Day 4: Arrival to Berlin and Potsdam

Tuesday, August 10 2010

We went to our accommodation with the 6:15 S7 train going to Potsdam Hbf, but our stop was Griebnitzsee. The walk to the house seemed like really long walk with 12 kg bags. I'd walked the way numerous times before and remembered it really well. It was just that we were really tired, and had heavy bags. At least the weather was nice and fresh. 

We got to our accommodation around 7:05. We had breakfast and the hostess and a girl who was also staying there left for work. Brain wanted to go to sleep, and I just wanted to take a shower. I felt so disgusting. It was so nice to take a shower! Eventually I had to wake Brain up, and we checked our emails and school stuff. And our Salzburg accommodation situation, as in they're fully booked which means we can't go there. Which wasn't good. Also, we had some issues with our Innsbruck accommodation, so we agreed to ask for help from our hostess later that day.

We left for town. We went to Zoologischer Garten, we bought snacks from a bakery there. I ordered mine in German. And I got laughed at. I tried my best, and it was a really long word! It was some sandwich. Brain ordered her snack in English. The reason we went to Zoo was that bus 100 left from there and we wanted a little tour around the important parts of Berlin, and this bus was good for that. Before we got on the bus, we found some store where Brain bought batteries for her camera.

We got out of the bus near the Reichstag. We walked to the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, took the obligatory touristy pictures. Then we walked back to the Reichstag, and decided that we can't go there now, because the line of people who want to go to the top was already in the middle of the field that's in front of the building.  So we take pictures near it. There are also these little fountain type things. The water stops every once in a while and then it continues. We were jumping over those, and waiting for the water to start. We were running through the fountain, when there was no water and saw how many times we'd dare to run through it. We didn't want to get wet. 

 (pictures are clickable)

Then we continued walking towards the Berlin main railway station. We saw a beach bar, or river bar if you will, and had a tages cocktail (I think) there. It was a good break to relax, because we were still tired.

 

After finishing our cocktails we went to walk around the train station. We bought ice creams, and since I got laughed at the previous time I tried to speak German, I ordered mine in English. Brain ordered hers in German (she's never studied it, though) and her ice cream was bigger than mine. :(

We went from Berlin Hbf to Potsdamer Platz. We wanted to see Checkpoint Charlie. On the way there we saw some cars.

We got hungry and ate in a small chinese place. We then bought coffees from Starbucks and I bought a Berlin-bag from some kiosk.  We walked back towards Potsdamer Platz and saw these awesome bikes. There were 8 people there, the seats were in like a circle. Some were biking backwards too. :D It looked awesome. We got to Potsdamer Platz and sat around there for about 1,5 hours and we were just writing our diaries. We were so tired. Eventually, after 5 pm we got up and found our way back to our accommodation. Our hostess was helping us with the train to Prague. Also she sent an email to our Innsbruck location, in German, if they'd understand that better than our English email. She said that if they don't reply in 24 h she will call them.



-Pinky