Berlin!

Hello friends! I had the most amazing weekend! As I said in my last post, me, Liz, Alex, and Leslie went to Berlin from Thursday until Saturday. We were asked to see a ton of historic sights, but also to get a sense for the "vibe" of the city, and to try and understand the character and culture of Berlin. Y'all ready for this????

So, we struggled a lot on Thursday night trying to get to our Hostel. First, when we got off the plane, the money exchange counter was closed. This was a problem because none of us had any Euro's. This meant we didn't have any money to buy train tickets to get to Berlin. Luckily, I had 10 Euro's that Sammy gave me before coming to London, which was just enough to buy the tickets. We hopped on the train, and realized that our hostel stops checking people in at Midnight. It takes an hour to get there by train, and it was already 11:15, so we all started freaking out. We were so fortunate that the lady working the front desk waited for us, because she knew we were coming! We then settled into our room, and immediately went to find a place to eat. We were all starving. But, we had no money, so we spent another 30 minutes looking for an ATM. Thank god we found one, to which we gorged ourselves on burgers and fries. We went back to our hostel, and passed out.

Yummy!

Leslie and her beer!

Museum Island

Me at Brandenburg Gate

Holocaust Memorial at the Jewish Museum

My favourite destination, Checkpoint Charlie!

Friday was so eventful! We woke up and went to Alexanderplatz, which is a popular area just outside the city centre. We went there and were greeted by a huge open plaza, filled with authentic German food. We all got Brotwurst ("When your day is the worst, have a brotwurst" said the nice man who served us), which was unbelievable. Then, we went to an area where they had a "mini Oktoberfest" set up. Here are some pictures. Then, we bought tickets for the hop-on-hop-off city bus tour, which took us to the most important places, such as Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Jewish Museum. We saw all of this in one day! Here is a picture from all of these places! The Jewish museum was very interesting, but looking through the area that is dedicated to the Holocaust was really hard. They have a beautiful memorial outside, called the Garden of Exile, but they also have something called the Holocaust Tower, which is a massive concrete room, that is dark and empty. It is supposed to symbolize the horror and death that occurred during the Holocaust. I went into this room alone, and I started to cry. I can't describe it, but all I know is that I felt 6 million souls just pushing on me, and I have never felt more connected to those people in my life. Alex, Liz, and I talked about the museum afterwards, and we all agreed that our generation will never be able to comprehend anything that happened. It was a very difficult part of the day for me. But, afterwards, we went into the gift shop, and I bought a bracelet with a Jewish prayer on it. It's Shema Yisrael, which means: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one". That whole museum gave me a new perspective on life, and that is that I am probably one of the luckiest people on the face of the Earth.

After the Jewish museum, we went to Checkpoint Charlie, which is the surviving checkpoint for entrance into the former East Berlin. It was controlled by the American's until 1989, when the Berlin wall was taken down. We went into the museum, and it was filled with everything you could want to know about the Cold war and what it was like to live in East Berlin, which was controlled by the Soviets. It was amazing, and the whole time I was thinking about how cool my Dad would think it was. Trust me Dad, Berlin is one of the coolest cities ever! After this, we were exhausted and hungry, so we went back towards our hostel, and found an authentic German restaurant. I got Schnitzel, and Liz, Leslie, and Alex got sweet and sour beef, but I forget the German name for it hahah. After dinner, we went out around our neighborhood, but there weren't very many places, and we got a little lost, so after a while we just gave up and went to bed.

Me at the Berlin Wall

The Holocaust Memorial

The group at the Memorial

Me, Liz, and Leslie planking lol!

My little piece of the wall!

We woke up on Saturday, and had until about 6 PM before we had to go to the airport, so we went back to Checkpoint Charlie to buy some souvenirs. I got my passport stamped 6 times with authentic stamps from the actual checkpoint area, and I also bought a few pebbles from the wall. After this, we went to the see what is left of a big portion of the Berlin wall. Here are some pictures. After the memorial, we went back to Alexanderplatz, where we just hung out until we hopped on our train to take us to the airport. We didn't get home until about 1:30 last night! It was an amazing trip, and one that I will not forget. Today, I'm doing homework, and relaxing. I'm getting family dinner tonight, and the Bills-Pats game is on! LET'S GO BUFFALO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is a quote to finish:

Elie Wiesel: For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.

I hope I didn't make you all too depressed with all of this! Enjoy life!