I’m sitting in the restaurant in the hostel getting ready to head out this morning. Before I do though I thought I’d give a quick summary of my day yesterday. I got into Berlin at about 6am and since the hostel wouldn’t let me check in until 2, I took a free walking tour around Berlin. A free walking tour, sounds kinda shady, doesn’t it? It wasn’t though, in fact it was as good if not better than some pay tours I’ve been on.

We started in the main center of Berlin, there’s not too much that I can describe about it that most people would know, except for one building, the one that Michael Jackson hung his baby out the window and started the uproar several years ago. From there we walked along and saw some more expected things, like the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler’s Bunker (which is covered over and you can’t really see), the Jewish memorial, the book-burning memorial, and a bunch of churches. I don’t have the time or the desire to fill in too much about the individual things, so I’ll talk in the aggregate. Berlin is awesome, it really is. There is enough older buildings that gives me a sense of time, and there is still enough left from the Hitler and the Soviet time for me to see things that I remember from television.

Today I’m going to go on a Soviet tour of East Berlin and then start to plan my next stop. I’m thinking of going to Dresden or Hamburg, but haven’t really made up my mind just yet. Since I still have two night here, I have a little bit of time to figure it out.