It's been almost six weeks (since the last post) and the time has flown by! I'll be honest I haven't seen much point in posting recently as I've just been going to classes and living the life I have already described in previous posts... except for a quick trip home, to Berlin, and all around Eastern Europe... oops.
Yes, after a wonderful week at home preparing for and celebrating at my sister Gretchen's wedding, I flew back between two worlds again in time for a mandatory class trip to Berlin. Mandatory makes it sound like it was against my will - far from it; Berlin is one of my favorite cities visited thus far. We (30ish international students, mostly American) had a long weekend packed full of historical walking, biking, and museum tours. A six hour walking tour on Thursday brought us to some lesser known spots in the Jewish quarter as well as the main attractions in the center of Berlin, such as Humboldt University, the church above, museum island, Topography of Terrors, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Checkpoint Charlie (which is really a big scam to be honest), and the Brandenburg Tor. I felt like historical facts were spilling out of my ears by the end of it. On Friday was another four hour bike tour, in the area where the Berlin Wall was first opened in 1989. Following, an hour long tour at the Palace of Tears, and then an eighty minute tour of a Cold War/WWII bunker. We were all exhausted, but regardless we decided to go out that night as well. Questionable decision but worth it.
Saturday was a tour of the Reichstag and then an afternoon free to visit a museum of our choice, to complete a presentation on later.
Maggie and I visited the Trabant Museum, a small, quirky museum about Eastern Germany's "cardboard" (actually, Duroplast) car manufactured from 1957-1990, a terribly designed automobile that regardless carries a lot of "Ostalgie" (East Germany nostalgia) for the country's former citizens.
I loved Berlin so much because, first of all, it is such an international city. Many Eastern European and Asian immigrants were able to enter Eastern Germany before the wall came down, which makes for some absolutely delicious and affordable food options in the city. When I was younger my dream job was to be a National Geographic photographer - now it'd probably be traveling food critic. I could go on about all the food I have tried while in new cities but it's probably more exciting to me than anyone else.
Secondly, there is just so much history at the heart of the city, that I've heard some people say Westerners are drawn to and curious about, so naturally... I think for young people, hearing about the communist society of East Germany is really intriguing because we've never lived under a system like that.
The picture below looks like a very poorly taken photo - and it is, but this is in reference to when I said Checkpoint Charlie is basically a tourist trap. Our tour guide, who was getting his masters in German History at Humboldt University, said that it isn't even the true location of the checkpoint, the soldier in front is not a real soldier, it isn't the real sign, and the "museum" next to it is owned privately by a guy who is promoting his own political agenda. The big pictures of the two soldiers are not significant either, just random soldiers who nobody really knows. I thought this picture was kind of representative of his sentiment: packed with tourists taking pictures with the soldier, a "hop-on hop-off" bus passing right through it all so you can't even see the "checkpoint" in the picture, and a KFC right on the corner. This is how I've felt in a number of places around Europe; overwhelmed by the number of tourists that it's difficult to get a feel for the city itself - Prague, Vienna, Munich. But I am fully aware that I am just another tourist adding to the throng of people and I have no right to be grumpy about it. it's difficult for me to feel like a tourist sometimes which is why I love living in Konstanz and having it as my home base so much.
Also, this was the best vegetarian burger I've ever had! We went to a huge food truck warehouse (like the Papirøen in Copenhagen if you've been) and found these tofu burgers - didn't even taste like tofu and the buns were just dyed fun colors:))
p.s. Look in the gallery for photos of course! And next up: Eastern Europe trip!
