A whole lot of Pictures of Berlin...

The trip started with a very normal train ride there. Sadly no new friends like with my trip to Paris. All I got was a very grumpy German woman who tried to tell me I was in her seat, in German. Since I didn’t really know what she was saying I told her I don’t speak German, in German. So what does she do? She speaks louder and faster. Yeah. That is going to work. Luckily for her someone leaned over and told me what Grumpy woman was saying.

When I finally got to Berlin, I met up with my friend Annette. Side note for my Mom-When I told you where I was staying was a long story… here is the story. I met Annette online on a site called couchsurfing.com. How it works is that I find people on this site in the city who have a couch that I can crash on, and ask if they will let me stay. We hang out, get to know each other and have a fun multi-culture experience. Mom, for some reason I decided not to tell you this. Turns out that was the best since I got a call later from you worried about me. You would have flipped if I told you where I was staying. No worries. I am safe.

Annette was amazing! She took great care of me, making sure I ate and was all set for bed. He couch was more comfortable and bigger than my bed in Frankfurt, so I had no complaints. The next morning, after a leisurely breakfast of bread and nutella, she took me out on her scooter for a tour of Berlin. It was really fun! We drove past the largest still standing portion of the Berlin wall. Lucky for me they had just repainted it. They I guess are going to do that every 10 years. There was some cool artwork on it. How cool would that be to be one of the people selected to be allowed to paint on THE Berlin wall. Crazy. Below is a video I took while on the back of the scooter. I could have sworn that I was holding the camera more steady :)

Apparently this is one of the most famous/widely known pictures on the wall. So here ya go :)

I just really liked this picture a lot. It is also on The Wall.

I can't get my stupid computer to take off the underline so deal with it :) But I saw this picture and thought of my little brother D.Jay. I know you are more of a Manchester fan, but still got some respect for the Brazil team right?!

Looks like I am stuck with the line... Anywho, this is a really cool mural. It is made up of a bunch of people. I don't think you can tell... But it is, just take my word for it. Or just take a better look at the picture below :)

This is where the Berlin Wall stood. If I had been standing here back in the day, I would have been shot. That is assuming I could even make it that far.

Check Point Charlie. No, it isn't named after a guy named Charlie. I have no idea why there is a picture of some random guy there. It is called Charlie because it was the third check point to get into Berlin. Alpha, Beta, Charlie. Get it?

Me at Check Point Charlie again. You can't see the guys behind me, but they are trying to make it seem authentic and have guys in US uniforms. Hard to fully believe it though when they have VERY German accents :) Just sayin guys...

This is the Brandenburg Tor (gate). Little bit of random information for you-come on, if you know me, you know I am full of random knowledge like this! The statue up there is the Roman Goddess of victory, Victoria (go figure). Well when Napoleon took control, he took Victoria to Paris. When the Prussians got Paris, they brought her back to Berlin. And there she is! The one and original.

Would my blog be complete without another Dom? I think not.

This is really cool to me. This is what it looked like when the wall surrounded East Berlin. It starts out with guard towers (with 3 guards in them, because 1 could run, 2 could work together to run, but 3 it was too risky to talk escape) In between each tower there were dogs, then that open space? Mines. Then the wall. I always wondered why people didn't just hop the wall. This is why. The wall was the easy part if you somehow managed to make it that far. In this little area alone there were about 8 people killed just from trying to jump out of their apartment windows to the other side. Crazy.

This makes me happy. Most of you know how much I really do like graffiti, and well.. This is one of my favorite graffiti artists, Bansky. I randomly stumbled on this and it really made me happy :)

Would a post be complete without something really photoshopped? This is some random courtyard I managed to find myself in. There was a lot of really amazing graffiti here.

The elevator to get up to Annette's apartment (where I was staying) was... special. She lived on the 5th floor. Do you see a button for that? I think not. Go to the 4th floor, get out and then walk up the stairs the rest of the way :)

And this right here folks... This is why I shouldn't be left alone. I find things like this way too entertaining...

This is the square where the Nazi's had the book burning. They burned over 20,000 books. A glass plate set into the Bebelplatz, giving a view of empty bookcases, commemorates the book burning. Furthermore, a line of Heinrich Heine is engraved, stating "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen" (in English: "Where they burn books, they ultimately burn people").

This... THIS is my DREAM car!! It is the Bugatti Veyron... Beautiful piece of work. 1001 hp, worlds second fastest car, and I was a foot away from it! I never thought I would see one, let alone be that close! I had to stop and remember to breathe when I saw it.

The

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was really interesting to see as well. It stands as a reminder of the war and what war does. It is really interesting to see, since I have never really been somewhere that was ravaged by a war. It is an eye opening experience.

This is why I wish I had people with me. I saw this and the first cheesy joke that came to my mind was about finding Deutsche-umus Prime. But then I realized there was nobody to laugh at my insanely LAME joke. Normally I am fine with my alone travels, but it is the little moments like this that makes me with there was someone else.