Berlin Again

OK, just some quick things to mention that I couldn't write about yesterday.

-Our hostel here is nice, but WAY out of town. 15 minutes walking to the metro station and then a 30 minute metro ride to the center of town. Plus our German counts for nothing here since we are in a Turkish neighborhood and the owners here speak only Turkish. But the room set-up is awesome. Steve, Mark and I have a room across the hall from Angela and Adam, and our rooms are in a private hallway with it's own doorway and separate bathroom. It's much more like a hotel than a hostel.

-Checkpoint Charlie by the way is the place where East and West Berlin were separated. The museum is much larger than you would think and goes into more than just Berlin, but also Ukraine, Romania, etc. and how they became republics. There is a stand outside the museum and right under the "You are now leaving the American sector" sign where you can get your passpost stamped as if you were travelling between east and west Berlin. But they charge for that. The most interesting part of the museum for me was seeing all the ways people tried (and sometimes succeeded) to get out of East Berlin. Lots of cars were on display with their tiny secret compartments. One girl got out in between 2 hollowed out surfboards. A few children fit into suitcases. One guy made a zipline for his family. The stories go on. It was interesting, but sad to think what people were reduced to just trying to escape.

Today we are going to go see the Berlin Wall and some other sites. We have free internet here so if I may post again tonigt.