Traveling to Berlin

It started on the 18th of February 2005. My father drove me to the train station Vienna West. We still had a bit of time, got ourselves a nice little breakfast and were quite nervous, actually. I've been really looking forward to Berlin.

The train ride took 10 hours (!), I switched the train in Nürnburg. When I finally arrived in the Hotel Ibis-Ostbahnhof, I felt into my nice bed like a rock. Luckily (:-)) a bunch of drunken guys made a lot of noise on the outside. So I got out of the bed early and could enjoy a blue, cloudy morning at the Spree.

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Berlin around my Hotel

I found myself in the heart of Berlin, as I figured out later. Yes, of course, there's the center and everything. But here at the Ostbahnhof it seemed like Berlin as it really is.

Berlin, the place where you can find Grafitti everywhere. Berlin, big, incredible big. And Berlin, city of old and new, modern and messed up buildings.

The Spree seen here is a river going right through Berlin.

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East Berlin

After looking around the places of near my Hotel, I headed back to the train station. My father didn't only buy me a Marco Polo [url=http://www.marcopolo.de/reiseziele/berlin.html]guide to Berlin[/url] but also recommended the weekend card for public transport.

And so I went and bought a ticket, which wasn't exactly expensive. Around 18 EUR I think. For zones A and B, tram, bus, subway and train. I wanted to visit a shop at the Warschauer Street but wasn't successful. First of all, the subway was out of order because of construction.

Second, the shop seems to have closed in the meantime...

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Alexanderplatz

Speaking of East Berlin... Did you know that the Alexanderplatz was the pride of the German communists back in the days? The Alexanderplatz -- and you can still see that -- was the place where the communists built one huge monument after the other.

The place is incredible big. And the buildings don't match. There's that big television tower at the one side. Then there's another monument with some kind of neptun or something. And... Well, see for yourself. I spent quite some time there walking around.

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Reichstag

Visiting Berlin without visiting the Reichstag? Impossible! So, well, I thought Alexanderplatz was, well, pretty big. But as soon as I visited the Reichstag I saw that's not the only big thing there in Berlin.

The hugeness of the Reichstag was too much for my camera. I couldn't really grab it. Maybe you can find some air-pictures of that area somewhere? Well, anyway. I did some 'closeups' to make up.

Btw. you can see one of the (said to be) many demonstrations on the picture here.

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Hardenbergplatz

So, what was I to do? I saw the Reichstag, the television tower, East Berlin... Well, I took advantage of my public transportation ticket. And just drove around with some bus. As all of the sudden, I saw a very weird building.

Some kind of bombed church maybe? Or a house? But what's that thing on the left? Ah, whatever: Out of that bus, quickly!

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Potsdammer Platz

A quick look through the Marco Polo reminded me of my next target. I made a list of things I wanted to visit at night and I refreshed my memory.

A highly recommended place to visit in Berlin is the Potsdammer Platz. It is said to have some great architecture. Namely the Daimler-Crysler building and the Sony-Building.

You could also buy tickets for the [url=http://www.berlinale.de/]Berlinale [/url] there!

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Pankow and the Plattenbauten

At the end of the first day, I browsed through the map. And saw a district called "Pankow". Isn't that the one Udo Lindenberg used to sing about? Yes, of course! It is!

I also found a couple of Plattenbauten. By accident, I must admit. I drove around with the bus line 100, which also leads to the Reichstag. At the end, the Michelangelo Street, there where a lot of these Plattenbauten.

I've already been somewhat used to huge areals in Berlin, but they were big and countfull never the less.

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Traveling to Berlin
Day 2