It's Berlin Baby

We arrived in Berlin Thursday night at about 6:00, this train ride was a lot smoother than the last few we have taken. Getting to the hostel was much easier too. First stop was this local pizza place that was delicious and cheap. It seems very popular because it had a plethora of American bands sign their wall, probably after concerts. So after that, we went back to the hostel and hung out in the lounge area where we met the 2 Australian girls. Australian's here all have the same story...they are backpacking for about 6 months then they plan to go back to work and do the same thing over and over. The hostel was selling beers for 1.50 euro...and they were 16oz...so we couldn't afford not to drink. We know a deal when we see one. The Aussie's taught us how to skull beers and we taught them how to play a bunch of drinking games with playing cards.

That next morning we woke up for the free tour. Once again, it was an amazing tour enriched with a ton of information that we were never taught in high school. We saw the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitlers Bunker (where he killed himself), the Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburg gate, Humboldt University (where Einstein used to teach and the notorious book burning took place) and a ton of other stuff. We had to change hostels for the next two nights so we brought our stuff over there before we went to get dinner. For dinner we had a German meal called "schnitzel." It was muy bueno. Similar to chicken parm, but with scallop potatoes on the side.

Next morning we went to a concentration camp called "Sachsenhausen" This is something everyone needs to visit at some point. One thing we didn't know was concentration camps differ from death camps. Although thousands died at this camp, it wasn't near as much as Auscwitz (a death camp). This tour guide was telling us that there are many concentration camp deniers that believe that this was propaganda and over exagerated. The tour was very infromative and it was interesting that at this camp it was not only jews that were persacuted, but communists, foreign nationals, homosexuals and Roma (Gypsies).

That night our 4 roommates from London convinced us to go to this club in Berlin that is very popular called Watergate. We went to the bar on top of the hostel first which was really cool. You can see a skyline view of Berlin out on this patio/rooftop lounge. So when we go to this "watergate" club we figured out it was was a techno club. The songs consisted of three beats: bass, a loud ticking noise, and a bird tweet. Wasn't exactly our scene but it was a funny experience. The cool thing about this club was that it was on the river so there was a lounge outside on the water. We had great company too with our roommates. Really good kids and hilarious to say the least.

This is a picture of us next to a piece of the Berlin wall. Ironically it is now surrounded by a gate so people don't take pieces of it home.

Thanks
Clint & Stephen