My Arrival in Berlin

June 16^th

We woke up and enjoyed our breakfast that was provided and then took a train to Hamburg together and then we all parted ways, Irene had to go to another city for work, Brian returned to Heidelberg and I to Berlin. 

Brandenburg Gate

I had arrived in Berlin at around noon, so I picked up a quick lunch before purchasing a five day transit ticket for the Berlin subways.  I only needed to ride through a couple of stations before I arrived at the Circus Youth Hostel.  I had booked a room where I would be rooming with seven other people (dorm fashion).  Since it was now the middle of the afternoon, when I got to my room I found it to be empty.  No sooner had I arrived and dropped off my stuff on my bed, I was already out the door with my travel book in hand to explore the city and figure out the subway system.

Berlin Cathedral

My Rick Steves travel book had a nice walking tour guide that I followed and saw many of the main attractions in East Berlin.  The tour started off near the famous Brandenburg Gate.  From there I walked to many near by attractions; various embassies, and various memorials.  As I continued walking east from there I got to see where many of the main museums were located and the Berlin Cathedral.  My walking tour ended in the shopping center in East Berlin called Alexanderplatz with the bit iconic TV Tower.  At this point my feet were hurting and I was starving, so I hopped back on the subway and headed back to the Hostel.

The pub would not open until 7:00 pm so I needed to find another restaurant nearby.  I ended up finding a nice little restaurant that served German food of which I enjoyed.  After I had finished my meal I headed to the brewery/bar in the basement of the hostel.  I knew that making friends while staying in a hostel makes your stay more fun and having company on your site seeing during the day more enjoyable.  I figured the Hostel’s bar was a great place to start.

The bar was mostly empty as it was still pretty early (7:30 pm) so I hopped on a stool at the bar and ordered some micro-brewed German beer.  After I had been there for about 15 minutes and was almost a beer in, I started to feel more social and started to speak with the people around me.  I ended up getting into a really nice conversation with a guy and a girl (Ben and Hayley) from Australia who were two friends meeting up in Europe for travel.  As the night grew on we accumulated another Australian man (Dmitri) and a Canadian couple (Kyle and Christine) and had migrated to the lounge section of the bar to accommodate all of us.  Late into the night we finally left the bar to find something to eat before we all headed our bunks.  I had now found a group of friends to enjoy my time spent in Berlin with.

Tomorrow we would meet for breakfast together and then participate in the free walking tour of Berlin.