Biosciences Bonn: Ich bin ein Berliner!

This is the week…the week that every college student has heard of and dreads: HELL WEEK AKA the most stressful time of each semester. I had 2 tests (German & Physiology) and our device design presentation this week! AGHHH. And on top of that, I had math homework and circuits/signals homework due as well. Aw man. What a week….I had gotten little sleep the week before and Karneval didn’t help cure my sleepless lifestyle; this week only added to the insomnia. Finally though, Friday arrived. My friends and I finished our last homework assignment around 9PM; we hurried back home to pack and get ready for the weekend as well as the next 2 weeks (Paris & Spring Break). The next 2.5 weeks were going to be filled with traveling all over Europe! What an adventure!! After packing, we headed back to the train station to catch our train to Berlin; it departed at 11PM and would arrive in Berlin at 7AM, so we planned on catching some zzz’s on the train there. I can tell you that we most definitely did; I sat in my seat, and the next thing I knew, I woke up with the train coming to a halt in Berlin! We got off of the train and waited for our favorite (hmmm…favorite-ish) restaurant, McDonald’s, to open up. It’s crazy, right?? You would think that McDonald’s would be open 24/7 in all parts of the world. We got breakfast and figured out our plan for the day. First stop: The Reichstag! The moment we walked out of the train station, beauty surrounded us. Everything in Berlin was extremely clean and pretty; I guess it kind of has to be when it’s the capitol of Germany, right? We made it to the Reichstag, the home of the German Bundestag (Parliament), and it was just as pretty as everything else we had seen up to that point. We took a few pictures and headed inside. We made our way up to the roof of the building where we found the Reichstag dome. We took the tour around the dome where we learned about the history, burning, and reconstruction of the Reichstag. Afterwards, we made our way to the Soviet War Memorial and the Brandenburg Gate. There were so many tourists everywhere!! Beware of your belongings! Next, we made our way to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. It was a memorial filled with over 2,500 slabs of concrete ranging from ½ a foot to 15 and a ½ feet high! Onward to the next stop (hopefully food)! On the way to lunch, we stopped by Checkpoint Charlie, which was the best-known crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Afterwards, we wandered the area, and guess what we found?!? The Currywurst Museum!! BUT. It was closed for renovations……what a buzzkill, right?? We continued our journey to Kreuzberg, and finally, we arrived at the infamous Curry 36 snack shop. We each ordered the currywurst, and between you and I.......I think I prefer the currywurst from the market back in Bonn…..HAHA! ANYWHO. We got gelato and relaxed for a bit. BTW. I might have mentioned it a few blogs back, but this is about the time where my gelato craze starts. Basically, from here on out, I get gelato every chance that I get….even if that means 5/7 days of the week. We then caught the tram over to the north side of Berlin to see the Berlin Wall Memorial; we were hoping to see something more decorated like the Graffiti Wall in Austin or the Lennon Wall in Prague. Well, the Berlin Wall was exactly what it sounds like..a plain grey wall! We were told that the East Germans were so strict that people weren’t allowed to draw on it. We made our way over to Alexanderplatz, which was one of the popular shopping areas in Berlin; there was also the Berlin TV Tower in this area that overlooked the city! However, due to time constraints and us carrying our backpacks with us, we were unable to go up the tower. Sad face. Before we called it a day, we stopped by the East Side Gallery, which was a memorial consisting of over 100 paintings from various artists all over the world. Honestly, there quite a few weird paintings that made it onto the wall haha! We got burgers for dinner (it was super lecker!) and went back to our hostel. We booked 4 beds out of 8, and fortunately, the other 4 beds remained empty for the rest of the night! I passed the heck out for about an hour and a half. My friends have evidence; I literally did not wake up to anything that they tried to do………ahhhh. The side effects of perpetual sleep deprivation are just wonderful! Finally though, I woke up; we caught the tram to the other side of Berlin to this club called Matrix. Well, we arrived in the area and wandered around for about 10 minutes before we found it. You see……the club is literally underneath the train station. So yeah; that’s something neat I guess? We walked in, and what everyone told us was true. There were 4 clubs and 5 bars within the place itself! It was tons of fun, and we were able to meet 2 girls from Belarus that were spending their spring break in Berlin! We held the club down until 5AM, got back to the hostel in one piece, and passed out. Sunday was museum day! Sadly, we didn’t wake up as early as we had hoped (what were we thinking haha..), but we were able to see the Pergamon Museum! There were several restorations of famous monuments/artifacts/walls such as the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and Market Gate of Miletus! Afterwards, we explored Museum Island; we found the Berliner Dom, which was one of the prettiest cathedrals I had ever seen! We sat in the Lustgarten, which was the area in front of the cathedral for a little while. It was a very peaceful place! Around 6PM, we headed back to the Hauptbahnhof and caught our train back to Bonn. We got back to Bonn around midnight! I suppose I can now agree with what President John F. Kennedy said, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” Wait. I’m a jelly doughnut? I mean “Ich bin Berliner!”