Dankschen Berlin!

We skipped school Thursday afternoon and began our journey to Berlin! I think our teacher, Kate, wanted to come with us. She just told us to book a later train ticket next time... but this was the cheapest one!

So we made the 7 hour train ride to Hamburg then Berlin and found a hostel for the night. It ended up being a wonderful hostel too. Heart of Gold was its name. We got free linens, breakfast, and internet. Plus, the employees were able to help us with our restaurant and bar picking for the next few days.

Friday morning we checked in at the Holiday Inn Express which was pretty cozy for 3 people. We were able to push the twin beds together to make it work. We also had to be extra stealthy about sneaking in a third person into a two person reservation. They are pretty strict about that in Europe apparently. We did it though :) Once again, the breakfast was complimentary, so that was nice! We started packing lunches from the breakfast bar, so that we really only ended up paying for suppers while in Germany. Got to save where you can. The beer was good, of course. It was very cold there though!! We spent the entire Friday exploring the sites and walking everywhere.

Now, I'm not a big museum fan, but I went ahead and paid for the Museum Isle hopper just to be in the warmth for a couple hours. We saw so much! The Berlin Wall (or what's left of it), the Memorial of the Berlin Wall, East Side Gallery (a portion of the wall that you're allowed to write on... which I did!), Mitte, the TV tower, Checkpoint Charlie, Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Berliner Dom, Reichstag, Pergamon Museum, Museuminsel, Brandenburg Gate.... the list goes on forever! We saw pretty much everything we could fit into one weekend.

Saturday, we took a tour of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. I was amazed at how being on the site gave me such a nearer perspective of what it must've been like. Here I was in 4 layers freezing cold. I couldn't even feel my fingers or toes. Then, the guide said prisoners would be out there in weather 20 degrees colder, starving, and some without shoes. We saw the gas chamber rooms, the operating rooms where they conducted human experiments, some of the torturing devices, as well as their rooms. I couldn't believe the kind of unsanitary living conditions they were in. Three would share one bed in a bunk 3 stories high. That's 9 people to a bunk bed. If they didn't fold their sheets at a right angle in the morning they'd be punished. They only had 45 minutes in the morning to use the bathroom. That's their only bathroom break all day. So if the person from the top messes up the right angle of the bed getting down, the person on the bottom gets punished. It was just so terrible to think about. I also didn't about the ranks of the prisoners. I just assumed they were all treated about the same I guess. But there were levels. Jews, homosexuals, and Eastern-Europeans fell to the bottom of the ranks. Professional criminals and Germans often received more bread rations, maybe didn't have to share a bunk, and received a wool jacket sometimes. Granted, these prisoners were subject to the beatings also. They just had a little bit better sanitary conditions to live in, I suppose. I also never thought about the guards, and how they are human too. How could they do that to people? But unless they wanted to be imprisoned too, they had to follow orders and constantly raised the cruelty levels in order to not be seen as weak or showing compassion. Heidi, our tour guide, told us often it was worse to be sent to a death camp than a labor camp. I never had thought about that either. It was really an eye opening day for me. Despite the unbearable cold I really enjoyed learning more about the Holocaust and seeing a more upclose view of what things must've been like.

Kim had a fun night on her own Saturday. She planned to go check out a local pub, while Marieke and I stayed in and tried to get better. (I was sick the whole trip, with a cold+fever). Well, Kim walks in the door, and all eyes are on her. She orders a beer, quickly followed by a free round of champagne for everyone. She's surprised when a guy asks her where she's from, because she's the only one he doesn't know there. Turns out Kim had walked in on a private 25th birthday party! They all got a kick out of it. She met the birthday boy and made it home safe and sound with one heck of a story! Not many people can say they've crashed a German party before!

Sunday, the sun came out, and I was so happy! Granted, it was still super cold, but the sun at least made it look warmer. We started the day in Mitte, a shopping area with lots of good food, jewelry, knick knacks, and fire hazards! Then Kim pulled another crazy stunt when she went to warm her hands by the bon fire. Marieke looked and said, "Kim your gloves are so tan." I then realized her gloves were on fire and yelled for her to clap it out lol. Now she has two toasted marshmellows for gloves, including some holes too! Ahh Kim haha.

We spent our last night in Berlin at a cozy bar called Alt Berliner WeiBbierstuben where I tried a traditional German meal. A Berliner Pilsner, currywurst, fries, and salad. It was pretty delicious I must say.

We got back to Denmark today after a 2 hour delayed train!! The good thing is we may be getting a refund for our train ticket. We're filing the paper work this week.