Berlin: Day One

Hallo. I am currently in Deutschland, and no, I do not speak or understand German. I kind of took the lack of language barrier in London for granted.

Our flight from London got us up nice and early in the morning.  Next step was to find a bus to take us to our hotel.  Of course we got off the bus waaay too early. Of course we walked three hours through the city to find our hotel. Of course we carried our luggage the whole time. But, that’s all part of the experience, right?

We stopped for a little rest in the park

That experience of the afternoon was pretty exhausting, so after we checked in to our hotel, we did just a couple sight-seeing things, like Check-Point Charlie,

 and parts of the Berlin Wall. 

Then we ended up splitting up, but David and I got some dinner at this little tiny restaurant with only one lady working, who definitely didn't speak English.  However, we of course figured out how to communicate because we were so hungry.  haha.  Then we all stumbled back to the hotel to watch the Olympics. (Oh and don’t worry, we got a taste of the city on our walk to our hotel). My favorite thing so far has just been Tiergarten, a park that has a taste of the foresty-goodness of Germany that everyone has imagined at some point.

Danielle pointed out this statue and said it reminded her of Super Smash Brothers, and I agreed.  Haha

This is next to our hotel.  It used to be part of a train station where a bunch of Jews were packed into the cars and sent off to concentration camps.

Today was an adventure- the kind of adventure that made me excited to travel around Europe with only a handful of my college-aged friends. 

Too bad I hardly know anything about this country. I’m really wishing that my high school history books had told me a little bit more about the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, and all of the other stuff that would make this experience even better.

Here is our hotel:

It's actually pretty nice (don't worry- we used Priceline.com so we got a super good deal).  But.. it's kinda funny because the ice block glass definitely makes for a see-through bathroom:

Tomorrow's itinerary: Attend Sacrament meeting at a Church somewhere, and then see some of the major sights here (which I don’t know very much about… yet, but I will be sure to tell)

I am definitely ready for bed. This has been an exhausting day, not just for a girl recovering from the shingles, but for everyone.