I’ve never missed a family Christmas before. It’s my (and Paul’s) favorite time of the year. The best part being my whole family always comes together for one night filled with Christmas music, presents, and pasta. However, the idea of celebrating Christmas in another country has always been appealing to me. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one longing for some Christmas cheer. I had previous met this guy Kalen in Amsterdam and we'd made plans to meet up again in Berlin. In fact, upon my arrival to the hostel, Singer 109 (just thought I’d mention it’s been the best/cheapest hostel I’ve stayed in all trip), he came strolling through the doors too, as he had checked in the day before and was off seeing the sights. Already being pretty late, we decided to leave the planning for what to do for Christmas until tomorrow, Christmas Eve, and just get a good night sleep, which he nor Paul and I had experienced in awhile. The next day was a busy one. The game plan was this: see the sights, buy whatever we needed for our make-shift Christmas dinner, see more sights, and then celebrate. Our first destination was the Berlin Wall. Now I don’t know about you, but when I thought of the saying, “Tear down this wall,” I was under the impression that the whole wall was torn down except for a little section. Nope, I was wrong on many levels. First off, there are 3 parts of the wall remaining. Kalen being the artsy type, and because of its close proximity to the hostel, we chose to see the East Side Gallery, a part of the wall that has been decorated with detailed graffiti. After walking along the side of a long thin wall with graffiti all over it, we realized it was the Berlin Wall. Why did we not realize it earlier? Probably because it stretched the entire length of the street and we had no idea it would be that long. After walking it in full and signing the backside, we decided it would be best to get the food and supplies for our Christmas dinner before everything closed at 2:00pm.
On the way back we spotted a Christmas tree sale and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try and drag a dismal looking tree into the hostel. This attempt at true Christmas spirit however was foiled by the salesman, who, on Christmas Eve, wanted 20 euro for one of the crappiest trees I’ve ever seen. Not happening. After this, we just went to the discount store and stocked up on cereal, cookies, crackers, cheese, and bailey’s for our Christmas coffee. This was good, but we were still missing one thing, the presents. With a 1 Euro Store juxtapose to us, we agreed on buying and exchanging gifts at 12:00am Christmas Day. After basically being kicked out of the stores so they could close, we hurried back to the hostel to put our supplies away and see the rest of the major sights in central Berlin. We passed the Berlin Dome and the Arch and made as far as the building where Hitler made most of his speeches. It was a weird feeling standing out in the field opposite where Hitler’s podium would be positioned. When we got back to the hostel, it was time to celebrate. Long story short, the night went flawlessly and the staff was loving it.
On the schedule for our last day was to try and get to as many museums as possible. Known as "museum isle," Berlin has quite a collection of artifacts from around the world. However, much to our dismay, Paul was taken by security every time. Now, I'm not going to describe everything I saw, but the egyptian exhibit was pretty awesome (finally being able to see Cleopatra's head was dream come true). After a couple more museums, Paul and I met up with Kalen and another guy from the hostel at the German History Museum for the new Hitler exhibit. We all agreed it could've been better, but it was still interesting. When we returned to the hostel, everyone started packing again. Kalen left for his overnight train and I stayed up all night to make a early train. That was a bad idea....
I’ve never missed a family Christmas before. It’s my (and Paul’s) favorite time of the year. The best part being my whole family always comes together for one night filled with Christmas music, presents, and pasta. However, the idea of celebrating Christmas in another country has always been appealing to me. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one longing for some Christmas cheer. I had previous met this guy Kalen in Amsterdam and we'd made plans to meet up again in Berlin. In fact, upon my arrival to the hostel, Singer 109 (just thought I’d mention it’s been the best/cheapest hostel I’ve stayed in all trip), he came strolling through the doors too, as he had checked in the day before and was off seeing the sights. Already being pretty late, we decided to leave the planning for what to do for Christmas until tomorrow, Christmas Eve, and just get a good night sleep, which he nor Paul and I had experienced in awhile. The next day was a busy one. The game plan was this: see the sights, buy whatever we needed for our make-shift Christmas dinner, see more sights, and then celebrate. Our first destination was the Berlin Wall. Now I don’t know about you, but when I thought of the saying, “Tear down this wall,” I was under the impression that the whole wall was torn down except for a little section. Nope, I was wrong on many levels. First off, there are 3 parts of the wall remaining. Kalen being the artsy type, and because of its close proximity to the hostel, we chose to see the East Side Gallery, a part of the wall that has been decorated with detailed graffiti. After walking along the side of a long thin wall with graffiti all over it, we realized it was the Berlin Wall. Why did we not realize it earlier? Probably because it stretched the entire length of the street and we had no idea it would be that long. After walking it in full and signing the backside, we decided it would be best to get the food and supplies for our Christmas dinner before everything closed at 2:00pm. 
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