My First Visitor and a Trip to Berlin

Yesterday, was exciting for two reasons. I had my first trip to Berlin and my first visitor. Our old friend Arun flew up from Madrid to meet me in Berlin. So after my class on Friday I went to the Potsdam Hauptbahnhof and hopped the S-Bahn to Friederichsraße to meet Arun. First we headed off to the East Side Gallery. It's the part of the Berlin wall that is still standing and is now covered political artwork. Some of it was really impressive and detailed, and it kind of shows the part of Berlin that doesn't want to live up to the cold steal image that I think Berlin has.

Then we headed down to the Reichstag to be tourists and take pictures. Although it is free to go up into the Reichstag's glass dome, the que was toooo long. So perhaps I will have to save that for another time. Then we walked over to the Brandenburger Tor and the Holocaust Memorial. Although the Holocaust Memorial has kind of gotten mixed reviews, it definitely gives off a very somber feeling even though you might not realize what it is when you first see it. After that it was over to the shiny new Potsdamer Platz, with all the huge glass buildings and over-priced restraunts.

After being tourists for awhile we headed back down towards Friederichstraße around where Arun used to live and hang out during the month he lived in Berlin. We hung out in the pub where he used to drink. It was very strange sitting around a bar talking with him, because it made me forget how far away from home I am. Then the bartender would come by and say something in German and ruin it. On the bright side I am starting to understand more German, although the Brandenburg accent makes it more difficult in Potsdam.

With two litres of beer gone, it was time to go meet Arun's other friends living in Berlin. I got to meet three cool British women with fun accents. We tried to go to a cool restraunt that used to be a ballroom in the 1920s and hasn't been redecorated since. Unfortunately, something called 'Schwoof' was going on, so it was too crowded. Instead we went to a kind of swanky looking italian place and ate giant pizzas and drank red wine. Some how then it was 1am and it was time to head back to Potsdam. I had to make my sad goodbye to Arun at the train station. Just like in a movie or something. What I didn't know was that the S-Bahn route changes at night, so my train only went to Wannsee, instead of all the way to Potsdam. Luckily I met a very nice German (I think he said his name was Constantine, but I'm not sure) studying at the Potsdam University, who told me that since it was the weekend there was another train coming in just a minute to continue on to Potsdam. Otherwise it would have taken three hours to get home or something. Then it was a quick bike ride in the rain to get back to my warm bed.

Sorry no pictures this time. Both my camera and lap top batteries are dead. But as soon as I get plug adapters there will be pictures!