Berlin Day 1

Today we explored Berlin. We started right after breakfast by grabbing a couple of beers at a local cafe. Kim got Duckstein lager, and I decided to try the local Weiss beer. So I chose "Berliner Weissbier".



Oh, but guess what?! Apparently this is not your average wheat beer, but rather an awful sugary syrup that is poured into a wheat beer to make it all green and sugary and perfect for girls. Ugh.












So, in a classy move, I pounded this mess to get it over with and ordered a real beer. A pilsner.






























































Then we continued on to the Alexanderplatz, a big square with a giant space-needle type thing. This is near where Karl Marx came up with Communism and where huge protests were held that eventually overthrew the German Democratic Republic (the Communist regime during the days of the Berlin Wall). Turns out that like any good capital city, they still have protests. We ran smack dab in the middle of a pro-life vs. pro-choice demonstration. Here's the scary pro-lifers getting ready to confront the dancing, drum-circl-loving pro-choicers on Karl-Leibknecht Strasse. Luckily, it was an uneventful clash.



And then, across from the rally....WHOOPS! OKTOBERFEST!






































Finally, after a liter and a half each of beer before noon, we made it to Checkpoint Charlie, the only gate in the Berlin Wall that allowed transportation between the Eastern and Western sides of the city. We even got our passports stamped!







Now we're off to eat dinner and another few rounds of beer. Tomorrow, we will explore Berlin a bit more and then head to Hamburg to meet up with Anke and Michael!