Berlin

Pictures: 1) Ulee, Eily, Mary-Jo, Me, Noel at our Italian dinner, 2) Noel, Mary-Jo, Me, Emily outside the restauarnt, 3) the arch thing, 4) on the Holocaust Memorial, 5) Me, Emily, Mary-Jo in the TV tower, 6) Emily and me in front of the TV tower, 7) Emily and me in front of the cathedral, 8) with the giraffs, 9) Mary-Jo and me with the flamingos, 10) Mary-Jo and me with the seal fountain, 11) me with the lions, 12) a pic I took in the aqarium

When I arrived in Berlin at 9:30 pm Liana met me at the station. She is the girl I was to stay with through CS. She was very nice and we walked to her flat and then sat in the kitchen talking until about midnight. She told me that the next afternoon (Friday) she would be leaving for the weekend to visit a friend in the countryside, but she would give me her keys and I could stay in her room until I left Sunday. She does have two female flat mates, but still, what trust! The next morning she got up before me for class, and then I headed out around 11:30, taking the S-bahn to the central station looking for an information point. The main station in Berlin is beyond impressive - it is absolutely huge with about five stories and glass elevators and escalators everywhere. However, due to its grandiose scale, it took me about 20 minutes to find the tourist information office. When I got there I heard two girls speaking English and waiting in line with maps to purchase (yes, they cost 1 euro). I asked where they had gotten the maps, and then started talking to them. After our purchases we talked a bit more, and found out that they were from Canada, but one had been studying in Poland and the other in Hamburg for a semester. They decided to meet in the middle (Berlin) for a few days before one flew home and the other traveled around for the summer. They had also just arrived the night before, so I asked if we could all hang out together to see the sights.

First we walked to the parliament house with the big glass dome in the middle. We could have gone inside and probably paid to walk in the glass dome, but we decided to keep moving. Next we saw the arch that represents the unity of East and West Berlin. According to one Berliner (yes, that is what they are called, along with Hamburgers and Frankfurters - not kidding!), the arch is the most important thing in all of Berlin - it is their icon. Well, we took pictures with this icon and moved on. Next we walked to the Holocaust Memorial. It looks a bit like Arlington cemetery, but instead of crosses on grass-covered hills, there are huge cement blocks of varying heights in neat rows on brick-covered rolling hills. Standing in the middle is a bit eerie and gives one the sense of being lost in a labyrinth. Inside kids were running around playing hide-and-go-seek and others were jumping from block to block across the top. I couldn’t decide if this was a good thing (like we have learned from the past and that is why today they are free to be happy and playful) or if was sort of sacrilegious to be playing in a memorial. It reminded me a bit of the new FDR memorial in DC where kids climb all over the blocks and fountains.

From there we walked past a piece of the Berlin wall and took a couple pictures (I’d forgotten to put my memory card back in my camera and thus Mary-Jo and Emily took pics for me). There was a tube station near there, so we took that to Alexanderplatz where this big glass covered piazza is (I think it might be called the Sony center or something). We had lunch there at an Australian restaurant and I had a kangaroo meat wrap. I’d never had kanga meat before, but it was really good. From there we went to the TV tower (which, in my opinion, is the real symbol of Berlin). We bought tickets to go to the top for 10 euros each, and then waited for our time slot at the Starbucks next door.

Mary-Jo, Emily, and I all got along so well - we just talked and talked and I don’t think anyone ever felt like a third wheel. We laughed about getting lost in foreign countries and having local people offering to help us, talked about the different cultures and customs we’d experienced, about Canada, America, all the places we want to go and all the places we’d been. In general, it was just really nice to spend the day with them.

At 5:10 we went to the top of the TV tower and stood in the huge ball on the top looking out the windows at the panoramic view of Berlin. I found one thing very interesting - when you looked out there were many beautiful, red roofed buildings and old churches, etc. until you got to one side where all the buildings looked relatively new, where white, and appeared like office buildings - all the same. I’m thinking this was what used to be East Berlin because so many of their buildings went to ruin during the socialist reign and had to be rebuilt after the wall came down in ‘89.

Berlin is a very politically-active city and very aware of it’s relatively recent history. There are always some sort of demonstrations going on near the arch and most of the newer architecture features a lot of glass creating a very open environment. I feel like the reason for this is to contrast with the times when the socialist government had so many secrets and when political protesters were shut up and never heard from again.

After the TV tower we walked to the main cathedral of Berlin. We paid 3 euros to get in, and it was very beautiful, though rather recently reconstructed (probably like the one in Dresden). We got to climb to the top and there we could walk around the dome on the outside and look at all the people below and got a slightly different view from the TV tower because we were lower.
I have to interrupt my blog for a moment to mention what is going on right now. I’m on a train from Berlin to Wurzburg and there is a woman sitting next to me who smells so bad I am breathing through my mouth, and she picked up the brochure telling about where this train is going and all the connecting trains at each stop etc. which had about 20 panels, and she wrote all over every single flap. Random words and numbers and symbols - even without knowing German, I know it was absolute craziness. When she would finish writing all over one flat (on top of the other words mind you) she would put the pamphlet down, and put her pen away, then three seconds later grab it again and write on another flap. When she finally filled the entire thing with scribble, she tore the whole thing up and put it in her bag. Then she started writing on another pamphlet that only had 4 flaps, so now she had nothing to write on, so she started writing on her arm and then talking to herself. It is really rather freaking me out. I can’t believe I have another 2 hours on the train…I hope she gets off before me.

Anyway, Mary-Jo, Emily, and I didn’t get out of the church until about 7:45 p.m. and then we decided to go to the area where their hostel was to find a place to eat. This may sound easy enough, especially given the number of restaurants around there, but Emily is allergic to: nuts, gluten (which is in wheat), apples, dairy, and is a vegetarian. Thus, she can pretty much only eat potatoes, corn, rice, and vegetables. Germany is all about the bread and meat, so yes, it proved difficult. She eats a lot of Indian food, but that is pretty much the only food I don’t eat since it is all very spicy. Finally we found a place called “Asian Deli” which had meals from all different countries all over the Asian continent. Emily got veggies and rice in some sort of curry sauce. I got chicken in mango sauce with pineapple, green beans, peas, onions and rice. It was very yummy and only 4.90.

After that we went back to Liana’s flat because she texted me saying she left cake for me and I wanted to put the girls’ pictures on my computer.

When we got there I saw that Liana had left a rhubarb and strawberry crumb cake and another cake that looked like cheesecake with oranges on it but tasted like angel-food cake. Both were quite yummy. The girls left for their hostel about 12:45 and I got ready for bed.

The next day I slept in and then met Emily and Mary-Jo at the train station around 2:30 to go to the zoo. The Berlin zoo is supposed to be one of the best in the world. It was 14 euros a piece for students to go to the zoo and the aquarium, but I’m pretty sure Mary-Jo would have paid 50 - she was so excited since she had never been to a zoo before EVER! It was like watching a kid at Disneyworld. I was amazed at how many of the animals both girls had never seen before - I think I’d seen all of them at some point.

We had a good time watching the elephants, giraffes, lions, leopards, apes, monkeys, rhinos, etc. My favorite were the orangutans - they were having so much fun swinging from the ropes and ceiling of their enclosure. There was one guy who was HUGE and looked like he was wearing a Halloween costume. His fur was so long and matted into dreadlocks and really looked like some sort of cape or costume. He also carried a blanket around with him wherever he went. Everyone else deferred to him, you could tell. As Mary-Jo said, they would have to, otherwise he could just sit on them. Lol

After seeing the aquarium, it started a torrential downpour, but there was still an hour until the park closed and we still had things to see, so we kept trudging. After a bit, we seemed to be the only people left in the park. Most of the animals were under shelters, except the African penguins, the seals, and the water birds like the flamingos. We passed the kangaroos and I was saying “jump, jump” but they stayed under their covering. Mary-Jo said they wouldn’t listen to me because I’d just eaten their cousin. As we stood watching the zebras, it started to rain very hard, and they all took off under their shelter as we huddled under our 2 umbrellas. It was now almost 7 pm, so we decided to find the exit. To get back to where we’d entered we had to cross this large puddle. I walked through the grass next to it, but both girls had open toed shoes and didn’t want to go through the grass so they tried to walk along this small curb. Mary-Jo made it, but when she jumped to safety Emily lost her balance and fell into the puddle, almost on her butt, though luckily she managed to only get her feet/shoes wet. As we walked it started raining even harder (which we didn’t think was possible), and we found a little covered shelter to take refuge. We were now all drenched from under the knees down.

We finally made it to the entrance at 7:10, and the gates were all locked. There was a sign that said exit with a moon and stars on it pointing in a different direction, so we figured that must be where you could leave in the evening from, but as we walked, and walked, and walked, the exit did not appear and we started getting a bit nervous. We hadn’t seen another person in quite some time, not even zoo personnel. We discussed the possibility of living out a Night in the Zoo movie (as opposed to Night in the Museum). At long last we reached the exit and escaped. We were supposed to meet two CSers at the main train station at 7:30 to get dinner and hang out, but I had to text the girl and let her know we’d be late. When we arrived, we looked like drowned cats.

Ulee (a girl) and Noel (a guy) were from different parts of Germany, but had come into town to say goodbye to a friend of theirs who was leaving for a year long treck across Russia and the Asian continent. They’d driven 6 hours that morning just to surprise him and see him for 20 minutes before he got on the train. That is friendship right there!
They had been told about a good area for restaurants, so we drove there in Noel’s work BMW (yeah…it was pretty freaking cool - I need a job that lets me take personal trips with the company car on company gas money). We found an Italian restaurant that had a large menu and one that Emily thought she’d be able to find someone to eat on. I had a huge cheese pizza for 4.90. Emily got a dish with rice, veggies, and tomato sauce, but when they brought it, there was parmesan cheese on top, so she had to have them take it back and make a new one. I don’t understand how a person’s body could be allergic to SO many things. I would die if I couldn’t have peanut butter, or ice cream, or bread, or chocolate! Those are pretty much my favorite things ever!

Over dinner we talked about the way Germany dealt with WWII history, and how well-taught the students are about the atrocities of Hitler and the Nazis. We then talked about the Japanese kamikazes in WWII and the Japanese war mentality. Noel said he found it amazing that those who ordered the kamikazes were never persecuted for war crimes like the Nuremburg Trials persecuted the Nazis. He thought the trials were a very good lesson and way of dealing with their crimes, but that it should have extended to other WWII evil-doers. I really enjoyed talking with Noel for he reminded me a lot of my cousin Michael and as it turns out, was the same age.
After dinner we went to a Jazz bar to meet 2 other CSers, and it was really cool to hear live jazz music (since obviously they were singing in English). It made me really want to blues dance, but of course no one was blues dancing, so I didn’t get the chance. :( I was very tired, so I left at 11:45, taking the S-bahn back to Liana’s flat.

Overall, it was a really nice day and I do hope that Emily, Mary-Jo, Ulee, and Noel will come visit me in Charlotte at some point.

Today I got up at 10, got my stuff together, and left at 11 to catch the 11:37 train to Wurzburg. I wanted to go there because my Uncle Tom grew up there and said it is very beautiful. I will stay there tonight and spend the day tomorrow, then take the train in the evening to Frankfurt.