We finally got on the train from Herzogenrath to Dusseldorf, grabbed a bite to eat at the station, and then caught our last train from there to Berlin. We met a nice German man, whose name we didn't catch but we lovingly refer to as "Hans our helper." When he found out we were American students studying in Europe, he got really excited and told us how much we'd love Berlin! He also translated the conductors announcements, which was especially helpful in explaining why at one point the train was inching along. As the conductor game on the PA, Hans started chuckling to himself and I asked him what was said. "Every day," he said, "it never fails." Apparently someone had thrown themselves in front of a train ahead of us, and we needed to slow down for things to get cleared up... yikes! That delayed us just a little more, and with those minor setbacks we finally made it to Berlin around 11:30 p.m.
The directions to our hostel seemed simple enough, but the bus driver let us off at the wrong stop. We were already feeling uneasy about being in a foreign country, late at night, just three girls, so when we realized how lost we were we all freaked out a little bit. Everything was closed, only a few people were walking around, and even if we wanted to go back to the train station until morning, the buses stopped running at midnight. After 45 minutes of walking for blocks, we finally found the Meininger Hostel, one of the hostels recommended by former Baylor students. We had booked a 3 person private room (instead of the typical dorm style) and were very pleased to find that the beds were incredibly comfortable. A down comforter was provided, we had a sink, closet, and full length mirror in our room, and the water closets (toilets) and showers were just down the hall. After an eventful evening, we had no trouble falling asleep.
The next morning, we woke up and ventured out to see the city! We had decided that we'd just buy a day pass for the bus and hop on and off at our leisure, but after about an hour we realized just how difficult that would be. We popped into a Starbucks and as I ordered my delicious White Cafe Mocha, Kaitlyn picked up a map of the city that advertised a FREE walking tour. That's right, I said free. The company is called Sandeman's New Europe and their philosophy is that everyone should have the same traveling experience, regardless of budget. The tour guides work on a tips-only basis, and our guide was amazing; her name was Lucy and she was from Australia. "I'm addicted to Berlin, and I'm hoping after this tour you will see why," she said. Her passion for the city was contagious, and she had so many stories to tell about the sights that we saw. Taking the tour was the best decision we made this weekend! We saw everything we wanted to see and more, plus we learned so much about the city and its history.
First we saw Brandenburg Gate in Pariser Platz, which is the gate Napoleon and Hitler walked through when they each took control of Berlin. Atop the gate sits a statue named Victoria, which was stolen by the French, put in the Louvre, and then stolen back by the Germans. In the square was also the U.S. and French Embassies as well as the Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from his balcony! On the other side of the Gate, Lucy pointed out bricks laid in the street to show where the Berlin Wall once stood. From that point on, we spent the remainder of the day in East Berlin, the part of Berlin that was once blocked off from the rest of the western world. To think that it has only been 20 years from the fall of the Berlin Wall just blows my mind. So much restoration has taken place, and you can really sense the unity of the people living there.
Next we went to a Holocaust Memorial which was really neat. The memorial itself is huge, causing you to really stop and observe. More than 6,400 stone slabs make up the monument, each of them standing at different heights. The designer wanted to leave it open for interpretation, but some speculate that it is a bar graph for anti-semitism. Walking among the maze of tall structures, I tried to imagine what life was like for victims of the Holocaust. Seeing this memorial was definitely moving.
Pressing onward, we stopped in a random "car park," or parking lot. Our guide told us that we were standing above where Hitler's military bunker once was. It was here that he and his mistress Eva Braun committed suicide, and afterwards the bunker was destroyed. It was neat to see on our tour, especially because there is not a plaque describing its location and not many people know about it. Germans did not want to draw attention to the location of such inhumane, evil plotting, so instead a parking lot was created. From there we came across a rundown part of town where much of the fighting took place during World War II and Hitler's regime. We saw one of the last buildings in Berlin with actual bullet holes and shrapnel pieces. Nearby we saw part of the Berlin Wall left standing, near the area called the "Death Strip." It was eerie being so close to it, reflecting on the reality of people's lives during that time. The wall literally went up overnight. Families were separated, and the saddest story we heard was of a mother living in East Berlin whose son was in the hospital in West Berlin. The night she left him to go home and sleep was the night the wall was built, and she went two and half years without seeing him.
The wall was pretty worn away from people taking pieces of it for mementos. The souvenir shops sell pieces of it, but Lucy warned that not all are genuine. Someone researched, took sale records from every shop in Berlin, calculated their average weight, and came to the conclusion that if all the pieces were real, then there would be 2.5 Berlin Walls!! Good thing I didn't make that investment. Instead, I captured it in photos.
We saw Checkpoint Charlie, which was the single crossing point at the wall for foreigners and U.S. troops. Around the area were countless posters of successful escape stories, spy information, and other pieces of the Berlin Wall. It was really neat to walk around the city and come across one of the pieces. Street art and graffiti is a big thing in Berlin, and many of the sections have been painted.
After a quick lunch break at Cafe Aroma, the clouds finally cleared and we had beautiful, blue skies for the remainder of our tour! Lucy took us by a famous chocolate shop called Fassbender & Rausch and then to Gendarmenmarkt Square which is the "most beautiful square in Berlin." I definitely agree!
Next we went to Bebelplatz, the square that sits on the Humboldt University Campus (where Albert Einstein studied!!). This square was the site of Hitler's book burning, where 20,000 different books were burned because they contained ideas or beliefs against the Nazi Party. In the ground, a plexiglass pane looks down on a memorial to the book burning - a stark white, enclosed room with white empty bookshelves on each wall. There is no way to get into the room, serving as a reminder that you can't go back and change history. What's done is done, and if we don't learn from the mistakes of the past, history will certainly repeat itself.
Beside the university is another memorial, this one to victims of "war and tyranny." Inside there was a statue of a mother holding her dying son, and underneath is buried the unidentified remains of a Holocaust victim, a Nazi soldier, and dirt from various concentration camps. I tell you, all these memorials were so significant and so impressive. Berlin's history is fascinating!
The last stop on our tour was to Museum Island where we sat on the steps of Berlin Cathedral and listened as Lucy told us the story of how Gunter Shabowski brought an end to the Cold War with a minor slip of the tongue. Her storytelling was so animated and really brought to life everything we had seen that day. Oh my goodness, we walked back to the bus after the tour, just so excited about the way our day had turned out!
The night ended with dinner at a cute German pub called the Berliner Biersalon where I had the BEST bratwurst of my entire life. We returned to our hostel after dinner, took time to journal about everything we had seen, and got to sleep early for another day of travel.
Cologne will just have to wait until tomorrow!
Still Loving It,
Amanda
Ready to see Wicked!
