Ein Jahr in Deutschland: Berlin

Berlin

As of tomorrow I'll have been in Germany 7 weeks... It's crazy how time flies. This week I went to Berlin for a few days with my host sister with a group organized by Markus Grübel, who is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defense for the constituency of Esslingen. We were invited to Berlin to take part in a political tour. It was a great opportunity to see Berlin and learn more about the German government first hand. I had the opportunity to take tours of the Bundestag and Bundesrat as well as many other fascinating places, and I heard lectures from various people about the government. The weather wasn't so great, it was really cold, rainy and windy, but Berlin is beautiful. It has such interesting history and is such a melting pot. After learning so much about it in history classes, it felt so surreal to be there. It's the biggest city in Germany but to me it felt pretty small (maybe because there are no skyscrapers). It reminded me of D.C a little bit, with all of the government buildings and such.

We left Monday morning at 6:30 am from Esslingen, and drove (I think) around 8+ hours to Berlin. We took a bunch of breaks at rest stops so that made the trip a bit longer. German rest stops are really nice, the food is good and there are no fast food restaurants (huge difference from the McDonalds, Burger King, and Pizza Hut at just about every rest stop in the states). The first night we had dinner at our hotel and met Markus Grübel. I'll explain the rest with photos.

Overall it was a great trip and great opportunity to learn more about Germany!

We had some free time before dinner, so we went to a shopping area... There was even an Urban Outfitters?

Here's the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church that was damaged in WW2.

On Tuesday we visited the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial. It was the main political prison of the former East German Communist Ministry of State Security (Stasi). This was an incredibly interesting and somber place. The cells were so unbelievably small, and our guide (who lived in East Berlin) spoke about life in the GDR from experience. It was an eye-opening experience for me and I think even other Germans in the group were touched as well by the tour.

Here is one of the former cells.

We stopped at a section of the Berlin Wall. This was probably one of the highlights for me, since I've always wanted to see it. The history surrounding it is so interesting, and the artwork on the wall is amazing. It's crazy that the wall was still standing only (almost) 25 years ago.

This was my favorite piece of artwork on the wall.

Here's the Bundestag! We took a tour and listened to a lecture, and then later we got to go to the rooftop terrace. It was at night and freezing but still really beautiful.