SO...Berlin. When Maren, Allison and I were planning out our schedule in January, we'd decided on a weekend for Germany, but as that date came closer plans changed. Planes were expensive, trains were even more expensive, so nobody wanted to go. I found an overnight bus ticket for a decent price, but still had nobody to go with me. I was worried about traveling alone because of the general atmosphere of paranoia I was raised in, but after talking to Christine who went to Vienna alone and had a wonderful (and safe) time, I decided to do it. I booked my hostel and my bus ticket Wednesday night and left late Thursday night. I'm sick of being so afraid of the world and I've been trying to live more fearlessly. Of course bad things happen, but they're few and far between, that's why they're on the news, because they're rare. I felt like traveling alone was something I had to do as part of my process of overcoming my ingrained fear.
The bus ride to Berlin was not bad at all, I didn't sleep much, but I didn't expect to. I'd looked up directions to my hostel before I left, so getting there was no problem. I had planned to check-in and change since I was wearing the same clothes as the day before, but check-in wasn't until 2, so I just put my luggage in the luggage room and headed out. I got a big pastry and a coffee and made my way to Alexanderplatz, formerly part of East Berlin. They have this big TV tower there, but it was pretty cloudy so I couldn't see the top of it very well. I based my trip iternerary off my Europe travel book, it said that the church in Alexanderplatz was free and I'm all about free things. As I've said before, I'll never get sick of old European churches, and I'm still the only person who feels that way. What did I do after exploring this church? Explored another church, of course! The Berliner Dom, or, the Berlin Cathedral. It was HUGE and beautiful. After Italy, I've just grown accustomed to thinking that every church I enter is Catholic, but the Berliner Dom is protestant. It was interesting to see the differences from Catholic churches, they had statues of prominent figures in the reformation like Luther and Calvin and as my audio guide informed me, the only old testament figure in the church was David. I got to go up into the dome, too, which you never seem to get to do in these big old domed churches. After the dome, the tour takes you down into the crypt where a number of Prussian kings' tombs are. I found that the chronology of the Prussian monarchy is difficult to follow, since the only names are Friedrich, Wilhelm and Friedrich Wilhelm, that's just confusing, thank goodness I'll never be tested on it. That was the end of my church explorations. On to Checkpoint Charlie.
The metro system in Berlin was a little confusing at times because they didn't always have maps showing the stations between where you were and the end of the line. My hostel map was helpful in this aspect, it drew lines between metro stops, but it still didn't say what the end of the lines were...despite all this though, I never had any major difficulties using the u-bahn and only found myself going the wrong direction once. Anyways, I took the u-bahn to Checkpoint Charlie. They had this big informational wall in the area with stories about the Berlin Wall on it in German AND English. Berlin was a very English-friendly city overall. At one point, I walked over a brick line in the road, I wouldn't have noticed it if other people hadn't been talking about it. It marked where the Wall used to be, there was a little plaque that read "Berlin Mauer 1961-1989". Walking across that I just thought of how my mom was there 35 years before me when East Berlin was a reality and the Wall was actually there and Checkpoint Charlie was operational. Just seeing that line was really moving. The Haus am Checkpoint Charlie is the museum dedicated to the Wall. I was surprised to find out that it opened before the wall fell. It was really cool to see all the escape attempts throughout the years. If you were the soviets in East Berlin, and saw how many people were trying to escape the government you'd established, wouldn't you take that as a sign that your government kinda sucks? Maybe that's just me...I'd seen a special on the Berlin Wall a while ago, kinda in passing, probably very late at night, so I knew about some of the escape attempts. One man hid people in his car quite a few times, some students dug a hole under the wall, one family made a hot air balloon and actually managed to escape with another family. But amongst all this, I felt really sick and had to sit down for a good 10 minutes. I'd felt sick since the Berliner Dom, but this was pretty bad. After I got up I still didn't feel great and continued to sit down throughout the museum. Once I'd made my way through the museum, I got some 7up from Subway...that just made me feel worse, but I still drank the whole thing for some reason. When I went to bed, I thought I felt better, but apparently not because I sat up in the middle of the night and threw up...in bed...yeah, it was gross. That made the night pretty miserable, because I was wet and cold. The next morning I took a shower and felt slightly better, but still not great. Oh well, I'm not going to let illness spoil my trip.
I started my day with the East Side Gallery, which is pretty much just a long section of the Wall that's still standing. I actually found the brick line more moving than the actual wall, which is odd, but maybe that's because the brick was my first interaction with it. Either way, it was strange to think about life back then, and how the wall was still standing during my life, not for very long, but still within my lifetime. Next I headed off to the Topographie des Terrors, which had to do with the 3rd Reich and WWII. Berlin's seen a lot of difficult times in its day. At some point during all this, I realized that my hostel was in the former East Berlin, 30 years ago I would never have even thought of staying in that area but now it's just the same as West Berlin, still boggles my mind. I had my hopes up that the Topographie des Terrors would be an indoor thing, it wasn't. They're working on creating a building for it, though. It was just a series of informational posters and pictures describing life during that time. Apparently 3rd Reich headquarters were in a palace built in the 1700s by one of those Prussian kings. It was bombed severly during the war and then completely demolished afterwards. There were informational signs throughout Berlin explaining what building used to be in that spot. I was always disappointed when the building wasn't there anymore, but I suppose keeping Hitler's bunker from being vandalized to the point of destruction would be pretty impossible, and he'd deserve it. I walked down to the Brandenburger Tor and then completely out of my way to take a picture of a statue of Friedrich (Frederick) the Great that was in my tour book and then back to the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). It used to be in no-man's land but today I can pass under it freely. Another one of the many things that made me think of my mom wandering around Berlin 35 years ago (yep mom, it was that long ago) and how different it was then. I proceded to wander through Tiergarten, which used to be stocked with boars and other game and used as a hunting ground back in the day, now it's just an expansive park. Tiergarten was a lot bigger than I expected, I reached this big obelisk in the center of a massive roundabout, I know it has a fancy name and purpose but I don't know either, and made my way to the nearest u-bahn station to head to Schloss Charlottenburg.
Schloss Charlottenburg was Sophie-Charlotte, the first queen of Prussia's summer home. I learned that schloss means palace in German. No pictures allowed inside and they monitored you very closely. The best room was the china room, it had vertical stripes of mirrors all the way around and was filled with china of all shapes and purposes. There were jugs, if you can call them that, the size of my pinky to jars that reached my waist and a whole lotta plates of varying sizes as well. The Germans really loved chinese things. The palace also had a legitimate church inside it, complete with organ. Next I hopped back on the u-bahn to see the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis-Kirche, which they left unrestored after the bombing raids of WWII. I can't imagine living somewhere in the midst of a bombing raid, how awful and utterly terrifying. The church was definitely cool to see and I managed to get in right before it closed, there wasn't much to see inside anyways. I headed back towards the Brandenburger Tor to see the Reichstag after. The Reichstag building houses some other government something these days, it was on one of the many informational signs I encountered in Berlin. The highlight of going to the Reichstag is this big glass dome you can walk inside, but of course, it had closed that day for maintenance, I could've gone the day before and it would've been open, but no. Oh well, I still got to explore the rooftop for a while and marvel at the dome. By the time I got back to my hostel, I was actually hungry for the first time since the previous morning. I finished off the pastry I'd bought. I was very happy to feel better.
My European cell phone does this weird thing where I have to activate the alarm after I set the time for it to work, I must've forgotten to do that because I woke up much later than I'd planned to (still at a very reasonable hour though, thank you very much). However, this would come back to haunt me later. Anyways, I headed out to Potsdam to see some more palaces. First was Sanssouci, "without care" in French...don't ask me why this German palace has a French name, either way, it's beautiful. Again, no pictures allowed. My favorite room in this palace was the last room, a bedroom decorated with 3D flowers and animals all over. It reminded me of my brother's room because it was yellow and kinda jungle themed and his walls are yellow and there's a jungle-themed border. If I was a guest in Sanssouci, I definitely would've chosen to sleep in that room. Afterwards I had lunch, thankful to be well enough to eat and have an appetite. I got a bratwurst, potatoes and gruhwein, which was a "hot wine punch" and delicious, gruhwein everyday, please. This was at a booth of sorts, not high quality but still German and good and not too pricey. I was happy. I explored sanssouci park for a bit, there are palaces scattered throughout it, most of which are only open during the summer. Fun fact: Friedrich the Great had artificial ruins built to house the reservoir for the fountains in the park. Nicer to look at than a water tower, I suppose. Walking through the park it hit me that this was my history. My not so distant ancestors were German, they lived and breathed in Germany and I was there. That's another reason I decided to go to Berlin, it was important to me to get in touch with my family history like that and Belgium is adjacent to Germany, how could I NOT go? My dad likes to pretend like he's not German and just all Italian, but that's just not fair. First of all father, you enjoy brats and beer, both of which are pretty German (I've talked to people who don't even know what brats are...inconceivable) and second of all, ignoring half your heritage is just disrespectful AND our Italian ancestors probably lived super close to GERMAN speaking Austria since Grandma said her parents spoke Italian and GERMAN to eachother. Mother, why don't you ever talk about Germany, you were there. You're always like "poor me, you went to Italy and I stayed home" and I felt bad until I remembered that you went to Germany in high school, and I only remembered very recently. BUT, the point is, my heritage is largely German and I am very thankful I got to experience part of that culture first hand.
One more palace before calling it a day, the Neues Palais, New Palace. I really liked the exterior of this palace, it was the largest palace yet, red brick and covered in statues at the ground level. Inside we had to wear these big slippers that went over our shoes. Again, of course, no pictures. My favorite room this time was the grotto room, I'll call it. It was a big hall with horizontal stripes of minerals, like a mosaic of really fancy rocks. I've never seen anything like it. After a pleasant day, the best yet, I was destined for failure.
I said my failed alarm would haunt me, WELL, I thought I had enough time to get back from Potsdam, grab my luggage from the hostel and make my 7:15 bus. I was very wrong. If I had woken up when I'd planned to, I probably would've made my bus. I was hoping the bus would be late, and the book I had from the bus company made it seem like another bus would be leaving at 9:15. No, of course not. So, what now? I figured I had two options, either catch a train back to Brussels that night or go back to the hostel, book another night and take the bus back the next night. The first was definitely the more desirable plan, I had no desire to arrive in Brussels at 6am and then go to class at 11:30. During this process, I just wanted to burst into tears, I was so angry at myself, I've never wanted to go home (home being Brussels in this scenario) so much before in my life. This was the one and only time I got messed up on the metro during my trip and I ended up going back and forth on the s-bahn a number of times. Allison called in the midst of this and it was so nice to hear a familiar voice. Honestly, traveling alone hadn't been as rewarding as I'd hoped. I proved to myself I could do it and it was safe, and I did manage to problem solve through my epic fail, but there was just something missing the whole time. I don't know if it was something about Berlin or something about me but the remainder of my weekends in Europe won't be spent alone. Anyways, I finally found the train station and by that time I had NO intention of going back to option two, I was going home as soon as possible. Allison looked up trains after I told her I'd missed my bus and said there were trains leaving around midnight, so that was the plan. I had to sit in the station for a good 2.5 hours, and it was cold, but I had reading for school to do, so I managed. The train was late, of course, but it was mostly empty and I could charge my phone (which had died during my conversation) and I actually got some sleep. However, they don't announce when they arrive at stations at all, so I was pretty paranoid I was going to miss my stop and kept waking up. I didn't miss it, and even though the train left 20 minutes late we got into the station exactly as scheduled, dunno how we made up those 20 minutes. I had 3 short layovers during this trip but I didn't have any problems with them.
I was so happy to be home. I hadn't shed a tear through that whole experience, but the closest I came was when I arrived home after everything. It was pretty awful and definitely puts a black mark on Berlin. My tour book says that Berlin is not a very German city, having been there I understand exactly what it means. I really want to see more of Germany now, especially Bavaria, and some castles, German castles are the best. Alas, I have no time left this semester to do so. I'm still glad I got to experience part of it, though.
Next weekend: Bruges
There's a movie about Bruges, "In Bruges", starring Collin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes, if you like "Fargo", you'd probably like it. Another ISA trip. Bruges is supposed to be "the Venice of the north". My trip was complete with boat ride on the canals and a horse drawn carriage ride. We also climbed a series of narrow sprial staircases to the top of the belfry tower. I love gorgeous views from high-up vantage points and I was not disappointed. We saw an old church they used as a hospital and another with a statue by Michelangelo in it. Allison had a friend from home and Dallin had a friend who'd studying near Geneva visiting so they both came with. The night before our host family made a huge Indonesian dinner for all of us and it was AMAZING by all accounts. Back to the point, Bruges was lovely, but I preferred Ghent. However, I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that it was sunny in Ghent and overcast in Bruges. After Berlin, I was happy to have a relaxed weekend without planning and extensive traveling anyways.
With Allison and Kreesta in Geneva this past week and Maren in Dublin, and Regina, Rachel and Dallin not being drinkers I had no idea what I was going to do for St. Patrick's Day. I had no plans to get drunk, but I had to go out for the first time I could legally drink on a holiday dedicated to drinking. Thank goodness for my Bentley friends, I had people to go out with. At one point during the evening, they invented Beerga, a game where you stack as many coasters as widely as possible on top of a beer glass and you basically play jenga with them. It was entertaining to watch. Plus, the boys were wearing ridiculous hats. All in all, it was a fun night and I was glad I got to go out, even though St. Patrick's Day is not a big deal in Belgium at all. Understandable, since I doubt many Belgians have an Irish heritage, but I've never seen so little green on that day in my life.
You might forget I have school amidst all this, (psh, school) but we just had midterms. I thought I'd done better than I was graded in two of my classes, the other two were exactly what I expected, one good the other eh (history is hard, my brain doesn't work like that). My grades don't transfer back to Creighton, as long as I get a C, I get the credit for the course. The grading system here is in my favor too, 85%-100% is an A and I'm pretty sure 81%-84% is an A-, but that just makes me feel worse about my midterms really. I like to tell myself that the profs grade with this system in mind, so they think "this is B work" and grade accordingly and if I was in the states I get the same grade and not the same percent...yes, that makes me feel better. I'm so ready to be done with school, not ready for the real world, not at all, but definitely ready for school to be over.
Sorry for another extremely long post, but at least I'm no Kant here.
-Lauren :)
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