Continuing on…
The next day, which was Saturday, Rolf and I headed off to Berlin in his dad’s car. We first picked up a couple of people Rolf knew who were hitching a ride with us because they go to universities in Berlin. The trip itself took about 3 hours or so because we ran into traffic on the Autobahn. Just as it was stopping, we decided to exit and take a back route which would have taken longer than the Autobahn normally would, but was faster because of the traffic conditions. No one really had any idea where we were going, but we eventually ended up back at the Autobahn.
Once we got to Berlin, we dropped off a couple of the others at a bus stop, then went on the Rolf’s ex-girlfriend’s house (her name is Caroline) where we were going to stay. One of her roommates also hitched a ride with us. Once we got there, we hung out for a while, then we went out to explore Berlin. We caught a subway and first went to the Berlin Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market). There we saw an old cathedral that was bombed and very badly damaged during WWII. From there we took a train to the Berliner Dom (the Berliner Cathedral). Before we go to the cathedral though, we made a stop at a famous shopping place in Berlin. I don’t remember what it’s called, but it was interesting. The only shop we went into was the Ampelmann shop, which is a shop that has various trinkets with the green “Walk” man and red “Don’t Walk” man on them that appears at German stop lights in eastern Germany (the figures in western Germany are different).
Afterwards, we went to the Berliner Dome which is a very large cathedral, but very beautiful. Then we walked around for a little while longer and decided to go to a coffee shop for a break. We found one and I got a hot white chocolate. From there we went to the Brandenburger Tor (the famous structure with the 4 columns and the chariot with horses on top). and on the way we stopped so I could get my pictures taken next to a piece of the Berlin wall. Unfortunately, we couldn’t actually got though it because they had it blocked off for a New Year’s concert that was being setup there. Instead, we went around and then went to the German Reichstag (the German parliament building). We would have gone in, but we decided not to because the line to go in was enormous. So instead, I just took some pictures and we left.
By then it was getting dark, so we decided to head back to Caroline’s house. On the way back, we stopped by a video rental shop and rented a movie. We rented a movie called “2 Days in Paris” or something like that (that’s the direct translation of the title in German). After we got back to her house, we sat around for a while and waited until we could go eat. We made reservations at an Italian restaurant and had to wait for the time we made the reservations for. After we went to eat (I had a steak that was excellent by the way), we came back and watched the movie. After the movie, we hung out and watched TV for a while, then went to bed.
The next day we slept in. When we got up, we had breakfast, then headed out again. We didn’t see as much on Sunday, but that was fine because we were all quite tired from being out all day the previous day. The first place we went was to a place called Mauerpark (translated: Wall Park). It was called that because a large piece of the Berlin wall still stands there. The wall itself was on top of a large hill. We were on the east side. Rolf explained to me that 20 years ago you wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere near the wall without getting shot, but that now we could go up and touch it. Of course we had our pictures taken in front of it as well.
Then we left the park and caught a train to a museum. It was a large natural history museum which was actually quite interesting. We spent most of the rest of the day there. By the time we left, it was already mostly dark, so we decided to go back to Caroline’s house. On the way back, we stopped at the video rental place again so she could drop off the movie we had rented the night before. We also stopped at the grocery store so we could get some food for that night. We were going to cook something, but Rolf and I ended up being kicked out of the kitchen and Caroline cooked for us instead. We had pasta with fish. After that, Rolf and I hung around for a little while longer then we left headed back to Rolf’s parents’ house.
To be continued (yet again)…
