We got up even earlier today and were eating breakfast by 8. Frau Heckmann sat with us this morning and she told Heidi that when she goes by Heidi she is about 8 years old and when her name is Heather then she’s her actual age of 22. So I told her that Heidi can play with Ali who is really clumsy. Heidi had done something silly earlier, which is why Frau Heckmann said that. They didn’t have any yogurt at breakfast this morning so that was a big bummer. I think that was the only thing I could think of that I didn’t like about our hostel. I'd totally stay there again!
We packed up all of our stuff and locked it in a room at the hostel and then headed out for our final adventures. We walked to the Reichstag which houses the German parliament. The word Reichstag refers to the building itself while the word Bundestag refers to the institution/Parliament. While we waited for our tour to start we walked around outside to where the Chancellor (Angela Merkel) lives and then saw the building where other government officials work. The grounds were really pretty. I think they used to have soccer fields in front of the Reichstag at one point, but I’m not positive. We had to go through security when we got in the Reichstag and then we waited for our tour guide. While it wasn’t the most exciting tour (the tour guide really liked talking and did so for a long time at each stop on the tour) it was pretty cool to see the inside of this important building. I think our tour went a little longer than Dr. Tracy and Frau Heckmann had anticipated. We had to walk quickly to get on the subway and then grab a bus back to our hostel. But there was a marathon going on so the streets were all blocked off. The buses run less on Sundays to begin with and this really didn’t help. So we all piled into taxis and off we went. I felt like I was in some kind of movie. There were 6 or 7 taxis driving in a row and it just looked so funny! I felt like I was cheating the guy as we left because we didn’t pay him, but Dr. Tracy came along eventually and gave him his money. We hurried and got our stuff and then left for the train station. We only had about 25 minutes once we got there. We had a LONG train ride ahead of us (6 hours plus) and wanted to at least get something to eat. I grabbed a sandwich and really wanted to get a few postcards, but ran out of time because the line at the bakery was so long.
I sat with Heidi for the first part of the train ride and then switched over to where Maressa was sitting (at a table) and played some speed Scrabble. Then Brett and John came over awhile later and we (Heidi too) played Swipe for awhile. They made fun of the game, but I know they secretly enjoyed it. We eventually played hangman and a few other games until we arrived in Mannheim. I felt like a complete moron because I tried to use the word ‘quiche’ in hangman, but completely butchered the spelling (queeche). I thought I was so great that they couldn’t get the word until they finally guessed all of the letters and informed that I didn’t spell it right. Bummer. We were all pretty tired and just wanted to get home at this point. We took the train to Heidelberg, then the bus to Peterskirche and when I got home I crashed.
While I enjoyed Berlin, I didn’t like it nearly as much as I thought I would. It was weird going to such a huge city with so many things to do and only staying for one full day. There were a lot of things that I wanted to do that we just didn’t have time for. I didn’t even have time to buy postcards or a snow globe (I’m trying to just buy one souvenir each place I go. Katharina gave me the idea to buy a snow globe. Love that idea!!) I guess I’ll just have to go back to Berlin someday…but probably not on this trip.
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