Berlin!!!

Guten tag! So first off we deeply apologize for not blogging for so long!! We have been so busy in Berlin it has been unreal! We are exhausted but have been finding some time to rest up which has been nice! SO here is our new list of stuff from the time we left Florence on the night train...hope you enjoy! PROST!!

1. Night train: This was definitely an experience! We had 6 girls crammed in a little tiny cubby with probably a 2 foot floor in between 2 triple bunks. We were expected to sleep on this from 10pm to 6am when we arrived in Munich...umm...impossible! We were able to doze in and out a little bit but wow, it was crazy!!! Then we arrived in Munich and switched trains, taking another 6 hour train ride to Berlin. Let me tell you when we arrived in Berlin we were ready to get up and walk around FOR SURE! It was kind of eery though looking out the window of the train as we were traveling to Berlin because it was a lot of forest area and snow and it really reminded Alli of Band of Brothers series! Germany is a beautiful country though and everything is so much cleaner! The trains, the buses, the sidewalks and roads...everything! They recycle a lot here we learned and are very conscious of the environment which is a nice change from Italy!! It is much more modern too, unlike walking down the streets of Rome and passing the Colloseum or Forum or Trevi Fountain! Downtown Berlin is much more like New York or Seattle and is very upscale and modern so we absolutely love it!

2. Hostel: We werent sure what to expect when it came to living in a youth hostel for a week but our hostel is actually really nice! The rooms are very spacious and the bathrooms really nice and the cafeteria food actually is not bad at all! The guy at the front desk is super nice too and speaks pretty good English which is great because we know NO German whatsoever! The bar at the hostel is also open 24/7, which we discovered the other night when we had a little girls night and took down some wine...it was a lot of fun :) It really feels like summer camp at the hostel though which is actually kind of fun! We have 5 girls in our room, all the girls that we really get along with on the trip, and we have been having a great time. We play card games and pool and ping pong almost every night and its been a blast! We are also in room 116...which is funny because 11 in German is "elf" and 6 is "sex" so were in the "elf sex" room...haha we thought that was pretty funny.

3. Tours, tours, TOURS: We have been on a couple tours of the city which have been very interesting. We went on a 3 hour walking tour the other morning, which was FREEZING, but it was really interesting! There is a cobblestone line throughout the city which represents where the Berlin Wall stood and every once in a while you will cross it which is kind of creepy but so cool! We also walked through the Brandenberg Gate and went to Museum Island and the Jewish Memorial for all the Jews that were exterminated during WW11 which was really sad. We also went and stood above where Hitler had his bunker 40 feet underground and where he actually committed suicide....can you say creepy!!! We also went to the German History Musem which was so interesting for us because we are both very interested in WW11 history and the Holocaust and we were able to see real Nazi uniforms and tons of memorabilia from the war and the Berlin Wall and everything...it was AMAZING! We also went to the palace/castle of Frederick the Great which was absolutely beautiful! Everything was adourned in gold and silk and the bedrooms and study rooms were so amazing! So many beautiful antiques and history.

4. Brad and Angelina: So lets just say we missed Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the European premier of Benjamin Button by ONE FREAKING HOUR! They were at the Sony Center, a block away from our hostel, and some of the girls from our trip were randomly visiting the Sony Center when the premier occurred and got pictures of them and actually shook Brads hand! OH MY GOSH! But we took pictures of the red carpet that they walked on and hung around for a while, hoping to see them, but never did. Nevertheless, we were in the same town as them and thats good enough for us!!

5. Inauguration: So lats night we went to the second biggest inauguration party in the world next to the one in D.C. right here in Berlin!! It was so crazy....so many people and so much booze and we watched it on this huge screen tv and it was just out of this world. It was really interesting to see the reactions of people outside of our country to Bush and Obama. Everytime Bush came on the screen everyone boooed and flipped him off and yelled "asshole" and stuff...it was so weird. They also boooed at Rick Warren. But cheered and cheered for Obama. It was an incredible experience.

6. Too many souveniers: So we all know that we both have bought too much stuff to carry back to the US. We told you last blog that we were going to try to ship it back, but we figured out that was going to be too expensive and too much of a hassle to try to ship our wine back across borders. So we figured out that the hostel we are staying at has a locked luggage storage room that we can keep our stuff in while we go to London. So our plan is, we are staying in the hostel the last night when we get back from London before we head back to the U.S.A. And we found 2 suitcases today for dirt cheap that we bought. So were going to put our souveniers and wine and extra stuff in our new suitcases and store them while we go to London so we dont have to check anything to London and risk it getting lost, then all we have to do is pick it up when we get back to Berlin and each check one bag home to the US. That way it only has to get on the plane in Berlin back to the US and switch in Minneapolis, which should be safe. We figure this is our best bet!!!

So were running out of time on the internet here at dunkin donuts so were going to leave you now to go get some donuts and coffee! The next couple days involve some art galleries (woopie!) and a full free weekend to ourselves, where we will do a Berlin pub crawl which will be really fun. Mothers: dont worry!! Well update in the next couple days before the weekend...promise! Miss you all and love you all so much! Cant wait to come home and share pictures and our amazing experiences with you!

Bye bye!!