Communist Berlin and Modern Berlin

Hey all! :)

Wasn't up to writing a story yesterday, so now a full report of the last 2 days in Berlin as tomorrow we already go back home! Seriously, this week has gone by in a blink!

Basically, after the impressive day we had on Wednesday and all our emotions were back in place we had communist Berlin on Thursday. We left the hostel as usual at 9 am to travel by underground to Check Point Charlie. After some nice photo's that we made at the checkpoint we went into the "Mauermuseum" so the wall-museum. It was proper busy inside, people were pushing you in all directions as there wasn't a logical walking route in the museum. Anyway, there were a lot of interesting things inside of the museum as for example photo's of people who escaped from the east to the west side of Berlin in cars, holes under the ground and even in suitcases. Crazy what people did to get to the other side of the wall! Obviously a lot of them got caught and killed. After the museum we had lunch break, and I know it sounds not fair to everyone in Holland but the weather is proper good here, sun is shining, about at least 17 degrees, so we sat on remains of the Berlin wall hoping to get a tan :P Obviously we all burned haha! Anyway, after lunch break we went to The Story of Berlin, a museum about the history of Berlin about the last 800 years. That was a really nice museum, it was half inter-active, so that was nice as well! I actually stood in 4 places at once! Beneath the museum is a nuclear bunker which they build during the cold war to shelter 3600 people in there to protect them if a Nuclear bomb fell on the city. This has never happened, and so the nuclear bunker has never been used. It is still on stand-by so that if something happens, in total 26000 people can be sheltered in different parts of (west) Berlin for 2 weeks. When we got out we went to the East Side Gallery, that is basically the longest part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing (1.3 KM) with the famous grafity on it! After that we went back home for dinner and had a party in the Belushi's afterwards.

Today we woke up at 7.30, because it was time for Modern Berlin. We went to the city around 9-ish where we visited the Jewish Museum. This is one impressive museum. The architect of this building is crazy! The museum itself looks a bit like a stretched David Star. Inside the museum the walls and floors don't run even, which makes you completely disoriented. We went into this sort of Bunker, it's proper freezing in there, and completely dark. The only bit of light coming in that room is a spark of light on top of the room about 10 meters high, which makes you feel alone.. The museum itself contains a lot of history of the Jews. We've actually walked on the "Iron Faces", which is a room filled with 10.000 faces on the ground. You were supost to walk over it, and you would hear the faces clench into each other which would make you think they're crying. This is obviously a memorial room to all the victims of the Nazi-Berlin period. After the Jewish Museum we went to the Sony Center for a few minutes, just to check it out. One beautiful building that is! After that we went to the "Reichstag" where we had a tour. The Reichstag has obviously been renovated, but it still remains original parts of the second world war inside. We saw walls with grafity from the Russian soldiers who liberated that part of Berlin. We also sat in the first chamber, they have 600 something people in there, so a lot more than the 150 we have in Holland. After the Reichstag we had the rest of the day off, and I went off with Chris and Denise to go back to the hostel for a nice burger and a beer.. We ended up travelling towards the wrong side of Berlin (obviously, that wasn't my fault at all) and it took us 1,5 hours to travel back instead of 15 :P .. Robbert already ordered us food, so by the time we arrived in the hostel, that was not really warm anymore, but still proper good! Now it's time to head down to the bar as there's a gig about to start from Gary (an irish guy i've met this week) After that we'll probably hit the 1820 pub next door for a few drinks.

Tomorrow it's already time to go back home again! Only 6 days till London then! I'm glad I'm gonna be home for a bit more to see everyone before I leave again! Anyway, hopefully I will be home around 7-ish tomorrow and then I will go out for dinner with me family! And the rest of the week is basically goodbyes to everyone, Saturday I will be in London!

Thanks for keeping up with my blog during this week, Ik hoop dat het voor de Nederlandse Lezers niet te moeilijk was in het engels! Als ik straks in Londen ben ga ik uiteraard in het Nederlands weer verslagen bijhouden! So keep yourself updated!

xoxo Alica!