Oh joyous three-day weekend! It really worked out so well and was a great weekend in Berlin. We were able to get a ride to the city, and bought a hotel reservation at half price from a co-worker who could not use it. The bed only fit three of the five of us, so I had to sleep on the floor one night, but it was all in the good fun of traveling on a budget! Friday night (we got to Berlin around 4 p.m.; it was a seven hour drive) we walked around and found a Starbucks to warm us up. It was so cold! I purchased one of the Christmas flavor drinks and got a second free for the special they were running. But the barista made one of my drinks the wrong flavor, so I ended up with three coffees for the price of one and was able to try all of the Christmas flavors (White Chocolate Cranberry Mocha, Toffee Nut Latte and Gingerbread Latte, the best one). I was pretty excited about it. And the night just got better, because we had dinner at a MEXICAN restaurant! I was so giddy and grinning from ear to ear before my food even arrived. It has just been way to long since I've had Mexican food, and this place was really good. Not as good as the stuff from home, but delicious nonetheless. After dinner we found a man-made snow ramp and jumped on innertubes to slide down it. It was so much fun and was smack dab in a Christmas market. We capped off the night at a bar (I had the yummy Berliner beer) and met up with one of my friends from home. It was so good to see her. Saturday we went on a free walking tour of the city and saw most of the major spots in Berlin. Our tour guide was really great and gave us a lot of history about the city. She was really passionate and made everything interesting. I learned about Berlin and the Nazi party. Later we went shopping and then had soup for dinner. Saturday night we headed to Havanna, a night club on the outskirts of Berlin. It had four dance floors with salsa, merengue/bachata, reggaeton, and oldies. I was so excited to get my salsa/merengue/bachata on! I was really impressed with the salsa scene in Berlin, because a majority of the dancers were very good. It was a fun night. Sunday one of the other interns and I went to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. The camp was mostly empty, but had buildings with examples of the victim's everyday life at the camp. The crematorium, mass grave sites and death trench also remained in the camp. It was an eerie place, and I could not imagine being held captive there. I only had a blinking glimpse of how horrific it would have been. I am so glad that I was able to see a concentration camp while in Germany, because I think it is an essential part of visiting this country. The camps are evidence of a tragic and terrible time in history that can too easily be repeated if it is ignored, so I am glad that I was able to get a visual confirmation of just how real the Holocaust was.
Dear Tara, is it sad that I recognized you had Starbucks christmas drinks based on the cup? And I dont even drink coffee. What was the best thing at the Christmas market?
ReplyDeleteHaha, that's just the power of the Bucks! The market was really small, and nothing like the real markets will be. But my favorite part was definitely the snow slide. Although the hot chocolate with Bailey's was pretty good too!
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