My friend and I decided that we should probably visit Berlin, seeing as how we are living in Germany… It was a pretty laid-back trip. Since I am a political science major, I am pretty interested in how Germany has developed, so Berlin was a great place to go to learn about the country’s history.
We arrived around 11AM, and saw the Reichstag, which is basically their Parliament. It was built during Hitler’s time, which is ironic because an engraved banner on the top of it says something like, “For the people”. We then went to the Brandenburg Gate, about 5 minutes away from the Reichstag. We also visited the Berliner Dom- one of my favorite cathedrals I have been to here in Europe. The Pergamon Museum was our next stop. Here they have essentially re-erected an ancient Greek Temple inside this museum. Looking at all of the statues/learning about how they were able to figure out where all of the broken pieces fit into the murals was pretty interesting, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with Germany.
After stopping to have an amazing crepe at this little stand, we walked to Checkpoint Charlie- the only way to get from East to West Berlin before the wall came down. This soldier there gave us stamps on our passport from the different countries (Russia, England, U.S…) during the war/occupation. Afterwards, we walked to the part of the wall that still remains. They are planning on having a museum one day telling about the history of WWII/memorial to the victims. Until then, they just have a display going along the wall, kind of like a timeline. It was intense, and very strange to think that I was actually standing at the place where such a huge part of history happened.
That was pretty much our last destination, but by this point we were getting a little hungry for dinner. We decided to go to the Hard Rock Café, and what we assumed would be about a 20 minute walk turned into about 60 minutes. Apparently we sort of underestimated how long it would take to walk from the far east side to the far west side… however, it was well worth it!
Before I came to Berlin, when I thought of the city I assumed it would be old and dirty, with obvious signs that there had been a war throughout. I was completely shocked to find that Berlin is actually a thriving, industrial city. The streets are very clean, and everything looks new. My favorite part of the whole trip was just walking around looking at different parts of the city.
Part of the Pergamonm Museum.
Reichstag
Brandenburg Gate
Berliner Dom
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