So we were already on our way to the hostel when Stephanie discovered that she had left my ipod touch on the train! >.< (I had been letting her use it since her phone got stolen in Paris) And the train had already moved on to other stations in Berlin... We hurry back to the train station, but all they tell us is to check with lost and found in a few days. Super frustrating, but what can you do?
Afterwards, we went back to our hostel, which was actually a really neat place! Loved the decor, but the rooms were super hot and had no a/c... Also, we had to wait til afternoon before we could check in, so we just stored our luggage and went out for a few hours to kill time. We walked down to Museum Island, which has 5 different museums on it, as well as the Berliner Dom (Berlin's biggest cathedral). We went inside the Dom, and climbed all the way up to the dome for some neat views of the city!
Inside the Berliner Dom
View from the Dome! (TV tower in background)
Berliner Dom!
For lunch, we went to Monsieur Vuong, a really well-rated Vietnamese place. (We were sick of German food haha) The restaurant was really well-decorated and full of people, so we were excited to try the food! However, it was very Westernized Vietnamese cuisine, so it actually wasn't that impressive for us. We both ordered a chicken pho (I thought traditional was with beef?) which was very nicely presented, but wasn't that great flavorwise... I also ordered spring rolls that were nothing like the traditional ones: these were fried, and included taro inside! Tasty, but just because it was really fried haha. The one cool thing were the drinks! They had a huge selection of shakes/juices, so Steph got a apple/peppermint/soda drink while I got a mango/coconut milk smoothie. On the plus side, all the prices were pretty reasonable for such a hip restaurant. Just wasn't really what we had expected out for our only Vietnamese meal in Europe...
In the afternoon, we met up with Irene (yay!) and did an Underground Tour. The tours are run by the Berlin Underworlds Association and has a bunch of different themed tours. Ours was concerning Tunnelling, and stories of people trying to escape to West Berlin after the construction of the Berlin Wall. It was a pretty neat experience, because we got to explore some of the underground tunnels of the city (although none of the actual tunnels used to escape from East Berlin were still in tact; the most they could do was show up replicas), as well as hear some really moving stories. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any photos during the tour, since not all of the images/materials are copyrighted/company-owned.
After the tour, we walked to Alexanderplatz (the main square with the TV tower), and passed some alleyways with really neat street art along the way! We also had our first BOBA in Europe! It was pretty pricy though, and not super amazing...
Street art! (Woops didn't mean to get that guy awkwardly tying his shoe...)
My peach black tea boba!
For dinner, we tried to go to this wine bar where you pay 2 euros for a glass, and then it's self-service from a variety of wines, and you can refill as many times you want. Then at the end, you just pay whatever amount you think is fair for how much you drank and the quality of the wine. They also usually have a spread of food laid out too, but tonight the food was almost gone by the time we got there, and they never refilled... (We thought maybe because it was a Monday night). It was still a lot of fun though, drinking wine and catching up with Irene. We stayed there pretty late, and when we left, we were still kind of hungry, so we dropped by a small shop by the park where they sold cheap doner kebabs and other Turkish food. Steph and I both tried a Durum Doner, which is basically a wrap instead of a pita, with the same filling inside as a kebab. Yummm! To end the night, we visited Irene's apartment, although she had a subletter living there at the moment, which was why we ended up staying at a hostel instead of with her. She also was about to move out as well, so was pretty busy finishing up some course assignments and packing. Poor timing on our part! But it was awesome getting to see her again! ^__^
Another interesting installation of street art...
There was also a super retro photobooth by the Wine Bar! Literally took 5 minutes to develop and print our photos... Also, didn't have a screen to show you what the photo would look like, so my face is huge and blotchy since I was in front T___T Otherwise, it was a fun experience!
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