Ich bin ein Berliner [for a weekend, at least]

I found myself in Berlin with my lovely host family this last weekend, and before elaborating on the city itself, I would like to say that I found Kinder Eggs there.

Maxi Edition

"Einfach Riesig!"

 These supersized pieces of joy are pretty much the size of half my face.

[Let's take a moment to recall my Kinder fixation....]

Berlin hat sich gelohnt(:

Now, as for the rest of Berlin.

The fam bam and I left for the capital Friday afternoon via a four-hour ICE train, getting there after dark. My host dad, who had arrived before us to attend a conference, met us at the central station. After dropping off our suitcases, I got my first taste of Berlin at night [at below-freezing temperatures but nonetheless exciting].

A ten minute walk from our hotel in the Kurfürstendamm neighborhood [or as the locals say- Ku'damm] led us to our first landmark, the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church).

Unfortunately, it was under construction. :(

The "Hollow Tooth"

I'd been rather looking forward to seeing the old church, irreparably damaged in WWII during a 1943 air raid, still standing today right next to the new church. However, it's entirely covered and under construction until sometime in 2013.

Ampelmännchen liebe <3

However, in the same neighborhood was an Ampelmann shop!

These little traffic light men from the former GDR- East Germany- are absolutely adorable, and I still have my eye on the little Ampelmann plushies for the next time I'm in Berlin:)

[Three cheers for stopping in the middle of the road on more than one occasion to get pictures of these guys, aha,]

 

Boy oh boy, a double decker bus!!

The next morning was a tour around the city from the top floor of one of these [life goal right there].

Checkpoint 'C'

  We passed by Checkpoint Charlie, the best known crossing point between East and West Germany in the Berlin Wall with the "you are now leaving the American sector" sign [but I looked out of the wrong side of the bus and missed it ): ]. 

 And then past the Gendarmenmarkt, with almost identical French and German cathedrals facing one another, and the Konzerthaus Berlin with a statue of the German poet Friedrich Schiller in the middle.

 

The bus then drove by the Rotes Rathaus, Berlin's town hall. Like the Kaiser-Wilhelm Church, this building was also damaged by bombing in WWII, but it was later rebuilt with the original plans. From where we drove past, we could also see the Fernsehturm (Berlin's TV tower), the tallest structure in Germany at 368 m. Like the Space Needle back home, there are two elevators leading to a rotating restaurant and visitor's platform up top:)

'Alte Fritz'

 Then came the

Reiterdenkmal Friedrichs des Grossen, the statue of Frederick the Great, kind of Prussia in the 1700s. We saw this driving through the boulevard 'Unter den Linden', and it's actually huge, with three tiers stretching up to 13.5 m (44 ft) high...

 

Oh boy oh boy oh boy(:

And then things started to get really exciting;

Our tour ended right in front of the Brandenburger Tor!

The former city gates with the Quadriga up top, which I'd seen everyday on German euro coins [and on a National-Treasure-esque movie where this group climbed into the gate!!], right there.

...

With Darth Vader and Mario and giant teddy bears mulling about taking pictures with tourists and ripping them off like that Roman guy in Cologne ...

Direct opposite of the gate was Hotel Adlon, a building that is rich with history, withstood both world wars, appeared in a host of famous films, contributed to pop culture...

Not ringing a bell?

This is the hotel from which Michael Jackson dangled his baby 'Blanket' from a window  in November 2002.

 Ta-da.

:)

 And then, one block away: the Reichstag.

This was perhaps one of my favorite parts of our trip; Germany's parliament building [quasi, the equivalent of the Capitol] with its glass dome and history is absolutely breathtaking. 

Glass and more glass and mirrors reflecting light everywhere, and glass again letting you look down into parliament floor itself. The dome afforded a 360 degree view of the city, and I only wish I could have been there at night with the stars out(: 

Photos in the column of mirrors(:

You're not allowed to stand on these, by the way.... oops.

After the Reichstag was a memorial I'd been particularly interested in--

Das Denkmal für die Ermordeten Juden Europas [Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe]. Pulling some facts straight off of Wikipedia, this memorial is a 

"19,000 square meter (4.7 acres) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The slabs [...] vary in height from 0.2 to 4.8 m (8 in to 15 ft 9 in) [and] are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere. The whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason."

 Let me put that in perspective: it's huge.

From a distance, it looks interesting, but walking through the concrete maze forces you to appreciate the intricacies of it. As the slabs get taller, the ground dips simultaneously, hence the 15-foot-tall blocks. The ground is like rolling waves, adding another variable to the varying block-heights. And when you finally step out again and look back, you see that the tops of the blocks also tilt, adding a diagonal aspect to the field.

It's disorienting; it's brilliant. 

Yum yum bubble gum

The morning bus tour had taken us past stretches of the Berlin wall, but later by foot, we came across these preserved sections. The pieces we got up close and personal with though  honestly reminded me more of the Gum Wall in Pike Place Market than anything else...

 The Berliner Dom on Museum Island is gorgeous, and the stretches of street and farmers' markets in the surrounding area are so perfect. Those little tents just made Berlin seem so alive, one of the key things about this capital that just makes me happy. Washington D.C. felt like one big museum at times, but Berlin was alive.

'Goldelse'

On a bus, we later passed by the Berliner Siegesäule [Berlin Victoria Statue]. It was designed to commemorate Prussian victories in war, and is really quite aesthetically pleasing.

 In Potsdamer Platz was the Sony Center, a Sony-sponsored center with everything from entertainment and cinemas, to restaurants, to residences, to offices all in this circle of buildings. In the 1920s it was one of the most important business districts in Berlin, with Europe's first traffic light system being installed there in 1924. 

And it has a giant lego giraffe:)

 

 We got rather lucky, seeing as the day we went, all the shops in Ku'damm were open until late in the night for "Late Night Halloween Shopping"--- something entirely untypical in a country where stores close early and our American 24/7 stores are not a likely upcoming trend.

So what better place to hit up then the KaDeWe, the second largest department store in Europe
With six stories, one of which is dedicated entirely to food and then a restaurant on the seventh, this place has literally everything.
Including American chocolate, which I most definitely stocked up on.
[Hersheys and Reeses, how I've missed you <3]

I could live here.

...With the exception of a few entirely unforgivable items, like a fur jacket for your dog (I mean, whut) and this freak bear-centaur plush. No. Just no. No, no, no. Aghgf.
 Yes, this was actually a legitimate item for sale.
....................

One last thing I particularly enjoyed in Berlin were these uniquely painted bears spread across the town, not unlike the pigs that used to grace Pike Place/the Seattle area some time ago. It becomes a little scavenger hunt, really. [Gotta catch 'em all!]

My heart may still be in Köln, but Berlin is working it's way up there.

I can't wait to go back. :)