Trip to Berlin

Yesterday, I woke up at quarter to five. Showered, made and ate pasta and left for the train station at 530. The train left at about 6 and we got to Berlin just before 8. We (Two Czech exchange students, a visiting Czech girlfriend, and us two Americans) then spent the next 10 hours walking around Berlin and seeing the sites. Did we see everything that Berlin has to offer? Not in the slightest. However, we did see some of the biggies, which will allow us to be more focused with our return journeys. Well, I cannot speak for the others in the group, but I will be more focused on seeing the rest of the things to see when I go back, because I will assuredly do so.

After leaving the Hauptbahnhof, we went to the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. Getting the biggies out of the way first is often a wise practice. Although we didn't get to tour the inside of the Reichstag (we got there just before 8am and would have had to wait in line for 90 minutes to get to tour it) the outside was still pretty cool looking.
Although the Brandenburg Gate didn't look as cool at 8:30am as it does in the night picture that they have on Wikipedia, it was certianly made more interesting by the fact that there weren't thousands of people there.
After that, we headed down the Allee Unter den Linden towards Museum Island. Since it was now only 9am and none of them were open, we took pictures of the outside of the Old Museum and the Cathedral and found ourselves some breakfast. Coincidently, as we were leaving the cathedral, a group of Czech tourists were just arriving there. This, of course, meant nothing to me, but the Czechs in the group seemed to be amused.
After some much needed coffee and breakfast at a café, we took the S-Bahn to Schloss Charlottenburg. The castle was pretty sweet on the outside. But, as previously, we did not go in because it would have meant waiting in a long line and paying €10. Ahh the joys of being impatient and poor. Perhaps when I am older.
After the castle, we walked toward the heart of the city, found a Scientology church (Did you know that these existed in Germany? I didn't. I thought that they had outlawed or something) and ate some delicious Chinese food. The real beauty of immigration is that it allows me to eat delicious Chinese, Indian, Thai, etc. cooking nearly everywhere.
Once we were full of delicious food, we continued our journey and went to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The church was destroyed during the Second World War and has been left that way as a memorial. Before showing you pictures of the church, I am going to pause and complain. The following is addressed to anyone who might be pro-war (as an abstract concept) who happens to read this: If you are going to insist on having a war, please be kind enough to do it away from things which could be damaged. If you are going to agree to not damage anything, then you are not allowed to have a war. Do you know how many things in this city (or even country for that matter) would remain had they not been destroyed by war at one point in time? A whole freaking lot, that is how many. Anyway, ranting addressed, primarily, to people who have been dead for over 60 years aside, here is a picture of the ruined church.
Also, here is a picture of the inside.
The area surrounding the church was full of all kinds of street performers (dancers, jugglers, caricaturists, a brass band, human statues, at the very least). I don't have a picture to prove that one, you will just have to take my word for it. After watching them for a while, we headed to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens), the largest department store I have ever seen (Kaufen, if you don't know, means "to buy" The other words should be pretty self-exploratory). I am not usually one to be Claustrophobic, but I can hardly imagine how one could not be in that place. Seven floors packed to bursting with people looking at overpriced stuff. Also, an entire floor of perfume. I really wish that they would had a sign that said something to the effect of "Do you have breathing problems near perfume? Well good freaking luck holding your breath, because there is no way you are going to be able to get off of this floor holding only one breath" I made it through alive by alternating holding my breath and taking large breaths through my sweatshirt. I hate perfume. After we freed ourselves from the mob in that place, we headed over to the Großer Tiergarten. (Big Animalgarden) and relaxed in the sun for a while. Two of our party decided that it was nap time and slept. In the intervening time, I took more pictures of ducks than any person could ever need. To make the ducks more interesting than they normally are, a family showed up to feed them chunks of bread. Hooray for free entertainment!
There were also some other birds fighting for the bread. I have no idea what kind they were, except that they enjoyed plotting their attacks from a nearby tree.
After our rest, we spent a little more time walking around the garden (It could also be viewed as walking "out" of the garden, since we didn't really meander at all) and then headed back towards the train station to go home. Before we made it back to the Reichstag and the train station, we found the Schloss Bellevue, which is largely equivalent to the White House (In that it is the president's residence, even though the American president and German president are not terribly similar positions).
Since, in order to get back to the train station, we had to go to the Reichstag, I decided to take another picture. This one serves the dual purpose of being a time comparison ten hours later, and also captures the weirdest thing I have seen here in Germany (much weirder than the man running along next to a guy on a bike wearing a large metal chain who barked back at dogs)
If we were near some sort of American embassy or something, I could understand the stop sign's existence. As we were between the the German Chancellery Office and the Reichstag, I am utterly confused.
The Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Much cooler than ours here in Magdeburg (as one might expect) It is also the most interesting public transit station I have ever seen. For some reason, the airports I have been to are always boring. Well, that isn't entirely true. The one in Brussels was pretty interesting, but I was so tired at the time that I didn't appreciate it much. This is not my picture (notice how it is all black and white and artsy. Filip, my neighbor, is an Industrial design major and is pretty artsy. Luckily, he put this picture on facebook so I could steal it. Even though it is not mine, I still feel as though it provides an adequate summation of the whole day. (even though it was taken before 8:30 in the morning)