Berlin

We are a little delayed in updating the blog after spring break, but better late than never! Let us preface with letting you know that we ate lots and lots of food, and the pictures corroborate that. We have a saved map of our favorite places if anyone is interested in where we traveled (http://goo.gl/maps/Vkak2)

The first part of our spring break was spent in Berlin, Germany. Berlin was quite a change of scenery from Rome, where the weather was warming up for Spring. Berlin, on the other hand, was covered in snow and snowed most of the time we were there.We arrived in the afternoon and had to take the city bus from the airport to our hostel. This bus was supposed to go directly to the hostel, but about halfway through, the bus driver stopped and told everyone to get off. We still don't know exactly what happened, since the bus driver spoke in German. Luckily, he dropped us off at the main train station, so we were able to go inside and get directions to the hostel from there.

We eventually made our way to the hostel, which was in an amazing location in the city center. The hostel was decent. Our room was very small, but had everything we needed. We had to share bathrooms with the rest of the hall. The showers were pretty awful. The lights were motion censored and would randomly turn off after the time ran out, since you were no longer in the sensors line of sight. The water was the biggest problem. The faucet was one of those where you press it and water comes out for about 10 seconds, then turns off. This resulted in you trying to shower and constantly pressing the faucet to keep the water going, and if you didn't press it in time the water would turn off on you.

We forgot to take pictures so this is from their website

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel, we made our way to Curry 61 for lunch. Currywurst is a very popular street food in Berlin. It is a curry sausage sprinkled with curry powder and then topped with a curry tomato sauce and served with french fries. It was very cold in Berlin and we were really hungry for lunch, which made the warm currywurst even more tasty. On our way back from Curry61, we came across a little market, and saw a stand where a woman was serving homemade streusel. We got really good apple streusel with vanilla sauce. Next, we went to visit the Brandenburg Gate, Berliner Dom, DDR Museum, and Reichstag.

Currywurst with ketchup and mayo

Streusel

Berliner Dom. One of the largest protestant churches

Brandenburg Gate

The German parliament building the Reichstag

Visiting these sites took up the rest of the afternoon, and then we made our way to Bejte, an Ethiopian restaurant, for dinner. The restaurant was small and cozy. We chose to sit at the traditional, Ethiopian tables, instead of the typical restaurant tables. The traditional section consisted of benches with pillows and stools. There is a round table in front of you where the food was served, and you set your drinks on a table to the side. I ordered Ethiopian mango beer, which was delicious. Stefan had a traditional Ethiopian beer, which was also really good. We didn't understand the menu because it was in German/Ethiopian, so we weren't sure what to order. Our waiter, who was the owner, spoke English and was extremely nice and helpful. He recommended the platter for two that consisted of meats and vegetables, which is what we ended up ordering. The food was incredible, and I wish we had time to go back there again.

Mango Beer

Our food

Day 2 in Berlin consisted of a lot of walking. We made our way to Checkpoint Charlie and then to the Topography of Terror (an amazing exhibit on the Third Reich). After visiting both those sites, we headed back towards our hostel. It was Easter and right around the corner was a festival. We stopped and got a bratwurst and potato pancakes with applesauce. We then made our way to Dolores Burritos (like a Chipotle). We have been deprived of "Mexican" food and just had to jump on the opportunity to eat it. Afterwards we walked around the city exploring a little more and thawed out at our hostel. That night we tried a Vietnamese restaurant, where we ordered spring rolls and wanton soup. Unfortunately  we were so full from all the food we had eaten earlier in the day, we didn't have the appetite for an entree but wanted something warm.

Checkpoint Charlie

Potato Pancakes with Applesauce

Delores

Day 3 began with us sleeping in and then walking around. I haven't mentioned this yet, but there was a Dunkin Donuts right by our hostel. I was thrilled to be able to order a bagel with cream cheese and most importantly, a black coffee, since all you can find in Rome are stronger coffees (the caffe americanos we have tried have not been very good). It was also so cold all day, that we stopped in again in the afternoons to get a warm drink (usually Chai tea for me)...of course we also got a doughnut. So, after getting my morning coffee and bagel, we decided to walk around for a bit and then make the trip to Mustafa's for a Doner Kabap. It was the best Kabap we have ever eaten, filled with meat, vegetables (cucumber, lettuce, tomato, onion) and sauces. On our way back from Mustafas, we stopped into Ritter Sport, a chocolate company. You can make your own chocolate bars there, and we each made our own. Much of the day consisted of walking around trying to burn off all of the food we ate.

Kebap

Chocolate bars

After leaving Ritter Sport, we headed to the meeting place for a 4 hour walking tour. Our guide was very nice and knowledgeable. He took us to many different sites in Berlin and gave us the history. It was so cold out, and I was freezing the entire time, but in the end I had learned a lot and I'm really glad we did the tour. We ended up visiting a few sections of the Berlin wall, museum island, the area hitlers bunker was located, and quite a few other preserved former soviet sections of East Berlin.

Art museum

Another museum on museum island

Jewish Memorial

TV tower

The tour ended right by one of the most famous chocolate stores in Berlin, so naturally we had to visit. We purchased an assortment of truffles and looked at the chocolate statues they had displayed. After leaving the chocolate store we went back to the Easter festival, which was still going on. We got a pastry and sat at picnic benches and listened to live music. While we were sitting in Berlin at an Easter festival, eating our pastry, and listening to live music, it started to snow..I thought it was a really cool moment.

For dinner we made a trip to "The Bird," a burger joint in Berlin. We both ordered to huge burgers and fries. Mine just had cheddar, but Stefan's had chili and cheddar. The burgers were served with english muffins as buns, which we thought was a unique idea. Both our burgers were delicious and quite filling. After leaving The Bird, we went back to the hostel to pack and get ready to leave for Munich in the morning.