We are alive. Apologies if our lack of an updated blog has suggested otherwise. We arrived about midnight on Wednesday, after a 15-16 hour travel day. Hands down, the high point had to be the 1.5 mile run at sub 7:00 mile pace through Frankfurt Airport only to find that our flight was delayed by an hour. I’m fairly confident that I haven’t done anything like that since high school. Scott seemed to have been a bit more up to the task. After arriving in Berlin, Shane greeted us with pretzels and beer for the bus ride home. We checked out a couple local bars and crashed about 3am.
Berlin in the winter is absolutely the coldest place I’ve ever been, and I don’t care that I’m exaggerating. German winters have never heard of layering. Also, wool socks are useless. We stepped into the biting cold of morning and headed to the German History Museum for some Hitler exhibit action. Most of it was in German, but our tour guides (and gracious hosts) Shane and Morgan were able to translate most of it for us. The exhibit turned out to be a fascinating glimpse inside the head of one of the most infamously destructive men in history. Even after taking into consideration the terrible things he has done, its still an interesting and thought provoking topic to reflect upon, especially considering how recently it happened. There are many lessons that can be taken and applied to our own lives. The aesthetics and presentation of the exhibit were also very well done. After meandering about for a couple of hours, we tried going into the Reunification (of Berlin after the fall of the wall) Exhibit, but it didn’t seem like any of us could take in any more information. We left about 4 or 5 to head to a traditional outdoor Christmas Market near the museum, where we marveled over several spectacular food and drink booths. We tried not buying Bratwurst since it wasn’t quite dinner time, but that just wasn’t being realistic. The general satisfaction brought about by German meats bring soon disappeared as the cold set in again. We took cover in a nearby cathedral that turned out to house several extremely old sculptures and tombs depicting famous Germans. If you ever happen to find yourself in this or any similar cathedral, just remember not to use a tomb as a makeshift tripod and things should go just fine.
We headed to Friedrichstrass (not spelled right whatsoever) to check out the Rittersport chocolate store. Scott and Shane built there own chocolate bars using the available ingredients, which I believe ended up being gummy bears, corn flakes, chocolate candy, orange flavoring. Their excitement dissipated a bit after actually eating them. Morgan and I wisely opted out of this activity...but the idea still a cool one. For reasons that I will never know or understand, peppercorn and chili powder were also options. It’s no longer candy to me at that point.
Since Christmas markets are the thing to do during the holiday (rightfully so), we went to another and much larger one in Alexanderplatz. It was a scaled down version of the OC Fair, but actually had good food to blow your money on. This particular market wasn’t shitting around; we’re talking ice skating, carnival games, fun houses, petting zoo/pony rides, Gluwine (delicious, spiced hot wine) stands, roller coasters, and the most unstable and nauseating spinning swing ride of all time. We sampled a few glasses of Gluwine, and we bought the boot shaped mugs that its traditionally served in. We were a little surprised to learn that Germans have developed an affinity for Native Americans, made evident by the 5 or 6 street performers dressed head to toe in the garb. I think Germans appreciate Native American culture more so than Americans do, which is a bit unsettling.
I think we could’ve legitimately stayed at the market all night, but the 20 degree temps had drastically different ideas for us once again. Shane and Morgan took us to a local Turkish restaurant for dinner, where we enjoyed massive kebabs and beers. Went home afterward and watched Knocked Up / Bei Eresten Mal (Tr: The First Time) in German and tried to recreate lines in English. At this point we were so tired and devastated by cold that we decided to go to bed. Successful first full day in Berlin.
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