We got on the bus at 3am and caught our flight at 650am. Me and 35 pounds of my life in a rolley bag (that's as heavy as our luggage could be). We always have the same bus driver, he drives the bus like it's a Ferrari or something so we call him Captain Hugh because he always gets you to your destination about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. When he saw us again he said, "Wow you guys have too much time on your hands to be traveling so much." Of course, we spent the entire bus ride fearing for our lives. Our flight landed just past 9am at Shonefeld Airport in Berlin. Now I was fairly lucky in my packing, seeing as I have to self-adjust my body temperature a lot, even though the weather was supposed to be cold, I brought quite a few tank tops along with several kinds of sweaters to wear over them. Unfortunately, Jan and Stacy brought long sleeves, scarves at coats. Just our luck, it was about 70 degrees everywhere we traveled except one day in Rome. The heatwave hit us right out of the airport. Thank goodness for Jan, he ended up doing most of the navigating. We found the train pretty easily, and took it to our hostel. On the train (which luckily we bought tickets for) a lady who was wearing a NASCAR jacket and some other interesting clothes comes up to me and starts, what to me seemed like, yelling in German and holding out some card. I just looked up at her with big scared eyes because I thought she was going to attack me or something. Stacy was like I think she wants to see your ticket. As soon as the lady heard Stacy speaking English she said "ticket please" in a very pleasant voice. We laugh about it now but it was traumatizing for our first hour in a new country.
Our hostel was really nice. As we look back over the trip, we didn't think the first one was that nice at the time, but after staying in some other interesting places, we decided it was actually really nice. We had an eight person room with just the three of us in it. It had big windows and really comfortable beds, which we immediately took a nap in upon arrival. The staff was friendly and spoke English, hot showers, TV for Jan and I to catch up on our world news, and everything was just really updated.
We got up and walked around downtown Berlin. We went to what's left of the Berlin Wall. Of all the old buildings/statues/other things we saw on the trip, this moved me the most, it actually stands for something, and something scarily recent. Perhaps because it is the event that I had the most background in. I don't know, but I do know that the wall made me feel triumphant. Not because I had anything to do with it coming down, but it gave my cynical self a tiny bit of faith in humanity. I was proud of the people that said no, this is not right. I even bought a piece of the Wall at the official Wall information booth, it was my one and only souvenir from the trip. I literally posess a piece of history. I smiled about it all day until we looked at the junky souvenir shops to find they all sold pieces of the wall. Somehow it made it less unique because everyone else can have a piece too.
Then we passed the Holocaust Memorial (http://www.holocaust-mahnmal.de/en) which I didn't know about. Everyone says to go see the Wall, but everyone should see this as well. It's a series of raised rectangles. It's hard to describe, but really powerful to see. There were 2,711 of these rectangles to comemorate the 6 million victims. Even if there was only one victim for each grave-sized block, the visual representation shows you that that would be a lot. Then imagine how many victims there really were, their graves would have probably covered the whole country of Germany.
The second day we set off to the Berlin Zoo. On the way, the only road we could take was blocked off because at least 30,000 people were running a race. We waited for five mintues, and looked back down the road to find that it was still solid people. So Stacy came up with a good idea, if we can't beat them, join them.. well not quite. Since we couldn't just walk across because people would run straight into us, we decided to go down the street a block and start running with the people and make our way to the other side of the road. So that is just what we did. Our out of shape behinds, me with my huge purse, made it to the other side of the road huffing and puffing. To this day, we tell people that we ran the Berlin Marathon. It's little adventures like these that will bond Stacy, Jan and I together forever. Of course, my goal at the zoo was to see my favorite animal, an elephant! This is where we got our first taste of how the Europeans line up... there is no line, everyone just rushes the ticket counter. If you aren't pushy and demanding to the ticket seller, you'll never get into the zoo. Good thing we had Jan.
This is also where we got a taste of how laid-back parenting is in Europe. First of all, it is clear they aren't sue happy here, because I've seen plenty of things that the U.S. would have codes and regulations about. For instance, there was a patch of picnicing grass leading to a steep hill leading down to a pond. Instead of a large, metal fence, or trees that you would likely see in the U.S., there was simply a 6 inch high, tiny rope. And what would you know, there was an 18 month old baby climbing over the rope while her parents had their backs turned. I don't know what ended up happening to her. We also saw a four year old boy who had climbed onto the other side of the fence around the hippo cage. He was hanging about 15 feet above ground inside the cage. I was standing there shocked, and look and see his parents about 100 feet away, glancing at him occasionally. There were many more instances of kids running amuck in a dangerous fashion and parents being very nonchalont about it.
Next we went to the Olympiastadion- Olympic Stadium, where "Hitler's Olympics" in 1936 were held. The stadium was nothing too special, it was just that Hitler is such a touchy subject, it was odd that the world would support having the olympics in Germany. You notice little things like the entrance to the sports center origionally had everyone involved in the project's names, including Hitler and some of his associates. A tiny sign stated this and said they were removed sometime later. I still haven't decided if you should change history like that. It seems like that's how these kind of things are forgotten, if you erased everything about Hitler and what Germany did, then you are just giving those that say the Holocaust never existed more amunition because the proof is erased. I think that they should have left Hitler's name up to let that be a lesson to all, his people thought he was so great at the time, building a huge stadium, making Germany a strong country. One day a hero, next day evil, so we should alway be suspicious of our leaders, even if they are doing great things right now.
On our third day in Berlin, we walked by the Parliament building. At this point, traveling fatigue had bebun to set in a bit. We didn't want to move from the sunny steps. Then we went to the German History Museum. While Stacy, a history major, was interested in the stuff from WWII, I was more interested in the acient history. Thanks Mr. Arnold for teaching me Western Civilization. Vocabulary such as patricians, lords and vassels of the Feudal system, came in handy. There were some interesting things that made me ask a lot of questions. There was a 14th century bone saddle, they used saddles back then? 1338 gold coin with the emperor Ludwig IV on it, they had money back then? I thought they just traded goods. Diet of Worms banned Martin Luther's three publications, however, there were already a half million (HAND WRITTEN) copies in circulation. Hand written? Get out. 1579 Ortelius began making maps, how is that possible without topography? I also learned of old medical practices. In 1600/1700, during the plague, doctors wore masks shaped like beaks covered in herbs or with a vinegar soaked sponge to filter the air.
I wondered how the museum got all this really old, random stuff. I was also asking myself, how are there enough artifacts to go around? There seem to be a lot of museums, with all their artifacts combined, it almost seems like you could put civilizations back together. After the museum, we went and sat on the lawn of the Berliner Dom Cathedral http://www.aviewoncities.com/berlin/dom.htm. This seemed to be the central park. Here is where you learn the most about a culture, people watching. Then we happened upon the U.S. Embassy. We only noticed it because there was a U.S. flag and a bunch of protesters from Sri Lanka who were angry at Barak Obama for not giving them aid and stopping the genocide in their country.
I, yes I the pickiest eater of all time, had Greek food. Jan's suggestion and it was amazing. I had lamb chops and Greek baked potatoes. We learned another thing, you have to order a drink. At one restaurant we asked for tap water and the lady said that it only comes when you order something else to drink. But yet it's rude if you don't have anything in your glass at all, and if you ask for bottled water, it's usually the fizzing, sparkling kind. We made all of these mistakes. What is worse than having to pay for bottled water? Realizing that it's fizzy when you get it so you don't end up drinking it at all, and still paying for it. At this particular Greek place, we asked for tap water and the guy brought bottled water anyway, other restaurants said they "don't have tap water." After paying 2.50 Euros every time we ate, we finally decided that if we were going to be charged one way or another, we'd just order soda (which doesn't come with free refills). So I ended up drinking a lot of soda over the course of the trip.
Stacy went to be really early every night, and Jan and I got quite fond of staying up and watching CNN World news. Due to this and all the other experiences in Berlin, I started feeling quite in touch with the world. After coming back home and reflecting over the trip, Berlin was by far my favorite city. I would definitely go there again.
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