January 16, 2013

Full first day in Berlin—so incredibly exciting! We started bright and early with a typical German breakfast in the hotel, and then by 8 a.m. we were out and about in the cold. We had a lovely fresh blanket of snow to walk on this morning as we made our way through Berlin to our first stop of the day—the Reichstag. We were able to walk up this ramp in the dome and look out over the city (peering through the snow covered windows) and also look down through a funnel into the parliament meeting room. We listened to an audio description of what we were looking at and enjoyed having the entire dome to ourselves as not many people were there at 9 in the morning.

Next, we headed to the Brandenburg Gate. This was one of my favorite stops because this is a site that I have seen through different textbooks throughout the years. We had tons of photo opportunities at this historic site. Then, right down the street, we spent a good amount of time taking in Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial.  After I did my presentation on the history of this site, we zigzagged through the stones and went to the information center, which is located underneath the memorial. In there, we read stories about some of the victims that were left through things such as postcards, letters and journal entries. This was extremely moving and hard to comprehend beyond words that are indescribable. To see stories of families that were completely wiped out by the genocide and their awareness to their fate was extremely sobering. As a group, this memorial moved us all.

Soon after, we walked a couple of blocks and officially exchanged our American money for the Euro, which we used when we stopped for lunch and learned some German eating out etiquette.  After lunch, we grabbed a quick pastry (butter croissants are SO good) on the way to the ghost subway stations that monitored access between East and West Berlin. After a short walk up the stairs and across the street, we went to see and touch the ruins of the Berlin Wall. It was crazy to see how much space was between the two areas and how the city now forms around where the wall used to stand as they knocked buildings down to make room for the borders. There was a small portion of land that was actually preserved and is part of the actual Berlin Wall that is used for visitors to get a feel of how the city was divided.

           

For the rest of the day, we wandered through stores in one of Europe’s most prestigious shopping centers. At this point we realized we were all exhausted and were able to have a quick rest before heading back over to the East for dinner at a very authentic German restaurant—full of meat and potatoes. YUM.

Even though we all were practically sleep walking back to the hotel, it was a great first day! I can’t wait to explore the rest of the city and share these experiences with new friends.