5 Days in Poland, and Berlin Day 1

These last few days have been a rest from our sightseeing extravaganza in London, but as we came into Berlin, we started off with an exhausting day. First I'll briefly sum up the events of the last 5 days before I tell you about what we did today in Berlin.

On Thursday morning, the day after the Queen musical in London, we woke up early to catch a train to Stansted Airport. From this relatively new, but busy airport, we took a budget plane to Bydgoszsz, Poland. As soon as I entered the plane, I new why we got our tickets so cheaply. The seats were mostly made of plastic, aside from the pillow and cushion, the seats didn't recline, there were no nets for magazines or trash, and there were advertisements all over the baggage compartments. Nevertheless, it was our only option to get to Bydgoszcz from London, and it was at a good price. For the next five days, I spent some time with my grandparents, met with some friends at a restaurant, explored museums in the city, and saw several concerts on a pier market from a boat, ranging from blues to jazz. Bydgoszcz has this island it calls "Venice of Bydgoszcz" which is supposed to have a Venetian feel to it. It also has an old sawmill that is currently being converted to a hotel for the downtown area. If the city plays its cards right, Bydgoszcz could be the next big tourist stop in Poland, with an opera house, theater district, concert hall, art/history/archaeology museums, and a tourist hub (Venice of Bydgoszcz).

Our last hours in Bydgoszcz were this morning. After a short night, we woke up at 4:30 AM and caught a taxi to the main train station. We then proceeded to get onto a train that probably had the worst quality on any train I have ever been on. The seats were completely plastic, and the coaches were noisy and dirty. A subway train would've been more comfortable for this 2-and-a-half hour trip to Poznan. Poznan is one of the largest cities in Poland, after Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz, and Wroclaw. Poznan will be hosting many of the games for the Euro 2012 Football (Soccer) Tournament. Because of this, the station we arrived in was undergoing extensive remodeling, and we had to resort to eating breakfast at a nearby McDonald's.

We then entered the train to Berlin and we were very, very pleasantly surprised. The coaches we had were formerly first-class coaches, with 6 cushioned seats in an air conditioned, box, and it was the most comfortable train ride I've been on, despite it being three hours long. When I went to get myself a snack, I passed through the first-class coaches, and they looked surprisingly less comfortable than our own coach. At noon, we arrived at the impressive Berlin Hauptbanhof, which was recently designed in 2006 to be an all-glass construction. Here we purchased our Berlin WelcomeCard, which includes unlimited rail travel through the city plus discounts at many attractions around the city. Before going to any attractions though, we needed to first check in to our hotel to drop off our bags and rest for a few minutes before going out into the city.

We decided to start out our Berlin stay with a guided walk through the center of the city. Starting from the Hackesher Markt Square by the Spree River, we saw sights such as the TV Tower, Red Town Hall, Museum Island, Various Churches, Various Embassies (Soviet Russian being the most prominent, along with the new U.S. embassy), Universities, Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag (Parliament), Holocaust Memorial, Potsdam Platz, Hitler's Bunker, HQ of the Nazi Luftwaffe (Airforce), longest remnant of the Berlin Wall downtown, Checkpoint Charlie (most famous border crossing between East and West Berlin), and the Gendarmanmarkt. Our tour guide, throughout the tour told us the functions and histories of the buildings and sights, and how many of them were destroyed during the war and rebuilt in recent years. Throughout the city, he also went over histories of Berlin's involvement in both World War II and the Cold War, and so many more interesting facts about the city and its history. I also learned also how most of the famous sights of Berlin were actually in the formerly communist east, and not in the always capitalist west. By the time we were done with this tour, it was 6 PM and time for us to eat dinner. We needed some rest from walking in the incredibly hot and dry weather. The Thai restaurant we chose, Cha Cha, was quite mediocre, and I do not recommend for anyone travelling to Berlin. We waited long for the food, after having to remind the waiters to serve us, and the once we got the food, it wasn't exactly good.

Our plan for the night was to go on a night tour of Old Berlin. Our WelcomeCard told us to wait outside of Nikolai Church, the oldest church in Berlin. This is located in the medieval area of Berlin, known as the Nikolai Quarter. At 8PM, when we were supposed to depart, there was no one waiting. We later found out that it is a tour that must be reserved, and apparently, no one had done so that day. We decided not to let this ruin our night, so we walked through this medieval district (reminiscent of many other old districts in various cities around the world), into Alexanderplatz, the main square of East Berlin.

In the center of this square is the Fernsehturm Berlin, the large communist-built TV Tower that has remained the symbol of Berlin for 40 years. Around the plaza were some communist-style buildings, and a surprising amount of Dunkin Donuts. We counted 3 in the area just around the rail station. As we hung out at this major square, we noticed that there is still propaganda about the unification of the Germanys, since it was still controversial within some groups of people. After it started getting late, we took a subway train back to our hotel, and searched around for a convenience store. We looked everywhere within what seemed a mile radius of the hotel (we even saw a different metro station that we didn't get off from) but found nothing. When we returned to the hotel disappointed, we saw a convenience store in the hotel building that we had missed. It was relatively expensive, but still better than finding a supermarket far from our hotel.

I'm now in the hotel room, writing this entry, and quite tired. I haven't slept for 20 hours, and we're not exactly sleeping in tomorrow, so the next few days may be a little rough but definitely worth it. I'll keep the blog updated for the next days as we stay in Berlin.