(Sunday, September 28th)
Back on the great bus we traveled to Germany. We were definitely out of the land of beautiful mountains and rivers, and into the land that I would classify as a replica of the US Mid-west. With the cornfields, the distinct smell of manure in the air, it almost felt like home.
When we finally got to Berlin we had a free night to ourselves. Conveniently our hostel was next to the East Side Wall Gallery, a long strip of the Berlin wall that had been painted by many artists. Right away we wanted to walk it. We rounded up and headed off. It was just Kelly, Zahnee, Siobhan and myself walking down this infinite masterpiece. There were messages in all different languages with all different styles of art. It was an amazing to see. Below are some pictures of what I saw on my walk that night…
Now for a little history of the Berlin Wall…. ‘
After WWII Germany was split between the Communist side in the east and the Capitalist side in the west. However, when dividing the country up the Allies were like “You can’t just have Berlin.” So half of Berlin was capitalist. It was like that half of Berlin was like an island in a sea of communist. The East side was suffering and it lead to hyperinflation. The money wasn’t worth the paper it was being printed on. People had to take baskets of money to the supermarket, and if they got robbed along the way, the robber would take the basket and leave the money. Because things were so bad, everyone was trying to get to West Germany. One way people were leaving the East was by going to the West side of Berlin and then they could leave to go to West Germany. Once the communists started catching on to this, one morning there was a fence put up between the two sides of the city. (Could you image waking up on the wrong side of the fence). The fence, which turned to wall, was up for 28 years and guards were ordered to kill anyone who tried crossing it. Hundreds died trying. Railways were disconnected and people on the East were forced to stay in this devastating economy. Finally the end of the wall was due to a mistake of a radio broadcaster. It had been declared that there was going to be free travel between the two sides. The broadcaster who was going to present this information missed the meeting but was given the meeting’s notes and thought to carry on with the press conference. It was a boring press conference and as people began tuning out he brought this topic up. Then an Italian reporter asked, “When is there going to be travel?” This information was not in the notes, so the broadcaster replied, “Well, I suppose as of now.” After this flocks of people ran towards the gates, the guards didn’t know what was happening and just let them through. That was the end of the wall.
After our walk we sat at a little bar along the river where we had waffles and I had my first beer in Germany. Woo hoo! We had another included group dinner and laid low for the night.
Our full day in Berlin started with a 2 and a half hour walking tour. We weren’t too far into our tour when I realized that I had forgotten my memory card. I couldn’t take any pictures and I was devastated. I thought I could maybe buy one, or better yet maybe someone on the tour had an extra. My spirits were pretty low after the 5th person I asked didn’t have one. I decided to ask the last person I saw with a digital camera and behold Luke was my savior. He had an extra one that he was willing to let me borrow. I was so happy and thankful. Thank you again Luke!
Our tour guide was a great storyteller and really made everything fall into place and make sense. We stopped at many impressive spots around Berlin; from the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his baby over the balcony to the plot of land above Hitler’s bunker. This hotel is located right next to the Brandenburg Gate.
One of the middle stops was the Holocaust Memorial. This memorial is composed of many cement blocks of various heights. The American artist who created this was very secretive about the meaning behind this memorial; he wanted it to be left up into interpretation. When I was walking around I felt the cold of the cement. When you walk deeper the blocks are taller and if you are walking with someone you can loose him or her in an instant. They are in straight rows and columns but somehow you can still feel disoriented walking around there. When it came to talking about it I thought that our tour guide put it best “The point isn’t to know what it means, the point is that you thought about it. It is impossible to know what it was really like.” She was very right, as long as the monument is instigating some sort of thought, then it is doing its job.
Another monument we saw was one of a man’s profile. This is honoring a cabinetmaker that attempted to kill Hitler. He was in Berlin and had his independent disliking of Hitler and tried to pull off his assassination. The cabinetmaker knew that Hitler was going to Munich to give the same speech that he gave every year. He knew that there was a pillar by the stage where the he and the most important people of the Nazi party sat. He made a replica pillar and filled it with bombs to go off during his speech. However, due to the weather, Hitler got off the stage and left 15 minutes before the bomb was to go off. The cabinetmaker was found and tortured because they didn’t believe that he was up to it on his own. He was eventually killed for going against the Nazis. Crazy story to think so much history could have changed if Hitler was on that stage for just 15 more minutes. (I suppose a lot of history is or isn’t due to close calls).
Another stopping point of the walking tour was along side of the Terror Museum. Next to the museum is a part of the wall that sits behind a large building. During the time of the Berlin wall, there was a man who managed to get his wife and kid over the wall. He first got his wife and kid into the building by collecting day passes to the building when he periodically had to work there. They each had one and could walk right in. Then they hid in the bathrooms until everyone left the building that night. The man threw a line to the other side of the wall where they zipped across one by one. Times were so bad on the communist side of the wall that the guards weren’t going to shoot at a man and his family for trying to escape. The next day when the guards were questioned about it, they played dumb.
We wrapped up our tour at Checkpoint Charlie. At this point there is a picture of a Soviet soldier and an American soldier on either side of a pole. They were put up to show you that you were approaching the other side of Berlin. Today they have stand in US Soldiers who pose for pictures at the check point.
After a long morning, we grabbed food at an Italian place, and of course went shopping. There wasn’t much time to go to any museums and at this point of the trip everything was starting to blur. So much history, so little time.
After shopping, Zahnee and I went to Bernauer Strabe. This is my mother’s maiden name and I had to get a picture for her and my grandpa =) Zahnee was my lovely photographer!
Zahnee and her crepe =) haha she had to have this on our way to Bernauer Street
Shortly after getting back to the Hostel it was time to go on a pub-crawl. This was fun because we all had white t-shirts and markers and we signed each other’s shirts. You know when markers and alcohol are combined it is bound to turn dirty. Poor Zahnee had the funniest, but dirtiest shirt out of everyone. That night it was just Zahnee and I who joined the rest of our tour mates on the pub-crawl. Tess wasn’t feeling well and Kelly stayed in. We went to a few different bars before ending at a night club. We had to take a train at one point between bars and people played the “run out at a stop, touch the other train, and run back before the doors shut” game. It looked fun but I did not participate because I know my sprint times. The doors would have shut and I would have been left at some random stop.
At the club they played great music, the bouncers made everyone hand over their markers, and the bathroom clerk offered me the option of skipping the long women’s line and using the men’s restroom. I took him up on his offer. I mean if you think about it, men’s stalls are probably a tad cleaner since they aren’t used at every second of every night like a woman’s stall. I would say it was a successful night.
Zahnee and I made it back in time to have a luxurious 4 hour slumber before our early bus ride.
A Semester Abroad-ening my horizons 