berlin

this last weekend, i met up with grace (my friend who was previously living in dublin for the year) in berlin!  we had discussed potentially visiting the city together when i was staying with her in april so it was great to actually have it come to fruition!  our flights arrived not long after one another so we rendezvous'ed at the airport then headed into town!

we stayed in the mitte district which is right in the middle of everything.  very artsy, lots of great asian restaurants around and quite hipster.  our airbnb guy was great--he had everything including a straightener & blowdryer for the ladies, two bikes that we could take out with locks, a netbook with a paid for spotify account and wireless printer.  jürgen is the man!

vietnamese lunch at monsieur vuong

the first day we spent checking out the touristy bits.  we stumbled upon checkpoint charlie and yes, we paid for the stamps in our passport!  judge away, but i thought they were cool looking, and i'm a stamp whore.  so there.  it's crazy to think that the wall only came down in 1989.  i have a friend (amelia) that i met in egypt who has lived in berlin the last 4 years now and said that berlin is still divided despite the wall not being there anymore.  for instance, people in the east still tend to make lower wages than people in the west.  there are also nicknames for people on each side.

we also headed to the topography of terror which is on the old grounds of the gestapo's headquarters.  there were a lot of informative panels but what surprised me was how much they actually revealed in some of the pictures.  there were pictures of people that were hanged, shot, etc. which were a bit jarring to see.  i guess it's good that they didn't try to cover up anything but rather acknowledging what happened.

part of the wall at the topography of terror

the exhibit at the topography of terror read the caption

the wall had a pipe on top to make it extra hard for people to climb over and on the left, they had it stick out so it would be harder for vehicles to hit it

the travel guide also had a few landmarks to check out so we followed that and saw an old watchtower that was still intact, the parking lot which is now above the bunker where hitler committed suicide, the holocaust memorial and finally the brandenburg gate.

one of the old watchtowers

the parking lot above hitler's bunker

holocaust memorial

a brick path shows where the wall once stood throughout the city

that night for dinner, we ate at one of lonely planet's recommendations: katz orange.  it was this organic farm to table situation and delicious!!  12 hour roasted short ribs?  yes please.  it was perfect way to end our first day.  side note: grace and i didn't really eat much german food while we were there, haha.  most of it ended up being asian because there was a lot around, and it was all so cheap!  well, i say that in comparison to dublin and london prices.

short ribs with yogurt sauce, cauliflower with bacon and goose fat fries

it was also necessary to end our evening after dinner because i started having trouble walking.  on thursday, while in london, i thought it would be great to enjoy the outdoors so i went with tish (coworker) to do our own bootcamp during our lunch break.  while trying to fitness, i notice that something bit me and i had a little blood by my left ankle.  i wiped it away and continued exercising.

fast forward to friday afternoon in the topography of terror, the bug bite has now gotten worse (probably also due to me itching it a bit) and my foot has slowly gotten more and more swollen!  it hurts a little to walk, but i push through because i'm in berlin and i'm not about to stay at home.  we get back to our flat after dinner and i ice my foot, put itch cream on it and hope it gets better in the morning.  well, it doesn't.

it is still massively swollen, i have kankles and it really hurts to walk.  grace was amazing and went out to find me some pills from a pharmacy and after enough 'warming up' time, i'm able to slowly hobble around.

kankles!!!

saturday we spent taking it easy because of my leg, so we do a bit of birkenstock shopping.  we're oregon hippies and they were much cheaper in germany!  we headed over to the east side gallery where a good part of the wall is still standing.  some of the artwork on the walls was so intricate and beautiful.

sights on our walk

east side gallery

for dinner we met up with my friend amelia and had a great time catching up.  it's been about 5 years since cat and i were in egypt so we had a lot to talk about.  i've been very lucky to meet people on my travels that i've been able to see again!  with grace moving to foster city, we're pushing for our next rendezvous with amelia to be in san francisco :)

amelia and i

i woke up on sunday and the foot was still not better.  it was still extremely swollen and the area where i was bit was turning colors, my skin was hard, and it had now begun traveling up my shins a bit.  so...we went to urgent care!  the germans could work a little more on being polite.  for example, i call the hospital and ask if the man speaks english, he says yes, and i say, 'i think i need to come to the hospital.' homie says 'ok, what happened?' so then i start explaining what happens for him to interrupt me, annoyed sounding, slightly yelling, saying 'why are you telling me this!? what do you want me to do!?' are you freaking kidding me!? did you not just ask me what happened!? ughhhh. anyway, i went in, they took blood, i almost fainted (stood up too quickly after they took blood), confirmed it wasn't an infection and off i went with 600 mg ibuprofen pills and a prescription for anti-inflammatory gel.  i fear for my hospital bill!  thank goodness for grace!  she was amazing and kept me sane throughout this ordeal.

the ibuprofen helped so i was able to continue sightseeing, albeit at a slower pace.  we went to mauerpark based on amelia's recommendation.  on sunday, there is an irish guy who sets up this karaoke mobile in this stone amphitheater that seats 2,000 people.  we got there just before it kicked off and it was packed!  people raised their hands and he'd just randomly pick a person and they'd go down and sing their heart out.  we watched for a while and really enjoyed it!  most people sang english songs though one guy sang a german one.  i guess he's a regular!  the park also has a big flea market on sundays which we caught the tail end of.

this guy sang new york, new york. it was great!

to end our trip, we visited their parliament building, the reichstag, at 9:30pm because you have to make reservations to go inside and see the dome.  they are very serious about their security--we had to bring our passports!  the building is very old and then you have this huge modern dome that has been built on top after the reunification of the country.  because we were there at night, we had great views of the city though they don't have much of a skyline.  the dome has this prism of mirrors that sits right on top of the chamber where the bundestag meets.  we learned from the audio guide that the mirrors are used to help bring light into the chamber, and then they have this huge sun screen that moves around the dome so they don't get glare!

the reichstag

see the seats below?

we found ourselves in the mirrors

my camera sucks, but so does their skyline

i had such a great time in berlin with grace despite the drama with the foot!  i said bye at the wee hours of the morning to grace.  she heads to stockholm to continue her last bit of traveling before she returns to the land of the free while i headed back to london to start work.  monday was rough to say the least, but worth it!

our last night! brandenburg gate in the background.