Berlin

(written by Troy) "The trip to the airport was not too bad, but the signage for the RER is not as clear as the metro. With some help from some helpful and friendly Parisians, we were directed onto the right train, destined for the Orly Airport.

Easy jet is very cheap, but is it worth the pain of being constantly in a "line"? The check in desk was not open when we arrived but people formed a line before the line. We ignored it. When boarding, you need to be in the front of the line, to get seats together on the plane. Why don't they just assign seats? But the flight was ok, and we arrived on time.

The ticket machine was a little confusing at the Berlin airport, and we got several single use tickets instead of a day pass. But I think it worked to our favor in the long run.

The train ride, was a bit confusing, and the train compartment we were in was LOUD, and obnoxious. About 10 guys got on the train, from Russia, all drunk, and with large bottles of brew in hand. They talked loud, they laughed loud, and some of them even fell asleep, once the train began to move. We felt a bit unsafe in the beginning, but one of them started talked to us, and we found them obnoxious, but harmless. Nearing their stop, one guy, started to wake his sleeping comrades. One of them was completely passed out. He pulled him, off his seat, onto the floor. You can imagine how that went over. In addition, when that guy was sleeping, a German man, boarding the train walked by, and you can imagine the disgust, when he saw this guys dirty feet, on a train seat. Europeans are very protective of their trains, and get quite angry, when people put their feet on the seats.


We found our new home at the Schoenhouse Apartments without incident. And what a wonderful home it was for 3 days. Walking through the cafe into the court yard, and around the corner, was the entrance to our building. Upon opening the door I could immediately detect the scent of a typical German home.

Down the hall and to the right was our apartment which had a relaxing living room (with a TV, that had only BBC News, and CNBC in English, along with MTV Europe, and Spanish game shows), a cute kitchenette and table and our big cozy bed with huge German pillows, and separate duvets for each of us!

After settling in, we ventured into our neighborhood, and sat outside on some long benches at a restaurant for a typical German dinner. (Schnitzel and such). On the way back home we stumbled upon Extra Foods, to stock our kitchen.

German Grocery Highlights:
~Wine as cheap or cheaper than Fanta.
~Sandwich meat, made to look like a Bear.
~Tons of selection in a very small space.

The rest of the evening was spent hand washing our laundry, playing cards, and munching on chips and gummy bears, and of course Fanta (sipping, not munching).

The next day started with a visit to Checkpoint Charlie. After some initial confusion about lineups, entrances, and lockers for the day pack, we were able to check out the museum. I forgot how many crazy schemes people came up with to flee East Berlin. Shara graciously put up with my attempted history lessons.

A short walk down the street and we were tempted by a balloon ride above the city. The view was fantastic, and helpful for orientation. Around another corner, was a long segment of the original Berlin Wall, still standing, and the topography of terror. It probably would have been very educational, but our feet were much too tired to linger, maybe next time.

A few blocks down the street landed us at Potsdamer Platz. Lunch was downstairs, and my donair was big enough for 2, so I shared with Shara, who had a small German Pizza. For dessert we went upstairs, and each ordered Monstrous Gelato Creations. We probably should have shared one.

Trying to make our way to the Brandenburg Gate we were halted by a huge parade of hockey players. Someone tried to cross the street in the middle of the LONG parade, and was harshly reprimanded by the police officer(he yelled at the top of his lungs at him). Continuing onto the gate, we came across an odd, but interesting monument to the holocaust. Cement blocks of various sizes were arranged in rows, each apparently representing a people group, affected by the holocaust. We got this information from another tourist who was admiring the memorial, but he spoke very little, and broken English.

At the gate we found our excited hockey friends again. Shara asked a fan, who was more than happy to tell us that the team had just recently won the German championship.

The Reichstag had line-ups that felt 10X longer than they really were because of our weary feet. The view from the top was worth standing in line for an hour.

While wandering towards home, we thought of taking a boat ride, but the stupid ticket lady kept ignoring us. Grrrrr.

The evening was capped off with foot rubs, a German snack, and a wine bottle, impossibly difficult to open, reading, and some soccer on the tele.

Friday started late, after some much needed rest. We were still Jet Lagging. The First stop was the east side gallery. I tried to imagine that the wall was the only thing separating me from oppressive regime.

The U-Bahn took us next, to the Ku'Damm. The subways are nice enough in Berlin (and often overground), but nobody seems to be able to top the system and security in Paris. To save our tired feet, and maximize sightseeing, we took a double decker sight-seeing bus around the city. We had the back bench all to ourselves, almost the entire back of the bus to be exact. We took lots of photo's, and enjoyed seeing a good portion of the city. It was also raining just a little, so it also kept us dry.

After the bus ride, we made our way to KaDeWe and quickly found the restaurant on the top floor. Having learned NOTHING about sharing large portions, we both had both more than we could eat, but it was yummy. We did a little shopping in the department store, and could not resist getting a German copy of "Settlers of Catan" and shipping it home.

Our feet were tired and we had an early morning the next day, so we went home to do some packing. And then back to Potsdamer Platz to see the U2 3D show. What a great movie. I often felt I should be applauding, (and some audience members did) or that the person ahead of me should sit down (it was actually audience members from the film). "Pride" and "Streets" gave me shivers.

Random Thoughts:
~I love the walk/don't walk guys in Berlin, they are also handy for figuring out which half of the city you were in, as those particular ones, are only found in East Berlin.
~I feel so proud when I can communicate "auf deutsch". One guy at the DB info place, could speak no English, but we both got the message across ok.