Germany

We found out way too late that there's a 7am train from Krakow getting into Berlin at 5pm which would've been a much better experience. Instead, we had another 12-hour-long bus ride that got us in at 2am. It's never a good thing to arrive into a new city late at night. This time the movies on the bus were voiced over by a guy in a monotoned voice... the same guy and th same voice for the ENTIRE movie. The movies were all Martin Lawrence films like Big Mama's House 2 so imagine for yourself what that sounds like. I wish I had a video camera to share the experience.

It was a huge hassle to get the keys to the apartment at 2am, but at least the apartment was nice. In fact, it is by far the nicest place we stayed in during our 2 months in Eastern Europe. The apartment owner, and the website we booked it through, was another matter.

I've been saying this a lot but, I can't believe we're in Berlin! It's another one of those places that I've heard a lot about, but had no plans to visit. Even on this trip it was a last minute decision. I'm glad we came, as Berlin was one of our favorite cities on this trip. It's got great architecture – a mix of beautiful old buildings with sleek, modern ones that look like models in architect offices, and is a nice change of scenery to all the old towns:

One of the Bundestag (Parliament) buildings

Reichstag building, the seat of parliament

Hauptbahnhof, the main train station in Berlin

The famous Brandenburg Gate

Potsdamer Platz at dusk

We rented bikes one day and explored the city (highly recommended). The flat terrain makes it easy to ride around, and there are lots of different areas to explore: hip galleries, trendy shops, laid back bars, government buildings, museums, and a Turkish neighborhood with great food.

Over the past couple of years, urban beaches have become very popular in major European cities such as Paris, Budapest, and Berlin. Here are a couple by Hauptbahnhof (main train station), one of which had a sand sculpture competition:

This is the winning sculpture... I think because the subject matter is global warming:

It was also really cool to see the remnants of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, etc., which I've heard so much about.

It made me realize how little I paid attention to world events when I was younger (not something I'm proud of). For example, I always thought the border between East and West Germany cut through Berlin which is why the Berlin Wall was built to separate East and West Berlin. In fact, West Berlin was actually located inside East Germany, and the Berlin Wall surrounded all of West Berlin. So to get from West Berlin to the rest of West Germany, you had to cross East Germany or fly. The outdoor exhibit by Checkpoint Charlie was really good and tied everything we saw in Eastern Europe together. The only reason this area of democracy existed inside a communist country was because the Allies were adamant about protecting it, and they did it thru diplomacy, not brute force. It also highlighted how complicated foreign relations can be, that it's not as simple as good guys vs. bad guys.

Jean & Ashok in front of parts of the wall (Ashok in front of the famous "The Kiss")

On our last day in Berlin we found out about an event called the “Long Night of Museums”, where a 15 Euro pass gives you access to all the museums plus free rides on the buses & metros from 4pm-2am. It sounds like a lot of time but when you consider the amount of time it takes to get through a museum exhibit it's actually not that long. We went for quantity over quality and hit 5 museums in total. Some of the highlights were: the new garden that was unveiled at the Jewish museum, the DDR museum which shows the typical lives of people who lived in East Germany, and my favorite, the Bauhaus Museum of Design. In fact, I have decided that I like Art Deco. A lot.

Photos of the garden at the Jewish Museum

Finally, here's a funny picture of a store:

Apprently there are quite a few of these Schmuck stores... has something to do with gold & silver.