Writing from Berlin, Germany

Hello! It is almost 2AM here in Berlin and I am down in the lobby part of our hostel (called The Generator). Its actually as big as some hotels! Today was the second full day of being here in Berlin, with one left tomorrow.

Yesterday we attended the Festival of Freedom celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There was a lot of coverage about it back at home in the states too. It was quite amazing though also very frustrating. It was cold (low 40s high 30s) and rainy...not a good combo. There were also tons of people which made it very hard to move. I was only able to see most of the stuff via television screens but saw some of the stuff going on around the Brandenburg Gate. I saw Hillary Clinton, Gordon Brown, Nicholas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, the current and past leaders of Russia, and other former world leaders speak! Bon Jovi and Paul Van Dyk also gave performances which were capped off by a firework show. During the event they also had 1,000 painted, larger than life dominos knocked over to illustrate the fall of the wall.

Today we took a 4 hour free tour (though we tipped the guy) around the city. It was great! We saw the Holocaust Memorial, site of a bunker where Hitler used to stay, the Reichstag, Opera House, parts of the Berlin Wall, and a portion of where the gestapo headquarters used to be. We later met up with Vishnu, Nora, Anita, Tim (who is from Berlin!), and Vishnus friend Andrew who is studying here. We walked around east and west Berlin for a bit and then hung out at a lounge.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day...we will be out all night since our flight leaves so early in the morning (it wasnt worth it to book a hostel). Going to get going now because of that. Goodnight!