We got out of the Berlin airport coming from Istanbul and headed straight into a cab driven by a Turk. Our first stop after settling into the hostel? The local kebap imbiss for a döner sandwich. We joked that we spoke as much Turkish as any other language while we were in Berlin. Makes sense considering there are more Turks in Berlin than in any other city other than Istanbul.
I think our time here was particularly educational, at least in academic terms. We took a walking tour led by dry-humored Brit. It included all kinds of interesting facts about the Nazi period and WWII in general as well as the division. We also went to the National Museum that had an exhibit on Hitler and the Third Reich. It was all fascinating, not to mention chilling and depressing. I hadn't thought much about pre-WWII Hitler and his rise to power. There were many more attempts to assassinate him than I was aware of. Underground in this picture is where his bunker was:
After he killed himself his body was cremated and flushed down the toilet, and a parking lot built over his place of death to show disrespect.
The tour also talked a lot about East Germany and the wall. It all brought back high school German class, reading stories and watching movies about the period. Tiny pieces of the wall were sold in every tourist shop. The wall used to stand along this street:
These are just other sites from the city:
This is the memorial to the Jewish Holocaust victims:
While in Germany we took a day trip and tour to Sachsenhaus, a concentration camp near Berlin. Just the tour was a nightmare. I knew that the atrocities committed in such places had to be far beyond what I could imagine. But even the distance past my imagination that it extended was beyond my comprehension. I'm really struggling with the fact that people can do such things to other people. It was in fact so psychologically damaging for the Nazi workers at the camp to follow the gruesome orders of their authorities that measures were taken to minimize the contact that executioners had with the targeted prisoners. The tour guide gave us plenty of details about what went on, but I won't share any more here.
Here is a view from the entrance. The walls on the sides and the pillar-monument in the middle were added by the East German government:
I'm going to drastically shift gears now, which isn't to disrespect the gravity of everything above but just to leave whoever is reading this on a lighter note. We went out a few times while in Berlin. The first night we went to the party district and ended up following a group of rambunctious Brits to a club that could have been in the US. I had a blast at least. Also, our friend and fellow exchange student from Koc lives in Berlin. She invited us to her house with some of her friends and they made us a traditional German meal. The next night we went out to a really chill bar with her. Another night Ivy, Emily and I met up with Caitlin and her boyfriend (who were in Berlin briefly on the way to Prague) at a bar called Sandmann. Sandmann can only be described as Bohemian. There was a live band playing some sort of blues or jazz. There was also a pirate: scarf around his head like a headband; shoulder-length hair; scruffy facial hair; dangly earring; vest.... He even had a tattoo of sparrows on his arm. This was a serious Johnny Depp fan we were dealing with. We chatted with a group including a Mexican, and Brazilian, and a Portuguese guy. They recommended that the next day we go to Das Edelweiss. It took us forever to find it, but it was so legit. There was a really good band playing all different kinds of jazz. It was in this really vintage room, screaming slinky European 1920s from the wallpaper to the furniture. The old-school Euro combined interestingly with a powerful sense of Berkeley, California, evident in the jazz, the social diversity, and the air's unmistakeable aroma.
Overall, Berlin was quite different than I expected. I think that this is largely because of the lack of crowds that I normally associate with important cities. It was really exciting to experience some of the changes from Istanbul, though, especially the public atmosphere and the food. In terms of public atmosphere I mean that it was nice that as a girl I felt more comfortable going out dressed up and all. And by food I mean that WE ATE THAI FOOD. And I am absolutely smitten with German bakeries and yogurt. So by sacrificing the intense bustle I've experienced in Istanbul so far Berlin actually made itself quite cozy and livable (not that I mind the bustle ;) ).
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