BERLIN.

So, this weekend I went to Berlin with a bunch of the other study abroad kids, (the Erasmus kids) and it was quite grande! On the first night, we checked into our hostel and went and had pizza as a group at an Italian restaurant. Funny enough, these people haven't taken us to a German restaurant, always restaurants from other cultures.... There is a tiny bar in the bottom of the hostel, so that was alright. Although I have to say, the hostel had the UGLIEST colour scheme I have ever seen in my life. It was like bright blue and yellow and orange and it hurt mein eyes. But that's besides the point.

The next day, we went on a walking tour with this British dude, and that was amazing! It was also really warm there, much to my pleasure. I'm talking like 20 degrees here! Lovely. We went and saw the famous Berlin gate, and many of the old buildings in Berlin. Most of them, as I learned, were bombed and destroyed in the wars though, so the city is working on rebuilding them. Which made me think also of Hamburg, which was also mostly bombed in the wars, but you cannot tell at all, as the city has been entirely rebuilt in only a matter of year, it's quite amazing really.

Anywho, we also saw the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is quite a brilliant piece. It is just giant stone slabs of varying sizes, but they get taller and taller in towards the middle and shorter on the sides. You don't realize how tall they are until you are walking through the middle and you can't see around the corners and over top of the slabs. It's quite quiet and eerie in there and I love it a lot! Like I said, quite a genius design for the memorial of such things.

We also saw the remnants of the Berlin wall, which was also very fascinating. Little did I know, that the Berlin wall was actually quite a violent event, it wasn't just a wall put up in the middle of Berlin. Well, it WAS but it was much more than that. Thousands of people died trying to get over it, as they just shoot you and kill you on sight if you try. What a hard life. Jeez. After the walking tour, we just kind of walked around and saw some local concert type life on the canals. 

We went to the DDR museum on the last day, which, sadly, is not a museum about Dance Dance Revolution. It' about living a daily life in communist Germany, which could have been interesting, but I found the museum quite dull.

There are a lot of things that I didn't get to see in Berlin, that I wanted to, but didn't have time to, so I'm sure I'll take a trip back there in the future!

My roomate and I at the Berlin west gate!

The Memorial of the Murdered Jews in Europe

The spot where Hitler was burned

Berlin Wall.

Berlin Wall