc. that are taken over) to some alternative nightclubs, and also to learn about different types of graffiti and popular artists around Berlin. This tour was absolutely amazing. I had a great time wandering around for another 4 hours learning about a different side of Berlin. One of the squats we visited was called Tacheles, which used to be an old department store, but after the wall came down was taken over and turned into a squat. Now a days it doesnt really seem to be much, just a building completely covered in graffiti and posters, where artists sell really awesome alternative art during the afternoon and evening.

Over all, Berlin was a really interesting city to visit, and I had a really great time learning about all the different history, in a way that was completely different than what we learned in Social Studies. It seems like since its only been 20 years since the wall fell, Berlin is still a baby city, still trying to find its identity as a whole, and I think that made the experience even more interesting.