the swamp city

after spending a week in france, helen and i agreed that we were ready to move on to deutschland (aka...sausageland). we arrived at paris orly laughably early on may 3rd, and were surprised by how empty it was. i guess the staff felt like they should be doing something, so they gave me a very thorough pat down. no one trusts gingers!

everything else went smoothly and uneventfully...until we boarded the plane. about fifty passengeres had boarded, when suddenly the stream of people stopped. helen and i, comfortable in our seats, hadn't noticed anything, until a steward went on the loudspeaker and announced that a "problematic passenger" had created a scene at the gate and was being removed by the police. a few minutes later, we heard horrible screams coming from the gate, and they kept getting closer. helen and i were getting a bit scared, and after ten minutes of approaching shrieks, the steward finally closed the airplane's door as "a safety precaution."

then, everyone realized that the police were leading the woman away, and wanted to spy--so the entire plane rushed to the left side of the aircraft to see. i didn't see anything, but it was pretty hilarious to see a bunch of shameless adults rubbernecking like kids.

relieved to finally be off the plane a few hours later, we stepped onto german soil and into lovely warmth and sunshine--quite the relief after cold, rainy paris. we practically skipped to the s-bahn, and on the way kept catching whiffs of delicious-smelling sausage.

after dropping off our stuff at the "heart of gold" hostel, we scouted for a place that served german specialties. we found a promising place, and downed berlin specialty beer with raspberry syrup, pork sausage, sauerkraut, mustard, and potatoes. it was the perfect comfort food!

bursting with DEUTSCH food, we had a wander around the neighborhood, passing a synagogue that had been damaged during kristallnacht, the tv tower, and a pretty little park. we immediately deduced that berlin was a lot less pretentious than paris, and the germans with whom we interacted were largely friendly.

the two of us wanted an early night, because the next day was sure to be jam-packed. back at the hostel, we met one of our roommates--a lovely lad from manchester named jonathan--then popped in our earplugs and hit the hay!

the synagogue

the next day, we hustled down friedrichstrasse to get to the starbucks where the "free walking tour" of berlin meets up every day. randomly, we had run into one of helen's fellow edinburgh interns the day before (small world), and she joined us for the tour, which lasted about three hours. our tour guide was a scottish lassie named natasha, and she gave us the full low-down on berlin. apparently, it was built on a swamp, which explains the clouds of stink you occasionally have to walk through in the city. she also told us all about the third reich, the division of east and west berlin, and the fall of the wall. i'm way too lazy (and forgetful) to bang it all out here, so i'll just let the pictures do the talking

brandenburg gate

the very large holocaust memorial, located in the center of berlin. it's not clear whether the artist wanted the blocks to represent graves, a cityscape, etc etc...walking through it was very interesting, though. i thought it was a very poignant and approrpriate memorial

i believe it was after the memorial that we went to a seemingly random car park...but underneath was where hitler's bunker used to be, and where he committed suicide. unfortunately, it's all blocked off and caved in now, but it was still eerie to stand over the place.

building damaged in wwII

former nazi building

a remaining part of the berlin wall. look how thin it is!

these cobblestones mark where the wall used to run through berlin

checkpoint charlie (crossing point between east and west germany)

uh oh. i kinda forget what this is. a church??

bebelplatz, where the book burnings of 1933 occurred. there was a little memorial in the middle of the square; a glass panel showed an underground room, and if you peered down, there were empty library shelves

st. hedwig's cathedral in bebelplatz

our tour guide then took us to a sort of hidden war memorial, which had been sculpted by a local female artist. it's called "mother and her dead son," and at the base of the sculpture are the graves of an unknown german soldier, and an unknown concentration camp victim. i think it was my favorite part of the tour--

nearby, on "museum island," we saw this breathtaking church, which looked really old...turns out its only from like 1900. those cheating germans! they built it to look old, the sly dogs!

YAH, BEER!

i thought this was very a very cool mixture of old and new. the museum of contemporary art building is clearly pretty dated, but they've hung a neon sign among the pillars! look closely and you can see it

naturally, after the tour, helen and i were keen to find some munchies. we were also incredibly cold, because we'd dressed that morning in hopes of more sunshine--and instead got rain and freezing winds. we felt a bit foolish in our dresses, and had to squealingly run through the streets once it began to pour.

luckily, we found a sausage stand (haha), and got some currywurst unt brot (and bread). after wolfing it down, we still needed a place to warm up and sit for awhile, so we went to a giant chocolate shop we had passed on the tour. after droolingly wandering around it for a few minutes, i bought a bag of assorted chocolate chunks, shown below!

after i'd eaten over half of it. one chunk had peppercorns in it, another had chunks of raw ginger, and all were delicious!

the tv tower

finally full, helen and i hustled back to the hostel so that we could change clothes (my body was still riddled with shaking). then, we hit the road again! we tried to find the jewish museum, but instead got ridiculously lost and went in a gigantic circle. finally, helen asked a local security guard about where it was located, and it was clear on the other side of berlin.

close to where we thought the museum would be. i miss LA!

we regrouped by a fountain, and decided to trek to hackescher markt, famed for its shopping and nice little restaurants. on the way, we spotted some cool graffiti (berlin is COVERED in it).

see a familiar american?

after shopping for a little while, helen was jonesing for DAS BIER! we ventured into an "irish pub," and when she asked for a berlin brew, the bartender straight up laughed in her face and said, "you come to an irish pub for a german beer? that's brilliant!"

helen sheepishly asked for a pint, and the nearby drunk german men laughed at us and called helen an alcoholic. a wee bit embarrassed, we went to the back of the pub so helen could get toasted in peace. haha

fueled by DAS BIER, we decided to cap off the day with a visit to the bundestag, the parliamentary building that has great views of the city--for free!

the wait was a little long, since security was very strict (and oh-so-very-german), but as we waited we befriended a gigantic group of middle-aged slovenians standing next to us. they were really friendly and excited to talk to americans, and one fellow joked to me as we went into security that i needed to cough up my "hunting knife" before entering. good thing the germs didn't hear him, i might have gotten DAS boot to DAS face

front of the BUNDESTAG!

pretty sunset view from the top

as you can imagine, after the BUNDESTAG we were utterly drained. we needed some greasy sausage fuel, so we stopped at the train station on the way home and got some fast food wurst. it was highly delicious, of course, but my poor stomach was starting to get really angry at the vast amounts of fatty meat it was being forced to digest. i dunno how the germans do it--years of practice, i suppose.

anyways, that ends the action-packed berlin part EIN! come back soon for part ZWEI!

hoping you find german words as funny as helen and i do,
lilly