Berlin

Pictures from the top: Me in front of the Holocaust Memorial, Hotel Adlon (where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window), my roommate and I in front of Brandenburg Gate, The Berlin Wall, and above Hitler's Bunker. (They didn't want to build any sort of memorial for him, so it's literally a patch of grass where people let their dogs go to the bathroom and this sign.)

I went to Berlin last weekend with a couple of friends. It was a five hour train ride. When we got there, we took a tour and saw a lot of the landmarks. I saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, the Parliament building, the Berlin wall, and check point charlie to name a few. It was incredibly cold, but it was a very informative tour. I saw immediate differences between Prague and Berlin. Most of the buildings of Berlin are relatively new, because they had been destroyed in WWII. There were often bullet holes and pieces missing from buildings because of explosives going off in close proximity. 

I was surprised to see how little the Berlin wall was. It looked like you could easily hop over it. An interesting fact that I learned from the tour is that once the wall came down, commodities were quickly introduced to east Germany. Today one of the only ways to distinguish whether you're in east or west Berlin is the pedestrian traffic light signal. East Berlin has the Ampelmann. He is way better than a stick figure man walking. He has a hat on, and he is striding. The do not walk sign is the Ampelmann standing with his arms out. Ampelmann is huge there. They have an entire store dedicated to it,  where you can buy anything from t-shirts to Ampelmann pasta. 

Our hostel was very nice as far as hostels go. It was very convenient by a metro stop, and had free internet in the lobby. A continental breakfast was provided with rolls, ham, cheese, and coffee. I am a big fan of the German pastries. Almost every corner had a pastry shop with great selection of freshly baked treats. They were delicious.