european vacation part 1: berlin

I really don't know how to begin writing about the past two weeks...so I'm going to do it in the most organized fashion-by country. I'd rather just bullet a few things but I'm sure that won't satisfy your voracious curiosities.

So after an overnight train from Paris Gare-Est to Berlin HBF Tricia and I hopped on the S-Bahn to our hostel...weirdest place ever. Called Generator hostel. Theme colors blue, lime green, silver. Eurotrash. But it was a surprisingly nice hostel with free breakfast and terrible watered down Tang.



Berlin was one of my favorite cities because of the history-90% of the city was destroyed in WWII so almost everything there is new, which is so different from the rest of Europe. Berliners sort of have a 'tude that matches their history (meaning what? I don't know. but I liked it.)

I enjoyed my fair share of bratwurst, currywurst, and various other wursts there...as well as Berliner (?) the local brew. Basically PBR.

Another favorite part of Berlin was Oranienburger Straße where we found this old building that had been converted into a bunch of artist's studios. Behind the building were a couple of makeshift bars, big sculptures and lots of sand. Old box trucks converted into studios and hang-outs. Quite possibly the coolest/weirdest thing I've ever seen. The building itself was filled with trash and the walls were covered in years worth of graffiti. There were strange characters in corners of the building, including a man in a Jordan jersey (Wizards, not Bulls...?) who mumbled incoherently at us. Artists working in their studios, and confused tourists like us also populated the space.






Other notable sites:

the Berlin Wall...kind of anticlimactic, and encased in fencing.

the Reichstag-Parliament meets here, and the building was burned down (allegedly by a communist...this instigated the banning of the Communist Party in Berlin) and rebuilt in 1999. There's a cool dome on top that was added so the people could "see democracy" and so that there were no walls between the government and the people...very poetic.



book burning memorial-located at the place where Hitler ordered the burning of around 20,000 books. The memorial is a set of bookshelves below ground that supposedly can hold these 20,000 books. Now as a reparation Humboldt University (the University located there...Einstein "thought" here...Karl Marx too) and the Gov't holds a book sale at this spot daily.

Overall, Berlin was a nice break from Paris...the people aren't well-dressed or pretentious, the weather was awesome, and it was nice to be in a "modern" city.