Eating our Way Through Europe, brought to you by Project Runway: Berlin

After the fourth of four overnight trains, three slightly exhausted adventurers arrived in Berlin, Germany. The only hitch in the journey was a slightly panicked 15-minute train change at the station in Schezchen, Poland. It was around 5 in the morning, there were no signs on any platforms, it was dark, and we were pretty sure no one spoke English within a 50 mile radius of the station. But there was only one other train at the station, so we took a leap of faith, literally, and leaped on the train right before it departed the station. And luckily for us, it was going to Berlin, or else we would have been traveling to God knows where on a train where the conductor/attendant people barely spoke any English. Thankfully, luck was on our side yet again, and we arrived safe and sound to a snowy, wet Berlin.
The first thing we did once we got to our hostel (which was in the formerly Communist East Berlin and which is apparently not the best area of the city--oops), was shower. Because after two overnight trains, lets just say it had been too long since my last shower. The snow and sleet outside was a bit of a deterrent; its amazing how the weather in a place drastically affects how much you like it. Light snow in Prague made me appreciate the city's beauty even more. Sleet in Berlin made me wish that I was in the Bahamas. But regardless of the weather, we set out on what became a two-day tour of learning about Communism.
We went to the Stasi Museum. The Stasi are the legendary and frightening secret police of Communist East Berlin and the museum is housed in their old headquarters building. Once again, we were at a linguistic disadvantage: all the exhibits were in German, although there was a small supplemental little guidebook in English, with the bare minimum amount of details. So we took turns reading the guidebook out loud as we walked around the museum and saw all the crazy tools that the Stasi used to keep tabs on people that I had previously thought only existed in movies. Like this birdhouse that is, in fact, a secret camera. Seeing all the crazy spy stuff made me grateful for 'Murikan democracy.
The rest of our time in Berlin consisted of braving the cold to see the high points of the city: the TV Tower, the Rathaus (aka Town Hall), Potsdamer Platz (which was supposed to be like Times Square...the Germans don't know what they are missing. But they could start with adding about a bajillion more lights and keeping the stores open past 8 pm, and then maybe it could vaguely resemble Times Square), the 1936 Olympic Stadium, Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag (a government building), Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Museum, Holocaust Memorial, and pieces of the famous Berlin Wall. My favorites:

• Olympic Stadium: Once again we found ourselves taking the Metro to the end of the line and loving what we found. It was so cool to see the Stadium, especially since the 1936 Games were so historical in that they were hosted under Hitler's Nazi regime. And I am an absolute Olympics junkie, so I loved being that close to the Olympic history.

• Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall: Checkpoint Charlie is the famous spot where small numbers of people were able to cross the Berlin Wall and go from one side of the divided city to another. It is the famous "You are now leaving the American sector" sign. There were awesome exhibits, for free, around Checkpoint Charlie detailing the history of the wall and the checkpoint and then how the area around it was rebuilt after the unification of Germany. It was basically like a free outdoor museum--I learned so much about the division and reunification of Germany! And it was just so amazing to see parts of the wall. Yes, its dorky, but it was history coming alive right in front of me.
  
• Jewish Museum: We spent almost 3 hours in here and had to rush through the end in order to catch the train to get to the airport in time. The museum was so amazing, all about this history of Jewish people in Germany. My favorite part was this memorial to the Holocaust in the basement that was essentially just a huge, tall black room with a tiny sliver of light streaming in from the ceiling. Usually I don't get into modern art like that, but I was just so moved by how cold and desolate the space felt, yet there was still that light at the very top, so far away. It reminded me of how they said hope never died at Auschwitz.

We also had an interesting conversation with two of the workers at our hostel, over the free and delicious German stew they gave us (yes, we were still eating our way through Europe). They were talking about how German pride is very difficult to have, because it scares people and reminds them of the Nazis and WWII. They said they wanted to be proud of their country, but it was hard to find things to be proud of. It was amazing to have such a candid conversation with them about such a sensitive topic and just fascinating to hear an insider's perspective. And it was these two hostel workers who coined one of the names of our trip: the Blitzkrieg. They were shocked at how many places we had been, and a little bit offended that we hadn't dedicated more time to their chilly, graffiti-filled city of Berlin. I definitely wasn't the biggest fan of all the graffiti, but it was so interesting to see that that was how the people expressed themselves and protested when they were under the thumb of Communism.
By the end of Saturday, I was pretty exhausted and ready to return to London (especially after a weird encounter with a creeper in the train station who tried to read over my shoulder on the platform and then banged the window of our carriage as he got off the train, plus some difficulties getting to the airport due to train construction), but still so grateful for the amazing experience we had. It still amazes me the number of places that we traveled in such a short time and how much we were able to learn about the cultures in each place. I just feel blessed to have been able to have this experience. I bonded with Kaitlin and Megan and learned a lot about myself, too. Our travels have definitely helped me to become much more calm and have even more of a go-with-the-flow attitude than I did, even earlier in the semester. And I've mastered the art of packing light, something that I was never good at until I had to live out of a backpack and a third of a suitcase for ten days. My dad will be so happy the next time I fly back to school and he doesn't have to carry half of my belongings back to the car, because my bag was overweight.

And it was funny how coming back to London was like coming home. It was a pretty nice feeling.

And for more pictures of the last leg of the Blitzkrieg: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=407150&id=538960556&l=b96d15f172