Ich bin ein... jelly-filled donut!

Oh Berlin!Today, we took a day-trip out to Sachsenshausen concentration camp--the camp which was the model for all subsequent camps. Words can't really express the flood of emotions one feels when walking down those same roads and through the same buildings where so many innocent people died. What's interesting about Sachsenshausen is that it was shut down after the war was over. Yes, all of the Nazi's prisoners were released, but they were replaced by enemies of the Soviet-state just weeks later.
The past few days have been pretty chill. We met two awesome Canadian girls, Kelsey & Paige, who are backpacking through Europe as well. They're the Canadian version of us and a blast to hang out with. We four girls went on another free NewEurope walking tour and were again flooded with mountains of information. Some highlights included seeing the Brandenburg Gate, crossing frequently between East and West Berlin, standing on top of the bunker where Hitler committed suicide, and seeing the German Parliament building, the Reichstag. Fun fact! The Hotel Adlon (the ritziest hotel in Berlin, and situated just kiddy-corner to the Brandenburg Gate) is home to the infamous balcony where Michael Jackson dangled his infant-son.
Day Two was very relaxed, due to the rainy and gloomy weather. We had planned on going to Sachsenshausen, but took a rain-check instead. We slept in and then ventured into town with the Canadians for a bit of shopping. Sadly, Mikayla didn't find the desired squid-shirt at Zara. We then partook, for the second day in a row, in our hostel's fantastic happy hour. Afterwards, we accompanied the girls to the first couple of bars on their Pub Crawl. One of them was in remnants of a former Jewish department store that is now a hub of artsy inhabitants. The best part about this hostel though is the fact that our first 3 nights here were only 8€, and we were upgraded to a better room (where we met Paige and Kelsey!).

Day Three was met with another free continental breakfast (woot!) and NewEurope Third Reich tour. This one we had to pay for, but it was worth every euro-cent. We went into much more detail about Hilter's rise to power and his following 12-year regime. Highlights included seeing the foundation of the once most-feared address in the world: the Gestapo/SS Headquarters building; also The New Synagogue, and various important sights from Kristallnacht (The Night of the Broken Glass).This includes the Berlin basics, but we still have some catching up to do from Prague. After writing our last post and checking out of our ELF hostel, we made our way back to the Old Town to pick up one last souvenir picture from the Bridge. On our way there, we passed the ever-enticing Hard Rock Cafe with its elaborate cocktail menu... you know, we are only legal drinkers for another 2 weeks... and our mouths were pretty dry. We didn't let this divert us until after we completed our mission though. The hostess was sooo kind and helped us take off our immense bags. We sat down and tried to find the tastiest and cheapest drinks on the menu, as it wasn't quite happy hour yet.

As luck would have it, we sat by some really sweet people from Florida. They struck up a conversation with us and offered us their hardly-touched chicken-fingers. Can we just say that we are in no position to be turning down (tasty) free food. So, we obliged and munched. This is when we properly introduced ourselves and met Koby and his relatives. You see, Koby just got hitched to a lovely Czech lady, Martina. He asked about our travels--what brought us there, etc. After we finished explaining our circumstances, Koby pulled out his wallet and tried to hand us a $100 bill. We looked at it dumbly, for about 10 seconds. What's going on? Oh wait... what is that? Is that American money? Is that $100?!? Yes. We were blatantly confused. After coming to, we realized what he was doing and what that meant to us. We refused, naturally, until he fully reasoned his case, and we obliged, again. He lifted our spirits, not just through the money, but through his kindness and encouragement. It's amazing how inspiring a complete stranger can be; he helped us out in more ways than one.
So then, we took a picture with him, of course. :) THANKS KOBY!!!

Tonight we leave for Copenhagen, by way of Malmö, Sweden.
We'll keep you posted from there!

Love love,
us