Ich Finde Berlin Sehr Gut!

Listen: Berlin is awesome. Go there. This past weekend, Megan, Devon, and I traveled to the wonderful and historic capital of Deutschland. It's fair to say that it was one of the coolest places I've been.

Friday - got out of class around noon, figured out the game plan, got all my stuff together and took the 13:00 train from Differdange into Lux city. Rolled up at 13:40, went to the grocery store and got sandwiches, wine (we didn't end up drinking it on the train - that's just so not classy) and snacks for the train. Got on the train headed toward Koblenz, which was chill. But then - DISASTER STRIKES - our train from Koblenz to Frankfurt is 20 minutes late. Ergo, we're gonna miss our connection from Frankfurt to Berlin. Anyhow, we got into Frankfurt late (our train to Berlin had left), but we managed to get on another, later train to Berlin thanks to an Icelandic guy at the train station. That train was an ICE train (one of the high speed German trains) and it was really crowded but we snagged some seats. It was a rather chill ride, and we got into Berlin at around 00:30. Yikes. 

So our hostel was pretty far away from the Hauptbahnhof. We had to get on an S-Bahn (suburban train) to another station, Alexanderplatz, where we got off. Then, we went to look for the M5/M6 tram stop. As we stood there, trying to figure out whether the tram would actually still be running, Devon decided to go up and ask this stranger how to get to our hostel (i.e. she tells him where we're staying - do not do this). He's like "yeah sure, I'm going that way, I'll take you there." Now, at this point, for about five seconds, I was relieved. But then my sense of danger got cranking - all of a sudden I realize me and two girls are following this stranger through the dark streets of Berlin. He told us he was a police officer, which made me feel better, but I wasn't letting my guard down - I mean, I literally had my hand on my swiss army knife in my pocket (I would recommend carrying one wherever you go). But everything worked out fine, he took us to where the actual tram station was, and told us where to get off. So we got off the tram right by our hostel - Generator Hostel Berlin - which turned out to be a giant mega-hostel. Like, this place had 900 beds or something like that. Anyways, we checked in, and went upstairs to our room. We were in a 6 person room with just 2 other strangers. At this point it's 02:00 and we're exhausted, so we call it a night, and conk out.

Got up on Saturday morning, showered, and when Megan and Devon were ready we headed downstairs for our free breakfast. We had to take all our stuff out of our room because we had to switch rooms between Friday and Saturday night, so we left our stuff in the hostel's locked luggage room. From there, we got on a tram - oh wait, you don't know how to use a tram? I've never explained that before? Oh, well, let's pause for a brief synopsis of tram etiquette and knowledge:

How to Pay For and Get on a Tram:

1. Find the tram stop

2. At the larger, main tram stops, they will have small electronic kiosks where you can go to purchase tickets. You need to know what kind of ticket you want, so check the surrounding area for posters that have information about them. Most places offer simple, one-way tickets, day-long passes, or even group passes. Evaluate which one you need, and if there is a machine at your stop, purchase a ticket. If there is a machine and you now have a printed ticket in your hand, proceed to step 3. If not, proceed to step 4.

3. You need to validate your ticket. What that means is that you need to get a little stamp on it that says the date and time. There will be machines that do this at every single tram stop. They look kind of like orange posts, but they all have a slot with an arrow pointing into the slot. All you need to do is put your ticket (in the correct direction) into the slot, and it will stamp. Then, you can hop on the tram.

4. If there is not a ticket machine, get on the tram you want, and buy your ticket on the tram - all of them will have both a machine and validation system onboard. 

5. Sit in a seat if possible, but if none are available, it's perfectly acceptable to stand - just remember to hold on.

6. Watch for when your stop is - when you see it come up as the next stop (on the overhead screens that you'll find on every tram), and push the "Stop" button that you'll see on all of the handles in the tram. It will just signal that someone for sure wants to get off the tram.

7. At your stop, push the "door open" button on the door itself (it should look like a green button, and it will likely be flashing, even before you push it). Exit the tram. Congratulations - you made it!

Now, where was I? Ok - so we got off the tram, got on another S-Bahn into the main part of Berlin, and took a leisurely breakfast stroll over a river and on down to the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). It is really cool:

The story behind the statue on the top is really funny and interesting: So I guess they had this statue here, and then Napoleon came and jacked it when he was conquering and stuff. Napoleon took it back to Paris with him, but later, the Germans got it back and made some slight changes to the statue. They renamed it "The Goddess of Victory" and actually changed the angle of the goddess's head on the statue, so now she is staring right at the French Embassy, which is located in this square, as a reminder to the French. I thought it was hilarious. 

From there, we waited at the Starbucks for our FREE (English) walking tour. That's right, free and in English. So we then got to go on an almost four hour walking tour of Berlin. It was really cool, and our tour guide was awesome. Turns out he was from Atlanta originally, and loved America and Germany. So Adam, our tour guide took us all around the city - one of our first stops was just at the Brandenburg Gate going over the history of the city. I'll try to sum it up quickly - It was founded as a Slavic fishing village called, "Brrl"and is built on a swamp. Fast forward, since communists don't like people who like freedom, they built a wall in the city. In 1989, everybody finally realizes what's up, and the wall goes down (more on that story later). 20 years later, the city is still coming back together and is full of history from Nazi Germany among other things. 

So we went to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews in Europe, which is right in the middle of the city. It's rather abstract, but I personally found it really powerful. Here is what it looked like:

It's basically row upon row of these stones, and they're all different sizes. There are exactly 2,711 of them - which is an absolutely (and purposefully) a meaningless number. The artist wanted it to be an abstract work. You can kinda tell from this picture that the floor is not flat - it moves up and down, which adds to the intrigue. You should check it out.

We then went onwards, and ended up in a parking lot. Turns out that we were standing on Hitler's bunker. So weird, and a little surreal to be standing on top of the bunker of a man who murdered millions of people. Here is me standing on Hitler's bunker:

We then visited the Luftwaffe headquarters, which was one of the few surviving buildings from the Nazi regime. It's a huge building, literally it takes up a city block, so it was interesting that the Allies never bombed it. Two theories exist as to why that was: first, there may have been a "gentlemen's agreement" between the UK and Germany about not bombing the air force headquarter's (b/c the RAF headquarters in London had survived the war also), second, it is a huge landmark, so allied bombers might not have bombed it so that they could use it as a marker in orienting them towards their other targets in Berlin.

We also saw the Berlin Wall, but I have better pictures of it from later on that day, so for now, just be patient. The wall is surprisingly not intimidating. It's not as tall as I thought it would be, but again, it was surreal just to be there, literally touching history. We also walked past Checkpoint Charlie, which was a place along the Berlin Wall where people with the correct documentation could cross. Next, Adam took us to this little cafe for a break (I'm sure the tour guides must get some kind of kickback from that place, since they brought like a hundred people in). I had a chicken sandwich, it was excellent. 

From there, we walked over to what was described as one of the most beautiful squares in the city. The official national concert hall was located there, as were both a French and German church. My memory fails me hear, but I think basically a bunch of French Huguenots had come to Berlin and helped do something, so the Berliners built them a church. Then, the Germans decided they needed their own church, right on the same square - so they built basically the exact same church as they had for the French, but the Germans made their church just a little taller and just a little bigger. Hilarious, the German sense of humor. 

We then walked to a much darker place in German history. Another square, where the former library of Humboldt University is located - where the Nazis gathered books by Jewish authors and burnt them publicly. It was an awful feeling, knowing the atrocity that this book-burning predates, especially because many of the people who burnt books were professors at the University - the very people who are supposed to protect free thinking and open discussion. There was a memorial there to the books lost, but it's not what you might think. Basically in the middle of the square, there is a glass square, probably 4 feet by 4 feet. Through the glass, you can see a large white room under the ground, and you can see row upon row of empty bookshelves. Adam told us that it was the designer's intention to convey the "presence of absence." Also, there was a small plaque with a quotation on it, it reads: "DAS WAR EIN VORSPIEL NUR, DORT WO MAN BUCHER VERBRENNT, VERBRENNT MAN AM ENDE AUCH MENSCHEN" which means "That was only a prelude, where they burn books, they ultimately burn people." Craziest thing about it? The guy, Heinrich Heine, who wrote these words wrote them in 1820, over a hundred years before the Nazis burned books there. Just goes to show you that if you don't learn from history, you really are doomed to repeat it.

We then walked over to this cool little memorial. All it consisted of was an empty room with a statue of a woman holding her dying child in her hands, and then has the graves of a Nazi soldier and a German Jew at the statue's feet. Pretty powerful stuff.

We then walked over to the Berliner Dom, our last stop on our tour. It's basically just Berlin's cathedral. It was pretty cool though. Then Adam told us the final story of our tour. He had mentioned early on in the tour that he would tell us how two words brought down the Berlin Wall.

Listen: so apparently in November 1989 the leaders in East Berlin had been feeling some pressure about this whole wall issue (I already apologize for lack of details, but it's been a hectic and crazy week of schoolwork and such, so I've been putting writing this off). Anyway, so they decided, at this secret meeting, to tell everybody that they were gonna allow people to cross the wall, but not really allow that to happen. So as it turns out, this one guy missed the secret meeting, and is scheduled to give this press conference. Right before the press conference, this guy's aide hands him the notes from the secret meeting he missed - which he doesn't get a chance to read. So he gets up there, gives a spiel about something, but then some reporter asks him point blank about the wall issues. He doesn't really know how to answer the question, so he starts looking at this paper (summary of secret meeting), so he just starts reading off the part about how they're going to open up the wall and let everyone pass freely. He never really gets to the part about how they weren't actually going to do that, so all the reporters pounce. Turns out Tom Brokow is the one who asks, "When?" And so this guy looks down at the paper, scans it, can't find a date anywhere - except for in the corner where it reads, "November 9, 1989" (which was that day's date, b/c that is the day the memo was written). So he then utters the two words that bring down the Berlin Wall: "Effective immediately." It blew my mind that the Berlin Wall fell because of a communication error and fortunate mishap. The world is funny like that sometimes, I suppose.

This is a video of our tour guide from the conclusion of our tour:

After our tour, we tipped Adam, and went on our merry way. By our merry way, I mean we walked around to a little flea market on the other side of the Dom. then, we stood around and watched some sort of parade/demonstration. We think they were all football fan clubs and supporters, but not really sure - if it was a riot then it was a very happy riot. After that, we took the S-Bahn a couple of stops over to another part of the Berlin Wall. For 1.3 km, the wall is intact, and has been painted on by over a hundred muralists. The murals themselves all represent in some way the feelings the artists had about the Wall. Here are a couple of pictures I took of these parts of the wall: Hmmm...ok, well it appears as though it won't actually let me upload these pictures (it says something about only using pictures I have a license to use? I think I should be able to use them - well, I'll put them on facebook, so you can see them there, I guess). 

We then walked up to a neighborhood Adam had told us about, and decided to find some dinner. On the way though, we stopped at a German bookstore so Megan could buy some children's books in German. Then, we ended up at dinner in this suedo-mexican place (?) because they were having happy hour when we walked by. Happy hour in Germany = 3,90 euro for a pina colada. Score. Ok, so it was nice and warm in our restaurant, but as soon as we got outside, we realized how cold it really was. So our "pub crawl" turned into us going into the first bar we found and chilling. We had some typical German beer (typical as in the brand name was "Bier"), and then took some trams / trains / sidewalks back to our hostel. After getting on the internet in the lobby downstairs to wish my mom a happy birthday, headed back upstairs and got to sleep after a long day.

Sunday morning we got up early, so that we could get breakfast. Now, there may have been a slight miscommunication about when everyone was supposed to get up, but no serious problems arose (although we did end up stealing some rolls and nutella from breakfast). Then we got all packed, and headed out to try to go to the Reichstag. The Reichstag is the German parliament building (akin to the Capitol Building in D.C.). Here is what it looks like:

The architect was real cool - you see, he built this glass dome on top of the Reichstag to symbolize, "transparency in democracy," so you can climb up into this glass dome and look out over the entire city. Also, from the top, you can look directly down into the German Parliament chamber and see actual government proceedings. As you can see, there is quite a long line, and even though we waited for an hour or so, we never even got close to the door, so we bailed (I guess that just means I'll have to go back!). We then walked around Berlin for a little while, strolled back through the Brandenburg Gate, hung out at the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, and then walked back to the train station. Berlin really was a rather beautiful city, definitely more so than I had expected going into the weekend. Here is a pretty picture of the city:

Our train ride home was relatively easy. We all got to sit together, which was nice, and then whilst Megan and Devon slept (or "train-slept" which is the kind of sleep you get on trains - you know, where you are never really fully asleep and every twenty minutes or so you wake up), I talked to the other guy sitting with us. He was a PhD student at Humboldt University on his way to a conference in Essen (another German city). He was trying to explain to me his studies, which I was barely able to converse about - so he was a geography major in his undergrad work, and he was currently working on his PhD thesis on leather workers in Bangladesh and how global value chains are affected by that specific industry. Basically, he was real sharp. We got to talking a little bit about the university system in Germany, and I learned a few interesting things - like how most Germans do undergrad work for 5 years. Also, he was explaining to me that there is a huge trend nowadays of shifting from more traditional styles of teaching (i.e. large lectures), to more seminar-based learning that focuses on students. I talked with him about how Miami University is a sort of unique and interesting mix - we're not a liberal arts college, but we're not some giant mega-university. He thought that was really cool.

So I ended up getting home around 11:30 or so on Sunday night. Not a bad weekend, in fact, it was quite a good weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and would say that Berlin is the first place I would go back to in a heartbeat.