Now, back to the blog.
Steve and I went to sleep around 9pm local time, figuring we'd get up early, go back to the wonder-maze in the brisk morning mist, stop by the supermarket for breakfast, and start the day on a well-rested, enthusiastic note.
So naturally, Steve and I woke up at two o'clock in the morning. And couldn't go back to sleep FOR HOURS. (Which is why you all got that last blog!) I eventually went back to sleep around 5am--took a nap really--and woke up to Steve doing yoga around 7am. And I felt bad about not getting out of bed until about 8am because I felt like I was wasting precious vacation time (because the next four months will not be enough).
However, Steve and I went on a NewEurope free walking tour of Berlin, so I felt less bad because we were going to see a bunch of Berlin's major sights.
The tour started at the Brandenburg Gate at 11am. Steve and I left at around 10:30am, figuring it might take us a while to get there.... It probably took us less than ten minutes. I knew the Brandenburg Gate was close by when I found us this apartment to stay in, but I didn't know it was two or three short blocks close.
Our tour guide was an Australian guy who had been living in Berlin for a couple years, and for the next 3.5 hours he entertained us with all kinds of Berlin history. And I'm sure every knows that Berlin has a LOT of history. It was just something different to hear all this information while we're looking at all these sights. Otherwise it would've been like "Oh, Checkpoint Charlie. That's the checkpoint between East and West Berlin back in the day. Cool. The End." Instead, our tour guide regaled us with stories of how people escaped out of East Germany and how the Soviets would study the escapes and improve the Berlin Wall and its security accordingly.
Probably the most exciting, unexpected thing that happened on the tour was when the tour guide pointed to a small group of apartment buildings that apparently the high-ranking SS officers and, later, a bunch of famous Germans, lived in.... IT WAS OUR APARTMENT BUILDING! We're staying in the former home of SS officers and gold medal Olympists and diplomats and the like! Who knew that this little apartment full of IKEA furniture once housed Nazi super-soldiers. We certainly didn't.
I know I've already mentioned this a little bit, but when I found this apartment, I didn't realize JUST HOW CLOSE it is to everything. The location is prime, and for around only $50 a night! I don't think there is anything that we want to see that is not within walking distance. Our apartment building was in the tour, for crying out loud!
After the tour was over, Steve and I went with our tour guide and some others from the tour to a pub, imaginatively named The Pub. I currently regret not taking a picture of our table, but at the time I was way too distracted by the fact that EACH TABLE HAS ITS OWN SET OF TAPS!!!!! Seriously. Way too cool. The only beer available at these taps is the local Berliner Pilsener, which was fine, and above the tap handles is a screen that shows how many liters your table has poured, and it allows you to separate the bill right there. You can also order food from that screen. Perhaps the most entertaining thing was another screen projected on the wall that shows each table's tally of how many liters of beer you've drank! The tables within The Pub's establishment are encouraged to compete against each other to see who can drink the most beer, and the screen also shows how much people are drinking at other Pub locations all over Europe. We arrived around 3pm, and one of the tables at The Pub in Prague, Czech Republic, was already like 14 liters of beer in. Ridiculous.
We sat with a group of three girls around our age who are doing basically the same thing we are: traveling Europe for a few months before going back home and getting jobs or higher education. They all went to school together at MSU Bozeman, so it was fun to think that, one, we all ended up doing the same thing and wanting similar experiences in life even though we come from very different backgrounds (well, at least Steve... I fit in more with the other girls who all come from small towns), and two, if we were all still in the States, we would probably NEVER run into each other, but somehow we end up meeting in a country thousands of miles from home. They were all fun to talk to while we sat around drinking our beers (seriously, I am not ever going to get over the pour-your-own-beer thing). By the time we left, between the six of us (a friend of theirs who lives in Germany joined us later on) I think we drank about 8 liters of beer (and subsequently got our asses kicked by that table in Prague, who added probably 14 more liters to their tally while we were there) and spent a ton of time talking about traveling Europe.
At the end of that, we all shook hands and gave our best wishes to each other for our travels, and Steve and I walked home the twenty minutes back to our apartment where we promptly fell asleep for the next five hours.
Which is why I'm writing this at 1am CET.
We are never going to get our body clocks adjusted if we keep this cycle up.
Also, this wedge of brie, fresh baguette, yogurt, and chocolate milk (which is what we had for breakfast) cost us less than 3 euro at the market.
I may be eating brie every day for the entire duration of this trip, at this price. <3
The food looks yummy!
ReplyDeleteLOVE,
mom