Arriving in Berlin, we headed to the hostel and arrived there shortly after 9. It wasn't hard to find (thanks to my excellent navigation skills of course!) and we were able to drop our bags off but unable to check in until 3 PM. This meant we had the whole day to entertain ourselves before we would be able to come back and get our things together. We decided to grab a bite to eat and then head to the center of Berlin to go on the "Berlin Free Tour."
Breakfast was amazing at this small cafe across the street from our hostel. +Reason I like Berlin: Small cafes with pesto bagels that remind me of New York+ We had an amazing breakfast, for only €5 it seems like a good deal, but with the currency rates, it was actually an $8 breakfast. Just to preface the following blog posts, my complaints about budget will begin to rise due to Berlin. We made our way to the center and again, €2 for the subway is more like $2.75 to ride one way, one time, maybe for 15 minutes. Ouch. The tour started in Pariser Platz. Since Berlin was nearly completely destroyed during WWII, many of the historic landmarks have been erased, however that doesn't mean Berlin is full of a rich and colorful history. Pariser Platz has a funny history because the French and US embassies are located here. The US embassy was a source of controversy when they rebuilt it in 2006, facing criticism from nearly every international architect in the European Union, however after 2008 and the election of Mr. Obama, it's funny how many architects changed their opinions and do not think it's so bad after all. It is here in Pariser Platz that one thing hasn't changed in nearly 200 years, and that is Brandenburg Gate. It was here that Napoleon Bonaparte marched through after his conquests and it is here that the quadriga (horse-drawn chariot with the goddess of peace) looks down upon Berlin. Well, after Napoleon's defeat, the quadriga was changed, and the goddess of peace was changed to the goddess of victory and now the goddess of victory stares down at the French embassy in Pariser Platz, as a special message from Germany to France. +Reason I like Berlin: They make fun of French people.+
The free tour then continued through the Brandenberg Gate to go past the Reichstag Building, the seat of Germany's government, and the same place where Hitler and the Nazi party rose to power during the 1930s and 40s. We continued down the road to a spectacular Holocaust Memorial, which is officially called, "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe." It is nearly 5 acres and has 2,711 concrete blocks, of various heights, in rows and rows. Some say it looks like a cemetery, some say it looks like a city skyline, and others think it looks like something totally different. It is a very interactive memorial, that gets people to think--which any memorial should do. The pillars are deceiving, because the elevation of the ground is not completely flat, so although the pillars seem to be nearly the same height when looking across the memorial, in fact the ground undulates beneath like waves. At the memorial, you can find groups enjoying lunch sitting atop some of the smaller pillars. You can hear the screams of children, running and playing hide-and-seek through the maze of columns. You can see tour groups taking photographs and capturing memories of Berlin. And you can also see somber faces, there to reflect and think about what the memorial means and remember those who have died.
The memorial was great. I loved it. Modern and refreshing and totally unlike anything I've ever seen before. +Reason I like Berlin: modern and interesting urban spaces.+ We followed the brick path that lies where the Berlin Wall used to stand, and we moved along to see the spot where Hitler died. The bunker still lies beneath the ground in East Berlin, the same bunker where Hitler and his wife committed suicide together, as our tour guide puts it, "a romantic Hitler Honeymoon." Berlin is actually trying to figure out what to do with the bunker, whether to fill it in, or to just let it be as it is. The walls are nearly 3m thick and it is a massive structure, but I think most of it has already been destroyed. I don't know what I think about the bunker, but it is very interesting.
Also, the buildings that are around Hitler's bunker, are in fact from the 1970s and 80s when Berlin was separated by the Berlin Wall. After WWII, Germany was divided into two parts, East and West. East was given to the Soviets, and West Berlin was divided between the US and England. Since Germany was divided in two, the capital, which was in East Germany completely, needed to be divided as well. East Berlin, was essentially unrestricted, but West Berlin, the democratic part of the city, was like an island of freedom in a sea of communism. The Berlin Wall was erected to keep the communist citizens from fleeing to West Berlin, and West Berlin was given one railway and one airport to connect themselves with the rest of West Germany. The buildings around Hitler's bunker were particularly nice for communist buildings, because they could be seen from West Berlin and East Berlin wanted to make a point saying that "life over here in communism isn't so bad, it's great, just look at our houses!" In fact, one person describes East and West Berlin like that of going from a black and white TV (East Berlin) to a color TV (West Berlin). I couldn't imagine living in a city, which was in fact two cities. +Reason I like Berlin: Interesting history that is so recent that my grandparents and parents can remember. It is living history.+
When we moved from Hitler's bunker, we followed the Berlin Wall more to one of the points of entry commonly known as “Checkpoint Charlie.” It was here that Soviet and US military would nearly begin another war. The US, sick and tired of communist rule in Germany, would constantly test the German government by sending people through the gate to East Berlin with improper documents and missing papers. They would also arm the citizens with treaties and international agreements that would force the soviets to oblige and let them into East Berlin. Once they had wasted the soviet’s time and were allowed entry into East Berlin, they would take one step in, turn around and say, “Thank you!” This would irritate the Soviet’s so much, that they would line their military tanks up to Check-Point Charlie to try and intimidate the West Berliners. However, the US was not so easily intimidated and they too, lined up their tankers. Had one shot been fired by either side, WWIII would have surely commenced. +Reason I like Berlin: US history is involved! Go USA!+ Check-Point Charlie was our break point too, so we all had time to rest. We were all exhausted by now. Two hours of walking with nearly no sleep the night before, what were we thinking!?
From Check-Point Charlie, we moved along to more historical and boring sites of Berlin. There were the French and German Domes, built by the French themselves and we then made our way to Museum Island, where Berlin has five internationally recognized musuems on the northern part of the island in the middle of the Spree River. We ended the tour with Lust Garden and the Berlin Dome, which was built in the late 19th century as a symbol that Berlin, can have some illustrious architecture like it's older counterparts. Built in neo-classical style, the Berlin Dome is a beautiful church with magnificent views of Berlin. It looks really old, but is in fact no more than 100 years old, especially after the major reconstruction done after WWII bombings caved in parts of the dome and destroyed some of the outside.
The tour ended just near the Berlin Dome and our guide told the passionate and awe inspiring story of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. To put it shortly, the wall only fell because Germany was unprepared for an international press conference, they gave the speaker an old draft of the speech, and left him high and dry to deal with questions. When he announced the opening of travel between East and West Berlin, he was questioned: when, how long, and why? He had no other thing to say, immediately, indefinitely, and for the sake of Germany. It was that night that the Wall Fell and 30,000 East Berliners flooded the streets of West Berlin for a three-day celebration. And on Monday morning, they went back to work, for a new day and a new country.
When the tour ended, we made our way back to the hostel, checked into our room, where we had some Serbian people with us, and we got ready for dinner. We ate at a Mexican restaurant, which wasn't too bad, and then headed to bed for the night. We were exhausted. Berlin was a great city, and after the tour, we had our plans set for the next day--full of sight-seeing. +Reason I like Berlin: International food, international people, big city to give us things to do for three days, and good beer!+
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