More walking.

Plus talking.

During the morning tour of Berlin, I met Dana, a Canadian traveling for four months around Europe. After the tour we decided to stick together, eat lunch, and explore a bit more of the city on our own.

Before I get into that, here are a few photos I missed from the tour.

The Brandenburg Gate is one of the main symbols of Berlin… but perhaps even more famous is a certain balcony at the Hotel Adlon.

Look familiar? It’s where crazypants Michael Jackson dangled his baby!

Walking around with Dana we sought out a few museums and chatted about our travels. Our first stop was the DDR Museum. It’s an interactive museum that showcases what life was like in East Germany. On the whole, the museum was interesting, though crowded. A few displays were a bit strange… like when you open a drawer marked “Childhood in the GDR” and see a creepy baby doll staring back at you.

Next we took a long walk to find a museum that shows what school was like in East Germany. Apparently they aren’t too fond of visitors there because although the sign was marked open, we were hastily ushered back outside. Instead we ended up at a museum mostly all in German displayig the life and furniture of a family whose importance was unclear. Oh well.

The rest of the afternoon we kicked around Alexanderplatz and enjoyed the sunny weather.

After bidding farewell to Dana, I shifted hostels. This was the place I planned to stay all along. I don’t know if I understand exactly what’s going on there… but it seems to be some sort to community center/hostel/commune type place. On the premises is the hostel, a kindergarten, bike repair, a kiln, and performance spaces.

The signs reading “People before profits.” made me smile, but I’m not sure if they are somehow affiliated with the Irish political party.

That night I met up with my friend Sandra for dinner. I met Sandra in high school when she was an exchange student. She decided to continue her studies in the United States before returning to Germany about 3 years ago. It was so fun to catch up and hear all about living in Berlin.

xo, jill