Berlin & Prague
Hello again!
Yesterday I made my valiant returned from a six day mini vacation (from my semester-long vacation) in Germany and the Czech Republic! I am absolutely beat (my FitBit tells me we walked the equivalent of two full marathons over the week!) but the trip was another great one for the books.
This trip was a little different from some of the others I’ve talked about in that I went with only one other person. It was a really nice change from a larger group setting because we found we had parallel interests and conversation to last easily six years. Also, it’s worth noting that he can read a paper map with enviable ease which, thankfully, offsets my own fairly incompetent navigational system.
I brought my limited Deutsch to the table on this trip. Did I impress anyone with harsh syllables or well placed umlauts? No. But did I have fun remembering a few things from high school German years? Definitely.
Anyway, without further ado, welcome to the photo documentation of everything I did ever in Berlin and Prague!
Berlin
– walking tour of the city (where we saw the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Berlin Wall, Konzerthaus Berlin, and many other places)
– Museum Bode on Museum Island
– German Parliament – Reichstag dome (which was heavier on security than some airports I’ve been in lately)
-pub crawl of Alternative Berlin (where we very unsuccessfully played Around the World ping pong and got stuck in an elevator!)
-Tiergarten (where we collapsed in the sun with Haagen-Dazs)
-Berlin Victory Column (spiraling up 300+ stairs has become a weekly activity over here)
-East Side Gallery (where we joined the masses in a quick photo shoot)
-Memorial Church and its new, very photogenic, counterpart
-ate delicious burgers, towers of brunch, and, of course,wienerschnitzel
Prague
We took a day trip to Prague via train. It was certainly not without roadblocks (nothing seems to be with me 😉 ) but we got there and got a little taste of the very visually appealing Czech Republic!
Finally, we spent an afternoon at the memorial site of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen, outside of Berlin. This was a very special and harrowing experience. The memorial site reinforced the importance of remembering the dark pieces of human history and it really reminded me of just how lucky I am to be free of persecution today. Our day specifically was very special, as we chose to visit on 22.04.15- on the 75th anniversary of the camps liberation. Survivors of Sachsenhausen had returned to the site for the anniversary and were dressed in their uniforms in order to pay homage to those who died in them. There were many events throughout the day to celebrate the liberation and to honor the dead.
Although it wasn’t a pleasant day, it was an important site to experience and one that I am thankful to have had the opportunity to understand.
Overall, I have decided that Berlin is a really great place and that it is very different from Munich, a city I once visited in 2012. Germany is a little behind the times in some aspects of normal life and it was very nice to slow down for awhile and go off the grid. Thanks Berlin and Prague for all the fun!!
Until the next adventure,
Megan