More Berlin

Ok, so are you tired of hearing about Berlin? Well, the best part is coming up...


So the picture that I wanted to show you in the "Germany" blog was one of the Parliament building which is very close to the Brandenburg gate. Right outside the parliament building, the sidewalk marked where the Berlin Wall used to be.

We also went to Checkpoint Charlie, where we also saw one of the last pieces of the Berlin Wall for the first time. After that we enjoyed a German pastime: eating ice cream in a park.

The evening before we went back to Mannheim, we hung around in our hostel room. It was a little small, had 3 sets of bunkbeds, each of which was very uncomfortable, and since there was no AC, we were even more uncomfortable because of the heat. We also had to PAY for a set of sheets AND a towel. I was not a happy camper, and they charged a very high amount of money to use the internet, and half of the few computers they had didn't work. I guess that is just the hostel experience, though.

Now for the fun part. I mentioned earlier in another post that I had forgotten my eurail pass and decided to use a Schoenes Wochenende ticket to get back to Mannheim. Well, that turned out to be a bad idea. That ticket only allows a person to use the slow trains, and if think about the fact that the fast train took 5 hours, you can imagine how long it took to get back to Mannheim. Unfortunately for me, my friends decided to take the fast train back to Mannheim (not that I blame them; I wouldn't wish my trip on anybody!) so I had to go by myself. The first train left the Berlin station at 8:00 that saturday morning, and I was supposed to arrive in Mannheimat a liitle after 6 that evening. Now the slower trains do not travel very long distances, so I had to change trains 4 times. Catching the first train was no problem, but when I got off of that one to catch the next one, there was already a train there, and my train wasn't supposed to depart for another 15 minutes or so. I didn't realize until after that train left at the time my train was supposed to, that I should have gotten on that one. at that point I was calmly hysterical. On the outside, I was fairly composed, but on the inside, I was screaming and kicking myself for not asking if it was my train, wondering what I should do next, etc. I decided to go to the Reisezentrum, where people buy their tickets, all the while trying to figure out how to explain my problem in German. I decided that I would ask the person behind the counter if they spoke English, and then go from there. I still didn't know what I would do if they didn't speak English. Unfortunately she didn't, and through my tears (I wasn't calm on the outside anymore) I showed her my schedule, and she realized I missed my train, and she printed out a new schedule for me. The next train was in two hours from then, which pushed back my arrival in Mannheim to after 8 that evening. Long story short (too late, I know) I was on a train for 12 hours that day. By the end of it, I was exhausted, miserable, and had a splitting headache. Almost immediately when I got home, which was around 9 o'clock, I went to sleep and didn't wake up again until almost 9 the next morning. So that was my trip to Berlin! since then I have gone to Schweztingen and Heidelberg, and will probably be going to Cologne this weekend. Tschues!