Berlin

I spent Wednesday in Berlin for a work meeting (I love my new job!) and got to spend the evening exploring. 

After the meeting (and a few drinks) Heather, Lizzie and I headed to our separate hotels and arranged to meet up later.

I was staying in a little hostel like place called Arte Luise. The rooms are all different and decorated with random things and pop art. My room just had a single bed (with a shared bathroom) but I was only there a few hours and had fun (if a little creepy) decorations.

On the ceiling

Looking at me.

Random shoes on the wall

The message encouraged people to write on the walls and people had left messages from all over. (I added my own.)

Great view from the room

I really wanted to explore and as I was up a 5am that morning, sitting down was going to be a bad plan, I headed back out after dumping my things and headed down to the park.

Crossing the river.

I was staying near the Brandenburg Gate. The gate was part of the Berlin wall (1961-1969), standing between the east and west.

Brandenburg Gate

I headed through the gate and down through the park to the Soviet Memorial. 

Russian tank.

Memorial

And then round the park to the Reichstag building, which used to be the home of the Imperial Diet of the German Empire and is now the meeting place of the German Parliament. You can't see very well from the photo but there is a dome above. You can go in (well book a tour) and and walk around above, watching parliament. The idea is they want the parliament and what goes on to be completely transparent.

Reichstag building

I was a little early to meet the others so sat by the river for a bit. It was really peaceful.

After a few drinks and food finally (I skipped lunch), we had a walk around the town. Down by the river, there was a video projected on the side of a building showing the history of the Berlin wall and it coming down. 

Brandenburg Gate at night.

We ended up hopping around a few bars. The night ended with Jägermeister. :(

I got back to my hotel at 12.30am and had to be up again to get to the airport at 4.30am that morning. I went straight from the airport to work for the day but left at 2pm. I was exhausted! But it was a great trip and I really want to go back to Berlin again. :)