Berlin is a very beautiful and vibrant city. It it very surprising to think that most of the history from this city happened so recently and that compared to other cities in Europe, Berlin is one of the youngest because they have had to rebuild most of the city.
My parents got married the same year the wall was torn down and I was born 4 years later. All the other cities we have visited have history from the BC Era! Also, we hardly read about the Cold War in school which is frustrating because it would have made visiting Berlin that much better! It was still awesome to learn the history while we were in the city with people that took the bike tour. The previous day I decided I should probably give myself a little break because I was still recovering from my walnut incident. :)
Our group visited Checkpoint Charlie, which was one of the points where people could travel between East and West Berlin. There was a lot of animosity between the two sides and people often tried to escape, both succeeding and failing, from East Berlin and sneak into West Berlin. Splitting the city like that truly did hurt people a lot.
We also visited a museum called The Typography of Terror. It went through Hitler's rise to power and how Himmler also helped him to get rid of the inferior race. While walking through this museum it is was eerie to see the differences and similarities between then and now. America is rallying behind someone that hates rather than accepts and believes that some people are better than others. I hope we will be able to get out of this situation and that America will continue to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.
We also visited the East side gallery. I have always thought graffiti was really cool! Obviously, some is just vandalism and there was a lot of that in Berlin, but the actual art was fantastic! I wish I had that kind of artistic talent! I'm glad they kept a part of the wall and promoted local artists and continue to preserve parts of the wall that were painted. The wall obviously divided the city and one point and they are healing and moving forward.
The rest of the day was really relaxing! I spent time with my roommate in the hotel, read Harry Potter and got ready to leave the next day. :)
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