Monday Morning around 11:30 am we were on the road to Paris from Vichy (railroad that is). After a 3 hour train ride, we arrived to a typical day in Paris, rainy. Paris isn't all that far from London after all. Jacob had wanted to head to the eiffel tower, so with our suitcases we took the Metro to arrive at Bir Hakeim, the metro station next to the eiffel tower. We walked through the horrible rain, which kept getting progessively worse, and we were some of the only people at the eiffel tower. We got the typical picture and headed to find some food.
If you've ever been to France, you know that this is no easy task, especially when trying to stay on a budget. After awhile, the rain got so bad you could barely see five feet in front of your face so we stopped at the first cafe we found, Salon de The. We all ordered sandwiches for about 7 euros, and they weren't even that good. Jacob, however, did not receive what he ordered. Instead they gave him a salmon sandwich that was about 7 euros more than his choice. Being a nice guy, he told the waiter he would eat it anyways. When the bill arrived, Jacob immediately regretted that decision because he was charged for the salmon sandwich that he didn't even want to begin with. Clearly, Jacob was no happy camper.
Finally, we went to the Orly airport and hopped on our plane with a final destination of Warsaw, Poland. Two hours later we were in Berlin around 11:30 pm with only a backpack & no place to sleep for an 18 hour layover (yes, we thought that was a good idea). After 4-5 miserable hours of sleeping on top of heaters in the airport, we woke up, grabbed some starbucks, and headed out to explore the city. We originally planned to walk to everything to save money, but when a man approached us and showed us the distance and told us we could pay 16 euros for a group bus pass for the entire day, we each paid our 4 euros and jumped on the bus. When we arrived downtown, our first mission was to find the berlin wall. This, however, was no easy task. We got lost about every 5 minutes and had to let Jacob and Zach stare at the map to decide where we were and where we should head. I had a great time just tagging along as you can see.
After about an hour of being lost we finally arrived! It was incredible to see the wall still set up & read the stories written around it. It seemed so surreal that someone could set up a wall to keep people in a city. The distance between the two walls was much further than I had pictured, probably a little less than a football field apart. I can imagine seeing my loved one die trying to escape. It's crazy how many people died attempting. I was very glad to be able to see this landmark from history.
Next, we headed to see all the pretty buildings we had passed on our way. Women kept coming up to us asking if we spoke English so we could sign their paper or tell us about their hard life and ask for money. It's sad to see, but it's impossible to give money to everyone who asks.... so we tried to ignore them and pass on. This church was gorgeous. We tried to walk in but it was a paid tour and we didn't have time to do a tour.
One thing I learned about Germany is that everywhere you go, there are bizarre signs, stores, and objects. Below is just one example of the things we saw. Germany is such a different world.
We found another building, I believe this was the Justice building. The architecture everywhere in Europe is absolutely incredible.
Our next stop was the president's house. Naturally, we all took jumping pictures in front of the president's house. This is comparable to the white house in the United States.
Our last stop in Berlin was this beautiful tower just down the road from the president's house. It was in the middle of a roundabout and all the way around it were statures of famous military officials. It was beautiful. As it was our final stop, we paid 2 euros to climb to the top.
After what seemed like a thousand stairs, WE MADE IT! Our trip to Berlin had been complete and we were able to look and see all the beautiful places we had seen during the day from one spot. It was incredible and very refreshing. Back to the airport we headed to catch our flight to Warsaw, Poland!
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