So Carmen and I wanted to go to Germany but we didn’t have a lot of time or money left at the end of the semester. To save both, we only went for two days. But two days was enough to get in a god dose of Berlin. We got there very late on a Wednesday night. Neither of us speak German but we somehow managed to figure out the trains from the airport. We actually got kicked off the one we were supposed to be taking. Luckily, not all of them stopped running at midnight and the system was really similar to both the Tube and the L. It was also snowing a lot in Germany. But unlike the UK, not everything shut down so we were able to make it to our hostel just fine.
The next day we went out to explore. We found this restaurant and I got a German breakfast (the healthy choice). It had three types of cheese, three types of fruit and three types of meat. Also scrambled eggs and a whole basket of rolls. They know how to eat. One of the meats was raw minced pork. For those of you who know my eating habits you’ll know that I really like raw meat. I know it’s weird but there was no judgment in Germany. I also had a beer with breakfast. Beer and raw meat. Yum.
After that we went to find the Berlin Wall memorial. It was really neat. The area they have it on was originally a graveyard and graves were moved to put up guard towers. They have a bunch of memorials for that and the people that died at the wall. Next to it is what’s left of the graveyard. It’s very eerily pretty.
On our walk from the Berlin Wall, we found a big patch of untouched snow. So of course we had to make snow angels. It was SO cold. I got it down my pants and Carmen found my jumping around just hilarious. Also on our walk we saw so many little German kids in snow suits being pulled on toboggans by their parents. I wanted to die it was so cute.
After that we walked through the main town area a bit and went into some shops. Then we went to the Holocaust memorial. It was night time by then and it was really intense. We walked around amongst the stones for a while. It’s intense the way they rise above you. It was a good experience though. It’s a wonderful memorial.
After that we went back to the hostel for a bit where we met a guy from Louisiana who was traveling by himself. He ended up coming out to dinner with us. We went to this ‘Mexican’ restaurant. It was good food but it was weird seeing the menu for Mexican food all in German. At the end of our meal they gave us tequila shots. I hate tequila and don’t usually drink it but I was peer pressured into it. It’s still as disgusting as I remembered.
After that we went to a pub for a few drinks. As we were walking there we passed about three girls with these really distinctively ugly snow boots. At first I thought it was maybe a fashion trend in Berlin. Until we passed one of them who had a corset on outside of her giant puffy winter coat! It was at this point that I leaned over to the other two and asked “Do you think they’re prostitutes?” At which point Carmen said “Well I didn’t before but now I do.” It was later confirmed by the really nice, English speaking, Australian bar tender that they were in fact prostitutes.
The next day we did some more walking around. We went to the museum part of the memorial which was shut the night before. It was a little depressing but I’m glad I went. After that we walked around the American sector. Then we found a Christmas market! I had the best German bratwurst of my life! By the time Carmen got to take a picture I only had a bite left. It was SO good. That market was a little dead so we walked to another one. This one was much bigger. There I bought a couple of presents and ate a schnitzel. Again, delicious! After that we found pub to wait in until we had to go back the airport. I got traditional German beer and Carmen, of course, got hot chocolate.
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