Burrrrlin!

Guten Tag! Long time, no talk, I know. Between being sick all last week and traveling around Berlin since Saturday, I have had neither the time nor the energy to blog. But that’s alright, because I am on yet another five hour long train ride, so we can talk for a nice long time. 

For starters, not much happened last week. For the most part, weekdays are pretty boring. My days last week were a mix of doctor’s appointments and classes, mixed in with an occasional run. Nothing that interesting. Saturday morning we left for Berlin and that’s when things got exciting. We took a five-hour train there, and upon arrival had an interesting tour with a young tour guide (always better than the boring old history majors). It was supposed to be a bus city tour, but he thought it would be more interactive if we could get out and walk around. I’d be all for that, minus the rain and intense winds that we were greeted with. We saw a lot of the major sights the first day, including the Berlin Wall, the German Parliament, the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie. That night we all enjoyed dinner at a favorite Berlin pizzeria and subsequently went out for a night on the town.

Most of our large group went out to a club called “Weekend” together. It cost 12 euro to get in, but I’d say it was worth it as it seemed to be a local hotspot. The only unfortunate part of the club was that it was a lot of electro music the whole night, which I have a hard time getting into. But after a while of drinking my water (hah), I finally found my rhythm and danced for hours. I didn’t get home until 5 that morning, which meant only one hour of sleep for me. Who would get up at 6 a.m. on a Sunday, you ask? Well, we did. It was well worth it, but also meant that I would was exhausted for our long next day. 

 Sunday we visited a concentration camp called Sachsenhausen. It was a bleak, gloomy day, which was fitting for the environment we were in. The sights of the camp were intense to say the least. We saw the horrible condition of the barracks that hundreds of innocent people were forced to live in. We saw the methods of punishment they suffered and the trenches they were murdered in. We saw gas chambers and ovens used for burning the bodies. We also learned that in the many barracks that the camp had, only three of them were used for Jews. Many of the others were full of homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and even Protestants. It was a brutal sight and a shocking reminder of the horrors that occurred in Germany not too long ago. 

After our tour of the camp, we were all drained physically and mentally. Walking around a concentration camp for three hours will exhaust just about anyone. So needless to say, I don’t think we were in the mood to have a painfully dull tour of the German Parliament building. Our tour guide was an old, rude, snobby woman who yelled at me for “wandering off” to go to the bathroom. Sorry for needing to pee. The building wasn’t that interesting, so I wasn’t upset that my camera had died by that point. I was glad to get back to the hotel, drink chocolate milk for dinner, and hit my pillow. 

Monday was another long day of tours. We first visited the Hohenschonhausen Memorial Site, which used to be a prison that was used by the GDR (German Democratic Republic) and subsequently by the Stasi (Soviets) after the war. The conditions were ghastly, as one would expect. The most shocking part of the prison was the methods that the Stasi members would use to torture anyone who opposed their regime. They arrested non-communists and would use brutal techniques such as Chinese water torture and threats to one’s family to get innocent people to confess to crimes they never committed. It was interesting to see that even though Germany committed many heinous crimes during the war, the Soviets weren’t much better after the war was over. 

Later that day we had a choice of whether we wanted to see the Pergamon Museum or a Jewish museum. Most everyone in our group besides me chose to see both. I went to the Pergamon museum, which is most famous for having a large part of an original Pergamon altar, which dated back to a few hundred B.C. The museum also houses the original city gate of the ancient city of Babylon. It towered so high that one can only marvel at how such an intricate structure was built so long ago and still stands today. After walking around the museum for an hour or so, I decided to head back to the hotel because I wanted to run more than I wanted to see the Jewish museum. 

On my way back, I grabbed a döner for lunch because I kept hearing about how AMAZING they were and I wanted to see for myself. The rumors are true – it is literally mouth-watering. It consists of grilled pita bread, lamb, garlic spread, onions, lettuce and tomatoes. Sounds rather simple and maybe even mundane, but my tummy and taste buds were pleasantly surprised. I then had energy for a run and was happy because it was (finally) a beautiful day outside. After 8 miles, I was again exhausted. Bianca and I had dinner at a nearby restaurant, then I watched Friends (obviously) and fell asleep. 

Tuesday. Tuesday was a “My Berlin” day where we split up into four groups with different topics and went to explore the city. My group’s topic was the Cold War, which I was interested in mainly because of our tour through the Checkpoint Charlie museum. We had a fascinating tour guide who had spent ten years in a Soviet prison. He showed us all the different ways that people used to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. Some used hot air balloons, others dug tunnels, and still others curled themselves up into the loudspeakers or suitcases and were smuggled across the border. It was amazing to see how people were so desperate that they would risk their lives to get out of the communist regime of the East. Later that day, we visited the Berlin Wall Memorial, the Wall Park, and the East Side Gallery, which is a section of the Berlin Wall that artists from around the world have painted their messages. I wrapped up the day by going to the city center for (another) amazing döner and was knocked out by 10 p.m. 

After walking and running for days on end, I feel like my feet are literally bruised and I’m thankful for this long train ride to Prague. I’m glad that I got to see Berlin as there is a lot of history in the city, but I’m excited to move on. Berlin is interesting, but also COVERED in graffiti, kind of grungy, and not as comforting as Bonn is. I’ve heard Prague is beautiful, so it will be a nice change of pace. After two days in Prague, most of our group is moving on to Budapest, which I think will make for a crazy weekend. 

Hopefully I’ll update more regularly, so look out for the adventure stories to come – there’ll be lots, I’m sure.  

Sbohem! (bye in Czech)