vinte e um

lovely Berlin Janeiro 19, 2009

On the 2nd of January I went to Berlin! Took the night train and one of the carruages with beds and slept during the trip (or some of it).. got to Berlin around 9h30 and went to the Hostel to take a bath and get ready for walking around Berlin =)

at this point we were near Berlin and i started realizing how cold it would be there because here it was about -12ºC.. oh yes

ok, so we got to berlin, went to alexander platz, entered the church nearby, kept walking and ended up visiting Berliner Dom.. a big big dom built because the king of Prussia wanted to show “something big” as in “im so good and great and rich”.. just like schonnbrun and every other palace that was built after Versailles that “had to top it” .. well, what did i make of it, really big, really impressive.. worth taking a look 🙂 here’s a view from the outside and other from the inside:

Berliner dom

Main altar of Berliner dom

During the first day we basically walked around the center of the “east” part of the city.. after having a biopizza for lunch eheh we saw a demonstration against Israel.. peaceful demonstration but with a LOT of police around..

Demonstration

And we kept on walking..

Altes Museum (went in on the last day) next to Berliner Dom

Alte Nationalgalerie

Memorial for the life losts during world war II (i think)

Berlin on ice

and eventually we found out a lovely chocolate store also with a caffe..very nice hot chocolate there and some chocolate sculptures like these ones:

Titanic

Reichstag (parlament)

My xmas gift: a lying dinner @ Berlin.. nice huh? 😀 and the food was amazing!! loved it*

on the next day we took a tour, awesome tour, which took us to +- the same places we had been to the day before but this time with an historic view about it..we also went to another places like charlie’s checkpoint, bradenburg tour, etc.. it was really worth it.. so, in case you to berlin, take this tour.it was freakin cold, snowing, raining, snaiying (snow + rain lol) and by the end we were freezing but nevertheless, totally worth it! (it was always around -8ºC when we were at berlin.. 😡 )

The mural they made on one of the Nazi’s buildings..very communist style, it was so funny to look at

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Bradenburg Tür

At the end of the tour (our guide and the rest of the group)

Afterwards we went to Kreuzberg to have a nice lunch, lovely area, be sure to check it out if you go to berlin..

At night we went to Sony Center..

Sony Center

..and had dinner at a pretty nice restaurant nearby..

Dinner

On the next day we basically went hoping around Berlin to see this and that.. we started with the biggest Berlin wall remain at East Side gallery..it’s about 1.3km long

Funny bridge near east side gallery

East Side Gallery

next we went to see this half bombed church and here is one of the few pictures of me at Berlin

me @ Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

then it was time to see the New Sinagogue and we had lunch on the BEST PLACE EVER at the corner of the street, very warming, nice food and pretty cheap 😛 definitely, go there to have lunch ifyou are @ berlin..its at the subway stop Oranienburguerstr., and the restaurant is just there…the new sinagogue..a little bit dissapointing to go in because its only a museum because everything was bombed and destroyed during war..

Afterwards we went to Reichstag, parlament. visitors tip: don’t wait 1 hour to get in, call the cafe at the dome and make an appointment..you can go to the coffee, pay 3 or 4 euros for a water and then see the dome without having to wait..i think it’s worth it and its a nice coffee anyway 😛

@ the Dome

Since it was really cold and snow and icy and everything the view from the Dome was not that good and it was SO COLD in there, seriously 😡

View from the Dome

ok..and on our last day it was museums day..we visited Pergamon Museum and Altes Museum..both worth it..in Pergamon museum you have reconstructions of real buildings inside, its awesome.. and on the Altes Museum its an egipt exhibition with the famous Nefertiri.

Pergamon’s altar at Pergamon Museum

Nefertiri at Altes Museum

And it was now time to catch the train which was delayed 45mins.. we finally got on about 18h00 and got to vienna at around 8h00 in the morning..the trip was also delayed..so a long time on the train sleeping 🙂

and this was it..dont have that much photos because it was too cold to take the hands out of the pockets :$ eheh

kiss kiss

*filipa