Berlin: Part 2

The second half of my weekend in Berlin was simultaneously relaxing and jam-packed. Evan and I came to Sina's house at the end of a long (but fun) day and were picked up at the train station by Sina and her mom. It was so wonderful to see Sina again! She was my friend Kelli's German exchange student the first half of our senior year of high school, so it'd been almost 2 years since we'd seen each other in person.

When we got to her house, her parents had prepared dinner for us, which was so sweet of them (and it was delicious, i might add). Having something homemade prepared for us was a welcome surprise, and it was lovely to have vegetables! Because I have to admit, while the restaurants we go to for our meals are delicious, they seldom serve many vegetables to us.

After our dinner and pleasant conversation (seriously, her parents are SO SWEET), Sina showed us our rooms. We were so fortunate that not only was there a guest room for Evan, but also Sina's brother's room was unoccupied so I could stay in there. After a night in a hostel (which really wasn't that bad, but still), it was really nice to each have our own rooms without random people coming in. That night we went to bed so early-- probably around 10:30 or so. It felt GREAT.

It was fortunate that we were able to get to bed so early on Friday night, because on Saturday we woke up early in order to go to a tour of a WWII bunker. Evan and I went without Sina because she needed to sleep in, so we agreed to meet up with her a little later so she would be sufficiently rested.

The WWII bunker was so fascinating. It was tucked away in a subway station, and you would never even suspect it. I think one of the most interesting things was the fluorescent paint they had on the walls. Whoever came up with this was so clever-- and I was impressed, considering that this paint dated back to the 1930s or so. Basically, in case of a power outage they wanted to be sure that they could still see, so they painted the walls with this fluorescent paint that would give off a faint glow in the dark. The really cool thing is that if you "drew" in the air with a flashlight, your picture would briefly show up as a glowing image on the wall. The paint was really strong, and I can only imagine how well it all worked 70 years ago when it was fresh. The bunker also really got me thinking about how scary it must have been to be a civilian in Berlin at that time-- can you imagine expecting a bomb raid at any moment, then having to hide in dark underground rooms without windows, all the while forced to live under an immoral regime?

Sina and me inside a Trabi

After that, we met up with Sina at the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) Museum, which is basically about life in Eastern Germany. It was so fascinating to hear how life was in the DDR-- for example, a brick layer was almost paid as much as a chemist. As time went on the regime started to fail because of economic problems-- their system simply didn't work. We got to sit in a Trabi, the car of the DDR. If you wanted one, you had to wait for a VERY long time, and they were pretty junky cars. They broke down all the time, and later in the day we actually saw a real Trabi (you can rent them in Berlin and drive them around for kicks) break down on the street.

Our day had only just begun by the time we finished that-- we went to a cafe, then to the Checkpoint Charlie museum. While Checkpoint Charlie may be a standard tourist thing to see in Berlin, I have to say that it was worth it. There were so many stories in the museum about escape attempts and successes that I couldn't even read them all.

There was only one thing left on our itinerary for the day after we finished at checkpoint Charlie: the dome on top of the Reichstag building. Evan had made reservations for the three of us to tour it, and the only available time was that night. However, once we got there the woman in charge told us that our names were not on the list. She must have been feeling merciful that night or something, because she let us in anyway, which I'm pretty sure is not protocol. Then again, we weren't allowed to go inside the Reichstag building itself, but still. We had to put our bags through an X-ray machine and walk through a metal detector, just like at the airport. We, along with a few others, were escorted into the building and up a few floors in the elevator before being dropped off at the spot where we picked up our audio guides for the dome (which basically told us interesting things about the architecture and pointed out points of interest in the city).

At the top of the dome

All in all, I'd say that the trip to Berlin was fantastic. I learned so much over the course of only a few days, and left feeling like there was still so much more to do and see in Berlin. But alas, I am studying abroad and therefore have to plan my trips within the confines of my weekends and return to school when it's all over. So we returned, relaxed and enlightened at the end of a fun and informative weekend.