Berlin

This second free travel began in Berlin. We were only there for a few hours and I was originally really bummed about that. I had hoped to be there longer and our original plan was to spend a night there. Plans were changed however, and we decided to go to Switzerland too so Berlin got shafted and we were only there while we waited for our next train. This didn’t end up being too terrible a thing. It rained while we were there. I swear, it has rained nearly every day no matter what country we’re in! Europe’s simply rainy. While in Berlin we got to see checkpoint Charlie, the holocaust memorial, and the remains of the Berlin wall. Checkpoint Charlie was interesting because they had listed successful and unsuccessful attempts at crossing the border into West Berlin. Most of the attempts both successful and unsuccessful were aided by U.S. soldiers. This aid ranged from physical smuggling of citizens into West Berlin to letting citizens wear U.S. troop uniforms. The remains of the wall were also interesting. Berlin seems like it would be a history buff’s dream come true. I was always fascinated by the wars that occurred in history and if anyone was more interested than I they would be immersed in that fascination everywhere they turned in Berlin. Some pieces of the wall have been given to up and coming artists and they have painted on them and they are on display throughout the city. The main remains however, are still standing in their original place in the center of the city. There’s probably a block or so left of the wall. It’s blocked off so the best pictures we were able to take were from across the street. Seeing the wall in it’s place with the graffiti still intact really made our history seem attainable…maybe attainable isn’t the right word…real? I guess it made it feel real. History isn’t just something I read about from a textbook that happened a long time ago…it’s real…and it affects people and the way we do things every day. Some of the graffiti said “save our planet” Alex would probably have some smart remark about that but what I thought about it was that the hippies and riots really happened! Not to make anyone feel old or anything but I didn’t live through that…I haven’t lived through a “hippie” era or an era where young people felt so strongly about something that they would riot. In today’s society, making a difference is something that young people leave to the people who “know more”, “have more experience”, or “have lived through more” and the young people who do want to make a difference are left to do it quietly because today’s society is very good at covering things up. Society today is about conformity and I guess it was the same then as it is now but more news was drawn to it. If someone had a cause they drew attention to it…they got it in the papers and in the news. Now, if someone is fighting for something, they are covered up by the election or a “breaking news” report about another robbery or stolen car. Sorry about that little rant, you don’t want that, you want the facts. The holocaust memorial is in a word…disappointing. It is a fitting memorial because it is a bunch of concrete blocks of varying heights that span over a few blocks in the heart of the city. It looks like a concrete cemetery. It’s as if the architect wanted the give a grave and tombstone to each of those victims who were buried on top of or under 10, 20 or 100 other people in the mass graves. The memorial is disappointing because there is absolutely nothing to tell you what it is. There isn’t a big sign, in fact, the only sign I saw was a piece of glass the was about 1 foot wide and stood about 6 or 7 feet high with white etching on it. If you weren’t looking for the holocaust memorial, you would think this was a modern art sculpture by an awful artist and walk right by it. Oh, and another thing! It isn’t called “the holocaust memorial” it’s called “the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe”. Joe got mad at me because he says I need to learn to keep my cynical comments to myself and he’s completely right but I think I can share this one with all of you. “yeah...the Jews YOU freaking murdered!!!” I’ve really about had it with the attitude of Germans toward the war AND the attitude of one of the sponsors of this trip. That is the attitude of “well, we told you we wanted the Jews out of our country and you didn’t take them, so you did this”. No I did not do this!!! My country was not the country that killed hundreds of thousands of people like dogs just because I didn’t like them…that was all you.
On this free travel we also went to Prague, Switzerland, and passed through Salzburg. I’ll post about them later but seeing as I just filled up an entire page in word on Berlin, I should probably take a break.