Our first day was low key; we toured around our hostel neighbourhood and checked out the bar on the top floor of our hostel, the Wombar, for some casual drinks with our new roommate, Andy (Bet you can't guess what country he is from... Australia of course).
We thought we'd start out our time in Berlin with a walking tour so we could get an idea of where we wanted to check out during our time here. We ran into our Australian friends that we met in Edinburgh and saw some historical landmarks including:
• Brandenburg gates
• The Berlin Wall
• Checkpoint Charlie
• The memorial for the murdered Jewish individuals in the holocaust
• Humboldt University, where Einstein and John Lennon studied
• location of Hitler's bunker
• Concert House
• the square of the book burning memorial
• Luftwaffe headquarters
• and, much more!
We finished off our afternoon with some souvenir shopping too of course!
That evening we spent a night out on the town in Berlin.. Which may be another city that never sleeps.
The next morning we woke up bright eyed and bushy-tailed, excited for the arrival of Renee's friend, Lily.
We took Lily on a mini tour and visited the museum located below the holocaust memorial.
We headed to the Wombar once again, but because it had started raining we decided to stay in and chat with our friends from the hostel.
We got up early to check out the flee market. Renee was excited to support two local buskers and purchase their cd.
Got a bit lost on our way back, which meant we got a uber cool tour of some neighbourhoods in Berlin. Next we checked out checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin wall. We were sad to say goodbye to Lily, but happy she could make it for the night.
Potsdam was on our list of things to do, so we headed there with our friend Andy for the day. We explored the palaces and gardens. Wouldn't mind having property like this one day.
After lunch in the adorable city centre, we headed back to Berlin. Renee went out exploring and Sarah and Andy checked out White Trash Fast Food Restaurant.
The next day the three of us headed to Sachsenhausen, a former concentration camp, just outside the city. The weather was crazy and really set the mood for the day. As soon as we got off the train the 35 degree weather disappeared and the clouds started forming a spinning vortex. At one point on the tour it started to pour, and Renee found herself and ten other poor individuals, hugging the wall of a building to shield themselves from the wind and hail storm.
It was incredible learning experience and we highly recommend that everyone visits a concentration camp in their life. It really opens your eyes to our past history.
Renee went and explored random parks that afternoon, and found herself caught yet another rain/wind storm.
The next day we did another waking tour, Alternative Berlin, that focuses on local street art and lesser known areas of Berlin. Check this tour out of you find yourself in Berlin.
We cruised by Victoria park for the afternoon to see a waterfall. For the four night in a row, lightening was filling the sky, so we decided not to go out again.
For our last day we walked to the Reichstag, the German parliamentary building, and meandered we through the park beside it. Renee went to the Berlin Wall documentation centre to learn more about it and saw some of the original preserved wall.
We checked out that morning because we were catching a night train to Amsterdam the next day, so we hung out in the hostel lobby for the evening.
We spent the latter half of the evening and wee hours of the morning in a coffee shop inside the train station. We saw many interesting individuals, even woke up to one dude throwing up his hands in a surrender from trying to get near our stuff, but we caught him red handed. Get stuffed bud!
We were happy to find out our train was leaving one hour earlier (and also very thankful to find this out by chance, or else we would still be sitting in Berlin right now.. Although we wouldn't mind having a longer stay there). Off we went to Amsterdam!
Sarah and Renee
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