When we stepped off the intercity train in Berlin, it was as if we were at an airport. And not just any airport- it looked like an airport out of an architecture magazine or something. Our first 20 euro were spent on a 48 hour train pass that we could use on the S-bauhn, U-bauhn and whatever other bauhn there was. We were immediately impressed with the warmer temperature in Berlin and decided that we could- for the first time in a week- take off our leggings that we wore under our jeans. After finding our hotel...I mean hostel (which I received a 6 out of 10 on due to the fact that it smelled like smoke everywhere, but location-wise was ideal) we made our way to the east side of the city visiting the East Side Gallery which is a 2km mural of politically and socially inspired paintings. The murals definitely sparked an array of interesting topics that our group of friends has probably never really discussed.
We also got to try our first weiner schnitzle and German sausage with potatoes which we were all stoked about at a local restaurant in Friednrishnitzlewitzle. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the name of the street or restaurant, but German for me is absolutely impossible to pronounce- believe me I tried mannnnyyy times and all the words just ended up sounding like 'schnitzle' so the girls decided that I should probably be the last one to attempt to speak the language. Later that night we grabbed some German beer, but some of us decided that the Czech beer we tried was a bit better (do I hear another Eurotrip coming along to Prague? hahaha). When we were going back to our HOsTEL (that's for you Jill), we noticed that everyone was walking around with beers in their hands, so since we were trying to fit in and look like locals, we decided to grab a few 1 euro roadies. I'm sure that we still didn't look local due to the fact that we still had a map in our hands and were looking around to make sure roadies were in fact legal. After a quick kebab (with feta cheese might I add- amazzinggggg) we hit the hay and woke up at the butt crack of dawn the next morning to get ready for a tour filled day.
Our original plan was to do a tour bus of Berlin, but then Jill found an awesome walking tour that only cost 10 euro and started right in front of our HOsTEL. Our tour guide was a born and raised New Yorker who did his undergrad at NYU and grad school at Columbia for architecture and moved to Berlin two years ago. He explained to us that not only were living costs in Berlin a lot less expensive, the lifestyle was a lot more up-and-coming versus the overrated NYC (his words, not mine). He works as an architect during the week and does tours on the weekends to help pay off his student loans from college (surprised right?). When he said that, we all just looked at each other understanding EXACTLY what he was talking about. To say the least, he took us ALLLLLLLL around Berlin and explained to us everything about the history and architecture of the buildings we passed by. He was probably the most informative and knowledgable tour guide I had ever had. Our tour even ran 1.5 hours longer than expected. We ended the tour at Brandenburg Gate where we were fortunate enough to not only see a beer bicycle, but also a man proposing to his girlfriend which we were so excited about. Next, we attempted to go into a museum, but 12 euro a person was not something we were prepared to spend, so a quick stop in our room to change and a LONGGGGG walk to find a restaurant that our tour guide recommended were our next order of business.
When we asked our tour guide for a good place to eat if we only had 15 euro a person, he immediately said Spatzneazle (or something like that) because "you get a huge amount of food for cheap" which sold us on the spot. It turns out that the restaurant was a very local place where people from the neighborhood stopped by to grab a bite to eat. What we thought was very interesting, but amazing was the following: when a couple was sitting at a table for four, they would move to one side of the table and let another random couple sit at their table when the restaurant was full. It was very different than anything we're used to, but we thought it was very cool. Later that night, we packed up our bags because the girls all had flights at 10am and I had a train back to Poznan at 9:30am. After one last kebab from the place under our HOsTEL, we went back up to the room for our last night of the best Eurotrip there has ever been. Although we all expected to stay up late, little Jilly was the first one to pass out making her an easy target for the classic, "Jill you woke up in the middle of the night and ate the rest of the kebab which is still hanging out of your mouth" trick. She obviously didn't think it was as funny as we did, but it was a very well planned out scenario. The following morning, everyone got ready and we made our way to the train station. I was very nervous for the goodbye, but we did VERY well. There were no tears! Honest to God! Nobody cried! Well that is expect for Lauren the whole plane ride back to New York, but honestly, who looks at vacation pictures and watches two sad movies?! Not a good idea. Overall, our trip was beyond a success- we laughed, we cried, we ate like pigs, we walked hundreds of miles and we talked about a million things. It was exactly what all of us needed and it definitely rejuvenated everyone.
One last sappy thing and I promise that will be all. I am so fortunate to have such amazing friends. I mean honestly, which one of your friends would travel halfway across the world just to spend ten days with you? I love you girls to the moon and back.
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