Day Excursion to Potsdam

Today was our last scheduled day.  We took a day trip to Potsdam, a town southwest of Berlin in the state of Brandenburg.  Our tour guide today was named David.  He is from northern England and currently in Berlin writing his dissertation for his PhD.  All of our tours have been through Berlin Walks company, and if you ever visit Berlin I highly recommend them!

So Potsdam was previously under Prussian rule.  It has many palaces within walking distance of each other, and all connected through a waterway that also connects to the river that runs through Berlin.  The palaces are now controlled by a foundation that maintains them.  They have been turned into hotels, restaurants, conference centers, and/or museums.  After WWII it fell into East Germany and USSR control.  The town houses one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen!  It's commonly referred to as the Versailles of Germany, Sans Souci palace.  It was built by Frederick the Great as a summer home.

Left: the gardens, Center: the palace, Right: the view of the terrace looking up from the gardens

For lunch we had a Turkish pizza, which is similar to a Turkish Doner but rolled up.  It's made up of a pita style bread, shaved lamb meat, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, and some special sauce.  They are quite delicious, but also quite large!

After our tour of Potsdam we did a little shopping around Berlin.  I took myself to Zara and H&M in this fantastic mall!  I was very excited to find a few nice new things!

We are going to a club tonight that has been recommended to us twice, and once referred to as the best club in Berlin.  We've been told it's an old warehouse renovated into a club with three levels... should be very interesting!!!  Time to get my techno groove on again!

Small side note, as I'm writing this in the lobby of the hostel a crossdresser just asked me to join a pub crawl that apparently leaves every night from the hostel lobby.  Berlin's culture is quite liberal and we have been enjoying some of the aspects and trying not to show our shock at others.  More to come on the cultural differences later.