Berlin: Poor But Sexy

This weekend some of the coolest Keops girls and I hopped on a plane and headed to Berlin, an absolutely amazing city! After running around the airport in an attempt to determine where our plane actually was (all the way in the other direction of course) we finally landed in Berlin very late Friday night. Then we had to figure out Berlin's public transportation system and get to our hostel. Challenge number 2 was successful, with only a slight run in with an incredibly drunk man on the train. But our super cool hostel was right outside the train station and as soon as we got in we pretty much went to bed. It was incredibly late and we knew we had a big day of sightseeing ahead of us. I was elected chief navigator of our group, and the next morning, which was stunningly beautiful and warm, we headed into town to start our Fat Tire Bike Tour! I think it is safe to say I might be a Fat Tire Bike Tour groupie now, after having done their tours in 3 out of 4 cities they offer them. And I highly recommend doing them if you come across one! The are amazing!! Navigating the icy streets of Berlin was a little treacherous, but totally worth it as we made our way from Checkpoint Charlie, to the Berlin Wall, to Hitler's Bunker and everything in between. Bike tours are defiantly the best way to see the city. We stopped in a beer garden for some German sausages, and finished our tour in the late afternoon.



After our bike tour we went to an authentic German restaurant where I throughly enjoyed my traditional pork dish with some amazing sauerkraut. I absolutely enjoyed embracing my German heritage through food! Then we headed back to the hostel for a quick shower, only to return back into town for a little night life :)

The next day we woke up super early and headed back to the building that houses Parliament so we could go up into the dome (also the building pictured with the bike tour). The dome was reconstructed after the war, and is all glass with a double helix path way up to the top and back down. You can see the whole city from the top of the dome and it was once again an amazing day! Then we went to the East Side Gallery. This is an area of the wall that was left intact and artists come and paint on it every ten years. Some of the art that was shown was incredibly powerful, while other things were a little abstract.



As the trip started to wind down, we did some souvenir shopping, got McDonalds, which is way better in Germany just in case you were wondering, and also got a HUGE thing of ice cream. I was unaware of the size of the thing I was ordering until I got it, but it was fantastic. Even though I hardly made a dent in it.

So, overall verdict: Berlin is amazing. It is definitely shows that the city is millions of dollars in debt, considering that we utilized their public transportation system for free almost the whole time we were there, but it was totally worth the trip. The unofficial model of Berlin is Poor but Sexy and after last weekend I completely understand why!