First Full Day (Tuesday)

Started my day off, with some Starbucks, Carmel Hot Chocolate and Chocolate muffin, which both taste different, but good. When I met up with the group that morning we headed over towards PariserPlatz Area, which is in walking distance of our apartments. On the way we passed the British Embassy, which is a pretty regular building, but it does have some colorful shapes coming out of the building. Around the corner from the embassy and straight ahead is the Brandenburg Gate, which is a little bigger than I thought it was, but it’s really nice. The Brandenburg Gate used to be the divider between East and West Berlin, and the only way to get between the two.

Before we actually made it to the gate, we went into the Academy of Art building, which was pretty neat, because when you look up you can see all the way to the top with the is stairs crisscrossing above your head, but you can still look out the skylights at the top. We walked up some of the stairs, just to get a better view, and out of nowhere this guy in a really weird costume and then he put the rest of the outfit on, and he was from ‘Predator’ and we asked if we could take pictures of him, and he said something in German, and starting posing for us. After that we went to the DZ Bank which is super plain on the outside, but It has some really crazy stuff going on, on the inside, which makes sense, because it’s done by Frank Gehry. Next to that building is the American Embassy, which is very very plain, and you would only know it by the American flag.

On the other side of the Brandenburg Gate you can see the trace of the wall weaving through the street which is cool, and in some places around Berlin, there are pieces still standing, but they are all spray painted, and some have millions of pieces of gum stuck to them, but still cool to know where it stood for so long. Later that day we went to the Philharmonie  which is very nice on the inside, and while we were there rehearsals happened to be going on during our tour, so we got a little mini sneak peek of their work, and they are really good. My favorite part about that building was definitely the colored swirl windows.

We ate lunch at the Sony Center, where I went to a restaurant and got some wiener schnitzel (breaded veal) and potatoes, it was really good, but the portions there are big. The rest of the day we walked and saw a lot of other buildings, and some by Richard Rogers that are high tech, and remind me of the Lloyds of London. The rest of the day after we split up as a group, I went back to the sony center and went by Lego Land and checked out what movies were playing, then headed back towards the apartments. I did go to the grocery store as well, which was two stories and has a ramp escalator so you can take your cart easily back and forth between levels, afterwards I hung out with some friends and we walked to the Memorial for all the Jewish people who died during the Holocaust, and took some pictures, before finally making it back to my apartment that night.