My friends and I were on the beginning leg of our spring break, backpacking through eastern europe. Already, we were sleep deprived and delerious, and we were only four days in. Living by cheap flights, we found a cheap German airline to take us from Amsterdam to Berlin. The catch--it left Amsterdam at 6 am. This was to be the second of three 6 am flights we had planned for this week.

Now, probably one of the worst things you can do after three nights in Amsterdam is pull an all nighter to catch a 6 am flight, but we were young and trying to save money, so we weren't too worried about it. On our last night, we did the usual things you do in Amsterdam, then walked around the city for a while trying to kill some time and make use of the drunk we had going on. We went back to our hostel, The Flying Pig Downtown, which was a great little scene, and chilled out there until about 3 am when we had to start heading to Centraal Station, then onto Schipol Airport.

By the time we got to the train station with all our bags, we were fading fast. On the train we overheard two Texans telling a Dutchman why America was so much better than Holland. As they got up the Dutchman gave us a look and said something in Dutch, so my friend Elyse said, "Sorry we're American too." "Oh, not another one!" he cried. "Don't worry, we all said, they in no way represent all Americans."

Now at the airport we really were dying slowly. The flight, which took probably 30 minutes, got us into Berlin, where we had to take the bus and then a train to get to our hostel. By this time it was pushing 9 am, and all we wanted to do was check in and get into bed. Unfortunately, we could only check in, and wouldn't be able to get into our rooms until 2 pm. This was a death sentence. Since we only had one full day in Berlin, we wanted to make the best of it.

We wandered out into the chilly morning and made a first stop at the Berlin Wall. We wandered all over the city, finding some random spots and getting lost along the way. We were so tired that we just crashed against the Wall at one point. Dragging our feet, we walked miles and miles to get to Checkpoint Charlie. We dug deep for some energy, and were amazed to find that we still had some left. I only knew a few words in German, so I thought I'd show it off by asking directions. Unfortunately, I had no idea what they said in return. Now we headed aimlessly in the wrong direction for ten minutes before turning around. We were about 4 miles away from the hostel.

We walked and walked, until we found some park with a fountain packed with young Germans. We literally collapsed on the grass in the sun and couldn't move. We lay there for at least 20 minutes, trying to find the motivation. Somehow we moved on, got back to the hostel and passed out around 4 pm for a couple of hours. That was all we needed to recharge, and we went out later that night for some drinks. We found a great Soviet themed bar in East Berlin where the live band was playing "Back in the U.S.S.R." by The Beatles. Everyone loved it.

Foozball was huge there, and we played a match, two Americans versus two Germans. For some reason, it felt like much more was on the line. When we won, we celebrated dramatically and said to ourselves "3-0 baby. USA, USA."

We ran into an expat American and Frenchman, and they took us to some really cool bars and clubs that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to find. We didn't get back to the hostel until about 2 am, then had to wake up in the morning to catch a train out of Berlin. It seemed like the longest stretch of time ever, and I'm still really not sure how we made it, but it had to be something to do with our youth and love of travel.