Sunday, January 25th
Goodbye Berlin, I am returning to southern Germany with a happy heart. I had a long weekend filled with friendship and fun, time spent in the greatest way imaginable. I headed to Berlin Thursday exuding excitement for the prospect of a weekend spent with good friends unseen for a great deal of time. Last semester was so very full with student teaching responsibilities. To say that my social life suffered is a great understatement. A number of those I was able to spend time with those whose company I had not been able to keep since last May! To get a weekend with them in such a wonderful place as Berlin is more than I could have asked for.
I arrived Thursday, a little after the intended arrival time due to late trains, and with the assistance of a nice lady from Portugal (who had been living in Spain and Germany for the past five years) was able to take the S-bahn in the general area of the hostel. I then asked the information man at Potsdam strasse and he pointed me in the right direction. With a good deal of walking I arrived and began checking in as Dr. Strauch approached to say hello. I got my things up to my room and wandered a bit, running into fellow Whitworth Wind Symphony clarinet player Tim in the hallway who was able to point me to Allie, Jeannette, & Maya’s room. Jeannette saw me in the hallway and so began the onslaught of hugs, hellos, and welcomes the likes of which I don’t think I’ve ever had before. It was wonderful. It was then time to head to the Berlin Philharmonic concert so I walked along with the Whitworth group to enjoy what was to be a phenomenal concert. The music was wonderful and the venue was very unique. A great time indeed. The gang (which will encompass Allie, Maya, Jeannette, Sara - their very nice sophomore roommate who I met at my arrival, and Billy) then had decided they must take me to the house of one hundred beers. Dr. Strauch, Ben Brody, and some fellow Whitworth people tagged along and our large group got a table, ordered dessert, picked some beers to try and for the next hour and a half talked and laughed and headed home with happy hearts. It was a wonderful (and late) evening, a great start to my time in Berlin.
Friday too was destined to be full and busy, as we started the morning by going to the Flick collection, a modern art gallery very near the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Because a group the size of Whitworth’s group gets in for either one set price or free, I was simply included in the group and we all headed in. I could say a great deal about the gallery, but the experience does not require words. I am very happy I did not pay for the ticket. While I have enjoyed modern art in the past, when it comes to the Flick collection, I am not a modern art connoisseur. We’ll leave it at that. The afternoon from then on out was our own, and the girls (Maya, Sara, Jeannette, and Allie) had a few more places they had saved to visit until I was in town (thoughtful of them) and it was time we crossed them off their to-do list. We grabbed a Doner Kabab (traditional German fast food...fun stuff, but looks unappetizing in the pictures if you ask me) before hopping on the U-bahn and heading to the Gemäldegalerie and musical instrument museum. I enjoyed the Gemäldegalerie, filled with European art from the 13th to 18th century, with a number of Rembrandt’s and a painting by Vermeer. The musical instrument museum was very cool and I took many pictures of the unique instruments. On our way back we briefly stopped in the German Resistance museum, a one-floor display about those who opposed Hitler, however the display was written entirely in German and we did not get Audio guides so we stuck with enjoying the pictures.
After a brief dinner with the group at the hostel, we headed up to the girls’ room for a little down time. We had plans for the evening, so we took a short break to allow some homework to be done (I read, but they certainly accomplished things). With a little rest we were ready to start our evening and first headed down to the Internet cafe near by. It cost € ,50 for a half hour, much cheaper than the price to use the hostel’s internet, so I go the chance to check my mail and answer some emails in a typical European fashion. Billy met us at the cafe and the gang then headed to the Europa Center to cross one thing off of Jeannette’s list. She had been told by a friend that in Europe, black and tan’s (Guinness and a pale ale) were instead tan and black. While physics may say this is not possible due to the fact that Guinness is lighter than the tan and will always reside on top, Jeanette wanted to prove check and show her friend he was mistaken by going to the same pub, ordering said drink, and come home with photographic evidence. We arrived at the Irish Pub in the Europa Center, a large place which boasts live music nightly (a mix of bad classic rock and country music that only seems to go on for 15 minutes before the band takes a 45 minute break) and projection of the nightly sporting event, and found a nice table in the corner for the six of us. Three of us ordered black and tans (and proved Jeannette’s friend wrong), two of tried Poor Man’s Black Velvet (Guinness and a hard cider - good combination), and Allie, not feeling well after what we think might have been too many gummy bears, got water. We enjoyed ourselves for quite a while, until Allie got ill at which time we determined it was time to head back to the hostel and call it a night.
Saturday was just as busy and equally fun. It was a free day for the group with no assigned obligations, so we planned to cross the remaining things off of the girls’ list that they had saved until my visit. First though, Jeannette and I headed to the flea market to get some souvenir shopping done. The group had gone the previous weekend on a Sunday and found it very crowded, extremely cold, and with a much higher percentage of junk that worth-while finds. Jeannette and I however found the opposite on this particular Saturday. The crowd was more than bearable, the weather no more than slightly chilly, and the finds distributed in abundance. We both walked away with good souvenirs for ourselves and others, the contents of which will not be discussed on this blog due to a number of readers being on the receiving end of the afore mentioned buys. We returned to the hostel briefly to return our souvenirs, then went to meet the girls that the Topography of terror, an outdoor display of the area the SS and Hitler made their headquarters. From there we visited the Jewish Memorial museum, looking at the history of Judaism and it’s place in Germany. It was fascinating (and interactive!) and the architecture was a marvel in and of itself. We spent a good two plus hours there before the need to return to the hostel (and quickly finish some homework for a few of the girls) was upon us. Finishing their homework by the required deadline, we had dinner with the group at the hostel again and then got ready to do just a few more things before calling it a night. The girls had decided to return to the parliament building, a building which is topped with an open-air dorm to heat and cool down the building, with two ramps to take you to it’s pinnacle. We got to the top, took a great deal of pictures as well as took in the view, and moved on to the next thing on our list: the TV tower. It is a Berlin staple, with a quick elevator ride up it’s staggering height to take in a 360° view of the city. We were there in the evening, a beautiful night view of the city before us, and took on the challenge of spotting many of the monuments we had seen throughout the past few days. During the bus ride to the TV tower and afore mentioned dome I was able to see victory column, Brandenburg Gate, the “pregnant pearl” building, and a few other Berlin staples. It was a very enjoyable bus ride to say the least. We topped off the evening (Jeannette, Maya, and I at least) by returning once more to the Irish pub for a quick drink and then home to bed.
Today, with a train scheduled to depart Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 12:32 PM, began with completing one more thing on our check-off list - visiting “Barb”, the largest complete dinosaur skeleton ever erected. It sits in the Natural History museum in Berlin, and charges a mere € 3 for students to enter. How awesome. We were like squirrels in a field of acorns, happy as can be, overwhelmed with the immensity of truly great things before us. Their collection of fossils and skeletons, historic animals and current marvels, stones of all shapes and colors, and planetary displays to boot. I was a little crazy with my camera and we all walked away seeing the stop as a highlight of the trip. You’ve got to love those educational museums.
That brings me to this moment, riding on the train back to Landstuhl, and I am happy to have shared my weekend trip with you. This will be one of the last few updates, with only two more school days and a trip to Paris to inform you about, and the end of this adventure is in sight. What a time it has been. Thanks for reading and I look forward to these last few updates.
Until then,
Katie
A Link to My Album!
This photo of a castle in Metz is also a link the online album following my trip to Germany