My Week Journals
On Sunday, I wasn't really in a hurry in the morning so I didn't wake up until a little later than 9 a.m. I took my time to eat breakfast and prepare for my trip. I left my house at 10:40 a.m., so that way I could be at the airport at around 11:30. Although, my flight still didn't start for another hour, I wanted to be there at a decent time. The cost of my flight was $1,303. When I was at the airport, I ate Mcdonald's for lunch. I had medium fries and a medium vanilla shake. Before I got on the plane, I bought a croissant and a Cotton Candy Frappuccino at Starbucks. I did this around 15 minutes before my flight was scheduled to take off so that way I would be able to save them for when I got hungry on the flight. I tried to save them for as long as I could because my flight was 11 hours and 45 minutes long! Sadly, I ended up drinking my drink within the next hour and eating my croissant within the next two hours. For the first five hours of my flight, I read Cinder. For the last almost seven hours of my flight I listened to music and fell asleep. I didn't even mean to fall asleep! I was just trying to listen to music on my phone but after about an hour of listening to it, I began to feel tired and soon after that I ended up falling asleep while still listening to the music. Later, when I woke up, I was very aggravated by this because I had used up almost all of my phone’s battery. When I got off the plane, it was 7:25 a.m. so I just took a taxi to my hotel and went to sleep. The hotel I went to was Hotel de Rome in Berlin. This hotel costed $291 a night.
On Monday, I visited the Berlin Wall Memorial in Berlin, Germany. I took a taxi there. The memorial is only 2.8 kilometers away so it was only a nine minute drive. Since the memorial is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., I didn't really worry about time and didn't actually leave my hotel until 1 p.m. I wanted to go to the Berlin Wall because it is what separated East Germany from West Germany during the Cold War and World War II. The Berlin Wall is currently only 1.4 kilometers long. This is also the last remaining piece of the original Berlin Wall. The site of the Berlin Wall is an area with a very important history. It was originally built by Communist East Germany to surround West Berlin. The wall had divided Berlin from 1961 all the way until 1989. In fact, it hadn't actually been opened until the November of 1989. During that time period, about 5,000 people tried to escape over the wall. However, about 136 to possibly even more than 200 people died doing this. The Berlin Wall officially began to be demolished on June 13th 1990. This demolishment was considered finished in 1992. The West Berlin government often called the wall the “Wall of Shame” referring the wall’s “restriction on freedom of movement”. Since I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast or dinner that day, I decided to go out to a nice restaurant for dinner. I went to Heising in Berlin. Heising is 6.7 kilometers or a 16 minute drive away from the Berlin Wall Memorial. To eat, I had the veal with morel sauce and vegetables for my main course and creme brulee for my desert. After dinner, I went back to the hotel and relaxed for a little bit before going to sleep. On Tuesday, I went to the Sanssouci Palace. I chose to travel here for that day because I had seen a picture of it and I thought it looks really beautiful. This palace was 31.7 kilometers, a 46 minute drive away from my hotel. I left the Hotel de Rome at about 11 a.m. and arrived at the Sanssouci Palace at a little bit before 12. The king Frederick the Great came up with the basic idea of the palace in 1744 when he had a garden on his terrace. Within the next few years, a new palace was built(The Sanssouci Palace) and the other palace was used as a garden. Even the slopes of that castle were used as gardens for vegetables and flowers. Nowadays, you can still find the tomb of Frederick the II on the hill of the castle. Sanssouci park currently holds music festivals and court concerts. After relaxing in the park and admiring all the diverse scenery and buildings, I took a taxi back to my hotel and arrived at about 4 p.m. When I got back, I relaxed for about two hours. During this time, I read more of my book, went on my laptop, and even took a short nap. At around 6 p.m., I took a taxi to Buntspecht restaurant in Berlin. This restaurant is 36 minutes or 21.3 kilometers away from the hotel. At Buntspecht, I had a spring salad with asparagus to start and rosti with asparagus as my main. Rosti is a big potato cake similar to a giant hashbrown. For dessert, I had a vanilla woodruff parfait. After dinner, I took a taxi back to Hotel de Rome. When I finally got home, it was 9:30. Since I had such an exciting day, I was extremely tired to I just read for an hour and then went to sleep. On Wednesday, I went to Museum Island in Berlin, Germany. Museum Island is 1.1 kilometers away from my hotel. This is only a 4 minute drive! I chose to go to this particular museum because I liked how it was by a body of water. The museum Island has five museums within itself. These museums are the Pergamon Museum, Bode-Museum, Neues Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie, and the Altes Museum. The Pergamon Museum receives around one million visitors each year making it the most popular museum in Berlin. The Bode-Museum had undergone six years of restoration. It wasn't until 2006 when it reopened. This museum holds a big variety of treasures and sculptures from the Museum of Byzantine Art. The Neues Museum was built in 1841 however, it was destroyed during the war. They began to rebuild it in 1999 but still it didn't reopen until 2009. The Museum of Prehistory and Early History and the Egyptian Museum now once again display many of their treasures in the Neues Museum. The Alte Nationalgalerie was the first museum in Museum Island to be renovated. It was reopened in 2001. This museum features a variety of different artworks from classicism to romanticism to impressionism to even early modernism. The Altes Museum or Old Museum holds many Roman and Greek sculptures as well as other Roman and Greek art. When I finished looking around and exploring, I went to the Jamme Ja Italian restaurant in Berlin. I chose to go here because I was beginning to feel a bit homesick and I eat Italian food often at home. This restaurant is a 15 minute drive away from Museum Island. The distance between them is 6.7 kilometers. At Jamme Ja, I ordered the carne alla pizzaiola. This is meat in tomato sauce. After I finished my meal, I went back to my hotel which was 6.8 kilometers or 16 minutes away. When I got back, I felt stuffed so I just relaxed a little bit before going to bed. On Thursday, I visited the famous Brandenburg Gate. Luckily, it is only 1.2 kilometers(a five minute drive) away. I wanted to go the Brandenburg gate because I thought it looked very beautiful and it is very important to Berlin. It is so important because it is the only gate left in Berlin that represents when West and East Berlin were separated. Because of this, the gate now symbolizes German unity. The Brandenburg Gate was originally made to be the main entrance into the city. When it was built, it was topped with the Quadriga statue. The Quadriga statue is a statue of the goddess of victory driving a chariot. When Napoleon Bonaparte and his army took over the Berlin, the statue was shipped to Paris, France. However, when the Prussian soldiers captured Paris in 1814, it was sent back to Germany. When Quadriga was put back on the Brandenburg gate, an iron cross was added to represent Germany’s victory over France. The cross was taken off during the communist era, however it was returned again permanently in 1990 when Germany was unified. It is made out of sandstone and is thought of as a fine example of classicism. People feel this way because it was made to look like the Propylaeum of Athens’ Acropolis. Each side of the gate has six Doric columns. These columns are there to support crossbeams. Each beam is 11 meters long! These beams also divide the gate into five different passages. Even though there are many passages, driving through the gate has been restricted since the October of 2002. The Berlin Senate made this decision. After about an hour at the Brandenburg Gate, I went to a restaurant called The Bird. It was about an 18 minute drive or 5.7 kilometers away from the gate. At this restaurant, I ordered a “Da Birdhouse” burger. It was served with fries, tomato, lettuce, red onion, and a pickle. It was so good, it tasted like I was eating a steak! When I was done eating, I went back to my hotel. The drive there took 15 minutes(5.5 kilometers). After such an exciting week so far, I decided to just stay in my hotel for the day. For dinner, I just ordered some spaghetti and lemonade from room service. Friday was my last full day in Germany. After seeing and visiting such exciting, wonderful things, I decided to spend the first half of the day in my hotel. I started my day off by sleeping in until 12 p.m. For brunch, I decided to just order more spaghetti since, it was so delicious the night before. Later on that day at about 3 p.m., I decided to go to the Alexanderplatz public square. I chose to go here because throughout my trip, even though I had seen a lot of things about Germany’s history, I had not seen a lot about their modern society. Luckily for me, Alexanderplatz is only 2.2 kilometers or 7 minutes away from Hotel de Rome. Alexanderplatz was named after the Russian Czar, Alexander I. This is because he visited the area in 1805. In 1882, it was originally just a traffic hub near a train station. However due to the construction of the Central Market Hall in 1886 and the construction of the Tietz department store in 1911, Alexanderplatz became a major shopping area in Berlin. The 1922 novel “Berlin Alexanderplatz” by Alfred Doblin made the public square even more famous. At the public square, I looked at the many different buildings such as the Berlin TV Tower and even went into some of the stores such as the many department stores. At around 6 p.m., I decided to go eat dinner. After researching restaurants near me, I decided to go eat dinner at Dinea. This was very convenient because Dinea was actually one of the restaurants in Alexanderplatz. To make up for such a hearty lunch the night before, I decided to just go with a sandwich. For dessert, I had a pastry. It was delicious! When I was finished eating, I payed my bill and then took a taxi back to my hotel. Since it was only around 8 p.m., I decided to just relax and go on my laptop. However, I still went to bed at around 10 p.m. since I wanted to be up in time for my flight the next day. Saturday was the last day I spent in Germany. I woke up at 6:15, this gave me an hour to get ready and leave. I left my hotel for the last time at 7:15 because I wanted to be at the airport at least an hour early and I wanted to make sure that I had at least an hour to get there. I had taken a taxi there as well as everywhere else that week because when I first showed up, I had decided that renting a car would be too much work and I wanted to relax and enjoy my vacation. Unlike the flight to Berlin, the flight back to Chicago was only nine hours and ten minutes long. For breakfast, I had a croissant and a Cinnamon Dolce Frappuccino from Starbucks. While eating my breakfast, I sat and read my book. I would have listened to music but I wanted to save my phone battery for the flight. My laptop was also in my suitcase so I was unable to get ahold of it. When there was a little over fifteen minutes left before my flight took off, I went to McDonalds and got a medium fry and large iced tea for when I was in the airplane. During the airplane ride, I read my book until I finished it. With still eight hours left in my flight and my food already finished, I decided to order a can of apple juice and a pack of cashews. While I ate my food, I listened to music on my phone. When I had finished my food I played games on my phone for about thirty more minutes before resorting back to music. Just like my flight to Berlin, I ended up falling asleep listening to music again. I think the flight was very nice. I was not disturbed even the slightest bit throughout the whole time! When my flight was finally over, I got my things, went home, and prepared for another regular day in Skokie, Illinois. Bonus Day: If I were to spend a bonus day in Germany, I would probably spend most of the day at the spa in my hotel. I know that most people would spend the day going to cool places but I had already seen much of what I wanted to see in Germany and I hadn't really gotten a day to really relax. I also wouldn't go to a very fancy restaurant because I had already gone out for food at least once every day and it would have felt nice to just order room service all day. |