Let me be honest. I had all kinds of preconceived notions about what Germany would be like before actually visiting the country, and they were not generally very positive ones. I thought Germany would be a cold, eccentric place, full of leiderhosen and various types of unfamiliar sausages, eaten by many people with bad haircuts who enjoy listening to lots of hard rock. I appreciated their automobile industry and had great respect for their society's continued focus on technology and engineering as the primary driver of their economy, but I just wasn't that excited for our visit. I wasn't expecting to be wowed by German culture at all. I'm not exactly sure why I took such a dim view on Germany, but I'm sure it probably has something to do with thoughts of Nazis and sites like the Berlin Wall. It's only been about 65 years since Hitler started a world war and led the country to carry out a plan to rid the world of millions of people it considered undesirable, murdering 6 million in the process. But the truth is that, after having witnessed a glimpse of modern Germany, I realize that 65 years is actually plenty of time for a country to turn things around. From what I saw, much has changed in Germany and in the minds of Germans since the days of war and the Iron Curtain, and I'm glad I looked past my own prejudices to actually see it for myself. I've already written about our stay in Munich - a great place to visit for a few days of biergartens, currywurst, and Bavarian culture - but I don't believe I really saw modern, fascinating Germany until I saw Berlin, where we spent the last three days. I shouldn't blame Munich for being less interesting, though. It can't help that it isn't the seat of German government, it didn't see Hitler's rise to power, it wasn't bombed incessantly into destruction by the Allies during World War II, and wasn't split into two entirely different worlds for a reasonably large chunk of the 20th century. To be fair, Munich was indeed very cool, but for me, Berlin was on an entirely different level. Historically, it was far more riveting. Architecturally, it was more captivating. Culturally, it felt more vibrant and diverse. And it's bigger too.
We arrived in Berlin on Friday morning, by way of the last night train of our trip. Night trains are a fun form of transportation and lodging and I will miss them. Berlin was to be a special city for us for two reasons. The first is that we were meeting a friend with whom Marc and I had become acquainted on a trip to Israel last summer and were very excited to see. The second is that Friday, the day of our arrival, was Marc's birthday, which we saw as a great excuse to go out and see what all the fuss is about with Berlin's nightlife scene.
We spent a lazy few hours sitting around the hostel, waiting for the sun to come out and for our laundry to be finished. We have to squeeze these types of things in whenever we can, and during rainstorms is a pretty ideal time. After we had checked in and gotten settled, we headed out in the direction of Berlin's iconic TV tower. Honestly I don't know what it is with these big cities and their huge, dramatically lit TV towers. Berlin, Prague, Bern, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Barcelona, Rome, even San Francisco has something resembling one. How is it that other cities get by just fine without these giant things? But I digress.
We weren't heading for the tower itself, but rather a well recommended restaurant nearby – one that sells the most coveted of foods known to man – California style burritos, of course. OK, so maybe they are just the most coveted foods known to me. Regardless, I was definitely not the only one in our group extremely excited to be chowing down on some tasty Americanized Mexican fare, something we had not come across in all of Europe. Points for Berlin!
After the tasty lunch at Delores - possibly named after Mission Delores in San Francisco in the neighborhood where that style of burrito originated - we moved onto our self-guided walking tour of Central Berlin. We strolled past many sites, some more famous than others, including the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of Berlin whose historical significance I did not get around to learning, and several architecturally impressive art and history museums. We also stumbled upon Berlin's very unique Holocaust memorial, a city block filled with 2700 striking concrete slabs of various heights, set upon a wavy, undulating surface in long rows, forming a huge grid. The slabs around the perimeter are of modest height, but towards the center, they towered above me. It is difficult to imagine without actually seeing it, but it is impressive. I'm told that there is also some type of exhibition beneath the monument. We also saw the Times Square-esque Potsdamerplatz, which appears to be the location of choice for companies in Berlin who favor huge glass and steel skyscrapers. We walked past the rather unusual structure the Berlin Philharmonic calls home, a funky geometric structure from the fifties which appears to be constructed of yellow bricks from The Wizard of Oz. We strolled through the Tiergarten, Europe's largest city park, and hung around in front of the Reichstag, which I only knew about because of a song from the Mel Brooks musical, The Producers. Hey, everybody learns a little differently.
The further we walked through the city, the more I found myself liking it, and surprisingly so. I just wasn't expecting to be much of a fan. We had left the neighborhood of our hostel, an ordinary looking part of town filled with concrete buildings of little discernible character, and made our way to some of the most impressive city squares, monuments, and examples of modern architecture I've seen anywhere. It reminds me of being in Washington, DC, where one can find themselves up in Adams Morgan or Georgetown roaming among charming but ordinary row houses, only a 5 minute subway ride away from the huge open spaces and impressive monuments and museums of the National Mall and its waterfront. Considering the large role of the United States in the recovery of Germany following World War II, I wonder if this similarity could be merely a coincidence.That evening, we celebrated Marc's birthday while simultaneously experiencing a small part of Berlin's vibrant nightlife. Forgive me for skipping over the gritty details, but suffice it to say that plenty of fun was had, the sun came up as we rode the subway back home, and I lived to see another day. Hooray, Berlin.
 After a healing lunch of Vietnamese pho and green tea (yay antioxidants), we bought a day pass for the subway and proceeded to try to catch a few more sites that were farther out around town. We made it to the largest section of the Berlin Wall still standing, called the East Side Gallery. After the wall was torn down and Berlin was reunified, this section was left in place and murals were commissioned to be painted on the wall. The presence of art in this location is even more powerful of a statement when considering that during the period of Soviet influence in East Germany, there would have been severe punishment for attempting to paint on that side of the wall. We also made our way to location of the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, the border crossing between East and West Germany until the fall of the Berlin Wall.
 On Sunday, we walked over to a large flea market which was rumored by the staff at our hostel to be quite the cultural experience. I don't spend much time at flea markets so I can't say that I have a very good baseline for comparison, but this one certainly seemed huge and rather impressive to me. It was also nice to see a market that wasn't filled entirely with designer purses and clothing knockoffs from China. Being somewhat limited in funds as well as in my ability to carry anything large around with me through Europe, I chose not to actually buy anything, but had I wanted to, I'm pretty sure there wasn't a thing in the world that wasn't for sale somewhere inside.
Outside the market was a huge field, which as the day went by, filled up with hundreds of people. Some were picnicking, some were sleeping, one guy played music for loose change, an old man sold bicycles, and a couple sat behind a table squeezing orange juice by hand for a Euro a cup. Dogs seemed to wander around everywhere. A band had even set up some drums and a few amplifiers right out in the grass and were commanding a sizable audience. I liked how organic and diverse everything felt. The place was filled with tourists and locals alike, and we must have overheard three different languages every minute. This large field where everyone congregated looked more like an abandoned lot, with grass and weeds unmowed and old broken concrete sidewalks, but nobody seemed to care – everybody was having a great time. Just being there, so were we.
Later that day, we headed to the Berlin Jewish Museum, an architecturally surreal structure whose design in many ways attempts to symbolize the experiences of German Jews throughout history. While there are several art exhibitions found throughout the museum, its primary focus is detailing the history of Jews in Germany from past to present. It is unfortunate, but due to the long history of antisemitism and persecution by many different groups, a large part of the museum is consequently devoted to chronicling the history of the suffering of Jews in Germany. The section of the museum which covered the Holocaust was not the most impactful exhibit I've seen on the subject, but it was unique to me in that it covered the topic from a German perspective. It also provided a great deal of information about the aftermath of the Holocaust, including the Auschwitz trials and Judaism in postwar and modern day Germany.
As we walked around Berlin after the museum, I reflected on our stay in Germany, which I feel was an unexpectedly positive one. Where we had planned to only see one city, we ended up seeing two, and where I had expected to be unimpressed by the country, I found myself with a much greater sense of respect and interest for it. I feel glad that I was able to witness Germany with my own eyes, which will help me to have more informed opinions about a place about which I once felt rather negatively.
The next stop on our trip takes us by plane to Stockholm, Sweden! And it's hard to believe, but in just one very short week, the three of us will be marking the end of our travels and boarding a plane from Copenhagen back to the United States. Oh, how the time has flown by. |
Post a Comment