BERLIN, BABY!
I was lucky enough to start off my November in one of the cultural meccas of Europe, the capitol of Germany.
I have to say that I learned a lot more on our trip than I had expected too. Our journey started off with a serious of connecting train rides up to the city. On one hand, it happened to be snowing, which was pretty uncommon for that time of the year, and the scenery was spectacular and something I will hopefully never forget. There was also a lack of seating on the train, (which actually seems to occur more than often on the Deutsche Bahn system) so we got pretty cozy with our neighbors, and made some interesting conversation. On the other hand, it seemed almost somberly, riding through what was formerly known as The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. It was like another country, belonging more in East Europe than West. I guess that I hadn’t learned much about the Cold War, or even the situation in Germany until this trip. It has been about 23 years since the unification of the German states, but the mark of the GDR is still here, for one example, in the architecture. As soon as we left Bavaria, and started to travel through Thüringen and Sachsen, the buildings started to become more conformed and monotonous. The same goes to show in Berlin. From the top of the Fernsehturm, the west has a look like any old European city, but the east side stands in stark contrast with white concrete block structures.
What I find to be the most astounding, is that the communistic state of Germany was not in the distant past like almost all history we learn about, but in fact was happening in the time of my parents childhood in America; or to be even more relative, the childhood of all adults in Germany today. I cannot even begin to try to imagine what that life was like. Everyone here must have a story to tell.
Anyways, we had more than enough time to do all types of touristic things in Berlin, including:
-The Brandenburg Gate
-The Crossing light men, or Ampelmänchen, because in East Berlin they are different than anywhere else in the world.
-The amount of Russian influence in the town, I found that to be pretty cool
-Charlottenberg, where we stayed thanks to relatives of the König family.
-And Mr. Joachim Gauck, the Federal President of Germany, who never receives any credit thanks to Angie Merckel, but he does, in fact, stand in the highest position of the German Government. He is also a great guy, from my understandings.
-Mr. Righter, my 9th grade history teacher, (and Maddi for reminding me) for teaching us that we are still living in a post-Cold War society.
Berlin had a great vibe, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I though I would, considering I didn’t know too much about the city from the start. Although I am sorry to report that there isn’t much to do on Halloween night up there.
Small Gallery below:
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- Jewish Memorial
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- East
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- West
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- Iconic
Grüße aus Aalen! 