Berlin

The JetPack

We arrived in Berlin on the 28th tired, cranky, but at the same time excited for what this city was going to offer. When we got off the flight, we got on the metro, which dropped us off at the central station. And the first thing we spot heading to the next train was a Dunkin Donuts...oh how I have missed Dunkin!! After waiting for some people to get food, we headed to the next train. Well of course something would have to go wrong and it did...we quickly realized we were going in the wrong direction. So we got off at some random stop and waited for the right train to bring us to our stop. Once we were off our hostel was a five minute walk. And lets just say the Intersail (where we stayed in Amsterdam) made JetPack seem like the penthouse sweet in the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

After dropping off our bags, Alexander, the check in guy, who was wearing skinny purple jeans, red alligator skin boots, a plaid shirt, with his hair spiked, sat us down and give us a map with different suggestions of what we should do while we are in Berlin. We all decided on the walking tour, the Berlin wall and a few interesting museums. On Monday, we took the metro to the section of Berlin where the longest section of the Berlin Wall is still standing. It was pretty cool to see a mile long wall, with all different types of graffiti on it. The graffiti isn't like the stuff you see on bridges in the states, this graffiti was done to represent different types of history, government, had cool desgins and other things. Because it was so cold that day and we were all tired we only saw part of the wall and then headed back to the hostel so that we could nap, take showers and just relax.

Beginning of the wall

Me, Panda, Haley and Lex

That night we were in bed pretty early because well a) being that we haven't slept in 36 hours and b) that we were going to have a busy day on Tuesday walking around Berlin. We decided probably one of the best ways to get to know the city is to part take in a Walking Tour. So we took the metro over to West Germany, got off a few stops early so we could walk a little. Berlin is well known for the oldest Panda Bear that lives there, well actually it died a few weeks ago, but all over the city you see these big pandas, all decorated differently. So of course, being tourists, we stop to take some pictures and then headed to where the Walking Tour began.

The Walking Tour was about four hours long, which seems like a ridiculous amount of time, but actually it was really fun and our tour guide Taylor was really interesting and fun to talk to. The first place we stopped was the Brandenburger Plaza, which has the Victoria Peace Monument. Two interesting facts about the monument is the block is called Pairs block and its away of saying to the French that Victoria is watching over you. Also, her head is facing the French Embassy as another symbol that Germany is looking at France. From there he told us some history of Germany to help everyone be on the same page.

Victoria Peace Monument

Then we headed to the Holocaust memorial. It is all these grey blocks, all the same size just different heights. The architect has never explained what is is all supposed to mean because he wants the viewers to think what they want. My thoughts would be in the beginning the blocks aren't that big, meaning dictatorship and communism wasn't a problem. However, as you walk through, the blocks begin to TOWER over you, as to say you are the victim and dictatorship over rules you. Finally as you walk out the blocks begin to get smaller than you and it is a way of saying freedom has come. Everyone in the group split up during this part and took their own paths to the end. It was really cool to see and it is in such a central part of Berlin, which reminds all those everyday of what dictatorship can do.

The monument from the outside

The monument from the inside

Checkpoint Charlie

Next, we headed to the place where Hitler shot himself, which is now a parking lot. The bunker is still there, but submerged in water and there is no way to get down there. Interesting thing, Hitler wanted his body burned to ashes, but because it takes too long, after about four hours the guards just buried them in the ground before the Allies came. Next we walked towards the old air force headquarters in Berlin. This building shows the Nazi architecture: big, loud, cold and made out of stone. The painting on the wall shows the ideal side of communism, but the picture, which is the same length as the painting on the wall, shows the realism of communism. From there Taylor explained a little about the Berlin wall and how parts of it are gated off to keep people from taking pieces of the wall. Kind of ironic that the Berlin wall has gates around it. From there we went to Checkpoint Charlie and we were able to stand in West Germany and East Germany at the same time. Checkpoint Charlie was pretty cool, except that it is all fake. After the war the Germans destroyed the Checkpoint and a few years later rebuilt it when they realized tourists wanted to see it.

Left foot is in East Germany and Right foot is in West Germany

The last leg of the tour we saw the monument of the Burning of the Books, which can hold 20,000 books: the amount of books that were actually burned. The Opera house that was built twice during World War II. Hitler loved the opera and after it was bombed once he had them rebuild it while the war was progressing...kind of ridiculous if you ask me! And after it was built, it was bombed again and he had them rebuild it for the second time. From there we saw the monument of the mother holding her dead son. Which, I don't remember the significance of because I was more focused on the army standing outside than I was on listening to Taylor explain the monument (oops!). Finally, after four hours of walking and listening to a bunch of history I never knew about we headed to Museum Island (an island full of museums) where he showed us the TV tower. Funny fact about the TV Tower, the person that was ruling during that time had all the crosses from the churches taken down and after the TV Tower was built, they discovered on a sunny day a cross shines on it (cracks me up!). 

The Burning of the Books Monument

Mother holding her dead son

The Opera House...which is being renovated

One of the museums and the TV Tower

The tour ended with Taylor explaining to us the story about how the Berlin Wall came down. It all had to do with the Secretary of East Germany who didn't go to the meeting dealing about being able to travel between East Germany and West Germany. So before the press conference this assistant handed him the meeting times, which of course he didn't read. When the press conference started he had no idea what the new rules and regulations were for traveling between East and West Germany. To cut to the chase, after a long and boring press conference one reporter asked a simple question and the Secretary pretty much said that you didn't need all this paperwork that you used to need  and it went into affect on November 9th, the day prior to the press conference. The reason why he said November 9th is because it was the date on the meeting times, which was the date the meeting was held on, not the date these regulations go into affect. So pretty much, because of this dumb Secretary the Berlin Wall came down.

After the walking tour, we headed back to the hostel, where we met the other kids staying there. We all decided to go out to a pub called White Trash and have a few drinks. It was really nice to get to meet them. Two are from the states, one is studying in London and the other is studying in Russia (yikes). The other kid is from London and he is on work leave for the next six months. The next morning we all got up early and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Munich. The best part, the flight was practically empty so Lex and I were able to sit in the emergency row again (woohoo!!). I am pretty sure there was more leg room in the emergency exit on this flight than on my flight from Newark to Edinburgh.

Me, Lex, Panda, and Katie