Die große Stadt Berlin (The Great City of Berlin)

I have finally arrived to Berlin! This city is already amazing and I have seen next none of it. David and I are staying at Baxpax Downtown Hostel and it is about three streets away from the Reichstag! I'm right in the middle of German history. If you're ever in Berlin, this is the hostel that you should choose. There's a bar on the main floor and it's THE best hostel I've stayed at yet.

I'm sure you're all wondering about Hamburg, but there really isn't much to say about it (much like its Iowan equivalent). I took two pictures in Hamburg so I won't make an album out of it because that's just a waste of space. If you'd really like to see those pictures they are on my Picasa profile and you can view them there. I will add one of the two below.

This is the main shopping district in Hamburg (or at least the biggest one I found),

We got on our first train (we had 4 trains in total to get to Berlin) at 11:57. I can honestly say that God was watching over us. Everything that could've gone wrong miraculously went right for us. Our hostel in Hamburg was right next to a train station and we figured we could just take our train from that station. When we asked how our regional ticket worked, the man working behind the counter, knowing we were foreigners, printed off our route for us and sent us in the right direction. An absolute God send. Apparently the train we needed was at the Reeperbahn and we were fifteen minutes away from that. We hopped on the S-Bahn (tram) that was leaving in three minutes to get to our train that left in less than twenty minutes. Racing to the terminal we chuckled about how close things were getting on this trip. It's Europe though, so we expected to be riding by the seat of our pants. We were able to relax as soon as we were seated on that train. Our three stops were in Uelze, Stendal, and Rathenow. I'm glad European public transit is so efficient because we cut it close quite a few times.

I was actually able to journal quite a bit on our trains, thus the more in depth post. I love this thing. I took a picture of it on the train so I could post it here. Legit.

So we got to Berlin and bought our Berlin Card that will get us on any public transit for 48 hours. So tomorrow we're going to do a free walking tour and head out to Potsdam. It's nice travelling with a history major. David and I have the same interests as far as Germany is concerned.

David had a great thought as we were travelling today. He was musing how interesting it was that a nation we were at war with in such a serious way 60 years ago was now commonplace for us to visit. That kind of boggled my mind as I let that sink in. Weird. On the trains we were passing scenery much like in the states with one small difference -- the forests. If you've seen Band of Brothers you'll know what I'm talking about: forests with trees reaching to the heavens very close together that were so dense that it was hard to see much further that the first few trees. I kept thinking What would it be like to be fighting in these forests as the brave soldiers in WWII had... these forests that even today look barren and foreboding. It gave me chills.

Oh yes, those are my feet and my computer. But beyond that is my hostel. Legit.

Just finishing off my Vodka Red Bull and planning our day tomorrow. We're going to ride the fastest elevator in the world to a 360° view of Berlin sometime in the next two days. So much to do, yet so little time!


If anything else interesting happens tonight I'll be sure to post later, but for right now that's about all.


God bless!