My Day of Museums

June 18^th

I woke up feeling pretty good surprisingly and once again early in the morning so I got up and readied myself before heading down for breakfast.  I knew that everyone else probably wouldn’t be getting out of bed until mid day so I decided that I would go out on my own to a couple of museums and meet up with them later in the day. 

Lunch at  Biergarten

I took a subway to Museum Island to see the German History Museum.  It included the entire history of Germany starting from the fall of Rome until present day.  I was able to use my old student ID from college to get the student fee (50% of original cost) and an audio guide and then headed to the start of the exhibit.  It took me around three hours to get through the whole history and peruse around all of the wonderful displays and artifact collections.  I left in search of some lunch.

I walked to the Brandenburg Gate and ventured into the Tiergarten (big park in Berlin) and found biergarten to sit down and enjoy some lunch.  Then I was off to see the museum that underneath the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  It was a very small museum so I only ended up spending about thirty minutes inside.  At this point I was pretty tired so I hopped back on a subway and returned to the hostel to rest for a bit and work on some of my future travel plans.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

I received message from my group of friends and they were ready to meet me at another museum, the Topography of Terror which gives a history of Hitler’s Gestapo and SS.  We all ended up taking about two hours to get through that very moving exhibit before riding the subway back to the Hostel to rest before we start our night.  I spent this resting time to continue with my future travel plans.

We all met down in the lobby around 10:00 pm to venture out for some dinner.  We found a Vietnamese restaurant that was very busy looking and had great reviews.  Luckily a large table cleared up when we arrived so we were able to enjoy eating together for our last dinner in Berlin.  It is amazing how in such a short period of time you can become friends with complete strangers from all over the world.  After dinner we split up, half of us went out clubbing and half of us headed back to the Hostel to have a more low key night by enjoying a few drinks at the Hostel’s bar.  I opted for the later option as I didn’t want to be sleep deprived and hung over when I traveled the next day. We said our goodbyes, wished each other happy travels and good luck with all endeavors.     

I know I will miss my friends, but it will still be fun keeping in touch with them by using social media.  Tomorrow I return to Heidelberg with a short stop in Leipzig half way in between.