Day 4: Berlin

After Muenchen we said goodbye to 2 of the girls and took the night train straight to Berlin.



We actually missed our stop at the zoo station so we ended up getting off at Ostbahnhof. We just picked a hostel that was closest to the station in East Berlin



In the lounge of the hostel



Brandenburgertor. After we settled down a little bit we went on this free walking tour of the city by New Berlin Tours (http://www.newberlintours.com/). It's actually pretty good because they're renumerated by tips so you can decide how much you want to pay, and our tour guide was really nice. She's a masters student of history at Humboldt University, and told us lots of interesting stories. Compared to Muenchen, Berlin just seems so dark and ominous and not festive at all. Maybe it's just the weather but I think it's just such a war-torn city with so many scars and burden. And the greyish East Berlin doesn't help either.



Reichstag



the Jewish memorium



Where Hitler's bunker isn't (but was). There no recognizable marker so no Neonazis will come here



One of the last unrenovated buildings with bullet holes from WWII.



Propaganda painting on one of the socialist buildings



The reality: a photo of protesting workers



the remnant of the Berlin wall



checkpoint Charlie



twin cathedral



the theater?



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the library where the Nazis burned books. We couldn't get to the memorial in the center of the square because of the film shooting



a sculpture of one of the Prussian rulers (forgot his name...) Joke: he used to go into battle wearing a red jacket, so his enemy couldn't tell if he was bleeding or not, kind of the same reason why Hitler wore brown pants. :P


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outside of Neue Wache



Neue Wache



Berliner Dom



inside the dome



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the view of the city from on top of the dome



the Fernsehturm



the pedestrian traffice lights from East Berlin



the Spree at museum island



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Altes Museum



the city hall, one of the last buildings from East Berlin, which will be torn down at the end of this year



Unter den Linden



Zeughaus, the Deutsches Historisches Museum



Humboldt Universitaet



inside the university



Reichstag, again



Marie-Elisabeth Lueders Building beside the Reichstag



the Federal Chancellery



inside the glass dome



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on top of the Reichstag|



Zoologischer Garten Bahnhof



Kurfuerstendamm



Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche. One of the towers was destroyed in WWII so they rebuilt a glass tower to replace it. It's the silliest thing I've ever seen...



After an entire day of sightseeing we were hungry again... So we found another cheap restaurant



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We had Nuernberger and Bernem(?) wurst. We really had a lot of wurst in Germany...