Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Back from Berlin!

I'm back! Berlin was absolutely amazing. I actually enjoyed Berlin more than I enjoyed Paris. Unfortunately, you can't do everything there is to do there in 2 days, and the extremely cold weather didn't help either. That's ok though, that just means I have to go back ;)

Friday was our relaxing day. We got to the hostel and decided to rest for a little while. I fell asleep watching MTV's 'Next' and 'My Own' in German lol...they're just as horrible in Germany as they are back home. That afternoon we saw the Brandenburger Tor, Paris Plaza, The Reichstag, and then we wandered our way over to Potsdam Plaza, where we saw a few pieces of the Berlin Wall. I didn't realize that little pieces were scattered around the city. I thought they just left a few chunks of the wall where they originally were (they did this too though). Right in that area is the Sony Center, which is gorgeous. Berlin is an extremely modern city, for obvious reasons. The Sony Center is this area where they have a film museum, an IMAX, and restaurants, etc. under a dome outside. Everything was so pretty, and the falling snow added even more to the atmosphere. We ate at Lindenbräu where I had Berliner Kartoffeisuppe mit Kaisser (Berlin Potato Soup) and a Brauhauspfanne mit sauerkraut und nknödel (a special brewery plate with sauerkraut, pork, some other meat I couldn't identify, and pretzel dumpling). The food was amazing. I love German food. I really need a recipe for pretzel dumplin now. Next we headed over to see an IMAX 3D movie in German...yup we're cool like that. We actually saw the documentary on sea life that I wanted to see in London haha. It didn't start for an hour and a half, so we went and got dessert (a waffle soaked with Baileys and topped with ice cream) at a place in Sony Center called Alex. We still had time after that, so we decided to wander around the area. We saw some cool buildings in the distance that we wanted to see, so we walked in that area. All of a sudden, Lauren noticed a stage and thought there was a concert. We rushed over there, and lo and behold, there's a movie premiere taking place. Yup, we stumbled upon Cate Blanchett opening her new movie, The Good German. If you want to see a good quality pic from this event, you can go here. If you want to see poor quality pics and video, you can check out my picture page in the next few days. Billy managed to push his way through the crowd, but Lauren and I just held our cameras high in the air and hoped for the best. The video I took actually turned out great...I zoomed in right on her! What luck :). Afterwards, we went back and saw our Sea Life movie, did some shopping (I bought a new spring coat!), and returned to our hostel.

The next morning we got up early, had a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hostel, and were picked up by a tour company for the first tour of our trip. Our plan was to see Sachsenhausen, the first concentration camp purposely built to be a camp. It wasn't an enjoyable tour, but we all thought it was an extremely important tour to take. I learned an incredible amount on this tour, so much that I can't type it all here. Before Sachsenhausen, old factories were turned into camps. This was the first camp built for this purpose, and was the model camp for all of the others that followed. The Nazi headquarters were here, and most trains heading to Auschwitz and other major camps came through this camp first. There were no death camps in Germany, only work camps, but still an estimated 50-60 thousand people died here. These camps were originally used to detain Communists, but obviously that quickly changed. After the war, the Soviet Union had control over the area in which Sachsenhausen is located. They actually took over the camp and secretly detained Nazis there. Thousands more died at this point. After the Soviet Union was finished with the camp, they destroyed most of it. It is mainly a large grassy (and in our case, snowy) area now. There are lots of museums and we did see a barracks, the crematory, and the morgue, as well as a few other places. It was extremely cold out and my feet were completely numb. I think I preferred it that way though because if it wasn't for the cold, Sachsenhausen would have almost been a pretty place. I feel that good weather would take something away from what this experience was supposed to be. I did take a few pictures here, but I haven't decided yet if I'm going to post them or not. I almost feel that it would be disrespectful...we will see. After the tour, we went back to Alex to have dinner (I had pork). Our plan was to go on a pub crawl that evening, but when we arrived we realized it was a huge waste of time and money, as all of the free beer was outside in the cold. Instead we went to two cute places and ate some more. I could tell that I am starting to miss home every once in awhile because that night I ate a ton of cheetos, and I absolutely despise cheetos haha. We also went to an Indian that I think was called Amrit. We shared a really good chicken dish with rice and a sauce that had cashews, almonds, and raisins in it.

Sunday we attempted to go on a free 3.5 hour walking tour of Berlin with the same company that runs the Sachsenhausen and pub crawl tours. We started out good, but only lasted 30 min. due to the cold. We did get the history on the Brandenburger Tor and Paris Plaza though. Brandenburger Tor was originally the gateway into the city of Berlin. The city expanded so much over the years, that it is now in the center. At the top there is a statue of a female sitting in a chariot which is driven by 4 horses. A long time ago, the french stole this statue. Years later, the germans somehow stole it back (I was really cold at this point and missed some info, sorry). When the Germans returned it to the top of Brandenburger Tor, they renamed the female, Victory. They also renamed the square that the Brandenburger Tor is in, Paris Plaza hahaha. What's funny now is that the French Embassy is not only located in that square, but also in the direction which Victory is looking haha. The US Embassy is currently being built there, there is a Starbucks in there, and the hotel that Michael Jackson dangled his baby from is there as well. After we saw all of that, we decided to take a bus tour instead, as my feet were completely numb and Billy and Lauren were equally freezing. The bus tour was nice, but we didn't really get to see everything up close. We drove by the Berlin Cathedral, Checkpoint Charlie, big pieces of the Berlin Wall, etc. but I didn't get any pictures. That's ok, I definitely want to go back to Germany, so I'll see everything then. After the bus tour, we went to Fassbender & Rausch which is an amazing chocolate store. We shopped a little, had some tiramisu, and returned to the hostel. We then packed our stuff up, and headed for the airport.

Overall, I had an amazing time in Berlin. I can't wait to go back....in warmer weather. The city was much more modern than I expected, and I found more people spoke English here than in Paris. This was definitely the best trip yet.

I will try and post pictures today or tomorrow. This is a relatively slow week, but I would like to try and get some papers out of the way. I'll let you know when they are up!

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

mach schnell bizzy bee!

3:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another entry please. I have stumbled onto your blog and I'm reliving my own trip through europe (some 20 years ago) by reading your posts. Those college years are never forgotten or far away...you will remember this the rest of your life- live it up!

10:18 PM  
Blogger Jen said...

Thank you for commenting! I am definitely living it up here...it's such an amazing experience! I will try and post more often as I should hopefully be finishing most of my schoolwork next week :)

3:06 AM  

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