Europe trip

Tue 4-Sep-2001 (Morning) Well, it has been a long flight. I opened up my exit row window on the plane briefly and saw a peek of the morning sun. We still have a few hours before we land. Unlike my last trip, I intend to actually keep a log. Time will tell whether I will maintain the thing...

Tue 4-Sep-2001 (Afternoon) What a morning. We arrived in Tegel around 11:20; a mere twenty minutes late. But Erik and Corey were nowhere to be found. After putzing around the airport for a good amount of time, we went downtown to find an internet cafe. We found one near downtown and I read my email, and found out what youth hostel they were staying at. Personally, if I had my way, we wouldn't be staying at those dumps, but thats how Erik and Corey were able to spend over three months in Europe for under $9000. About four hours after we landed we finally met up with Erik and Corey at the Jugendherberge Ernst Reuter. The next several hours were just spent chilling, and we went to dinner at a nice place near Zoo Station, and after that, back to the hostel.

Jugendherberge Ernst Reuter

The streets of Berlin

Chris being a fool

Zoo Station @ Night

Wed 5-Sep-2001 Got up in the morning, ate breakfast at the hostel, and went downtown to Zoo Station. We wanted to catch the 10am walking tour of Berlin but we were late, so we had to get the 2pm tour. In the meantime we took a bus through the Tiergarden, got off and took a walk by the bell tower, the Soviet War memorial, Haus Kultur der Welt, and on to the Reichstag building. After waiting in a long line, we were able to walk around the top. Then, it was back to Zoo for the walking tour. The tour started somewhat unexceptional, but it quickly got very good. The thing that is amazing about Berlin is that only a decade ago, it was a divided city. But today, you would never know it; none of the signs of division that were present. The Berlin Wall is gone; were it not for a line in the street, you wouldn't know where the wall was. We ate dinner at Schlotsky's and toured the Checkpoint Charlie museum afterwards. Then it was back to Zoo and we went to an internet cafe (the same one we used to contact Erik and Corey) and played some Quake (Corey trounced us), and then it was back to the hostel.