Berlin

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin and even Germany as a whole actually were never places I never specifically set out to visit.   Somehow I ended up here almost accidentally, and I'm so glad I did.

I wouldn't necessarily have gone to Germany if it wasn't for my friend Claudia, and I wouldn't have necessarily gone to Berlin if it wasn't for my other friend Ramona.

Me and Ramona at the East Side Gallery,  where murals are painted on pieces of the Berlin Wall

Berlin is a difficult city to describe.  Many parts of it reminded me of San Francisco, especially the little vegan/vegetarian hole-in-the-wall restaurant I ate at most nights for dinner.  Naan pizza, burritos and teriyaki tofu under one roof?  So Bay Area.

But the history that penetrates Berlin is unlike anything I've ever experienced, and it adds a certain somber tone to the city.   A palpable loss that is impossible to ignore.

At the Jewish museum, in one of the "memory voids" that represents the missing Jews of Europe due to the Holocaust.

My first full day in Berlin I went on an 8 hour walking tour.  Yes, that's not a typo.  EIGHT hours of criss-crossing Berlin, but I'm so glad I did it! Although I couldn't feel my legs for the next few days, I learned so much about Berlin's history and got a good feel for how I should spend the rest of my time in the city.

The tour guide pointed out a lot of things I wouldn't have necessarily noticed, like how many buildings still had shrapnel damage, or how just by looking at the architecture you could tell that some entire city blocks were obliterated by Allied bombing in WWII.

WWII shrapnel damage 

WWII history is fairly well covered in American high schools, but I knew virtually nothing about what happened to Germany after the war.  Through out the day, we crossed from East to West Berlin multiple times, and it was hard to imagine the little line of cobblestones in the middle of the street was once a heavily fortified border.  

From West Berlin looking East

Chilling graffiti on the wall

I'm an avid reader of dystopian literature.  It's definitely my guilty pleasure genre.  I've read 1984 more times than I can count, and finished the Wool Silo Saga just a few days ago.  My hostel was located in the Eastern part of Berlin, which was once part of the GDR (German Democratic Republic, the Soviet occupied part of Germany during the cold war period.)

Former Stasi headquarters

During my stay in Berlin I was able to visit the former Stasi (East German secret police) headquarters and the GDR museum, which was wonderfully interactive.  The museum was quite a surreal experience.  Every plaque and exhibit felt like it was right out of the pages of 1984.  From the diary of a GDR resident who kept track of unobtainable items to the bugged apartment,  it reminded me of the overwhelming feeling I always get reading about Oceania and Ingsoc. 

In one part of the museum you could listen to what visitors were saying in the replica East German living room

While I still know very little about the GDR, I am definitely planning on learning more.  I've already downloaded a book on the subject and am already enjoying it--as much as one can enjoy reading about a brutal communist dictatorship I suppose.   

Memorial for the Jewish victims of WWII.  A whole city block was taken up by towering, gray columns. 

But my time in Berlin wasn't all serious all the time.  On the tour I met a wonderful group of Americans who so generously included me in their photos and explorations that afternoon, even though they were traveling together and it would have been easy for them to remain an exclusive group.  And a few days after I arrived in Berlin I was joined by my penpal Ramona and her friend (who is now also my dear friend) Lucy.  

Even though I had already experienced Ramona and her family's generosity, I was still blown away by how accommodating and encouraging her and Lucy both were.  Ramona even arrived with a gift for me (seriously?!?), a very handy German phrase book.  

With Lucy, enjoying a radler after a long day of sightseeing

I'm trying hard to look forward on my trip and not start counting all the things I wish I'd seen.  It's only been a little over a week and already there are multiple sights in Nuremberg and Berlin I'd wish I'd made time for.  It's hard to not think that I could have fit more in, that I could have rested less and pushed myself to go out and explore more.  But I know with more than 3 months to go, I definitely need to keep a slower pace than travelers who are only in Europe for a few weeks.  I can't just push through the exhaustion forever, and I'm working hard on being okay with that.

Sunday morning flea market.  I managed to find some unique souvenirs.
GDR stamps and coins as well as "inflation money" (100 million marks notes)

Ramona kept reminding me that I'll have to return to Germany one day.  After all I have to visit Bamberg's Christmas market sometime.  And who knows, there are a few portions of my trip where I don't have anything planned.  It seems silly to go back to a place I've already been when there's still so much of Europe to see, but Berlin is the first city I've really fallen in love with in a long time.  There are definitely places I've enjoyed, but there was something impossible to describe about how I felt in Berlin.

I always expected it to be wandering through in Montmartre in Paris, or relaxing on a beach in Santorini, Greece where I would find my passion for travel.  I didn't foresee that it would be entering the stuffy U-Bahn (metro) station, hurrying down the steps to catch the train in the middle of Berlin where I would pause and think to myself that even with all the stress, the anxiety, the panic...

I wouldn't rather be anywhere else but here.