Day 4 part 2

(Writing this from Prague. I LOVE it here. It's the most perfect place! But anyways, back to day 4...)

Here are some more sights from the walking tour:

The Brandenburg Gate. This gate survived WW2. It's Berlin's most beloved structure. It's super old (built in the 1730s).



Here's a rare picture of me. It's rare because if I want a picture of myself, I have to ask someone else to take it of me which can be a bit embarassing. So, I can't be picky about the way I look in pictures.




We stood by the Adlon Hotel where I got a better picture of it. If you haven't already guessed, this is the answer to the Pop Quiz from a couple days ago. The Hotel Adlon is where Michael Jackson dangled his baby over the belcony. Supposedly it was from a room on side of the hotel.



Then we went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I thought this memorial was super interesting. The architect, Peter Eisenman didn't give us much clues as to the meaning of this memorial. We are able to interpret it however we want. On the outside, the blocks are short and scattared. As we walk down the rows, the blocks grow taller and more structured. It creates a sense of isolation because, even though I was in the heart of the monument with over 30 other tour members, I could only see quick glimpses of them as they too made their way across.





From there, we visited the site of Hitler's Bunker, which is now just a parking lot for some apartments.



Then, we saw the last (or one of the last) Nazi building's still standing. Today, it's used as some office building, but it is often used in Nazi movies like Valkyrie. Our tour guide told a funny story. I guess a few years ago, he was leading a tour on filming day for the movie Valkryie. For the movie, they had to transform the building to make it look the way it did during the Third Reich. They hung huge red flags with swastika's on them. He said he was leading the tour, turned the corner, saw all the flags, then saw the mouths drop and eyes widen on the faces of all the tour members. They thought it was real, but of course, it was just Hollywood.



After that, we were free to do our own thing. I was happy to break away from the group and do some exploring on my own. I walked down a street that had malls and lots of shopping. I didn't buy anything.

I eventually made my way back to Museum Island. I decided to give another museum a try. I usually love museums, so it was weird that I didn't like the one I went to the day before. This time, I had an audioguide so I was able to learn something and understand exactly what it was I was looking at.

The Alte Museum (Old Museum) had lots of Greek, Rome and Etruscan stuff.







A hermaphrodite... Where I finally realized why the word is "hermaphrodite" (Hermes+Aphrodite).


I saw two statues with dogs, but I think this one looks like Roxie.


Juilius Caesar and Cleopatra




After the museum, I bought a sandwich. It was pretty good, except the bread here is super tough! But I liked the sandwich because it had butter and cheese inside! I don't know why I've never thought of doing that! Yummm calories!



I ate my sandwich on the way home. Surprisingly, I found my way home using the U-bahn fairly quickly.

I'm getting more comfortable speaking German words to get help (hello, good morning, please, thank you, and water no gas). One thing is, many German's speak some English but if you don't approach them using German, they generally won't be very helpful. They'll just start speaking to you in German and act all annoyed. So basically, all I have to do is say hello and please in German and they'll feel more comfortable speaking to me in English. Realizing this has helped so much.

Before I went home, I bought some candies from a grocery store. I went back to my hotel, dropped off my stuff and then went back out to do more shopping. It was my last opportunity to shop before leaving in the morning and I wanted to pick up a few things to remember my trip.

When I got home, my roomie was about to leave to view the Brandenburg Gate at night. I decided to call it a night. I skyped with JR for a bit then went to bed around 11pm. Ahhhh sleep :)

(oh yeah... same thing about spelling and grammar... i don't care if it's wrong. Oh and some of my facts might be wrong too. Haha. And leave me some comments, I want to know who is reading this!)

Day 3 part 2

I grabbed some chips from Subway for dinner. One of my tourmates said he went to Subway and ordered a sandwich with "Everything, nein (meaning "no" pronounced like the number nine) olives." It sounds funny because to us, it sounds like he wants specifically 9 olives. Our tour manager said, "Don't go to Mc Donalds and order nine chicken nuggets, because you'll end up with none."

Then it was time for me to get on the bus for the Eye Spy Berlin tour. It was okay. We started at a piece of the Berlin Wall. We learned about the death strip aka no-man's-land between the Berlin Wall and another wall. We learned about the Stasi (East German secret police). We walked to the site of Tunnel 57 where 57 East Germans escaped to the West by an underground tunnel.

Then we went to our first bar. We hung out for a hour, but it felt like a lifetime. I got to meet some other tourmates. But we were there for a really long time. Then we were given clues to find our next bar. We had to find an envelope hidden in the alley ways with directions on how to get to our second bar. This is supposed to be similar to how East Berliners planned their escape to the West.





We hung out at the second bar (a soviet theamed bar) for another hour. It was already wayyy past my bedtime, but of course, not wanting to go home alone, I stayed with the group. Our tour guide passed out pretzels to everyone which was great. I love pretzels! Unfortunately, I actually prefer Wetzel's Pretzels over the ones I've had in Germany so far.



Finally, we took a bus to a nightclub, Matrix. They played mostly American music, so that was cool. They played, like, four Nelly songs, 5 Michael Jackson songs, The Macarena, Cotton Eyed Joe, Ice Ice Baby, and every Lady Gaga song. The lively music, lights, and sight of German guys dancing instantly perked me up.

German guys dance different than American guys. First of all, the guys have no problem dancing in a group together (like how American girls usually dance with eachother in a little circle). They're very touchy with each other, often hugging each other (could have been the alcohol). They clap and do lots of jumping. They're not shy at all. Our group formed a dance circle and the German guys would hop in that dance circle as soon and they saw an open space and an audience.

After about an hour, I got tired of holding my purse, two jackets, and camera. One of the other girl's was also tired. I wanted to take a taxi home, but she wanted to wait for 2 more people so we could all split the cost. Ugh! So we waited for about 15 more minutes, but everyone else looked like they had no intention of leaving any time soon. So finally, I just decided to go home alone. But then that girl ended up coming with me. I just paid the 10 euro, and felt like it was totally worth it.

When I got back, I took the third shower of the day (I always feel so dirty whenever I'm in any city). By then, it was probably about 2 am. I chatted with my roomie for a bit, then went outside to skype with JR. Except it took like 30 minutes to finally connect. So we talked for like a few minutes then I went to bed around 3am.

Day 3

I woke up today and suddenly realized I have my mom's credit card with me. It had been with me the whole time, I guess I was too stressed/tired yesterday to think clearly and realize I could use it! So now, no one has to worry about me or feel sorry for me! I've got enough money and whats better is that none of it is mine! Ha!Ha!

We had a breakfast buffet at the hotel. Also, here's a picture of my roomie (left) and a fellow Californian (right).





Then, right after breakfast we boarded the bus and went on a quick drive around town. We just drove by all the popular sights. We did get to stop at the berlin wall for about 15 minutes. I loved all the artwork! There is so much art in public places around this town. Statues, graffiti, paintings, and murals are everywhere! It's so colorful and funky, I love it!









POP quiz.... Does anyone know what happened in 2002 at this posh Berlin hotel?



Then, we took a 30 minute drive out of the city to visit Sachsenhausen (don't ask me to pronounce that word!) I'll make my next post solely on that memorial/museum.

After Sachsenhausen, we drove back into the city where we were dropped off and free to do our own thing. The bad thing about this tour is that the tour manager really pressures us to get to know other people and spend time with others. It's hard for introverted people like myself. I was already craving "alone time" so I wandered off by myself and checked out the Pergamom Museum. I have a ton of pictures of I-don't-know-what. I think it's like ancient artifacts excavated from like... babylon or something.







There were a lot of huge reconstructions and actual pieces (I think) from ancient-wherever. But what I found most interesting were the little things. I liked the jewelry, the little statues of animals, the beads, the pots etc.

After the Pergamom Museum I decided to try to make it back to my hotel. It took me a long time again. Ugh. But I got back to my hotel and now I'm just relaxing, catching up, and uploading pics. My roomie is still out, so it's really nice and quiet.

Tonight, we're going to do a walking tour. It's mainly just going from bar to bar to dance club which I'm not even interested in. I'd rather just relax, but I felt pressured to sign up and I already paid for it, so I'm going. We're supposed to eat dinner before we go out, but I'm too tired to do that :(