Ah, Berlin. You were a cold one, temperature and ambiance. Berlin was interesting. Tons of history, and not all good.
We left Amsterdam on day 3 and headed to Berlin. We arrived in the afternoon and had a free night to explore. Unfortunately, by this time, the pain from my hand injury, you can read about it here, was getting the best of me. So as soon as we checked into the hotel, we found the nearest hospital to have it checked out. Mind you, we are in Germany and neither one of us speaks any sort of German.
Our cab driver pulls up and drops us off at the hospital, all signs, of course, are in German, so we just try to go find the information desk. There was a gentleman there, and as soon as we started saying, "Emergency" he started speaking German in a not so nice way. We had NO idea what he was saying, so he eventually just pointed out and around the corner and we went that way. It was later in the night, about 8 or 9pm, so there wasn't many people waiting, but it still took forever!
Finally getting called to the back, to say I was nervous about the language barrier at this point is a huge understatement! God was watching out for us because in walks this younger woman, speaking chopped English but English! I was so happy even though she did throw in a "Sweet" at the end of each statement like we are 13 again.
After a couple of x-rays, nothing was broken, it was stretched ligaments and they send us on our way with two ibuprofen and an ace bandage. Thanks a lot doc!
We get back to our hotel and meet up with some of the tour group downstairs eating. The younger folks went to the night club across the street but all I wanted was a warm bed!
The next day we had a guided walking tour of the city and all of the famous/touristy sites. Our tour guide was amazing and really painted the tragic picture of the past. As I said before, it was very somber in the city. It is truly heartbreaking everything the people went through.
After, we had the afternoon to explore on our own, so a few of us went off in search of... you guessed it... food! There wasn't much appetizing places, and we found a sushi/pho place! Yes, I had a nice bowl of pho in Berlin! Who would've guessed it?
Check out some of the photos below!
"Berlin was very somber. There was a feeling of sadness there that was I think due to all of the WW2 history that was displayed. The memorial thing they had was real crazy, and standing on top of the bunker where Hitler died was both awe-inspiring and terrible. the architecture was very good, but the general feeling of everything was not inviting."
Have any of you visited Berlin or any other somber city?
What great pictures! I'd be so stressed going to an emergency room in a country where i couldn't speak the language!
ReplyDeleteI visited Berlin last summer, I have to say I loved it! I guess summer makes everything much more inviting. I loved the people, food, sights, architecture... Berlin is one of my favorite cities :) Here are couple of my pics and the atmosphere is completely different than in your: http://iammrsk.blogspot.fi/2013/07/i-heart-berlin.html
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty amazing how one city can be seen in so many different ways, but I really think summer bring the life back to Berlin.