Last Day in Berlin, Germany & Pictures

My friends and I were up over 24 hours until returning to Lund this morning (Thurs. 11/12) around 9am. We woke up Wednesday for our final day in the city. We visited a statue of Karl Marx before heading over to the German Parliament Building, the Reichstag. After this the few of us met up with our other friends in front of the Brandenburg Gate before heading to dinner. We ate at a very good Vietnamese restaurant. Because our flight left so early in the morning (7am meaning we had to be there around 4:45-5), we didn't book a hostel but rather decided to stay out and enjoy the German nightlife the entire night. So after dinner we went on a pub crawl that covered 4 different bars and a club which was called Matrix. The bars/pubs were okay but the club was amazing...one of my favorite ones ever. It was huge and had many different rooms. One had popular oldies, another had more contemporary remixed/electro pop, and my favorite was a combination between trance, techno, house, and electro.

Our night out lasted from 8:30pm until 3:30am at which point we took the train to Berlin Schonefeld airport and eventually landed in Copenhagen before taking the train back to Lund. I slept from around 9:30am until 5pm meaning it was completely dark when I woke up. It was an amazing 3+ days. Being at Monday's Festival of Freedom was incredible and historic. Hillary's speech was great and Bon Jovi's performance was uplifting. Berlin has been one of my favorite cities so far and I look forward to going back someday. Below are pictures from the trip beginning with the most recent and ending with the first day (I borrowed a few of them from a friend).

Welcome to Berlin! (a sign inside one of the train stations)

The party group on Wednesday night inside Club Matrix.

Inside of Club Matrix in my favorite room!

"Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" -Ronald Reagan
(Gorbachev was at Monday's events)

A nighttime view of the Brandenburg Gate.

Just over 20 years ago Ghazal & I would be divided by the Berlin Wall in this picture. The brick line on the ground between us marks the former path of the wall. In the background you can see the Brandenburg Gate.

On top of the Reichstag building.

Inside the glass dome on top of the Reichstag building (German Parliament is below glass).

In the dome on the top of the Reichstag building.

In front of the German Parliament building, the Reichstag.

Inside a chocolate store in Berlin...here is the Brandenburg Gate made entirely out of chocolate!

A memorial beneath the ground in front of Humboldt University for the censorship and burning of books that once occurred at the school.

Ghazal, Alex, Jasmine & I in front of the TV Tower and Berlin Cathedral.

A closer view.

Chillin' with Karl Marx & Frederick Engels!

Group shot in front of the Berlin Wall!

(this is part of the longest stretch & was recently repainted)

This was an interesting picture on the Berlin Wall...

One of the panels of the Berlin Wall...it reads "Stay Free"
(note the tubing on the top of the wall...this was used to make it harder for people to escape since it was hard to grasp on to).

In front of the Berlin Wall in Germany.

Group picture at dinner inside the White Trash Fast Food Restaurant in Berlin.

A night view of the Berlin Cathedral and TV Tower.

In a square in front of Humboldt University (this was during our guided tour).

Checkpoint Charlie, which our guide said has become "Disneylandish".

Former site of the Gestapo (Berlin Wall behind).

Ghazal, Jasmine, & I in front of the Berlin Wall.

Below the ground where the cars are parked used to be one of Hitler's bunkers. This is the one where he committed suicide.

Between the concrete blocks making up the Holocaust Memorial.

Hotel Adlon! This is the priciest hotel in Berlin. It is directly across from the Brandenburg Gate. A Presidential Suite in the hotel, with bomb-proof walls and bullet-proof glass, costs around $18,000 per night. This hotel (and a room on this side) is also the one in which Michael Jackson held a baby out the window in 2002.

Fireworks at the end of Berlin's Festival of Freedom marking the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The fireworks came after Paul Van Dyk's song "We are One".

Brandenburg Gate during the Festival of Freedom.

Bon Jovi rocked the crowd with "We Weren't Born to Follow"!

Amongst the crowd in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany.

President Obama can be seen on the TV screen addressing the crowd via a video message.

Secretary of State Clinton! She gave a great speech. To her left is Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The Brandenburg Gate lit up at night while you can see the masses of people with umbrellas. It rained throughout most of the event.

Group shot in front of the Brandenburg Gate before the Festival of Freedom. From L to R: Khash, Vincent, Me, Jennifer, Ghazal, Jasmine, Clark, Alex.

The dominos that would be knocked over during the ceremony.

One of the dominos for the knocking over of the wall...this one commemorates the MTV music awards which were held in Berlin just days earlier. The big stars of the evening signed this domino.

A line of dominos for the Festival of Freedom. It was quite a sight seeing them all fall over.

Holocaust Memorial in Berlin known as The Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Ghazal, Jasmine, Alex & I in front of the Brandenburg Gate during our first day in Berlin, Germany.

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!

Going to Berlin today!

Hi all...up late here getting ready to head to Berlin, Germany in the morning (5AM-ish!) for our 8AM departure out of Copenhagen. My friends & I here are anticipating one of the best days yet as we well be in Berlin for the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall with the activities for it taking place later this evening (November 9th)!

Here is a link to read about the schedule of events in Berlin (which include various heads of state, including Hillary Clinton, some well-known music artists, and others!):

http://www.mauerfall09.de/en/portal/9-november/festival-of-freedom-to-celebrate-the-20th-anniversary-of-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall.html

I'll update my blog during our stay in Berlin! Take care!