I cannot fathom that this the last week of the trip. I am in
no way ready to leave this amazing country or these wonderful people. That
being said, here goes the final week in Berlin.
We ended
up getting to Berlin late because we had missed our train connection (classic),
so there was minimal time for lunch. I was super hungry though. As we walked
down the hall, I began to smell the sweet, sweet smells of American sandwiches.
I knew it had to be none other than Subway, and indeed it was. I’m not sure if
it’s just because I was really hungry, but that sandwich was one of the most
satisfying things I’ve eaten in the past few weeks. I was probably just
starving. Either way, it was an excellent start to my stay in Berlin. After
arriving, we scurried off to the hotel and then headed to our bike tour. Getting
to the hotel was interesting because we took public transportation, which means
stairs, and I had my two suitcases. The small one wasn’t heavy, but the big one
was about as big as me and weighed upwards of 60 pounds. I had it under control
going downstairs, and then the dreaded time came to go up the stairs after
getting off the S-Bahn. Gabe offered to take one, and of course me being the
stubborn person I am, I gave him my small suitcase because I was determined to
get that sucker up the stairs. I quickly realized I had made a massive mistake.
I was struggling hard core, and I could feel all these eyes on me because I was
at the back of the pack, so everyone was waiting for me. I was doing alright
until I looked up and saw Jules dying laughing at me, and at that point, it
went downhill fast. Almost quite literally downhill because I almost fell. I
started dying laughing, and I lost all control of my muscles. I noodled. And I
noodled bad. Like real bad. So Jules comes down to come help me, but then we’re
both laughing, so nothing was getting accomplished. Eventually, she got the
suitcase up the stairs and we recovered, but that was probably in the top 5
funniest things to happen between Jules and I on the trip.
Our bike tour began in East Berlin
near the most Cold War era building I have ever seen in my entire life. I mean,
if there was a dictionary definition for “Cold War Architecture”, a picture of
that tower would be there next to it. Our tour guide was a really cool guy. He
knew a lot about the history of Germany, specifically Nazi Germany and Cold War
Germany, both of which I find very interesting. He took us to go see Checkpoint
Charlie and the remnants of the Berlin Wall. It’s astonishing to me that there
was a wall of that size around the entire eastern part of the city. The lengths
that they went to to keep people in East Germany were incredible. They did
everything in their power to make sure that their people were entirely
oppressed with no way to escape. That kind of dictatorship is hard to grasp.
Although so is the dictatorship that was Nazi Germany. Speaking of Nazi Germany, we got to go
experience the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. I say experience
because it’s not really something you are meant to see. The architect designed
it to evoke an emotional response from you as you walk through the monument,
and I think he achieved that. Walking through the rows and rows of square
boulders, most of which tower over you, makes you feel somewhat claustrophobic,
as if you’re stuck in a maze and there’s no way out. It was a very strange
feeling, and definitely an uncomfortable one. This was the goal of the
architect though. One of the other really interesting things we saw was where
Hitler’s bunker was. He spent the last two weeks of his life in this bunker at
the end of the war. The bunker is not necessarily there today anymore, at least
it isn’t accessible, and his palace nearby was also completely destroyed. The
area is full of apartment buildings today, and that is strange to me to have
something so common on such historically significant ground. There’s a lot of
conspiracy theories about whether he actually did kill himself in the bunker or
whether he made it out and escaped to South America or something crazy. I think
it’s pretty clear he did die in that bunker, and he did not make it out alive.
Thank goodness. Just being in Berlin gave me a very weird feeling knowing that
it was such a prominent place in the history of the world, for not one, but
many reasons. I was initially nervous about the bike tour, but it ended up
being really fun and it was probably the best way to see so many parts of the
city. After the tour, the fam bam (Carter, Gabe, Hailey, Alana, Jules, and
Emily) went to eat at Vapiano and then had some gelato at Alexanderplatz. I
have to say, it didn’t top Munich or Vienna, but it was definitely a close
third. Sadly, I did not get to have this delicious gelato again before I left
Germany…oh well.
On
Wednesday morning, we took a trip out to Oranienburg to see the concentration
camp at Sachsenhausen. I was interested to see this camp after already having
visited Dachau a month prior. To my surprise, there seemed to be quite a few
differences between them. The layout of the camps were completely different.
The layout at Sachsenhausen eliminated any private space. The circular
orientation provided a view of the prisoners from every angle, every row, and
every corner. I imagine you would have felt like you were being watched
constantly, which I’m sure you probably were. This camp was also interesting
because you could see elements that had been altered from the Cold War era
since it was used then as well. Another big difference is that Sachsenhausen
executed thousands of Soviet soldiers during WWII. They would pretend as if
they were giving them a medical exam and then would shoot them in the back of
the neck through a hole in the wall. I think it’s awful that they couldn’t even
look them in the eye and kill them. They chose to hide behind a wall and shoot
them in the back. It was sickening. Unfortunately, Sachsenhausen was not as
well preserved in my opinion as Dachau was. There was not much left of the
crematorium or the areas where the executions were carried out. For this
reason, I personally found Dachau to be a more impactful experience, just
because you were able to walk through the crematorium and the gas chambers and
see pictures on the walls of the dead bodies that were found inside the rooms
when the Americans liberated the camp. You could somewhat begin to imagine the
horrors that occurred because it was all still there the way it was during the
war. Dachau seemed much bigger to me as well. I don’t know if that’s because of
the layout or if it was actually bigger. I’m still really glad we got to go
experience it though because I think it’s important to acknowledge the past. We
spent most of the day there and ended up getting to lunch much later than
expected. We ate at this potato restaurant. Pretty much everything was made of
potatoes or had potatoes in it. The potatoes were pretty darn good and so were
my sausages. After lunch/dinner (linner), Carter had decided that he really was
in fact going to dye his hair. This kid had been talking about this since the
week we first got to Europe, and I don’t think any of us had initially taken
him seriously, but we highly underestimated him. Hailey had offered to do the
honors, so we went and bought the dye and dyed his hair bleach blonde. It was a
three step process, and at first, I have to say I was very concerned. After the
first round, it was literally yellow/orange. It was so bad. SO BAD. We started
to wash the dye out the first time and Jules and I had to excuse ourselves from
the room because we hit the floor laughing. Neither of us could get up we were
laughing so hard. Poor Carter was just sitting there, and he could tell from my
face I didn’t think it was good. Luckily, we fixed it after another box of dye
and all was well. I have to say, I thought he was nuts, full on psycho, for doing
that, but after a few days he really started to pull it off. Therefore, hats
off to you Carter for doing something crazy in Eurp. You are braver than I. We
intended to write our papers that night, but alas, that did not happen for all
of us. I did finish my paper, luckily. We had fun though, regardless!
Thursday,
we went to visit the Alchemie exhibit at an art museum. This exhibit was quite
interesting because it merged very old things with quite modern pieces of art,
and it was actually all a private collection. There were some really old
eastern artifacts related to alchemy that were very cool. Specifically, there
was a scroll that was very old in one of the main cases on the lower floor, and
it was really cool. There was also a really long, really cool video of a Rube
Goldberg machine that someone created. It was definitely the most fascinating
and elaborate Rube Goldberg I’ve ever seen in my life. You would have had to
peel me away from the tv because I was so intrigued. After visiting the exhibit,
we had lunch at Vapiano again, because why not. Also, it’s so good and easy. We
then had a visit at the Otto Bock institute. This group specializes in creating
prosthetic limbs, so we had a guided tour of the facility. Unlike most other
places we go, this was not a museum but an exhibition, so there were lots of
interactive activities and things to do. One of the really interesting ones was
a balance test that tried to portray to someone what it’s like to walk with a
prosthetic leg for the first time. The simulation had you walk across a small
beam while changing to visual scenery. You were supposed to look down to get
the full effect. I was surprised how difficult it actually was if you
participate correctly. I had watched lots of other people do it and thought I
would do super well, but in fact, I almost fell twice. After this, we trekked
back to the hotel, through the pouring rain, and everyone went to finish up
their papers before the Blink 182 concert. I had bought a ticket for this
concert, mainly because everyone else had…I don’t know any of their songs, so
basically peer pressure got me. The closer it got to the concert, with the
weather, and the gloom and doom, and the sleep deprivation, the less and less I
actually wanted to go. Ultimately, I ended up bailing and gave my ticket to
Henning, so everything worked out. I was able to go meet some of the other
peeps at an Indian restaurant. I had never had Indian food before, so Alana
ordered something for me, and it was so good!!!! The naan was so freaking good.
I would devour those things like tortillas from Alamo Café if I could. Then I
went back to the hotel and watched The Matrix, while listening to it pour rain
outside with the windows open. Basically I had a freaking amazing night, and
while I’m glad everyone else had a good time at the concert, I 100% do not
regret skipping it. Shout out to Jules for convincing me it was okay to not go.
You are the real MVP.
Friday
morning, Hailey and I woke up and realized it was our last day. This was a
really weird feeling, knowing that it was the last day we’d all be together in
Germany. We got to sleep in, which was super nice. We started the day off with
a lecture and then went to visit a museum of the history of medicine near the
Hauptbahnhof. This was really cool because they had a huge collection of human
specimens. It’s always interesting to see human specimens because it’s one
thing to see a picture or a model, but to see the real thing is always more
interesting. I think it’s easier to learn from that as well. After this, we got
to tour the Charite medical school with a student from the school. This visit
was kind of fun because at one point, he showed us their simulation room for
emergency medicine, and they had a dummy in there. Hailey, Alana, and I were then
tasked with performing CPR and defibrillating the dummy. Hailey broke a sweat
doing compressions for quite a while, and Alana was killing it with those
ventilations. I was the lucky one who got to shock him. I’m pretty sure our
work saved his life even though Gabe later received credit for it. It’s fine
though. We weren’t bitter at all. Once the tour was over, everyone headed back
to the hotel to change for the farewell dinner. The dinner was at a Moroccan
restaurant, and it was so good! We had lamb, cous cous, and chicken. The lamb was
my favorite because it was just so well cooked and had such a rich flavor. The dinner
was a really good way to end the trip, having all of us together in one place
for the last time. It was very bittersweet. The fam bam went back to the hotel
that night and no one slept. We watched kid’s movies all night trying to
prolong the inevitable. Spirit was first and then Shrek. They were both just as
good as I remembered them. To me, it was the perfect end to an amazing trip. I
cannot put into words how much I am going to miss this place and those people.
I know we’ll see each other in College Station, but we won’t ever be in Europe
all together again, and that makes me sad. I will forever cherish the memories
I made with all these people on this trip.
The next
morning, I did not want to leave to go get on a plane. My flight from Berlin
ended up getting delayed three and a half hours, but luckily I had a seven hour
layover so it didn’t matter. My flight back to San Antonio also got delayed
because of weather, so I got home an hour later than expected. I was exhausted
by the time I got home. Even now that I’m back with my friends and family, I
still really miss Germany. I think probably will miss it for the next few weeks
while I adjust back to America. I also miss my peeps a lot. Hopefully I will
see them soon though. Thanks for the memories Germany. You have forever changed
me and I am so thankful.
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