Guten Tag from Berlin, Germany

I am in the immense, important, beautiful capital of Germany... B.E.R.L.I.N.... I have always dreamed of visiting here, for this city is filled with history...From the WWII bullet holes that still pepper the facades of everyday buildings and the remains of the Berlin Wall, to the luminous Brandenburg Gate (near the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled baby Blanket off the balcony), history is everywhere in Berlin. There is so much to see and do, so my time is valuable. I have to spend it wisely the next 4 days I am here. I for sure will take advantage of the informative walking tours to ensure I know all about the power of Germany's capital city. I can't wait to visit the Berlin wall...The city just recently celebrated the Fall of the Berlin Wall 40 years ago...a wall of 155 kilometres with metal fences, watch towers and bunkers that divided Berlin and Germany into two parts. A lot of people lost their lives along the wall, most of them citizens of East Berlin who wanted to start a new and better life in West Berlin without Stasi control and the influence of political authority by the Soviet Union.

Well but before I start exploring.. troubles occurs...because in life, every good, comes with a bad, and since I have reservations in hell I might as well embrace my karma!  So here is my bad arrival experience... I had originally booked my stay at this huge, hostel chain company called "The Generator" but it was literally on the other side of Berlin, extremely far away from any civilization, no kidding, if you look at a tourist map, the area of this hostel isn't even on it... and a metro ride to the city takes about 35 minutes. Oh No I didn't... I'm exhausted and its late already, so while checking-in I decided to shorten my stay there for just one night.  I mean, the hostel is excellent, clean, big, my room has 4 bunks, with room for 8 girls. They designed the room all girly, for girls only, included a big mirror, blow dryer two sinks and etc, but the down fall is the location and the fact its 10euros for 30 minutes of wifi..... But I am determined to get up early in the morning and look for a new hostel downtown....

Now here is the good... I found one, its called CityStay Mitte Hostel.... Awesome location right on Rosenstraße street, next to everything, no need for trams, buses or metro-rail to get anywhere. Its walking distance to the main attractions except the Holocaust memorial. But here I had to settle with staying in a room with 8 beds but so far there is only 2 boys booked in, plus me! And than walks in this kid from Holland with half of a face! No literally I mean his so sweet and harmless just in need of a friend, he speaks great English.. Earlier today he walked in, he sat down n I said hi, I noticed right away he has some deformities to his face, but than he set on the bunk bed next to me n I talked to him to make him feel a little welcomed.  Anyways while he was talking one of the bed poles was hiding the deformed side of his face, so he looked like a normal guy with the pole hiding half of his face, then we talked a little bit more before me exiting the room... but later, when I came back to the room I was able to see his face! It's so sad, I wonder what happened, one eye is like on his cheek n is all red and his mouth is crocked and his teeth all misplaced, and his nose is not even in the center of his face! He reminds me of the hunchback of Notre Dame in a way! I wonder if he was born like that or if he suffered a tragic accident cuz the right side seems to be perfectly normal, it's only the left side that has the deformities! Anyways it also affects his speech so when he talks for too long I have no idea what he is saying, I think he wanted to borrow my shampoo at one point... or maybe he was just asking if that was my shampoo? I'm not sure!! His reading a book while I am writing this email while also listening to music on my iPod and I keep hearing him talk over the music,,, so I remove my headphones to hear if he was talking to me but he doesn't look at me he just keeps reading so I can't tell if his reading out loud or talking to me...but I hope not, because I'm reading this Europe guide book, planning my day to tomorrow...

Well the same tour group that they had in Prague, had here.... It called SANDEMANs NEW Europe Tours; they are pretty much committed to providing everyone, no matter of budget, with the best tour available. It is their goal to help travelers fully discover the beauty and rich history of as many European cities as possible, so they have this in several different cities, which I will take fully advantage of... The expert guides share with us their personal stories and insights during their intriguing tours. Since they work for tips, every tour is consistently one of the best in Europe....Although it is freezing in Berlin right now, and temperatures are low that walking outside is enough to give you a brain freeze, I look forward for the city tour... Especially since there is so much interesting history here.. I almost forgot to mention that Sandeman's New Europe Tour also offers a wide variety of other tours amongst this one, touching more deeply on a particular topic.  Well, they aren't all about educational tours, they have fun and drinking tours too, while getting to experience the nightlife of each town.  NEW EUROPE offers a night Pub Crawl, for 21 Euros, a guide leader takes you to 7 different bars, along with other interested travelers, and than ends the night at a popular nightclub, with free shots at each stop.  So it was only right that I went on a  Pub Crawl, and I am glad I did, because on this particular outing I met a few Dutches that were also visiting Berlin from the neighbouring country of Holland, and these are people I now refer to as my friends, and til this day we keep in touch, while being rivals during the FIFA World Cup for a day. (shout out to Ruud and Linda ;)...)

Fun fact I learned while on the tour.. Did u know Berlin kinda "stinks"... and it's because the city was built on a swamp! It's why they called it Swamp City! AHHH i love it here.. tomorrow I going to visit the Holocaust and walk around Tiergarten aka Tiger's Garden which I hear is enormous and if I get tired or maybe lost around this two-mile square area, there is an easy and convenient way out by U-Bahn and S-Bahn commuter trains.

Auf Wiedersehen (bye)

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