Back to Berlin with a Side of Potsdam

Once I got into the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, I made my way to the Zoological Gardens where the tour was meeting. Luckily, I restamped my Berlin public transportation ticket because I finally saw the person who came by to check tickets while on the S-bahn. He caught two kids riding without a ticket and he took them off but I'm not sure what type of fine they had to pay.When I got to the right place, I needed to find something to eat before the tour and the closest thing was currywurst so that's exactly what I got for "breakfast." When a lady saw that I was eating that, she said that I was brave for having it so early in the morning.

Mmm... Breakfast...

When the tour group gathered, we were introduced to Rob, an englishman, who claims he's been mistaken for Prince Williams. So we followed Rob onto the S-bahn to get to Potsdam and during the metro ride, this older englishman on the tour tried befriending me but he was a little odd so I kept my distance. At every stop, when I hung back to take photos, he kept waiting for me but I think he got the hint halfway through the tour that I wasn't interested...
But anyway, we first got to the Schlossgarten (schloss meaning lake I think) and we saw a not-so-grand looking home but Rob stopped to tell us some history. He told us the story of Prince Carl of Prussia and Princess Maria of Saxony and how they were kept apart because Prince Carl was only third in line to take the throne. However, their love prevailed and that's represented by two lions on either side of a fountain - why two lions and not one lion and one lioness, I'm not sure.

Gateway to the Schlossgarten

First building we went to - I think this belonged to Prince Carl

Lion representing Prince Carl or Princess Saxony

We walked from that smaller home to the bridge to cross into Potsdam and we passed by a small gazebo-looking structure where the king and queen used to sit to people-watch. Right before we crossed the bridge, Rob told us a bit about the different spies from East and West Berlin and how they would meet on the bridge to confirm that they were spies. And also, the Berlin Wall was not called as such when it was first built; it was known as the Anti-Fascist Wall to convince the East Germans that they were being protected rather than being trapped. And where I learned that nothing was present inside of the Death Strip, there was actually an orphanage and a school for the children of the governmental leaders of East Berlin.

Heading into Potsdam

People-watching tower

The bridge looking into East Germany

Where the division between East and West Germany was

Rob telling us something

When we crossed the bridge, we entered into what is now built up to be the suburbs where many famous Berlin people live. Rob started this game with us called "Wheres that thing from?" because there were a lot of things that were either brought back to Berlin or made in the style of another country along our tour of Potsdam. Our first stop of the game brought us to an arch where Rob told us about various kings and how they all had different names (like one whose name I can't remember but was "[someone] the Good and Fit for Nothing") and how each king always tried to be different from his predecessor. We were also warned of the East German FBC (Free Body Culture) that a lot of older Germans still practice where they walked around nude and to not be alarmed if we did see one or two Germans on display since it was a beautiful day out.

Where's this from??
Norway!

Entering the spot with FBC

We did, in fact, pass by an older man with a long beard in his birthday suit having a casual conversation with a fully clothed couple as Rob told us about the "Aha" effect and how many grandiose buildings from afar tended to stay hidden until the very last moment along a path, where they would be framed by trees so that when someone finally came across it, they would go "aha."
Making our way out of the Schlossgarten, we went to the place where the Potsdam Conference was held between Churchill, Stalin, and Truman. This conference was pretty much the conversation between these three leaders after the war to sort out how to cripple Germany using the four D's - deindustrialization, demilitarization, decentralization, and denazification. It was said that the two main players were Stalin and Truman and Churchill was just there just because but each leader had his own entrance into the building so as not to allude to any type of hierarchy with whom entered first or last. At Churchill's entrance, Stalin left him a kind of present right outside in the form of a great big red star design in the garden.

Aha!

Site of the Potsdam Conference

Churchill's entrance

From the site of the Potsdam Conference, we passed through Schlosscecilienhof and the Town Hall into an area to have a little snack break. And from there, Rob asked us another "Where's that thing from?" When pointing to the design of the homes around us and later said that there were so many Dutch engineers designing the buildings that they had to have the Dutch quarters specifically for them. At this stop on the side of the street, Rob told us about the Soldier King who was obsessed with anything to do with the military and would recruit tall men to join a group which came to be known as the Potsdam Giants. They would pretty much parade around town being alarm clocks. The Soldier King also was a part of the Tobacco Ministry which was a group of guys who would sit around a table smoking and coming up with pranks to pull. Apparently this guy was quite mad but he was also quite pious and a strict followers of Calvinism, seen in his building of a military orphanage for the children of poor soldiers.

Town Hall

Town?

Dutch quarters

Potsdam

The Soldier King was the father of Friedrich the Great and he was adamant about Friedrich becoming a strong military leader so would wake him up with cannons to get him used to the sound during times of war. However, Friedrich, like all other kings, did not want to be anything like his predecessor, and was not interested in the.military at all so fled to London then later Paris where he met his good friend, Voltaire. We would learn more about Friedrich later.
Before we continued on, Rob stopped the group and bought a potato, telling us it would all make sense later. Then, in making our way to the grand Park Sanssouci, we passed by the Brandenburger Tor - wait, what? Yep, while this one wasn't as prominent as the one in Berlin, there was one in Potsdam too because these gates were meant to be entrances into Brandenburg so it only made sense that there's one leading from Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg at the time, into it. And from the gate, we made our way to the Park Sanssouci, where I added another word to my French vocabulary, learning that 'souci' means 'worries' or 'cares' so the Park was named as such to be the place 'sans souci' or 'without worries.'

Brandenburger Tor

We didn't go through the main gateway but rather to the side to look at the church. And we passed through an entrance which was purposely built short so that when people passed through, they might have to bow down, in a way, to God. So after exploring the church and the tomb of a king (can't remember which one), we made our way to the Old Palace. From here, Rob told us how when Friedrich the Great built his palace, a man lived in a windmill right next to where it was being built so he told the man that he would need to move so that the windmill wouldn't be an eyesore. However, the man refused to do so and Friedrich, who always described himself as the first servant of Prussia, appreciating the man's will, kept the windmill there next to the palace.

Entrance to the church is right behind the trash bins

The gate we didn't go through

Bowing through the entrance

The watchtower to the church

More of the church

Rob also told us why Friedrich the Great was called such in not only his service to the people but also in his military ability during the Seven Years War. I can't remember the three countries that were bordering Prussia at the time but the only reason that Friedrich won the war was kind of by default because Catherine of I can't remember the country but want to say Austria died and France ran out of money so the third country pulled out of the war as well, giving Friedrich the victory. And the one other thing that earned Friedrich this title ties into why Rob bought the potato.

Getting to the palace grounds

Chilling

Palace

Chinese Tea House

View from the top

Windmill

Friedrich has this statue done and placed right outside of his window - He was believed to be gay

When we got to Friedrich's tomb, there were a bunch of potatoes on it already and we were told that it was because of Friedrich that potatoes are seen as a source of food for the people in the country. There was a phrase that goes "what the farmers don't know, the farmers don't eat" so when the potato was first introduced, no one knew what it was and they used it to kick around and it wasn't until Friedrich started to plant it for himself that the farmers started to catch on and realize that it was actually a source of food. So, to pay respects to Friedrich and to hope for prosperity, people will often visit his grave, where he is buried with his greyhounds, and place a potato on his tombstone.

From this point, Rob led the tour group back to the bus to get to Berlin but I wanted to stay behind and do some exploring of my own so I hung back and made my way to the Chinese Tea House. Rob had told us that when the Tea House was first built, no one had ever seen what Chinese people looked like and all that they knew was from the chinaware that they had so I was interested to see what that looked like. I didn't want to pay the fee to get in so I just walked around the outside and it looked like it was gilded in so much gold and the depiction of the Chinese seemed to stick pretty true to what people who've never seen Chinese people think they look like.

Hey!

Chinese Tea House

Chinaman

From there, the only thing left for me to see in the Park was the New Palace. The one that the tour group saw was the Old Palace and the New Palace was a little bit of a walk away so I guess there wasn't enough time for that. The New Palace was very majestic and quite similar to the Old Palace. While it would be amazing to live in a place like that, I wouldn't know what to do with all that free space. I guess I would find hobbies... but I don't live in a place like that so I guess that isn't something to worry about.

Heading to the Old Palace

Almost there

Almost there...

There!

So grand

This was behind the Palace. Not sure what it was but it looked very prominent.

When I got back to Berlin, I wanted to do something to check out the nightlife that everyone kept telling me about whenever I would mention Berlin so I looked up pub crawls. However, I don't think I was very much in the mood for the rowdiness of a pub crawl so what actually caught my eye was an anti-pub crawl. I didn't take a camera with me and my phone was dead so the rest, you'll have to use your imagination.
With a bit of difficulty of finding the right street to Yesterday Bar, I made it to the start of the anti-pub crawl with enough time to get a bite to eat. Two problems I came across was their inability to break any note higher than €10 and my burger took a long time for me to finish so I stood in a corner for a bit trying to shovel this food into my mouth while everyone else was showing up and I had to run around to three different places looking for change.

Our entry stamp into the anti-pub crawl

From there, it was pretty smooth sailing. I got to talking with a guy from Frankfurt and a girl from Melbourne. The guy, Daniel, was in Berlin to run away from turning 30, and it was actually his second time on this anti-pub crawl, and the girl, whose name I can't remember, was just traveling around doing workaway and will ultimately end up in London, where she has family. The three of us actually stuck together for a while until the last bar but I'm jumping ahead.
So Yesterday Bar was pretty cool and from there, the group got separated into two to lessen the rowdiness I guess. With my group, we went to this bar with a ping pong table in the middle and you give a €2 deposit for a paddle; each time a new round starts, anyone who wants to can jump in and then each person in the circle gets one chance to hit the ping pong ball while the circle moves clockwise and once they miss, they get out of the circle. I stayed in the circle to hit the ball twice before I missed so I'd say that's an accomplishment! At the end, when it's just a few people, they started running around really quickly to the other side and it got pretty intense and when it got narrowed down to two people, they stayed on one side each but the remaining two were always so into it and I think the first to get to three won the round. I think it's a pretty cool concept for a bar and apparently, it started from these two guys who had a ping pong table and just wanted to play ping pong so they found this abandoned space to put their table to play and people eventually joined them and they decided to sell beer and actually get the rights to the property and the rest is history. If anyone reads this post and wants to start something similar with me, let me know. :)
From the ping pong bar, we went to an absinthe bar. We were told that the absinthe that gets sold now doesn't have those mind-altering whatevers still in it so it's perfectly safe, well within the realm of alcohol I guess. I did a shot of absinthe with the original two I met and these two girls, one from Europe, can't remember where, and one from La Cañada, another small world moment because we had one mutual Facebook friend too.  After we lit the sugar cube on fire, blew it out, and stuck the spoon into the shot, I guess I waited too long while sipping it because before I knew it, my shot was gone and I know I didn't drink it all. I guess I forget that alcohol evaporates quickly.
Well, from the absinthe bar, we went to a random bar that had a magic show in the back and apparently, once they lock the door to the small room for the show, there's no telling how long you'll be in there and we were forewarned so we were really hesitant about staying in the room once the magician was about to start. However, we double checked with the guy running the anti-pub crawl and once we got the thumbs up, we went to watch the show. I thought she was going to steal my money or something because we were being locked into a room but she actually ended up doing some pretty cool tricks with cards and these red puffy balls.
Leaving the almost empty bar after the magic show, we headed to our last stop which was a club but I got caught up talking to a random group of people that I didn't even hang out on the dance floor at all. I ended up talking with this group until about four in the.morning, when the metro started running again. Luckily, I wasn't in too much of a rush to get to Munich as I had my Eurail pass and no set reservation so passed out immediately upon getting back to Maria's without much regard for setting the alarm in my body clock.