A City Divided Cannot Stand: Exploring Berlin

Hello friends and family,

I just got back from Paris [which was a wonderful weekend] and know I am behind on my blog so I decided to write more about Berlin so I can blog about my weekend in Paris.

On Friday, We decided to take a four hour tour around the city. Our tour guide Alex was from Liverpool, a  history major, ex-journalist, entrepreneur/horror house owner who provided a detailed history of the city. We spent a long time discussing World War II and the Cold War and saw SO much. Just to name a few: Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, the site of Hitler's bunker (which is now a parking lot), Lufthansa headquarters, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, German and French cathedrals, the site of the Nazi book burning, Humboldt University (where the Grimm brothers studied and Einstein taught), Museum Island, the Berliner Dom, and so much more.

Chris and I at the Brandenburg Gate

Alex also told us random interesting facts such as Fanta was created for the Nazis because they wanted Coca Cola but couldn't ship the right ingredients during the war and Hugo Boss designed the Nazi uniforms.

At the Berlin Wall

Chris in West and East Germany

Berlin is so beautiful, especially for a city that is only 20 years removed from the communist regime. I don't know what it is about communist history, but it really affects me. Maybe because my family had to live through it. I just can't imagine waking up one day to a divided city, where your husband could be on the other side and you can't see him. What a horrible situation to have to live in.

Standing where the Berlin Wall used to be. One foot in East Germany, the other foot in West Germany.

After the tour, we also decided to look at the Holocaust Memorial (Officially called the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe). Every Holocaust memorial has the words "forgive but never forget." What a powerful message to carry when reading testimonies from Holocaust victims and survivors.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Berlin was depressing, but it was also fascinating, having had to deal with such dark parts of history.

Hanging out with Ampelman! He helps Germans cross the street.

Well, I am exhausted so I will share about Potsdam and Koln (Cologne) tomorrow.

Love,
Olga

Herzogenrath-August-Schmidt-Platz: Our Journey to Berlin.

Well, it was bound to happen. For us, it was sooner rather than later.

We got on the wrong train.

This weekend, 10 of us decided to take a trip to Berlin and Koln (Cologne). Everything went smoothly until the third train change. We had about 45 minutes to wait between trains, and our train was late.

The local train ended up coming a minute before our train so we accidentally got on the wrong train, which took us to...Herzogenrath-August-Schmidt-Platz. Jonathan knew a little German (enough to ask, do you speak English?) so we found a nice lady at the grocery store near the train station who told us the local train we got on makes a loop and would be back at the station in about 30 minutes. So we were stuck waiting for this train to loop back around in this random sketchy city in Germany. We had to call Melissa Bilbro (one of the Baylor assistants) to figure out which connections to make to get to Berlin.

Four hours later, after midnight, we made it to Berlin. We were all incredibly exhausted at this point so we went to the taxi line to get a ride to our hostel. The taxi driver told us the hostel was "200 meters to the right" so he said it would be easier to walk.

So we walked. and walked. and kept on walking. We ended up stopping at another hotel to find out where we were. We found out that the taxi driver was very wrong. The hostel was over a mile and a half away. We finally got to the hostel around one in the morning. Check in took a long time so we all passed out once we got to the room.

Berlin itself was incredibly interesting. I will write a post about everything we did in Berlin tomorrow.

Sic 'Em Berlin!

Love you all,
Olga

Warning: Things are Farther Than They Appear

In The Netherlands, if someone tells you that the place you are going is "quite a walk," expect to be walking for a few hours. That's a lesson we learned while walking to the catacombs in the city of Valkenburg (about 30 minutes by bus from Maastricht). 

On Friday and Saturday, we had our Maastricht University orientation. This consisted of a walking tour of Maastricht, a few meetings about rules and activities, and a walk to the various university buildings. Since Maastricht University is only 35 years old, its buildings are scattered all around town.

On Saturday, we visited the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial. Seeing all of those crosses in a row is overwhelming. The stories our tour guide told us were depressing, but it was still fascinating to hear about the history.

Afterward, we headed to Valkenburg aan de Geul to explore the city and visit the catacombs. It's such a cute little city, though it was heavily bombed during the war.

The catacombs were dark and humid. We had to use candles to walk around. This catacomb was just a replica of the ones in Rome [so no dead people!] but it did have some of the frescos that were in the original catacombs. While in the catacombs, the guide made us blow out our candles and walk around the tunnels for a few minutes. It really showed us how precious sight is, and how difficult it is to be blind. Our tour guide said that in order to be a tour guide, he was given two hours to navigate in the pitch black from the entrance to the exit of the catacombs. Definitely sounds unpleasant, especially since there are bats.

Chris and I in the catacombs 

In Valkenburg

When we got back, we planned our next weekend trip. We are going to Berlin for two days and Cologne for one day. We thought about going to Munich, but we decided it would be too far for our first trip. Everything looks so close on the map but some of it is definitely a long train ride. We are going in a group of 10. We started out as a group of five, and people kept joining. It should be entertaining with such a large group. At least it made hostels cheaper!

Last night, we went out for the first time in Maastricht. We headed to Highlander, a place where a lot of people hang out. More than half of the Maastricht group ended up showing up so we had a lot of fun dancing and hanging out with everyone. 

Today, we met up with some friends and went to find a place to eat lunch. We ended up at a restaurant that is famous for fries. It was fairly cheap (5 euros for a meal and 2 for a drink) so it was nice!

Jonathan, Misbah, and I at lunch 

Tomorrow, we start our first day of classes at Maastricht University. I will try to post tomorrow to talk about what they're like. 

For now, goodnight friends and family. Love you all. 

Olga