berlin, berlin...well, after visiting munich over a week ago, i think we were expecting it to be much more like the germany we had previously visited. However, berlin is MUCH more urban feeling and i guess more modern (can't quite think of the correct word to describe it). But after suffering from the destruction of about 90% of its buildings in the historic parts of the city during the allied invasion, as well as being split down the middle between the soviets and the americans/french/brits. In the past 20 years, since the fall of the wall (yes, you adults reading our blog, it has actually been twenty years since the fall of the berlin wall), east berlin has improved dramatically. we are actually going to take pictures of our hostel, which is located in east berlin...this thing is as nice as a hotel...and nicer than most hotels (and at 14 euro a night, quite a good deal). although apparently berlin is almost bankrupt after spending so much on modernizing east berlin, improving its public transportation, and building all the memorials and renovating the historic buildings that were on both sides of the wall. Kris and i had thought about going on a pub crawl here, we never managed to do one in prague or any of the other cities, but so far have been WAY overwhelmed by the nightlife here in berlin, which apparently hasnt settled down too much from the raves and hard partying it experienced during the late 80s and early 90s. So instead, we are taking that 12 euro and going to the sachsenhausen concentration camp, which is right outside of berlin, tomorrow before we fly out. Ok, that trip is for another post...now i'll talk about the berliner experience so far. FIRST off, both kristine and i have been addressed by strangers in german more times than we can count. I guess we both look german enough and appear to know where we are going. BUT, we still havent figured out how to say, "i dont speak german" in german...so we do feel a little silly trying to explain that we dont speak german. ok, seriously, i keep getting off topic here...ANYWAYS, so we got into berlin around 9:30 on sunday evening and were able to get ahold of Kristine's cousins, Tyler, Collin, and Kara who were in berlin that night too. Since they were leaving around noon the next day, we found our hostel (which meant walking down tons of wrong paths and having people tell us to go the other way in german and just being utterly confused) and then we took the s-bahn (their version of the "el") back towards the hostel kris's cousins were staying in. we got out of the metro stop and ended up walking perpendicular to the street we were supposed to turn down and then went down another crazy street and finally found our way thanks to the big TV tower which i'll talk about later. we stayed for a drink with them and just chatted, kris hadnt seen her cousins in quite some time, so that was really good and we also got advice on what we needed to go see and what we really could pass on. it's always great to get advice from people who have just visited and have everything fresh in my mind. we went back to the hostel around 1 am, so our second latest night of the trip so far.
We got up the next morning, ready for our first full day in berlin and did what we do best, no not drinking, we went for a good run - kris went more in to the big park, Tiergarten and i turned around just at the beginning of it. We ran past the memorial for the roma, sinti, and homosexual victims of the holocaust as well. after i exited the park i stopped for a short bit to walk throught the memorial for the murdered jews of europe which is just an increadibly moving memorial. it is the size of a city block and covering it are cement rectangles of different heights, as you walk towards the center, the ground lowers as well and you get this sensation of being all alone. the tour guide told us that the designer of the memorial never said what it was supposed to be, it was whatever the viewer wanted it to be. the rectangles could be the coffins and thus a final resting place for the murdered jews or another idea was that it was meant to appear like the gravestones of prague's jewish cementery where all the gravestones are placed on top of each other because there just wasnt the room. we went to the memorial/info center underneath where they had 6 pictures of different victims each representing 1 million jews who were murdered. they had a discussion of politically what had happened in germany/the time frame, excerpts from journals and postcards of the jewish victims,info about entire families from different areas of europe who were killed, and finally info about a few of the many many concentration, labor, and extermination camps. it was very very well done.
Ok, i am doing a really bad job of doing this thing in chronological order....but back to the first day, after the run we went on the free tour provided by europe and started at the brandenburg gate. the US embassy and the French embassy are both on pariserplatz which is just to the east of the gate. the statue on the top of the gate was stolen by napolean, recaptured by wilhelm the ??? or frederick the ???, one of those guys and the head of the female figure on the statue is turned ever so slightly towards the french embassy to keep an eye on them and to say, i'm watching you, you better not try any of those shenanigans again! so after that we went to the holocaust memorial and then walked over to the "memorial" of the perpetrators of the holocaust...it was literally a parking lot. there is a not even paved parking lot over the place where hitler's bunker was. oh...and yes...we had a guy on our trip ask the guide, "so was his bunker underground?" yeah...kris and i were pretty sure that bunkers USUALLY are located underground. silly boy. we then marched our little fannies over to the building that was the home of the ministry of ministries...i guess that was something like...how to keep east germany SOCIALIST. they had a huge banner painted on the outside to make it seem like socialism made people happy and everyone worked together in harmony and love. and on the ground was an equal sized photo of east berliners on strike before they were gunned down by the stasi for protesting the work quotas of the communist government. needless to say, the reality of the communism wasnt quite as pretty as the idealistic painting made it seem.
we then walked over the a section of the berlin wall before heading to checkpoint charlie. this was one of the places where west berliners could pass through to east berlin if they had the proper documents. now there is picture of an american army guy staring in to east berlin and his equal of the soviet army staring in to west berlin. there was also a display discussing the history of the berlin wall and many of the events that took place around it. they have used the parts taken down to create a brick path that runs along (i think) the entire length of the berlin wall. we then headed through the gendarmenmarkt, which is the "most beautiful place in berlin" to bebelplatz where nazi students burned 20,000 (i think) books written by jews and communists. there is memorial underneath the plaza, a window into a white room with empty white shelves where there is room for the same number of books. there was also a plaque there with the quote that said "when they start burning books, they finish burning bodies, and it was from an author in 1870. We continued on to a memorial of a women holding her dead son that was done by a berliner who lost her son in the first world war, and her husband and grandson in the second world war...again...trying to remember all the details, so all of you dont actually have to come to berlin. after reading this post, you should feel like you have visited it with us. we ended the tour at the museum isle where many of the major museums are located and where berlin was officially founded. after that kris and i headed back to a chocolate store we had passed on the tour and purchased some rather delicious chocolates, cue kristine "oh that's good, its like a ball of frosting inside" as she bites into a white chocolate and vanilla creme truffle.
After the tour we headed over to the topography of terror exhibition, which was rather long and read all about the SS, SD, gestapo, (later the Stasi), Adolf Eichmann, Himmler, Heydrich, Hitler, Goring, and those essentially responsible for the most horrific events of the 20th century, and really of modern history as we know it. the buildings where these organizations were run out of have been destroyed and berlin hasnt quite figured out yet to do with the space yet. the exhibit was a very long line of posters with pictures and an excellent description of everything that had occured. even without a building, this open air exhibit was incredibly done and very moving. it has been very nice to see so many of these museums, memorials, and exhibits so well done. they make sure that germans and the world cant forget what has happened. that was the message we got from the tour guide and others...the memorials make it impossible for you to ignore the past. We then went to dinner and i had a berliner beer...or that's what i thought i was ordering, and then i got a fruit drink - rasberry syrup and beer...i felt like i was drinking kool-aid. kristine got charged a riduclous 2 euro for a glass of tap water...NOT COOL!
This morning we woke up late and went to the east side gallery which is the longest section of the berlin wall still standing and sections have been given to different artists to use as a canvas for their art. it was over a kilometer long and there were certain sections being redone by artists as we were walking past. it truly was a gallery and artists from around the world have painted on it. after this we headed over the the holocaust memorial, discussed earlier, and then went over to potsdamer platz, which also showed off a piece of the wall and then walked up the reichstag - the german parliament. there is a glass dome on top open to visitors which provides a beautiful view of the city. oh yeah, before all this, we were caught in a torrential downpour...soaked through even with umbrellas...there was only a 20% chance of light right in the pm today...yeah right...light rain. we then had some haagen daz, our first ice cream in berlin, so far, we have had ice cream in EVERY city we have visited...are you all impressed...maybe that's why we arent losing any weight even with all the walking we are doing. hmmmmm....after ice cream we went to the DDR museum which discussed life in east germany. inside there was a Trebi...you could even sit inside of it and pretend to drive it!
well that pretty much wraps up the first two days in berlin. tomorrow we are going to the sachsenhausen concentration camp which was used not only by the nazis, but also by the soviets (german and russians). when we realized that it cost the same amount for a pub crawl as for a visit to sachsenhausen, you can guess which one we figured was more worth our money. will post again to let you know how all that went. sorry if this was a bit long, i think i got better at staying on topic as i wrote. cheers! and see ya'll in about a week. cant believe the trip is almost over :(
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