We happened to meet up with Lisa in the S-bahn metro train when we happened to be in the same train. That was a nice coincidence, a bit like serendipity I suppose, since the first task was to find each other. With that out of the way, we headed to a local spot, Schwarze Cafe, that was established in the 80’s by students. It was a converted apartment that served originally to students. Now, over 20 years later students still recognize it as a hang out or meeting place. That was where we had our brunch. It was a good thing that we remained there as it started to rain a bit.
After everyone was full and ready to head out, we collected ourselves and started walking towards a shoe store called Snea Q. By this time the rain had stopped, although the streets were still wet. We spend quite a bit of time here, which ended with Diego, Sheilla and myself buying ourselves shoes. Aside from the nice collection they had, the prices were fair and relatively cheaper than other shoe stores.
So we headed out again, this time for sightseeing, for sure.
We came to a cathedral that was partly burned and destroyed during World War II. It had another church next to it that was functional. First we went into that one.
Then we went into the damaged church. The floor and ceiling were painted beautifully. Sometimes I just don’t understand why something so beautiful had to be destroyed. Oh well.
We headed out to a small shopping building just to see one thing: a liquid clock. Just see for yourself to know what I meant.
The day seemed to have gone by real quick by now, and it was time to walk quickly over to the next few places. We went through several streets, which I had no idea where in Berlin. However, we ended up at a Humboldt University. We went through it and got a little tour of it.
There was a large open area where in the middle we saw a glass looking into a room. The room had bookshelves with no books in them. The story was, during the Third Reich, Hitler and his regime declared all books that portrayed any threat to Fascism to be collected and burned. So the open area was used for these books to be gathered at and destroyed. The empty room represented that time as a memorial for lost great books.
We came across an area with three museum buildings. Two of which were identical, one being for the French and the other for the Germany. I wasn’t so sure how accurate this info was, as several people were giving slightly different variations. Here was also where we separated our group in half. Lisa, Diego, and his dad remained with us.
The remaining part of the group, which would be us, decided to check out the Checkpoint Charlie. In this area, it was once served as a checkpoint between the US and the Russian side when Berlin was occupied by them. Everyone who tried to go through from one side to the other had to have special pass, usually a visa. To commemorate, this gate was kept intact and remained a part of the tourist attraction.
For our last place to sightsee, we went to see the actual Berlin wall that still remained on its actual original position. This was called the East Side Gallery, which was considered the longest remaining wall of about 1.3 km.
Thus conclude the end of our sightseeing tour in Berlin. We headed back towards Alexanderplatz, where we were staying, taking a picture or two along the way.
We met up with Anna, a friend of Lisa’s that Sheilla met last year. We went to a chic Vietnamese restaurant, Monsieur Vuong, which surprisingly didn’t serve any Vietnamese food. There was only half a dozen items to choose from, which they changed daily. But the place was so crowded, and the taste of the food in addition to the ambiance were the proof.
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