World Cup 2006 Berlin!!
Wow. Berin was amazing. There's so much there. Everything makes you think, "hey, I've heard about that." Do you know how to tell if the building is really old? If it has bullet holes in it.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20025.html
Is that not crazy? I know I've told many many of you this already, but it's really hard to bend your head around the idead that 60 years about people were shooting eachother in the very spot you are standing. It's not really a big deal to the Germans.
So the trip was rather tiring. In order to not miss work and pay as little for housing as possible, we took an overnight train to Berlin Friday night. You have to pay extra for beds, and we're pretty sure most of the beds were booked, so we had a little compartment for the 6 of us in the train. It sucked, and Sam slept on the floor most of the time, and I joined him after I couldn't tolerate sitting up anymore. We left Dusseldorf around 11 and got into Berlin at 4:53. Wow was that ever early. No one was around. It was dead. We walked around and Ling tried climbing on some shoe-monument sort of thing
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20003.html
Then it started pouring down rain. It is not fun when you're wandering around a strange city soaking wet with a backpack with all of your stuff on your back. We looked for our hostels so that we could put our things down, but that took a little longer than expected. We finally got all checked in at 12, and had a really good lunch at this place called Miro (I think). We wandered around a bit more and then took a 4 hour walking tour at 3. It was nice. It was really a pain, but it was worth it. I couldn't believe I was seeing all the things I was seeing. We saw museums and churches and monuments and lots more amazing things. This is Neu Wache. It was a guard house but is now a war memorial of sorts. It is a statue of a woman holdind her dead son in her arms.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20029.html
The inscription says "For the victims of war and tyranny." There is a court across the street where the Nazis had a huge book burning. There is a plaque there.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20034.html
The quote at the top right is a from a Jewish writer from 1820. It basically says "it is a prelude where they burn books, in the end they will burn people." We next saw the Brandenburger Tor.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20038.html
Tor means gate, and it was a very big deal when the wall came down that people could once again travel through the gate. The funny thing is that since they have the fan mile set up for the world cup, you can't cross through gate. You have to go around and enter the fan mile down the street, so they can keep the it safe and glass and weapon free. The next thing we saw was the holocaust memorial. It was really amazing. It's only a few years old, and it's not actually called the holocaust memorial. It's called the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe. I bet you can imagine why most people call it the holocaust memorial. This one and the next few are pictures of it.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20041.html
There's also a video in the berlin part of my album that better shows just how big the memorial is. It's supposed to be left open to interpretation, but the tour guide told us that lots of people say from the outside it looks like a jewish cemetery. The inside is even more interesting. We also saw a part of the wall that is still standing and checkpoint charlie as well as places where many people were killed during demonstrations during the DDR. Checkpoint Charlie was probably the scariest place on earth during the Cold war. Right now if you look into the american sector you'll see a picture of an American soldier, and if you look into the Russian sector you'll see a picture of a russian soldier. Nothing compared to the tension during the cold war, when there were soldiers lined up on either side of the fence with guns and tanks pointed at eachother!
We watched the game that night. Deustchland ist Weltmeister meines Herzes! (Germany is the world champion of my heart). I really feel that winning 3rd place in the world cup like Germany is much better than losing 1st like France. It was a fun party, but we had to get back to our hostels, since one of them was a 45 minute train ride out of the city (whoops). We had all left our stuff at one of the hostels that was closer inside the city, so we headed over to get it all out. We we got there, we couldn't get the key to work. (I seem to have some sort of awful luck with keys and locks and things) There was a lady there that night who tried to help us, and when she couldn't get in either, instead of trying other things decided to yell at us because there were 7 of us there instead of 2 like it was supposed to be. That was fun. It's hard to argue with someone in German when you really suck at it. Well, eventually after yelling "Wir haben nur unsere Gepäcke hier!" "Wir haben einen andere Jugendherberg!" (we only have our bags here! we have another hostel!) I think she finally got the message and called another guy who i suppose is actually in charge of the place. It turns out when he gets there we've got to have the same arguement and explaination with him . . . so about an hour after we got there, he just breaks the door, we get our stuff, and we leave. wow. Anyway, after a 20 minute wait, a 10 minute tram ride, and another 45 minute train ride, we finally get to our hostel. It was really nice. no hassels that time. sweet.
On sunday we wandered around some more and ended up going to the Engineering museum. It was also very nice. There's some pictures in the album. There was a big display of old printed money. They weren't in any real order, so Simon bet Kunal a euro that he couldn't pull the examples of Peruvian money out on the first try. Amazingly Simon lost that bet.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20073.html
Kunal decided that he had super powers. After the engineering museum, we had cake at a restuarant that had about 70 different types of cakes. It was gooood. Then we went to see the Berlin bears on display. There's one from every country in a group having to do with the UN (I'm not really sure it might be every country in the UN or every country recognized by the UN . . . something like that). Anyway, we had some fun with the bears. There's lots of pictures of them in the album, too. After that, the guys I came with went to the fan mile to watch the final, and I had already made plans to go watch the game with some friends from Aachen in a restaurant. I had to decide which team I was going for. It was really who I hated least, and I really couldn't think of a reason why I hated France, so I went for France! Which is too bad. but it was still fun. I met some cool people, too. After that we had to run back to the train station, because our overnight train (again with no beds) left at 12:30. It was a fun time. Next time I won't be so tired, and I might stay longer ;-).
Kendall
Music: Coldplay, because all you have to do to get a girl to fall in love with you is sing her some coldplay ;-) haha. I think the screen on my ipod is dying . . .
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20025.html
Is that not crazy? I know I've told many many of you this already, but it's really hard to bend your head around the idead that 60 years about people were shooting eachother in the very spot you are standing. It's not really a big deal to the Germans.
So the trip was rather tiring. In order to not miss work and pay as little for housing as possible, we took an overnight train to Berlin Friday night. You have to pay extra for beds, and we're pretty sure most of the beds were booked, so we had a little compartment for the 6 of us in the train. It sucked, and Sam slept on the floor most of the time, and I joined him after I couldn't tolerate sitting up anymore. We left Dusseldorf around 11 and got into Berlin at 4:53. Wow was that ever early. No one was around. It was dead. We walked around and Ling tried climbing on some shoe-monument sort of thing
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20003.html
Then it started pouring down rain. It is not fun when you're wandering around a strange city soaking wet with a backpack with all of your stuff on your back. We looked for our hostels so that we could put our things down, but that took a little longer than expected. We finally got all checked in at 12, and had a really good lunch at this place called Miro (I think). We wandered around a bit more and then took a 4 hour walking tour at 3. It was nice. It was really a pain, but it was worth it. I couldn't believe I was seeing all the things I was seeing. We saw museums and churches and monuments and lots more amazing things. This is Neu Wache. It was a guard house but is now a war memorial of sorts. It is a statue of a woman holdind her dead son in her arms.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20029.html
The inscription says "For the victims of war and tyranny." There is a court across the street where the Nazis had a huge book burning. There is a plaque there.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20034.html
The quote at the top right is a from a Jewish writer from 1820. It basically says "it is a prelude where they burn books, in the end they will burn people." We next saw the Brandenburger Tor.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20038.html
Tor means gate, and it was a very big deal when the wall came down that people could once again travel through the gate. The funny thing is that since they have the fan mile set up for the world cup, you can't cross through gate. You have to go around and enter the fan mile down the street, so they can keep the it safe and glass and weapon free. The next thing we saw was the holocaust memorial. It was really amazing. It's only a few years old, and it's not actually called the holocaust memorial. It's called the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe. I bet you can imagine why most people call it the holocaust memorial. This one and the next few are pictures of it.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20041.html
There's also a video in the berlin part of my album that better shows just how big the memorial is. It's supposed to be left open to interpretation, but the tour guide told us that lots of people say from the outside it looks like a jewish cemetery. The inside is even more interesting. We also saw a part of the wall that is still standing and checkpoint charlie as well as places where many people were killed during demonstrations during the DDR. Checkpoint Charlie was probably the scariest place on earth during the Cold war. Right now if you look into the american sector you'll see a picture of an American soldier, and if you look into the Russian sector you'll see a picture of a russian soldier. Nothing compared to the tension during the cold war, when there were soldiers lined up on either side of the fence with guns and tanks pointed at eachother!
We watched the game that night. Deustchland ist Weltmeister meines Herzes! (Germany is the world champion of my heart). I really feel that winning 3rd place in the world cup like Germany is much better than losing 1st like France. It was a fun party, but we had to get back to our hostels, since one of them was a 45 minute train ride out of the city (whoops). We had all left our stuff at one of the hostels that was closer inside the city, so we headed over to get it all out. We we got there, we couldn't get the key to work. (I seem to have some sort of awful luck with keys and locks and things) There was a lady there that night who tried to help us, and when she couldn't get in either, instead of trying other things decided to yell at us because there were 7 of us there instead of 2 like it was supposed to be. That was fun. It's hard to argue with someone in German when you really suck at it. Well, eventually after yelling "Wir haben nur unsere Gepäcke hier!" "Wir haben einen andere Jugendherberg!" (we only have our bags here! we have another hostel!) I think she finally got the message and called another guy who i suppose is actually in charge of the place. It turns out when he gets there we've got to have the same arguement and explaination with him . . . so about an hour after we got there, he just breaks the door, we get our stuff, and we leave. wow. Anyway, after a 20 minute wait, a 10 minute tram ride, and another 45 minute train ride, we finally get to our hostel. It was really nice. no hassels that time. sweet.
On sunday we wandered around some more and ended up going to the Engineering museum. It was also very nice. There's some pictures in the album. There was a big display of old printed money. They weren't in any real order, so Simon bet Kunal a euro that he couldn't pull the examples of Peruvian money out on the first try. Amazingly Simon lost that bet.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20073.html
Kunal decided that he had super powers. After the engineering museum, we had cake at a restuarant that had about 70 different types of cakes. It was gooood. Then we went to see the Berlin bears on display. There's one from every country in a group having to do with the UN (I'm not really sure it might be every country in the UN or every country recognized by the UN . . . something like that). Anyway, we had some fun with the bears. There's lots of pictures of them in the album, too. After that, the guys I came with went to the fan mile to watch the final, and I had already made plans to go watch the game with some friends from Aachen in a restaurant. I had to decide which team I was going for. It was really who I hated least, and I really couldn't think of a reason why I hated France, so I went for France! Which is too bad. but it was still fun. I met some cool people, too. After that we had to run back to the train station, because our overnight train (again with no beds) left at 12:30. It was a fun time. Next time I won't be so tired, and I might stay longer ;-).
Kendall
Music: Coldplay, because all you have to do to get a girl to fall in love with you is sing her some coldplay ;-) haha. I think the screen on my ipod is dying . . .
posted by Kendall @ 3:01 AM
3 comments
