Berlin!

The bus ride was extremely long, but what a ride. I was able to see the beautiful countryside of Germany. There had to have been over one hundred windmills. My favorite part of Berlin was the architecture and since this was a full and exciting weekend, I plan to only talk about the architecture along with some other interesting things that caught my eye.

The Siegessaeule was one piece that I thought was beautiful. This could have been because of the newly re-painted statue perched on top. This piece is standing in the middle of a round-about and then the road leads straight to the Brandenburger Tor. Which leads me into the Brandenburger Tor. This gate is a substantial piece of the history in Berlin. Germania is riding a carriot pulled by four horses on top of this gate. The sense of history you feel when you first walk through this gate is incredible. There were, however, so many people with gimmicks trying to make money right by the gate since it has many tourists. This took away from the history of the gate. From there, I'd like to talk about the Holocaust monument that was built six years ago. This monument is massive and simple, but so full of meaning. The tour guide let us find our own interpretations of this monument. There was a point in which you felt all alone walking through the monument. You couldn't see anyone, or anything. The floor sank down and the blocks were larger in the center. The tour guide mentioned that she was upset, at first, when she saw children playing around the monument, but they are just holding onto their innocense; they know nothing about the Holocaust so let them enjoy what the older generations cherish. Along with the Holocaust theme, we went to the Juedisches Museum Berlin. The tour became more about the architecture than the rest of the museum. The building itself was incredible. The floor was at an incline, the ceiling sloped down, and the walls weren't built at a 90 degree angle with the ceiling or floor. We looked at three architectural exhibits. The first was much like the Holocaust Monument mentioned above. This had blocks made of the same material, but there were only 49 of them. This was called the Garden of Exile. The ground was sloped down to one corner and the blocks were not at 90 degree angles to the ground. Every turn, you had to readjust your body. It was like life; life is full of turns, but one learns to adjust and move on. The second architectural exhibit was a dark room. The one side was squared off while the other came to a point. Where the ceiling met the point, or corner, there was light. The room was said to be hopeless, but I found it the complete opposite. Looking at the corner, I felt hope. There was a journey that I could take and there was light at the end of it. When I stood in the corner, though, I felt as though I had failed. The end of the line was in front of me, and I had nothing. The last exhibit was this hallway with short, steel cylinders that had faces carved into them. Some of my classmates walked along this hallway, I could not. I felt remorse; how could I stand on a face, let alone hundreds? In the camps, there was no choice; one couldn't say no and walk the other way, they were to walk across all of the dead and not show emotion.

We visited many museums on this trip. I already mentioned the Juedisches Museum, but we also went to the Pergamon. In this museum, there were pieces of the Parthanon. Along the wall, there was the top of the Parthanon set up and the pieces put into their correct location. It was incredible. The Parthanon essecially blew up and all of these pieces are still around.

Another important part of Berlin history that no one can forget is the Berlin Wall. I was able to see and touch part of the wall. As far as one could see there was just wall, and if you looked up, it was at least twice your height. This decorated piece of history is still standing for all to see and remember the separation that took place in Berlin.