Breathless in Berlin
Wow.
So I just made it back from visiting three countries in ten days that speak two languages in which I know a combined 30 words.
For your viewing pleasure, I decided I shouldn't attempt to fit the whole trip into one post because I did so much in each individual city that the post would be painfully long. Therefore, the next three posts will be detailing each of the cities that I visited during my ten day fall break.
So, let's begin with Berlin, shall we?
Jessica and I planned our fall break the second week we were in Madrid. So, we didn't really know what we were doing when it came to booking transportation and hostels. But seeing as we have become seasoned European travelers after the few trips we took earlier in the semester, we were ready to go.
We arrived in Berlin late Thursday night and took public transit to our hostel. Germany fulfilled its stereotype of efficiency right off the bat. One look at a map told us we'd be able to get anywhere we could conceivably desire by bus, tram, or train with extreme ease.
After a night's sleep that was continuously interrupted by our elderly German roommate getting up and opening the windows, the lockers, or simply wandering, we were ready to explore. We kicked off the trip with the obligatory free city walking tour. Unlike other trips, we decided to take the tour in English because the history of Berlin was something we really wanted to be able to fully absorb.
We met in our hostel lobby and were led to the tour meeting point, picking up other tourists at hostels along the way. While walking, we got to know an Australian girl named Eve from our hostel and a Brazilian guy named Eduardo from another hostel. We stuck together throughout the tour and ended up spending a lot of time together throughout the weekend. That's probably my favorite thing about hostels-- basically everywhere we have been, we have made friends from different countries at all different stages of life; from an old German man who can't stand to stay in one place too long to 25-year-olds gallivanting across Europe in somewhat of a quarter-life-crisis.
The tour was absolutely amazing, and absolutely freezing, with high winds and low temperatures. We began at the Brandenburg Gate, which used to be the royal entrance into the city of Berlin. The avenue on which the gate is located is called Paris Avenue, and on top of the gate is a statue of a woman named Victory. This way, Germany can always claim to have Victory over Paris. Classic German humor (apparently, I have no idea)! Across from the gate was the hotel from which Michael Jackson dangled his infant out of a window. Right away we were digging into the best of Germany's history.
But actually, our guide was extremely knowledgeable and very fun. We were led to The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, a site that was very purposefully named in a way that makes you really cognize what actually happened during WWII, rather than somewhat sanitizing it with the word "holocaust."
The thing with free tours is that you don't get to spend a whole lot of time at any one location. From there, we moved on to a portion of the Berlin Wall, Hitler's Bunker (which is now just a parking lot so neo-nazi's don't use it as a point of worship), Checkpoint Charlie, some beautiful squares that housed the Berlin Opera, some churches, theaters, and Humboldt University where Einstein AND our tour guide studied.
After three hours, the tour was over and we made our way towards the hostel with our Australian mate Eve. On our way we stopped and got Falafel Doner Kebabs and a literal hole-in-the-wall shop. Apparently, the Doner was first made in Berlin. Needless to say, it was pretty darn good.
Inspired by the sites we saw at the tour, and wanting to spend more time at some of the spots, Jessica and I headed back towards the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. During the tour, we saw the entire city-block filled with a piece of artwork to commemorate the tragedy. Different rectangular, grey, cement blocks of varying heights were situated across the earth to create a labyrinth-esque scene. Underneath the labyrinth lies a museum, which is where we visited.
The museum was much different than I expected. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was how absolutely silent it was. Nobody was talking, which is such a rare occurrence. I quickly realized why. The museum depicted the stories of individual Jewish Europeans that were murdered during World War II. I felt obligated to read each and every story and help their memory live on. We spent over two hours in the museum, and when we left it was dark outside and our hearts were heavy. We wandered around the city a bit just processing everything we had read.
That night, after falafel round two, we met up with Eduardo to go to the Kreuzberg neighborhood, which apparently has the best night life (because I'm all about the night life!!). It was actually quite interesting. There are no laws against open-carrying, so everyone was walking around with beers in the streets. I kind of liked the relaxed culture, even though I don't really drink, I felt kind of cool walking down the street with a local beer in hand.
People smoke SO much and all of the bars we walked into basically choked me. My clothes were drenched in the stench of cigarettes five minutes in. Even still, it was cool to experience the Alternative Berlin culture.
The next day, Jessica and I met with Eduardo again to visit Saschenhausen Concetration Camp. Saschenhausen was actually a model after which all other concentration camps were built, and tended to test out new equipment and techniques. We spent nearly five hours there and it was one of the most impactful experiences I have ever had. I think the fact that it was in the 30's and terribly windy helped me appreciate even more how horrid the conditions in the camps were. The atmosphere was tangible, and the museums were so incredibly well done. Each building explained its previous use and contained lots of information and artifacts from WWII. The most unnerving areas were the infirmary, where prisoners were ruthlessly experimented on, and the crematorium, where bodies that they killed faster than they could bury were disposed of.
I honestly think visiting a concentration camp is something everyone should do at some point in their life. The humanity of the experience is overwhelming.
There's not really a good way to transition from something so intense, but eventually, it felt okay to eat, so we went to a pizza place I had read about before our trip called Turtle Pizza. It was described as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed. While it wasn't all-out with decorations, the vibe was really cool and the pizza was fantastic. Jessica and I both ended up ordering the same type: The Kora. This pizza has broccoli, corn, and feta as toppings and was actually so so good.
Sunday was spent revisiting all of the places we breezed by during the Free Tour and perusing the adorable Christmas shops filled with handmade trinkets. Our grand finale in Berlin,before we were to board a plane the next day, was a Vietnamese dinner. There is actually a very large Vietnamese population in Berlin due to WWII immigration policy, and therefore fantastic food. My coconut tofu curry was wonderful and warmed me up on the rainy night.
We ended up spending an extra night in Berlin because train delays made us miss our flight by over two hours. Luckily, we were able to stay at our same hostel and eat at Turtle Pizza again to cope with our disappointment about our shortened time in Budapest...
So I just made it back from visiting three countries in ten days that speak two languages in which I know a combined 30 words.
For your viewing pleasure, I decided I shouldn't attempt to fit the whole trip into one post because I did so much in each individual city that the post would be painfully long. Therefore, the next three posts will be detailing each of the cities that I visited during my ten day fall break.
So, let's begin with Berlin, shall we?
Jessica and I planned our fall break the second week we were in Madrid. So, we didn't really know what we were doing when it came to booking transportation and hostels. But seeing as we have become seasoned European travelers after the few trips we took earlier in the semester, we were ready to go.
We arrived in Berlin late Thursday night and took public transit to our hostel. Germany fulfilled its stereotype of efficiency right off the bat. One look at a map told us we'd be able to get anywhere we could conceivably desire by bus, tram, or train with extreme ease.
After a night's sleep that was continuously interrupted by our elderly German roommate getting up and opening the windows, the lockers, or simply wandering, we were ready to explore. We kicked off the trip with the obligatory free city walking tour. Unlike other trips, we decided to take the tour in English because the history of Berlin was something we really wanted to be able to fully absorb.
We met in our hostel lobby and were led to the tour meeting point, picking up other tourists at hostels along the way. While walking, we got to know an Australian girl named Eve from our hostel and a Brazilian guy named Eduardo from another hostel. We stuck together throughout the tour and ended up spending a lot of time together throughout the weekend. That's probably my favorite thing about hostels-- basically everywhere we have been, we have made friends from different countries at all different stages of life; from an old German man who can't stand to stay in one place too long to 25-year-olds gallivanting across Europe in somewhat of a quarter-life-crisis.
The tour was absolutely amazing, and absolutely freezing, with high winds and low temperatures. We began at the Brandenburg Gate, which used to be the royal entrance into the city of Berlin. The avenue on which the gate is located is called Paris Avenue, and on top of the gate is a statue of a woman named Victory. This way, Germany can always claim to have Victory over Paris. Classic German humor (apparently, I have no idea)! Across from the gate was the hotel from which Michael Jackson dangled his infant out of a window. Right away we were digging into the best of Germany's history.
But actually, our guide was extremely knowledgeable and very fun. We were led to The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, a site that was very purposefully named in a way that makes you really cognize what actually happened during WWII, rather than somewhat sanitizing it with the word "holocaust."
The thing with free tours is that you don't get to spend a whole lot of time at any one location. From there, we moved on to a portion of the Berlin Wall, Hitler's Bunker (which is now just a parking lot so neo-nazi's don't use it as a point of worship), Checkpoint Charlie, some beautiful squares that housed the Berlin Opera, some churches, theaters, and Humboldt University where Einstein AND our tour guide studied.
After three hours, the tour was over and we made our way towards the hostel with our Australian mate Eve. On our way we stopped and got Falafel Doner Kebabs and a literal hole-in-the-wall shop. Apparently, the Doner was first made in Berlin. Needless to say, it was pretty darn good.
Inspired by the sites we saw at the tour, and wanting to spend more time at some of the spots, Jessica and I headed back towards the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. During the tour, we saw the entire city-block filled with a piece of artwork to commemorate the tragedy. Different rectangular, grey, cement blocks of varying heights were situated across the earth to create a labyrinth-esque scene. Underneath the labyrinth lies a museum, which is where we visited.
The museum was much different than I expected. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was how absolutely silent it was. Nobody was talking, which is such a rare occurrence. I quickly realized why. The museum depicted the stories of individual Jewish Europeans that were murdered during World War II. I felt obligated to read each and every story and help their memory live on. We spent over two hours in the museum, and when we left it was dark outside and our hearts were heavy. We wandered around the city a bit just processing everything we had read.
That night, after falafel round two, we met up with Eduardo to go to the Kreuzberg neighborhood, which apparently has the best night life (because I'm all about the night life!!). It was actually quite interesting. There are no laws against open-carrying, so everyone was walking around with beers in the streets. I kind of liked the relaxed culture, even though I don't really drink, I felt kind of cool walking down the street with a local beer in hand.
People smoke SO much and all of the bars we walked into basically choked me. My clothes were drenched in the stench of cigarettes five minutes in. Even still, it was cool to experience the Alternative Berlin culture.
The next day, Jessica and I met with Eduardo again to visit Saschenhausen Concetration Camp. Saschenhausen was actually a model after which all other concentration camps were built, and tended to test out new equipment and techniques. We spent nearly five hours there and it was one of the most impactful experiences I have ever had. I think the fact that it was in the 30's and terribly windy helped me appreciate even more how horrid the conditions in the camps were. The atmosphere was tangible, and the museums were so incredibly well done. Each building explained its previous use and contained lots of information and artifacts from WWII. The most unnerving areas were the infirmary, where prisoners were ruthlessly experimented on, and the crematorium, where bodies that they killed faster than they could bury were disposed of.
I honestly think visiting a concentration camp is something everyone should do at some point in their life. The humanity of the experience is overwhelming.
There's not really a good way to transition from something so intense, but eventually, it felt okay to eat, so we went to a pizza place I had read about before our trip called Turtle Pizza. It was described as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed. While it wasn't all-out with decorations, the vibe was really cool and the pizza was fantastic. Jessica and I both ended up ordering the same type: The Kora. This pizza has broccoli, corn, and feta as toppings and was actually so so good.
Sunday was spent revisiting all of the places we breezed by during the Free Tour and perusing the adorable Christmas shops filled with handmade trinkets. Our grand finale in Berlin,before we were to board a plane the next day, was a Vietnamese dinner. There is actually a very large Vietnamese population in Berlin due to WWII immigration policy, and therefore fantastic food. My coconut tofu curry was wonderful and warmed me up on the rainy night.
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