Today this party loses one man and gains two more. I left Matt in Italy on his way to class when I grabbed the 9:45 Aerobus to BLQ, Bologna's airport. Once there, security was a breeze and I had some time to hang out before my 11:30 flight. When I left Bologna, it was sunny with no clouds in the sky, a big change from the days of rain before. However, when I landed in Berlin, it was at least 10 degrees Celsius colder and raining once again. Was leaving the wrong choice?
A quick cab to the hostel brought me face-to-face with my girlfriend Maddie and my friend Chris! They had flown in at 12:30 and had spent an hour walking around. Our hostel, the Hotel4Youth, is situated on e road, Bernaur Strausse, one of the walls the Berlin Wall ran along. The museum and walking portion began only a block from our hotel, so we dropped our luggage off and walked around the memorial. Because the wall has been mostly dismantled (though some pieces still remain up for posterity's sake), red poles stood where the wall once stood. It was crazy watching a young girl roll her backpack through the poles on her way home from school while imagining that her parents could never have done that even 22 years ago. We walked the whole length of the outdoor exhibit, like 4 or 5 blocks worth, and learned a lot about that divisive time in Berlin's history.
Afterwards, we went to Berlin's Museum of Natural History which was INCREDIBLEEEEE. They have the world's tallest dinosaur, which stands 42 feet tall, and the worlds largest wet collection, over 90,000 jars of dead amphibians, fish, and reptiles. The wet collections were all in a big glass room that looked like the prophesy room from Harry Potter. The museum also had very interesting rooms about dinosaurs, the solar system, minerals, evolution of species, taxidermy, and display making. The collection was enormous and it was well worth the 3 Euros.
Our next stop was dinner. We chose a German restaurant and each ordered a different item: goulash, ribs, and bratwurst. The food was delicious and we had our first beers there too. Afterwards, we continued to explore the city in the rain by walking a couple miles. We started from the restaurant in Oranienberg Tor, walked down to Unter den Linden (the main boulevard), walked over to the Brandenberg Gate and the Reichstag, walked the other way up Unter dee Linden to see Humboldt University, Museum Island, a cathedral, the NationalHistory Museum, and two Christmas markets, and the all the way back to our hostel on Bernaur Strausse. We didn't enter any of the buildings but just admired the way they were lit up. Dead from our long walk, we turned in early for the night by like 10 pm.
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