This trip was part of my Wash U program and as such was organized and paid for by Wash U. Christiane, are lovely "cultural liaison" in Tuebingen was our guide and did all the organizational work such as buying the train tickets and booking the hostel. The train ride there was miserable because it was Himmelfahrt (Ascension of Christ), which is a public holiday in Germany and a very popular day to travel on. So the train was packed, meaning we spent 4 of the 6.5 hours sitting on the floor. But, we made it eventually, then the proceeded to get lost in the pouring rain while trying to find the hostel. Finally found that as well, and from then on we didn't really have any other problems.
Because Wash U was financing the trip, we got to do a lot of cool activities that I never could have afforded on my own. For example, one night we went to a cabaret show and another sight to the musical The Producers, which had just opened in Germany for the first time the week before (it was in German). For those who aren't familiar with the Producers, it was kind of a big deal for it to be in Germany, because the sub-plot in the musical involves the production of a musical entitled "Springtime for Hitler" (this is a Mel Brooks musical, btw). I wasn't sure how the German audience would react to some of the off-beat humor about Nazis and WWII, but they seemed to find it amusing, either laughing or groaning in self-aware disgust at the jokes. Another cool thing we did was to eat in Unsichtbar, a "dark" restaurant. They have these in several cities, and what makes them "dark" is that you eat your meal in complete darkness. I'm talking so dark you really truly cannot see a single thing. The waiters are all blind or seeing impaired, and they guide you from the lighted part of the restaurant (where you choose your menu) into the dark section and help you sit down in your chair and locate all your utensils. The menus are also strange, because they don't actually tell you what you will be eating. You can choose between a vegetarian, beef, chicken, or seafood menu and call include a soup, salad, main course and dessert. Instead of telling you what's in the dishes though, they simply list bizarre descriptions, such as this one for the vegetarian main dish: "Die asiatische Freude paart sich mit italienischer Lust in einem tief roten Fluss", or "Asian joy pairs with Italian desire in a deep-red river." The point is to disengage yourself from all expectations of the food and focus instead on the smells, flavors and textures. The food was good and it actually wasn't as hard to eat in the dark as I had expected, though I'm sure my table manners were lacking at times as I poked around my plate with my hand to make sure I didn't miss anything. The food was delicious, but I really couldn't tell you what I had. It was a cool experience, but also a little uncomfortable, because I was constantly expecting for my eyes to adjust and to be able to see to some degree, but that never happened, which was kind of disconcerting. So basically, I'm not planning on making eating in the dark part of my everyday routine.
Other activities we did included going to the Reichstag (House of Parliament), doing a bike tour around some of the sections of former East Berlin, doing some general sightseeing and visiting 'Checkpoint Charlie' and the corresponding museum about the Wall. What fascinated me about Berlin is that, despite its history, it's so alive and vibrant. It's hard to believe that only 20 years ago it was a divided city; most traces of the Wall are gone, preserved only in a few places as memorials. To look at pictures of Berlin from before the fall of the Wall you wouldn't even recognize it as the same city. Even in the last 10 years Berlin has changed dramatically since the seat of government was officially moved there from Bonn. There's always something being built, old sections being renovated, and in general just tons of cool stuff happening.
Going along with that, Berlin is amazing because, while it isn't necessarily the "prettiest" city ever (by that I mean it's surrounding geography isn't as stunning as zurich nor does it have the pleasing architectural coherence of Munich or Paris), but it's just so cool that it doesn't matter. It is literally the best city in the world to just walk around in, because every section of the city is different and all are awesome. And it's CHEAP; drinks are about 2/3 of the price they are in Tuebingen. Berlin is definitely top on my list of places I want to go back to.
Berlin Cathedral; TV Tower and "Red City Hall"; some church
cool fountains; the Babylonian Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum (great exhibits of ancient and Islamic art from the Middle East)
TV Tower (Fernsehturm) at night
Red City Hall (Rotes Rathaus)
Berliner Dom (Cathedral) and Brandenburger Tor (Gate)
Checkpoint Charlie. Hard to believe that 20 years ago this was truly a fortified and guarded border, and that people were shot and killed trying to get to the other side.
There used to be scary Soviet soldiers on that side of the border; now there's just car advertisements! Capitalism and globalization certainly work quickly; these are wine glasses from a cool bar we went to: they only have one, but they just have a bunch of bottles out on the bar and you serve yourself. You pay 1 Euro to rent a glass and then at the end pay however much you feel is appropriate corresponding to how much you drank. I can't imagine this system results in much of a profit, but it was pretty cool.
Ultra-modern Potsdamerplatz, which at the time of reunification 20 years ago was basically a wasteland.
The Memorial Church (Gedaechtniskirche): bombed out during the war and left in that state as a testament to the destruction of war; KaDeWe is short for Kaufhaus des Westens, aka the largest department store in Europe besides Harrod's in London. They have EVERYTHING; part of a funny sculpture
Walking around Kreuzberg; eating cupcakes! (not as good as in America)
Siegessaeule, or Victory Column. Sustained a lot of damage during the war.
Apocryphal bullet hole?; views from the top
chillin'
We found a sweet zip line in the park---I need to ask Caroline to send me the video of my epic fail when attempting to jump on it. I'm special.
In the Tiergarten; flower petals all over the water; wanna-be Monet
Bike tour
Our awesome guide; some hippie park we rode through
Awesome rain capes (fortunately the downpour was brief); Soviet Memorial (this was in former East Berlin)
Some famous bridge (forgot the name though); bars along the canal in Kreuzberg
The East-Side Gallery, one of the few preserved sections of the Wall, which after Reunification was covered in graffiti by tons of international artists. They're re-graffiti-ing parts of it for the celebrations of 20 years of reunification this November.
Don't worry, Obamamania is alive and well here too.
Funky sequin-covered building; the dark restaurant; awesome name on a different restaurant (I did not eat there, so I can't tell you what they were actually serving)
more graffiti and stuff we saw while wandering around trying to find the hostel
LOTS of olives at the Turkish Market; just though this was cool; on the subway
Holocaust Memorial. I think the design is very thought-provoking, but it needs more signs or something explaining what it is and what it represents, because I don't think a lot of people got the point, seeing as how they were jumping around or picknicking on the stones.
top of the Reichstag; the Chancellor's Building; view of Brandenburger Tor
the dome of the Reichstag; don't ask
aahh!! my legs separated from my body!!
The Reichstag, or Parliament Building. The original dome was destroyed during the war and for decades they basically left it as a semi-ruin (used it for a museum I think), until the government was moved back to Berlin in the 90s following reunification. They rebuilt the dome out of glass to represent transparency of the political process; from the dome you can look down into the chamber where the Lower House of Parliament meets (though you can't really make out all that much)
Brandenburger Tor; as part of the celebrations of 20 years of reunification they had these fake "checkpoints" where you could get your passport stamped with the old stamps of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Also the weekend we were there was the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the constitution, so around Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag there were a bunch of booths and speakers and such.
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