July 12 –Berlin

This morning we got up at 6:45am to go eat breakfast at the Kienbaum. We had bread/rolls, cereal, fruit, and yogurt. Then we went on a bus witch only held six players so we had to make two shifts. We waited for a train at the train station called Haulsberg that was supposed to come at 9:30. Every time a train went by it made a huge gust of wind and we all screamed! It was the fastest train I’ve ever seen. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the Hauptbanhof train station.

First we were greeted by Kessie who is a former volleyball player. She was our tour guide for the day. We went to the Reichstag which was the Government building. After that we saw the Gate and took pictures with two guards who let us where their hats. We saw the Jewish memorial where they had really cool sculptures. We visited the berlin wall and saw pieces of it and then we saw the actual wall from over 20 years ago. It was amazing! We went to the Sony center and looked at all the modern architecture.

We finally were free and got to go look around by ourselves. We had ice cream and got to go look in shops. Kessie took us to a historical church that was bombed during world war two. Then we got to go off on our own again and went inside the department store complex. It had six floors and some very cute shops. The other place we could go was a street mall where shops were just lined up along the side of the street and they were very very expensive!! We had to be back by about 2:45 so we had a lot of time since it was only around 1:00.

Once we all got something to eat and met in front of the church we went on the train back to the Berlin HBF. We took a bus from there to the hotel we’re staying at. We had about an hour to get ready because we had to play at six. We lost the match but played hard. We at least won the first game though which was good. Then we came back to the Keinbaum and ate dinner. We all had potatoes, bread and brats. It was really good. We got to use the internet afterwards to talk to friends etc. we went back to our rooms later and hung out until we had to go to bed. 

By Danielle Dombeck

Northern Lights 16-1