We arrived easily and on-time to Berlin Thursday evening after a layover in Düsseldorf. We landed on an icy runway covered with newly fallen snow, and walked on the tarmac into the warmth of the airport. The flight over was gorgeous as we crossed over the Pyrenees. Here are a few shots from the flight from Barcelona to the first airport:
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| Heavenly |
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| Plane ride filled with ski fantasies |
From there, we spent some time wandering back and forth searching for the train that would take us into the city center. After a bit, we found our train, and took the half hour ride to Friedrichstraße station, and then the U-bahn to Naturkundemueseum where our hostel, Mittes Backpacker, was located.
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| Response to my: 1, 2, 3...Work it! |
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| The reception area and bar with Alyssa, Tamar, and Joanna |
We were instantly greeted by the cozy reception area, loaded with a full kitchen, bar, lounge area with a t.v. and Christmas tree, and a crazy guy who worked there named Oscar. Now, I won't go into too much detail about this dude, but he was a 45 year old man born in Argentina, raised in Germany who I am pretty sure was drunk 24/7 off of the conveniently located mini bar next to his desk, and had the mouth of a sailor. He was extremely arrogant and difficult but HILARIOUS. One of the girls I traveled with, Tamar, was robbed at the hostel while she was showering and had left her money belt on the inside hanger, full of her passport, residency card, 300 euro, and keys. In this situation Oscar was so helpful in trying to do everything he could to help her, including giving her an extra night for free at the hostel while she tried to sort things out at the American consulate the next day. We called him Uncle Oscy, and almost every time we entered the reception area to cook something or get a drink at the bar, we were greeted by: "YOU BASTARDS! HOW THE HELL ARE YOU?" with arms outstretched and a big, drunken smile. He definitely made our visit that much more memorable :)
So the first night, we settled into our 9-bed hostel (we had 6 of the beds, the last two nights there was a girl from Finland and two girls from Spain) which was one of many themed rooms--pretty much the reason I chose this hostel. We didn't get one of the coolest themes, ours was "Mad Men" or something like that, just painted green with lots of depressing poetry quotes in a bunch of different languages. But, we did get to see other rooms which were painted and decorated awesomely--like for instance there was a 4 elements room, a Garden of Eden room, and an Indian room.
That night we walked around the neighborhood (Mitte) which was really close to Friedrichstraße where there are tons of shops and restaurants, but right by our hostel there weren't many options for dinner at 11:30pm, so we found a yummy Indian restaurant which let us stay until a bit after midnight. We went back to bed afterwards, and woke up bright and early to hit up those highly-anticipated Christmas markets!!
I couldn't have imagined a more picture-perfect setting for the markets. There were dozens across the city, of all different sizes, prices, and customers. We went to a range of them, actually every single one that we could find, and several more than once. There was one right near Humboldt University that was quite typical, with stands of ornaments, handcrafts, candies, Glühwein (hot mulled wine), Bratwurst, brezels, and heiße schokolade (hot chocolate--the first translation I made sure to know before arriving). Each stand was beautifully decorated with lights, wreaths, and globe ornaments which were covered in dripping icicles. Although we all had on leggings and tights beneath our jeans, 2 or 3 pairs of socks under fur-lined winter boots, hats, multiple pairs of gloves, wool scarves and 10 layers under giant snow jackets, the cold was hard to keep out and an immediate solution was necessary. Queue: buttery, delicious, fatty treats. Honestly that was the best way to stay warm. Every now and then we took a stop at a bratwurst vendor, or a stand with warm candied almonds covered in every possible sugar/butter related topping you can image, or a booth with warm brezels. The food was yummy, and cheap too. Our three meals each day came from vendors, and so with that we had the most typical and delicious of German food. Here are some pictures from this particular market:
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| Cozy looking stop, so... |
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| First tastes of Glühwein! I must have been in Spain for too long because the first thing I thought of was "Hot Sangria!" |
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| Bratwürst stands everywhere you look! |
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| First try...much better than I thought and amazing break from the cold |
Then we continued on to the next market, which was very nearby, in between the two main churches and the concert hall. This market had a 1 euro entry charge and was quite a bit more posh. It was so crowded with people of all ages laughing, toasting their glühwein, and shopping for their loved ones, you couldn't help but feel warmed to the core in the middle of an icy December evening.
Here, we stopped at a tempting little booth with an outdoor wooden oven cooking a bread/pizza thing that smelled like heaven and as I passed by a huddle of old ladies holding on tightly to their steaming dinners I couldn't help but pop into the line. It was a piece of hand-made bread with melted raclette cheese, pieces of ham and sprinkled chives. It completely scalded the roof of my mouth but warmed and filled me up!
Some of the other markets were more geared towards children, and went heavy on the amusement park theme. There were some markets that were more like the California State Fair with a few schnitzel stops here and there. Although we walked at a much quicker pace through these types, a few friends and I couldn't resist when we saw a giant hill of snow in the middle of the market that you could inter-tube down. Four of us paid 1 euro each and lugged our inter-tubed up to the top, then all held hands and screamed all the way down to the bottom! Here are some photos from that market:
Here are a few other pictures from walking around all day:
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| Ice clumps floating in the river, brrr! |
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The next day we included what was most important in any trip to Berlin: a historical tour of the city. What I know about the city I know from history books, and not much else. My impression of Berlin as a whole was not very developed, but as a center for WWII, it was quite clear. Our free walking tour began at the Brandenburg Tor.
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| Christmas decoration in front of Brandenburger Tor |
Our guide was a young man named Paulo and he took us throughout many of the main historical sights of Berlin in just under 4 hours. Immediately once the tour had begun and we walked under the gate to the other side of the street for a better view of the Reichstag, he informed us that we had just made the cross from East Berlin into the West, which, as recently as 21 years ago would have been nearly impossible.
From there we walked to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial was designed by architect Peter Eisenman and consists of 2,711 concrete blocks, one for each page of the Talmud (an important text in Judaism pertaining to Jewish laws, ethics and philosophies). As the designer intended, there are no signs nor descriptions around the sight with numbers, figures or explanations. Eisenman did so in order to provoke a personal response from each visitor, so that the passerby can't simply walk through the memorial, read a slab with dates and figures and then "check it off" the list. Instead, you are prompted to form your own thoughts and ideas about what the memoiral represents to you. Some say the slabs represent a cemetary, others believe they resemble guards, others see the opposite: lines of prisoners, others (and this is the one I most identified with) believe that by the way the memorial is designed--appearing level from the street, but as soon as you enter the endless rows you find the blocks grow higher and higher very quickly to the point where you feel engulfed, overwhelmed, and somewhat lost, represent the drastic changes in history of Germany and how events quickly escalate without warning, leading to such a horrific end that seemed to progress at an unimaginable speed. As I walked through the memorial, I was separated from my group and felt the stark cold of being surrounded by a maze of concrete. I slowly paced past block after block and the feeling of grief and anger and fear became overwhelming, because finally the dark history of this city was staring me in the face, surrounding me, and had become real and tangible. In the background I heard the voices of children playing a game of tag throughout the maze, and giggling and laughing. It was a strange juxtaposition that both confused me and brought such a strong emotional response. Here is the memorial:
The next stop of the tour was what is now nothing more than a parking lot. However, where we stood was above the bunkers where Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide in 1945. Now, the area looks like any average car park, with apartment buildings surrounding. This was where the tour took us:
Then we saw the last remaining Nazi building in Berlin, which was once the Ministry or Aviation and now is the city tax office, so like our tour guide said, still the most hated building in Berlin. After this we walked to a stretch of the Berlin Wall, the second longest to still stand. Here is a photo:
On this part of the tour, we learned about all of the reasons that led the the construction of the wall, and what that meant to Europe for the time it stood, and now how the city has continued on. From here we went to Checkpoint Charlie, which isn't much of anything now and is really just a tourist trap, so we didn't spend more than a brief second there.
Next, we walked through Bebelplatz Square where Humboldt University stands. The University in which famous students such as Albert Einstein, Karl Marx and the Grimm brothers attended. Here was also the location of a massive book burning in 1933 of about 20,000 titles all which had been named "un-German". Now, in the center of the square is a glass window into an underground bookshelf, stark white and completely empty with the quote by Heinrich Heine: "Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings". This quote was from nearly a century before the book burnings took place, where his books, along with the others, were thrown into the fire.
The last stop on the tour was to the Nueu Wache, the Museum to the Victims of War and Tyranny. Here is one building in which the only thing that stands is a statue entitled: "Mother with her Dead Son". Above it is an oculus which exposes the piece to the elements, in this case, falling snow that delicately and powerfully covered the sculpted bodies with a sheet of white, making this memorial all the more chilling.
The next day we went to the East Side Gallery: the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall which still stands and is covered in over 100 paintings by artists from all over the world. It was painted on the East Side of the Wall in 1990 and was just recently restored in the past couple of years after it had been badly vandalized and destroyed by erosion. Here are some of my favorite pieces:
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| One of the most recognizable pieces: kissing Communist leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker |
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| A break in the wall showed the freezing river and rundown buildings on the other side |
Later that day we went to the Tiergarten, a huge urban park in the center of Mitte, and right next to the Reichstag. I have seen breathtaking photos of the park, and we had grand plans to explore it. However, there is a powerful bit of information that we found out quite quickly on our walk. When we were well into the the Tiergarten Joanna anxiously asked when we were going to get there. That's when we came to the solid conclusion: Everything looks basically the same when it is under 3 feet of snow. From there, we headed to the more recognizable sites that Berlin had to offer.
We also had plans to go inside the Reichstag, the house of parliament in Germany.
But, as a response to the recent terrorist threats aimed at the city, all of the main government buildings were closed off to the public, and guarded by soldiers with AK-47 strapped to their chests. We found this to be a familiar sight: the train stations, metro stops, airport terminals, etc. Recently a bomb headed to Chicago was mailed through the Berlin airport, and just yesterday, a few hours after we departed from Schönefeld, there was a bomb threat that caused the evacuation of a plane headed to Moscow. It is a horrible thing when we are driven by fear, and constantly made to feel uneasy and suspicious. I refuse to take part in this, but it isn't so easy to ignore when traveling, and we definitely noticed it everywhere we went. We found the same in Paris two weeks ago when we walked to the Eiffel Tower and to go to the bathroom passed 5-10 armed guards standing at the door! It's quite scary to the regular citizens and tourists, and certainly created a tense and fearful experience at times.
Well enough of that talk. That night we went to our last Christmas Market at enjoyed a lovely Bratwürst while listening to a performance of English Christmas carols sung in very heavy German accents.
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| This was at 4pm! It got dark so early! |
Then we walked home through a beautiful snow fall and admired all of the Christmas lights. Later, our whole group rejoined and we went out for a festive, traditional German dinner.
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| Falling snow on Friedrichstraße |
Now that I am home in 70 degree Barcelona and can feel my feet again, I am left thinking about all of the fantastic things I have seen and how much I learned in 4 short days. I really love Berlin, it is a beautiful city, and although it has seen a vicious and disturbing past, the history is displayed throughout the city to remind and teach people, and to do anything but cover it up.
The people that we meant were some of the friendliest, and the food, some of the most delicious. Being in Germany right before Christmas is the best way to feel connected with the actual holiday and eliminate the Hallmark crap that seems to overbear the core traditions of this season.
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| Alyssa and I warming up with some heiße schokolade |
We were surrounded by families, friends, and strangers all happy to share a space heater over a cup of mulled wine, and I have never felt more Christmas spirit or eagerness to spend this time with the ones I love. I will be home in 10 short days and I can't wait to see you all.
Love, Meghan
