Room 3

Today was spent with allmy roommates in Room 3.

I'm feeling 100x better today after taking a day off.

After a leisurely morning, Celina, James and I ventured back to Potsdam to take another gander at the more uplifting aspects of German history; it's starting to become  depressing to see reminders of and memorials to the Holocaust everywhere.  

We arrived just after 2. First stop, the old market square. We went into the church because we noticed people up on top of the roof by the dome. For €5 we got tickets to the top.

It was barely, if at all, worth €5. We could see the top of Potsdam, which was nice, but we weren't that high up and didn't get a fantastic view - not for the price we paid.

Next we stopped for lunch at a Thai place on Friederick-Ebert-Straße. I got the chicken soup, which was spicy and not great for my recovering illness after all.

From the Thai restaurant we walked west through the old town to Brandenburger Tor, which is different than its namesake in Berlin. It was a beautiful arch from 1770. Not much else to say though.

At this point it was almost 4, and the sun would have completely set by 5, so we set off for one of the Schloß's, Schloß Cecilianhof, location of the Potsdam conference. However, due to several mixups, two bad maps, and the incredibly confusing bus system in Potsdam, we didn't figure out how to get there until 4:50, meaning we arrived at Cecilianhof after nightfall.

It was alright though. The interior may have closed at 5, and so we couldn't see the site of the conference, but we did wander the grounds and get inside the courtyard in the old tudor mansion. It was strikingly beautiful, even at night.

We got a train back to Berlin ASAP after that, as Celina and James were cold. Picked up two road beers on the way, only because James wanted to enjoy the legal drinking in public thing that Germany (and much of Europe) has going on.

We made it back to the hotel around 7:45, and spent a little time relaxing.

James and I went on a failed trip to a hardware store to buy a hammer and chisel to find a chip away at pieces of the Berlin wall around town. It wasn't where we were told it was, thus we never got the items. And anyway we learned later that apparently if you're caught in such an act today, as a foreigner, you'll be deported from Germany and never allowed back into the country. I didn't believe it, but James was scared enough that we didn't go.

The rest of the night was spent with Celina and James and Ben in our room, playing Rummy 500, watching funny/cute YouTube videos, listening to punk rock (Ben), and drinking beers from the cheap kiosk down the street, sometimes all at once.

Ben, Celina and I are all leaving in the morning, leaving James behind. Celina is going to Prague, Ben is going somewhere, but I don't know where, and I'm off to Vilnius, to meet Jonas and begin the Eastern part of my European adventure. We all spent the night packing.

It's 3:18 as I write this. Off to sleep... Goodbye, Room 3.