So for the past three days I've had some visitors in my town...a large group of my CBYX friends and other exchange students came on a sightseeing excursion to Berlin, organized by our exchange program! As I already live here and therefore didn't need to stay in the hostel with everyone else, I wasn't officially on the tour, but I still spent the entire weekend hanging out with everyone, going on the tours, and showing my friends what makes Berlin the most awesome city in the world.
On Friday morning we all went for a long stroll through the city center, seeing all of Berlin's big landmarks such as the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, Alexanderplatz, the Holocaust Memorial, Tiergarten, Berliner Dome, Museum Island, the Spree River, and the Television Tower. Afterwards we had free time, which a small group of friends and I use to discover the Hackesher Market quarter, eat "Currywurst mit Pommes" (the famous Berlin street food - a fresh, hot sausage and French fries covered with with curry powder and ketchup), see the Gendammarkt, go to the Ritter Sport headquarters, shop, and then finish the night of with a late dinner at "The Sixties", an American diner themed restaurant with the most authentic tasting American food any of us had had in the last eight months.
On Saturday, everyone had free time for the majority of the day, so the same group of friends and I first visited the incredibly beautiful Charlottenburg Palace, the largest palace and oldest in Berlin (dating back to the seventeenth century). We didn't really have enough time to do the full guided tour, but just being able to look around outside and walk through the gardens was amazing.
Next, we walked towards the train station to go to Potsdam (a town about twenty minutes away from Berlin). On the way we came across a market where they were selling fresh strawberries, so we bought a large carton just to snack on while riding on the metro. In Potsdam we rented bikes and rode together through Sanssouci Park (I had never been there before, but thankfully our very directionally-adept friend, Michelle, was able to read the map and guide us). The park was unbelievably beautiful, with gardens and ancient, beautifully decorated castles/buildings around each turn, and then the way back to the bike shop brought us through the woods and later many cute cobblestone streets.
Afterwards we took the metro back into central Berlin, where the rest of the group went on a tour of Germany's parliament building (except Kali and I and a few others couldn't go in because we weren't actually on the official list, so we just looked around in the cute shops on Friedrich Straße). After they were done, though, we all met up at a restaurant on the Spree River and stayed there until late in the night, just telling funny stories and enjoying each other's company. Having such a large group of exchange students together is always a good time, so it was definitely sad to have to see everyone go the next day, especially knowing most of us probably won't see each other again until June, when we meet in Berlin right before flying home (the fact we have just three more months here is impossible for me to wrap my head around).