Day 8: Berlin

Today was our first day to sleep in! What a refreshing feeling to finally just wake up when our eyes open. That happened around 11am, so we got to our feet and took off for day 3. Our first stop was Schloss Charlottenburg. A huge, gorgeous castle from the 1700s, it was made for Prussia's first Queen, Sophie Charlotte. There are huge gardens in the back that were very innovative for her time and almost everything has been remodeled after damage in WW2 to make it appear as it did in Sophie's time. Walking through the gardens was really peaceful and Brandon got to use his sweet camera to take some artsy pictures.

After the Castle, which was pretty far southwest of town, we came back into the center and saw the Topograhie of Terror, the previous grounds of the Nazi Secret Police, happening to run right next to a remaining chunk of the Berlin Wall (an implement of the later Communist era). The juxtaposition of the two distinct--yet in many ways similar--dictatorships was striking. We were hard pressed to find something cheap and unique for dinner, but since we were starving, we ended up at a Pizza Hut. It was well advertised, so I guess that's what happens. It filled us for the rest of the day as we made our way to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. As you approach, you can see large gray stones that are set up in perfect lines, varying in size from ankle high at the entrance to more than 10 feet tall in the middle. The ground slopes in addition to an independent impression of slope from the height of the stones. As one walks between the stones, people on alternate paths flicker past your view, a reminder of the fleeting nature of life. There are many other significant aspects of this unique memorial which was a somber, humbling exhibit to experience.

That was all we had on the schedule for the day, so we stopped by a Starbucks to see if the internet could give us more suggestions. (They also had Frappucino Happy Hour so we got some drinks for 50% off!) We saw that Beyonce was playing in Berlin, but decided we probably weren't fans enough to even bother checking on tickets. But we did make our way out to the east side of the city and saw o2 World, the venue where she was at, since it happened to be right across from the East Side Gallery, a long stretch of the Berlin Wall which remains standing. Original art and new citizen art adorns the wall, making it a sort of art museum and very cool to see. We even got to leave our mark.

Now pretty far East, we came back to the center and watched a bit of the large crowd around Brandenburger Tor, assembled for the Firmenlauf (Business Run) before returning back to the hostel around 9. We watched some Big Bang Theory to remind us of home and fell asleep.