We left London straight away after my last history final on Thursday, March 24th. We flew out of Heathrow and into Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany. I’m happy to say that we did indeed make it to our hotel (Holiday Inn) without any major complications, BUT for your entertainment I will admit that when we got to the general area of our hotel we wandered around in circles for at least 30 minutes until we discovered the yellow brick road to our destination. It’s pretty much unavoidable for us. We took the Bahn (which is like the London Underground service) to Potsdamer Platz in order to get to our hotel and it happens to be that Potsdamer Platz is the city center of Berlin. It’s almost surprising when you first take in the scene of Berlin’s city center because it is very new and very much a city consisting of big, new, modern buildings. But it only takes a quick history recap to remind yourself that much of Berlin had to be rebuilt after WW2. It was pretty late by the time we actually got to our hotel and settled in, but that didn’t stop us from treating ourselves after our long journey to….. ice cream! Haagen Dazs to be exact… which we were thouroughly excited to be eating in Germany. After that we rested up for the next day.
We decided to spend our first full day in Berlin exploring and getting to know the city. We made our way back to the city center, Potsdamer Platz, and had a look around. In the midst of the huge buildings there was the Sony Center. This place was a collection of restuarants, business buildings, a cinema, and more. Now before I tell you what we did next, I feel the need to justify my actions. Paula and are taking a Shakespeare class and decided long ago that we wanted to see the new film “Gnomio & Juliet.” Now since I mentioned there was a cinema in the Sony Center I will now mention that “Gnomio & Juliet” was playing in English AND in 3D… and since the Sony Center is such a big part of Berlin’s city center… We bought tickets for 5:00 that night. Now, I don’t want to catch crap for seeing a movie while in a foreign country, I’m glad we did it :) But in the meanwhile, before the movie, we had time to kill so we set out to explore more of Berlin. We stumbled upon, and yes I mean by accident, a part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. There’s pieces of the wall on display in Potsdamer Platz by the road with information about it (and graffiti’ed all over as the much of the wall was) but we saw a part of it that didn’t get knocked down probably because it didn’t necessarily need to be. Below is part of the Berlin wall that is on display in Potsdamer Platz.
Without insulting your wealth of knowledge I’ll attempt to explain briefly what the Berlin Wall was for. After WW2 the Cold War began and Berlin was divided in two; East and West Berlin. The West side was the side supported by the U.S. troops and the East side had support of the Soviet Union and their troops and the wall was built to keep East Berliners from escaping to West Berlin during the Cold War. Among discovering the wall (back to my story ) we also discovered a small food stand where I bought a bratwurst and Paula bought a currywurst, both very yummy indeed! We then made our way back to the cinema and enjoyed Gnomio & Juliet at the Sony Center!
Now before you start scanning for stories about me reeking havoc on the Berlin night life, I’m sorry to inform you that Paula and I indulged in no such thing. Yes, sort of sad but in the end we were just looking for a nice relaxed vacation so we didn’t stress bout going out and all that overrated stuff. We had enough fun exploring the city and experiencing what it had to offer without alchoholic beverages and prowling men that we really had no interest in talking to. That being said, we slept in Saturday morning and then set off to Starbucks to have get some coffee to get us goin, and plan out our second day in Berlin. We noticed something a bit unusual in Potsdamer Platz that day- booths, green balloons, and people carrying signs, mostly. After spending some quality time in the good old Bucks we headed outside to investigate the growth of booths, green balloons and people carrying signs. Mostly. At this point there were hundreds of people walking around Potsdamer Platz and the main streets in this city center were closed and filled with people… in booths, with green balloons, and people carrying signs. Mostly. To our unfortunate disadvantage, everything was in German so Paula and I hadn’t the slightest clue what was going on. On the chance that a young man in an interesting jumpsuit and face paint handed me a flyer, I asked him if he spoke English, and with a returned “Yes, a little” I asked him to explain what was going on. Apparently, Paula and I were in the midst of one of the biggest protests Germany has ever seen; a protest against nuclear power.
After his explanation, the Simpson posters began to make much more sense. According to this guy, Germany’s people has been protesting nuclear power for a while but Japan’s devestations concerning nuclear power had set off the opposition even more. This protest was a day before political elections in Germany and, to my knowledge, has contributed to the great shift of power from the party that has been power over Germany for many years now to the Green Party. I’d also like to mention at this point my embaressment because at one point in the conversation the young German gentleman stopped and asked if we could speak Spanish, since that’d be easier for him to speak in. Yes, he could speak (that I know of) three different languages fluently, and I can only speak one. It’s times like these when I wish I had ACTUALLY listened to Wilson all those semesters in Spanish class! Paula and I walked with the protesters until there came a breaking point to the march and then we headed back to our hotel to collect ourselves once again. (Picture of part of the protest below)
Our second excursion of the day was going to the famous Brandenburg Gate (pictured below) and the German Parliament building Reichstag (second picture below)
The Brandenburg Gate is a one of the famous symbols of Berlin located just blocks away from Reichstag.
If you recall earlier that I talked about the Berlin Wall, now I’m going to tell you something that was a large part of the whole it's functionality. There had to be a place where people could legally get through the wall right? Well there was, and it was called “Checkpoint Charlie.” Checkpoint Charlie was manned by armed soldiers and came equipt with a fair warning on the American side going East. The warning began “You are now leaving the American sector…” and goes on to warn those who are leaving basically that once they pass the threshold they are no longer under the protection of the Americans on the West side of the wall.
Sunday, our last full day in Berlin, was an eventful one as well. We started the day (after sleeping in of course) in search of a very specific thing in Berlin. The Holocaust Memorial. Stone slabs cover over 4 acres of land in downtown Berlin arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field of land. The stone slabs range in height from just a rectangle on the ground to over 10 feet tall. There are debates of any symbolism involved in the construction of the memorial.
Walking through the blocks of stone was a really powerful and provoking experience. Among the people laughing and playing hide and seek throughout the blocks you really had to force yourself to stop and think about why this memorial is there and what it represents. But as long as you can do that much, what’s in front of you will do the rest. I even ask you to take a second to remember the Jewish lives that were lost in Europe during those unfortunate times.
On a happier note, our next stop was the Charlottenburg Palace. Paula and I made the venture to this palace but alas, did not go inside. We didn’t really want to spend 12 Euro to look at something we’ve more than likely already seen since we’ve been to Europe. But… here’s a picture! This place was freaking HUGE! Not even all of it was open to the public either.
The next day (Monday) we set off for Prague in the Czech Republic! An AWESOME four hour train! (Sarcasm anyone?) Luckily Czech is beautiful so I was able to enjoy the window seat fully the whole ride. As soon as we got there we met another fellow PLU-mate who is also on the London program with us, none other than Mr. Pj Edds! He’d been there by himself the whole weekend so he was really excited to get to spend the rest of his break with the two best travel buddies anyone could ask for. And yes, those were his EXACT words. Duh. So, since he’d already been there for a while, Pj already knew about a lot of cool stuff so we didn’t waste any time when we got there. He took us to Old Town Square first where stands the famous Astrological clock (pictured below).
This clock is amazing, especially for the time it was created in. It was installed in 1410 making it the third oldest astrological clock in the world and the only one today that still works! It’s extremely complex and has many different components including the time, the position of the moon and sun at that specific time, and a calendar dial that represents the months and the astrological signs. Every hour the clock strikes and the famous ceremony takes place where the little windows above the clock open and “The Walk of the Apostles” takes place (the apostles walk by the windows, obviously). It’s a bit of an overrated ceremony but neat to experience none the less.
Pj also took us to visit the John Lennon wall. Yes, that John Lennon. This is basically a graffiti wall dedicated to John Lennon where hundreds (maybe thousands?) of people have left their mark on it. We did not write on the wall at all, but we did take time to enjoy what others had written, and even took a couple pictures!
We also went on the famous Charles bridge which was built by… no one other than… King Charles!
This bridge was really cool because it was a walk only bridge and had people selling neat things and a BUNCH of artists sketching characters (which I totally would have done if it wasn’t 900 Kronor.) So you know, about 20 Kronor equals one Euro, which is a good thing to keep in mind otherwise you might have a heart attack reading how much I spent haha. For some reason Pj thought it would be a life changing experience to drink Czech beer on the bridge at sunset… So I did!
I was the only one doing it out of us three though, the other two wanted to save their brew for a better sunset but we actually never went back to do it again so I’m glad I had my drink on the bridge when I had the chance! After that we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, walked around more until we were all worn out, and then called it a night. What a great first day, I know!
You’ll notice a pattern throughout most of my Prague experience, that Pj heard about doing it or planned it already. That being said, Pj had already planned us taking a guided tour the Prague Castle on Tuesday. Tours sound pretty typical and touristy but honestly, I would suggest taking one anywhere you go especially in Europe. Paula and I learned by not taking any tours in Berlin, that we saw a bunch of awesome stuff but didn’t know barely any of the significance. This was not the case in Prague, luckily! For this tour we had a great Scottish guide named Colin who was absolutely wonderful! He had a way with keeping us interested in everything he was telling us, which is a pretty great talent if I do say so myself. So we made our way up to the castle which is on top of a hill (of course) listening to tid bits of interesting Prague history on the way. On top of the hill was an absolutely beautiful view of pretty much all of Prague, definitely a sight to see. Unfortunately my camera broke for good in Berlin, so I wasn’t able to take any pictures but on the bright side I have a great roommate, who has a better camera than me anyway, who has allowed me to steal all of the great pictures she took throughout the trip.
The only part of the castle we were actually able to go in (since this is a still-functioning castle) was the cathedral but I don’t feel short changed because the cathedral is definitely the most beautiful aspect of the castle anyway. From this castle and cathedral stems the story of the famous St. John of Nepomuk. The story goes that the King at the time suspected his wife of having an affair, and since she confessed every week to St. John the King figured he could get the information from him. Well, St. John took his vow to God seriously and refused to tell the King of anything the Queen had told him so St. John was tortured to try and get the information out of him. But none of it worked and in a final attempt to get the information out of him the King ordered St. John to be dipped into the river off of the Charles Bridge in which act St. John died. Today he is a national saint of Czech Republic.
Among seeing the castle we also got a little tour up and around the grounds where we saw various places where famous movies were filmed such as Mission Impossible, James Bond, Eurotrip etc. which I thought was pretty neat. Even more interesting than that though was seeing the Communist headquarters where many terrible secrets are still held today. Our tour guide told us that people were tortured and killed in this building. Of course it’s used as something else now, but since communism only ended in 1989 some people are still convinced that communism still exists and indeed fear its return. But no fear, that’s not likely to happen. The picture below is of a plaque posted outside of the old communist house gates commemorating lives lost to the corrupt government.
To end the tour our guide to us to a Monk brewery known for world winning beer and of course I had a pint and would like to say that Monks definitely know how to make beer! It was probably the most delicious brew that I had the whole trip (possibly since I’ve been in Europe.)
We wrapped up the night by having a “traditional Czech meal” at a place suggested by our tour guide. The place was really hole-in-the-wall and not touristy, which was exactly what we wanted. Now the Czech’s aren’t necessarily known for their food but we ordered the best we could to experience the cuisine. Paula ordered Goulash (which is not even CLOSE to the way my mom makes it) with dumplings, which is the course Czech’s are most known for, and I got “Czech potato soup” with a Czech garlic potato pancake called “Bramboraky.” Pj got some sort of omelet. After dinner though, we had one more stop- something that Pj had discovered and wanted to show us.
Intense right? A bunch of locks on a bridge. I bet you’re wondering where all the keys are. The answer is, since this is a bridge, the keys are at the bottom of the water bank. Now just because I had never heard of this tradition before I got to Europe doesn’t mean none of you have. But I’ll share it anyway. The tradition is for two lovers to go to a bridge, lock the lock onto some part of the bridge, then throw the key into the water to represent everlasting love. We stood at this spot for a good amount of time studying all the different locks, big and small, wide and skinny most with names and dates carved or written on them. It’s such a romantic tradition and I hope to be able to do it someday with someone I love! I’ve seen locks on other bridges; it doesn’t have to be any specific one. This city just happens to have hosted a lot of lovers!
Wednesday we decided to take it easy because we had been doing a LOT of walking and sightseeing. We did explore a little of course, we sure didn’t go there to sit in our hostel. We ended up at what we thought was the Prague market… but it ended up being a very sketchy experience so we left just about as quickly as we came. At one point we went into a candy store that sold mostly chocolate and rock candy, and we got to watch the rock candy being made!! If you’re interested look it up, it’s super cool. And then I bought some of it. Variety pack!
We relaxed then set out for dinner to a place called BarBar that Pj found online that had pancakes (which were really basically just crepes) for dinner! That was a fun walk. We ended up find these statues-
Don’t ask… I don’t really know, but it was funny!
Thursday was our last full day in Prague (sad face) but I think we spent it well. We set out in the morning to get some coffee and find the REAL Prague market, which was a success, and I bought all my Prague souvenirs. One of the things that area of Europe is known for is Bohemian crystal so I got some of that, of course. So after we finished our shopping we hung out in Old Town Square (where the astrological clock is) until our tour started. We decided to take the free tour of Prague since Pj did it (twice) and recommended it. Honestly, I learned so much that recollecting it all is nearly impossible, but I’ll tell you that we learned about a famous protester against communism who burnt himself alive to make a statement just 20 years ago. He now has a place in the city named after him. We also saw one of the buildings Mozart performed in, learning that he actually loved Prague because he felt like his music was really appreciated and understood there. A really random interesting fact is, speaking of music, that when the Americans landed on the moon for the very first time they were in fact listening to music by a famous Czech composer. So the Czech’s do actually have the claim to fame for the first music on the moon! At one point we also visited a small church that hosted something very interesting. A human arm. Ew, right? This arm is actually over 600 years old! The story is that a thief had attempted to steal jewels off of a statue inside the church and got stuck. The people of the church had to cut his arm off to free it, and decided to keep it and hang it in the church to warn other thieves. And here it hangs... in all it's shriveled glory
My favorite part of the tour was going through the Jewish District. This is where history starts getting really interesting. Apparently Hitler wanted to retire to Prague “after he won the war” which ultimately explains why Prague was nearly untouched during World War II. That being said, he created something called the “Jewish District” in Prague which was an area of confinement for all the Jews in Prague. To much surprise there is a standing Synagogue in the Jewish District of which is apparently partly compromised of stones from the original Synagogue in Jerusalem. The story goes that when the Messiah finally came the Jews would remove the stones from the Synagogue in Prague and take them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the original. So why would Hitler leave it standing? Our tour guide informed us that Hitler planned to make a museum of this particular Synagogue after he exterminated all the Jews in the world. One of the most disturbing parts of the tour was seeing the graveyard in the Jewish District. The people only had a tiny part of land to bury their dead so… the only way to keep burying was to finish one layer then begin another by burying bodies on top of the ones already buried. The walls to this graveyard are higher than any other ground surface in the area and it’s said there are up to 11 bodies buried on top of each other. Below is a picture, and the brick wall you see is one of the sides of the graveyard.
We ended the day by wasting time on the Charles Bridge, which was the perfect ending to an amazing adventure. We sat on the bridge and took fun pictures and just talked. Paula and Pj were amazing to travel with and I’m so glad I got to spend this trip with those two, I couldn’t have asked for more.
Friday morning Paula and I woke up early and set off to the train station. We took a four hour train from Prague back to Berlin (since that’s where we were flying out of), then a 30 minute bus from the Berlin train station to Tegel airport, waited four hours for our flight, flew for two plus hours, arrived in London and took the tube to our homestay which took an hour. It was a solid day of traveling! But we made it back safe and sound and I only forgot one thing in Prague! No worries though, it was just a cord and my hostel is mailing it to me fortunately. And that ends my mid semester adventure. Below is a picture of us and our GREAT tour guide Colin!
If you’ve made it this far, props for being able to read all the way through! I know it’s a lot to take it and it certainly took me forever to write it all and attempt to recreate it for you. I appreciate your support and I hope you’ve enjoyed all I had to say. I’m pretty much done travelling for the most part, well to other big countries at least. I know I make it look it easy but it’s not and it’s really expensive!! I’ve had so much fun though and I still can’t believe all the places I’m able to say I’ve been. Now, even though I’m not going anywhere super major in my last remaining month, please keep up with my blogs! I’ll try to keep it interesting, I promise. I hope that you’ve learned something from my adventures and if you have any questions definitely let me know!
Thanks again, and I hope you all are doing very well. I miss you so much and it’s about a month until I get home! Mark your calendars! Much love to you all!!
-KYRA:)
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