berlin: words cannot describe my obsession.

berlin is incredible. i had been told this before i went by many people -- friends from home as well as coworkers who had traveled to this amazing city but i didn't totally understand or appreciate the caliber to which it rocked until i went there for myself.

as i mentioned previously, we traveled all morning (beginning at 3am) from stockholm to reach berlin thursday morning.

we stayed in a really cool hostel in the friedrichstain area (which we learned was a hip-happening place to be).  the people (employees and guests) were interesting and friendly and the common room had an excellent vibe, thanks to the good jams they always featured like one of our new favs, freshlyground (below).

we were lucky to be able to get right into our room so that we could have a nap (after our lengthy early-morning traveling) and then we headed to the city center. we had a free historical tour, thanks to new europe free tours.  the tour was excellent!  it was a walking tour all through the city and we hit almost all of the historical sights that were on our list.  it lasted about 4 hours but we met some cool people (tour guide and other visitors) and learned a ton. see pictures below.

memorial to the murdered jews of europe: this was a really interesting memorial -- an area covered by a ton of giant concrete slabs.  the ground slopes in the middle of the space and the slabs grow taller.  you can walk through and it's a bit creepy being in the middle surrounded by all these giant concrete slabs.  the architect never announced the meaning of the memorial so there are many theories.  one i just read from the linked wikipedia page is, "a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason."

so many buildings were covered in battlewounds

amplemann! the traffic light man that east berlin is famous for

as i said before, the tour was fantastic.  berlin is full of SO MUCH history that happened not that long ago, it's incredible.  SO much happened there and the city is still rebuilding itself which is incredible.  

so on day two (friday), we decided to go on another tour offered by the same company -- this one was an alternative city tour which focused on "the last 20 years in berlin" and the developing culture since the berlin wall came down.  this, also, was a fantastic tour.  best way to see as much as possible in a small amount of time.  we had another excellent tour guide who knew a lot and answered all of K's questions (she's the art teacher and was happier than i've ever seen her during the entirety of this tour).  

street art EVERYWHERE

kunsthaus tacheles

inside tacheles

me inside of tacheles

east side gallery

after enjoying indian, lebanese, and swedish food on our trip so far, we were in serious need of thai.  lucky for us, we found this little gem called "lemongrass" just a few blocks from our hostel.  aside from making V and me very cville nostalgic, we ate excellent food.  so excellent, in fact, that we ate here 2 nights in a row.  

so, obviously, i have added berlin to my list of "places i want to live." who's in? 

x!