Wow, I've fallen so far behind. It's hard to keep up with this... either I'm spending all my time blogging and then have nothing to write about, or I'm keeping busy with no time to write...
The second weekend of November I traveled by bus with my friends Sam and Colette (from my ECES program) to Berlin. We met up with my friend Luke (who had visited me a few weeks earlier) on Friday, and Vicki met us on Sunday.
Firstly, the bus was great. Unlimited hot drinks... coffee, chocolate, tea, whatever. It wasn't the best quality because it was from one of those Nescafe machines, but it was free!
There were some beautiful views of the Czech countryside from the bus, surprisingly...
We drove through Dresden, which I was surprised to find so... old looking.
When we got off of the bus we were faced with a few problems. The first was how to find the metro station, the second was how to buy three tickets with our paltry 7 Euro, etc. A kind European gave us the extra Euro we needed. Trying to pay it forward, I gave my last penny to a couple playing accordian and singing on the metro. After seeing what I had put in her cup, the lady returned the penny to us, saying "danke" anyway...
At the Pfefferbett hostel, we met up with Luke who had arrived only an hour before us. After putting our stuff down (in our stark but very clean room), we unleashed ourselves on the city. On our way to Alexanderplatz, we came across a great lunch deal: 5 Euro for a burger, fries, and a beer! It was strangely American, but since it was cheap and sated our hunger we didn't care much.
So. Alexanderplatz, Berliner Dum, Riechstag, Brandenburg Gate that first night.
We were all sleepy but excited to be there. After walking around and grabbing a wurst for dinner
we met up with Lucas. He is a German guy who is friends with a German girl we know from Prague. She just randomly hooked us up with him and he was very nice and generous, showing us around his neighborhood. We went to a pretty cool bar and drank this awesome beer:
Vicki arrived the next day and met us at the hostel. As none of us were too keen to spend lots of money (quite convenient when the whole group is of that mindset), we focused on seeing the city by walking around as much as possible. We tried to go to the Jewish Museum, but it was closed.
Having been foiled, we walked around the corner and went to the Berlinische Galerie instead, which was great. They have lots of cool stuff in a large space. Their permanent collection traces the progression of modern art from the end of the 19th century to today.
There was a nice mix of installation (interactive as well as self-sufficient pieces), photography, architecture, painting, and sculpture. I was informed that I needed a permit to take photos, unfortunately. There was a collection of photography by Arno Fischer which was really cool; it was almost a retrospective of studies of different places around the world. There were some Polaroid collages which I really appreciated as well.
We then walked to Checkpoint Charlie, just a few blocks away.
I have to say, my navigation skills have been steadily growing with the more varied maps that I see. I'd like to think that I was also the main reason we didn't once get lost on the metro... and I hope my friends would agree.
Perhaps because we were all (but Luke) first-time visitors, the stigma of the wall and the war was very present in our minds. Additionally, the associations we made between present-day Germany and Nazi Germany confused us all. We were aware of the changes that occur over time, the separation between a society seventy years ago and the one that inhabits that same space today, but we were still talking about it, thinking about it almost constantly.
There are two other factors which I believe influenced us to see things this way. The first is that the typical tourist attractions almost all have something to do with the fact that Berlin was the seat of the Third Reich, or that it was divided so severely for such a large part of modern history.
The other variable has to do with how we, as Americans, understand Germans in general. There are a few different stereotypes, and the distance between them and that of the Nazi is growing. However, I have to think that a very large percentage of the representations of Germans in American culture relates back to Nazism. Even our (sometimes true) assumption of the people as house-music loving ravers is somehow reminiscent of a frighteningly sleek efficiency.
So, we saw the wall. Some parts of it have been re-erected for historical purposes, but every inch of its former foundation has been marked by cobblestones in the middle of the paved streets. The first time we crossed it, we were amazed at how insurmountable that divide once was, but as we became more accustomed to the city we swerved across and back again like so many cyclists on the road.
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| vicki's search for identity continues... |
Then we went a museum next door, called "the topography of terror", which told us all about the Third Reich in Berlin. As though it weren't already on our mind.
To dinner at the kartoffelhaus (potato house) no. 1. Vicki had potato au gratin and potato soup. Colette and I split the largest currywurst ever... it must have been two inches in diameter. The boys ate more potatoey stuff, which I don't remember.
That night, Colette and the boys met up with Lucas again and a bar that was apparently awesome. Vicki and I had a wild night sleeping in the hostel.
Sunday was a wonderful day. We went to a fleamarket in Mauerpark, which was really cool. The sun was shining, it was warm, the hipsters and tourists and antique collectors rubbed elbows. Anything you could possibly want could be found in this place I think. It was enormous; haggling abounded. I got a lot of cool stuff for a little bit of money... my favorite situation!
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| packrats |
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| sam's stein |
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| mauerpark |
So we spent basically all of Sunday at this market. In the evening we just hung around in the hostel with the employees (who were very friendly and accommodating), walked around a bit Monday morning before hopping on our bus back to Prague.
All in all, a wonderful trip! Just like in Paris though, only a long weekend in such a vast city is of course not enough. Our appetites for wandering were sated for the moment, but I'm already looking forward to returning to Berlin.
