A few weeks ago we went on our first big IES field trip. It lasted 6 days and we traveled to Berlin and then to Riga, which is the capital city of Latvia (this post is only about the Berlin leg). We arrived in Berlin by train and once we had checked into our hotel we immediately had some free time. There was a really yummy Thai place next to the hotel so we ate lunch there. After that we met up with a girl who was a friend of the two GW students in my program who was studying in Berlin for the semester who was fluent in German. We all met up with her and we walked around a bit while trying find a boat tour that left at a good time and that was still open. Eventually we did and took a
lovely one hour boat tour down the river Spree. The tour took us past modern looking government buildings and past Museum Island where the river splits and a whole bunch of museums are located (hence the name). I never got to go into any of those museums unfortunately. There simply wasn't enough time. After the boat tour I went with some of my German classmates to try and start our Berlin Project, which was to go to this outdoor exhibit called the Topography of Terror. The Topography of Terror chronicles the work of the SS and Gestapo during the Nazi regime, and it sits on the actually site of where there headquarters and other main buildings were. Right now the exhibit is only an outdoor walkway with informational panels, but there are currently constructing a whole museum about it. I felt very strange seeing that exhibit. It made everything you had learned in history class about the Nazi come to life because you were actually standing on the site of all the terror and control. And a few steps away from this exhibit was remnants of the Berlin wall, so it was even more powerful. It made me realize that Berlin had seen A LOT of history in the past century, and it was cool to see the relics of it in person. That night a few friends and strolled down some of the main streets in Berlin and made it to the Brandenburg Gate and ate some döner and currywurst (mmm...). The gate was very impressive at night. Then we went back towards the area of our hotel and had a beer at a really lame bar in Alexanderplatz.
lovely one hour boat tour down the river Spree. The tour took us past modern looking government buildings and past Museum Island where the river splits and a whole bunch of museums are located (hence the name). I never got to go into any of those museums unfortunately. There simply wasn't enough time. After the boat tour I went with some of my German classmates to try and start our Berlin Project, which was to go to this outdoor exhibit called the Topography of Terror. The Topography of Terror chronicles the work of the SS and Gestapo during the Nazi regime, and it sits on the actually site of where there headquarters and other main buildings were. Right now the exhibit is only an outdoor walkway with informational panels, but there are currently constructing a whole museum about it. I felt very strange seeing that exhibit. It made everything you had learned in history class about the Nazi come to life because you were actually standing on the site of all the terror and control. And a few steps away from this exhibit was remnants of the Berlin wall, so it was even more powerful. It made me realize that Berlin had seen A LOT of history in the past century, and it was cool to see the relics of it in person. That night a few friends and strolled down some of the main streets in Berlin and made it to the Brandenburg Gate and ate some döner and currywurst (mmm...). The gate was very impressive at night. Then we went back towards the area of our hotel and had a beer at a really lame bar in Alexanderplatz.The next day was super busy. We had three scheduled speakers to go to. The first one was at the BDI which is some company that works in the interests of German business and industry. I didn't really learn anything new there, but the building was really cool because it had this glass enclosed indoor courtyard thing that had a giant bamboo plant in it. After that we were off to the Ministry of the Exterior to hear from a German diplomat who had worked in embassies all over the world. She was very inte
resting, but some of the people in my program started to ask accusatory questions (like about Turkey, the war in Afghanistan, and the UNSC) so she started to get a bit pissy and defensive after a while. After lunch and meeting at the Brandenburg gate we all walked over to our next stop, a committee building of the Bundestag (parliament) where we heard from a speaker in the Free Democratic Party (FDP). What's cool is that the FDP did really well in the elections last Sunday night, and they'll be part of the new coalition with the CDU (Merkel's party), so I bet that guy we heard from is pretty darn happy right now. He actually said in the talk that he didn't want any more Grand Coalition (CDU and SPD), so I guess he got his wish! After that talk we got a tour of the Reichstag building, which is really awesome! Architecture in Berlin is a lot of old mixed with new and the Reichstage does this perfectly. It has all the old structure but has modern rooms and a beautiful glass dome above the parliament chamber. On some of the walls is remnants of Soviet graffiti from the last day of the war when Soviet troops finally captured the Reichstag building from the Nazis. They left it up as a reminder of Germany's sordid past. Luckily we had enough time to go up into the glass dome, which has a mirrored pillar in the middle of it, a winding path up to the top, and amazing views of Berlin.That night we were craving American food so we went to a 1960s themed diner and I had the best burger ever. It had bacon and bbq sauce on it, and the patty was really tender and delicious (sorry I'm getting a bit carried away, but it was delicious, haha). And we tried this beer that they put flavored syrup in, called a Berliner Kindl Weisse. It was interesting... it didn't taste like beer at all. After that we roamed around trying to figure out something to do or which club to go to. When we finally meet up with some other people who are going to a club, a few of us decide to bail and just go home and sleep. Unfortunately, the train we hoped on that normally takes us right back to the are we needed to go turned into another train partway through the ride, so it changed directions on us, and not even the German's on the train with us were aware that the train was doing this. So we ended up way out in a place we'd never been before and we had to firgure out how to get back. In the end it took us about 2 hours I think. We were alternating between laughing because of the sheer ridiculousness of it, and getting angry about it. Good times, good times.
The next day we only had one speaker at the Defense Ministry. I enjoyed this speaker the most because he was very frank and engaging and I learned a lot about the German and EU defense forces and the situation in Afghanistan (which is was far from optimistic
about). It was really interesting, to say the least. After that we had free time so Lindsay, Lucas, and I wandered around to Potsdamer platz and had lunch. While we were there we saw famous remnants of the Wall, and an old watch tower from the wall, which was cool. I had more currywurst for lunch (soooo good). Then we made our way to the holocaust memorial. It was amazing! For some reason even though it was just a bunch of stone rectangular pillars I really enjoyed it. It was just awesome to walk through and it really got the message of like "lost" and "oppression" across. After that we basically just walked back to our hotel, grabbed some ice cream with the 10 euros we found of the ground, and enjoyed the beautiful day in Berlin. Even though there was nowhere near enough time for us to really explore the city and go to museums and such, I had a really good time, and I would like to go back one day.
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