"No more wars. No more walls. A united world."

Berlin was quite an experience.
Although there was a lot of construction when we went, it was probably one of my favorite cities in Europe that I've visited.
We hit the road on Monday morning at the crack of dawn and our journey lasted about 8 hours. Instead of taking a plane to Berlin, we took a coach bus and stuffed everyone on there. Once we arrived we went on a bike tour of the city with our tour guide Sion. He was full of stories and cracked jokes whenever we would stop and admire different sites of the city. I thought the coolest place we stopped was checkpoint Charlie where we got to see the outside of the museum and the original American sector of the city.
The signs read:

I couldn't imagine how the city was when this terrible was was going on. But to see that the Americans contribution was still shown, made me proud to be American. 

After our bike tour we went to a great restaurant called Brauhaus Lemke where everyone indulged in a delicious meal. I don't think anyone was prepared for how large the dishes were though.

The next day we got to go to a medical skill training center where we got hooked up to these gloves that sent an electrical pulse to our hands (which was supposed to mimic the tremors of Parkinson's disease). We also got to put on an "old suit", listen to irregular heart beats and intubate a dummy. It was really cool and we spent hours in there.

My favorite part of the trip was probably when we went to see the East Side gallery. The name is deceiving because it sounds like an art exhibit or something (which it sort of is) but it's where part of the Berlin wall has been preserved with murals that different artists have painted since the fall of the wall in 1990. It was incredible to see the variety of different artwork and ideas that people have painted as a form of expression. I loved this quote: 

There should be no more walls or war but instead freedom for all. This is what the wall stands for: freedom. It was cool to see something that once stood for repression and now is seen as a beautiful form of expression.

The next day we went to Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial site which was an overwhelming experience. It was the most depressing place I've been.
It really shows what humans are capable of and what we can do to one another. 

After this we went to the German Bundestag which also had a lot of history behind it. At the top of the building read, "Dem Deutschen Volke" which means "The German People". We went through a thorough security check before we went into the building but once we got inside it was pretty incredible. Our tour guide showed us the writings on the wall from when the soviets occupied Berlin in 1945 after WWII. She also showed us the main decision making room where the 4 or 5 different German political parties sit side by side in the Parliament building. 

The tour was over and we were free to go the top of the dome/cone at the top of the building. The view from the top was incredible and the entire city was visible. 

Afterwards we enjoyed an awesome Moroccan dinner as a group. It was also Paco's birthday so after dinner some of us went to a Jazz bar to celebrate. It was a lot different than some jazz bars that I've been to. The acts weren't as structured and the people seemed to just jump up on stage whenever. It was pretty neat.

Later on, Kristen, Justin and I went to a club called Weekend and then another one after that called Tresor. I really enjoyed the night and was definitely satisfied the next day of my trip to Berlin. Before we took off to Duderstadt (middle of nowhere Germany), I went to the Berlin zoo and saw some of the most interesting monkeys ever. 

Andrew, Robert, Justin and I were in the monkey exhibit when an older man approached us and began talking about all of the monkeys as if he knew them. He pointed out that one of them was the oldest female gorilla in Europe and he also told us how calm she is. 

He told us later that he had been going to the zoo and studying the monkeys for 15 years. I was quite impressed with all of his knowledge on these creatures.

We hit the road again in the coach bus to Duderstadt and got to our hotel (which was straight out of the 50's). It was like a time warp because we had gone from a modern, busy city to this out of date and deserted city to see the headquarters of Otto Bock. 

Otto Bock was a really cool company and we spent 6 hours there the next day. 

By the end of the trip I was ready to get back home to Bonn.