SOCIAL MEDIA

Monday, December 31, 2012

Day 4 - Berlin

Assalammualaikum!

I'm writing from Jugendgastehause Lichterfelde in Berlin. It is a youth hostel and we stayed in a double bed room. It cost us €25 per person per night, quite pricey but this is the cheapest we can get for this date, since we also made our reservation quite late.

We arrived from Munich at about 1.10 pm and made our way to the Brandenburg Tor. Since our hostel is far from the city centre (20 mins by train), we walked around Berlin with our backpacks. Imagine carrying 10kg on your back and walk miles. We were exhausted! But we got see many beautiful buildings.

Brandenburg Tor is a big gate, the only (maybe) remaining part of the Berlin wall. It was just a huge brick gate with statues on top. It is located next the Pariser Platz. That's another platz. Haih.. I noticed that many of the buildings in Germany (I think this applies to most European countries) have statues of men, women and creatures stuck on them, as a part of its architecture. Some of them looked beautiful but most of them were creepy, while some were even embarrassing. From there we took an S-bahn to Gendarmenmarkt. It was said to be the most beautiful place in Germany if not Europe but I doubt that. The buildings were beautiful, yes they were very. But to call it most beautiful, I think it is an exaggeration. But anyway, it started to rain when we reached Gendarmenmarkt so we were quite restricted in movements and had to take shelter.

There was a christmas market but it will cost us €1 to get in; that is the first market which we have to pay to get in. So we didn't. Instead we walked around it and took some pictures. There was supposed to be two cathedrals; the German Cathedral and the French Cathedral. But I can only see one building with a theatre house in the middle and two domes on each side. I am not sure which is the German and which is the French =.=" I think I was a lazy and tired tourist.

We then walked towards Unter den Linden, which is a few hundred years opera house but funnily, we did not know which one was it. We have been following the walking directions and by the time we almost reach there, suddenly there were many other beautiful buildings, which I do not know their names but we took pictures nevertheless. Until now, I do not know which building is which. I might have taken the picts of Unter den Linden unknowingly. I might have a look at the picts I took and compare them with the picts of the buildings in the internet, and match them.

From the on, we walked to Alexanderplatz, the biggest platz in Berlin. There was a Christmas market called "Weihnachtsmarkt auf dem alexanderplatz". Ok, I copy pasted the name from an online brochure. I cant find the effort to type them out. It's hard to spell something that you cant even pronounce. It was big and merry but London's Winter Wonderland was a lot bigger. But the price is cheaper here. A nutella and banana crepes cost €4 only while in London, a nutella only crepes would have cost at least £5!

From Gendarmenmarkt to Alexanderplatz, we walked about 1.5km, stopping in the middle for some pictures and rest, and crepes. By then, my shoulders were falling off. Our second last stop was a souvenir shop, which I did not buy anything from since I bought souvenirs for friends while walking that 1+ km, and I sort of regretted because the gifts in the shop was more beautiful, with more variety and not much different in price! Wasil bought a jacket for his friend's birthday and as soon as we reached the hostel, he tried it on and realised it was too big, even for him. His friend is a little bit smaller than he is. So he went out to change it in the city centre while I wait patiently in the room.

Next task: pack up for home tomorrow!
Next destination: Hamburg!

Post a Comment