Ich bin ein Berliner

I'm home finally, sitting in my house in Oklahoma. Classes start tomorrow. Europe and Scotland feel a lifetime and a world away. I've been asked "How was it?", but really there is no way to put the past 4 months into a response that's short enough to respond to such a question. I'm left saying "It was really, really great," which is an inadequate response, but I understand that most people haven't set aside hours and hours of their day to listen to me.

So I left off talking about my Isle of Skye trip. I realize that I have also left out many cool things that happened in Glasgow, and I'm hoping to combine all of Glasgow into one final post. I think I will try and devote one blog post to each location I visited. Hopefully this doesn't mean that it will take me 6 months to finish up my blog...

I realize some of the posts may be quite lengthy, so I understand if my loyal blog readers (who desperately check this page every day- no every hour- to see if I've updated) decide to skim what I've written. In fact, if you've gotten this far without skipping ahead to the pictures... Bravo!! I am really impressed. Anyhoo, I am writing this partially as a type of journal for myself, because I don't want to forget what I've done, how I've felt, who I've met, etc etc.

Here are the places I travelled after exams in Glasgow finished:

-Berlin, Germany
-Venice, Italy
-Brussels, Belgium
-London, England
-Amsterdam, The Netherlands

So, after packing in a small backpack for this 3 week long journey (because I didn't want to pay extra to check a bag for every flight) I found myself meeting up with my sister in Berlin.

I dropped my bags off at her lovely flat, where her room was not only about 4 times the size of the one I had in Glasgow, but it also had a pull out couch and a television. She decided that we should go get some Arabic food, which was apparently not only tasty, but also inexpensive. Brianna kept saying A-ray-bic instead of Err-uh-bic, which was really quite funny. Mispronunciation seems to be a common theme throughout her life though, so no big surprises there.

After some delicious Arabic food, we (being the four siblings and Breeze's friend, Rene) headed to an open mic night, which occurs on Sundays and according to Brianna is one of the things she has really enjoyed going to while in Berlin.

It was odd to me that most of the proceedings, introductions, songs, etc were in English! Even a couple Germans who didn't speak English that well, still sang in English. Anyways, I really really enjoyed the night. The little bar type place where the open mic night occurred was kinda underground. All of the decorations were upside down... as if someone were to take a room and turn it upside down. So there was a lamp on the floor, bball shoes on the ceiling, plants hanging from upside down shelves with books, etc. I thought that it was really unique and enjoyed it. I wish I would have taken a picture, because this was something that I remembered most intensely out of all of Berlin. The sightseeing was nice, but for some reason I remember most vividly the open mic night. We enjoyed some Berliner beers after the open mic, and then headed back to the flat for some Zzzs before the one day of sightseeing I had in Berlin.


So the first place we visited, and my favorite thing we saw that day, was the East Side Gallery. It is the longest stretch of the Berlin wall still standing, and had paintings covering it by artists from all over the world.

Then we travelled around and looked at some famous buildings, a massive victory gate, parliament, etc.

Christmas tree

Victory Gate!!

Above is the Parliament building, which was looted by the Russians (? Breeze, I don't remember!!). To commemorate it, and remind themselves of what has happened, Russian graffiti had been left throughout.

We also visited Breeze's university (Humboldt!), where she's studying. It is in East Berlin, and right accross the way is the plaza where the Nazi book burnings occurred. A picture of the memorial is above, where you look down into what appears to be a completely empty library. I thought this memorial was really neat.

Then we visited the Jewish memorial. This memorial was sorta... untraditional. There were pillars that changed height throughout, while the ground also changed height. It was so easy to lose people in the grid, or unexpectedly run into someone. There are theories about the "meaning" behind the memorial... Wikipedia says that it  is "designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason".

We then continued on to visit checkpoint Charlie (part of the American sector of West Berlin) as well as the typography of terror (talking about Nazi rise to power, and then downfall).

Near here, we also read about different people who tried to cross the wall from East Berlin to West. Some were successful, but one story stood out to me. A couple of young students attempted to cross the wall. One got through, but the other young man was shot by soliders on the East Berlin side. As he lay bleeding to death near the wall, the people on the West Berlin side could not come to his aid, because he was still in East Berlin. The people on the East Berlin side did not come to his aid for fear of being shot by the West Berlin side. And so, in the very public eye, this young man (a university student) bled to death. Sad. Tragic. Just as so many things in Germany's (relatively recent) history.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Berlin, even I was only there for one full day. The atmosphere of the city was great, I felt like I blended in, which was nice. The style was not such that I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb, which (as I will surely note in the next Venice blog post) is something that lends me comfort. I wish I had more time in this city, perhaps when (I refuse to say 'if') I end up in Europe again, I will be able to have a longer stay.

PS. I also tried a Berliner, which is a jelly-filled doughnut, while in Germany. I learned that (as JFK infamously said) "Ich bin ein Berliner", translates to something like "I am a jelly-filled doughnut". Quite funny.