A Little Bit Of Everything : Berlin Trip 2014- Day 4

Monday- Day 4

Another early start.....well for us anyway. Another morning of a frantic dash for everyone to use the bathroom and have breakfast in time for us meeting outside the front of our hostel. This morning we headed to the East of Berlin to visit the East Side Gallery. The East side gallery is where artwork has been painted on to the Berlin wall to commemorate the wall coming down and to celebrate the overcoming of the Iron Curtain in Europe. It is the longest outdoor gallery in the world with more than 3 million visitors a year. We were able to walk along the wall at our own pace which was great as I loved looking at the work. Lots of it was very symbolic and showed clearly what it was trying to portray where as some were more abstract and harder to work out. I will insert some of my favourite pieces bellow. Half way through the gallery, there is a break in the wall where you can see a beautiful river. There was a cafe there where we stopped for a drink and supposedly to have lunch but it was still quite early so no one really ate much! We sat outside as again it was a wonderful day . Looking out on the river was magical and really made me appreciate everything we had done on the trip! We stuck our legs out in the sun in the hope of getting a slight tan (although we were pretty unsuccessful). Once everyone was done, we got up and continued along the wall looking at more artwork. The wall came to an end and we all regrouped and headed to the train station which was only a 2 min walk away. We went to a museum which was close to where we had been the previous day. It was an odd museum but very interactive and based on (I think) a typical Berliners life. Aspects of it were interesting but I must admit I was getting slightly bored. Luckily we were aloud to leave when ever we liked and aloud to explore the local area. I bought a massive pretzel of a pretzel man in the street as now I was starting to get quite hungry. Our group all met back up together in the green area again outside the Berlin Cathedral where luckily there were no people trying to soak us! After regrouping we took a walk to the traditional East Berlin shop. This shop supposedly sold all stuff traditionally sold in East Berlin. It was not a tourist shop but sold some good things. I bought a couple of presents for my parents and brother in there and some amazing boiled sweets for myself which were amazing! After leaving there we went to the university that my German teacher studied at. It was a beautiful building with a book sale out the front. My teacher was adorable and was getting really excited about being there. Only a couple of us and the teachers had a quick look inside and my German teacher excitedly grabbed the other teachers to get a group photo. It was lovely to see her so happy to be in the place she had grown up! It was very hot now and people were getting tired and quite irritable. Never the less we trekked on next visiting a small memorial to commemorate all the books that were burnt by the Nazi regime. There was a glass panel on the floor with inside a load of empty shelves with enough space to hold all the books that were burnt. Although it is seemingly quite a simple concept, I really liked it and thought it was very effective! Our next stop (yes we were still going) was to Gendarmenmarkt. A big market square which did not have a market (?) but did have two identical churches parallel to each other. Don't ask me for the story I have no clue, all I know was that the architecture was pretty impressive! And on we trekked further to checkpoint Charlie. The name given by the western allies to the best known wall crossing point between East and West Berlin. We did not stay long but it was just interesting to see. There were two American soldiers there posing for pictures but you had to pay 2 euros for such a prestigious picture (not). Finally we were on the Home Stretch and heading back towards Potsdammer Platz (where we went the second evening). That evening that we went we did not get to explore much of the area but there is actually a big shopping centre there. We were given some shopping time which was great but my friends and I needed to sit down and relax for a while first as we were exhausted! We went to a super market and bought some water and snacks. I bought a bag of carrots which may sound strange but they were a life saver! I just sat in the shopping centre eating carrots while getting some strange looks. We looked around some of the shops and then got an ice cream. Again this ice cream was very cheap but amazing! It tasted so good. We still had a bit of time left over before we had to meet so we sat on a grassy area outside near the tube station. We were still exhausted so it was nice having a break! We all met again and got on the train back to the hostel. When we got to the hostel we had about half an hour to get ready for dinner, which we were having at the hostel. That evening we were going out swimming so we put on our bikinis and then some clothes over the top. As girls we were all worrying about our appearance and whether we looked fat but after some powerful inspiring speeches we decided not to care (which was defiantly for the best)! The dinner was the same in which we had had the first night but it was still good. Then once we were done, we grabbed our bags from upstairs and headed to the train station. The place was not to far away but once we arrived it was a good 10-15min walk. When we arrived we were all shocked at how amazing the pool was! It was an outdoor pool placed slightly above the river. It was stunning as it was nearly dusk and the sun was a bright red! We chucked our stuff down and headed to get straight in. I was very nervous and self conscious but once I eventually got in it was fine. Although the temperature of the pool was pretty cold you just had to keep moving. It was great swimming around and laughing with friends. It was definitely a great way to spend the last evening. We only spent about half an hour in there as any longer time longer than that would probably freeze our toes of. We all got out in dribs and drabs. I headed to the toilets to get changed where now I was freezing. Getting into dry clothes was a lovely feeling. There was a little stand which was selling chicken wraps and quite a lot of people were getting them (as we were all quite hungry now). I waited in line and when I finally got there they told me there was no more chicken left! I could have cried (I nearly did). As I went back to the others with tears in my eyes we began to pack our stuff up and get ready to leave. We left and headed back to the train station and got on a train back to the hostel. AGAIN, it was past 11:00 when we go back so AGAIN straight to our rooms! We were allowed to buy some snacks from the Vending Machine for the journey tomorrow though. In our rooms we had a bit of a jamming session to my music (which everyone else hated) so I just partied on my ones! We stayed up the latest that night! About 4:30 in the morning! We had so much energy after that swim! We spent that time packing our bags and chatting. I really enjoyed that evening. It was upsetting knowing that we would be going home the next day!