109 Days of Italy: Buuuurlin

My memory of Berlin consists of 2 things: sadness and cold cold weather. We only spent one night and day in Berlin. The first night we did the usually pub crawl with our tour group which was fun and then struggled to wake up for our walking tour of the city. This morning was particularly difficult not only due to the hangover but due to the freezing cold weather. It was cloudy, cold, and a bit rainy which really set the mood for the day. Most of the walking tour consisted of a lot of World War II history (Berlin Wall, Check Point Charley, the grounds of where Hitler's bunker was). The Berlin Wall was by far the coolest thing on the tour. Although I thought it would be taller some of the stories our tour guide told us about people trying to jump over it, hang glide over it, and dig beneath it were very interesting. She told us one story about a man who hid his mother in law underneath the carpeting of the car and installed a special seat to fold down for his wife. When they got to one of the checkpoints he flung her seat backwards and floored it through the checkpoint right underneath one of the barriers. After this the barriers were lowered so that it could not be done again. I can't believe people were separated from their friends and families for such a long time. I couldn't imagine going to bed one day and waking up being told I could not go past a certain point regardless of who was there.

After the walking tour we took a train to Sachsenhausen which was a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin. As I said before the overcast and dark weather truly set the mood. It was an extremely eerie feeling being on the grounds of a place like this. The horrible murders that went on here still linger in the air. It was very empty when we went which was an even eerier feeling. We walked through the barracks and saw the beds squished together and toilets. We walked past a few memorials where the names of the victims was an extensive list. The most shocking part of all was going to the ovens. They are still fully intact. Part of me wishes that they were completely knocked down just so that we can forget it ever happened. We learn so much about WWII in school but going to a concentration camp was a completely different experience. Seeing the remains of what went on here truly made me thankful for the type of world we now live in.

We also went to a Holocaust Memorial which consists of several pillars all at different heights. Some were very low to the ground and others were towering over my head. As I walked through the memorial it is hard to keep track of the people you are with and sound bounces off the pillars in a bizarre way. The artist of this memorial wanted people to get lost in thought and remember those who were victims in the Holocaust. It is also said that the different heights of the pillars is supposed to make us realize that such a wide range of people were effected.

So..now that I have made Berlin seem like the coldest, saddest place on earth I'll prepare you for my next stop: AMSTERDAM!!!