Berlin, Germany

I took an overnight bus to Berlin, arriving at 6am. I napped for a couple hours snuggled up with Marina in her bunk, and we headed out for quite an informative day. We took a train to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where we had an audio recording tour. At multiple different locations, we would type in the given number to hear the history and facts about the certain site. My brain was filled with hundreds of facts, which definitely took me on an emotional tour. 

The entrance to the museum with my giant earphone tour guide.

I took several pictures of quotes and explanations that I thought were moving to share. You will have to click on the picture to be able to read it.

We were already inside this gate, but the green building is the SS Troop Camp with the "military barracks, where camp guards were trained and housed. It also housed contained centralized institutions serving the entire concentration camp system." --From the pamphlet translated by Richard Toovey from the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation.

"Entrance to the Prisoner's Camp 'Tower A'."

The direct translation of this gate means "work liberates."

To the left is where the post office was, apparently sometimes people were allowed to send one letter a month, but it was strictly regulated.

"The security system, consisting of a death-strip, an electric fence and a camp wall, was reconstructed as part of the creation of the National Memorial in 1961." If anyone even stepped foot on the gravel, they were shot dead.

"This semicircular space was where prisoners had to assemble for roll-call: in the early years three times a day; later on once in the morning and once in the evening--often suffering for hours in the rain and cold." If there was any problems involved in roll-call, they were all forced to stay standing while the alarms rang, and the guards solved the problem. Also, if there were any corpses, they were to be carried out for roll-call to assure everyone was counted for. 

"The shoe-testing track had a variety of surfaces and was laid out in 1940. Prisoners in the punishment squad had to march around it endlessly, to test material for the soles of army boots."

All the barracks were destroyed, but these gravel areas were constructed to represent the buildings.

A couple more barracks areas surrounded by the fence and a watch tower. The barracks often had a certain group of people inside: gays, pregnant women, etc.

These barracks were rebuilt for the Memorial to show what the barracks entailed. Interesting fact, in 1992, neo-Nazis burned down one of these buildings, pretty bold statement showing that the end of the war didn't end all the problems.

The toilet room... pretty moving. The prisoners were only allowed to use the bathrooms at specified times of the day. The entire barracks, which could be anywhere from 175-400 prisoners had to share these (roughly) 10 toilets each morning for only 45 minutes. They were ordered to wake up at 515, and they all had to be fed, bathed, toileted and outside by 6am for roll-call.

The prisoners' uniform.

Each barrack building had a room on both ends filled with triple bunk beds for the prisoners to sleep. Sometimes, prisoners died as a result of the lack of oxygen from so many people crammed into one room with no air circulation. Once in these rooms for the night, they were not allowed to leave under any circumstances. If guards saw shadows moving outside of these rooms at night, they were shot.

A replica of the layout of the concentration camp. The small semi circle in the middle is the roll-call area and the border of that is the shoe-testing area to give you a scale for how big the camp actually was. I will bring home the pamphlet with labels if anyone is interested in learning more when I get back.

The replica of the "prison" inside the concentration camp for those who broke any rules.

An example of one of the better prison rooms. Some didn't even have a bed OR a window. One man was sent to the dark prison room for six weeks and actually survived! I heard his story on the audio guide.

Only one of the parts of the prison building was rebuilt. "Built with prison labor in 1936, this three-wing block of cells was used as a prison by the Gestapo and the camp authorities. It was a place veiled in secrecy, a place of torment and murder. It held those punished by the SS for infringements of camp discipline as well as prominent figures arrested by the Gestapo. The exhibition is housed in five original cells of the one remaining wing of the cell block."

The memorial of the "National Memorial." 1961

Quite a moving day.

On Saturday, Marina and I went on a bike tour around Berlin... tons of fun and very informative!

Yes, I did turn giant on my trip. We took a bike tour with "Fat Tire Bike Tour," which I would recommend to anyone traveling to Berlin, London, Paris or Barcelona.

My mate in front of the TV tower. (Calling her my mate because some guy referred to Marina as my mate, thought it was pretty funny.)

Berlin: the construction capital of the world. Literally I could count 14 construction cranes in this one area on the reconstruction of a palace... mind blown.

The plaza where we are standing (on the right) was a plaza where Hitler ordered students to burn as many books in the library as possible. There was a room under the plaza that you could see through a window from the top showing enough bookshelves to fit all the books that were burned. This building is now the Law School in a Berlin University.

Our fat tire group.

Our guide drew out what happened before/during the second world war. History class in Berlin for me. I didn't know until that day that Berlin (which is located in East Germany) was actually split into West and East Berlin resulting in an island of West Berlin located in East Germany that was very difficult to travel to from West Germany. This chalk drawing helps explain this.

Part of the wall.

Our bodies are in West Berlin while our shadows are in East Berlin.

The border between West and East Berlin is represented by these stones throughout the entire city. If you can read the words, you are standing in West Berlin. If the letters are upside down, you are standing in East Berlin.

A portion of the wall, we didn't end up seeing the part of the wall with all the interesting graffiti, maybe next time.

A guard watch tower overlooking the wall.

 The Holocaust Memorial 

 The Holocaust Memorial was a giant plaza filled with these gray cement blocks. From afar, it appears as if all the blocks are roughly the same height, but the ground inside is very hilly and gradually declines, so the blocks near the center are actually much taller than those on the outside. It is suppose to give an optical illusion that what you find on the inside, isn't exactly what it appears like. Also, it is suppose to represent the gray haze that all the prisoners felt during the Holocaust. Interesting fact: there was fear that people would try to graffiti on the blocks, so they used a coating that makes it very easy to clean off paint. Ironically, this company happened to be the same company that supplied all the gas used by Hitler during the Holocaust...

Our bike tour stopped for a beer and food at a beer garden.

 Berlin hosted a marathon the weekend we were there. On Saturday, there was an inline skating marathon. It was VERY impressive to watch! I didn't even know people still skated.

iTunes just hired me.

Part of the Berlin wall at night.

For the marathon. Loved this. :)

The last stretch of the running marathon was through this archway. You can see the winner on the TV screen to the left as he was finishing the last few kilometers of the race.

 Along with the runners, were many athletes in wheelchair-like bikes, where they used their hands to pedal because they were otherwise unable to run or use their legs. Made me tear up seeing how happy and proud of themselves these people were while finishing the race with support from everyone in the crowd.

So behind this volunteer is the new world record holder for the fastest ran marathon. Yes, I saw him running his last stretch and was not impressed with this lady standing right in the way, but hey... he was amazing! He finished the marathon (26.2 miles) in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 23 seconds, which is 15 seconds faster than the previous record holder. For those of you trying to figure out that math... that's an average of 4 minute and 42 second mile for 26.2 miles. Not even sure how that's physically possible, but this man did it right in front of my eyes!

 Berlin was also amazing, and full of history. I learned a lot, and all the facts forced me to put my life into perspective in the world since much of the history happened so recently, in the last 80 years. It was quite a moving experience, while the marathon was very entertaining and even made me feel like I need to start planning some training sometime soon for a marathon. 

Though sick for over half of the trip, I still managed to experience more than I could have ever imagined. I'm still not quite recovered from my sickness, but I'm hoping that now being back into a routine, I'll get better with some sleep and amazing food from my Señora (she's seriously the best cook EVER). 

P.S. You can find the other posts for the other cities I went on my vacation to the right.

A few things I learned while traveling to keep in mind for next time: 

1. Hostels: Find hostels near the city center, although a little more expensive, not having to use the metro system saves money and precious time. Also, the price of the hostel doesn't mean its better, my favorite hostel that we stayed at was actually the cheapest! (Just read the reviews.)

2. Food: Stay at a hostel with a kitchen and buy groceries. It makes your checkbook fatter and your body feel much better. I can't even count how many apples I had in my purse last week.

3. Maps: Maps with both the city streets and metro lines are serious lifesavers. Well and the ability to read a map, trust me, not everyone has that.

4. Sleep: You can't enjoy your trip without getting sleep... Save the drinking and party nights for in the U.S., the time there is much cheaper. 

5. Just ask: I've gotten very good at asking for directions and clarifications on things I'm only 99% sure of. It literally saves so much time by not getting lost, and people are surprisingly helpful in giving directions. 

6. People: Travel with people who have the same interests as you. Simple as that. 

7. Early Mornings: They always said, "the early bird gets the worm." I must add the early bird also doesn't have to wait hours in lines. 

8. Be Adventurous: rent a bike, take a boat ride, roam around without a destination, it makes everything much more spontaneous and enjoyable. 

Thanks for reading! 

My next trip is this coming weekend to Morocco... Pictures to come in a week. :)