If I could recommend only one thing to do in Berlin, it would be to do the free walking tour. In every city that Liana and I went to we would do the free walking tour to get a lay-out of the city and learn about the history and significance of our surroundings. The one in Berlin was hands-down the best.
Our tour guide was a guido-hipster-American named George. His black baseball hat and tight skater jeans complimented his crude and over-the-top personality. The first stop on the tour was the Holocust memorial for the Jews. There are hundreds of rows of cement blocks with narrow pathways throughout. George explained to us that the artist of the memorial never published an explanation for the design; he wanted the experience of the memorial to be personal and for the viewer to create his or her own meaning. The theory I liked best, and personally experienced, was that the further in you go, the easier it is to lose those around you, and soon, you feel completely alone and blocked off from the outside world—which is exactly what the Jews felt when shipped off to the concentration camps.
George also took us to see the location of Hitler’s death and bunker, which is now a parking lot for high-rise condominiums. George explained that this is Berlin’s sly insult to Hitler, as the area is literally “shit on” by condo owner’s dogs, run over by cars, and stomped all over by residents on a daily basis. We were also taken to the location of the infamous book burning and other war memorials.
While on the tour I saw a girl in the distance that looked a lot like one of my former teammates. But I convinced myself it wasn’t her and continued on with the tour. However, I ran into this girl again at a restaurant after the tour, and it turned out to in fact be my former teammate Lauren! It was an extremely random meeting, but it was so exciting to be re-united with someone who was so influential in my life.
That evening Liana and I went out for drinks at a bar called White Trash with our four Aussie roomies: Joel, Andy, Beth, and Matt. It was a really fun evening until we returned to our hostel room to find the door wide open. As I walked in I saw all of the contents of my bag scattered all over the floor and all of my bedding off of my bed.
My first thought was that someone had stolen some of my belongings. But after quickly realizing all of my valuables were still there, I noticed there was a black baseball hat on the bed and a camera. I turned on the camera to see who it belonged to and realized it was one of the girls on the walking tour. Just as I figured this out I opened the door to see this girl kissing our tour guide George in the hallway!
The black hat belonged to George. With undergarments all over the bed, I realized that George and the other girl had hooked-up in my bed!
Our roommate Joel told the girl off for taking my bed as George ran down the hall in embarrassment. Liana and I could barely hold ourselves back from hysterically crying with laughter. This event became a huge joke in our room and our other roommate Andy kept George’s black hat as a keepsake from the night.
Liana and I spent our last day in Munich at the Schanen Concentration Camp. This was an extremely difficult tour to do, but I strongly believe that every person owes it to humanity to visit at least one camp. The tour was six hours long. My stomach was in knots as we walked through the gates that so many prisoners never had the opportunity to leave. We stood in the area where roll call was done every morning. We entered one of the living barracks where over 300 prisoners were crammed into 3-tear bunks. We walked on the boot path- where many prisoners were forced to march with 80 pound backpacks until they collapsed to their deaths. We viewed Entrance Z, also known as the place of execution. Our tour guide reminded us that the Holocaust was not the first in history, and that these horrible places still exist in today’s world.
While the tour put Liana and I in a really sad mood, I realized how beautiful it was that Germany has owned up to all of their mistakes and taken full responsibility for their actions—something that many other nations in similar situations refuse to do.
That night Liana and I headed off to the train station to catch our 3 a.m. train to Amsterdam!
Panama Pancakes 