Berlin

Tuesday, April 6 – Arrived in Berlin, out hotel was on the outskirts of the East side of Berlin. We took the U-Bahn to Alexanderplatz and had dinner at a really good German restaurant. Tried the beer sampler (when in Rome…or Berlin) and had spätzle. BEST DINNER EVER!!! It had tomatoes, broccoli, onion, and tons of melted, creamy cheese! Ahh, I lover Germany/German food!

Wednesday, April 7 – Had a huge German breakfast with yogurt and muesli, bread, cheese, jam, fruit, eggs, crepes, and cake!! Yep, had a giant slice of German cake for breakfast…add another plus to the Germans :) We had a 3 hour bus tour of Berlin. We first went to this red castle-like bridge that used to be a pedestrian crossing/checkpoint to the East/West. We also saw the Berlin wall, but this portion of it was very new and had a big mural on each section that depicted everything from dark paintings to bizarre/abstract to peace paintings. Then we went to Checkpoint Charlie (right) which wasn’t too much to see except the giant picture of the US solider and a fake US solider there for pictures. But they did have big posters up about historical facts and information about the wall/checkpoint. The most interesting was a description about people’s attempts to cross to the west. Most that made it across either were smuggled across inside of trunks of cars or with fake US uniforms or fake passports (usually Switzerland). They had a bunch of pictures of people who were caught hiding in cars and they put black lines over their eyes, which made it much more scary and dangerous-looking. Back on the bus we passed by another part of the wall, this time though it was part of the original wall – it had a fence around it protecting it, but I could still see faded colors from graffiti and holes in the wall – very interesting to see!

We drove through Charlottenberg, which was very pretty, then to Reichsthe – the German parliament building with a big glass dome (above). We weren’t there for long enough to go up inside the dome, but we did enjoy lying on the grass under the sun looking at the building with the German flags – I loved it! We finished our tour by driving through the museum district and past the Holocaust memorial and to the Brandenburg Gate.

By this time in the trip, being with 8 other girls 24/7…I decided to go off and explore Berlin solo. It was great! I found my way through Hauptbanhof and found the best döner kebab in the world!! Well, I think I found it, Steph (one of Jill’s friends who lives in Berlin) gave me very rough directions: “out of the u-bahn station, toward the sex shops, and under a covered walkway.” Nevertheless, it was amazing!!! Went to Ka-De-We, one of the biggest malls in Europe that has a famous 6th floor which had every kind of food and drink.

Then I went back to Alexanderplatz and saw the Berliner Dom (below) and then went to the DDR museum which is a small, interactive museum about what East Berlin was like under the communist rule. It was very interesting! They had community bathroom breaks in school where they could not stand up until everyone was done; they built hundreds of apartments/concrete slab buildings that were very small, but you can still see them all over East Berlin. Also, “young people” would go to some place and listen to blues and rock and music that the government didn’t approve of, so people from the government were sent to take pictures of everyone there so they could keep tabs on them in the coming months and years. So they had a little TV set up with real pictures of these people sitting and talking to friends or walking around. Then it said that the black circle around the pictures means that it was taken from a briefcase – crazy!

I walked a little ways further and went to a big square (right) that had the “White Library” which was a hole in a square with a piece of glass over it showing white, empty shelves. That was the spot where the Nazi’s burned the books in 1933 that did not fit with their philosophy! It was like standing on history. Then a few of us met up and went to a wine bar then to another German restaurant for a repeat of my dinner from the night before – more spätzle!!!!

Overall, I liked Berlin. There is still a stark difference between East and West though. The East is kind of dirty and rundown and just behind the times. Whereas West Berlin is very nice and looks like most other European cities, very strange! Berlin has about 30% of green parks in the city, and everyone utilizes it; it’s really nice. The history is very interesting, especially because it is so recent and well preserved. Everyone I talked to was very nice, oh and did I mention the food! I feel like there is still so much that I haven’t seen in Berlin yet…