Friday: Getting to Berlin
We bought a Querdurchlandeskarte, which essentially means you can travel for mad cheap (roughly 15 Euro per person) but you have to take several trains and it takes longer than a train straight through. So we had to "umsteig" (transfer) 5 or 6 on the way to Berlin. Everything was going fine and we only had one more train to catch but then we got off unintentionally at Sued Dessau. I have no idea where Dessau is, except in the middle-of-nowhere Deutschland. It's this tiny, dark deserted train station in a tiny, almost-dark, deserted town. We find a map and see that the next train comes in two and a half hours but we don't want to wait that long. It was also 8:30 at night and really cold. So we decide that we're gonna try to walk to Dessau Hauptbahnhof (main train station) but have no idea how exactly to do that. So we ask some guy what direction it is and how long it would take. He looks at us like we're crazy and says it would take an hour to get there. However, there's a Strassenbahn right down the street that can take us to Hauptbahnhof. So we walk to the Strassenbahn only to figure out that we just missed the last one of the night. So now we are in the middle of nowhere late at night and it's cold and we don't really have any idea what to do next. Miracously, a bus shows up and we flag it down and take it to Hauptbahnhof. The people on the train thought we were hysterical for some and just kept laughing at us. It was really obvious we didn't belong there. Anyway, we finally get to Hauptbahnhof and then can't find it. So we have to ask the bus driver and he also laughs at us and points to a large dark building behind us that was under construction. We finally find the entrance and realize we have another three hours to wait before a train comes. At this point I am so frustrated and hungry and cold and really need to go the bathroom but it turns out the bathrooms are closed. We wait around for a bit, growing more and more frustrated, and then we see people coming in and out of this door. There was a large colorful spiral staircase that led to the door and there were no lights coming from it but people kept coming in and out. So I get chosen to explore it and I discover a little bar, internet cafe, games, and a bathroom. We end up spending the rest of our three hours in there, drinking and getting really loopy. FINALLY our train comes and we run to it and are just so happy to be there. We're a little drunk/loopy at this point because we've been traveling all day, haven't eaten very much and just had a few beers. It was a great train ride! We finally make it to Berlin around 1:30 in the morning, store our stuff at Berlin Hauptbahnhof, and go to this Irish Pub that was really cool. We met up with Justin, our host for that night/morning and a bunch of his friends. There were these two Irish guys, Connor and Dan. They were so funny! And apparently Dan and Crystal got married at some point in the night/morning. Anyway, around 5:00 am we left the Irish pub because we could now catch a bus to get back to Justin's room. It takes awhile to get there and we get to his room around 6:30 to discover that he really has nowhere for us to sleep except some couches in the main room. However, around 7:30 the Hausprecher (RA) comes in and starts yelling at us that we have to get out and sleep somewhere else. I think he said that anyway. I was too sleep deprived and angry to really listen to his German. We end up sleeping on Justin's floor, which was incredibly uncomfortable but at that point we just wanted sleep.
So after 14 hours, a couple beers, very little food, angry RA's, spending a few hours in the middle-of-nowhere Germany, we finally made it to Berlin. It was one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
Day 1: Saturday
After the getting there debacle, we wake up around 1:00 pm and pack and catch the bus/train/U-Bahn to our appartment. So amazing! We had our own beds, a kitchen, a living
r
oom, wireless internet (which sadly didn't work), a bathroom and a porch. It was incredible! We didn't really want to leave. Later that day we bought Doener (if anyone ever goes to Germany/Berlin, you must get Doener!) and groceries. We then dressed up in our animal print outfits (Crystal and I; Jana didn't have an animal print outfit to match us) and went out. There was a whole bunch of clubs but they were either playing mediocre music or had long lines. So we ended in this little club under a bridge that was really sketch but cool and danced until 4:00 or 
5:00 in the morning. We got back to our apparment at 5:30 and passed out.Day 2: Sunday
Woke up late, had a lazy morning, enjoyed our little living space. We went to see the Dominos that were set up for the Mauerfall and spent a couple hours wandering around them and taking pictures and taking it all in. We then bought coats cuz it was absolutely freezing and I hadn't really put a whole lot of thought into cold weather in Berlin. We again bought Doener and spent the night in our appartment watching funny German TV (a really bad dance exhibition show and a show that was kind of like American Idol, except a lot more ridiculous and in German) and American movies dubbed with German voices. That was a little weird. We then went to bed. Go us for being boring.
Day 3: Monday and Mauerfall!
Today was the anniversary of the Fall of the Wall (Nov. 9th). First we got Gemuesedoen
er (vegetable Doener, even more amazing) and went to Sonnenallee. There's a German movie, "Sonnenallee" and a book "Am kuerzeren Ende der Sonnenallee" and we read the book and saw the movie for class. Sonnenallee was a street that was split by the wall and the short end ended up in East Berlin. It was also a checkpoint, but almost everything is gone so there wasn't really a whole lot to see. But we did get a picture of us by the street sign. It was awesome. :) Then we went to the celebration of the Fall of Wall but that will take another post to describe.<3
Emily
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