It took me quite a while to finally write this post, but 2 weekends ago I took a trip with Lyndsey and Theresa (2 girls who also go to Wisconsin) to Berlin, Germany. We left very very early on saturday morning and returned tuesday around noon. It was such a blast, and it was much different than Paris. The city is so interesting because of its history but what I found so interesting was the fact that its history haunted its inhabitants. Many of the Berliners we spoke to were overly nice and willing to talk in English (something that doesn't happen as often for non French speakers in Paris!)
We took the "Third Reich" tour which was about 4 hours long and took us through the heart of the city seeing all the major sites (Brandenberg Gate, Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, Museuminsel, the TV tower needle, etc.) but it was mainly focused on the history of Hitler's rise to power and the creation of his Third Reich government. First of all, it was very interesting to hear this from the German point of view but it was also very informative in the fact that I learned things about the government I had never known previously. The next day we went to the DDR museum which is basically a museum on what life was like in East Berlin when it was split between '63 and '89. It didn't look as gloomy in the pictures as I had heard previously but our hostel was far into the old "East" Berlin and traces are still very visible mainly in the architecture. All of the apartment buildings and flats were the same size, the same color, etc. Everything was standardized. It's certainly getting much more modern looking and merging with the West but the divide is still quite evident. We also saw the Jewish museum, which was a VERY good museum that is similar to the Holocaust Museum in DC except it covers the history of Jewish people in Germany and in greater Europe.
Because 90 percent of the city was destroyed in 1945 in the final siege of Berlin by the British and Americans flanking from the west and the Soviet Union converging from the East, many of the buildings of Nazi Germany no longer remain but there are still some that are visible. The wall is also still visible in a few places with a whole outdoor exhibition dedicated to the time period when Berlin was split into East and West. I found the Checkpoint Charlie (the checkpoint between the American sector of Berlin and the Soviet sector of Berlin) museum very interesting as well. The history of this checkpoint is immense as the two superpowers were literally facing each other from about 100 metres away from each other. Some of the most interesting stories are those of how people attempted to get out of East Germany into the West. Some tried to dig under the wall, some tried to run and hop over the wall (not usually a good strategy as Soviet guard towers lined the wall at close intervals, some tried to parachute over, some tried to hide in cars and go through the checkpoint (this worked some time but was obviously very risky.) as well as many, many more.
I also must say that the food in Germany was awesome. It was cheaper than Paris by about 50 percent and it was by far less bread and pastries. What I really liked was the Weiner Schnitzel, Bratwurst, Currywurst, Saurkraut, and of course the German beers sold at every corner of the city.
In the end I really enjoyed this trip, my first depart from Paris since I've been living here, greatly. It was a very unique experience and although a lot of the history was oral because the buildings no longer stand and the schism no longer exists between east and west, it was an eye opening experience for me. Also, I picked up a few German phrases and words as well, I find it to be a fun language to speak and listen to because it is pretty much the opposite of French in that it is quite choppy with very hard sounds. It was definitely a good change of pace for me, and I was impressed with the Germans that I met as well!
Anyway, I hope all is going well back in the States, the Europeans are really invested in the Primaries so I'm hearing all about them. I missed O'bama and Clinton campaigning in Madison but was able to watch Obama's speech in front of the 20,000 students and supporters in the Kohl Center on Youtube. I think it would have been very fun to have been at; he certainly knows how to public speak!
Mickey - Feb. 15
