Berlin

We checked in late to the Wombat City Hostel, which was a short bus ride from the train station. The room was really nice and the staff helped us with all of the maps. One the first day we walked to the Jewish cemetery in search of the Missing House, an outdoor Christian Boltanski exhibit. We didn’t have any luck finding it and wondered if that was part of the exhibit. We walked over to West Berlin to see Unter Den Linden, main entrance street to West Berlin, Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz (“site of most architectural failures”), Tiergarden, and Museum Island.
At Tiergarden we went to the top of The Reichstag and saw a panoramic of Berlin. We also got our first glimpse of the Berlin Wall. There is a Memorial for Murdered Jews in Europe that opened in 2005. It is blocks of concrete at varying heights; from the top. They all look about the same height but the ground dips under them creating a huge tall concrete block maze. I thought it would be funny to disappear into the blocks and have Matt find me, but that ended up being a mistake because we actually lost each other and I had to call him to finally find him. We were freezing by the time that we got back. We braved the cold again for dinner at Schwarwaldstuben , a very German restaurant with giant armchairs, stuffed boar ends on the walls, and lots of beer. We also walked on Oranienstrasse, a strip of bars and cafes.
On day two we took the metro to the East Side Gallery, a decorated piece of the Berlin Wall and over to Checkpoint Charlie, border crossing from East to West. We also toured the Berliner Dom, a giant cathedral. Then we packed up and headed to Prague.