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Published: August 19th 2010
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Since being on this trip we have seen many, many train stations. They range from old and antique, to modern and humongous. I would say the train station in Berlin falls under the "gigantic" category. The station consists of an entire shopping mall! It felt like an entire airport.
We were going to be staying in Angie and Bob's (our neighbors and family friends) apartment. Angie's entire family lives in Berlin, including her sweet 14 year old niece, Amaya.
We hopped off our train and just happened to have perfect timing. Amaya and her dad were waiting at the bottom of the escalator. If the had not been there, we would have had no idea where to begin!
We arrived at the apartment about 15 minutes after they picked us up. It was such a nice apartment! I can't thank Angie and Bob enough for allowing us to stay there! It was perfectly clean, neat, and adorable. It felt like the type of apartment I want for myself once I'm living alone and not with 10 other girls in Isla Vista.
That night, the three of us were considering going out, but ended up being way, way
too tired. Plus we had no idea where we were exactly, it was dark, and we didn't know the bus system well yet at all. Bed felt much nicer than being lost in Berlin.
The only two TV channels that were now in German were CNN and BBC so we spent the night catching up on the news. We did this just about every evening when we had some down time. We were basically addicted to BBC for 3 days or so...Our brains each grew three sizes or so!
Our first full day in Berlin consisted mainly of Holocaust based activities...We went down to Checkpoint Charlie first, and brushed up on our history. There are all these walls set up with photos and facts about the entire history of the Cold War from beginning to end. It was really, really interesting and I'm glad we took our time reading it.
At checkpoint charlie there are bricks laid down where the wall once stood separating the East and the West. It was insane to think about the fact that once, where we were standing was a checkpoint, blocking people in the East from family, friends, food, shelter, and
The Wall of Berlin
Straddling where the wall of Berlin used to be--half of me on the West and half of me on the East a good life. I could straddle what used to be the Berlin Wall...
After the checkpoint we headed down into the "Jewish Quarter", walked past part of the remaining Berlin Wall (It was so much taller and frightening than I pictured in my head), and went into the Jewish Museum which was AMAZING.
The museum was a perfect mix of an art museum and a history museum. The architect who designed it was definitely the "artsy" type and in the building itself included multiple memorials to the Holocaust. My favorite memorial was this huge room with very, very tall ceilings. The ground that you are stepping on are metal faces (look at the picture I posted on this blog!)...You are instructed to walk on the metal faces, and the noise that it makes are suppose to be the screams of the Jews. It was really mindblowing, seeing all the different "faces" on the ground and just stepping on them as the Germans did to the Jews.
The most emotional part of the Jewish museum was definitely all the letters and belongings they had on display of those who lost their lives. Behind glass you could read letters
Photo 5
Famous sign at Checkpoint Charlie written by children to their parents, by parents written to their children, loved ones, colleagues, ect.
There was one suitcase that particularly hit me hard. It was the suitcase of an elderly couple, and on the inside they had written a short note to their loved ones along with their address so that the suitcase could eventually be taken back to their home. It was so touching and emotional to be there, looking at these objects that were at one time the only things these people cared about. Many of the letters and personal items are all they have for documentation that these people ever lived! It is such a scary thing to think about...
On a happier note! Berlin is a beautiful city! It is much different than the other places we have visited so far because the majority of the city has recently been rebuilt after the wall came down in 1989. At a first glance it may just look like a city, but there is so much greenery and even more history. The parks are sprawling with ponds, weeping willow trees, benches and swans.
For our second day in Berlin we met up with
Photo 6
They sold some rather disturbing souvenirs around where the wall once stood... Amaya, Angie and Angie's daughter. They took us to the biggest department store in Europe which was definitely an experience in itself. They have an entire floor devoted to foods and an entire corner of that floor specifically for...drum roll please...Sausages!!! The German people definitely love their meats and sausages. After exploring the thousands of different types of candies, chocolates and cookies, Amaya took us down to the shopping center of Berlin where we wandered down the streets popping into only the stores within our price range (they were rare). We then met up with the adults again for a great lunch, and said our good byes, though the trip didn't seem nearly long enough since we lost an entire day traveling!
We then went bus hopping, and took our favorite Bus #100 that takes you around to all the touristy places. We jumped on and off while our tickets were still valid. We went and explored Humbolt University where Einstein taught before moving to the US, we sat on the lawn outside The Reichstag and had a "who can take the ugliest photo" contest between ourselves, then walked down to the Brandenburg Gate where we watched street performers
Photo 7
Memorial to all those lost in the Holocaust...Walk on the faces and hear their cries while we rested up. Then we took a stroll through the biggest park in the city and enjoyed the beauty of nature within a city. We all decided if we ever live in larges cities we must have a get-away park such as this one to escape to.
Our second night in Berlin we decided to go out to a club. We made friends with a group of five girls on the bus, and little did we know that they were only 16 years old! (People can't legally go to bars/clubs until they are 18) We had some issues getting into the club initially since Lauren and Mariel forgot to bring IDs, but once we got it, it was a blast! It was a loooong night but definitely worth it! We slept like babies...we slept a little too well in fact. We were planning on waking up early enough to catch the 8:30am train (because again it was a 5 hour train ride to Prague), but we all slept through the alarm...we then were SURE that we would wake up in time to catch the 10:30am train and ended up getting to the train station with 5 minutes to
spare.
We were running around the streets trying to hale a taxi in a very nice, residential neighborhood, but just to our luck we found a taxi who sped us to the train station just in the nick of time.
After spilling coffee all over me, not having a seat initially, and being worried we were going to be kicked off the train for not having reserved seats...we eventually were settled for the next 5 hours of beautiful, true German countryside.On the train to Prague we met a group of three guys who go to Briggim Young University who were also traveling to Prague. It's funny the people you meet on trains!!
Until next time!
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