The East Side Story

For most of this program we've only been in Western Germany or Europe so this was most of our first times experiencing the eastern side of Europe. Before going I really had no expectations and I think that made this trip especially memorable.
Before each scheduled excursion our program coordinator gives us a pamphlet of the city and our schedule. The description for the city was pretty accurate so I'm going to share it here:
"Brassy, bold and beautiful in its austerity, Berlin is a sexy temptress that ensnares with its infinite riches, a creative genius that amazes with unique ideas and trends, and a hotbed of hedonism, feasting passionately on the buffet of life. And above all, its a clever chameleon, endlessly adaptable and thriving on change, almost pursuing it like a drug. Berlin is all that and then some to those who live here, and those ready for the journey to the depths of its past, present and future."
Reading it now kind of gives me chills because it's so true! When we had our pre-departure meeting I read through the pamphlet and laughed. I thought, what kind of city is this?? Weirdest description I've ever seen. But looking back and writing this, I couldn't have said it better. That paragraph captures the city and all the experiences I had there.
We started our journey with an 8 hour bus ride on Monday. On the way into the city we passed all three checkpoints in to East Berlin! Once we arrived, we dropped our bags off and headed to a bike tour of the city with our guide Sion who also went with us to Sachsenhausen on Wednesday. He was super knowledgeable and had a good sense of humor. The first thing you notice when you're in Berlin is all of the construction. This city has had its ups and downs and it definitely shows. Usually construction sites annoy me because its gets in the way of my good pictures (I know, my tourist side is showing...) but all the cranes and orange road barricades just kind of added a different dimension to the photo. The city is still recovering from its past and all the scaffolding is just apart of the constantly changing life here. During the tour we saw parts of the wall, the Jewish memorial (which was an experience walking through), checkpoint charlie, the Brandenburg Gate and lots of other landmarks. After the tour it was definitely time for some food so we went to the Brauhaus Lemke for some aaamazing food. Carlos and I split the grill platter which included steaks, sausages, veggies, and fried potatoes. So. Much. Food. But it was totally worth it. Headed back to the hotel for some well needed rest.
On Tuesday morning we visited the the Charite Museum for the History of Medicine. Kind of like the Narrenturm in Vienna, it displayed the pathophysiology of the body. In each of these places I've found myself drawn to the bones. In the Narrenturm they had some really narly looking skulls with evidence of bone cancer on them. At the Charite, the coolest thing I saw was the knee joints that displayed the more serious effects of tuberculosis. Not sure why, but bones are super interesting (and I love the show on TNT haha). Anyways, after the visit to the museum we had a lecture in the ruine lecture hall at the medical school. It had been bombed in WWII but is still used as a lecture hall. It was kind of neat to have a lecture there because doctors used to dissect bodies surrounded by an audience of their colleagues. Afterwards I grabbed some currywurst (specialty of Berlin) and headed to the East Side Gallery. This is the largest section of the wall remaining in Berlin. It's a mile long stretch of graffiti and murals dedicated to the memories of East Berlin. It was an awesome feeling walking along the wall and seeing all of the art. Some sections of the wall were light hearted and some were more somber but every bit was beautiful. Great way to spend the free afternoon. Once we finished our little walking tour we headed back to the medical school to visit with some of the medical school students. They set up a little lab area for us and it was kind of a playground for biomedical engineers. There was a dummy to practice putting in an intubation tube (which I successfully did!), some gloves that simulated the tremors of parkinsons, sets of glasses with different eye diseases, another dummy with different heart sounds you could diagnose, and an old person outfit. I'll explain the outfit.... We had to put tight bands around our joints and weights on our wrists, torso, and ankles to make it hard to move. Also we had to wear goggles that obstructed your vision and headphones so it was harder to hear. Once we had all the equipment on we had to walk around and lay down and try to get up. Let's just say I'm not looking forward to that feeling again... We spent about two and half hours playing around with all the cool toys. Afterwards I finished off the night with some shopping at a mall close to our hotel.
On Wednesday we met up with our tour guide, Sion, and headed to Sachsenhausen (a concentration camp located very close to the capital of the Reich, Berlin). Although it wasn't designed to be a work camp like Auschwitz or Dachau, thousands of people suffered and died there. Visiting places like this are never enjoyable but it really gives you a sense of what we are capable of. I can't begin to imagine life during the Third Reich and I hope that no one ever has to again. Once we were done with our tour we headed back to the city for lunch and free time. A group of us grabbed some Doners (amazing turkish fast food) and went to museum island (literally an island in the middle of Berlin with about 5 museums). First we went to the Pergamon museum which had some awesome artifacts, including part of the gate leading into Babylon. It was massive but somehow they were able to rebuild it inside the museum. Once we were through paroosing that museum the group headed to another archeological museum but being the person that I am, I had to visit the art museum on the island. It was so nice to have some alone time surrounded by beautiful impressionist and realist pieces. After museum island I grabbed some ice cream before meeting the rest of the group at our tour of the German Bundestag. Super cool building with mixed architecture. The main part reminds me of a grey White House but then there is a modern glass dome right on top. They did this to symbolically show that you can always see through the German government, especially necessary considering Berlin's history. After our tour we headed to one of the best restaurants I've ever been to. It was a moroccan place with live music and aaaamazing food (I think the only word I have to describe the food here is aaaamazing...I guess that's a good thing though haha). We started with an assortment of appetizers and bread and then had a main course of tender lamb with honey and dried plums. Then we finished with some creme brulee and arabic coffee flavored with cardamom. YUM. For the rest of the night I experienced some Berlin night life, starting with a really chill jazz bar. I have decided I'm not really a free lance jazz person...sometimes during a solo it just sounds like they're playing random notes. But I fed off all the great energy from the musicians and had a great time. After the jazz I visited a couple clubs and keep in mind this is only a Wednesday night... Regardless of the day we danced until 5 in the morning. And there were still people showing up when we left!!! Berlin is definitely a crazy place.
Our last day in Berlin was thankfully very relaxed haha. I didn't get much sleep the previous night and really couldn't handle too much. We spent the morning in the Museum of Natural History which is always fun for me. I can't help but get nostalgic of my days when my dream was to be an archeologist, digging through ancient tombs and uncovering new fossils. They had the largest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world, the Brachiosaurus. We had some free time until we had to meet up and travel to Duderstadt in the evening. I grabbed some more currywurst with some friends and then decided to join Jessica at the special exhibition for Dali. More art! :) I especially love exhibits for only one artist because you really get a feel for who they were and what their inspirations were. This exhibit did not disappoint. His art was twisted to say the least but it had an elegance incomparable to any other artist. After the exhibit we had some time left so Jessica and I headed back to the Brandenburg Gate to enjoy some coffee and each others company. Very relaxed afternoon. And the sun finally came out! It was the warmest day in Berlin since Oct. 24th. Then we grabbed some snacks for our 4 hour bus trip to Duderstadt.