Gutentag from the Berlin Wall!

Sunday March 15, 2009

Yesterday (Saturday) we took our bus to west Berlin with our guide for the day who is a Berliner. Omg I guess I shouldn't have judged the city based on the eastern block that we saw Friday, bc the westeren areas are sooo much better. There was this one area that was so cute. Lots of shops and bars/cafes with apts on top. Very French quarter I thought.

We also drove around and saw all the foreign embassies, which was cool bc they are all very distinct bldgs. The nordic one is big and green and has a sauna inside. The Chinese and Arabic ones are very oriental/desert palace looking, and the Egyptian one had a bear, berlin's mascot, dressed as a pharoh outside. Then we made our way to the eastern gallery where they still have a substantial piece of the Berlin wall up. It was very cool to see such an important part of the city's history. After the wall was opened, the city comissioned artists to paint on the wall. Now it's mostly covered in graffiti, like everything else in the city, but they are thinking of having this section repainted for the 20th anniversary this nov.

Then we went to checkpoint Charlie in the old American sector of the city. This is also where the American and Russian tanks had a famous standoff. We ate a quick bite there, currywurst mit pommes, and bought a few souveniers, and then it was off to Potsdam. The road we took used to be a racing strip, and there are still bldgs with specific views for watching the race and even like stadium stands on one of the road for viewing. Potsdam is a nice city, used mostly by Berliners in the summer for it's beaches and lakes. We saw a couple palaces that were very pretty, and one was where the Potsdam treaty was signed after WWII I think. Berlin was such a mess from allied bombing, and it still is 60 yrs later, so they had to sign the treaty outside the city. One of the palaces we saw had a working Dutch windmill and the city itself has a cute little Dutch quarter bc the king wanted to attract the Dutch to move to Potsdam. It didn't work but I loved that area, it finally felt like Europe is supposed to.

We came back to west Berlin for dinner at some chicken place and then we walked like a mile down this big shopping street, which was very crowded. Reminded me of hong kong, except not as good ;). So we had some time to walk around and ally bought a shirt with a black cat on it, maxo! And we went to like five h&m stores, but mostly everything closed at 8 so we didn't have enough time to do as much as we wanted to.

Then we met up and took the s bahn to alexanderplatz then took our tram back to the hotel. Trams run only in east Berlin, and no subways run there, so that's why we had to switch. Also, the mass trans is on a kind of honor system. You never have to show a ticket, but you have to have one and you have to validate it or else you have to pay a fine if they catch you. I think that's about it, we're on our way to Dresden right now and then it's off to Prague! So hopefully this will give my legs a break haha. A couple more things, everything here is mercedes. Like taxis, buses, even tow trucks! And I've seen so many cabrios! That's my little vw convertible. I really need to get a pic of one before we go!

Jenny

Ps everyone on the trip has a snuggie!

Jess- you would LOVE all the graffiti here! It's on everything, and some of it is so cool. We tried to take as many photos of it as we could. And there are so many goth and punk ppl. All the young ppl here are so cool and interesting looking. I don't think they like us though. Haha