Volar por Berlin

While our alarm was set for 6:00, it turned out to be unnecessary when our drunken roommates obnoxiously burst through the door around 5:30. Bleary eyed, Dave and I arose to finish packing and eat up the rest of our bread and nutella from the day before. A cold, dark trek to the station later, we waited to board our train to Berlin. There was hardly anyone on the train, being so early in the morning, and we pulled out of the station just as dawn was breaking on the overcast city yet again. The journey through the countryside was beautiful as we followed a river through a mixture of flat plains, rolling hills, and little towns speckled along the way. We passed through the same type of hazy air we encountered during our ride through Switzerland, and it once again added a sort of mysterious element to our travels. People boarded and exited the train every hour or so in the small towns where we stopped, but overall, the train filled to maximum capacity as we drew closer to Berlin.
Reaching Berlin about 1:30, we were greeted by Dave's German friend, Felix, from the university in Freiburg who happened to be home in Berlin for the holidays and with whom we would be "staying" until our departure to Rome the next morning. He turned out to be a really cool guy, and after catching a few buses, we were walking to his mothers apartment in east Berlin near the old Berlin Wall. We were immediately greeted by a friendly smile and a hug from his mother who reminded me in every way of Ms. Weasley. After dropping our things in his room, we were encouraged into the kitchen, where she had already prepared a delicious-smelling and very German lunch for our growling stomachs. Numerous helpings of a dark brown cabbage dish and a very unique unsweetened pumpkin pie, followed by great coffee and cookies gave us energy for the lightning-quick tour of Berlin we were about to have.
We began, as it was already starting to get dark, at the Berlin Wall museum near his house. We passed by the parliament building and various others owned by the government, all beautifully designed. From there we saw numerous embassies from all over the world, included that of the USA, which, in true American fashion, was completely inaccessible and heavily defended by high walls, gates, and military police. A stark contrast with that of the UK just a few blocks away, which was guarded by two unarmed men at the doorway to the street. We saw their highly controversial Holocaust museum, which is a sea of large stones that appear fairly uniform from the outside, but as you wind your way through them, they grow to gigantic sizes all around you and you begin feel consumed by their presence. For such a simple design, it had an incredible ability to demonstrate the overwhelming and consuming memory of the Holocaust. Passing through the center of downtown, through it's modern buildings, streetcar tracks, high end shops and bars, we came across a building covered in graffiti and looking very out of place. Inside, artists had set up shop, and all 5 stories were full of brilliant work by the artists who smoked any number of things as they sat looking relaxed and uninterested.
Deciding we needed a little rest, Dave, Felix, and I returned back to the apartment and enjoyed a few Berlin brews as we sat in Felix's cozy living room. Later on that night, we made a stop at the local kebab shop for a tasty dinner and continued on our way to visit some of Felix's friends at a jazz club where we caught the tail end of a set by a great band. We accompanied a few of them to another bar a few hours later and found ourselves arriving home about 3:30, a bit tired and knowing we had exactly one hour to sleep before getting up to catch the metro to the airport. We packed a sandwich and some fruit for a mid-morning snack on the plane and set off to tiredly make the 45 minute trip to the airport on the deserted metro. It was hard to believe we would be in Rome in just a few short hours after the whirlwind that had been our visit to Berlin. I couldn't wait to see the boys.