trip to Berlin

Hello all!

This post shall be dedicated to summarizing everything I did this past weekend in Berlin!  This trip was the biggest test of independence I've had yet, as I travelled to Germany on my own.  My friends and I were initally planning on going together, but things changed when we had to choose between Istanbul and Berlin.  They really wanted to go to Turkey but I still really wanted to see Berlin, so after some thought I decided I would just go see the city on my own and let them be free to do what they wanted to do most.  Though it's always more "fun" to go with other people, I thought that going by myself I would be a good experience because I would be able to see what I wanted to, go at my own pace, appreciate the history more, and have some good alone time.  Much longer than four days I thought I would get lonely, but just for an extended weekend I figured it'd be fine.  Plus, I found the idea of travelling to a foreign country on my own incredibly exciting :D

And guess what?  IT WAS AMAZING.  Everything went perfectly smoothly.  I got to the Barcelona airport okay, then figured out how to go from the Berlin airport to my hotel (by train, then metro, then on foot for a block or two).  I spent the rest of the afternoon (Thursday) walking around the old part of town (Mitte) for 2 or 3 hours to establish a sense of direction.  Honestly that's one of my favorite things to do.  I headed out in search of the philarmonic concert hall, where I knew I'd be going the next day (yay!), then just sort of wandered around aimlessly (okay not totally aimlessly. I knew where I was and headed in the general direction of where I wanted to go)  And I ended up running across several of the places I had already been planning on visiting though I hadn't looked for on the map yet!  So first the concert hall...

The building is kinda unusual-looking from the outside, but it's even more incredibly on the inside.  The auditorium isn't the typical set-up with ground floor and a layer or two of balconies.  It has that general idea, obviously, but the sections are divided up more, and stand individually.  As a result, it's kind of tricky finding your seat because you have to go up a couple sets of stairs (if you're near the top like I was haha), stopping to read the signs at every level just to find your section.  Idk if I explained that very well, but it was the coolest and most complex concert hall I've ever been in.  In fact, outside the actual hall and in the maze of a reception area was even cooler. Oh and I almost forgot... THE BERLIN PHILHARMONIC.  One of the most (if not the most) famous symphonic orchestras in the world.  Just the sound quality of the instruments was like nothing I've ever heard.  Everything was so crisp and clean and perfect.  Ahh I have to go back again.

So continuing with my Thursday afternoon stroll, I headed up north in the direction of the Tiergarten, which is the "Central Park" of Berlin.  But sadly, I found that pretty much everything was still in winter mode.  Another reason for me to have to go back: so I can see the Tiergarten in the spring or summer. 

From there I crossed the street over to the Holocaust Memorial for Jewish victims.

Exactly 2,711 concrete slabs of varying sizes (some a few inches tall, some a few meters,) are organized in straight files over a large slanting plane.  It was practically a laberinth.  You start out walking between the short slabs on the outskirts, but the deeper you go the taller they get, and the more the ground fluctuates.  Once you get deep inside you feel quite alone wandering aimlessly between the blocks, which was the intent of the architect.  It felt very eerie in there, and gives you a chance to just be alone, think, and reflect.

After leaving the memorial, I saw something big and cool-looking in the distance, so I went to go check it out... And what did I find?  BAM.  The Brandenburg Gate!

I don't really have any significant commentary on this one, other than it was pretty cool and is famous.  Oh I could mention though that it, and pretty much everything else in Berlin had to be reconstructed after Berlin got bombed really badly at the end of WWII in 1945.  It was sad exploring the city and learning that everything I was seeing was a reconstruction after all the damage from that year.  And as a result, the current Berlin is a new city with a very modern vibe that's easy to notice while walking down the streets.

I did a bit more exploring before finally heading back to my hotel, which was located about 2 minutes away from Checkpoint Charlie, the famous Soviet/American crossing point between East and West Berlin. 

If I had to pick one thing I got the most out of from my trip, it would have to be Checkpoint Charlie.  Obviously I knew that the Berlin Wall didn't come down until the 80's, but for some reason I never realized just how recent that was.  West Berlin was a little pocket of democracy surrounded by communism until 1989, which was only a year before I was born.  It feels so much more real when you're there, when you can see the line drawn into the pavement, walk along the reconstructed sections of the wall.  I was able to casually cross right over the former border between East and West Berlin, when just over 20 years ago I would have been shot on the spot.  I usually passed by there once or twice a day because it was so close to my hotel, and I tried to make an effort to really think about it, and how to appreciate the way things are today.  That was definitely the most eye-opening thing for me.

After my walk I went back to the hotel to relax before going to bed.  The next day I woke up and did an awesome 6 hour walking tour for just 10 euros (woo!), but I'll talk about that later.  Looks like this is going to be a long re-telling of my trip, so I'll stop this post here as installment one!  Hopefully I write the other ones...  Take care everybody!