Ausfahrt!

The German language cracks me up. The words are forever long, and the combinations, when thought of in English terms, are very funny. I did a lot of giggling at Berlin's road signs.

Berlin is not a particularly beautiful city. In fact, I'd challenge anyone to find a building that's been around for more than three years that is graffiti-free. But there is so much to see and do in Berlin. I think we could have easily spent two or three more days there and kept ourselves busy. For this trip, it was Maike, Kamani, and I.

Our hostel was really great, the best we've stayed in. For only $25 a night, we had great rooms with daily cleaning service, a breakfast buffet, free internet, access to nice televisions and DVD players, and ensuite bathrooms. We also met wonderful people there. On our first night, Maike and I were too tired from travel to do much, but we met a couple of very nice Canadian boys who we spent the evening with. We watched The Matrix (which I'd never seen before) and had good conversation with them.

Friday we spent most of the day on a FREE walking tour of the city. The guide told us intriguing stories about the city's history and gave us complete descriptions of each landmark's significance. The history of Berlin is so recent, it all seems very relevant - one can see how their history has shaped their today. That night we were able to go up inside the dome of the Reichstag, the building where the German Parliament meets. The building itself is rather new because a fire most likely set by the Nazis destroyed the old Reichstag. The new building's architecture has some amazing symbolism. Check out this picture. Now, the dome on top is said to represent the transparency of government. The Bundestag's (house of Parliament) meeting room is directly beneath the doom, and has a glass roof. People can walk along the dome in a spiral at all times of day, so when the Bundestag is in session, every time the government representatives look up, they will be reminded of the citizens they are supposed to be representing. In this way, the building creates a sense of accountability to the people, as well.

Saturday morning we went to the Jewish Museum of Berlin, which is also a very unique piece of architecture. It is designed with three axes - the axis of exile, the axis of holocaust, and the axis of continuity. There is also a Garden of Exile, which represents the confusion and disorientation Jews must have felt in their exile, and a dark tower that represents the Jew's inability to escape the Nazi Holocaust. The architecture was even more powerful for me than the exhibits.

In the late afternoon and evening we went to Kurfurstendamm for the city's "Shop 'Til You Drop" night. All of the shops were open until midnight, and I finally found great tennis shoes! Yeah!

Random notes - IT IS SOOOOO COLD IN BERLIN!!! At one point we decided that Maike's brain had frozen...
- Chickenschnitzel is like a giant Chicken McNugget. German Ketchup is sweet ketchup - it tastes like there's a lot of sugar and ginger in it.
-Mexican food is very good in Germany, but Europe doesn't seem to believe in salsa.
-The S-bahn and U-bahn trains are really sketchy. They also smell like giant cigarettes. Yuck.