Mitte

Today was a great day, a highlight for sure. We had a historical tour of Berlin in the morning, which taught me so many amazing things. Yet the weather was some of the worst I've seen during this trip. Mostly because I was underprepared, I think. It was pouring rain, really hard. My windbreaker has been rain resistant enough for every rain storm I have been in except this one. I was getting decently wet and had only a t-shirt underneath. It was a weird cold because for the first hour, my whole body was itchy and really gross. Luckily, we did stop, and we had a Starbucks (the only coffee shop I could see). That helped a lot, and I was better for the rest. But the actual tour showed us where you can see all the bullet holes in the buildings and all the patch work they had to do. It's so interesting looking at buildings because you can tell the old verse the new. But what's interesting too is that Germany was so confident that they were going to win they took all the statues off the buildings and threw them into the river to protect them from damage. But thank god they did. Another cool story about statues is the one on top of the massive gate. Turns out Napoleon stole the old statue because we loved it. But when they lost the war, Germany took it back. But instead of putting it back, they put up the goddess of victory, looking down where the French embassy is and still is. We also learned and saw that all government buildings are covered in glass to represent how they are trying to be completely transparent. We also stood over Hitler's bunker, where he killed himself. And it was just a parking lot... turns out, and it makes sense, that Germany is really careful when making a museum or literally anything that is Nazi related to not having Neo-Nazis coming there to pray or whatever they do. But I wish the bunker was still intact. Apparently, it was a work of art, 5 levels with 5 feet thick walls. The Russians really wanted it gone, and it took days of constant bombing to finally destroy it. But a couple days before Hitler killed himself, FIND SPELLING was captured and hung up on the street for people to humiliate the body. So when the generals tell Hitler the war is lost and after his little hissy-fit he married his wife walked into the bunker and she took a pill. Hitler wanted the honorable soldiers' death (a bullet), but because of all his health problems (and too many drugs), he was scared he would shake too much and miss. So we took a pill and then shot himself. Then, as he ordered, the generals pulled their body up and burned them so they couldn't be humiliated. All the Russians found when they made it there was a piece of his jaw. Which years later was actually confirmed to be hitler, so no, he is not alive in South America. But it's crazy because Berlin would have looked so different if the allies landed first. The Russians got there first, and their whole plan was to massacre berlin for everything they did. And they did do a lot of damage. We learned so much cool stuff, and I haven't even started about the Berlin wall. It was put up literally overnight, stopping people from visiting family or going to work. It was done because half the city was occupied by the allies, and the other was the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was pissed at Germany, so they took resources out of Berlin while the allies helped create a pretty strong economy. The Soviet side (east side) was not the same, so they would work there, and everyone would travel across the east side to get citizenship in Western germany. The Soviet clearly didn't want this, so they created the wall where no Eastern citizen could leave. On top of that, everything had to be made domestically. There were shortages for everything. For example, there was only one type of car in east Berlin. And to get this car, there was a 18 year wait list for one. Parents would apply in hopes their kid would get one when they could finally drive. They were so short on material that they actually started building the body with organic material. So there is a photo of a dog eating the car! Near the end, people started rioting and causing more problems while the Soviet Union stopped helping and watching their satellite states as much. So, to deal with everyone, they decided to start very short visas that Eastern citizens can use once a year but can be rejected whenever the government wants to. It's not a great deal. When they did an international broadcast to announce the plan, the spokesperson was only given notes written on cards, and he wasn't properly debriefed. So when the question came to when this plan started, he looked through his notes and read the date on the top (the day of the speech) instead of the 2 weeks it was suppose to be. So then everyone rushed to the gates to get through. At one of them, the guy running the checkpoint had tough decisions to make since he couldn't get through to command. Wait and hope it's OK, open the gate to let them through, or gun down way to many civilians. They were pushing, and something bad was bound to happen. So he made the call to save lives and opened the gate, which started the fast demise of Eastern Germany. We also had a stop at a monument for all the Jewish people who died during the war; the one with all the concrete pillars. It was cool walking through it as it felt like a massive and left you feeling lost and small in a way. They also mentioned how when you create a monument for one group, you kind of have to for all the other groups affected. So berlin really had to become a momument city. Afterward, We made a quick stop at a lunch place for some food and a warm drink, I had a loaded potato and a cappuccino with some form of liquor in it. Was different but really good. Then we went back and reset for a party night with Amanda! We ended up going to Kater Blau, a nice techno bar. I would love to show you but cameras are not allowed in these places! At the time, I was so annoyed, but looking back, I think it was for the best. The more you take photos, the less present you are. Everyone is just looking at the experience through their phones and not truly enjoying the vibes. And man, did I enjoy the vibes. There were two dance floors with smoke machines, Lasers, and tons of people dance to techno. It was crazy because the smoke would start, and I honestly couldn't see Ethan right beside me to then have the strobe light make everything feel like a slideshow. I also now understand why everyone does the Berlin techno dance with a straight face... it's because everyone is high as a kite. It actually looks so funny, but it was such a great night that we didn't get back to the hostel till like 6:30 after eating some famous berlin döner of course. It was alright, ahahah. It was a rough morning because it was way too late, or I guess early, to sleep so we packed up and tried to stay up. Ethan couldn't make it as he passed out on the couch, so I just woke him up when we had to leave.Read more