Berlin
Trip Start
Aug 20, 2008
1
2
24
Trip End
Dec 22, 2008
Berlin,
Germany
Sunday, August 24, 2008
We woke up at 7 in the morning after getting less than four hours of sleep. We got taxis and took them to the Paris du Nord train station. We then took two trains to get to Berlin that totaled about 8 hours. The trains were pretty nice and we got to see a lot of the countryside. We also saw a castle with a real mote! We saw cows and horses as well. We had some trouble with our tickets on the train. We found out that our train was actually going through Brussels and we had not included Belgium on our list of countries for our Eurail pass. We had to pay 20 euro extra because our train was going through Belgium. We looked like typical Americans because we did not realize we would be going through Brussels and did not even know what country it was in. The train ticket checker mockingly pulled out a map and showed us. While we were waiting for our connection to the second train we got some lunch. We had a bit of a scare because Bobby and Sara got lost on their way back from getting food and Garrett had gone off the get soda when our train got there. Fortunately everyone was back with a few minutes to spare and we boarded the train. On the second train we got a quick German lesson from the ticket checker. She tried to teach us a few words and told us that German was too hard for us, it was funny!
We finally arrived in Berlin at about 6:30 and immediately caught a taxi to our hostel. The taxi driver was very funny. Since we could have gotten off at a train station that was closer the ride ended up being about 25 minutes but the driver was very nice and he pointed out all of the important things that we passed. He also shared his opinions about other countries. He said that the French and the Swedish you can forget. He was actually Turkish and he said that the Germans were cold and that he had only had two German friends his whole life. We asked him about Americans and he said they were ok. He said the politics are bad but the people are nice and there is nothing they can do about it. We agreed. He said that Bush is terrible. The driver was very entertaining but said that he had a very hard life. He said that the German women don't like it because they want the men to spend time with them but that they must be driving all the time. After about 13 hours of traveling we finally reached our hostel, the Generator.
Our Hostel- The Biggest in Europe
The Generator was completely opposite from the hostel that we stayed in when we were in Paris. It is a huge hostel that fits 904 beds! The hostel is a chain so the atmosphere is a lot different from the quaint hostel that we stayed in in Paris. The facilities were very nice though. Our room was much more spacious, the beds were very comfy, and we had a beautiful view of Eastern Berlin. The hostel also has a lot of space for recreation. It is equipped with a restaurant, bar, pool tables, and a movie screening room. We had a roommate named Andy from Australia for the whole time we were there. He was funny because he slept most of the time and would always leave things because he would get angry. We were pretty tired so we went to bed early that night.Day 6: August 25, 2008
We got up and met a free walking tour in the lobby of our hostel at 10:15. The tour ended up being about 6 hours long and we walked all over the city. Our tour guide was from Ireland and she had come to study German law. It rained a lot that day but the sun came out for a little bit. We saw the Reichstag (where the parliament is) and the Brandenburg gates first. Next we saw a memorial for the murdered Jews.
Holocaust Memorial
It was a huge square area where there were rows of blocks that started short at the end and got taller towards the center. We walked through the rows of blocks and tried to find our way out to the other end. The tour guide explained a few different interpretations of the symbolism of the memorial. There is no writing and no marking on the rocks, just grey slabs. One interpretation was that the slabs start out short on the end because the racism was subtle in the beginning and people may not have motivated it much. The racism however escalated and that culminates with the tall blocks in the middle that make you feel lost. The blocks get smaller as they go towards the end as things began to get better and now the blocks are almost non-existent on the edge. She also explained that as you walk through the blocks you feel lost and you see someone one second and they disappear the next which is something I felt when I walked through the memorial. This represents the many friends and family members that seemed to disappear from the lives of many. There is a room underneath the memorial where the names of those who died are being read and it is estimated to take six years to read them all out. Going through the memorial felt very somber for me and it was intensified by the fact that I was literally standing where so many were impacted by the holocaust. The tour moved on to this seemingly insignificant area of dirt in front of an apartment building. We then found out that we were standing right about Hitler's bunkers. These were the very bunkers that Hitler and who new wife committed a double suicide. It was unreal to believe that I was standing right about the location of this event. I found it very interesting that I would have never known that this is where it happened unless the tour guide had told me. The people just continue their daily life there as if nothing happened. There is merely a sign that objectively states the details of what happened.
Our Group at the Berlin Wall
Next we moved on to see a piece of the Berlin wall. It looked just like the piece that they have at Chapman. I felt weird about taking a picture and smiling in front of something so divisive and something that affected the lives of so many people. I just could not imagine waking up one morning and having a wall in front of my door separating me from people that I love and places that I go for so many years. I can not believe that this is something that happened so recently and that the world did not stop it until after so long. It is an intangible thing to imagine even when you are literally standing in front of the actual wall.Checkpoint Charlie was a few feet from the section of the wall that we saw. It is just a little gate in the middle of the street with two soldiers standing at it, one man with a French flag and one man with an American flag. We thought it was funny because the soldier holding the American flag did not look American at all. Above is a sign with the face of an American soldier and across is the face of a German soldier. The soldiers purposely looked alike to show that we are all humans and that they were all young men who were following orders. I really liked how all of the things that we saw had so much thought and symbolism in them and was glad to have a tour guide who could explain the deeper meaning of what we were seeing. I really enjoyed learning all of the history behind the things that we were seeing and experiencing it was one of my favorite parts about Berlin and the trip so far.
After we took a break for lunch at Schlotsky's deli we went to see two of the main squares in Berlin. The first one had a Cathedral. The second one had a University. This was the University whose professors and students burned books that were black listed during the Red square. In the middle of the square there was a box that you could look down too and if you looked closely you saw empty shelves. The university has a huge book sale everyday outside as an effort to make up for the many books that were burned. Next we moved on to the huge skinny TV tower that has a restaurant on top. Next to the tour was the Egyptian museum and a beautiful cathedral.
Roomies on the Tour
We sat down in front of the museum and the tour guide told us the story of the declaration of the tearing down of the Berlin wall. I was shocked to hear this story and could not believe that I had not heard it already. At the end of the tour we tipped the tour guide headed home. I was very happy that we had done the tour because I learned so much history and got to see so many things without having to worry about where to go.While we were on the tram going to the tour we ran into four guys who were from the Bay Area and who knew a lot of the same people that we knew. It was an amazing coincidence because we found out that they were going to Munich next like us and Interlaken. We decided to travel along with them. When we got back from the tour we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant around the corner and then went on the Pub crawl. This is a tour that started at our hostel that took us to four pubs and a club. This was a long night and an interesting experience nonetheless. We met people from many different countries and got to see some of the city at night.
Day 7: August 26, 2008
at the Berlin Zoo
We decided to go to the Zoo with our new traveling buddies: Adam, Brandon, Max and Jo. Bobby and Devin did not want to come so we left them behind and the seven went off to the zoo. We liked traveling with them because they were good at getting around and we were tired of being lost all the time. The other Brandon really wanted to go to the zoo and we heard it was a famous zoo. We had a really fun day at the zoo. It was interesting to see a zoo in a different country. The animals had nicer habitats in the zoo and seemed a lot more active because of it. A few funny things happened that day. We went into the petting zoo which had little pens around for different animals. A boy got into the pen and chased some of the goats around. They ran out of their pen and across to the other pen. Everyone was screaming and one goat knocked a little girl into a puddle, we found this very comical. We also saw a lot of animals playing together and I saw wolves howling for the first time. We saw a little seal show and this baby seal was really cute because it did not know what to do and just kind of swam around. We stayed at the zoo for 3 or 4 hours and saw many different types of animals. We saw birds that had funny feathers on their feet that we had never seen before. Brandon had a huge German hot dog for lunch and the boys played in the really cool German playground.
European Playgrounds are Way Better than Ours
After the zoo we went back to the hostel to take a break and get ready for dinner. For dinner we took the train to Alexander Platz. This is a huge city center that has a mall and lost of stores and restaurants. We ended up eating at a restaurant/bar and all of us ordered enchiladas because we missed Mexican food. The enchiladas did not taste very Mexican but they were good. Our Australian roommate Andy joined us for dinner. He was funny because he would always leave tours or night clubs because he said we would get angry and pretty much slept most of the time. After dinner we went back to the hostel to meet Monica because her flight had gotten in that night.
Monica Arrived!
She was waiting for us with our new friends who had ran into her on their way to our room. Our group then took two trains to a night club that played hip hop music. We had a good time and left after a few hours because we had to get up for our train to Munich the next morning.
Reflection of Berlin:
I really liked Berlin and wished that we could have spent more time there. There is so much history in the city and the German people were very nice to us. Berlin was quite a contrast to Paris. In Paris everything was a lot more cramped and in Berlin things were more open. Our hostel was a LOT bigger and the roads were a lot wider. As a whole more people spoke English and were a lot more helpful than the French were. I enjoyed Berlin because of how much history the city had and was again surprised by the diversity of the city. I hope to go back there again someday.
