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Good thing we brought rain jackets and a positive attitude because Berlin has been a little bit rainy and rude. While our hostel is great - spacious, clean, friendly staff, and all you can eat breakfast buffet (unlimited chocolate cereal and yogurt! We've missed you), the rest of the city is not nearly as welcoming. The buildings are huge, imposing structures and are a direct reflection on the history of the city. Only after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 did the East and West divisions of Germany unify to form the current capital city as we know it now. Prior to that, the city was divided between socialism and communism by the small but effective structure. The wall is now "protected" as a historical artifact from visitors destroying parts of it to take home as a souvenir. Vendors will try to sell tourists "authentic" pieces of the Berlin wall, but we did not fall for that trap. The wall, as we see it now, was the fourth generation of the wall (the first version had just barbed wire to top it, then they realized that you could use it to pull yourself over, so a rounded cement cylinder was added as a better defense) and has been rebuilt 11 times, so it is unlikely that any piece found in a souvenir shop is indeed authentic.

We learned several history lessons by stumbling upon and joining a free tour that began at the Brandenburg gate. The guide was great and we discovered several memorials we may not have seen on our own. We were thankful to have a better understanding of a massive memorial to the holocaust, Checkpoint Charlie, and to see where Hitler's underground bunkers and place of suicide was. After learning a few hours of history lessons we hopped back on our bikes and made our way through the well-developed bike lanes of Berlin. We stopped and took several pictures of big and/or shiny things (we are easily distracted and excited by things that catch our attention as you may know). We also made our way to find a beautiful church, Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church, that was nearly destroyed during WWII. The building is undergoing reconstruction for preservation so we could not see the fallen peak of the top of the church, the result of the war.

We explored for a great deal of the afternoon, biking through Tiergarten park, well-known streets, and stopping for some deliciously novel German baked goods. When we decided that we had seen enough of the city (and felt a little sick from the quickly eaten baked goods) we checked into our hostel, had showers, and did some laundry. You appreciate the efficiency and convenience of washing machines (or hard-working moms) when you are hand-washing and wringing out your clothes in the hostel sinks.

After a back-packers dinner of cheese, bread, cucumbers, and carrots we put on our faces and hit up the hostel bar. After seeing how much fun we were having playing some loud card games, a pair of dutch travelers invited us to play some games with them. We threw back a few rounds of Berliner Pilsener (not a huge fan - but hey, we didn't have to buy them!) and learned a few new games, facts, words, and customs from the Netherlands. There are in fact 12 provinces of the Netherlands (Janelle thought they were joking...but who knew!?), if you cheers in the Netherlands and clink your glasses you are in fact being slightly rude (good to know!), and we also decided that the dutch are just backwards - we say "eh?" and they say "he"! SO, the next time someone makes fun of us Canadians for following questions or statements with "eh", we've got backup!

We tried to see the evening social scene of Berlin as we had heard it was quite progressive, but for whatever reason (likely our lack of speaking German, because it was definitely not our looks!) we were denied. Shocking, we know! These Berliners have no idea how we tear up the dance floor. The first bar we went to they said that if we weren't on the guest list, had never been there before, or weren't with a local, we could not go in. The second bar we were blankly told that "you guys are not getting in tonight". HOW RUDE! I guess we should work on our German accents, and make some friends with some locals today or call it an early night and get a good rest before we take Prague by storm tomorrow.

This morning we had some good old breaky (more chocolate!) and planned today's adventures. We are going to leave the bikes at the hostel and try to stay dry (wish us luck!) by taking the S-bahn out to Potsdam.


We don't have the patience to wait for more pictures to upload at the moment, so bear with us and enjoy the post for now!! Expect pictures a little later today - but I suppose it would be still pretty early for you guys as it is a 6 hour time difference.

Hope the weather is cooling off in Kingston, although what we left behind seems a lot more appealing than this crap we are having here!