Day 1
My apologies for the tardiness of the update on Sara and I’s trip to Berlin Germany! We traveled there by bus on March 15th through the 18th. We left late Friday night and drove all night on a Flix bus to Germany where we arrived in Berlin around 7:00 am on Saturday morning. Let me tell you, overnight buses are a blessing and a curse all in one. Not wasting precious time by traveling at night is fantastic!! However, there is nothing like a good night's sleep in a hostel bed.
Upon our arrival, we headed to our hostel where we proceeded to get ready for the day in the public restroom! Haha Just imagine two girls in a small restroom with backpacks open with clothes hanging out, makeup bags on the counter, and hot iron tools steaming (jk the outlets didn’t work). It ended up working out quite nicely, neither of us had ever stayed in a hostel before and were quite impressed with the facilities and amenities that were provided by The Singer Hostel. Sara and I enjoyed a buffet breakfast at the hostel that consisted of an assortment of breads with jams and nutella, yogurt with granola and fruit toppings, a meat tray, fresh fruit, eggs and juices. It was so nice to have a somewhat “normal” American breakfast. We sat at the hostel for a couple of hours trying to plan spring break trips and also nail down the rest of the destinations that we wanted to hit on our free weekends during the program! The planning of all these trips is one of the most fun parts about being abroad, if you know me, you know that planning could be my middle name. After running through about 20 different paths and ideas for spring break we decided to put a pause to the planning and get out and start exploring the city!
As we started to walk to the center of the city to find some of the memorials that were on our list to see I had an intense feeling of emptiness wash over me. The morning was a bit dreary with cloudy skies and a cool crisp bite in the air. The buildings were mostly dark colors and many were just structures that were made out of cement. It was as if the city had not forgotten all the events that had taken place on these streets and were holding onto the sadness. Even areas that were meant to evoke joy, such as playgrounds, had cement ground and emitted emptiness and despair. The eire feeling that I felt in the air only increased as Sara and I came upon a remaining portion of the Berlin wall that was located in front of the Topography of Terror Documentation Center. This center is open to the public at no cost, and even includes an audio tour that guides visitors through an exhibition of pictures that tell the story of historical events from 1933-1945. The pictures and stories from the audio guide did such a great job of explaining the progression of events that led Hitler to power and eventually the horrific event that is the holocaust. There are no words that I can share that will do this exhibit justice. I only can share the emotions that I felt while learning more about the ruthless methods that were used to murder millions of innocent people. At times during the tour I was tearing up ready to cry because of the stories that were told of how families were ripped apart and treated with disrespect towards their right to live. Of all the horrific photos, there was one in particular that truly made me feel nauseous and sick to my stomach. An a event like the Holocaust is a piece of history that must never be repeated. It is so so important for us to never forget the millions of lives that were lost. I am grateful that an exhibit like Topography of Terror is free to the public so that we continue to educate future generations.
After leaving the Topography of Terror museum, our path to the next destination left us a little bit soggy because it started pouring and Sara and I had accidentally left our umbrellas at the hostel that morning. We pushed through the bad weather to our next destination that was Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie is the best known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin During the Cold War (1947-1991). It later became a symbol of of the cold war. The funny thing about this historical landmark is that if you were not looking for it, you would probably pass by it without knowing and completely miss it. To say that least, it was a little bit underwhelming, but still cool to say that we have seen. To make the checkpoint a little bit more fun for visitors there are men dressed up as American Soldiers guarding the site whom you can take pictures with for fun!
Due to the fact that the weather had turned on us, we decided to pause the site seeing and check out one of the famous malls of Berlin. Sara and I walked around the Mall of Berlin admiring the differences in it against an American mall. Let me tell you, this mall was so full of color and activities for kids to make it fun!! There was a slide from the third floor down to the first and carousel horses hanging from the ceiling. We walked around checking out the different shops, but mostly going into shoe stores. After a lack of purchases, we came across this amazing food court that was crawling with hundreds of people, like nothing I had ever seen before in America. We decided to walk around and see our options before committing to a location. I finally realized that there was a sort of international theme to this food court as they had providers for traditional dishes from all over the world. You can check out the map below to see all the types of food that there was. I finally decided to get a Gyro, which was massive!! I sat down to wait for Sara, who went and got an Asian dish, and called my beautiful Grandmother for her birthday. It was so nice to talk to her and tell her about my experiences in Germany that day.
The next event on our checklist was to go and see the “TV” or Sky Tower of Berlin, so we walked quite a way until we finally found the super tall structure. However, when we walked inside to purchase our tickets to go up to the restaurant that is located at the top, the woman told us that it would be better for us to come back maybe tomorrow because it was cloudy so the view was not that good. We were bummed that the weather had ruined our plans but also appreciated the women telling us straight up that it would be a waste of money to go to the top. So instead of that we went into a three story TJ Maxx, which they actually call TK Maxx over here. Regardless, this was the biggest one that I had ever seen and it was so much fun1 When packing to come abroad, I chose not to bring any shorts or swimsuits along with me, which was not so bright of me. As Spring Break and nicer weather was just around the corner, I decided that I better start adding to my warm weather wardrobe and purchased a swimsuit and a pair of sandals. We explored a couple other shops before coming across a really cool shoe store that carried Birkenstocks. I decided to try some on because Germany is where they originated and I thought that this might be the perfect pair of shoes to buy to continue my trend of getting a pair of shoes in every country I go to. After much debating, I gave in and bought my first pair of Birkenstocks (as an update, they are now my favorite shoe and I want to buy another pair before I leave lol). After picking up a magnet and post card from a nearby souvenir shop, Sara and I found an awesome Mexican food restaurant that looked like fun! So we sat down to give our feet a rest at the end of the night and enjoyed a drink and some chips and salsa. This was so satisfying to us as we had been craving Chips and Salsa since the beginnings of the trip.
We made our way back to the hostel via public transportation and met our roommates who were staying with us at the hostel. They were originally from France, but are studying in Poland as ERASMUS students. (Erasmus is a program that allows students to study in different countries.) We had a great night's rest in our nice little hostel room and prepared for all that the following day was going to bring.
DAY 2
On Sunday morning, Sara and I woke up around 9:00 and got ready in a co-ed bathroom with our roommates. It was an interesting experience as this phenomenon is not something that we often see in America. We ate at the cute little cafe in our hostel again (which had the best muesli and yogurt!!) We ate quickly and then got to work exploring the rest of the Berlin on our final day there. On our way to Bernauer StraBe, on the Subway I swear that I saw a real life Mary Poppins, so of course I snapped a quick picture of her. After this funny memory, we hopped off the subway and made our way up the steps were we popped out right at Bernauer StraSSe which is the famous point of the Berlin Wall where the border was first enforced. During that time, there were houses sitting on the border line. So this means that they could walk out the front door and be on the West side and out the back door and be on the East side. For this reason, this section of houses became famous for escapes from the East to the West. People were climbing out of windows jumping to safety, or climbing down from sheets that doubled as ropes. When the police started to board up the windows to these houses, people went higher up and started jumping of the roof, sometimes missing their target of padding and jumping to their death. There is a pretty neat walking museum along this section of the wall that explains the progression through time and what was going on at this section of the wall as well as some very sad stories of how families were separated for years because of the wall.
After our walk along the memorial to Bernauer StraBe, we went to the Berlin Wall museum which had some very good explanations of why the Berlin Wall was put up and how it affected the lives of people who lived on either side. However, the facts that I like the most were actually those that were meant as a child's version of the museum. Sometimes I just really appreciate a simple explanation of what was going on and why. So here I will share with you an explanation taken from the museum. “Germany and Berlin were both divided into two parts that were hostile to one another. This is how it happened:after World War II, the four Allied powers that won the was- the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain and France- occupied Germany and divided it among themselves. … Berlin was like an island in the middle of the Soviet occupation zone. The city was also divided into four sectors, but it was supposed to be jointly governed. But how? The occupying powers in the West and the Soviet occupying power in the East fought over this. They were unable to agree, so the city was split into two parts: West Berlin and East Berlin. The same thing happened to Germany. It was divided into two separate states: The federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).” It was hard to hear and read the stories of people who were separated from their extended families by this wall that went up “overnight”. People with babies would bring them to a section of the wall so the child's grandparents who were stuck on the other side could meet the child. There was also one story about a young couple who got married near the wall so that the girls parents could watch the ceremony from a window on the other side of the wall. After learning about many stories, we climbed a set of stairs at the museum that took us to a balcony that overlooked an authentic section of the wall which showed the various tactics used to ensure that people wouldn’t escape.
We walked along a section of the wall that has now been decorated with murals of graffiti until we found the next metro station to take us to our next landmark of the day. The Brandenburger Tor is estimated to have been built between 1789-1791. This landmark was originally used to close off the city from trade, and is one of the few of its kind that are left throughout Europe. It was absolutely massive, and just crazy to think about how long it has been around. Just around the corner a short walk away was The Reichstag Dome of Germany which again, was enormous. I would have liked to have visited the inside, because it is supposed to be quite fabulous, but we still had many things to do for the day! On our walk to see the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe we walked through a small park. On our walk we ran into a man who was making bubbles, so we stopped, gave him a little tip, so he let us try to make some bubbles on our own! Let me say that he made it look so much easier with the big long sticks with nets, then it really is. Through this same park we also visited the memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered Under National Socialism. If it hadn't already sunk in, at this moment I began to think about how many hardships and trial that the people of Germany, and Europe as a whole have been through in just the last 100 years. My heart was heavy and I knew that we had another heavy memorial to visit next.
On our walk to the Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe it began to lightly sprinkle, and then it began to rain a little harder, and then a little harder, until it was pouring down on Sara and I. We had just rounded the corner to the memorial when we realized that we were standing next to the United States Embassy. We hugged the side of the building to take refuge from the pouring rain and waited for it to lighten up or stop. When the rain lightened up we braved the weather to check out this moving memorial. The memorial is set in a 19,000 m2 site in the middle of Berlin, it has a total of 2,711 concrete slabs or “stelae” placed in an irregular field. The slabs are uniform in their length and width but vary in their heights from 0.2 meters to 4.8 meters. The memorial was designed by the American architect Peter Eisenman, who explained that he wanted to create an illusion of instability in an apparent system of order. Each of the slabs have a different height to help create this instability as does the irregular floor which rises and falls like rolling hills. Eisenman stated that this memorial cannot remember the horrors of each individual who suffered the Holocaust and has to be understood in a context of time and space, not only space like traditional memorials. With all the cement structures, the memorial resembles the same feeling as a cemetery. I was deeply moved by the appearance of the rain drops on the stone blocks, I felt as if they could have been tears falling from the sky from the millions of innocent people who were taken from the world to soon and through such terror and evil. Uniquely, this memorial mentions nothing of the holocaust itself and only focuses on the lives of those people who were lost.
After becoming very wet and cold, Sara and I walked to a nearby Pizzeria when we sat and ate to dry off before making our way to the Berlin Cathedral. Our roommates from the hostel recommended that we visit this cathedral and boy I am sure glad that we listened to them because it was absolutely gorgeous!! Every nook and cranny was full of detail and perfectly executed. There was also an exhibit on display about Bach that we were able to visit which was quite interesting. During WWII the cathedral was destroyed, so an exhibit went through the steps in which were taken to restore the cathedral to its original glory. The pictures to not do it justice, but should give you a good idea of how gorgeous it was! We climbed 267 stairs to a 360 degree- panoramic view of Berlin to get a little more exercise in for the day and were delighted with what we saw! After spending an extended amount of time walking around the walkway circling the dome we descended all the way down into the crypt of the royal family. What amazed me the most was the extensive amount of time, money, and effort that was put into the sarcophagus of the royal family. I found it very sad to see all of the very small sarcophaguses where children were put to rest because of the high rate of child mortality back in those days.
At this point in the day we had seen all that we set out to see so we started to search for a good Irish Pub to celebrate St. Patrick's Day (yesss this was a long time ago!! hahaha). After finding many very packed pubs, we settled at a nice Irish Restaurant where Sara and I hung out and had a drink to celebrate before finding food. We searched and searched for a restaurant that was OPEN on a Sunday night, and honestly it was much harder than you would think in a big city like Berlin. We finally found a steakhouse that was open and had a wonderful meal here! However, after waiting for our food and getting dessert, we were starting to cut it kinda close for time to catch our bus back to the Czech Republic. We found the nearest metro station and went to hop on the train only to realize that the trains had all been stopped due to a medical emergency. Sara and I were trying to decide if it was worth it to wait and see if it would start back up soon because we had already paid for our tickets, or if we should just eat the cost and get an Uber back to our hostel to pick up our luggage. We waited for a little bit and then started to panic because time was ticking by, so we ate the cost and had to get an Uber from the metro to our hostel and then again from our hostel to the bus station. All in all, this little hiccup probably cost about an extra $50 which kinda sucked but it was a lesson of travel. Things don't always work out in our favor and it’s a valuable skill to be able to bounce back and figure out a new solution. We made it to the bus in plenty of time and even got our favorite seats on the second level at the front!!
Overall, Berlin was very educational and full of fun new experiences with Sara, who has become such a dear friend to me!
Hugs,
Annalise