I arrived in Frankfurt a week ago, but it was quite a journey. Val drove me to the airport, but when I arrived, I acted like a complete idiot the whole time! I couldn't figure out how to self-check in, and I almost boarded the wrong plane, I could have ended up in Charlotte instead of Philly! When I got off the plane it was 10 AM in Germany and I had only gotten maybe one and a half hours of sleep. I was kinda tired, but I managed to stay up all day and even ended up staying up to about 11 PM watching How I Met Your Mother (thanks Val!). I didn't do much in Frankfurt, except eat delicious German food! I made my dad bring me to an Apfelwein Kneipe and I had Weisse Spargel and Weiner Schnitzel!
After three days in Frankfurt, I took the ICE to Berlin at 7 AM! The ride was fairly uneventful; however, I did have the misfortune of boarding on the wrong side of the engine and got a couple of death stairs from the attendants when I wandered into first-class looking for my seat with two massive bags, needless to say, I fit the German stereotype of the typical American. I arrived pretty much arrived on time in Berlin (I love German trains!). My hotel, provided by CDS, was near Potsdamer Platz, which is fairly far from Hauptbahnhof, so I decided to take the Taxi to avoid any problems. The CDS orientation started later that day, but I had a little time to get settled in. I took a walk down Ebertsstrasse next to Tiergarten and stumbled across the Brandenburger Tor:
I didn't have much time, so I decided to head back to the hotel and get my favorite Berlin specialty on the way, Doener! The Doener here are amazingly good and cheap (2,50 Euro)! I haven't tried any of the variants, though; I would love to get one with Knoblauchsosse (garlic sauce) or Falafel! At about 2:30, all the CDS participants gathered in the hotel lobby and we started our orientation at Berlin's US Embassy, which is one of very few American embassies where you can walk up to the building without getting tackled by 20 security guards. We talked to the Debuty Chief of Operations at the Embassy. He told us about the life of a Foreign Services Officer, which sounds like a pretty cool job, except you move every 3 years to whatever country the US wants you in.
Later that night, most of us met up again to go out. We hung out at a random park for a while eeating Doener and drinking beers. It was a fun, relaxed time, but, after a couple hours, we split up into separate groups. I ended up going to Friedrichshain, east of Mitte, and eating even more Doener after getting rejected at the door of a huge Berlin club (1500 people!), it was an interesting night to say the least, but we came back kinda early so we could get up in the morning!
The next day, we got up early at 7 AM to eat breakfast and leave the hotel by 8:30 AM. We went to the Deutsche Bank on Unter den Linden. It's an interesting street that leads up to the Brandenburg Tor and only 20 years ago was part of the Berlin Wall death strip--now they sell Ferraris and Bentleys there! We saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Reichstag, but we didn't get the chance to go in the Reichstag (there's a two hour line). When we got back, I had to move to a different hotel, which ended up being a 20 minute walk with heavy luggage. That night wasn't as exciting, because almost everyone went to their cities, so I just hung out with a couple guys staying in Berlin or who were leaving the next morning. We went to a Mexican Steakhouse, which seem to be quite popular here. It was on Potsdamer Platz:
I had the day free on Sunday, so I went to an ELFK church in Kleinmachnow, which is near Potsdam (southeastern Berlin). The church was pretty small, but everyone was very nice, and they invited me to Lunch and I had Spaetzle for the first time this summer, although without cheese. That night I went to Alexander Platz and took some pictures of the Fernsehturm, a KFC ad and Graffiti at Gleisdreieck:
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