I left here at 11 am and arrived in Berlin around 5:30. I didn't have to change trains anywhere which was nice. At one point a guy sat down next to me and we sat there in awkward silence (he didn't have a book or anything) for a while. Finally, being the friendly American that I am (stereotype: we're friendly) I asked him (in German) where he was going. He told me he was going home and then asked, after looking at my book on my lap, if I spoke English (in English). I told him yes and he asked if he could practice because he was going to have training in a couple months that was all going to be in English. So we talked for the last hour of my trip. He's in the German army and explained how it was different from the American army. Needless to say his English was pretty good, but I was able to translate a few words that he forgot.
I got to Berlin at 5:30 where Christof met me at the Platform wearing his Leland hat, "so I'd recognize him." He asked if I was hungry, which I wasn't and suggested that we go back to his apartment, drop my stuff off and go see the city. I was ready to move after being on the train for so long so I was game. We went took the U-bahn back to his place and then caught a bus that takes you past basically all the main sites in Berlin. It was kind of cold and rainy, but it was still cool to see the Reichstag, Brandenburger Tor, Siegessäule, and other places. We went to get hot chocolate at a Humboldt University café and walked to Museum Island and saw where Angela Merkel lives. There are always two police standing guard outside. We went to Gendarmes Platz where I learned that grandiose is also a German word (Grandiös). We eventually made our way back to his apartment to make dinner which after a glass of wine we finally ate around 11/11:30.
The next morning he had a class from 9-2 so I was on my own to get into the city and wander around. I went back to a lot of the sites that we had seen by night on Friday. I went to Checkpoint Charlie and read the history which was interesting. When I got coffee at Einstein Coffee a lady stopped me in the door and asked me if I was Martina Shurz from the party. Her husband agreed with her (all this occurring in German) that I looked like Martina and they double checked to make sure that I wasn't Martina. I assured them that I had no idea who she was, but I wasn't her. I met up with Christof in Gendarmes Platz where he met me after his incredibly dull municipal law class. We were both hungry so decided to go to Kreuzberg to find some Turkish food. We ended up at a restaurant where we had to take off our shoes and sit cross-legged at the table. It was really good, I had a combination plate of chicken, pita, hummus, and some kind of salad. We had just enough time to get to the Dome where we could attend a "short service" and get to see an amazing building for free. It ended up that there was a Mendelssohn Bertholdy organ sonata concert. The music made the entire building vibrate and it was interesting to hear the service in German. We walked through Potsdamer Platz and back to his apartment where we again had dinner talked and went to bed.
Conversation with Christof was interesting and even though I didn't practice as much German as I would have liked, I definitely enjoyed the debates and discussions we had. He's very well versed in American politics and since I know a decent amount about the EU by now it was great being able to go back and forth. He thinks that Hillary should be the next president and is fairly Euro-skeptic.
Sunday we tried to go to the castle at the end of his street, but the good parts were closed so we just walked through the garden instead. I love imagining how it must have been when all those old buildings were actually functional and had people living in them. They have a three story building just for having tea!! After that we had Döners for lunch and went to a museum. The museum was a private collection of Picasso, Klee, and Matisse that some guy owned (he also knew the artists) and then donated for a museum. After that I packed up my stuff and we went to the Soviet Memorial that was erected in Western Berlin on demand of the Soviets and then it was off to the train for a ride back.
Once back in Freiburg I ran into Kate, Jessica and Kelsie who had a much more eventful ride back than I did. My biggest story was that a fat, smelly man sat next to me and ate a sandwich, they had a bachelor party that tried to get them involved and a body that had to be cleaned off the tracks near Frankfurt. It was a great weekend and fun to explore on my own, but also nice to get back and feel somewhat at home.
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