While in Germany I have experienced many things that are similar and completely different from America. Here are a few of those things (sorry for the randomness and lack of order, just trying to get everything I've seen down):
Okay, that's all I can think of for While in Berlin we took a day trip to Potsdam on the 20th. The train ride was about 30 minutes, but we had to stand the whole time because all of the seats were full. We went to Friedrich's palace, Sansoucci park, to tour the grounds and buildings. This area was huge, there were many different buildings and palaces spread out everywhere. Sansoucci was so beautiful and it incorporated many different styles into one, such as a Chinese Tea house, Roman architecture, and Greek architecture. There were so many things to see. Friedrich is buried near one of the palaces beside his dogs. On his grave people put potatoes to represent what he made his soldiers eat.
After touring the park we walked around Potsdam and looked at the old-style architecture and had lunch in the Dutch quarters. We then went to the Gleinicke "spy bridge" where Americans and Russians traded soldiers who had been found. This bridge was interesting because it is still represents the division between the east and west with two different shades of green split in the middle of the bridge. Potsdam is a small city with a lot of history and beautiful architecture. I would have loved to spend a few days here just exploring and visiting all of the beautiful places that contribute to Germany These past few days have flown by so fast, everything is pretty much a blur. On Friday, the 18th we left for Berlin. We took one of those super fast trains where passengers have their own "box" to sit in with six other people. It was just like in the movies. On the way to Berlin I was thinking about how similar it would be to Hamburg, both are big cities with a lot of international influence, but boy was I wrong. As soon as we got off the train at Central Station I was amazed at how huge the station was. It was 3 or 4 stories, remember the blur, and there were soooo many people. We got turned around quite a few times trying to find our train to the Hostel. On the train to the Hostel I noticed Berlin looked quite similar to Hamburg, with lots of buildings, bakeries, and shops, but Berlin is 2x bigger. After checking into the Hostel, which reminded me of freshman year with empty shelves, tile floors, and bunk beds, we went out to explore. We took the bus downtown, which allowed us to see more of the scenery. On one street were all of the high fashion stores like Luis Vutton, Dolce, Burberry, Coach, blah blah blah, then all of a sudden it turned into more affordable fashion with at least 3 H&M's, Pimke, and C&A. These stores were huge, they were at least two or three stories and they were stocked full. We got of the bus and walked to meet our tour guide at the Brandenburg Gate, which has been around since Napoleon's time. The gate was huge and beautiful and symbolizes so much for Berlin's history. In front of the gate is a cobblestone line in the pavement to represent where the wall once stood. This area seemed like the center of Berlin, all the international embassies were there, including the American Embassy which we may or may not have tried to find our way into, the carnival, a Holocaust memorial, and one of the fanciest hotels in Germany. This Holocaust memorial was specifically for Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. There were hundreds of cement blocks of different sizes aligned in a square area. There were no plaques or anything to give information about the people who were killed, it was more of a place for reflection. Hitler's bunker was also around this area, and his office, which is now a Chinese restaurant.
Hotel Adlon, one of the fanciest and most expensive hotels in Germany was right beside the American Embassy. This is the hotel that Michael Jackson infamously held his baby over the balcony. We went in the restaurant to have tea, since this is apparently one of the things you have to do in Berlin, and the inside was breathtaking. There was a live piano player, amazing architecture and decorations, and the fancy bellhops and waiters you see on TV. A pot of tea, which I could not convince myself to get, was 14€. We also went to see a section of the Berlin wall that is still standing. This section was about 1 Kilometer long and was covered in art. It was amazing to see the difference in architecture between the east and west side. We took a tour of the Reichstag building, which is like the Capital building of Germany. Although the outside of the building is mostly original architecture from before the War, most of the inside has been renovated and is very modern. There is an art piece which consists of hundreds of small metal storage boxes with names of government members from the early to late 1900s. There is even a box for Hitler, which completely surprised me. They wanted people to remember that Hitler was a democratically elected leader and that he should be recognized for that. The guide said the box had been damaged by someone before, so they had to reinforce it with thicker metal. At the top of the building was a clear dome, which you could walk to the top of. At the top you could see all over Berlin and I could recognize the tops of all the buildings we saw on our tour. This weekend was full of many amazing sights to see and experience. Including spending an hour to find a CrossFit gym that was hidden in an alley only for it to be closed, and spending time with On the 12th we went to Dom, the Hamburg state fair. The fair here lasts for a whole month and comes 4 times a year, which is amazing. It was a lot like the fairs in North Carolina, only the food and vendors were 10x better, and they have fireworks every Friday. They had the typical German foods like Bratwurst and potatoes, then they had the fair classics like candied apples. Instead of funnel cakes they have these mini funnel cake bites with powdered sugar on top, served warm, which were glorious. They also had pommes frites "fries" with mayo, they eat mayo with everything here. Both of these were sooooo good. The thing that Dom is most known for though are the candied almonds. I have had candied almonds before so I figured these would taste similar, but they were soooooo much better. I could have eaten a whole bag in less than 5 minutes. There was also a whole variety of candy apples, you could get white chocolate, dark chocolate, caramel, Minnie Mouse, Cookie Monster, or rocky road. Dom is definitely something to see!
The next day, on the 13th, we took the train an hour to Lubeck. We traveled up to the Baltic Sea, which I never imagined I would ever go there, and it was absolutely beautiful. For some reason I always thought the Baltic Sea was dirty, but the water was crystal clear and so beautiful. There were many sailboats out, and we even saw a huge cruise ship. We walked around for a while then took a one hour boat ride along the harbor and had lunch. We thought we were ordering Bratwurst, but it definitely wasn't that, it looked like pork chop but tasted like chicken, it was still good though, whatever it was. There were so many shops and eis cafe's (ice cream), just like everywhere else in Germany. I am still surprised at the amount of sweets and bread consumed here and the lack of obese people, there are literally bakeries and cafe's on every single corner. I have no idea how Germans can eat so many sweets and breads but remain healthier than Americans. I think it is because the way they make their products. There are far less processed foods, chemicals, and not nearly as much sugar in foods as in America, so that has to contribute to their health. After the boat ride we took the train to the city of Lubeck. As soon as you walk into town you see the original tower and gate from the Medieval times that served as a fortress to the city. The remainder of the walls that enclosed Lubeck are gone, but the gate remains. Because of the age and movement of Earth, one side of the tower is leaning, but it is still absolutely beautiful. Lubeck is so much different from Hamburg. It is much smaller and has more of the "German" architecture I was looking for. There are so many large churches as well. We visited St. Maria, a Gothic style church that was almost completely destroyed during the war, only the tower and some of the walls remained. They have since rebuilt the church to it's original design. The inside of the church was breathtaking, there were so many sculptures and paintings to look at. In the back of the church are a set of broken bells. When the church was bombed the bells fell from the top of the tower and have remained their sense as a reminder of what happened during that time. In one of the sculptures of the Last Supper, there is a small mouse in the corner that is said to bring good luck and travels if you touch it, so of course I did. We also went to the famous Lubeck Marzipan store. Marzipan is a type of cream distinctive to Lubeck, to me it tasted somewhat like a coconut cream, without the texture of coconut, it was very different but good, it's one of those things that you either love or hate, no in between. I bought several bars to take home and share. This weekend was full of adventures and sights that I never thought I would see. We went on a harbor tour and I saw all the huge cargo ships and the huge cranes. I've saw them in movies before, but I never realized how big they were. It is such a blessing to have the opportunity to go on this trip. It is more than I could have ever imagined and I have seen and experienced some of the most amazing things that I never thought would happen! On to the last two weeks! After visiting ISH, our group went to Miniature Wonderland. This is a huge place with miniature trains and replicas of towns and cities around the world. They have replicas of America, Hamburg, airports, the phases of World War 2, and many other places. The detail found in the replicas was insane, you could spend all day just staring at the different towns, people, and trains. I'll keep this one short and you can see what it was like from the pictures.
After Miniature Wonderland we went to a German restaurant, Fauflauf. I was hoping to be able to pick out something from the menu or that the waiter would speak some English, but that did not happen. I could not tell what anything on the menu was and the waiter could not help me at all. I ended up ordering something that the waiter said was a hamburger, but apparently it wasn't the hamburger I'm used to. When she brought it out I immediately dropped my head. There were three slices of some cold, pink meat with some type of gelatin on top, with potatoes and a small salad. I am typically not a picky eater, but when it comes to meat I like it cooked, warm, and recognizable. So in the end I ended up only eating the potatoes and salad, which were really good, and the knowledge to never go to that restaurant again. On the 8th we visited the International School of Hamburg. I was expecting this school to be like the other school I am placed at with a lot of German speaking, but I was completely wrong. (Side note: on the way to the school we got locked on the wrong side of the fence and our director had to pick a lock to get us out so we could make it to the school. I don't know what it is about us Americans and fences.) As soon as we walked into the school we were greeted by the three principals, whom all spoke amazing English, and were given our schedules for the day. They treated us to breakfast in the school cafeteria, where everything from breakfast to lunch to snack, is homemade by the school chef. Why don't schools in America have chefs? We then went on a short tour and went to our assigned classes. The school itself is huge, it houses Kindergarten through 12th grade, and very modern. I was placed in a first-grade classroom that only had 15 students. It was glorious being in a class with so few students because the teacher is able to give students more attention that they need and to cater to each student's struggles and strengths a lot better. The children went around and introduced themselves to me and I found that they were from all over the world! The principal told us about 80% of the students were international, and 20% were German, I should have expected that from the name of the school, but this really surprised me. ALL of the children in this class spoke AMAZING English. I did not have to slow my speech, speak in broken English, or use crazy hand motions, they understood me and I understood them. It almost felt like I was in a school back in America.
The teacher I was working with was also amazing. She has been teaching in Germany for 7 years, but is originally from Holland. She and the kids had a mutual respect for each other, and she made sure the students knew they were responsible for their own learning. It was her job to teach, but their job to accept and learn. While the students went to break, she took me to meet other teacher in the teacher's room. I was expecting the teachers to all be talking in German like in my other school, but they were ALL talking in English, because apparently the teachers are international as well. One of the teachers who is a principal in Australia but is doing an exchange program at ISH, did not even speak any German at all. Everyone I met was nice and helpful, they even shared their delicious cakes with me (I have eaten wayyyy too many sweets while in Germany)! I then went with the children to PE where they were doing an obstacle course of rope climbs, ring swings, beam walking, tumbling, wall climbing, and all kinds of other things. This was not the typical American PE class. Since all of the students spoke and understood English so well, I was able to work with them and help them in math and reading that day, which is something I have been struggling with at my other school. I even followed some of the students to their Beginner German class and picked up a few things myself. At the end of the day the teacher allowed me to do a read aloud to the class. I felt so comfortable and at ease in front of this group of students and I was amazed at how well they responded. After I finished reading they all wanted to ask questions about America and they all kept begging me to come back, one kid said "you should stay for a bajillion days, pleaaaaase!" They were so sweet and I would definitely go back to ISH in a heartbeat. Our second weekend here was very interesting and exciting. On Saturday the 5th we went on a walking tour of Hamburg, for two hours, in the rain. Although it was raining almost the entire time, we were able to see and learn a lot of new things. We saw the Atlantic Hotel where the Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, was filmed. We learned that if you are caught j-walking, or feeding the birds here you will get fined at least 130 €. Apparently, Hamburg is home of the most millionaires and billionaires than any other city, with at least 10 billionaires, and over 40,000 millionaires; so we saw the millionaires club where only the filthy rich can go. We also saw the hotel where Madonna, and Mick Jagger have stayed. At the end of the tour we went to the "Mahnmal St Nikolai," which is a church that was bombed and almost completely destroyed during WW2; all that remains is the tower and a few walls. There are several different monuments at the church to commemorate the struggles of the war and those who lost their lives. We were able to go to the top of the tower, which used to be the tallest in the world, and get an amazing view of Hamburg. There was also a museum downstairs that showed different artifacts from the church and gave information about the War. This was a very emotional experience, especially reading about the accounts from children and what the people had to endure during and after the air raids. I can't imagine what it must have felt like to live during that time and how it must feel for the people still alive to still struggle with those memories. The War and Holocaust are two very touchy subjects here, many people still blame themselves for what happened, even those who were not even born yet. The thing is, this is all some people knew, especially if they were born during that time, that is what they were taught and they simply did not know any better.
After doing the "Hamburg thing" and staying up all night then going to the Fish Market at 5 am to get Fish sandwiches, then getting locked in a Walking Dead-like school playground where we had to escape by climbing under a 6-inch gap of a fence, we went to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. Along with the St. Nikolai memorial, this was a very emotional trip as well. Growing up in America we did not learn about how widespread the Holocaust and concentration camps were. They told us about the "big" ones like Auschwitz, and that was it. I have always been interested in learning about the Holocaust since it was first introduced in middle school, and I was glad that we would get to visit one of the camps on our trip. The camp is located in the countryside of Hamburg, it took over an hour to get their by train and bus. Upon arrival I was very surprised, it looked nothing like I was expecting. The buildings looked nice and well built and it was very small. During the tour we learned that the buildings from the original camp were torn down after the war and new buildings were put up for a prison. There are a few original buildings remaining, for the others, there are "rubble blocks" put in place to show the exact size and locations of the barracks and infirmaries from the original camp. In one of the buildings we went inside the basement was left alone and you can look through a glass wall to see what it looked like during the Holocaust. This part of the tour was the most emotional for me. I walked down alone, not knowing what to expect, and as soon as I got to the bottom of the staircase I was completely overwhelmed. It felt like every single person who died at that camp was there with me. I immediately walked back up the stairs to catch my breath before going back down. It was so emotional and overwhelming being in a room that has not been changed where thousands of people lost their lives for such a selfish cause. This is a place you would have to visit yourself to know the full effect. The remainder of the camp was not as emotional because things have been reconstructed and "museumized" so much that it doesn't make you feel as much. However, it was still interesting to read the different first hand accounts and to learn about what life was like in the camps and during the War. I also found it interesting to finally learn the truth about how widespread the camps are. For Nuengamme, there were over 86 satellite camps were prisoners were sent to and from, plus many others around Germany and the rest of Europe. There were so many people killed and affected by this that it is still hard to wrap my head around. Depending on who you are talking with, not many people here like to talk about the War and the Holocaust, they are still very emotional about it, especially the older generation. There are placards and memorials all around and it is amazing to hear and witness the different perspectives and ideas about what happened. |