A Walk to Remember

I got back from Berlin yesterday. That city is massive. Germans really value space. There are extensive gardens and parks everywhere and all the large and grandiose buildings are well spaced out. Although Berlin is the fourth largest city in Europe and packed with tourists, I never felt cramped or overwhelmed by all the people. My trip was overall really relaxing. Tuesday night was probably the most memorable.

In the morning we drove the bus throughout the city while Vera told us about the different sights and the history of the city. We only covered a tiny little area of the city in two whole hours. In the afternoon we went to the "Story of Berlin" museum which was sooooo extensive. The first room was empty with huge screens on the wall with fish. I guess that was Berlin a couple million years ago?? I really meant extensive. At the end was an uber-kitsch gift store where I got a snap bracelet with East Berlin traffic signals on it. Everyone was really jealous.

Afterwards Mike and Vera took us to "the best ice cream place in Europe." It was in the Sony center and was pretty impressive. Our sundaes were very large and really good. We all kind of had sugar comas when we were done. So a few of us wanted to go to the McDonalds downstairs to get something really quick and cheap. Some people in the group scoffed. But whatever. I had my first big Mac ever. Kinda gross. The not-too-cool-for-McDonald's group ended up being yours truly, Sarah, Sheila, Shaunna, Raihann, Iris, Rachel, Sick Matt, and Andrew. We were in West Berlin and kind of far from our hostel. But, our tram tickets had expired and were 2 euros which is way too expensive. So we walked.

As we turn the corner leaving the Sony center. Sheila's eyes got huge as she pointed in the distance and yelled "What are those?" Those were very very large metal see-saws in the middle of a hilly park. We ran over and rode them for about half an hour while taking pictures and laughing.

We continued walking and found the heart of the Sony center which is architecturally fascinating and the sun was setting directly behind. We took a lot of pictures jumping in the sunset. A little further on we found some remnants of the Berlin wall. There was gum all along the side and we decided to also donate our saliva to Berlin. I have spit sitting on the Berlin wall now. I left a piece of me in the motherland.

I'm now realizing that this isn't too amazing a story unless you were there. We eventually walked from west to east under the Brandenburg gate and saw some futuristic cars and laughed a lot and had a good time eventually having beers at the hostel bar and meeting some American soldiers on leave from duty in Iraq.

A good night, but yeah. You had to be there.