Kreuzberg, Treptower Park, Spree, und Schöneberg

Kreuzberg Graffiti

Astronaut 

1st Stammtisch Bar-- Hannibal 

Treptower Park

Sowjetisches Ehrenmal Treptower Park

Our head of the program took us on a guided tour of this monument.  The picture is just of the guide/info map because it did not seem appropriate to take pictures while there. Dirk (head of our department) gave us the background info but you can read the history at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_War_Memorial_(Treptower_Park)  I tried youtube-ing some videos but they do not do it justice.

After the tour of the monument we went on a guided tour (by Dirk) by boat on the Spree river.

Spree River Tour

After the tour I went out on my own for the first time without our major group (so far we have all had to be at the same place at the same time so we travel in an embarrassingly huge American group)!  I needed to go to a bank that accepted the citibank card-- hopefully it worked without a huge fee.  Walking about this different part of the city was so much fun-- love city wandering!  Here are some pictures of Schöneberg.

Post office

Information Post thing-- Such a good idea! They have them all over advertising events around the city and etc.  The poster on the right is for "Lange Nacht der Museem," which I am going to tonight (Saturday).  It is a tour of a bunch of museums and gallaries until 2am. 

Random church I thought was interesting.

Today (Saturday) Dirk took us on a tour of Brandenburg Tor (gate) and the surrounding streets.

Brandenburg Tor Tour Pictures

This is a memorial to the Jewish book burning.  It is in a glass plate on the ground, and when you look down you see all four walls of a room have empty bookshelves.

How the Germans do malls-- kindof looks like Oxford Valley Mall, ja?

Rebuilt area after the wall was taken down by Postdamer Platz.  Berlin has building regulations that a building can only be 5-6 stories high, however they broke the rules with these.  In my opinion it has created a different kind of wall.

Sony Center-- a Platz in its own.  Definitely unlike anything I had ever seen.

Tschüs <3