Berlin

OK! So here is the second post! I went to Berlin after St. Patrick's Day for my Spring Break. We left on Wednesday morning and got to Berlin at about 1 o'clock. It took us forever to get to our hostel because it was kinda in the middle of nowhere. That night we just walked around West Berlin. On Thursday we took the buses out to East Berlin and took a 3 1/2 hour free walking tour of East Berlin. It was really informative, we saw a lot of things. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, Der Reichstag, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the place where Hitler died, Gendarenmarkt, Babelplatz, The Nazi Armory, The Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, The Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny, and Museum Island. It was a great tour, and if anyone is in a city that has a NewEurope Tour I would highly suggest going on it. Later that night we went to some of the museums because on Thursday nights from 6-10 the museums on Museum Island are free. There were some great paintings in the National Gallery. Last thing we did that night was go to Der Reichstag. They are open and free to the public to go in the glass dome on the top. From the dome you can see down into the Parliament Chambers, and the idea is that if the politicians ever forget who they are there for they can just look up and see all the people walking around and remember that they are there for the people. I know, the people that are up there are generally not the German people, they are tourists, but I still really liked the premise. While we were there Parliament wasn't in session since it was 9:30 pm, but the views were really cool. Berlin doesn't really have that many lights at night, it was refreshing. On Friday we decided to go to the Zoo and Aquarium. There were some great animals there, some that I can't see at the Potowatami Zoo. We then travelled back to East Berlin where we took artsy pictures at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and then made our way to the TV Tower. At the TV Tower you can take an elevator to this globe and see panoramic views of the city. It was really cool up there, but it wasn't the most conducive to taking pictures. Later we went to the DDR Museum, which is an interactive museum of East Berlin. You can touch and play with anything there and they encourage to you open drawers and push buttons and all that fun stuff. It was really cool. While we were there of course we tried the bratwurst and I made the girls try a doner, which is like my favorite there (it is kinda like a gyro). After one last night in our hostel, which we were the only three people at, we made the trip back home to Ireland.