"I love Praha!"

On the morning of the 8th, Thursday morning, we woke up to gray skies and pouring rain. We sat around in the hostel for a while after breakfast to figure out what we wanted to do and what we should see. After the rain slowed/stopped we headed out to Alexanderplatz to see what we could find. We walked around the plaza for a while and went into a giant department store to look for a rain coat, since I forgot one. Yes mother, I know. But I could not find anything that was under €40, so I decided to just grin and bear it. We found out there was a cafe on the top floor and decided to head there for lunch. It was amazing. It was similar to college where there was a bunch of different kinds of dishes from which you could choose. Very good, and pretty reasonably priced. When we got outside the rain had started again, so we decided to go to the cinema and see a movie.

When we got there and tried to buy our tickets the cashier said that every movie showing there was in German. He told us if we wanter to see an original version we would have to go to the Sony Center in the center of Berlin. We asked him where that was and got an earfull from him. 'You don't know where the city center is!?' But he was nice enough to show us on a map and that is where we headed...on foot, to Keith's dismay. Random side note: who designed the Berlin Sony Center Plaza? The answer is here.

We decided to see the Hangover 2, which was just like the first. They just added more vulgarity and prejudice, but we laughed anyway. After the movie we headed out and walked the city some more and stumbled upon the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. An incredible memorial! If you ever make it to Berlin, make sure you set one to two hours aside to go there. After taking hundreds of pictures there we stumbled upon the Brandenburg Gate. That thing is gigantic. Headed up Unter den Linden (Under the Lindens - The Royal Boulevard) and headed back to Alexanderplatz. We found a German fast-food place called Currywurst and tried that for dinner. It was actually pretty good and the staff was awesome. One of the guys, I am guessing the owner, was joking around with us about being American and not knowing any other language and was trying to teach us German. Hilarious man, great experience.

After that we got back on the tram and headed to our hostel. We went to the hostel lounge and started playing cards when a couple of people from a school group that was there came over and started talking with us. They were from Holland on a similar trip to a study abroad program, but only for a week. We talked with them for quite a while and taught them how to play gin rummy. Stayed up until 2 in the morning hanging out with them.

We got up early on Friday morning and headed to catch a tour of Berlin's major sites. Check them out. We had a relatively small group and an awesome tour guide, Jessy. Very charismatic. We walked through most of the city and saw the birthplace of Berlin, the Berlin Cathedral, Museum Island, Neue Wache with the "Mother with her Dead Son" statue, Humboldt University (which used to be Friedrich the Great's brother's guest palace), the Public Library (in front of which was one of the most intense book burnings during the Nazi government), and the Catholic Church (which Friedrich the Great allowed to be built even though he was protestant - 'I do not care who you worship as long as you listen to me'). We also saw Gendermenmarkt (where the French Cathedral, German Cathedral, and the Kozerthaus Berlin sit), Checkpoint Charlie (the border gate that allowed the passage from east and west Berlin during the time of the wall), part of the Berlin Wall that is still in its original location, the Nazi Government Building, the location of Hitler's Bunker (which is now just a parking lot, but it is permeable!!), and saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Brandenburg Gate again. We also saw the Hotel Adlon, thr hotel where Michael Jackson dangled the baby. The presidential suite there costs €10,000 a night, and it is equppied with bulletproof glass. Oooh!

Once the tour had ended we walked through Tiergarten (the old royal hunting grounds, now a gigantic park) to the Reichstag (Parliament). Which is a pretty impressive building. I wanted to go up in the dome to have lunch, but Payton and Keith were not paying  for €10 for soup. Then we walked to the Siegessaule Berlin (The Victory Column) and back into Alexanderplatz.

We walked around the area where our hostel was to find food and found a place that had €2.50 chicken döner (gyro). Delicious and huge portion of food. After dinner we decided it was a good time to do laundry, so we grabbed our stuff and headed to the waschsalon, since the hostel did not have machines. It was definitely a very interesting experience since we cannot really read German very well. But the giant illustrations on the walls really helped out. When laundry was clean and dry, and still in one piece, we headed back to the hostel. Started playing cards again and the group from the night before showed up once more. We met a couple of new people and spent the rest of the night, until 3 in the morning, talking. We talked about the differences between countries, customs, why Americans are so fat, past traveling, jobs, ghosts and ouija boards, and movies. It was definitely a great night.

On Friday morning we checked out and headed, with backpacks in tow, to get souvenirs. We agreed that we would not have our traditional dessert on the last night, but in the morning because there was nothing around our hostel. So, we grabbed some gelato on the street - Payton had ananas (pineapple), Keith had mango, and I had trüffel. Amazing! Almost bought another one. Which reminds me - during laundry we were actually talking about how all of the food we have eaten so far has been really good.

After we were set, we headed to the train station and caught our train to Prague. This train actially had those little compartments like in Harry Potter! It was pretty cool, we quoted the movie a bit. After a couple stops we had the compartment to ourselves and started playing some cards to pass the time. At the next stop a woman joined us who we found was actually from Prague and asked her what we should look into seeing. She gave us a ton of great recommendations, a lot of which we have seen, and told us what type of traditional Czech food we should eat. When we got to Prague we got a map and found where our hostel was. We were asked a couple of times by some shady looking people if we had a place to sleep. Very weird, a little creepy. Said no thanks and headed to the hostel. Checked in, grabbed a bed, and headed out to get food and explore.

That's all for now. I'll update more soon.

steinkraus.