Berlin

23 February 2010

In Berlin today. German food is AWESOME. So good! So hearty, so filling. I had a “meatball” with potatoes that were just too good. All this with a beer, because it’s cheaper than water. Haha, I’m getting in touch with my heritage! I should learn some German recipes, ‘cause god the food was tres enorme.

And as for French, I can kind of read, forget about reading German. Luckily, a bunch of places have English menus. And I already have my eye on some apple strudel and a doughy sugary chocolately almondy pretzel thing that I am eating before I leave here.

Tomorrow we’re going to hit up museums. There’s so much to see here, Taylor and I wish we spent one less day in Amsterdam and came here instead.

26 February 2010

Berlin was a really good experience. Yes, the food, and the museums. There is just so much history there. On Wednesday I went to the Pergamom, saw Nefertiti, Berlin City Hall, the Brandenberg Gate, the Bundestag, and the Berlin Synagogue. The Bundestag is an awesome capitol building. It is a shining example of a beautiful hybrid of classical and modern architecture, not to been green building.

Yesterday I went to the Holocaust memorial. There is an entire museum underneath it. Both memorial and museum were beautiful in how moving they were.

I also went to Checkpoint Charlie, where they had walls with historical information. At this wall a Scottish tourist, who turned 70 that day, told us about his experience during WWII. He was still a kid at the time but remembered how scarce everything was in Britain because of the U Boat blockade. And he remembers listening to Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech on the radio and his dad telling him that it was going to be a very important speech. His older brother was 17 when he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He survived the war physically, but drank a lot because of it. It was amazing to hear a firsthand account from some who lived through the time in Europe, and I am grateful he shared his story with us.

After checkpoint Charlie we went to a technology museum. It had so many train engines!!! And they’re so huge!

But in the farthest part of the train section there was a boxcar that carried deported Jews. That was…haunting. I was almost surprised to not sense the scent of death from it. Right near the museum was a park with the remains of the train station that first deported Jews from Berlin. We stood on one of the old platforms.

We then went to the Jewish museum. It was huge, and in a very modern and architecturally significant building. It was a very well put together museum.

This morning we walked down to the Victory Tower on Unter den Liden before heading to the train station. Now I’m on my way to Prague