Delirium

Today we arrived in Brussels, Belgium!! I've always thought Belgium would be cool to visit but never actually thought I'd end up here. 

It's another beautiful city where everytime you turn the corner there's another intricate building, which is of course way too big to fit in the camera frame :( 

One of the first things we did was get Belgian waffles covered in Belgian chocolate, mmmmm.

We walked around a little more and then went to Delerium Villiage which is known for having over 2000 beers!! It was made up of a few bars and we hopped around a few. Of course we were only trying Belgian beers, and of course they were all good! The Belgians are certainly masters of their craft.

The last place we went was an absinthe bar. We met a couple from California and they told us what to try. The bartender poured the liquor into a glass, then put a spatula full of holes over it and put a sugar cube on top. Then he put it under a little spout of water which ate away at the sugar cube as it dripped down into the glass. It was so cool!! The drink was ok, it tasted a lot like black liquorice. 

Peace Now

Today we were super busy. We woke up at about 6am due to the guy in our hostel snoring like an angry dying hippo. 

The first thing we did was head to Oranienburg where the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial is. Oranienburg is a very small town about an hour north of Berlin and was absolutely adorable. All of the houses were so cute with beautiful lawns full of flowers. 

This one was still under construction:

We then walked about a mile to get to the camp. It had been bombed in 1991 so most of the original buildings were gone but they had built exact replicas according to descriptions given by survivors. All of the original walls, barbed wire, and watch towers were still around the perimeter. It was very eerie and sad. In the prison building they had set up memorials in each cell and a bunch of them had flowers that people had stuck through the gate. 

Going to the camp was sad but an important thing to experience. We spent about two hours there and made the journey back to Berlin. 

Once we got back we were walking down the street when all of a sudden some lady comes up to us and asks if we want a free mojito! There was a promo team for Havana Rum and we got to go up into a parked trailor and make our own mojitos for free!!! We were up there with some other people and we each got our own little bar mat with all of the ingredients and a Cuban woman walked us through all the steps. 

*cheers*

We then walked to the city center and did some sight seeing. 

It was really cool to see the Reichstag. I've been reading a book about the history of Nazi Germany and this building played such a major role in the war.  

We walked through the park and found a little beer garden which was much more tranquil than the one in Munich, sigh. 

We also went up to the top of this monument. I can't remember what it's called but it is in the center of the city and has been there through all of the chaos that Berlin has seen over the years, which is a ton.

We climbed the spiral stairs allllll the way up and it was so worth it. 

A little perspective, this is the golden statue on the top: 

On the walk back to the hostel a little later we saw this piece of the Berlin Wall: 

Berlin is full of a lot of sad history. It is a much more stoic city than Munich, which is expected given all that it has been through. It was a very enlightening and humbling place to visit. 

Now we are on the train to Brussels, Belgium!!

Doppel fun

Yesterday we arrived in Berlin after a six and a half hour train ride. Whew. We had a bit of a struggle figuring out how to get to the city from the train station so we got a late start. 

Side note: "Doppel" is our favorite German word. It means "double" and just sounds so funny when you say it, like doppel cheeseburger or doppel decker bus. We have lots of fun with doppel. 

Anyway...

Once we checked into the hostel we went straight to the Berlin Wall. On the way we walked through a cemetery which was kind of like a park too. It was really cool. All of the tombstones were covered in flowers and bushes and trees. It was very beautiful and took away the morbidness that's usually present in cemeteries. 

Right after that we went to the Berlin Wall memorial which was really cool. There was a free museum and a lookout on top of the building so you could see it all. It's crazy how you can see the tool marks on the east side of the wall from when people were literally tearing it down: 

The west side is full of graffiti:

From the lookout you could see a security tower: 

There was a second thinner wall behind the real one to make it more difficult for people in the East to escape. In the museum they had some of the obstacles that were in between the two walls that would block an escape. It was really weird to think that all of this was happening less than thirty years ago.

In the museum, they showed a video from 1989 when people were tearing it down and it was chaos. People were standing on the top and smashing the wall with whatever they had. I can't imagine how happy they must have been to be reunited with loved ones and free from the dictatorship. 

This was in the memorial area and once again I think it's cool that they let plants grow all over. It gives a cool feeling of new life. 

After the wall it was getting pretty cold so we headed back to the hostel. We went to the hostel bar which was on the roof. We had met two of the guys from our room earlier and we ran into them at the bar so we chatted with them for awhile. They were from New York and go to Syracuse. After a while, some other Americans trickled in to join us. Then a German kid from Bavaria, then a kid from New Zealand who said he knew Lorde (liar), and a girl and a guy from Australia. We had so much fun with everyone and ended up staying all night. We got our non-USA friends to do their best American accent and they nailed it. One kid just said "like" every other word which was pretty accurate. Youth hostels are tons of fun, everyone is so nice and you meet the most interesting people. 

Us with our new friends: 

Munchin' in München

For the past two days we've been in Munich, Germany. Yesterday we just ate a lot since it was raining, but we didn't mind! First thing we did was get bratwursts and they were amazing.

As soon as it started to rain we ordered some hefeweizens and a giant pretzel. A man next to us must have overheard us speaking English and he asked where we were from. Turns out he's a professor at Auburn. We chatted a bit with him and he was great. Such a small world!

Once the rain cleared we walked around the market in the city center and got some awesome homemade pickles mmmmm. 

We noticed that a lot of people do not speak English here, so that was a huge challenge. However, the people that do speak English are super nice and helpful. 

Yesterday was So. Much. Food. 

Today, the weather was perfect and we walked across town to the famous English beer garden. On the way we walked through a little park and saw wild bunnies! 

Once we got to the park we saw some adorable baby duckies with their parents: 

After getting close enough to snap some pictures we literally got chased away by three very angry, honking geese. It was terrifying. Some guy on a bench was laughing at us while the geese chased us. 

In the park there's a really cool natural wave the comes out from under a bridge and the local people surf it!! It was the craziest thing. There were about 15 people around it waiting to take turns and they were all so good! I have no idea how to explain how it works but here's a picture: 

It was just like being on the beach at home!! (Not at all.)

We walked around a bit more and finally came upon the beer garden. We decided to go all out and get the whole liter. So. Much. Beer. 

After the first one it was finally time for lunch and We got some sauerkraut which I love, and of course another giant pretzel. Here's the whole feast: 

Afterwards we chilled around the park some more. 

We went back to the hostel and took a quick nap, then walked around the city. We went to the Hofbräuhaus but didn't eat there because it was super busy. 

Munich is another beautiful city with a fun culture and great people. We will both be back one day! Tomorrow we catch an early train to Berlin. Woohoo!

City of Music

Today we went to the Schönbrunn Palace and gardens. Once again, everything was so huge that it was hard to fit everything in the picture! Thank goodness for the iPhone's panoramic feature. 

The gardens behind the palace had a huge park and a bunch of other cool monuments: 

This is a view of the back of the palace from a giant hill we hiked up:

We walked around the palace for a few hours and were exhausted afterwards. One thing that happened again a lot was that people keep thinking we speak German! People always ask us for directions or try and joke around with us and we just smile and nod. 

Tonight we went to see the opera at the famous State Opera house!! We saw Nabucco which is an Italian play about King Nebechanezer. We got "standing room" tickets which were only €4 and we got a pretty good spot right in the center balcony. One interesting thing was that right after you get your ticket (an hour and a half before the show) you run up to the area and mark your spot. Many people use scarves or ribbons. We were unaware of this so Julie used her headphones and I rigged my map with a hair tie around the pole, haha! 

This is what the little standing area looked like: 

And of course, the beautiful opera house: 

We absolutely loved Vienna and would definitely come back. Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for Germany!