Last European country. And last European blog post! Berlin Our hostel in Berlin only had WiFi in the lobby, so I spent our first evening down there updating the the blog and observing the people in the lobby. Apparently our hostel is popular with school groups because there were quite a few different groups of high school aged kids moving around. Both obnoxious and intriguing. Makes for some good people watching. So it was raining and windy both days we were in Berlin. Which made for pretty miserable walking around. Luckily we figured out the subway system pretty easily so that was a good way to avoid the weather. But then there was the situation of the cameras. Cameras plus water equal not a good idea. Fortunately I had a little trick up my sleeve. Since the part on cameras affected by water is the body and not the lense, you can create a waterproof case by taking a plastic bag, putting a hole just big enough for the lense at the bottom and then stick the lense through it, keeping the body safe in the plastic bag. We got some bags from a Berlin info gift shop for free so that was nice. And now I’m holding a huge red and off-white blob in all my photos from Berlin. I’ll never forget the bag.
Our first stop was Brandenburg Gate. It is one of the most well known landmarks in Germany, mostly due to its use as the backdrop for many historical events. This includes it being featured prominently by the media during the coverage of the tearing down of the Berlin wall in 1989. Which really wasn’t all that long ago. From there we walked about 2 blocks to the Reichstag building, the meeting place for Germany’s parliament. It was even used by Nazi Germany until it was severely destroyed by a fire in 1933. From there we went to Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie is the famous nickname given to the best known Berlin Wall crossing point by the allies during the Cold War into the American territory. It was actually called Checkpoint C (there were and A and B elsewhere on the wall that were run by the French and the British respectively) but of the two in this area, the allied forces were only allowed to go through Checkpoint C. Because of this, they became very familiar with it and thought to give it a nickname from the NATO alphabet. Talking about the NATO alphabet made me want to memorize it again. Well, that and the fact that last time I had to give the letter i to a man on the phone for my electricity bill, I said “something that begins with i...igloo?” and he laughed at me. I thought I was being innovative. From Checkpoint Charlie we got back on our warmer and drier, new best friend the metro and headed to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial to the 6 million victims of the holocaust is stunning and has a very strong sense of reverence. It was inaugurated in 2005 and cost 25 million euros to build. It is made up of 2,711 slabs of concrete which are arranged in a grid pattern and range in height from halfway up your shin to almost three times my height. Even though they’re essentially just slabs of concrete, how they are placed and constructed evoke a strange and solemn emotion. It’s very hard to explain; I’ve been trying to type what I felt and it’s hard. You can walk through and around all of them, and moving forward while the slabs get taller and taller I felt as though I was getting smaller and smaller. The labyrinth style design, which looks the same in every direction, also gives off a feeling that no matter where you turn or which way you go, it would be hard to escape. I don’t know how the memorial does it, but the emotion is definitely there. We also went into the museum they have there, which tells snippets of the stories about some of the known victims. Reading their stories is heartbreaking, and what’s worse is knowing that there are millions of stories that no one will ever know. It was a very humbling afternoon. After getting back to the hostel and warming up, Sam and I went of to the nearest TK Maxx (which is the European version of TJ Maxx) to get some carry-on suitcases. Long story short, our flight to Sydney only allows 20kg in checked luggage each. And we have about 30kg each. So it was time to stuff as much heavy stuff as possible into a bag that would fit the carry on standards. And naturally the two best ones we found (aka cheapest that fit the standard) are red and matching. So now we have matching suitcases. I really dislike matching. But it’s better than paying almost $600 in overweight baggage. Day two in Berlin started with a wet walk to the Victory Column, which was built to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War in 1864. We then headed out to the Olympic stadium and park of the 1936 Olympics. I was especially looking forward to this because I recently read a book called The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics written by Daniel James Brown. If you haven’t read it and love the Olympics and/or history, I highly suggest it. It details the story of how the Washington University rowing team, comprised of poor farming boys hit hard by the depression, worked against the odds to win gold in Berlin while also depicting how the Nazi regime prepared for the Olympics. The part that I found the most interesting was how the Hitler and the Nazis successfully covered up the evidence of their harsh and inhumane treatment of the Jewish people, duping the United States Olympic Committee among others, in order to gain worldwide appreciation for their Games and their ideal of “racial superiority”. I’m not sure that worked for Hitler when Jesse Owens became a crowd favorite amongst the Germans! It was thrilling to see everything that I had read about. It also marks the third Olympic stadium I’ve been to; the other two were London 2012 (when I went in 2012) and Barcelona 1992 (which I visited in 2010). I love the Olympics, and getting to see Jesse Owens’ name carved four times on the wall of the stadium in Berlin to commemorate his four gold medals was pretty incredible. Another fun fact: the 1936 Olympics was the first to have the Olympic flame start in Greece and then travel to the host city. Our final stop on our final day was the Berlin Wall memorial. At this point, it was miserable outside because the wind and rain had both picked up. We didn’t stay too long, but we did see the Wall. I can’t image what that would have been like, to be divided in the same country. Dinner for me was some classic currywurst and a radler (beer/lemonade combined). Very delicious. We spent the rest of the evening packing. The next morning, it was unsurprisingly still raining, so we dragged our new matching red suitcases to the train station, where we hopped on a train to the Frankfurt airport to prepare for our flight out of Europe. But my German adventure wasn’t quite over, I had one more stop to make. Cologne On Saturday I took an early train from the airport to Cologne. My freshman year roommate and great friend from Macalester is living in Germany for the year as a Fulbright Scholar, and I couldn’t be in Germany and not visit! She’s staying near Dusseldorf, so we met halfway-ish in Cologne for the day. It was so great to see her and catch up. We mostly walked around and talked, but we did see a few sites while we did that. We briefly went into the Chocolate Museum, which details the history of chocolate from the Aztecs until now while we sauntered along the Rhine. Yes, yes, sauntered is a weird word but I’ve already used the word walked and gallivanted sounded wrong too. Anyway we crossed the Rhine a few times, giving us a good view of the Hohenzollern Bridge. Right near the train station that we came into was the Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral), so we went into that as well. Looking at structures that immense and intricate really never gets old, especially when you know how long it took for these to be built. In this case, the cathedral was started in 1248 with construction being put to a halt in 1473. Finally, in the 19th they started up again and it was completed in 1880. It is the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe and has the second tallest spires (it is surpassed only by Ulm Minster, also in Germany). During WWII, the cathedral was hit by about 14 bombs and was badly damaged, though it remained standing. The Allied forces actually used the spires as a navigational landmark because they stood out from the landscape below. After the war, repairs began and were completed in 1956. The cathedral It is gorgeous, both inside and outside. Of course, we had to get a photo together to document our day, so we asked a guy while we were at the cathedral. He was very enthusiastic; he even knelt to try and get the building in it. But then we looked at the photos. One was cute, but one was very crooked. Naturally, that had to be the one we used on Facebook and other social media. Long story short, Cologne and Maggie were both well worth the visit, crooked photo and all! Now, I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but we are saying goodbye to Europe and hello to Australia! Our flight leaves from Frankfurt tomorrow. But before we can get to Australia, we have a quick stop in Hong Kong! I can’t wait to be back, even for a bit. I’ll catch you up to speed once we’re in Sydney :) Remember to check out my photos on the photo gallery page!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Meet AnyaHi, Hola, Bonjour, Ciao!
I’m Anya Phillips, a data analyst and travel enthusiast who is always on the lookout for the next adventure! Categories
All
|