The Gigantic Berlin Post Part 1 (Days 1 and 2)

Most of this I typed the day it happened, so the tenses might be a little iffy at times!

Days 1 and 2

Livin’ it up in the Berl’.
Upon arrival in Berlin yesterday afternoon, we checked into our “hip” BaxPax hostel, and headed out on the town with our tour guide, Klouse! We walked by city hall, the parliament buildings, the West wall, Brandenburg gate (both sides), Fredrickplatz, and the Hotel Adur? (the hotel Michael Jackson dangled his baby, “Blanket,” out of several years ago. I think my favorite part of the tour was the Brandenburg gate. Our tour guide repeated Reagan’s speech there not too terribly long ago, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” which in retrospect I think would have been MUCH cooler if Mr. Gorbachev was there in the flesh to feel the burn of that statement. The walking tour was pretty lengthy, and we were a wee bit tired, but we ended up at a Middle Eastern restaurant on the Spree River at which I had an omelette…go figure. Today was an early day, we ate breakfast at 7:30 and departed at 8 for our train to Potsdam. Potsdam was King Frederick II ‘s summer palace and grounds. We had a pretty sweet guided tour of Sanssouci (his palace) and even got to see his death-chair…yay for terrible morbid moments that surpise you! The Potsdam grounds (not the city itself) are huge! We walked a straight dirt road from the ‘New’ Palace to Sanssouci that was seemingly a short walk. However, it was over a mile long. The ‘New’ Palace appeared like a mirage that kept getting larger, but never any closer. After walking all over creation, we settled on some benches and took a brief nap. We rode the train back to Berlin only to take another short nap at the Hostel and leave for a late dinner. We headed to a sketchier part of Berlin to eat supper (Dr. Hix called it the ‘Harlem of Berlin’), but it ended up being super-delicious and an awesome atmosphere. With fourteen people, it’s usually impossible to sit at one table, so we split into three. I ended up on a ‘date’ with Adam and Katie, but we definitely made the most of our tiny table! Katie and I had summer spaghetti which consisted of spaghetti, feta cheese sauce, and parsley while Adam ate a mushroom/cheese dish that made me wish I liked fungi. We took a brief trip to what looks like Berlin’s space needle (it’s a TV tower), and now we’re back in the Hostel…ready for our SUPER long day tomo