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Published: April 21st 2009
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Hey everyone. I have a bit of time now to write about Berlin. My English literary theory class travelled there. We stayed from Tuesday until Sunday doing a variety of activities having to do with our class and touristy Berlin things. I flew to Berlin with some girls from my class on Tuesday. That evening we just relaxed, because there were no activities planned. The next morning we got a tour of the city from an ex- German ambassador to Luxembourg and Ireland. We saw a facade of an 18th century train station that was ruined in the war and two other surviving buildings, one being the state parliament building. We passed the remains of the Berlin wall. It was full of graffiti and sections of it had pictures of how Berlin used to look and how it looks now since the walls been down. It was neat to compare the differences because the city used to be so bare and now its very modern and still being built up. We passed the Brandenburg gates (where the Nazis marched through). We also saw the Sony center, which is a new entertainment area, the Federal parliament building with its glass dome, and
the Holocaust monument. The monument was hundreds of gray stone blocks that are supposed to resemble graves all lines up in neat rows in the center of the city. The heights vary from knee level to towering over my head, and you can walk through the rows like a corn maze. From this tour we got a rough idea of the city. After lunch we went to the Jewish museum. It wasn't just about WWII, but also about the history of Judaism. It was an awesome museum...very interactive and hands-on. It reminded me of a Jewish Cosi. It was so big, though, that I didn't see a lot of it. For dinner me and a bunch of friends went into a mall area underground by the subway station. I tried currywurst, because apparently you have to try it if you go to Berlin. Its pieces of sausage with red sauce and curry powder...different but not bad. That night we returned to the federal parliament building to go up in the dome. It was dark by the time we got up there, but we go to see the city. We walked around the dome in an upward spiral so we could
A cool building
this is a good example of the architecture there...very modern and lots of glass see the city from all angles.
The next morning we got a specialized film tour of the city that was designed just for our class. It included some of the movies we've seen for class and others that we haven't seen. It was really cool because of how unique the tour was. We walked around seeing the sites from the movies including the Bourne Supremacy. We also walked by the hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby out the window a while back. We went by apartments where the third reich lived before they were the leading governmental body. We also saw a building that was bombed and still has remained untouched since then. That afternoon we had a lot of free time, so I went with a group of other girls to Sachsenhausen concentration camp 45 minutes outside of the city. This was a really neat experience and something I had wanted to do while I'm over here. We saw some old barracks, a camp prison, replica of the barbed wire on the perimeter, old watch towers, mass graves, execution trenches, a crematorium and a few other things. It was weird knowing that people's houses are right next
More of the wall
with lots of graffiti to the camp...I can't imagine waking up every morning and having a concentration camp be my back yard. The camp was bare and dusty, but many buildings had been replicated. jI got an auido tour that explained different sites and told personal accounts. Probably the saddest thing I saw was where the prisoners were executed. This part was still intact a little, and a sign pointed out the pathway someone would take through different rooms if they were to be executed. Seeing the concentration camp made the Holocaust seen that much more close to the present day. The experience is hard to describe...I feel like I can't say "oh yea, the concentration camp was good", but I'm glad I went. I learned a lot and I have a lot more appreciation for the life I live.
That night we had a class dinner at a tradtional German restaurant. It was buffet style and had great food (including smoked salmon which I LOVE). That night in the hostel we all just hung out. I got to know the girls in my room better, and we all got along really well.
We went to the German film museum the next day,
which we got a tour guide for. This was just okay, a little boring, but mabye because I'm not familiar with German actors and actresses. During our lunch break I had an "Asian Snack Box", which is just Chinese food in a carry-out box. All over Berlin they had these places called Asian Snack...apparently they realy love Chinese food, but its like the fast food type. After lunch we all went to the Pergamon museum. This was unrelated to our class, but I guess its something that you have to go to if you're in Berlin. I didn't find it all that interesting, but probably because I was museumed-out by this point. The part I saw was ancient Greek and Roman sculptures and statues. That night me and two friends ate at a cute Italian place that we stumbled upon. It wasn't touristy at all, which was nice. We kind of had to rush through dinner, though, because our class had to go to a movie. It was called "What Just Happened?" (an American film), but I didn't think it was good, and neither did anyone else. It was about producing movies, so that's why our professor chose it.
The next day we took a subway to Potsdam, which is about 45 minutes southwest of the city. There we saw the Sans Souci ("without care") palace. This was Frederick the Great's summer retreat, and resembles Verailles. It was ornately decorated with gold designs, paintings, silk covered furniture, and many other beautiful details. I really liked touring this place, espeically since I didn't get to go to Versailles. After the palace we went to the Dutch quater of Potsdam. There was a tulip festival going on, so it was really crowded. There was a market, too, so that was fun to walk through. We returned to the hostel and relazed there for a while. After dinner we got ready to go to a club in Berlin called the Matrix. There were different rooms in the club and each played different music. It was so much fun to just dance and not have to worry about anything for once. I thought it was going to be touristy, but I didn't really see any other Americans. They played mostly American music, though, so we were all singing along.
We checked out of our hostel the next morning and went to the
me on the monument
it was gorgeous while we were there. This day it was in the 70s! train station to come back home. Our first train was ran a little late, so we missed our connection in Koblenz, Germany. Luckily, there was another train less than a hour after, so we got home still at a reasonable hour. I was so exhausted from Berlin because almost every night our room had stayed up pretty late. I loved Berlin a lot...definitely more than I expected. This is partially because of the people I was with, but also I liked how the city was American and modern. It doesn't have the historical buildings everywhere, but instead these funky shaped buildings with lots of glass. It was a good change of pace to see such a modern city.
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