Did someone say Berlin?

Ah Berlin, how excited and giddy we all were to venture into Germany's capitol! Kelsey, Zach, Annie, Paige, Jenny, and I all hopped onto the hardly ever reliable Czesky Drahy train, found random seats after maybe thirty minutes give or take, and just sat in the tight, hot, sweaty, train awaiting our arrival in Berlin. Now let me tell you something about the Czesky Drahy train system for all those back home. There are other great train companies like Leo Express or RegioJet that many of us truly enjoy, and then there is the Czech default company that I hope to never encounter in my life ever again. The company's problem is that it overbooks, which means that many go hours without seats and it isn't unusual to see people packed in between cars or sitting in stairwells. I think it's truly evil to do the whole overbooking thing especially when it's 70 degrees outside, because it's hotter than Mexico inside and if there's A/C it doesn't work. So imagine all of the people cramming next to each other, trying to get past one another, I'm getting a little anxious just thinking about it. All those back home know I have a personal bubble, and it just pops 75 times or more on that train line. The reason I'm droning on and on about trains is because we just had some real bad luck with trains during our trip to Berlin, this next memory being of course the whole cherry on top of our whole train riding experiences! I remember hearing stories of people getting caught on the metro or a train without the proper tickets, and you can get seriously fined for trying to ride illegally. Sometimes we might only need a train for one or two stops and consider just riding the rail for free but I just can't take that chance! I make it a point to get the proper tickets and just make my peace with it. Just as we arrive in Germany, we all flock over to the German ticket kiosk. Many of us have German last names, but that does not mean we speak it by any means! Because we can't read the info on the ticket kiosk we may have appeared to be struggling a bit. This man sees us having a tough time and decides to add to the mess and 'help' us. I don't think he spoke English, to be honest I don't remember.. but I do remember that we had two options: reduced fare or standard fare tickets. Which one would you pick?! So we all rushed to our train, hopped on and waited for our next stop. Next thing we know, here comes the ticket man on one side of the aisle, and Kelsey grabs everyone but my and Zach's ticket and gives them all to him. We hear something about a children's ticket and are instructed to follow him and get off at the next stop. A girl about our age on the train quickly informed us in English to not follow the man because he's about to charge us all 60 Euros each, but it was our stop so Zach and I quickly exited the train car and tried to blend into the shadows as best as we could slightly away from the rest of the group and watched as they paid the hefty fine! Our first night in Berlin emptied some of our pockets but we still had the whole weekend ahead of us!

The following day we chose to start off the weekend right by joining in on a free city tour. Needless to say I LOVE these things. Sandeman's is a company which sponsors free and paid tours around Europe's most well known cities. The guides are fun, personable, knowledgable, and make their living off of tips and trip advisor reviews- so they have to be stellar. Our guide this time explained Berlin's history smoothly and thoroughly to us... starting off at the Brandenburg gate and ending in the square where the major Nazi book burning was held. Somewhere in between she led us to Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and wow was that ever powerful. She explained to us that Peter Eisenman, the Jewish American architectural mind behind it all, created this labyrinth of solid blocks based off of the method of architectural deconstruction. One can only pass through the memorial alone and not side by side, can easily get lost, and only be able to catch glimpses of other people for no longer than a second before they're gone. I think the latter struck me most of all, because that seemed to be what a many experienced during the Holocaust... brief sightings of loved ones or strangers before they were evicted from their homes, torn from their shops, packed into cattle cars, caught up in lines that decided their deaths or a living hell... it was very, very powerful to walk through and learn about. However, the memorial has no plaque, no names of those who perished, they're not headstones, there is zero external explanation - it's up to the beholder to interpret.
 

[Above is the square where the Nazi book burning was held, where books with 'controversial' authors or content were destroyed- valuable thoughts, ideology, and precious knowledge were thrown into the flames to be lost forever.
Today during the warmer months, the square hosts an ever-present reading center that provides books from all over, in many different languages, written by all sorts of authors that encourages humans of all ages to enjoy a book or two. It was very humbling to see how a location that was directly linked to a negative connotation commemorated its past by turning it in into a positive living history experience for all to enjoy!]

Berlin was so rich with history that we all craved more. Our guide was so good that she sold us into purchasing tickets for another tour the following day called Red Berlin that delved into great detail over describing what happened to the city immediately following WWII. For those of you who don't know, shame on you! After the second world war, the Soviet's claimed a communist East Germany while the Allied powers declared a democratic West Germany. Berlin could be considered as a tiny island of a capitol stuck in the communist side and Berlin itself was divided in a similar way of communism v. democracy. All of us soaked up everything about what our guide had to say about all of those who died trying to escape over the wall from the East to the West, and in the beginning of the separation of the city many jumped from their apartment windows from East Berlin into the democratic West. Yes, we did see the wall considering that this all only ended a short 30 or so years ago, and we were all very surprised that this history was so fresh. I'd just like to put in a plug here- WALLS SUCK.



As you know, I want to go on and on but I digress. After our tours we kind of just wandered around the city and stumbled across things like the Reichstag.... you know, the government building that mysteriously burnt down right as Hitler was coming into power and the communists were blamed? Yeah, that one. The DDR museum depicted what life was like in East Berlin/Germany compared to the west and it was very interactive and interesting because rooms were set up to portray to visitors what it might been like in a communist flat... including what each member of the household would possess and yes I even saw the famous Levi's jeans next to the not so famous communist knockoffs! That may be a silly thing to be excited about but I very vividly remember my middle school social studies teacher telling us that if any of us lived in a communist country, we wouldn't be able to wear jeans unless they were smuggled in somehow and that just floored 12 year old me! Rest assured everyone I took pics.
  


The city and it's inhabitants went through quite a bit during the Nazi era and in addition to, the Soviet communist era following immediately after.

For the remainder of the trip we ventured in and out of Berlin's districts, visited a flea market, and ate a lot of bratwursts. Berlin was quite the buzzing city and I would definitely go back in the near future when given the chance for there is just so much more history to become educated about!



(Reichstag & the Brandenburg Gate)