Adventures in Berlin

This weekend I traveled to the awesome city of Berlin with some friends (Ari, Alex, Claire, and Eli) from my floor. My friend Liz, who is currently studying abroad in Budapest, met us at the airport on Friday. It was so surreal to see Liz in Berlin rather than in Bloomington. For the most part, everything went smoothly…well besides the fact that I thought like I was missing something or lost something, such as my Danish transportation pass, almost every minute. Of course there was the feeling of burning through cash. The way I look at this trip is it's a learning experience for my trips to come. Either way, Berlin was wonderful.

Friday evening we left to catch our flight. We arrived in Berlin around 10:30pm and made our way to the Wombat Hostel. We were given instructions on how to get there so we thought “oh hey these instructions should be helpful.” When we got to the train area, we quickly found out they were not clear. Trying to get to the hostel was definitely an adventure. First, we stood in line to get tickets for the train for about 40 some minutes since the people ahead of us kept having problems. Although I can’t complain because the couple ahead of us bought 3 extra tickets and handed them to Ari, Liz and I for free. (each ticket was about 3 Euro). Nice way to start the trip. As we headed toward the train platforms, we couldn’t find the one we needed so we decided to ask the German security guards. They didn't speak English well so it wasn’t as helpful. So we decided to wing it. Finally at 1:30am we made it to the hostel, only after being in Berlin since 11pm. 

Saturday morning we went on the free New Berlin walking tour of the city. We saw all the major sites, such as the Branenburg Gate, the most expensive hotel in Berlin (the one Michael Jackson dangled his child Blanket over the balcony), The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, The Berlin Wall, The Former SS Headquarters,  Checkpoint  Charlie and Museum Island.  After the tour we went to the Pergamon Museum and the Neues Museum, which consisted mainly of ancient Roman and Egyptian items. The museums were okay, but the most interesting item there was Queen Nerfertiti's Bust, which is 3300 years old, and the Pergamon Altar, built by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. Although one of the best things that happened was us getting into both museums for free because Eli sweet-talked the ticket people into believing we were a school group. After the museums we went to this amazing restaurant, Weinhenstephan, to eat traditional German food. The food I ordered was DELICIOUS!!! It was pork, with the restaurant’s homemade beer sauce, potato dumplings, and cracklin’ fresh. After our dinner we went back to the hostel to rest before going out for the night. 

On Saturday, Liz, Ari and I went on a tour of the concentration camp, Sachsenhausen. On our way to the camp we made the same walk the prisoners had to make to Sachsenhausen. The camp was surrounded by homes. When the prisoners were taken to the camp, the neighborhood was told the prisoners were going to the camp because they needed sport and work to fix them. The camp was used by the Nazi's from 1936 to 1945 and then by the Soviets until 1950, which made it one of the camps used the longest. During its use, about 200,000 people passed through the camp. Originally the camp was used for political prisoners, but other groups (criminals, homosexuals, gypsies and Jews) came later. The Nazi's used Sachsenhausen as their model concentration camp, ran medical experiments, and also used it as center to counterfeit American dollars and the British pound. It is estimated that 35,000 and 69,000 people were murdered there. During our tour we saw bunkers, the lookout tower, several mass graves, and the shooting range. Sunday evening our group went to the last night of the Berlin International Film Festival, which was located in Potsdamer Platz. We saw a screening of the award winning Spanish film Even the Rain. The movie was about a director filming a movie during the 2000 water crisis in Bolivia. The movie was excellent! After the movie we saw 5 short films. 

Monday - Our last day in Berlin. Since Liz had an earlier flight, she left us after our relaxing breakfast. The rest of us made our way to the East Berlin wall. After that we went to the Topography of Terror Nazi history museum. It is located in Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS, the principal instruments of repression during the Nazi era. The museum showed the Holocaust from the perspective of the Nazis. The museum was all photos and documents. After the museum, Ari and I went to the chocolate store, Fassbender & Rausch. The store was amazing!! Inside were chocolate sculptures of Reichstag, Branenburg Gate, and a chocolate volcano. Along with the sculptures there was a 55ft long buffet of chocolates! I couldn’t resist all the chocolate so of course I had to buy some! Ari and I walked around a little before we had to go back to the hostel to begin our trip home. The adventure how was interesting. As my friends and I were walking from the trains to the airport, I had my head turned talking to my friends instead of looking straight. Because of this, I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going. As I was walking, I was abruptly stopped. Apparently I was going to get in a woman's way so instead of walking an inch to the side she stopped put her arm out and shoved me in my shoulder. My friends and I laughed and couldn't believe she just couldn't walk an inch over. Our time at airport security was so funny. Our friend Eli carries around his mascot for his school, which is a geoduck. When he was going through security, the guards confiscated the geoduck. As we were watching the guards they were smelling the geoduck, swinging it around like it could be used as a weapon, and one was putting lotion on his hands so he could inspect it. The guards even put the geoduck through the scanner. Eventually they let Eli have it back once he explained it was his school mascot.

This trip was my second time visiting Berlin (first time in 2007). Going back for the second time was a different experience. The first time we spent a lot of time on a bus seeing the sites. This time around it was nice to see some of the same sites from a different perspective and have more time in the city. I really enjoyed going back to Berlin. 

By the end of the trip I realized how much I love Copenhagen. I was even missing the city..clearly a sign how Copenhagen has made itself my home.

Random Observations:

• Musicians love to sing/play on the train. One time late at night there was a man playing a guitar and another playing the saxophone. Another time a girl and a guy got on the metro and sung a song about drinking vodka.
• Teenagers love to hangout in the metro/train station at night
• Many people bring their dogs on the train or into stores
• Germans love the rocker style