We started today at 9:00am with a guided tour of the Berlin Wall. We took the bus around the city learning a lot of its history. Then took a walk up this tower to get a view over the wall itself. We saw there were actually two walls, with No Man's land in the middle. Then we went down and touched it! There are only scattered pieces throughout the city, with the wall up (obviously), so they built this cobblestone track throughout the whole city where the wall used to run. I thought that was clever.
We then visited the German Historical Museum, which was alright, but pretty boring, not gonna lie. I don't know something about the tour just couldn't keep me focused. We were all really tired standing the whole time and lack of sleep was definitely starting to become a issue. I mean, the whole program was at this one bar/club place the night before after eating a Mexican food dinner. Hhaha
We ate lunch and walked around some more and then jumped on the bus for our visit of the Stasi Prison! We had a great tour guide, although the other group had a former prisoner as their tour guide, but that's ok. She took us through the older cells area, used in the 1950s and then the more modern ones from the 70s/80s that were slightly better condition. We saw all of their psychological means of torture and the outside holding cells. It was all pretty creepy and intense. They did all of these things in order for them to confess to going against the government, which was what they had the interrogation rooms for. It was a great tour.
We boarded the bus early at 7:30am the next day (Friday, August 28th) for our long, long trek to Poland. Oh Poland.
mercredi 30 septembre 2009
jeudi 24 septembre 2009
Finally! The start...Berlin
Bonjour! Or guttentag I should say.
So the start of this blog is WAY overdue. About 3 weeks late, however, I think I have a good reason...I'm abroad! I am currently in Strasbourg, France located in Eastern France right on the border with Germany. I left New York on August 24th, but before arriving in Strasbourg, the program traveled around Europe for 11 days. I have to say I think they were some of the most amazing 11 days of my life. I love traveling! The trip was seriously unbelievable. I considered writing this blog in French, however, that would definitely limit its readership/be much more time consuming.
The plan ride was manageable, sorta. I sat in the last row of plane, literally and the turbulence was a little much for me. However, 6 hours later, we were in Berlin!
We started out in Berlin where we spent Tuesday, Aug 25th, through Friday staying in a "youth hotel" it's called. We started off on a little walk up to the highest point in Berlin, which was in a park somewhat nearby. Since Berlin is an extremely flat city, at this one high point, you can see a great view of the city. This was followed by our first lecture by Professor Rackza. Oh right, because this is a 2-credit course. Uh huh, ok. So about 3/4 of the group was sleeping behind their sunglasses during this, considering we had been traveling for 10 hours that morning.
We then went off for our first group dinner where we ate an meal that was definitely not German. However, the desert was quite interesting, some type of lukewarm berry cream desert, we decided to name it at my table. Berlin was a lot prettier than I had expected it to be, with pretty streets scattered with restaurants and small buildings. The area our hostel was located seemed to be in a pretty residential neighborhood with not many tourists around. We were clearly "the Americans" reinforcing all of those stereotypes. Talking a lot and talking loud. What can I say? We speak French, not German. Our hotel (aka youth hostel) is called Hotel Transit. My room had 5 girls in one room, it was fine. We managed.
The next day we took a great walking tour throughout Berlin, across the city seeing the sites. Jim, our tour guide, showed us the Reichstag (German Parliament), the Belrin Wall, No Man's Land, where Hitler died in his bunker, Checkpoint Charlie, the main street in Berlin and a lot more. It was really interesting actually. For lunch, the people I was with stopped a schnitzel stand which I just could not eat. I'm sorry, German food is just not my taste. So I managed to find some crackers near by. Very sufficient, I know.
We then visited the Jewish Memorial, which consisted of a large area of large, rectangular structures of different heights, kind of sloped up and down. It was really interesting and pretty powerful when you walked through it. Then we visited the Jewish Museum, which was is known a lot for the architecture of the building, which was quite unique. The museum was really interesting and I learned a lot I did not know. They had this hands on thing where you typed in your name and they gave it to you in Hebrew, and then you could right it down. I typed my name, and it was incorrect! I know my Hebrew name. Slightly awkward.
So the start of this blog is WAY overdue. About 3 weeks late, however, I think I have a good reason...I'm abroad! I am currently in Strasbourg, France located in Eastern France right on the border with Germany. I left New York on August 24th, but before arriving in Strasbourg, the program traveled around Europe for 11 days. I have to say I think they were some of the most amazing 11 days of my life. I love traveling! The trip was seriously unbelievable. I considered writing this blog in French, however, that would definitely limit its readership/be much more time consuming.
The plan ride was manageable, sorta. I sat in the last row of plane, literally and the turbulence was a little much for me. However, 6 hours later, we were in Berlin!
We started out in Berlin where we spent Tuesday, Aug 25th, through Friday staying in a "youth hotel" it's called. We started off on a little walk up to the highest point in Berlin, which was in a park somewhat nearby. Since Berlin is an extremely flat city, at this one high point, you can see a great view of the city. This was followed by our first lecture by Professor Rackza. Oh right, because this is a 2-credit course. Uh huh, ok. So about 3/4 of the group was sleeping behind their sunglasses during this, considering we had been traveling for 10 hours that morning.
We then went off for our first group dinner where we ate an meal that was definitely not German. However, the desert was quite interesting, some type of lukewarm berry cream desert, we decided to name it at my table. Berlin was a lot prettier than I had expected it to be, with pretty streets scattered with restaurants and small buildings. The area our hostel was located seemed to be in a pretty residential neighborhood with not many tourists around. We were clearly "the Americans" reinforcing all of those stereotypes. Talking a lot and talking loud. What can I say? We speak French, not German. Our hotel (aka youth hostel) is called Hotel Transit. My room had 5 girls in one room, it was fine. We managed.
The next day we took a great walking tour throughout Berlin, across the city seeing the sites. Jim, our tour guide, showed us the Reichstag (German Parliament), the Belrin Wall, No Man's Land, where Hitler died in his bunker, Checkpoint Charlie, the main street in Berlin and a lot more. It was really interesting actually. For lunch, the people I was with stopped a schnitzel stand which I just could not eat. I'm sorry, German food is just not my taste. So I managed to find some crackers near by. Very sufficient, I know.
We then visited the Jewish Memorial, which consisted of a large area of large, rectangular structures of different heights, kind of sloped up and down. It was really interesting and pretty powerful when you walked through it. Then we visited the Jewish Museum, which was is known a lot for the architecture of the building, which was quite unique. The museum was really interesting and I learned a lot I did not know. They had this hands on thing where you typed in your name and they gave it to you in Hebrew, and then you could right it down. I typed my name, and it was incorrect! I know my Hebrew name. Slightly awkward.
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