We got a fairly early start and headed to the Reichstag since crowds are much shorter early in the day.
The Reichstag is a really beautiful building where the German legislature meets. It was burnt down during Hitler's rise to power, but was rebuilt and has an awesome glass sphere at the top that you can walk through. It's meant to symbolize a new era of transparency in German politics and a unified Germany.
The Reichstag is a really beautiful building where the German legislature meets. It was burnt down during Hitler's rise to power, but was rebuilt and has an awesome glass sphere at the top that you can walk through. It's meant to symbolize a new era of transparency in German politics and a unified Germany.
We were handed free audio guides as we went up into the big glass sphere.
It's a fairly high building and there's great views of all of Berlin as you circle higher and higher up the sphere, eventually walking out onto the roof.
The audio guide pointed out all of the famous buildings as you walked along.
It's a fairly high building and there's great views of all of Berlin as you circle higher and higher up the sphere, eventually walking out onto the roof.
The audio guide pointed out all of the famous buildings as you walked along.
We spent an hour or two there, then we headed for the Holocaust Museum, which was located underneath the memorial with the big stones (see Berlin Day 1). It was a really well made museum (it's hard to say things like "I really enjoyed the Holocaust Museum!"), and it was very affecting, especially since it was in the heart of Berlin. I always end up crying a little bit when I go into museums like that. It's just so hard to imagine.
Then came a nice walk through the Tiergarten, where we stumbled upon Awesome Berlin Playground #1.
I think I'm really a six year old at heart sometimes.
We then walked to a church that had been bombed during WWII, and they decided to leave it that way in order for people to get a glimpse of the sheer destruction that occurred.
After going into a department store and trying on fun hats (this is my lovely friend Justine)
We went to the Berlin Zoo!
They had pandas!
And baby elephants!
and...THE BEST PLAYGROUND EVER.
Yes, I spent approximately half the day playing on playgrounds. Don't judge.
We stayed until we were the only ones left at the zoo.
Then we went to a really cool Thai restaurant for diner.
I don't have any pictures of it unfortunately, but that night was one of the most fun nights of spring break. We again met up with Laure's German friend Christian to go out.
He took us to this graffiti-covered alley in East Berlin. We walked through the alley to get to a dingy room with a make-shift ping-pong table and an open courtyard area. We then followed him to a nondescript door on another building, which led into a dance club. Since we came through the "secret" entrance, we were let in for free and the bouncer told us to go tell the man at the front entrance (where people were charged a cover) that we "knew Tiny." We all felt sooo legit.
The atmosphere was really fun, and there were all different kinds of people.
We were exhausted by the time we got back from our hostel, and we caught an early train to Prague the next morning.
Berlin was an amazing city and it's one of my favorite places. It's been through so much: The World Wars, the Cold War and divided Berlin. It's got so much history, but a certain sleek, modern sexiness about it. It's unassuming yet stylish at the same. Being in Germany and in Austria really made me want to learn German (ok, after I master French, first things first!). I used to think German was kind of an ugly language, but I really learned to like it, and I actually found the accent easier than a French accent. Plus, I basically considered myself a German expert after Niki taught me that the "ß" letter (as in Straße, the world for street) is actually pronounced as an "ss." So while the rest of my friends were saying "STRAW-BUH" I was saying "Strasse." haha! Deutsch, here I come?
Love,
Claire
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