After an emotionally charged day at Auschwitz, we headed off to Berlin that Friday evening for a weekend of partying! After about a 5 hour drive (and our trusty GPS back with us, since it didn't work in Poland), we reached the city of Berlin. We quickly got settled into our hostel, and headed off to see the nightlife.
Gary, Mana and Sahil spent a little while trying to figure out how to buy train tickets, but after several failed attempts and a train approaching, just hopped onto the train, effectively bypassing Berlin's honor system. Oops. We headed to the center of the city, where we grabbed some dinner at Hackescher Markt (which we affectionately named Hacky-sack Market). After a heavy meal, and a couple of beers, there was no way we were ready to go out. Exhausted after an 18 hour day, which included almost 10 hours of driving by Sahil, we all went home and crashed, gearing up for a big day on Saturday.
On Saturday, we woke up fairly early and headed out to city center to do one of the much-revered free Berlin city walking tours. Our tour guide spent the better of the next six hours describing to us the history of Berlin and showing us all the amazing things the city has to offer. Mana and Sahil were both amazed at how much the city of Berlin has been through and how much history is present there. It was incredible to see the significant impact that both world wars and the cold war had on Berlin! We started the day by walking through Pariser Platz and the Brandenberg Gate. Our tour guide explained to us that the statue at the top of the gate is looking slightly to the left to keep an eye on the French (it was oddly situated in a way that the statue was staring directly at the French embassy!). We next headed off to see the Reichstag building, which is the Parliament building in Berlin. We were told stories about how Hitler came to power, and how he ransacked the Reichstag building to establish a dictatorship. After that, we were taken to the Holocaust Memorial, which is an abstract memorial that is open to interpretation. It was quite sentimental, and has been put in Berlin to remind the people of that horrendous period. Right after that (and in interesting order), we were taken to Hitler's bunker, which is now a parking lot! You can not see it since bombs were dropped into his bunker, but it was basically a sealed bunker 5 meters below the ground. We then took a break, and grabbed some lunch on the tour.
While the morning was dedicated to much of the history in World War I and II, the afternoon was mostly dedicated to the Cold War. We started by seeing the Berlin Wall, which, given it's amazing history, is quite underwhelming. While we were expecting to see a huge wall, the wall itself was only about 10 feet high. What we were told, however, is that there was barbed wire and two other walls, with tower posts full of soldiers ready to shoot, when the wall was actually in use. We really got a sense of how hard it must have been to be trapped in East Berlin, and all the challenges people faced in being separated from family on the other side of the wall. We also had a chance to see Checkpoint Charlie, one of the most famous posts where the Cold War almost turned into a full-scale war. Soviets on one side, and the US on the other, ready with tanks lining the streets.
We finished the tour with the university where Albert Einstein taught (a building which looked more like a castle than a university) and Museum Island, where many famous Berlin museums are located. After a long day of sightseeing, we were ready for some beers! With the advice of our tour guide, we found a nice beer hall and had some beers with friends that we had made on the tour. After a few beers, we all split up, with Gary, Sahil and Mana continuing to walk around the city. We attempted to go up the Reichstag, but unfortunately the line was very long line, even late at night. We ended up just hanging out, and then met up with our friends again for a Pub Crawl through Berlin! Many Jager shots and steins of beer later, we headed home, preparing for a long drive the next day.
And with that, we concluded our trip. After a 10 hour drive home (quite a stretch for Sahil) and a 2 hour trip from the airport to our house (French union strikes, as usual, on the rails), we finally made it home for another week of "school." Having driven 4,000 km through 9 countries in 9 days, we felt like we really took advantage of exploring Europe during our Spring Break!
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