About 4 hours later, we were in Berlin! We went to our hostel, got ready for the evening, and then caught a bus that drives through a lot of the main sights in Berlin. Afterwards, we got some dinner and just hung out at our hostel. The next morning, we met up at went to the Reichstag, the Parliament building. We waited in line for about an hour and a half, most of which was outside in the unexpectedly cold weather.
Once we got inside, we took an elevator to the top (where there is a dome that you can walk around and see most of Berlin from). We got audio tours that explained the stuff we were seeing around the dome. It was pretty interesting and informative, but the cold weather kind of took away from that (I wasn't really dressed properly for it...flip flops do not help keep you warm). Here I am at the top of the Reichstag.
After the Reichstag, we walked toward the Brandenburger Tor to get to the Holocaust Memorial.
The Memorial is very cool - it's a bunch of different sized granite blocks arranged on uneven ground. The different ground level and different heights of the blocks make it somewhat confusing and disorienting when you're walking around it. It's supposed to symbolize the confusion felt by many of the groups discriminated against during the Holocaust. Definitely worth going to if you ever get the chance!
After we got some lunch and were finished meandering around the memorial, we walked toward Potsdamer Platz, which is the main square of Berlin. From there, we walked into the former East Berlin and saw a remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. It was next to the remaining foundation of the old SS Headquarters, which were demolished. It was pretty moving to see a part of the wall that was almost barren (no graffiti, unlike the West Side of the Wall -- West Berliners could walk straight up to the Wall, but East Berliners would be shot if they were anywhere near the Wall).
From there, we went to Checkpoint Charlie, which is the checkpoint for entering and leaving the American Sector of Berlin (from the Russian sector). It's literally in the middle of a busy street, which was somewhat surprising, and of course there were people dressed up as soldier from the 1950-60s playing towards the tourists.
After that, we walked to the "East Side Gallery". It's the longest remaining stretch of wall in Berlin. In 1990, when Germany was reunited, a bunch of artists covered it with their work. In 2009, the same artists came back to the wall and repainted their work so that it stays fresh. Some of the work was awesome - lots of colors and interesting symbolism of freedom. One of my favorites was just a big quote:
After that, the group split up. Some people continued the walking tour of the city, but myself and two others went to the famed Berlin Zoo. The weather had taken a turn for the better at that point and it was quite enjoyable! We saw Knut, the polar bear that was born at the zoo in 2006 (he was way cuter back then, now he just looks like a regular adult polar bear). We saw lots of awesome animals - it was nice to go to a zoo again. It's always a good time! The polar bear below is not Knut, but does he not look like a super happy polar bear?
We met up with the group again for dinner on Kurfürstendamm Straße (the big shopping district of the city) at a pretty cool Italian restaurant. It was definitely a fun time. The next day, we traveled to Potsdam, which is a smaller city just outside of Berlin. It's where the Potsdam Conference took place (between Truman, Churchill, and Stalin). During the conference, the three nations decided how Germany would be divided. Unfortunately, we were unable to see the building where the conference took place because the bus that went there wasn't running on Sundays. But we saw some other cool things! First, we went to a palace called San Souci (French for "Without a Care"), which was modelled after Versailles.
We walked all over the grounds of the palace and found our way to another castle and some buildings belonging to the University in Potsdam, which looked quite similar. From there, we took a bus to the old part of the city which was quite cute and had a lot of restaurants and some good shopping. Unfortunately, Germans take the "day of rest" concept VERY seriously so almost all of the shops were closed (but not restaurants, thankfully). We meandered the town a bit and got some lunch.
After that, we headed back to Berlin and walked a little bit around Kurfürstendamm again, but that wasn't took helpful since everything was closed. We eventually found our way to the Hauptbahnhof and got our train back to Marburg!
Definitely a very full weekend. It was very nice to sleep in this morning and take it slow. This week should be fun - Deutschland plays Ghana in a must-win World Cup game on Wednesday night, which will be fun! It's the first game that we won't be on a train for, so we're all looking forward to watching that. Then on Thursday, we're traveling to Kassal, which is where the Grimm Brothers lived and worked. Then on Friday I'm off to Paris! I'll be sure to update when I can!
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