Berlin: Day One

Day one:

Having checked into the Hostel after hours of waiting with the sun beating on our backs, we ascended the stairs, and by ascended the stairs, I mean we took the elevator to the top floor, realized we still had to walk up a flight of stairs, sobbed softly, and then entered the rooftop terrace. This terrace boasted a blow up swimming pool that brought back a swarm of childhood memories centered around splashing other people mercilessly. However, being the grown-up, mature woman I am, I simply stood in the pool, looked around, and basked in the glory of cool water on my feet. I took pictures of the view, which was fairly nice. We could see a church, an Opera house, and another pretty building that I never found, but have a picture of. 

Then there was an afternoon nap because for some bizarre reason, being on a train for 8 hours and sleeping most of that time somehow makes me more tired. Then I embarked on a nighttime journey of Berlin. It started at the Brandenburger Tor. If you go at night, there are far fewer people, but its harder to get a good picture (at least with my camera). It is beautiful and breathtaking and it is also the start for many tours from the tour buses (hop on hop off buses cost about 10Euro per day, and is definitely worth it, as there is also a tour guide giving commentary on each site we stop at or drive by) to the bike tours to the bier-bike tours (this consists of a vehicle with a bar on top of it that people can sit at and whilst they pedal, the drink beer and listen to the guide talk about the locations, while slowly losing focus for some unexplained reason…

After the Brandenburg Gate, we went to the Holocaust Memorial. It was really powerful and especially interesting to see how people interacted with the stones, from people sitting on them to running across the tops of them to people walking slowly through them, absorbing their interpretation of their meaning. It was a great experience, as the dark night sky set a different mood than the daylight I would see the memorial in a few days later. However, a few guys decided it would be oh-so-funny to jump out at us and scream “Boo” as we wandered through it. We left, slightly creeped out and slightly frustrated. So ended day one in Berlin.