Prague, Part 2/Berlin, Part 1

Day three of Prague found us taking a tour of the Prague Castle and surrounding areas, which wasn't nearly as interesting as the FREE tour of Prague we took the day before. Also, the tour included a constant threat of rain, which wasn't much fun either. We did have our tour guide from the day before, so the continuity in our Prague trip was funny. After the tour, we went for another typical Czech meal, which was goulash and a potato pancake. We also accompanied it with a lot of beer, which is also in typical Czech style (they are the number one consumer per capita of beer). We ended the night with rummy in the hostel (what else is new), and got ready for the trip to Berlin.

As has been the norm for our train rides, no major snafus. The only thing that was slightly off was the confusion between the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn train systems we had to use to get to the hostel, but we finally made it. We're staying at The Circus, which I guess could be described as a "boutique hostel..." it's really nice. We spent the evening going to museums (I am officially museum-ed out, by the way), seeing the Gate of Ishtar and the Pergamon, and seeing the Bust of Nefertiti. Fun stuff (right?) but I was ready to get out of there.

In the evening, Mr. Peter Koltak was in town, so he came over to the hostel and we all enjoyed happy hour together (CHEAP happy hour!). It was good times, but we ended up turning in pretty early.

In the morning, we went on ANOTHER FREE TOUR! This time, with a Scot named Inez. Inez was great, the tour was awesome, and we finally could put all of the WWII stuff we learned in Munich into context. They set up these tours like a story, and you hear about stuff as you're right there. They've really got it down to a system. We tipped Inez, and got Indian food. Then, it was laundry time! After laundry, we went on the pub crawl for our tour group. IT WAS THE BEST. We started out at a bar called Zapata, which I guess can only be described as a hippie peyote trip at the beach. It's an outdoor bar in East Berlin, and there is art and rope lights and graffiti everywhere. It was also an outdoor bar, but instead of grass or concrete, it's all sand. Really cool. We went to three bars after that, and then showed up at a dance club, which wasn't much fun... and also really far away from the hostel. Ashley and I managed to navigate just fine though, and we got back to the hostel in one piece.

On day three, we went back to the Brandenburg Gate, where the World Championships in Athletics were happening... and we ended up watching the World Championships of speed walking... I swear. it was so weird to see people all excited about speed walkers. We also went to the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall (which is much smaller than you'd think) and I got a Dolores burrito again. We had heard about a cheap bar where you pay a cover, and then drink whatever you want... but we were skeptical.

IT'S TRUE! Berlin has a bar where you pay 2 Euro, get a glass, and then sample all kinds of wine... and then pay what you think you drank. It's a pretty cool concept. We had our fair share of wine, and then went back to the hostel, thinking we would go down to the hostel bar to see what was up. As we walked by the cafe in front of the hostel. Someone yelled "Muck Fichigan!" (I was wearing that shirt yesterday). We ended up meeting a group of people, who I guess hate Michigan, and hanging out with them for the rest of the night, and we took them back to Zapata. Great night.

Today, Ashley and I haven't done much; we just got Mexican food and now we're thinking of seeing a movie. Our capacity for being hardcore tourists is kind of dwindling... I guess you can only do so much.

I love Berlin, though. I could see myself coming back here in the future. Everything is so clean, and interesting. It's weird to think that twenty years ago, you couldn't walk between West and East Berlin like we've been doing. Bizarre. I'm gonna run... in 27 hours, I'll be in Amsterdam!