Berlin, Germany

I know I made such a fuss about wanted to avoid Germany, but I am so glad I came to Berlin. As an international relations major I think Berlin is a great place to go simply for the history. So far I must admit Germany is my favorite place and I am a bit sad that I only allocated one day to it! Tommorow I have scheduled plans to meet a friend in Prague so I cannot stay here longer, but I would definitely like to come back in the future! Being in the city even made me want to learn German. Unlike in the Scandinavian states not everyone speaks English...in fact most don't, which is to be expected since it is...well...Germany.

I met Swedish friends on the train from Malmo, we had arranged to stay in the same hostel so that was convenient. I think they think I am crazy though and I suspect that they wanted to get rid of me at first, kekeke. But then I think they got used to me, hahahaha. We went to go take the free tour offered by college students in Berlin; they get paid on a tips only basis. I ended up getting separated from Swedish friends since the tour group was so big, but I met a very nice girl from Alaska who is also moving to New York. Our guide was British and did such a good job explaining the history of the city and telling us stories. There is one story about a couple that got split up when the Berlin Wall came up, and the guy was in West Germany and found a new girlfriend there who looked like his old girlfriend and took her on a "vacation" to East Germany but ended up kicking her out of the car, stealing her passport and picking up his old girlfriend and taking her to the West!!! O_O I guess that he must really love her...but is sucks to be the other girl :(

Anyhow on the free tour we saw Brandenburg Gate, when was the old entrance to Germany. There is a statue on it that used to be the goddess of peace, but then Napoleon came and took over Berlin and took the statue to france with him. When the Germans finally recovered it they put it back in its place and gave it a staff with a cross on it, meaning that it was no longer goddess of peace, but goddess of war and victory. They then renamed the plaza "Plaza Paris", and the statue of the playa essentially means Vicotry over Paris...and even today the goddess's staff points towards the French Embassy, hahahaha. I love it, it is very cute I think!

Then we saw the Reichstag, the German Parliament, which has a clear dome at the top to symboliye that democracy is transparent. Near this is the memorial to the murdered Jews, a monument that looks like many gravestones. As much as I really liked Berlin this is also the first city that many times I felt really sad while walking through. We saw the remnants of the Berlin Wall, it is indeed less formidable than I had imagined it. Other interested points included Checkpoint Charlie, where they used to check documentation for transit into the American sector of Berlin. Because Berlin had a French, British, American and USSR sector there were multiple downtown areas, so after unification there is no single downtown.

We went to this parking lot that actually used to be the bunker where Hitler comitted suicide. They do not commemorate it much for obvious reasons, also because they do not want it tobecome a shrine for neo nazis.

My favorite plaza is the gorgeous area dedicated to enlightenment and intellectual thought, it has both a German and a French Church, built by the Hugenots who were seeking refuge there. We also saw the square by the University (name I forgot) that burned all the books in support of the Nazi party. There is also a TV tower that has a reflection that looks like a cross when the sun shines on it; this is funny because the USSR took away all of the crosses from buildings because Religion is the Opiate of the People, according to Marx, and not in accord with Communism. People say it is the Pope's revenge, but the USSR claims the reflection was intentional and not a cross, but a plus sign for communism.

We also saw the old air force base that the USSR used as their base. It was undestroyed because the USSR was in charge of the attack on Berlin and they planned to use it as their headquarters when occupying Berlin (this is according to our Guide). Outside there is a mural of people rallying in support of communism, but now there is also a picture of the reality, people rallying against communism (and then getting killed...)

There is also a very sad memorial of a mom and her dead son, which is a memorial against tyranny and something that I cannot remember at the moment...I am quite tired now, it might come to me in the morning. It is an interesting memorial because it is in a dome building but there is an opening above it, so that when it is sunny it looks like there is a spotlight, but when it rains, like it did today, the statue looks like it is crying. Today it kept raining on and off, and then suddenly the sun would shine so brightly. Strange weather!

I bought my first touristy thing! Here ins Berlin the cross walks have a cute light to show when you can or cannot cross. The light is shaped like a person, and the shape is from the communists' teaching of children how to cross the road. It is hard to explain, but it is very cute! So I bought an umbrella with the sign on it :D So right now I have two umbrellas...but this new one is very nice!

I had bockwurst for breakfast, bratwurst for lunch, and this rolled up pasta for dinner. We asked people where there is good, cheap German food but everyone said there is none in Berlin! They said to go to Munich for that...

I must stress again how amazing it was to see these sites in Berlin. After studying international relations and international history it is so cool to actually see the location that many of the events we read about took place.

Anyhow after the free tour me and my new American friend went to Pottsdam, where the great powers met to discuss to Cold War. That is not why we went though; we went because it is where the German Kaisers lived. It is a 20 minute train ride from Berlin, but the palace and the gardens are so pretty! It is so hard to capture that in photos, because the beauty is all around you. I love sculptures and there were so many in Sansoucci Garden. There is also a pretty and ornate building called the Chinese House that has an Asian look to it.

When we went back to Berlin we considered doing the Pub Crawl, but it was really cold and not quite worth it for me since I have gotten very little sleep lately. Plus I have already decided that I will come back to Berlin, so I do not have to do it now :D I would really like to see more of Germany another time. Right now I am back at my hostel drinking a German Beer called...Berliner Pilsner that is made in Berlin. It is very bitter...and I do not like it that much...but then again I am not a big beer person. Tommorow morning I will take the train to Prague!