Oh The Places We’ll Go

I survived Denmark and made it safely and soundly to Berlin without a hitch.  My last day in Copenhagen went by pretty quickly.  I went to go and see the little mermaid statue which is out in the middle of NOWHERE and took FOREVER to walk to, but it was worth seeing.  Heck, it was the ONLY touristy thing to see while in Denmark.

My train left way too early for my taste out of Copenhagen, into Hamburg and then a quick train change before hopping on my way into Berlin.  By the time I got into Berlin I was absolutely EXHAUSTED.  I tried explaining to my Brazilian roommate that I needed a siesta and she didnt understand.  Oh well.  Anyways, my first day/night here in Berlin was pretty much spent sleeping, waking up for random people wandering into the room, and falling back asleep.  What can I say, I am the life of the party eh?  The hostel I am staying in here is great… completely immaculate and especially clean.

My first real day spent here in Berlin was spent walking around and doing all the touristy things I could think of doing.  I walked over to the Reichstag, saw the Brandenburg Gate or whatever its called, and had myself a delicious brat from a street vendor.  It was ah-mazing.  The underground here takes a while to get used to.  There is the S-Bahn, above ground trains, and the U-Bahn, a normal underground, but the maps for both of them are intertwined with each other so its hard to tell where one stops and the other begins.

Yesterday was probably my only real sight-seeing museum walking day.  I went to the East Wall, which is the longest stretch of Berlin Wall left, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Jewish Museum (to make Erica happy).  Everything was so freakin expensive yesterday!!  The stupid underground and s bahn, all of the different trains and shit everywhere.  I, being the idiot I am, didnt buy the all day train pass so I kept having to buy new tickets.  Ugh.  Its not like I paid much for the museums or actually looking at anything… just the transport costs so much.  Lots of WWII history stuff, which is right up my alley, lying around Berlin.  I could go into museums and read about Hitler and Stalin, the history of the wall, etc. for hours and hours.  Its things like old paintings and sculptures that put me to sleep.

Right now I am preparing to go to Krakow in Poland.  I have my train reservation all set and ready to go… just have an insanely early wake-up call ahead of me!  Not excited about that.  Auschwitz is the big thing coming my way in Poland.  Should be depressing.  I tried walking around Berlin earlier today and it was so hot I couldnt hack it.  I had already seen what I had planned to walk and see today so I just couldnt be bothered.  I am stuck in this hostel reading up on the places I am going next instead.  I think the schedule is going to be Krakow-Prague-Vienna-Salzburg-Munich-Switzerland somewhere-Frankfurt to fly out.  I think I am halfway through my traveling, which is a little crazy if you ask me, but it is going by pretty fast.  Just exhausting and making me anti-social.

I know this is a bit of a crappy post and everything, but this keyboard is driving me insane since the z and the y are in opposite places from each other on German keyboards.  I cant handle it.  I promise to give a more thorough explanation of everything in my next post.

-Catherine