Thursday, May 22, 2008

Berlin--walls coming down

I went to Berlin a few days before I was supposed to meet my brother. I hopped on an early train from Frankfurt so I could get to Berlin in time for the 12:30 pick up for the free (but give me good tips) walking tour of Berlin. Our guide John reminded me so much of John Thomas...I kept staring because the resemblance was uncanning. Anyway, he led us to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, by what is left of the Berlin Wall, by Checkpoint Charlie
, the big Cathedral and up the steps of one of the museums.
It was a four hour tour and I do not remember anything that he told us!!! I did get lots of good pictures and reflected on german history and the history of Berlin. I met Anupa first thing and we began talking. We decided to do the pub crawl that night offered by the same company as the walking tour. After the walking tour, I got my bags and raced to the hostel which was 30 minutes outside of Berlin and then rushed back into town for a quick bite to eat before the pub crawl. It was a really cool setup for the pub crawl. Because it was a Tuesday none of the bars had patrons other than us pubcrawlers...good thing because we took up a lot of space. They had us ride the trams to two different places which was pretty crazy. We ended at a club and before I knew it I looked at my watch and it was 3am. I could not get a train back to my hostel until 4am and finally crawled into bed at 5:15---I have not pulled an all nighter in quite some time and I thought about just staying up because I could get some great pictues of places without all the tourists at 5am.

The next day Anupa and I did the Concentration camp outside of Berlin. Our guide Matt was pretty cool and really into history. He gave us a lot of information and let us look around a bit ourselves. This was a concentration camp rather than an extermination camp, but people were still murdered here. We learned about how excrutiating roll call could be and that if people died during the night their bodies would need to be hauled out to roll call. Again, very depressing to think of times like that.



I pray that I am never in a situation such as that. After our tour we made our way back to Berlin and found Checkpoint Charlie--I did not have my passport with me but Anupa did so we went to the booth just before they closed it up.

The young guy working the station was hilarious and gave us some extra freebees and we got some pictures with him. We then went back to the Brandenburg Gate to watch the sun go down behind it and watch the lights come on.
It was pretty cool and we had some time to have a kaffee and desert. Anupa and I said our goodbyes and headed for our respective hostels. I went straight to bed knowing it would be a long day with Chris and Ev.

The next morning I woke up and checked out of the hostel and header to the train that would take me to the bus that led to the airport so I could meet Chris & Ev. I did not know which airline or the exact tiem of their arrival but I thought it was 9:30 am. On the bus to the airport i learned that there was an accident on the autobahn...I was a little frantic because I could not communicate via cell phone with the guys. It was a very slow ride but I finally made it to the airport. There were hundreds of people waiting for busses and I looked for the guys there and then went inside and asked where bagage claim was located. The lady informed me it was at each gate. Great, how on earth was I going to find them. I walked around a bit and then headed back outside once more but no luck. I decided to make one full loop around the airport ring. I am walking and look up and see the two guy s walking out from their gate. Holy cow, what timing!! We decided to take a taxi to our hotel rather than maneuvering busses and trains. We get there and they do not have a reservation for us and are booked up. The guy was very nice and helped up find a hotel nearby which was excellent! For my in was a luxury room--the two prior nights i had been in a hostel with lots of other people and a shared bathroom. I had a big cushy bed, a nice bathroom, and tv with German dubbed American shows. Once we got settled, we headed out on the town for lunch and sightseeing. We made it to a church that was hit in WWII and the rebuilt section.
We made it to Sony Center and and rode the double decker bus around. We went back to Checkpoint Charlie and I got my passport stamped...the new guy wan't as jovial as the guy the night before. We toured a few museums and then made our way back to the hotel. We got some dinner and then I went to bed.




My last morning in Berlin was slow and then a rush to the train station so we did not miss our train to Poznan. The ride was peaceful in First Class and we arrived in Poznan in time to get our tickets for that night, check out my flat and walk downtown to dinner. We had an enjoyable dinner with Emma, Ev & Rhonda and then we walked around the square a bit. Emma showed the guys the award winning mall in Poznan and gave them history--I learned right along with them! We got soem snacks for the train and then made our way to the station.

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