Final week in Berlin (without reflection)

Week 6. Our last week in the program. So many things were on my mind. In the past 5 weeks I have overcome so many mental and physical boundaries I had never expected. It is almost hard to remember everything we had done or seen. We arrived in Berlin on Tuesday morning. Thankfully the weather was nice and we were able to take a bike tour across town. The bike tour was awesome and we got to see so many landmarks. It was almost surreal to see the Berlin Wall and the VISIBLE differences on either side.

We saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial of the Murdered European Jews, and the Reichstag among many other things. One thing I noticed that is unique to Berlin were the bullet holes/repairs in many of the older buildings from WWII when the Soviets captured the city. We biked to a random parking lot in front of an apartment building just to find out that under our feet was where Hitler’s personal bunker was and where he committed suicide. It was really weird to see a lot of Nazi history. I really respect the way most Germans look and handle the whole Nazi thing. They accept responsibility for the actions of past generations but more importantly focus on never allowing anything like that to happen again. Checkpoint Charlie was awesome and it was really crazy to think about how World War 3 almost began in that very spot.

The second day we took a trip to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was the central administrative center for the entire concentration camp system in Nazi Germany therefor the “ground zero” of the holocaust. The concentration camp experience was very moving. It was hard to really fathom how you were standing in the same location that thousands of people experienced unbelievable conditions and suffering. Building 10 was where most of the killing occurred. Although the building is no longer standing, the foundations are still there as well as the chambers where the bodies were burned. 

We also toured the medical buildings where extensive human experimentation occurred. The building had a very dark feel to it, it was almost like I knew what happened in there before anyone told me.

 

Thursday we went to the Otto Bock building where we saw all sorts of high tech prosthetics. After that we attended the alchemy fair at a museum in west Berlin. The collection was private and unfortunately photos were not allowed. That evening, a big group of us attended the Blink 182 concert in Berlin. It was amazing to hear them live, I grew up listening to Blink and the whole punk rock scene.

Friday we had our final lecture and began the process of packing up to say goodbye. It was so surreal; it didn’t feel like anything was over or that people were leaving. Even at dinner it felt just like it had all summer but I think that was a good thing. It was a great way to end one of the most influential, memorable, and just flat out exciting summers I have ever had. I don’t think it will even hit me until I am back in the states though. On Saturday, Nick, Hailey, and I are leaving for Dublin before coming back to Frankfurt on the 4^th for our flight back to the US. Stay tuned for more on Dublin and the flight home.