I only had three months here in Europe, and I wanted to see it all, so there was no time to dilly-dally in every city. I had spent three nights in Prague, so I took the first train out of there and headed to Berlin. I had high expectations after hearing stories from fellow traveler's and cousins about the architecture and the nightlife of the german capital.
The train wound through the Czech countryside, following a scenic river lined with little villages squished up against the steep valley wall. I sat in a cabin with a man, who talked on his phone in Spanish, and a woman, but they spoke German to each other the whole time, so I assumed they didn't know English. However, when we arrived at Berlin, I asked the man (with hand motions) "This...hauptbahnhof?" hoping he would understand and could signal that this was in fact the main train station. He answered in full English - not even a hint of an accent - letting me know that this was indeed, and wished me a pleasant journey. I felt stupid having talked to him like a baby even though he was fluent in English, but it was his fault for being so good at so many languages and not informing me.
The Berlin train station was a brand new glass building, eight or so floors tall, and a suitable introduction to the buildings that awaited in the city. After enjoying the station and lunch, I came to my next mission: finding the hostel. There had been no directions online, only an address, which I found a bit odd. I took one step out of the station and realized why there had been no directions, my hostel was right there! Easiest location for a hostel yet, RIGHT next to the train station.
I found my room marveled at the great view I had of the Reichstag (the German capitol building) just outside my window.
The next day I headed out into the city with my camera and took pictures of everything. Everything. Maybe I was bored of all the old buildings that Prague had had to offer, but the new style buildings in Berlin immediately took to my liking. I took multiple pictures of everything.
I stepped out of the hostel and walked past the shiny new train station, and along the river to the Reichstag. I went through the Brandenburg Gate, visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, walked up to Potsdamer Platz (Fact: once the largest construction site in Europe), where skyscrapers clustered together and contemporary architecture shone. I walked through the Sony Centre (a giant glass enclosed plaza that is supposed to look like Mount Fuji), and into the Tier Garten. There I got a little lost in the beautiful park, but found my way out by stumbling upon the Victory Column and following the train tracks home.
Berlin had been more than I had expected, and I was a little exhausted from ogling all those beautiful buildings all day (plus I walked like 4000 miles). I met my one roommate, a guy from China who didn't really speak English. We couldn't really carry on a conversation because of that language barrier, so we never did become great friends.
The next day I did some more walking (public transit is for wussies), and went to the Fernsehturm, the communist era telecommunications tower meant to display communism's superiority over democracy. That didn't turn out so well for them did it? Nowadays it serves as a great viewpoint of the city for all the tourists!
It is a really tall tower, so it looked alot closer from my hostel, but turned out to be a decently far ways away. Along the way I found a hair salon, so I went inside for a much-needed haircut. It wasn't until I was seated in the chair that I deciphered some German signs and realized that the Men's salon was across, and this was the Women's salon. "Whatevs" I thought, "I'm sure the hairdresser has cut a dude's hair before." She may have cut a dude's hair before, but she didn't speak English, which made the situation a little more iffy. She also strictly used the metric system when measuring hair length, and who really knows what 17 millimetres looks like? I did, after she was done with me, and I can tell you, it is short. It was cool though, because then I wouldn't need another haircut for the rest of the trip. Also, in the hairwashing station I got to watch Planet Earth (in HD!) from a projector on the wall while having my hair washed!
I got out of there and continued on the journey to the Fernsehturm. It was still a ways to go, and I was getting hungry. I passed a wurst stand just before I got to the tower, but made a promise to myself that I would get wurst from there as soon as I got down from the tower.
I went up the tower (luckily, they didn't offer a discount for taking the stairs) and took in the great view of Berlin. I took pictures of all 360 degrees, and could see the wurst stand. After leaving, I went back the same way that I had come, but that's when Fate reared its ugly, ugly head. The wurst stand was gone. There was just an empty stretch of sidewalk where it had been. Devastated, I walked back to the hostel but ended up getting stuck in a gated community (with really high gates. Not even the Cinque Terre could prepare me for this), and had trouble finding the way out. I finally made it home, with sooooore feet (my insoles, which were fresh at the start of the trip, had now been worn out and were flat as pancakes), and got a delish Currywurst from a restaurant in the train station.
The next day, I bid farewell to Berlin and boarded a train to get me to Copenhagen, where I would begin my foray into Scandinavia.
