Our first sight was the Brandenburger Tor, which is like 'the' landmark of Berlin. It weird to have seen all these places in school textbooks and to see them in real life is pretty cool. Around the corner from there is the parliament building, the Reichstag. According to Tara, I am not taking the blame if this fact is wrong, Hilter organized the fire that burned it down some decades ago. He did this in an attempt to have a reason to go to war, inevitably leading to WWII. This is how a lot of the conspiracy started about September 11th and the involvement of the U.S. government. The building does have a certain presence, and knowing that it was Hilter's old stomping grounds made it a little eerie. Conveniently all of the touristy sights are close to each other, so we just kept walking. Walking up to the Holocaust Mahnmal was a little confusing. There is no real identification describing what it is, but enough books tell you. The ground slopes up and down, and most of the pillars were higher than me. The weird thing is that they are in perfect lines, so you can always see a way out, but the sloping ground and monstrous pillars leave you with a sense of disorientation. The architect never really explained why he did it, and wanted people to derive their own meaning of it. Continuing down the street, there were big pieces of the Berlin Wall in random places. To see the Wall is one thing, but seeing it out of place doesn't seem right. I think it is good to preserve and remember it, but displacing it from the original site makes it lose some of its meaning.
As we were walking, I noticed that all of the sewer tops are actually nice, and have major buildings on it. One of the building on sewer top was the Berliner Dom, which was pretty impressive. It was probably one of the only buildings that resembled the architecture in Vienna. In the photo, you can see the Berlin TV Tower in the background. It resembled a mix of the CN Tower and the tower in Calgary. After that, we made our way to another church that had been bombed during the war. The bomb ruined most of the church by burning it down, but half of the steeple is still standing, making it a very, I will say interesting, but it isn't the word I am looking for. From there we made our way to the Tiergarten, and saw the Siegessäule, the Golden Angel. It was moved in 1939 as part of Hilter's plans to turn Berlin into the capital of the world. Tara and I climbed it, all 285 steps. It was like climbing the Statue of Liberty because of the spiral staircase.
The same time I was in Berlin, the Berlin film festival was taking place. Tara bought tickets for us so I was able to experience something that is internationally recognized. Unfortunately I was a few days late to see Kate Winslet. After that we went to a little cafe / bar and I met some of Tara's past roommates. I was talking to one girl who had gone to Concordia. I asked where she was from in Montreal, and she said that she was actually from the Eastern Townships. I told her about Knowlton, and of course she knew the Knowlton Pub. And she went to Massey Vanier. We decided that we obviously knew mutual people. Sitting in a little bar in Berlin, this complete stranger lists two people we both might know. The names were Nick Cogger and Ryan Stowe. My old sailing coach/I wish my old brother and my first cousin. Yeah Right. It is a seriously small world.
The next day we visited the inevitable, the East Side Gallery. It is a stretch of the Berlin Wall that stands exactly as it was. It was so hard
to vision that this wall split the city of Berlin in two. Years ago, Berlin invited artists to come and paint the Wall, so it is covered in what used to be, unique art. Unfortunately it is now covered in tags and visitors names. I guess it does add to the significance of the Wall but at the same time, it ruins it. I am glad that the government chose to leave this section of the Wall, as it was, instead of doing something creative with it. As a tourist, it makes the experience much more real and gave me the opportunity to understand. After the Berlin Wall we went to the Jewish Museum. The architect built the new part of the museum with a lot of angles and random empty space. Supposedly, the empty areas symbolize the lack of Jews in German society. The museum woke me up and really made me realize, that yes, the Holocaust happened. Not at all to reference that I am a 'Holocaust Denier' but learning german history in school is one thing, but to come to the place that it all started, was a reality check. After that, Tara and I headed to Checkpoint Charlie, where the United States opened a section of the wall in the 1960's. It was made famous by a standoff between the Soviets and the Americans, where some believed WWIII would start.
The next day we hopped on a Tour Bus and were able to hear a little bit of the history of what we were looking at. As touristy as the double buses are, you are given the opportunity to know what is what. After a busy weekend, I was ready to come home.
Tara is coming here in March, so I can return the favor of being tour guide. I have bought us tickets (Me, Hannah and Tara) to go and see the Spanish Riding School, I just felt compelled, at least one of us in the family had to see it, so why not make it the one person who loves horses most?!
I am heading to Salzburg next weekend with another Swapper, Simon. He is in my German classes, so we are turning into little buddies. German is terrifically hard. I am starting to learn the basics and understand what our teacher is talking about. The weeks are very quickly starting to add up, the past week was my sixth week of work. That means I have 10 left, which also means only 10 weekends. Upcoming trips that I am planning are to Krems and Melk, Bratislava, my fingers are crossed for another ski trip, Graz, Linz... I am still unsure about Easter, but my friend who is in Germany wants to go somewhere hot, I wouldn't mind...
Conor bought his ticket 2 days ago, so he is actually coming. Since our flight is out of Prague, we will start there, and our Italian plan is Venice - Florence - Rome - Naples - Pompeii - Capri or Amalfi. Everything is starting to be pretty busy here, I just hope I can fit everything in that I want!
