Berlin, bike rides, and crazy hostels

Looking at the TV tower, near my hostel

As my previous post stated, a visit to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen was what I chose to do with my first day in Berlin.

 I really only had two days anyway, so I chose to do something astounding that would enable me to see everything, or at least close to everything:

 I went on a bike tour.

I chose Fat Tire Bike Tours since my brother worked for the walking portion of that company in Paris. The tour didn't start until 10ish, and I really didn't want to hang around my hostel, as cool as it had been (it was hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy themed!) so I set out a little early and walked around East Berlin by myself for awhile.

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The tour took us by all of the expected sites,

Especially moving for me was the Berlin wall. To think of an entire society that kept it's people locked up behind a large stone wall, merely because they were afraid of another society, is astounding, and I have trouble understanding why people doubt that sort of abuse of power today. Don't even get me started on people who don't believe the Holocaust happened. 

The bleakness of certain portions of the wall really got to me. But then it would be juxtaposed with something like this:

But then it would be followed by something like this. So it was a definite high highs, low lows tour.

I really enjoyed the tour. I wish I could tell you more about it, in detail, and be witty, but I really can't. Oh well.

 Very Soviet apparently. No clue what that really means.

 The scaffolding sort of ruins it, doesn't it?

PS - isn't this a cool photo?