Berlin
Posted on Friday August 22, 2008 by Jacob Campbell.
A photo of a sign that say’s “L’ Ost in Paradise” taken in Berlin Germany
The last two days seem to blur together some. I am coming to understand that my days here in Europe will be very full and have all sorts of different activities. The day before yesterday, we again stayed at the Meininger Hostel, and hung out some with our dorm mate Carlos. We spent a considerable amount of time walking all over Berlin. I have since become fairly familiar and able to navigate my way around. This is especially true in regards to the subway / train system. It’s pretty easy to follow once you get the hang of it. We visited Märkisches Museum (Märkisches Museum Google Places Page || Märkisches Museum Website). They had wonderful exhibits depicting ancient history in Germany and Berlin. No photographs permitted though, or else I would prove that they used to have moose in Germany. They also had an exhibit showing the history of lights in Berlin.
A photo of the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer memorial to the hundreds of people that might have died trying to cross the wall, and the thousands who suffered major disruption to their lives.
After eating some dinner we started to make our way back to the Hostel. We decided to attempt to stop at all the various bars and restaurants for a drink till we made it back to the Hostel. One interesting bar / club that we stopped at was White Trash Fast Food. It was interesting seeing maybe some of what some people might think of America. The restaurant was full of cheap oriental decorations, red and white plaid table cloth, serving hamburgers and burritos, and playing 50’s to 80’s classic rock music. By the time we finally made it back to the hostel, not stumbling too hard we met our newest roommate. A older Messianic Jew from Israel. We then decided to head to The Matrix Club - Berlin. This place is huge, with four different dance floors playing various music. There were sections playing American rap and hip-hop, reggae, techno / house / whatever those styles are, and one playing rock music. It was jammed packed with people (at least a thousand young people), you can see a picture of one of the dance floors. Traveling by the S-Bahn, we were able to make it back to our hostel and to attempt to get some sleep at 5:45 am.
When you fall asleep at 5:45 am, and your alarm goes off at 9:30 after being out all night it is not a very happy sound. We check out of our over-heating room by 10, and were back on the road with our backpacks. Our bags each weigh 50-60 lbs, quite a load to carry all over the city. We debated finding a park and passing out for a couple of hours, but ended up eating ice cream, finding an internet cafe, and making our way to a new hostel. This last night we stayed at the Barcelona Hostel. The room was nice. I read, and explored while Trevor slept. Later that night we went to tour the Berlin Wall. There is an excellent exhibit Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer. It was a very powerful portrayal of the history of the wall.
Today we are looking to go to Prague via bus. not exactly sure when we will leave Prague or how we are planning on getting back, but I’m sure it will work out. You can also see all the pictures that I uploaded to Facebook from Copenhagen and Berlin. Don’t forget to leave me comments about what you think below.
Passport to the world. A photo of my USA Passport that I took while I was sitting in the airport getting ready to leave for Europe.
How I left my room prior to going to Europe.
A photo of the overnight chair at the CRC. This is where I spend my hours at all night long.
A photo of the repair box