Ich bin ein berliner

Guten Tag!

I am in the incredible city of Berlin right now, and am absolutely in awe. I am sitting in the main room of the circus hostel, surrounded by music and culture and lots and lots of beer. The hostel is great, save for a reeeeeeallly creepy guy in my dorm who is from panama and NOT cool. The hostel itself is amazing, I paid for 4 nights. When I wrote last, I was about to head to the Kinderdijk with Sar. It was great! We went through the dutch countryside and it was lovely. Windmills were really cool to see, we bought an ice cream and wandered. I got the WORST blisters of my life on Monday, worst ever. It was just awful, I couldn't walk at all! We went out for mexican food, random I know, but it was delicious and then we headed to Rotown, where we watched Rogue Wave play live. This was a great venue and a great live band. They started the show by randomly starting to play acoustic guitar in the bar, harmonizing and singing, and then stormed the stage and started playing. Lots of dutch hipsters, but not many spoke english. Next day I was heading to Cologne, so I went to get my rail pass validated at Rotterdam Centraal. I was waiting in line, (knowing full well my train left in a half an hour) and went up to the ticket lady. She checked my rail pass and had to write in the expiry date, only that she wrote in the WRONG FREAKING DATE! Next thing I know, she says I have to go to AMSTERDAM SCHIPOL AIRPORT where they have a eurail pass office and get a new pass because this one was no good. I immediately started to meltdown and told her I had to leave to germany in 15 minutes. No matter....she gave me a ticket to Schipol airport (first class high speed train) and some coffee vouchers. She felt SO awful, but there was nothing to be done. I ran crying through hourdes of people in the train station, carrying my big backpack and trying to make it to my platform. I'm sure many people in the train station felt pretty bad to see a travelling girl alone and so sad. I got on the train and eventually relaxed. I got to Schipol airport and waited, got the new pass, and waited for a different train leaving from Amsterdam. I hopped on and talked to a lesbian couple on the train to Cologne. They were heading to Sardinia, and I had a GREAT conversation with these women. I got into Köln Dom Hautbahnhof, and freaked out. The Dom was right outside the station. WOW! I found my hostel, and went to my room and showered. It felt so great after such a rough day. Plus they had TVs in the room so I watched a little german television. I went down to the kitchen and met a couple who had cooked a dinner. They invited me to join them and we ate pasta, steak, and red wine. Then we went out to find some Kölsch beer (famous in Köln) and we did. For 1EURO! yaaays. Earlier in the day I realized that a german highschool had taken over the hostel as they were on a field trip. All the german boys were so cute and sneaking drinks, and because I had a dorm room right next to them, they were playing high school games and knocking on the walls. It was pretty cute until I wanted to sleep. Woke up early next morning and the italian girls in the room had already left at 6am. So I got my things together and went to the Dom Cathedral. It was beyond words how big this thing was. I climbed the 509 steps to the top and looked upon Köln from the view of the south tower. Listened to some organ music and wandered within, finally deciding I better go to Berlin. Hopped on the train, and ended up at Berlin Hautbahnhof. This station was the most impressive I have ever seen. Got to the circus hostel, met some people and immediately went on a pub crawl. It was a hilarious and fun night, full of apfelshnapps, and absinthe. We went to 5 bars. The second one we went to was in an abandoned industrial building, it was full of art galleries, graffiti, and bars with views looking out over berlin. That is one thing about Berlin. Every square inch of space is covered in grafitti! It was a fun night and a good start to Berlin. Today me and my new friends went on a free walking tour of berlin. It was eye opening and I was even brought to tears when I walked through the memorial to the Murdered Jews. It was 4 hours long, and we went mostly through East Berlin obviously. I learned the history of the wall and of the soviet, british, and french influences in Germany. We walked past Humboldt university and the library square where they burned hundreds of thousands of books, Secret police headquarters and torture areas, checkpoint charlie and the largest surviving piece of the wall. Walked past the berliner dome, and I SAT right where hitler held his speeches in the square there. Of course, it is not decorated by swastikas anymore. It was surreal, Berlin is a city where the history is real, right in front of you. Shrapnel and bomb damage can still be seen in many buildings, bullet holes and reminders of the sordid past of it's people. I STOOD right where Hitler and Ava killed shot themselves in Hitler's old bunker (now just a patch of grass...it was bombed and bombed and bombed after the war to get rid of any trace of Hitler). Surreal. Walked past Nazi headquarters and to the Brandenburg gate. Walked to the Reichstag but didn't go in. Line was much too long! Tomorrow I will go there. The glass dome on top was opened not that that that long ago, and it was built so that the german people know what their government is up to at all times. Apparently it is an amazing view of Berlin, as well as the floor is glass so you can LITERALLY see what the government is doing...important now for Berliners. Seriously, I am so in love with the culture, style, and way of life of the Berliners, that I may never leave this city. I could live here. I wish I had someone I really know to share my excitment of this city with, but I am still having a great time. I am off to Krakow Sunday night I think, and I want to go the the Berlin Zoo tomorrow to see Knut, the polar bear (you all know about Knut, right!?) I was hoping this internet place would have USB ports so I could upload some pics, but the computer hubs are hidden in this place too! dangit. Soon enough, anyway. I am supposed to meet some people downstairs and they are probably well on their waý to having a good time since I häve been writing this, so I better go. But I will probably update once more before I leave Berlin......IF I ever leave Berlin. Much Love <3