Gates and Walls of epic proportions

Alrighty, so one more time we went on a guided bus tour of the city. At this point in the trip they were getting a little old I can't lie... but it really is a good way to see the city and get your bearings. But anyway, we were once again on the good ol' tour bus. I honestly didn't know too much about the history of Berlin before I got there... so you'll have to forgive me if I make this blog a little bit of a history lesson. I learned more about European history from this 5 day trip than I did in all my years of history in school.

So we started off by seeing some of the more famous museums in the city. Most of them are all in a few block radius of each other (super convenient for those of us traveling by foot or bus metro...), but I'll show some pictures of those museums later. The first real place we stopped was a monument called Neue Wache. It is placed in a building that used to be used as a guard tower. In the 1960's it was turned into a monument for victims of fascism and Militarism. Under the statue of a mother an child in an empty room are the ashes of two unknown victims, one from a soldier and another from a World War II concentration camp victim. It's all in a very cold, concrete, empty room with one sky light in the ceiling. Very eery and very powerful.

Our next stop was the Holocaust Monument. It is a mix of different sized blocks of smooth concrete that are placed in a semi-orderly fashion. You can walk among the pillars and the rows match up so that you can just barely see the outside. It's sort of disorienting and I found myself getting nervous if I didn't have sight of other people... it felt like a maze. The effect was perfect for the meaning of the monument.

We then got to go see the Brandenburg gate, and the brick path that dictates where the Berlin wall stood not so long ago. We walked through the gate that for so long separated this great city so violently.

My absolute favorite part of the day was seeing the Eastside gallery. This is a mile long section of the Berlin wall that is still standing. Chunks of the wall have been given to artists to make statements of Peace and reminders of the horrors that occured during this opressive time. This was by far the most powerful thing we saw in my opinion. I actually got to touch a piece of history that affected the lives of most of the people in Germany, and probably a lot of the lives in Europe, and I'd even say changed some perspectives of the world.

Some of my friends wanted to "Reenact" an escape from East Berlin... I think they look pretty sneaky...

This was one of my favorite paintings... so powerful.

This gives you an idea of just how huge these paintings are:

One of the most famous pictures taken at this time... The text below says "My God, help me survive this deadly love." It is the two communist leaders at the time. At a meeting the leaders went in to kiss cheeks as is customary and... well... whoops. A fortunate camera man took the shot at just the right moment, and we now have one of the most famous paintings on the Berlin wall.