Halo! (that's hello in German)
I have officially begun my month of backpacking through Europe. After all of the worrying over what to pack and where to go, I'm finally here! No turning back!
I arrived in Berlin on Friday afternoon and after settling in, I went around town and saw the Jewish historical museum and checkpoint Charlie. They both were great. The museum talked about the lives of Jews and the prejudices they have been living with since the middle ages. All those stereotypes of Jews not being as athletic and favoring being doctors and saving/managing money make sense now! Jews used to not be allowed to be craftsmen or athletes. Since the middle ages they've been restricted. Plus, it was illegal for Christians to lend money, but not for Jews, so they would become bankers quite often. Just the beginning of being bankers, doctors, and lawyers. Additionally, Jews had higher taxes, and were sometimes even given a body tax, normally only used on cattle. This encouraged Jews to hide their money. See, it all makes sense now!
Checkpoint Charlie is the last 'remaining' checkpoint from the Berlin wall. Since it is entirely a reconstruction, I gave it air-quotes. Even though the history of the Berlin wall is very recent, even in my lifetime (only by a few months), I knew very little about it. I thought it was a wall the simply went north-south to separate the 2 sides of town. Little did I know, it was actually a wall that encircled west Berlin. It did this because west Berlin was an island completely surrounded by the eastern powers. The east built the wall because people were trying to escape from the east and to do that they either needed to flee all the way to west Germany and cross the iron curtain, or just walk into west Berlin. I'm sure you guessed the latter was easier. So, the soviets decided to construct a wall to encircle west Berlin to stop this. On August 13, 1961 at 1 am soldiers surrounded west Berlin and did not allow anyone to leave or enter the city. People worked and went to school and dated people on the other side of the city, but after 1 am on August 13, 1961, they would not be allowed to see one another for 28 years...
Also, checkpoint Charlie was very important because the Americans ran the west side of the checkpoint and the soviets the east. This meant that during the cold war, the 2 opposing powers would be within yards of one another. One day, tension was especially high and the 2 powers brought out tanks and all the firepower imaginable. There was a standoff for 17 hours, as each side was ordered to not open fire until the other side did. After 17 hours, a negotiation was reached. Not a single shot was fired, but I'm sure if one had been, WW3 would have ensued.
My other favorite part of Berlin was the Reichstag or parliament building. This building was completely ruined in WW2, as many buildings were. Some were lucky and only have bullet holes, while the Reichstag needed to be completely reconstructed. The amazing part is how environmentally friendly it is now! The concept of the building is the same as before: old stone exterior with a glass dome ceiling, BUT the dome now is used to help power the building. There are over 300 solar panels and the dome has 1000 mirrors which reflect the sunlight into the parliament chambers. To reduce glare, they have a huge steel blind that circles the dome, parallel to the sun. Plus, at the top of the dome, there is an oculus which is completely open so there isn't stale air in the dome. How cool is that?! Over 1,200 tons of steel comprise this dome! Oh and best part: it's free. Yup, excellent start to my second day backpacking.
Also while on my trip, I went on a guided tour. It was fantastic and taught me so much about Berlin and germany's history. If you wanna know more, just flip through my facebook photos, I tend to include all of the historical info for each photo.
Now I know in the past I have tried new food on each trip. This time I did not, I just made my own meals, but I am going to Munich in a week and am going to have bratwurst and goulash and plenty of beer. Beer gardens here I come!
Next I am off to Prague. My grandpa on my mom's side is from Czechoslovakia, so it will be interesting to see some of his history. Wish me good luck!
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