Friday 01.06: Berlin day 5

Today was another free day, we didn't even have any presentations. Anderson saw some of us at breakfast that morning, but not all of us. He gave us some possible things to do but Becky and I already had a plan. Today we were going souvenir shopping and seeing some sights in Berlin. We wanted to make sure we had seen everything.
We started off in Alexander Platz. She wanted a picture by the clock, plus there was a C&A right there. Becky had decided she wanted to try and wear a scarf, and I thought C&A would be nice and cheap and have a decent selection. Wrong. They were cheap, but the selection was awful. I wanted to go check out the baby clothes for baby Christopher and my Ana-bear. So as I'm walking through the baby stuff, Becky comes up to me super excited saying that she found traditional dresses. So now we are both super excited. I have wanted a dirndl since Frühlingsfest! There were some that were 79 euros, others that were 99 euros and then some that were 129. I knew I couldn't try on any that were 129, and I tried to stick to just the 79 euro ones, but there were only 2. I had no clue what size I would be so I grabbed like 6 different styles and sizes. I eventually found one that fit me well and I loved! It's pink and purple and perfect! Becky found one she liked but couldn't convince herself to buy it. I on the other hand, couldn't stand the thought of putting mine back on the rack. We walked around for a few more minutes and I couldn't stand thinking of not having my dirndl, so I bought it! :) Yeah I splurged on myself. I don't care! It was totally worth it.

From there we headed to the Brandenburg Tor again because Becky needed a couple more pictures of it. On our walk there we were able to get some good pictures of the Fernsehturm. The whole day, every time we walked past a souvenir shop we went inside. I honestly don't know how many we went into. I'd say at least 25, but that seems a little low! :)

As we walked, we pasted this fountain which I remember from 5 years ago! I was so pumped :)

Today

5 years ago

5 years ago

Man did it bring back some awesome memories :)
We continued walking and shopping. We stopped in this store. It was full of hand-made wooden things. It was soooo adorable. I wanted to buy everything in there. Becky had to drag me out.

From there we went to the Berliner Dom. We just got pictures of the outside. I wanted to go inside but it cost money, so we just settled on some gorgeous pictures :)

 Beautiful isn't it? I thought so!
We ended up walking past Humboldt Uni again, but a much different and prettier part than what Anderson had shown us.

Now remember, this isn't all we did all day. There was a lot of going in and out of souvenir shops along with the sight seeing.
At this point we stopped for a late lunch. On our first day in Berlin, Becky and I saw a place that had steak, and we knew we wanted to eat there once. Today was our perfect chance. So even though the prices were a little high, it was totally worth it.

Becky got a steak and baked potato. I got a burger, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me :) I even ate the coleslaw that came with it. I know, amazing right? The burger came on garlic bread. Yum! The meal was worth every penny.
From there we walked towards Checkpoint Charlie. When we were there on Wednesday we didn't really get a chance to stop and take pictures of it, plus we hadn't gotten any pictures with the wall! So we checked that off the list.

From there we wanted to find the Gedenkniskirche. We followed the map to where we thought we needed to go. There was a big polish festival and a bell tower thing, but no church. We were super confused. How did we miss the church? Well it was all under scaffolding. It looked like an office building, not a church. They had it under all the scaffolding and such because they were doing some renovations/investigations. Making sure the structure was sound and all. It was a bummer. I didn't even get a picture of it I was so bummed.
But thankfully there was a polish festival right there that we got to enjoy. We ate crepes, looked at all the little stands, considering buying lots of things, and the most exciting was getting to have some fresh squeezed orange juice. :D The guy even let Becky come back and squeeze some herself!

 He liked us :) and the orange juice was delicious. Worth every penny! There was also a polka band playing. It was honestly so much fun. We were tempted to stay there the whole night. If the drinks wouldn't have been so expensive I think we would have stayed.

Regardless, we headed back to the hostel. When we opened the door to our hallway, almost everyone was out in the hallway talking and drinking. Becky and I sat out there with them, snacking on our Lidl trip leftovers. Now our group pretty much had this whole hallway to ourselves. There was one room on the end that had people in it that we didn't know. As we were all sitting out there talking, the girls in that room came out to talk to us. They invited us to go out with them that night and we talked to them (in German) for quite some time. Turns out they were from the Stuttgart area too. They were surprised by how good our German was and the fact that we even wanted to learn the language.
We all dispersed to our own rooms to get ready to go out. I had been debating whether to go out or not. I really just wanted to stay in, finally watch a movie and relax. It had been a long day with a lot of walking and I just wasn't up for another night of walking around, crazy loud music, drinking, and all that goes along with clubs, partying and drinking.
I ended up making the better choice. I watched a movie and relaxed while Becky went out. She came back not a happy camper. Apparently things didn't go very smoothly. They never even found a place to get a drink. They had walked around aimlessly for hours. I was happy I simply watched a movie.

Happy: getting my dirndl and fresh squeezed orange juice
Crappy: the Gedenkniskirche being covered up

Lots of love from Germany!!