"ICH BIN EIN BERLINER"

Brandenburger Tor

Orry and I arrived in Berlin yesterday afternoon after a looong train ride. It was really nice outside so we strolled through the streets trying to familiarize ourselves with the city. We saw the Brandenburger Tor, the beautiful Prussian arches built during the 19th century to celebrate Prussia's military power. We also walked by the Reichstag, Germany's capital building.  Unfortunately you need a reservation to go inside the building, which we did not know in advance. We would have gone back to the hostel and booked a reservation for the next day, but it takes up to a week! So we were pretty bummed about that.

In front of the Reichstag!

East Side Gallery

Today we went to the East Side Gallery, which is the the largest remaining piece of the Berlin Wall. They turned   the wall into an art gallery, which artist come to repaint every 10 years or so. Most of the paintings on the wall promote peace or tell stories of the division of West and East Berlin. 

After the wall, we went to the Topography of Terror Museum. The museum told the history of the SS and Gestapo and was actually built on the ruins of the old SS office. The museum was okay...but  also a bit boring. It was mostly pictures and writing, and after a half hour or so we began to fall asleep, good thing the museum was free!

To wake us up after the museum we got some lunch from a curry wurst stand (this is for you Mickey). Curry wurst is supposedly the street food to get in Berlin. It is sausage(wurst), curry, and some special tomato sauce on top. Overall, it was pretty good. 

Soviet side of Check Point Charlie

Our last activity for the day was Check Point Charlie, which was once the old U.S./Soviet check point between East and West Berlin. Surprisingly the museum has been around since the 1960s, when the wall first went up. Check Point Charlie was interesting. It told stories of escapes from East to West Berlin and also contained some of the devices that people used to cross the Soviet border. For example, people hid in small boxes, the front of a VW car, and sped by in bullet proof cars. 

It was very cold out today, so unfortunately we did not do as much as we would have liked. Tomorrow will be our last day in Berlin and on Thursday we are going to Prague. Guten Nacht!