After a hellish week of midterms, we Richmond students are rewarded with a week of relative freedom (relative because it is only the middle of the term, after all, so we get a week off class but still have papers looming overhead... some of us even had midterms after the break, though I was lucky enough to be done). Four of my friends and I had planned a month earlier to go to Berlin for a few days over break - not my first choice, but I love to travel, so anywhere is good! A few weeks before our departure, one of my friends had to pull out, so I recruited Sami as a replacement. A few hours before our departure, two of our other friends decided to join us, resulting in several frantic hours spent in the computer lab trying to find decently priced last minute tickets to Berlin, as well as alterations to our hostel reservations and reservations at a restaurant in which we ate entirely in the dark (expensive but fascinating, more later). Our hard work netted us three days in Berlin with seven girls ranging in age from 18 to 21 - four freshman and three juniors - and one room. Funny, it sounds almost like an intro for MTV's The Real World, except our accomodations weren't nearly as lavish, and we only had female drama to handle.

At any rate, our story begins at approximately midnight on Tuesday, October 24/Wednesday, October 25. Vasi, Samangie, Cassady and I left from Montford to make the last train out of Richmond station to get to Victoria station where we needed to catch a coach to Stansted (an airport about 45 minutes to an hour and a half outside of London, depending on your mode of transportation). Being us, we left a few minutes later than anticipated, and managed to miss the last train to Victoria. We managed to catch the next train which took us as far as Earl's Court (about half way) where we had to take several buses the rest of the way... our original arrival time at Victoria should have been about 1 AM, making our arrival time at Stansted approximately 2:30, when Sami was due to arrive from Norwich. Unfortunately, our tardiness didn't land us at Victoria until 2AM, at which point we still had to locate the Victoria Coach Station, which, inconveniently enough, is about a block away, and doesn't take credit cards at that hour of the night. Imagine, if you will, four girls literally running around various parts of London in the middle of the night carrying backpacks and bags, and trading off responsibility for one large rolling duffle. Then imagine me and Vasi sprinting around Victoria in search of a working ATM. The fun started before we even left London, let alone England. By the time we got to Stansted Sami had already been there for about an hour, so she'd staked out turf in the check-in line.

Me and Sami at Stansted
Giant cups of Starbucks are important at 4:30 in the morning...

The one advantage of being up at such ungodly hours was the opportune time difference to California, so I was able to make a few important phone calls before getting on the plane... one of them, apparently, is a bit of a requirement before boarding any international flight. The rest of the flight was fine - the five of us ended up rather sandwiching a guy studying abroad from Minnesota, and I'm pretty sure he was well rid of us once we landed. Passport control at Schoenefeld was, luckily, really simple and we were able to navigate the U-Bahn easily with Vasi's help. We got to our hostel off the Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin by about 11:00 or noon and all slept for a few hours before going out into the city and then meeting Jessica and Roxanne (the two late additions) at Tegel (an airport on the other side of Berlin) that night.

Sami, me, Samangie, and Cassady
In front of the Bode Museum while walking around Berlin

Also during our walk around Berlin - the Berliner Dom, the Cathedral.

Me and Cassady:
We're American, we don't eat meat, and we're in Berlin... what do you want from us?

The TV tower that always seemed to be in view,
this time reflected in one of the many new buildings in Berlin.

Basically, places that should never be forgotten...

The sign is in front of this U-Bahn station, Wittenbergplatz
Ironically, this station is at the head of one of the biggest shopping streets
in Berlin... at the other end is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church,
of which you'll see pictures later... I suppose they wanted to put the sign up where people would be sure to see it - we certainly did.

These pictures are from Thursday, our big sight-seeing day. We walked the entire length of the Strasse des 17 Juni - from the start of the Tiergarten all the way down to the Brandenburg Gate. In the center is the Victory Column, to the top of which Sami and I climbed.

Samangie, Jessica, Vasi, Roxanne, Sami, Cassady, and me across the street from the Victory Column. You have to go down a flight of stairs and cross under the big turnaround to get to it in the center.

Vasi, Roxanne, Jessica and Cassady climbing the stairs up to the Victory Column.

I thought the semi-distorted view of the Victory Column
and the one guy looking at it made for some nice composition...

Sami and me at the top of the Victory Column...
quite a hike, but definitely worth it!

The view from the top of the Victory Column, but not in any direction of interest -
just in whichever direction I had room to sit down and get the angle I wanted!Sami, Jessica, Roxanne, me, Cassady and Vasi in front of the Reichstag, Berlin's central government building. You can just see the new dome in the top right hand corner. If you get a chance, look it up on google, because the changes they made to the building when they rebuilt it are rather interesting. I think it captures the feel of Berlin well: an old city, rebuilt and modernized while keeping its old charm.

The Brandenburg Gate... not quite as interesting as I'd hoped it would be, as it was the one thing I really wanted to see when we first decided to go to Berlin. They've built so much around it that it really almost gets lost.

Samangie, me and Sami on the East side of the Brandenburg Gate, taken by Jessica, on the West side. Samangie was taking the opposite picture with a manual camera, so I don't have that one yet.

The view over the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe... it looks sort of plain, but it was more moving in person. Our group was actually split over this. Some of us were moved, others found it lacking. When we were first looking at it online, Samangie, Vasi and I thought it was rather arbitrary - the number of blocks holds no meaning, nor does the artist give any meaning to the memorial.

Looking down one of the aisles in the Memorial... it really isn't much, but, I think, you are as moved as you allow yourself to be. Each of the blocks is a different height, and then the ground beneath you undulates in waves as well, leaving you feeling completely lost, although the Memorial is not overly large. There is an extremely stark feeling to the place, and the air moves through it in such a way as to make you very cold, although the day itself was warm.

Sami and I sat for a minute inside the Memorial and took a picture...
let's just say that we were in the part of the group moved by the Memorial.

A preserved remnant of the Berlin Wall. We were under a time constraint to get to Checkpoint Charlie before our 6PM reservation at Dunkel (the dark restaurant) and so didn't have time to spend more here. We did walk by an entire wall with pictures and notes about the history of the Berlin wall which we read, but of which I didn't take any pictures because I hate touristy pictures, as you know.
The sign at Checkpoint Charlie...
I would have liked to get a picture of the whole checkpoint, but there were guys dressed in uniform standing in front of it. When I first saw them I commented on how they were the most relaxed servicemen I'd ever seen... traveling with five girls each with close family in the military, I was quickly informed that they were definitely NOT servicemen, instead, that they were simply disrespectful actors.
We had an interesting encounter with one of them who insisted on calling us "honey-bunnies," and who was lucky to leave us with all his body parts and ego intact.

At last, my favorite part of Berlin! These are from Friday, now, when we split up - Jessica went with Vasi, Samangie and Roxanne to get their hair cut and Sami, Cassady and I went back to check out the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. In a city that has been so completely rebuilt, this church fascinates me. I saw it the first day we were in Berlin from the other end - back at Wittenbergplatz - and the fact that the top dome just ends completely captured my attention. With all the Cathedrals I've seen across Europe, and especially in Italy, I can honestly say that this is the most intriguing church I have ever seen. Everything else in Berlin has been rebuilt, but this one church in the center of everything reminds us that some things can never be put back together as they were before.

The Kaiser Wilhelm, from a different angle...
it intrigued me so much, there are a few pictures of it...

I know I'm a dork, it's why you love me...

Again, they didn't even refill the windows with plain glass, but netting instead...
There's a postcard inside (that I didn't buy because the quality was poor) that shows the church from about 1900 to the 1950's and the progression of destruction... amazing.

A cross made of nails from the old Coventry Cathedral in Britain that was destroyed by Nazi bombing raids, as the Kaiser Wilhelm was destroyed by Allied bombing raids. The rebuilt churches (both built next to the original sites) were both consecrated on the same day in 1962.

Around the table: Jessica, Roxanne, Vasi, Samangie, Sami, and Cassady
Finally, the last night! After walking aimlessly around the same area of Berlin in which Sami, Cassady and I had gotten slightly lost earlier, we finally made it to the Greek restaurant at which Vasi'd wanted to eat the entire trip. Tradition calls for a shot of Ouzo (a Greek liqueur that apparently tastes like black licorice), of which, naturally, I did not partake, so I took a picture instead, that pretty much everyone hates. I, however, think it accurately shows our emotions at this point! We're all hungry and pretty ready to go back to England!

Our trip ended similarly to its start, with an all-night public-transportation experience. After dinner (which didn't start until about midnight because we'd walked for so long), Sami and I left to go to Hard Rock Cafe, my veritable American Embassy in any foreign country I visit and had to navigate the U-Bahn on our own. I have faith in my sense of direction... it's just my grasp of the German language that needed a bit of work. I managed to get us back by about 3AM... just in time to pack our bags to take Roxanne and Jessica back to Tegel.

Sami and I abandoned the group at one of the stations to head over to Schoenefeld in hopes of catching a bit of sleep rather than schlep our bags all across Berlin unnecessarily... again, our understanding of the German language (more accurately, the lack thereof) made things a bit difficult... particularly when we fell asleep on the train, only to wake up just before it started moving in the opposite direction to its originial trajectory, and our destination. We had to get off and ended up taking a 20 Euro taxi ride to the airport, where we sat for another few hours, at which point I took some time to catch up on my postcard writing. Our antics did, however, grant us a funny video, the link to which I'll include below. The quality of the video itself is poor because I didn't want to be too intrusive, but you can get the general idea.

Apparently I've forgotten to talk about Dunkel, much to my mother's dismay... here goes. Sorry if this disappoints, as I've heard that the concept of eating in the dark has incited much interest! In answer to what my Mom has informed me was the most pressing question, I stopped in the bathroom before we went into the dark, so I didn't have to have our waiter escort me - Sami did, however, and dragged Samangie with her. As the website said, you get used to eating in the dark - the only problem was that, as we coudln't see what we were eating, Cassady and I don't eat meat, and the main course consisted mainly of oyster mushrooms that tasted like and were the consistency of luke-warm lunch meat... the meal was interesting. I've certainly never discussed the food on my plate as much as I did when I couldn't see what it was! We all agreed that it was an experience that we'd never forget, and that it made the trip worth while.

All in all, Berlin was certainly an adventure! It's definitely not my favorite city, and I don't know that I'd jump at the chance to go back, but it was worth the experience. I hope everyone is well!

Much love,
Dominica

Here's that link I promised:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=
-6032752334900840977&q=berliners
It should be all one line, but it wouldn't all fit... sorry it's messy, but I'm not good enough with HTML to edit it on my own and make it easy.