End of Program and Potsdam....!!!

6-27-08

Hello loved ones and friends once again. I am pretty proud of myself, minus pictures, I have been keeping you all pretty well informed. I hope you are all enjoying the blogs and not finding them boring.

So today was the end of our program, we all basically set our alarm clocks for around 6:47 this morning, but we slept in till 7:30. hahaha. In our hostel, BBC (The Brits) is filming something. The have basically been filming here since we got here and I believe today was their last day of filming. This was the day in which we had to take breakfast in the basement which is usually used of raving and night clubbing, because they were filming in the nude. Lol. There were posters up saying that only 30 selected people could participate. The two main guys were talking to a few of our girls yesterday and asked them if they wanted to be in their BBC thing, and the girls were up for it, until the guys said " Oh, and by the way, you would have to be naked....." hahaha, yea right! No way man!

So they were filming the nudy scene in the breakfast bar room and we took breakfast in the basement. lol. Breakfast was surprisingly fine. There was no crying, I wished people well and I hope that everything goes well for them. After our breakfast and goodbyes, Matthew and I went to our rooms, showered, and packed. At about 9:10, we went downstairs got a locker for our luggage and headed out to Potsdam.

We were able to take a regional train all the way from the trainstaion closest to us to the Sansoucci park. The ride was around half and hour and we were able to get there just fine. When we arrived in Potsdam, we came to a path and we basically took it and came right upon the Neues Palas. This is a huge Palace built by one of the Friedrick Willhelm's of Prussia (there were 3, I think) I believe it was built by the first.

We decided to do an English audio guided tour and because we had the Berlin card, we were able to get in for 3€ per person! It rocked. It was two huge levels of Awesomeness!!!! The palace is basically almost completely rococo in style. Very lovely. My favorite room in this palace in the Grotto room, this is a huge room on the entry level, it is made to look like an undersea grotto with sea monsters on the walls made out of shells, huge like underwater things (Rocks, minerals, shells, attached to every surface, etc). It is a truly impressive room.

After the Neues Palas, we walked the half an hour walk down to the Sansoucci Palas. There are no reduced rates here besides student rates. The normal rate is 10€ for adults, 8€ for students. After the gigantic Neues Palas for 3€, we were feeling kinda jipped, because the Sansoucci palas is beautiful , however, the tour is like 15-20 mins by audio guide, and I personally like the Neues Palas better.

We were a little placated in the fact that with our fee, we were also able to see the Bildgaleri. This is the first Gallery of its kind for art work. It is a huge rococo building on the Sansoucci plot and it is filled with something around 134 pictures, including 2 Rembrants. The buidling was extremely rococo inside, and out of the three times I have been here this is the first time I have seen this part.

Mom, we did not get to see the kitchens, they are not free this year, nor were they included with our ticket price! As I said, Jipped!

After seeing all the wonderful pieces that Sansoucci had to offer, we walked over to the Chinese house and looked at it from the outside. Matthew and I were going to try to find the house where the Potsdam agreement was signed. I was there with a tour group when I was 16, but we were so incredibly pooped, not to mention we spent 11€ on entrance fees today, that we just decided to go home and stick it out till dinner.

We were able to catch the train right away pretty much, and basically slept on the way back into Berlin. After getting back, we checked into our new room for tonight in our hostel, then we went up and talked with Tyler, a guy from our group who we made our reservations with and is staying with us and heading back to mayen with us on sunday.

We talked and napped a little bit, and then we met up with a friend and went to a Shisha bar. We sat and talked and had a good time, and Cher had to go to the Becks Concert, so after she left, we went to the same restaurant that we ate at for dinner last night, matt and I both had cheap, but delicious Spaghetti Bolognese and a beer.

Dinner was good and soon there after around 8, we decided to head for the Reichstag again!!!

Tonight we got in. We waited in line to get in for about 1 hour, however, this is like the only free thing to do in Berlin, so we didn't complain.

When we got in, we were all pissed that we had forgot our cameras, It was beautiful and clear out, where as the entire day in had been very cloudy and sprinkled and rained a little bit for a while. Matty really enjoyed it, especially since it was free. The glass Dom on top of the Reichstag is so cool, because it just gives you the best view of Berlin!

On our way back from the Reichstag we met a few people from Minnesota and some from Michigan. It was a combining of the two worlds. We chatted with these people for a bit, it was nice to speak some English for a while.

When we arrived back at our rooms, tonight we are in a 5 person mixed. So, it is Matt, Tyer, myself, and an older Japanese couple. bwahahahaha! lol. It is so funny, thank god it is only for one night. I am unsure what precautions to take with old people from Japan, since like Custom is everything to them. haha. We'll have to see how it goes.

Well....it is late here now, and I am quite exhausted. I will update again tomorrow with our goings on, depending on the weather, we are planning to go to the Berliner Dom and Charlottenburg. Lets hope for good weather. La Boheme is tomorrow night, Matt and I are very excited to see it!

Hope you are all doing well. Somebody comment to let me know that you are still faithful to the blog, lol!

Love to you all! Biss Dann