BERLIN, a side trip amidst a week in Prague.
Although our time in Berlin was very short, less than a day and half, I really enjoyed the opportunity to explore this vibrant center of culture and all things artistic, a modern city with quite the past, a place where the east and west may be united but still remain distinct. I can be a bit of a history junky, therefore having the opportunity to visit one of the prime spots of action during much of the 20th century. Here's a little recap of my short but important experience.
First things first, Berlin was quite COLD. Seriously, I'm pretty sure it dropped to freezing the first night--a stark difference from my sunny and hot Sevilla. We had a few layers, but it really wasn't doing the trick, especially with the blowing wind. After our 5 hour train ride from Prague, we were all a little tired, so we spent the first night doing a minimal amount of exploring and grabbing dinner--preparing ourselves for the next day of exploration. Much like Prague, we did a free walking tour in Berlin as well, hitting up all of the main spots like Brandenburg Gate, Hotel Adlon aka the hotel MJ dangled his baby out of, the Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, and much more. I also secured my first German bratwurst during our tour break...it was truly fantastic (and this is coming from someone who refuses to eat hot dogs. REFUSES.) Our Aussie tour guide was fantastic and really passionate about the heritage of the city and the current vibrance Berlin exudes, despite not being a native. Although a lot of the tour focused on several of the negative aspects of Berlin/Germany's history--WWII, Hitler, Communism, the East/West divide, it was really important to me to have the experience of seeing the history first hand, kind of putting it in its place. At one point, we stood where Hitler's bunker formerly resided and it was incredibly eerie. The place is now a parking lot for some apartment buildings--apparently not even many Berliners of the current generation know that this was the spot where they found him dead. It proved to be some of the greatest evidence of the movement to destroy the terrible past and definitely was a very poignant part of the tour for me.
After our tour ended, the girls and I continued our walk through the east side and made our way to the East Side Gallery, a mural project displayed on a remaining 1.3 km stretch of the Berlin Wall. 100 or more artists created works that display sentiments of hope, freedom and peace, among things. This was probably my favorite part of Berlin, mostly because I am always fueled by others' creative pursuits. It's a truly unique way to memorialize the events that separated the city, but in a more positive and creative way. Walking along the stretch and reading/looking at the artists' words and pictures was truly captivating--if I had to pick a favorite, it would have been impossible. After our journey along the gallery, we grabbed some coffee and decided to take the Bahn, Berlin's metro system, back to our hostel (considering we were dead on our feet). Luckily the first train was above ground and let us look out at more of Berlin--although it was really neat to see more of the "hip" neighborhoods of the city, it made me wish I could have stayed longer. That night, we kept things generally quite again, considering we had to be up at 5 am for our train back to Prague. We grabbed some Doner Kebab with a fellow bunkmate from Cologne and finished up the night with a sampling of delicious cakes from a nearby cafe. I really enjoyed getting to know Sebastian and talk him about everything, including a lot of things about Germany I would otherwise have no idea about. Although our time in Berlin passed all too quickly, I am very glad that I had a chance to explore a taste of this intriguing city--next time, I want to make sure I milk the city's underground/artistic culture for all it is worth!
East Side Gallery
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