This weekend we decided to travel to Berlin, Germany and explore the city. Our train left early this morning, around 6:30 am and would arrive in Berlin around 11:30 am. It was the most convenient way to travel and was very inexpensive for the two of us, also we were able to see the countryside of Prague and Germany. Well at least josh was able to see Prague's countryside, I spent that time catching up on my sleep! We had a cabin of 6 seats (3 on each side) all to ourselves, which was nice, until we stopped in Dresden and then this older man came and sat in our cabin. The train ride was very smooth and relaxing, much better than traveling my plane! Josh went and got us each a muffin and drink and we were able to eat breakfast before getting off the train and figuring out where to go from there! Finally we arrived in Berlin, got off the train and decided to head towards our hostel to drop off our luggage. Having no idea what to do as far as transportation, I thought it was the best decision to walk to the hostel, yes I will take full responsibly for this stupid plan, because it was a 2 mile walk! We should have taken the bus or metro like josh wanted, instead we walked but on the positive note, we were able to sightsee along the way! With Josh's phone navigating, we finally arrived at the hostel named Pangea People. We dropped off our bags, asked a few questions about different sites and then headed out to explore. Berlin is full of so much history and I kinda wish that I had my dad here to explain things to us since neither one of us are big history buffs, especially me!! Our hostel is located fairly close to the city center which is nice so we are able to walk to most sites instead of using public transportation. We didn't really have a plan, imagine that, so we decided to head in the direction of the Brandenburg Gate and see what we found along the way. First we stopped at St. Mary's Church, known in German as the Marienkirche, and is one of the oldest churches in Berlin. It was originally a Roman Catholic church, but has been a Lutheran Protestant church since the Protestant Reformation. The exact age of the original church is not known but it is believed to be built in the early 13th century. The building was badly damaged during WWII and was later restored in the late 19th century and in the post war period. The architecture of the building is now largely composed of modern restoration work including the medieval frescos, The Dance Of Death, which can be seemed behind plexiglass in the narthex. While we were visiting, the organ player of the church was playing music and it sounded so beautiful! We walked over to a large fountain, took some pictures and continued along the street. We then stopped at another church, one of the most magnificent exteriors we have ever seen and decided that it was worth to pay to see the interior, thank goodness for student discounts! The Berlin Cathedral dates backs to 1451 and has a lot of history behind this structure (too much to explain without boring you). It went through a lot of leaders, changes and design styles before being completed in 1905. Then the unimaginable happened... in 1940 it was affected by blast waves of bombings which cost the cathedral its altar windows. Then in 1944, the impact of a liquid incendiary bomb struck the foot of the dome lantern. Because access to this location was so difficult, the fire could not be extinguished, and the entire dome construction was destroyed. Parts of the burning dome crashed into the church and through the floor, causing the fire to spread all the way into the crypt below. Within one night, the Cathedral had been transformed into a ruin. Reconstruction began in 1975 and in 1993, the church finally reopened. The interiors were beautiful, and rich and the detail is unreal. We just sat in a pew and stared around the church in amazement. Also we were able to climb 270 stairs and go outside and walk around the dome, it was a great view and totally unexpected. Lastly, we visited the crypt with lots and lots of tombs, kinda creepy, but each one was designed differently depending on the importance of the individual, some of the small children's tombs had more details than some adults. It was definitely a site to see and I can't believe all the history behind it.
We decided that we should walk back in the direction of the hostel so that we could check in and get our bags because the luggage storage wasn't the safest place to keep our belongings, it was a locked room, but anyone could walk out with your stuff. We stopped to eat some Chinese food, I know real traditional German food (ha), and headed towards the hostel. Since we are staying at Pangea People, each room had a matching name to their continent and of course ours was the Maldives in the Caribbean, go figure! It was a nice room, we had plenty of space considering it was a 4 person room and we were the only 2 staying in it. We spent some time figuring out the different sites to see based on the map and josh decided that we should visit the Berlin Wall East Side Gallery before it got dark outside. He told me it wasn't too far, I should stop believing him when he says things like that, but we walked for a while, it was getting cold and I was getting grumpy. Finally we reached our destination, a 1.3 kilometer section of the Berlin Wall with approximately 106 paintings by artists from all over the world and it is the largest open air gallery in the world. "The East Side Gallery is a special place, where art has become the expression for a unique point in time of the history of a separated Germany. It is a meeting point that talks about an old Berlin and a new Berlin, a separated and a unified Germany. After the Wall came down in 1989, hundreds of artists from all over the world gathered and transformed the east side of the Wall that had been untouchable up to now, with their paintings, giving the Wall a new face in a new time (www.eastsidegallery.com)." It was interesting to see all of the different styles of artwork and try to interpret the meaning behind each painting. As we walked along the wall, we saw one of the best known graffiti paintings, My God Help Me To Survive This Deadly Love. Created in 1990, the painting depicts Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker in a fraternal embrace, reproducing a photograph that captured the moment in 1979 during the 30th anniversary celebration of the foundation of the German Democratic Republic. Although it was vandalized with other graffiti artwork, it was still cool to experience it and the area as a whole. We continued walking along the sidewalk, even though the wall ended and watched a light show on a bridge. Beginning Sunday, the Berlin Festival of Lights would begin and is one of the largest illumination festivals in the world. Each year it transforms Berlin’s world famous landmarks through light, projections and events. I guess they were practicing or getting people excited about the upcoming event. I hate that we are going to miss it, it sounds fun to experience.
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