| I
thought I had this day all planned. Meet Kitty and Plato in front of the
Berlin Zoologischer Garten Hauptbahnhof. The three of us would then join
The Original Berlin Walks walking tour and do that for the rest of the
day before meeting up with the rest of the boys and heading back to Hannover.
Unfortunately, this Ultimate Plan was thrown off-track from the very very
beginning so I had to improvise the day. All on my own. Wow, I felt like
such a big girl :)
The
day started off well enough, waking up in a huge bed, having a nice breakfast
(and sort of getting lost and disoriented in the house while going from
the breakfast room to the kitchen... made me feel a little ditzy), a little
coffee talk and then taking some photos before setting off. We set off
for Berlin, hoping to meet up with my friends by 10 a.m. so we could join
that walking tour. Unfortunately, due to a mutual miscommunication, I missed
the meeting time and so, improvising quickly, I asked to be dropped off
where there are a lot of touristy things within walking distance and where
it was safe for me to go alone. Hey, it was my first outing! Of course
I'd be all paranoid.
I
got dropped off at the Hotel Adlon, right by the Brandenburg Gate and after
asking about different types of tours at a Tourist Information Office,
I decided that my extremely heavy bag and I would take a bus tour on one
of those big topless touristy double-decker buses. I got on near the Reichstag,
and I told the driver that I was a university student and were there any
discounts I could avail of. He gave me the CHILDREN'S RATE so I ended up
only having to pay DM17 for an entire day of hop-on and hop-off sightseeing
on the bus (actually, on any bus with this circle-Brandenburger Tor symbol
on it) so I was pretty happy. That's half price off, thanks to my youthful
good looks, schyeah right!! So I was on the bus for most of the day, went
around the city once, then got off at the exact same place I got on, walked
around Unter den Linden for a while, then my back got tired so I got on
another bus and went around the city two and a half more times. By the
end of that, I had almost memorized the words to the audio guide, and it
was almost time to meet up with the rest of the group at the train station
so I got off, walked around the market for a short while and went into
the train station and met up with the rest of the guys and Kitty.
For
your perusal, here are the places that the bus tour visited: the Reichstag,
the Tiergarten, Strasse des 17. Juni, Schloss Charlottenburg, Kurfurstendamm,
the something-viertel, Checkpoint Charlie, Friedrichstrasse, Potsdamer
Platz, Gendarmenmarkt, and some other smaller stuff I can't really remember
any more. It was good fun :) |
