Today started with a tour of the Berlin Wall Memorial.
Our hotel is pretty close to the East Side Gallery, so I'd seen the graffitied sections of the wall there, but the atmosphere at the Berlin Wall Memorial was a bit more solemn.
A lot of deaths occured during the time of (and because of) the border that the wall represented.
It's hard to comprehend how drastically life would have changed for those Berliners who went to sleep on a Saturday and woke up to find themselves separated from family, friends, work, etc.
After our tour of the Berlin Wall Memorial, our group split up to go do different things throughout the city.
I tagged along with our professors and two of the grad students to go see sights and drink beer.
We went to the Brandenburger Gate, where we found a Starbucks and the U.S. Embassy.
We then walked through the really pleasant Tiergarten to the Berlin Victory Column.
We would have tried going up to the top, but it cost money so we decided to take a bus over by Humbolt University, where we found a lots of stores, museums, an authentic pub, a book sale, an aquarium inside a hotel, entertaining posters, and more, before finding ourselves at a beer hall.
A friendly Berliner confirmed that I was right before the group decided they could trust the youngest member of the intoxicated party, but it turns out I can be trusted to decipher and guide people through foreign public transporation systems, even when the map spins a bit before my eyes.
Hoping my feet are less sore tomorrow,
The Purple Writer
No comments:
Post a Comment