Capital City, Berlin!

Hello all!
I spent last weekend with my friend Tricia in beautiful Berlin, Germany. Being a poli sci major, I had a huge interest in the city. We spent about a day in the city, and I got to see a lot of sites.

I would say all of the places I saw were beautiful sites- we went to the Bundestag (German parliament building), Chalottenburg Schloss (Charlottenburg Castle), Branderburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz, and Alexander Platz (both big squares).

We headed to the big capital city on Saturday morning, after a small setback, we made it to Berlin in the early afternoon. Berlin welcomed us with its typical weather: light rain and a bit of humidity. We got a day pass which let us ride the trams, U-bahn and S-bahn (subways), and the buses. I had an appointment to go to the Bundestag at 6pm on Saturday. Little did I know that I needed to print out my confirmation letter (although it didn't say I had to on the letter itself). After some minutes of frustration, I used Tricia's phone to access the confirmation, and saved us from standing in line to make an appointment for the next day. The view from the rooftop of the Bundestag was wonderful. You can see all of Berlin from the rooftop. There's also a free audio guide with lots of valuable information about the Bundestag building and the major landmarks around Berlin. The dome of the Bundestag contains a huge spiral with mirrors on it. You can also see into the inside of the building (it wasn't in session while I was there). The point of why it's like that is because they people should be able to see what the government is doing, a transparent government almost.  The government should work for its people, and the people have a right to be represented.

Next was the Brandenburg gate. It was really close to the Bundestag (I could see it from there!). It started raining shortly after we got there. We took some pictures and eventually made our way to the Holocaust memorial next to the gate, and across from the American Embassy (which was HUGE, it was bigger than the other embassies nearby eg, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland. They should keep American snacks at stored and hand them out to homesick citizens). The memorial was also pretty big, and I remember talking about it in a Holocaust remembrance class a few semesters ago. It sparked some controversy because it is on an extremely valuable piece of real estate. However, I think it was a proper way of remembering victims. The memorial consists of big cement blocks, which get bigger towards the middle, and decrease at the extremes. I didn't get it when I first got there, but I told Tricia that it was sort of a maze; you could see the end, but it took a long time to get there. The cement blocks covered my view, so sometimes I ran across someone, but once I moved on, I never saw them again. To me, this meant that although people knew what their destiny might be, they crossed paths with other people, but once the others kept going on with their destiny, they would never be seen again. The huge blocks in the middle represented a blocked view, you didn't know who you would meet, you didn't know how you would get to the end, you couldn't see anyone else walking through the maze. It was the feeling of being lost, although you could clearly see the end. 

Berlin is a huge city, walking around it tired us out. We went to eat a place that had food i'd been craving for some time: tex-mex! I was glad to finally eat something that reminded me of home. It was funny that the waiters had to warn people that some of the food was spicy. I think they spiciest thing i've found here is curry ketchup...

The next day I checked out Potsdamerplatz and Alexanderplatz. This is what Potsdamerplatz used to look like during the cold war:

today:

I also went to Alexanderplatz and thought it was pretty neat. It was dedicated to a Russian Czar I think, when he visited Berlin. 

And of course, I went to check out Checkpoint Charlie. It was the main entrance between East and West Berlin. Many people tried to escape from East Berlin, and some even hired diplomats to smuggle them out (for a price, of course).

It was a great time in Berlin, but I wish I'd had more time to see everything. Perhaps the weather will be better whenever I return. Probably not.

I'm headed to Copenhagen this weekend. I just received an email telling me to set up a check-out appointment with the landlord. Time's coming to a close soon! I can't believe my summer will be over in a few weeks.

Until next time!