BERLIN!!
Our itinerary for our second 10 day break: Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest
Berlin was the start of our 10 day adventure – german is in my blood so I knew this was going to be a good time! Mind you… we had to take an overnight train to this fantastic place. For all of you who do not know what an overnight train is… listen up! Basically it is a normal train. Think harry potter compartments within the trains. In the carts are bunk bed attached to the wall – 3 beds stacked on one side and 3 on the other. Did I mention that the compartments are the size of a normal sized pantry and that there are 6 girls with 6 luggage that need to also be fit in the compartments??? This was what you call a “clusterf*ck”. Ohhhh I do not like traveling with girls. By this time.. it was late, we were all hangry (anger caused by hunger) and lucky for us, we were all sinked up… and by sinked up I mean since we have been traveling all together, apparently this causes girls to start having their periods at the same time. I do not need to farther explain the excitement of traveling to Berlin… but I am very happy it is over.
We get to berlin and we get to our hostel which is quite nice, Wombats. If you recall earlier, we stayed in another Wombats when we went to Munich. This hostel reminded me more of a hotel – very clean and we had our own showers in our room!! (this is called en suite… I think). Since we were there pretty early, we decided to go out and see a couple of things – we were located right in the middle of Berlin so most of the attractions were close by (and by close, I mean that there are only 3 things to see really…)
FOOD
The food in Berlin was amazing. I was so happy to step outside of my comfort zone and order something besides a burger!! There is this thing called schnitzel – I am not quite sure what it is, but its basically like… fried meat. I think the meat is like.. lambbbb orr venison? I have no idea but it was delightful!! The second thing that is super German to eat is spetzle. OMG I love spetzle. It was the most amazing thing I have eaten in a while. Spetzle is literally… mac n cheese with a german twist. And I love mac n cheese. It was basically fancy mac n cheese with peppers and onions and it was very deliciously awesome. I ate both spetzle and schnitzel at this beer house which I cant remember the name of (of course) but it was located near the train station.
The germans also love their bratwursts. Brats on brats on brats. Currywurst (brats with curry) bratwurst (hotdogs basically) There were shops everywhere over berlin selling them, so it was a quick, cheap lunch to get for the few days we were there.
For some reason… Europe does not believe in the art of eating Mexican food. I have been craving Mexican since the 4th day I have been in Europe (January 9th). That is a long time, btw. It was our mission (and when I say “our” I mean… “my” mission..) to find a sit down legit Mexican restaurant. And we were successful!! We ate at this amazing Mexican restaurant 3 min walk from our hostel. Now, It was either because I was craving Mexican, I was starving, or it was just simply delicious… but the food was amazing. I miss queso (cheese) sooooo much. I miss burrioes. I miss having to unbutton my pants after dinner because I ate too many rice and beans. Thank GOD that the germans have some Mexican flavaah in their blood that they were kind enough to grace me with a meixcan restaurant. YUM.
PLACES TO SEE!
So the biggest things to see in Berlin are: The Berlin wall (duh), checkpoint Charlie (the place if you wanted to get from west berlin to eat berlin, you had to go through this checkpoint to cross the other side), and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
The berlin wall was awesome. Definitely something I was very fortunate to see!! The part of the wall we saw was the famous place where there is graffiti on the one side (west) and then actual act on the other side (east). What an experience!!
NIGHTLIFE!
Berlin is known for their crazy nightlife and they like to stay up until 6am because apparently that’s normal. I am known for being crazy but not at night.. and I like to go to bed by 1am if I am going out… berlin and I did not match well together. BUT – the clubs were cool and fun with good music and good company. I am getting old… I can barely hang with these young people anymore!
Berlin wasn’t as cool at Munich (refer to my time in Munich) but it was still great to be able to eat some of the best food I have yet! Next stop, PRAGUE!
CIAO FOR NOW!
