Well,
I’m back from my last foray into the Continent for the summer. I had a busy but very
lovely time and saw a bunch. And now there are only a few days left until I’m
headed home. It’s hard to believe everything’s gone by so quickly – that two
decades of my life have gone by so quickly – but there it is. In a couple of
weeks I’ll be starting my junior year of college. Enough of the musing, though.
On to Berlin!
It was
a rather long trip, quality-wise. I rushed from one final to the other in the
morning, then grabbed lunch and rushed to the bus stop for my trip as soon as
the last exam was done. It was raining, the bus was late, the plane was noisy,
and the trains were just plain confusing, but I finally made it to the hotel,
roughly on time, and was able to collapse into bed.
My
first day in Berlin started with a tour of the Reichstag – or at least, of the
observation dome on top of the Reichstag. For historical reasons, the German
government is very concerned with transparency and decentralization, but at the
same time, they have to guard against terrorism, which means that there are
windows into all the offices and conference rooms, but visitors just kind of
circumvent the actual building and walk around the clear dome on top. It is a
beautiful view, though, and the audio guide gives a nice summary of the sites
in Berlin, which was nice since it was my first stop.
After
that tour I walked over to some nearby monuments before grabbing something for
lunch and heading over to meet my walking tour. I ended up walking to the
meeting point, which was simpler than figuring out the public transportation,
but also took longer. Also, Berlin seems to have very few snack-bar type
restaurants, or even grocery stores, where you can just grab a snack and leave.
Everything outside of the American chains is sit-down, which is hard when
you’re always trying to get someplace. But I digress.
The
Saturday walking tour was focused on the Nazis, so we went by several memorials
and monuments to various persecuted groups and soldiers. We also walked down
Wilhelmstrasse, where most of the Nazi government buildings were, but not much
is left of them. Berlin in general is very different than, say, Cambridge or
Madrid. It was almost entirely destroyed in the Second World War, and then
divided, so everything, especially things in the center of the reunited city,
is pretty modern, or at least heavily restored.
After
the tour I visited the Topography of Terror museum, named for its location atop
the former SS headquarters and beside a remaining section of the Berlin Wall,
and then headed over to the Checkpoint Charlie museum before dinner. With all
the talk about the Nazis, I’d forgotten how interesting the post-war period is.
It always reminded me somewhat of a DI* challengs: get across the wall using
only what a poverty-stricken police-watched family can find. People came up
with some pretty crazy answers.
The
second day was a day trip to Wittenberg, home to the Luther museum and site of
Martin Luther’s living, preaching, and alleged nailing of the 95 thesis onto
the door. 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the reformation, and
Wittenberg (which isn’t exactly the most bustling of cities) has already
started a countdown and is gearing up for the celebration. We took a train there,
spent several hours viewing the aforementioned sites, and then had a nice lunch
at the Brauhaus – they were slightly annoyed when I ordered water and not beer.
I also
got to use my German a little more in Wittenberg, as opposed to Berlin, where
people generally switch to English as soon as they hear my accent. I could
understand a lot of what was going on, though, and managed several short
conversations a day. Apparently the studying is paying off. Unlike Jordan,
Israel, or my various Spanish classes, people actually looked at me and assumed
I spoke their language, which was rather nice, even if I did have to
disappoint.
On the
third day, I went on a walking tour of the main sites of Berlin – the
Brandenburg gate, the square where they held the Nazi book burning, the college
where the Grimm brothers went to school, a few of the same war memorials, and
etc. All of the tours were great. Afterwards I checked out the German History
museum, which covered the entirety of, well, German History, and then stood in
line for around 45 minutes to get into the Pergamon museum, which housed a
really extraordinary collection from Greece, Rome, and especially the Middle
East.
And
now, after all that, I’m back in my dorm at Cambridge, with a few days to
hopefully calm down and wrap things up before heading back to the States. I
could say more about my study abroad, but this post is getting pretty long, so
I’ll save it for my final reflection. Have a lovely week, until next time!
*DI – Destination Imagination – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination_Imagination
Pictures:
This is just part of a bridge, but it was pretty.
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