Festung Koenigstein and Berlin!

Man, I can't even believe how much I've done in the past 3 days. I'm pretty sure I've walked through, like, all of Berlin and Sachsen.

Friday: After class got out, I went with a few people to Festung Königstein, which is in the Sächsische Schweiz (nearby mountains) and about an hour away by train, in the town of, you guessed it, Königstein. The Festung is built into some sandstone at the top of a large hill/small mountain in the center of town, and it was a fortress in the 18th century (though various establishments have existed there since the 1300s) and used as a prison up until I think WWII. The best way to get there is by using the super steep stairs in the center of town, but they were so covered in snow that we couldn't use them the day that we went. Instead we went up a ramp that went back and forth on the side of the hill... it seemed like it would be easy, but it was probably the hardest hike I have ever been on and more of a workout than anything I ever do in a gym. Because there was so much snow and the incline was so steep (probably about 20 degrees) the whole time, it took us about an hour to get to the top. There were stairs sometimes, but they were so snowy that it was more like just walking up a briefly steeper part of the hill. When we got to the top of the hill and the base of the fortress, we found out that the elevator that goes to the top only operates in summer... so we had to walk up 3 more steep hill chunks to actually get inside the fortress to where all the buildings were. Once we got all the way up it was completely worth it... the view was beautiful and you could walk all around the edge of the fortress and look down on the little towns below. There were some museums and a little cafe so we went into the museums briefly but then decided it would be better to get Glühwein at the cafe. And it definitely was. We took a different way back down, which was easier and less steep, but it also involved walking on the nonexistent shoulder of a highway for 5-10 minutes... so that was a bit scary, but we survived. And I only fell in the snow once!

Friday night we had a small dance party in one of the guys´rooms here, and that was fun, but I didn´t stay too late because...

Saturday: BERLIN!!! We woke up at like 7:30 and took the 9:00 train out of Dresden. Jesus (Colombian dude) brought with Uno cards, so we played that for about half of the 3-hour train ride. Good times were had by all. We had bought sandwiches for breakfast at the bakery, and Jesus brought with tea, sweet bread, and Berliners, and a banana for those of us who got hungry on the train ride... he was pretty much our dad/tour guide for the weekend, haha. We got checked into our hostel by 1:30 and then went to Alexanderplatz in search of food, because by that point we were all starving. We ended up getting burritos at a Chipotle-like restaurant, and they were surprisingly good... it's hard to find things that are spicy in Germany, but that restaurant succeeded.

After Alexanderplatz we walked to the Rotes Rathaus and saw it, the Neptunbrunnen (Neptune fountain), and the Engels and Marx memorial. At the fountain I ran into my friend Emily, who also goes to Northwestern and is studying abroad in Prague for winter/spring. She studies film so she was in Berlin to see the Berlinale film festival, which started this weekend and goes until next weekend. After that, we saw the Berliner Dom (cathedral). Across the street from the Dom was a big open field and people had built hundreds of snowmen of varying sizes on it, so we went over to check that out too. It was like a scene from Calvin and Hobbes! Some snowmen were a couple feet tall, while others were huge - probably 10 feet or so. I have no idea how people could lift snowballs so big and heavy that high, but it was really cool. They were dressed as all sorts of things, like robots and bus drivers.

After the snowmen and the Dom we went to the Pergamon Museum, which has all sorts of artifacts from ancient cultures (Greek, Roman, Islamic, Mesopotamian/Assyrian/Persian, etc.), and that was really cool. One of my favorite parts was seeing the exhibit on Greek and Roman currency, because it was fascinating to see how it had evolved over time, and I was surprised at how detailed the coins were so early as 1000 BC. I also really liked the Islamic art exhibit, especially the models of the prayer niches. There were pieces of Greek temples and Roman art, and all kinds of jewelry from the different cultures.

When we left the museum it was about 4:30, so we decided to hit up Schloss Charlottenburg before dinner. It's towards the outskirts of the city, so it took us a bit to get there, and then we had to walk about 2 km because the bus was expensive and we decided it wasn't that far. ...It kind of was, and it was really cold, and by the time we got there it was closed, but it was pretty from the outside! So I guess if I go back to Berlin, that is something I should do. Apparently in the summer there is a really nice garden on the other side. After that we went back into the city center to the Gedachtniskirche, which is a church that was destroyed in WWII and they left it that way as a memorial. Around the church was a small group of tents set up for Carnival, so we got Glühwein and walked around a bit. Then we bought bratwursts from a street vendor and walked around eating them, which is probably the most German thing I have done since getting here. It was great! We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and then went to Potsdamer Platz to see it lit up at night.

I'm exhausted again just thinking about everything we did on Saturday - and that was only day one!

On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we went first to the Brandenburger Tor. It was a little bit disappointing because they had a huge screen and scaffolding set up in front of it, so you could only see the front from an awkward angle off to the side, and you could only see the whole thing from the back. We went to the Reichstag too, but the line to get in was RIDICULOUSLY long, even in the middle of winter on a cold snowy day. If I get back to Berlin, I'd like to go inside that building as well. We went to the Siegessäule, but it was under construction. Normally you can get really close to it and even go up inside of it, but we could only see it from the outside about 20 feet away. Instead of taking the S-Bahn back to Unter den Linden, we walked from Siegessäule back to Brandenburger Tor, which was about 2 km, but we went through the Tiergarten and it was really pretty and snow covered. When we got back to the Tor, we spent some time at the Holocaust memorial as well. After that we walked down all of Unter den Linden and on the way saw Hotel Adlon, the Russian embassy, Humboldt Universität, Sankt Hedwigs Cathedrale, the library, and the Neue Wache (WWI memorial). By that point we were back at the Dom again and got lunch (well, a 2 pm meal) at a Vietnamese restaurant in tourist central. It was a bit expensive, but pretty good. We then went to the Olympic Stadium, which was a little past Charlottenburg (the neighborhood, not the Schloss), and got there at 3:55... and it closed at 4. So we couldn't go in, but we got to see the outside, and it is HUGE.

Maybe next time I go to Berlin I will look up the opening and closing hours for the things I want to see and plan my day around that...

Our train left at 5:30, and I ended up getting home completely exhausted at 9. After dinner and a shower it was really nice to just relax in my own bed. What a weekend!

I'm really glad other people here know Europe better than I do. With Jesus in Berlin, he knew exactly where everything was, and which S-Bahn we should take to get there, and where to transfer, and everything. I don't think he'd been there more than one time before... he just has an amazing memory. He even knew a little bit about most of the things we saw, so it was like having our own free, private tour guide. Next weekend we're going to Prague, and I think Mikel knows his way around there pretty well, so that will be fun too.

I'm glad I've gotten to know the people at the Goethe Institut here better. At the beginning of the month I was a little worried that I wouldn't make any friends because there is no real way to meet people you live with short of knocking on everyone's door and introducing yourself. But everyone knows that, so everyone is more friendly and open and there's a bit more of an effort to make plans to do things during the evenings and on weekends when there isn't a Goethe-organized event. It's really different from Bonn, but I've gotten used to it, and now I'm really glad I'm here.