Berlin is a very modern city. As soon as the train eased to a stop, I thought to myself that Berlin could be any other American city. Walking the streets, I could have been in Washington D.C., New York City, or even Providence. Obviously, this was due to WWII: architecturally Berlin was devastated from top to bottom, making modern Berlin very modern indeed.
However, the highlight of our stay in Northern Germany was to be found at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, about an hour long train ride outside the city. Concentration camps are the kind of thing that you can't just slap words onto. I could honestly sit here into the wee hours of the morning typing away and would not come close to conveying the emotional effect that it had on me, and everyone else I was traveling with. See the pictures for more on that front.
Coming back from the camp, we toured as much of Berlin as we could with the rest of the day. We walked through the triumphant arch, the "Brandenburg Gate" as well as saw the "Reichstag Building," or the main building of the Nazi Regime. We also went out of our way to see the Berlin Wall, which was really cool. Today, Berlin allows a portion of the wall to stand, and on it painters to express the great joy of the world towards the wall's falling. Got some awesome pictures of that.
And as always, German beers are very good. Someday I want to go back and try "Bock" beer; me and Chris met a man in a bar who gushed on and on about it, and was not pleased when he found out that the bar didn't have it. That same guy, Christian, wanted Chris and I to know very badly that Germany is nothing like what it was back during the time of WWII, and that it was very hurtful for Germans when Americans come into the country expecting everyone to be marching around town in formation with Hitler mustaches.
In short, Germany was definitely one of my favorite countries over 10 day. I think I learned alot from Christian too: not that I thought all those things about Germany, but hearing from another college student about how Germany feels about WWII made it so much more real to me.
Jacimo
Pictures here.
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