Berlin and Dresden

So, upon arriving in Berlin, I (Jenny) got sick and basically could barely do anything except rest the entire time. We went to the Pergamon Museum our first day, which features a lot of ancient Greek and Roman relics, some of which were completely destroyed and then repaired again. The highlight was the Pergamon altar, an ancient Greek altar to the gods originally set atop the Acropolis. It was removed a long long time ago and rebuilt in the museum. It is surrounded by these intricate freezes depicting gods. It was quite amazing and must have took the sculptors forever to complete. The next day Ethan went out and explored the city, while I stayed at the hostel and felt sick, he saw some monuments that he will describe later.

Ethan: I walked from one end of the city to the other. It was quite beautiful. I was hoping to see more remains of communism and east germany, but they pretty much got rid of those. I saw many of the main attractions including this huge radio tower that looks like the seattle space needle, the old commie capital builiding wich was being destroyed and pretty much all that is left is the structural elements of the building, and the reichstag (parliament building) with a great view of the city from the top. Berlin reminds me a lot of paris in its scale. It has very wide streets and none of the buildings are very tall. It seems like a great city that I would want to go back to to really explore.

When the weekend was over, I went to a German doctor with the help of our hostel and was able to get antibiotics to get better. It was amazing how easy the process was. I was walked across the street by one of the hostel employees to a nice doctors office. The took me right away, and 30 minutes and 30 Euro later the visit was over and I had all of my perscription medicine. I wish doctors visits were like that in the states.

The next day we went to the Jewish Museum which was really big. It traced the lives of Jews in Berlin and Germany from like 1000 AD to current. It also had a lot of information on the Holocaust. It was touching, as all Jewish museums are. We also ate at the Kosher restaurant inside.

Our hostel was amazing and took really good care of me which was really nice of them. They had a big flat screen tv and all new release movies in their common room, so it was the best situation for me being sick.

We were able to enjoy one really good German meal at a restaurant recommended by the guy at the hostel. It was a lot of sausages and meat and potatoes, but all really good. Ethan got a pork knuckle. The people in Berlin were super nice and helpful, and I wish I wasnt sick the entire time because i wasnt really able to do too much which sucked.

When we left Berlin we headed to Dresden for one night and this city was really awesome as well. There is the old part and the new part and they are completely different, but both really cool. Sightseeing wise, we went to a church that was destroyed in the war and completely rebuilt within the last 2 years, it had really interesting paint of gold and then pastel, basically it was super tacky, but people love it. We saw the big opera house and walked around a garden. The city is really beautiful, not very touristy and very clean. The new part is where all the young people live and it has these really cool walkways that have a kind of art deco pattern throughout with little shops.

All in all, we really enjoyed what we did in Germany, and it was surprisingly very inexpensive and warm. We would love to go back one day.