Week 4, Berlin Excursion!

This past week was different than the past three as we had our Berlin excursion. Monday started out normal with a regular school day except that I had to go home and pack up for a week. It was an odd experience packing since I really do not have much more than a weeks worth of clothes to begin with so packing was really just choosing a few items to leave behind which is opposite of a normal packing experience.

To start off the Berlin excursion, we met at 6:30 am at Bonn hbf. I tried to grab two berliners on my war but ended up with three as I accidentally said "drei" instead of "zwei" but I made it through the entire interaction in German. We had about a 4.5 hour train ride which I did some homework on. After, we checked into the hotel, which had fun leopard print carpet and made our way out to lunch. I went out with Katie, Tati, and Camryn to a restaurant called Berlin Burrito. It reminded me of burrito places back home which was amazing. I finally got some spice in Germany which I loved. After, we met at the hotel with our tour guide to have a walking tour of the city. It was cold and raining almost the entire time which made the tour hard but not un-enjoyable. I really enjoyed getting to see the memorials around town and see where the wall had once stood, and pieces of the wall itself. After the tour, we went to a group dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant where we had a buffet. It was honestly some of the best food that I have had while I have been in Germany. After, we headed back to the hotel. A group of us then went to a bar called Tramps for just a little bit but I was exhausted and did not want to stay long. The bar was actually a gay bar which was a little different and a new experience.

On Wednesday, we started our day off by going to Sachsenhausen. This was a concentration camp located just outside of Berlin. I had been to Germany before but never to a concentration camp and it was always something that I wanted to be able to experience. The weather was on and off raining which made me contemplate how I had never really grasped the idea of how much worse the weather conditions would have made these camps for these prisoners. I also did not know that the Soviet Union used the camp as a prison camp as their own. After the tour of Sachsenhausen, we decided as a group to go to the Pergamon museum. On the way, we got to see the TV tower with sun on it making the iconic cross. I loved going through this museum and seeing the amazing architecture and sculptures from the ancient Romans and Mesopotamians. The upstairs section with historical Islamic was also very intriguing. After this, I headed back to the hotel and then to a Mexican restaurant with Tati and Avery. The restaurant was named "Vamos!" I enjoyed a very delicious burrito and finally had a margarita while in Germany and it was very good as I did not have high hoped for it. I called it a night early this night and went to bed to prepare for the next day.

On Thursday, we started our day off at the body works museum. This was one of my favorite museums as it was so cool to see everything. I loved seeing how long the digestive tract is and just so many parts of that museum. I want to try and find more body works museums in the states. After, we went to the Jewish museum. We got the opportunity to go into the holocaust tower which was a chilling experience. The acute angled corner was harrowing to walk into and then look up at the light. It was an experience that gave me chills. The rest of the museum was very interesting and I learned a lot about the Jewish culture in general. I found this even more interesting since I really have no knowledge about the faith and culture even though I have family that was Jewish through my bloodline, including in Germany during the Nazi period. It really made me think a lot during all of our experiences. After this, we went to Potsdamer Platz for lunch. Me and Daniel went to go get Italian food although no one else wanted to enjoy it with us. He got lasagna and I got pasta. We had extra time so we walked around the Mall of Berlin. This mall was massive and absolutely beautiful. I really enjoyed spending time going around it. After this, we headed off to the musical instrument museum. In the window of the museum, there was a Bari Sax so I knew from the start that I would like the museum. In the front, they had seven different saxophones for me to geek out to: two types of sopranos, an alto, tenor, bari, contrabass, and a subcontrabass saxophone which I had never seen the subcontrabass in person. The other instruments around the museum were also very cool. I really enjoyed the organs as standing right with it as they were being played was aweing. The coolest in my opinion was the wurlitzer. The amount of noises and different sounds that it could play were mind blowing. After this, we headed back to the mall where Avery got a new pair of shoes and I bought a new sweater. I then headed back with Avery and we got some burgers with Bridget. After, the entire group tried to go to a karaoke place but we were not allowed in without a COVID test. Me, Avery, and Tati really needed to pee though so we searched around for a public bathroom and finally found one. We used it and then started speed walking back to the station to make sure to catch the train when we heard a noise on the road and looked over to see a motorcycle crash. We all stopped dead in our tracks and my instincts wanted to run out and help the person but I am not certified to help anyone in Germany and do not know how the good Samaritan laws work in Germany so we all looked at each other and ran the rest of the way to the station. We then went to a bar that had sand on the floor where I got one drink and went home before most of the group but I wanted to shower and get some sleep.

Friday, the last day in Berlin, and the most chaotic. We originally were supposed to tour the natural history museum but that did not work out as we did not have a reservation so we went on a walking tour of the area. We then tried to go to a hospital ground to have a walking tour of that but they also rejected us due to COVID. We then split off from the group as the excursion was officially over and we went to a burger place in central station that had birch trees everywhere. I got some really good lemonade. After, we decided to head to the Neuse museum. I really wanted to go to see the bust of Nefertiti. This entire museum was so cool to see all of the Egyptian sculptures and items. I ended up enjoying the museum way more than I thought that I would. After, we went to the Alte National Gallery which had some amazing pieces of art in it. We were sadly rushed as we came close to closing time but I really enjoyed seeing the art work. We then went to Primark as we had to buy some towels and blankets for the Airbnb we were staying at in Rostock as they did not supply them. After this, the chaos of dinner started. We originally wanted to go to a hot pot place to eat but they did not have a reservation time available until after our train would be leaving in 1.5 hours. We then tried a place down the street and they also did not have any space. This lead us to riding the train one stop and eating at Vamos! We ate our food as fast as we could, enjoyed a margarita and got to the trams to make our way back to Berlin hbf. The fastest route left us with 6 minutes of arriving at the station and needing to get on the train. The biggest problem was that we had to get our luggage also. We ended up having to run through the station just to make it down to our platform. We actually made it on time and found out when we got down that the train was delayed by five minutes, but had it not, we still should have made it. It really was quite a chaotic 5 minutes of my life.

Overall, I really enjoyed Berlin and I am very excited to go back in the spring with my family! I already have a few things I want to do that we didn't get to do on this excursion and some places I want to bring them back to.