We arrived in Berlin and realized we had a problem. We hadn't checked where our hostel was located in Berlin before we left Prague.  We stopped and asked tourist information and they sent us out to what seemed to be the ghetto of Berlin to check in.  After walking about 30 minutes we got to our hostel and were greeted with good and bad news.  The good news was that our hostel is actually downtown close to the action with the bad news that we had wasted almost an hour going to the wrong hostel.  So we schlepped back downtown to our hostel and checked in. It was a very modern hostel and one of the better ones we had stayed at.  We had a roommate, but only actually saw him in the middle of the night when he got in, and then again before we got up as he packed and left.

 

Upon arriving in Berlin, the train station was crazy.  There were hundreds of Germans running around blowing whistles, horns and shouting in German.  It turns we had arrived about an hour before one of the German world cup matches at the stadium a few blocks from the train station.  We were immediately caught up in all the world cup madness.  Everywhere we went in Berlin was covered with world cup fever.  There were little booths everywhere selling food and souvenirs.  We decided to head out immediately and see what was going on, after a shower of course.  By the time we got a shower and found our hostel the match was over but the fan zone in downtown was still crazy.  They had what was called "The Miles of TV's" which were more accurately giant movie theater sized screens for a full mile where thousands upon thousands of fans could crowd and watch the game.  We hung out there for a while and then headed for the capital building.  At the top of the building is a giant glass sphere with a spiral walkway that you can walk to the top of and see the whole city.  It was really nice, but difficult to get any good pictures through the glass.  We then strolled down the main street and saw many of the historical buildings. At one of the squares they had an art display of bear statues.  Each of the bears was decorated by an artist of every country to represent their country.  It was fun to walk around and see all the artist interpretations of what represented their country.  We walked around a bit longer and decided to grab a bite to eat.  There was a row of food stands behind our hostel all set up for the world cup.  We ate there and watched part of whatever match was on TV before calling it a night.

 

The next morning we set out to see some of Berlin's history.  Our first stop was Checkpoint Charlie and The Berlin Wall museum.  The museum was quite moving.  It showed how the wall really effected life there in Berlin along with some of the techniques used to make the wall effective.  The museum is located right at Checkpoint Charlie which is the American checkpoint for leaving the US sector.  Most of you have seen the picture of the sign from Berlin saying "You are now leaving the American Sector". This is at Checkpoint Charlie.  From there we headed to the SS open-air museum.  At this site they have a portion of the wall still standing.  It is battered, but still there and sight in itself.  The SS museum was okay, but in the middle of the day we cut it short to find somewhere cool to rest.  We found rest in a small square that just so happened to have a famous chocolate shop.  Once we located the shop we decided that the best plan was to purchase a handful of different chocolates and sit in the park (in the shade) and try them all.  It was a great way to just relax a bit.  After the first bag we had to have just a bit more.  We bought a second round and decided to video journal our reactions.  This time there were a few more gross ones but a few that were better than we had in the first batch.  After our rest we decided to call it a day.  We headed back to the hostel to watch one of the world cup matches and spend some time hanging out with people in the hostel.

 

The third day was shopping day. We were leaving that night and each of us wanted to get a few souvenirs before leaving.  We headed KaDeWe, the largest shopping center in Europe.  When the wall came down in berlin, may of the Germans flocked to this store as their first stop.  It has 6 floors and is huge!  It was kind of set up like a mall but with out each shop having it's own store.  There was a section that sold all kinds of drinks, next to a cheese store, two dessert shops, cookware, and an electronics section.  We each picked up a few things, and one of our greatest finds was Mountain Dew.  All you can buy at a restaurant, cafe, or sausage stand is Coke or Sprite.  We were tired of coke, so Mountain Dew was a great find.  I was also craving some apple juice for some reason and picked up this huge 1.5 liter bottle of apple juice.  However for some reason the europeans like to ruin all their drinks with gas (carbonation).  The apple juice was disgusting and a waste of my money.  From there we had a nice lunch right outside the store and walked around the open market just down the street.  There we were able to find some souvenirs but couldn't find the World Cup shirt I wanted.  The neat thing was this market was all surrounding an old bombed out church.  If we weren't paying attention we could have missed it.  I was glad to see that they had left some of the ruins from the war, instead of knocking them all down to rebuild as they often do.  The church is now a tiny museum about the church and how they still had services even though the steeple was missing.  In order to find the World Cup shirt I wanted we headed back to the Fan Zone we had been to two days before.  There they had the "official" World Cup store.  I was able to get my shirt and one for my dad as well.  Brandon and I decided to sit down for a while and catch some of whatever world cup game was coming on the big screen.  I guess it was Italy and someone because there were tons of Italy fans there.  We watched a bit of the match and then made our way back to the hostel to pack up and make our evening train to Amsterdam.