To Berlin we go! But not before stopping at Dresden, for lunch.
I didn't know that Dresden was bombed at the end of WW2, and has been built pretty much from the ground after that. Marta guides us through the streets of Dresden, and we see buildings that are burnt and blackened by the fires. We don't have a lot of time here, so we just walk around some markets and get back to the bus.
Before getting to our hotel, Marta and Krzys take us for an orientation tour of Berlin in our coach. We stop at Treptower Park, where a few people are singing and handing out flyers. A part of Treptower Park is a Soviet War Memorial, and these people are celebrating Victory Day (end of WW2, start of the Soviet regime), which falls on May 9th. We also drive past a lot of museums and the Berlin Wall, which is a lot shorter than what I imagined it to be. I also spot one of these fun things.
Our hotel is situated on the East side, and is about a kilometre from the East Side Galleries. The shower in our hotel room is big and hot. It's funny, the difference little things like clean laundry and big warm showers can do to your mood. My appreciation for the washing machine has definitely grown during this tour.
We get ready for Hopfbrauhaus, a traditional German beer hall, for tonight's included dinner. And what an atmosphere it has! There is live music, dancing, and the hall is full of people drinking beer out of large steins. Sometime during dinner, a group starts banging their steins and jumping up on the tables. I'm someone who likes quiet nights usually, so I grab the opportunity and wiggle my hips (haha) at the music. It is so much fun, and I feel so alive! When I come back to Berlin, I'll definitely be going to the Hopfbrauhaus again. Back at the hotel, we're in a room overlooking a main street that is quieter at 7am than it is at 3am.
Our free day in Berlin starts with an intense – but optional – walking tour. Krzys leaves us by the Reichstag, and a tall young man coolly smoking a cig saunters over. This is our tour guide, Jess. He's a student here in Berlin, and he's from America. At first, his manner is so casual – and then he starts talking. Man, he's like a human Wikipedia!
There is so much history to take in, as we visit the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate and Holocaust Memorial amongst other things. We learn how the WW2 was bookended by the Reichstag, starting with the burning of it and ending with the Soviet flag being placed upon it, hours (or was it minutes?) before Hitler's suicide. It's incredible how we walk right over where the Berlin Wall used to be, but doing so before November 1989 could get you, well, killed.
I like the Holocaust Memorial. I like how it's designed so you're completely overwhelmed by the tall structures around you. Inside the memorial, you lose your friends, you lose your way. You feel insignificant. I like that the 2,711 concrete slabs look the same at a glance, but every single one is different in their own way. All these things of course correspond to the Holocaust victims' lives.
After visiting the memorial, we walk over to a patch of grass in the car park of an apartment block. Jess asks if we're wondering why we're randomly standing here, but I know where we are. We are at the site of Hitler's bunker. I know this because I'd seen the photo in a Wikipedia article, but apart from an informational plaque, there's nothing to suggest that this is indeed the place where Hitler lived out his last months.
We look at a few other important buildings and finish the tour at Checkpoint Charlie. I'm bummed to learn from Jess that the Berlin Wall pieces they sell at souvenir shops are not real, but I'm too late to warn Libby.
Having had an intense history lesson all morning, Libby and I just spend some time walking around and shopping. The Ampelmann makes me smile every time I see it, and it's fascinating to get from one place to the other with the Berlin Wall crisscrossing our path. Every other woman in Europe wears a trench coat, and after eyeing a smart trench at Zara pretty much in every city since flipping Florence (yeah I'm weird), I finally decide to buy it. I spot Primark, and I flip out when I get a nice t-shirt for 3 Euros. 3 Euros, y'all! Later, a Dutch guy that reminds me of Prince William gives us directions back to our hotel, and we walk over to stroll along the East Side galleries.
And so our fabulous day in Berlin is over, only one more destination on this tour awaits (plus London!). It feels like the tour has gone fast and slow at the same time. Does that make sense? Probably not.
I didn't know that Dresden was bombed at the end of WW2, and has been built pretty much from the ground after that. Marta guides us through the streets of Dresden, and we see buildings that are burnt and blackened by the fires. We don't have a lot of time here, so we just walk around some markets and get back to the bus.
Before getting to our hotel, Marta and Krzys take us for an orientation tour of Berlin in our coach. We stop at Treptower Park, where a few people are singing and handing out flyers. A part of Treptower Park is a Soviet War Memorial, and these people are celebrating Victory Day (end of WW2, start of the Soviet regime), which falls on May 9th. We also drive past a lot of museums and the Berlin Wall, which is a lot shorter than what I imagined it to be. I also spot one of these fun things.
Our hotel is situated on the East side, and is about a kilometre from the East Side Galleries. The shower in our hotel room is big and hot. It's funny, the difference little things like clean laundry and big warm showers can do to your mood. My appreciation for the washing machine has definitely grown during this tour.
We get ready for Hopfbrauhaus, a traditional German beer hall, for tonight's included dinner. And what an atmosphere it has! There is live music, dancing, and the hall is full of people drinking beer out of large steins. Sometime during dinner, a group starts banging their steins and jumping up on the tables. I'm someone who likes quiet nights usually, so I grab the opportunity and wiggle my hips (haha) at the music. It is so much fun, and I feel so alive! When I come back to Berlin, I'll definitely be going to the Hopfbrauhaus again. Back at the hotel, we're in a room overlooking a main street that is quieter at 7am than it is at 3am.
Our free day in Berlin starts with an intense – but optional – walking tour. Krzys leaves us by the Reichstag, and a tall young man coolly smoking a cig saunters over. This is our tour guide, Jess. He's a student here in Berlin, and he's from America. At first, his manner is so casual – and then he starts talking. Man, he's like a human Wikipedia!
There is so much history to take in, as we visit the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate and Holocaust Memorial amongst other things. We learn how the WW2 was bookended by the Reichstag, starting with the burning of it and ending with the Soviet flag being placed upon it, hours (or was it minutes?) before Hitler's suicide. It's incredible how we walk right over where the Berlin Wall used to be, but doing so before November 1989 could get you, well, killed.
I like the Holocaust Memorial. I like how it's designed so you're completely overwhelmed by the tall structures around you. Inside the memorial, you lose your friends, you lose your way. You feel insignificant. I like that the 2,711 concrete slabs look the same at a glance, but every single one is different in their own way. All these things of course correspond to the Holocaust victims' lives.
After visiting the memorial, we walk over to a patch of grass in the car park of an apartment block. Jess asks if we're wondering why we're randomly standing here, but I know where we are. We are at the site of Hitler's bunker. I know this because I'd seen the photo in a Wikipedia article, but apart from an informational plaque, there's nothing to suggest that this is indeed the place where Hitler lived out his last months.
We look at a few other important buildings and finish the tour at Checkpoint Charlie. I'm bummed to learn from Jess that the Berlin Wall pieces they sell at souvenir shops are not real, but I'm too late to warn Libby.
Having had an intense history lesson all morning, Libby and I just spend some time walking around and shopping. The Ampelmann makes me smile every time I see it, and it's fascinating to get from one place to the other with the Berlin Wall crisscrossing our path. Every other woman in Europe wears a trench coat, and after eyeing a smart trench at Zara pretty much in every city since flipping Florence (yeah I'm weird), I finally decide to buy it. I spot Primark, and I flip out when I get a nice t-shirt for 3 Euros. 3 Euros, y'all! Later, a Dutch guy that reminds me of Prince William gives us directions back to our hotel, and we walk over to stroll along the East Side galleries.
And so our fabulous day in Berlin is over, only one more destination on this tour awaits (plus London!). It feels like the tour has gone fast and slow at the same time. Does that make sense? Probably not.
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