Berlin (Part 1)

Another long overdue, never finished post! Forgive me for forgetting details. I am the worst at keeping up with this blog! I wrote a little while back about celebrating Fakesgiving, and I was lucky enough to spend actual Thanksgiving with a smaller group of new friends in Berlin. It was incredible trip; the history and energy of the city was something I hadn't experienced before.

I wasn't exaggerating- it really did glow orange.

A few of the highlights of the trip: 

We arrived late Wednesday night and met with our landlady for the weekend, who let us in to our comfortable but blindingly orange apartment. I swear, the apartment literally glowed. If you are traveling, booking.com and airbnb.com are great places to find accommodation. Having an apartment in the city from either site offers a great base, and creates a home base that helps traveling feel less stressful! Anyways, despite the orange, we were all happy with our little two bedroom apartment. It had an amazing view!

View of the TV Tower. 

Landmarks on Landmarks on Landmarks

If I go into too much detail, I'll be here all day, but a free tour we took of the city hit some amazing sights. Our tour guide was wonderful; he hit on the major points, but his passion and enthusiasm for the history of Germany and of Berlin were what made the tour come alive. I was surprised by one of his comments on the city, but once he said it, it was overwhelmingly apparent no matter where we went. He said that the German people were very aware of their terrible past, but display all of their history, the good and the bad, for all to see and learn from. He said that it keeps the people humble and helps them to stay accountable for the travesties that are such a huge part of their history.

It's amazing how… small… the Berlin Wall seemed.

It was hard to imagine, but so powerful to realize,

that something that is today a crumbling piece

of cement separated families for decades and

destroyed so many lives.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Hanging out at the Reichstag- freezing but beautiful day!

We met here for our tour, a Starbucks (I had

so many ORANGE MOCHA FRAPPUCCINOS

this week!) by the Brandenburg Gate.

Berlin Cathedral

One of the most the memorials that particularly struck me was an underground memorial, with a window view in the cobblestones of Bebelplatz. In 1933 a Nazi book burning ceremony in this spot destroyed 20,000 books by non-German authors. The empty shelves of the memorial could hold all 20,000 books. What is particularly chilling is the quote written in 1821 by Heinrich Heine: "Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people."

For some reason, formatting all those pictures took a ridiculous amount of time and I am now very frustrated, so please excuse the fact that it still looks sloppy! Grrrr. Anyways, I have much more coming on some more Berlin activities so be on the lookout! It's coming soon :)