An Eternal Sunday

This post is about my trip to Berlin, but I'd also like to make it clear that it's just as much about the fact that I learned how to ride a segway with ease and grace. Yes, that's right. The first thing my four girlfriends and I did on our first morning in Berlin was do a segway tour (one that we had signed up for weeks in advance). It was our time to shine. The streets of Berlin became a little more dangerous that day.

Segway Sistas in Berlin

Berlin is a really cool, hip city so the segways really added to our street cred. If you don't believe me, check out the photo below:

The segway gang in front of the Bradenburg Gate.

Okay but in all seriousness, the segways were a pretty good way to get around the big city and see all the historical attractions Berlin has to offer. And that's a lot, seeing that it was a lead character in the World Wars. It has so many museums that there is an area in Berlin dedicated to them, called Museum Island.

On our segways, we also stopped by Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall, of course. Checkpoint Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, prevented escape across the city sector border from East Berlin to West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation between the East and West. Soviet and American tanks actually faced each other at one time at Checkpoint Charlie during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.

Today only fractions of the Berlin Wall are in tact.

One of the most moving places we saw on the tour was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It was built in 2004 as a memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Our guide explained to us that there really is no explanation or exact interpretation for the set of concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern. It is conceptually simple, but visually complicated. The objective of the memorial is so that we always remember what happened, and what better way to do that than to create something that people will always discuss and talk about.

We segwayed through Gendarmenmarkt, a large plaza with two almost-identical cathedrals on opposite ends. One of the main (and funnier) differences is that the French cathedral, built first, is just a little smaller than the German cathedral, built just after. Think it's a coincidence? I think not.

The German Cathedral (and while you can't see it, the smaller French Cathedral faces it across the plaza).

This is also where our guide pointed out a place just across the way that served the best hot chocolate in Berlin, called Fassbender Rausch. We decided to test his theory later after the tour, and OMG IT WAS THE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE EVER. I get sad even thinking about it because I know no other hot chocolate will ever compare.

Eternal Sunday

As we zipped our way through the streets of Berlin, we not only saw famous historical monuments and great places for hot chocolate, but we also started to pick up on the vibes of the city itself. Like I mentioned before, to put it simply, Berlin is just a hip place. It's edgy, relaxed and exciting all at the same time. As a tour guide (from Spain now living in Berlin) would later put it, Berlin is like an "eternal Sunday." Especially in the Spring time-the beer gardens, the sun, the people walking about-all made it seem like a beautiful, calm Sunday that would never end.

Now the nightlife environment was a little different...Berlin is known for its amazing nightlife, but we didn't realize that it was also known for being a little "intense" and also exclusive. By "intense," we learned that you have to choose wisely which club you go to. If not, you could end up in a techno club with sex, drugs and wherever else your imagination takes you...After walking around for a while, searching for a place to go without incredibly long lines or a sketchy reputation, we finally ended up in a club that didn't even allow you to take photos inside. I'm surprised they even let us in with our phones. It was a bit intimidating, but in the end very fun!

The Next Day

After a day of segways and a night of waiting in lines for clubs, we decided to take it a bit easy the next day (easy and relaxed-Berlin style). It was a Sunday, which meant the famous flea market at Mauerpark was up and running. This market is famous for a reason. It had great, classic German food that you could eat at small outdoor restaraunts or take to-go and bring to your picnic blanket in the grass. And obviously, it was filled with amazing finds from hand-made jewelry to art and vintage clothing. We could have spent hours there, but decided to do as the Berliners do and join them on the grass to hear local artists play music and enjoy the gorgeous weather that day.

What's a Sunday in Berlin without going to a beer garden? After the market, we made our way over to Pratergarten, one of the city's most popular beer gardens. We scoped out one of the many bright yellow picnic tables to set up camp and then took turns going to get our German beers at the beer stand. I also endulged in a pretzel while a couple of my friends chose a Bratwurst. The garden had many beer options to choose from and all were great (at least the ones we managed to try).

Later on that night, we decided to go back to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in order to visit the actual exhibit inside. This was definetely one of the most emotional parts of our trip. The exhibit begins with a timeline that lays out the history of the Final Solution, from when the National Socialists took power in 1933 through the murder of 500,000 Soviet Jews in 1941. The rest of the exhibition is divided into four rooms dedicated to personal aspects of the tragedy. It told the personal stories of the individual families and showcased letters thrown from the trains that transported them to the death camps. There was even a room that focused on the fates of 15 specific Jewish families. The exhibit was extremely personal and made it feel very real.

A Humbling Experience

On our last day in Berlin, we made a day trip out to the Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp that ran from 1936-1945 during World War II. This was an extremely emotional and humbling experience to say the least. The camp is an eerily quiet and desolate place. It was hard to even walk around knowing that you were walking through what used to be thousands of people's personal hell. I stepped into rooms where prisoners were strangled, old gas chambers where hundreds suffocated to death and on a cobblestone running track where prisoners were forced to test military shoes that didn't fit their own feet (many had to get their feet amputated and life expectancy for the "testers" was two weeks).

These were only a few examples of the horrific things that went on in concentration camps such as this one. The ironic and extremely sad part is that this camp was in the process of being built as the olympic games went on in Berlin just a short distance away. Many of the concentration camps were later based off of this exact one.

I can easily say that this was the least-enjoyable part of our trip, but also something that I had to do.

All in All...

In attempt to switch to a lighter note, Berlin was an amazing city with so much history, a ton to do and see and an "eternal Sunday" vibe I will never forget.

Until next time, Berlin. Segway Sistas out.

#travel