Saturday April 7th, 2012 – Berlin

            On Friday April 6^th, 2012 we arrived in Berlin in the afternoon.  After we checked into our hostel we saw the Holocaust memorial, Brandenburg gate, Reichstag, DDR museum and went in some shops on the main street from the Brandenburg gate.  We also saw some parts of the Berlin Wall.  The next day we went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum where we learned about various escape stories of people trying to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin over the wall.  One women escaped successfully by hiding between two surfboards with a cut out of her body in them on top of a car.  Another women escaped by hiding inside two suitcases put together.  Other people escaped by creating zip lines, their own little planes, and other ladders that would quickly fit over the wall and then collapse again.  All of it was very interesting and I would greatly recommend going to it if anyone visits Berlin.  Next we saw the Topographie des Terrors exhibit where my hatred for Hitler exponentially rose x infinity.  In high school they taught you a bit about World War II and the holocaust, but not to the extent that I learned while in Berlin.  After reading some stories and things that happened to some of the Jewish people I shed a few tears right in the museum.  I just can’t imagine what it must have ACTUALLY been like.  Hearing the descriptions of everything in all the museums definitely doesn’t do it justice to the real thing.

            Next we went to the East Side Gallery where the longest piece of the remaining Berlin wall is.  There were many murals on it each portraying different messages.  After that we went to the Easter market in Berlin, which lightened up my spirits.  Sadly, I became depressed again when went to the Holocaust Memorial and information centre.  We learned all about the Holocaust in great detail there and it was all very heavy to take in.  Pretty sure I shed a few more tears while reading some stuff there too.  Finally, we decided to spurge and go out for dinner and we got ribs and wings at an Australian restaurant.  They weren’t too expensive which was why we got them.  That day in Berlin it was extremely cold and it even started snowing at some points, which was why we spent it in museums all day.  The next day we left for Amsterdam after a depressing day and a half learning about Berlin’s history in great detail.