Wonderlust: Berlin, Germany

Friday morning Melanie and I said goodbye to Dusseldorf. We enjoyed our time spent at the adorable Hotel Haus Hilleshein which was run by the nicest people ever. Before I get too far into this post, I would just like to say that I don't know how the stereotype of the unfriendly German arose (well, I kind of do...that whole Nazi thing certainly put a damper on foreigners' perception of Germans...hmm), but so far that's all it has been, a stereotype. Everyone we've encountered either in Dusseldorf or Berlin has been extremely welcoming and warm, particularly when we make an effort to use the little German that we know. Even the TSA man at security in Dusseldorf complimented me on my necklace. I guess people just respond well to respect and kindness? What a notion! Anyways, we left Dusseldorf for Berlin on Friday. We weren't far from our hostel so we took a cab to our hostel the Jetpackers Downtown Berlin.

After checking into our hostel we decided to walk around and get to know the area. We are staying in a quaint neighborhood in former west Berlin. There are shops, cafes and restaurants everywhere you go. Since we've been in Germany we have certainly been eating well. Between Dusseldorf and Berlin we've eaten Thai food, Italian food, Japanese food, Indian food, Greek food, German food (currywurst, ja!), ice cream, and of course, as two admitted coffee addicts, drank gallons of milchkaffee and espresso. My preconceived notion that I'd be eating twice a day and mainly from markets to save money hasn't come to fruition as most of our meals here have been well under 10 Euro each. Danke schoen, Deutschland!

Yesterday morning we got up early, because the people working in our hostel told us about a free walking tour that takes you all around the major must-see sites in Berlin. After mastering the public transport system, we arrived at Branderburg Gate where the tour was to start in front of a Starbucks, which was right next to a Dunkin' Donuts (Really, America? Really, Germany?). Our tour guide, Jonny, moved from England to Berlin in November, because he was so in love with the city, and, bonus, he majored in European history. Presto, amazing FREE tour of Berlin. Winning! Over the period of 4 hours Jonny led us around the major sites (below are pictures) and was so knowledgeable of the history of each of them. Although Melanie and I were the only Americans on the tour and thus had to take some blows from Jonny much to the amusement of the rest of the tour go-ers, the tour was very informative and entertaining. It really made me fall in love with this crazy/beautiful city. I am totally learning German and moving here someday.

Today, Melanie and I decided to check out the former east Berlin, because we had heard from numerous people that they preferred it over former west Berlin. Maybe we didn't go far enough, but I didn't find it particularly beautiful, interesting or even weird. The buildings were plain (duh, it used to be communist east Berlin). A lot of the younger hipper people live in east Berlin, I'm told, but I didn't like it very much, although Melanie did. Maybe they're trying to be ironic by living in an area filled with plain buildings instead of the gaudy, glamorous west Berlin. So decadent, ugh.

Tomorrow: Budapest!

Brandenburg Gate

Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe

Apartment buildings where the SS lived;

Below our feet is Hitler's bunker

Nazi headquarters, swastika flags used to hang between those columns

Nazi HQ again. It's now used as a tax buildings so Berliners

can continue to hate it.

The Berlin Bear is everywhere. Like the hearts in SF.

Remains of the Berlin Wall

Recreation of Check Point Charlie

Recreation of the sign at Check Point Charlie. The same frame is used from the original.

At Gendarmenmarkt

Gendarmenmarkt, Huguenot church straight ahead

French Huguenot church in Gendarmenmarkt

Das Konzerthaus in Gendarmenmarkt

Melanie posing in Bebelplatz, where the Nazi book burnings happened in 1933

Bebelplatz

In the middle of Bebelplatz there is an empty underground library meant to represent the amount of books burned. They could have filled up all of those shelves.