Hello everyone! Here is the post I promised, kicking off the first of five posts, one for each day of last week that I spent in Berlin. I managed to write a journal of my time in Berlin, which will be of big help when I am writing these posts. I think I will mostly stick to what I wrote in there, occasionally writing additional information, and including photos. Hopefully you like these posts!
Montag/Monday:
I got up at 6:20 a.m. (very unnecessary!!), and did my normal wake-up routine. I double-checked all of my bags, which I had packed the day before. My host mom did the double-triple-quadruple check of "you have everything?" and "you're sure that's enough food for the train ride?", which I really appreciated. I said my goodbyes, then my host father took me to the train station that my class was meeting at. My class and I saw that the train was listed as going to Budapest (but it stops at Berlin) so all along the way to Berlin we joked that we were actually going to Budapest. We got on the train, which reminded me a lot of the train to Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series (yeah, I know, I'm a book geek - and proud). It had the individualized train compartments, just like the Hogwarts train, seating six people, and it had a fancy and expensive food trolley, that me and all of my classmates in my compartment politely refused.
(I'm going to do a first for this blog and have a read more break here... this post is too long because of all the photos to have entirely on the regular page.)
Montag/Monday:
I got up at 6:20 a.m. (very unnecessary!!), and did my normal wake-up routine. I double-checked all of my bags, which I had packed the day before. My host mom did the double-triple-quadruple check of "you have everything?" and "you're sure that's enough food for the train ride?", which I really appreciated. I said my goodbyes, then my host father took me to the train station that my class was meeting at. My class and I saw that the train was listed as going to Budapest (but it stops at Berlin) so all along the way to Berlin we joked that we were actually going to Budapest. We got on the train, which reminded me a lot of the train to Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series (yeah, I know, I'm a book geek - and proud). It had the individualized train compartments, just like the Hogwarts train, seating six people, and it had a fancy and expensive food trolley, that me and all of my classmates in my compartment politely refused.
(I'm going to do a first for this blog and have a read more break here... this post is too long because of all the photos to have entirely on the regular page.)
When we got to Berlin, we met up with a walking tour guide. The first thing she did was take us to our hotel so that we could put our things there and see what it was like. I think I wasn't alone in being a little worried initially about what the (1 star) hotel would be like, but when I got there I was actually pleasantly surprised. It was just like an apartment building - maybe that is why it is only one star? We had to make our own beds and keep the apartment clean on our own, but really that is not a big deal. A really nice plus to the hotel/apartment-y place we stayed at was the fact that it serves breakfast and supper, so that we only had to buy lunch out if we wanted it (I wanted it everyday - wandering around Berlin takes a lot of energy). After the hotel, the tour guide took us on a mostly walking tour of Berlin. We got to see how people lived in the past (which is crampedly - Berlin was created with space efficiency in mind. Often you will find that, rather than going behind or in front of buildings, sometimes the roads go through/under the buildings), and how they live there now. It was actually really beautiful, though. While I was in Berlin, I took about 700 photos in total, and on the first day I took a lot of those. I will definitely have to try and be selective with which photos I share - although I wish I could share all of them!
We got to see a Jewish Synagogue in Berlin. We saw the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), which was beautiful! In the second photo below of the Berliner Dom, you can see that I'm standing in something. I still don't know what it is. It is the size of a large fountain, and I would be inclined to think it was a fountain, if not for the fact that there was no water in it. It is a large bowl with four large rectangular prisms surrounding it - very convenient for helping you get into the fountain-not-fountain, which most of my class promptly did, pulling each other up and helping each other in.
We also saw lot's of beautiful streets and side alleys.
After the walking tour, my class and I went to an East German Prison. I took a lot of photo's, so I will try and just let those speak for themselves, along with my captions.
After the walking tour, my class and I went back to the hotel for supper, hungry. I had a pretty good meal of pasta with tomato sauce and meat in it. After that, many of us went to a local supermarket to buy some food and other things that we needed for the apartment (like dish and hand soap). I bought some food for the upcoming week, as well as special water - in Germany, most people drink carbonated water, thinking that it is better and that there is no real difference between the the taste of carbonated and non-carbonated water. I whole-heartedly disagree, and so I bought myself some uncarbonated water for my time there.
After that, we all headed back to our apartments, and a lot of people came over to mine to hang out (which turned out to be the case for almost every night). I decided to call it quits just before midnight, pulling out my hearing aids. Some classmates from other apartments decided to stick around a bit longer, but I decided to sleep anyways. I think I was the only one to get a decent nights sleep, clocking in about 6 hours total, while I heard many others only managed 2.
And that is all for Monday! I will hopefully make another post tomorrow and post it. about my second day in Berlin!
See you soon!
-Jason
After that, we all headed back to our apartments, and a lot of people came over to mine to hang out (which turned out to be the case for almost every night). I decided to call it quits just before midnight, pulling out my hearing aids. Some classmates from other apartments decided to stick around a bit longer, but I decided to sleep anyways. I think I was the only one to get a decent nights sleep, clocking in about 6 hours total, while I heard many others only managed 2.
And that is all for Monday! I will hopefully make another post tomorrow and post it. about my second day in Berlin!
See you soon!
-Jason