Life Across The Pond: Berlin, Deutschland - first siting of a Dunkin' Donuts since January!

After getting back from Ireland on Saturday, we had a few days in London, and then Jackie, Becca, and I left for Berlin on Tuesday around 2:30am. Needless to say, we didn't get any sleep that night, but by the time we got to Germany, we were too excited about the sun and the area around us to nap! (well that and we had about 4 hours to kill until we could check in to our hostel).

So we dropped off our bags in the luggage room, and took the train into Hauptbahnhof, the main area of Berlin. Once we got there, we were very tired, and hungry, so we looked around for food. Surprisingly, it was a Burger King we saw before a McDonald's....but then, as we went down the escalator, the bright Orange and Pink sign glowed above us. It was a Dunkin' Donuts. We screamed with joy and ran to go get our coffee. Yumm! We grabbed a sandwich and spent a good amount of time relaxing in the train station until we decided to find a tourist center to help us figure out where we wanted to go. In no time we were outside on another beautiful day and made our way to the lawn in front of the Reichstag, or German parliament. With the TV tower in the distance, we really felt like we were in Berlin now. We continued to walk past the Brandenburg Gate and into Unter Den Linden. Everything was so gorgeous and the architecture was amazing...even though we had no clue what anything was. The next day we would take a bus tour around the city to figure that all out...

After a nice walk around, we headed back to our hostel to check in. This place was AMAZING! It had a pool and a huge bar, and our room was purple with two bathrooms! Although the TVs in the lobby kept playing old 80s/90s music videos...I feel like we were stuck in the late 80s the whole time we were there with the music and style...

After checking in, we took a much needed cat nap and met up with Marty's cousin, Franzi, at Kauf Bar, not too far from where we were staying. This was the best night in Berlin! To be able to talk with a local (who spoke English) eat delicious food, drink delicious beer, and be able to relate with someone who knew people from back home. She was so nice and took us to another bar before heading back where we all got white russians, yummm...It was so sad to say goodbye so soon, but it was the highlight of our trip in Berlin by far :-)

The next day, we went to Alexanderplatz (another main area in Berlin) where we were going to pick up our tour bus. After another delicious breakfast for only €2 we found the bus that took us through the city, much of what we already saw the day before. We got off at the Judisches Museum Berlin (the Jewish Museum) where we spent a good hour or two learning and seeing a lot of artifacts and such about the Jewish people in Germany, especially during the Holocaust. The setup was very unique where there were few windows and it zig-zagged like a maze. There was even one part where you could go through a door and it slammed behind you. You were in a cold dark room with really tall ceilings and a tiny window at the top. It was extremely eerie in there and made me feel very uncomfortable. It must have been the goal, but it seriously gave me the chills. Once we walked back out, there were other people in there screaming to hear their echo which made it even more scary. It was quite effective. Once we went to the other part of the museum, it was more general about the typical Jewish life throughout the years but it was interesting and very interactive which was nice.

When we were done with the museum, we wanted to catch the bus again, but little did we know, the tour stopped running at 4pm. lame. So we walked around in the direction of the train to head back, found some curry-worst and bratwurst, and really tasty donut type things and then went back to the hostel to change for the night.

We went to the bar at the hostel just to check it out, and it was the best bar I've seen in a hostel. The bartenders were so nice and the drinks were deliciousss. After that, one of the bartenders gave us free entry cards to get into the club down the street, Matrix. Supposedly the 14 year olds are there until 10, the 16 year olds leave at midnight, and then its normal....we got there a little early so it was completely dead once we got there, but that only means no wait! We got 3 drinks, and 3 for free, so of course we got piña coladas. Again, though, we were caught in the 90's with the Spice Girls, N'Sync, Michael Jackson, and the Macarena playing. It was so much fun!

The next day we made our way to the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie to do the true Berlin touristy stuff. It was very cool seeing these, but kind of weird to see people acting out the guards at Checkpoint Charlie...I was surprised. After a little souvenir shopping, it was time to head to the bus station to go to Prague. We luckily made it JUST in time to get a few snacks and hop on. After just five hours and the bumpiest ride of my life, we were greeted by Barča in the beautiful Czech Republic.