Highlights from the Berlin Weekend

Okay, so now that I've told my scary story about Berlin, I'm back to recap some highlights of the trip.  All in all, it was a good weekend, and there were a lot of cool moments.

Me and Ninni at Schloss Charlottenburg

Meeting new people!  I had the chance to get to know some of the international students whom I hadn't talked to before.  Ninni (from Finland) and I talked a lot, and I learned that she is 10 years older than me and is engaged.  She and her fiancé are hoping to get married once they finish school.  For a long time she has worked as a waitress, and she has a gluten allergy, so both of those things prompted her to be a nutrition and food technology major.  I also spent some time with Sergei and Olga, from Russia, and of course Fanni and Rita from Hungary.  It's so fun to compare cultures and talk about the similarities and differences.

Another God moment . . . When we were at the pizzeria on Friday night, the tutors "surprised" us by ordering a shot of some kind of sweet Italian liqueur for every person.  We then proceeded to do a toast.  I took a teeny-tiny sip, just enough that I couldn't be accused of not participating in the toast, and was surprised to find that it didn't taste alcoholic.  It was more like a Shirley Temple kind of flavor.  To be honest, it tasted good enough that I could have finished the shot.  But when I looked around the room at everybody else, most of whom had already ordered drinks and were getting loud and obnoxious (and accidentally breaking glasses!), a verse came into my head: "Wine is a mocker, and strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise."  It's Proverbs 20:1, but at the time I couldn't remember the reference.  All I knew was that I was seeing that verse played out very clearly in front of me, and I knew that even though I could choose to drink, it wouldn't be wise to.  In the middle of all the  chaos in the room, I suddenly understood how true God's Word is, and why it is given to us: to make us wise and protect us.  So when somebody else asked if they could finish my first shot, I said, "Sure, go ahead," and when they ordered another round of shots for everybody, I didn't even take one.  In retrospect, it was a really cool moment because God's Word came alive for me, and I can see how it gave me strength to do the right thing.  Later on that evening, I went down to the bar at the hostel with Ninni and hung out for a while, but I didn't order anything, and I have to say it was really weird to even be in that kind of environment.  People act so ridiculous and so awful when they're drunk.  I was glad that I got to talk to Ninni, Sergei, and Olga, because they were at least mostly sober, and I was super glad when all the crazies finally left for the club and took their chaos with them!


Generator Hostel.  Yeah, it was annoying that it was on the opposite side of the city from the bus station, but I have to say the decor was cool.  It had kind of a funky industrial look with lots of neon.  The bar was in a round glass room with a round counter in the middle, and both it and the breakfast area had green, yellow, and blue neon lights on the lower part of the walls.  The rooms had metal and neon wall paint, and there was a big white bear sculpture in the lobby (the bear is a classic symbol of Berlin).  It was so "college student"!

Brandenburg Gate, an iconic symbol of Berlin

Walking tour!  It was definitely chilly--especially the first hour--but I really did enjoy it.  Sophie, our tour guide, made it great.  (She wore a red beret and had a Welsh accent--what's not to like about that?) My favorite things were the Holocaust memorial (it's fun and even playful, yet haunting at the same time), the Berlin Wall (it's barely 6 inches thick, and yet it divided a city for 27 years!), the Gendarmenmarkt (it has two matching domed buildings, one German and one French, with the Berlin Konzerthaus in between, and the sun came out, which made it extra pretty!), and the Bebelplatz (where the famous book-burning took place in 1933 under the Nazi regime).

Me at Holocaust Memorial

At Gendarmenmarkt (that's Sophie, our awesome tour guide, in the red hat)

Gendarmenmarkt

Bebelplatz, site of book burning in 1933

Our walking tour group in the Bebelplatz

Construction...ick!

A not-so-cool feature.  Unter den Linden, the main tourist drag that runs east from the Brandenburg Gate past Bebelplatz to the Berliner Dom church, is SO touristy.  There are sightseeing buses and those rent-it-yourself bike-wagon thingies everywhere.  And there must seriously be fifty construction projects happening at once--renovation of the Opera House at Bebelplatz and a couple of other landmarks plus street work--so there was no end of barricades and dead ends.  It was like Hollywood Boulevard under construction on a Saturday afternoon.  I tried to walk around that area, but after being denied access to both the Berliner Dom and another really cool-looking church that is currently closed for repairs, I gave up and got out of there ASAP!

Reichstag Building.  Aside from having to take my entire wardrobe apart at the security check beforehand, this really was a neat tour.  The exterior of the building is old but the inside is modern.  It is the longtime seat of the Bundestag, the current German parliament established after WWII.  My favorite parts were the monument to all the members of parliament who have served over the last century, the underground tunnel to the adjoining building called the Paul Löbe Haus (both the tunnel and the building itself had awesome modern architecture, and the building was right on the river Spree), and the viewing dome on the roof (the sun was out at this point, and as it went down we had great 360-degree views of the whole city!).  It was also interesting to hear our tour guide talk about the various political parties of the Bundestag and what they stand for.

Our group outside Reichstag Building

Inside the tunnel to Paul Löbe Building

Monument to all Bundestag members

RAD cafeteria for the politicians in Löbe Building!

Architecture in Löbe Building

View of the River Spree from Löbe Building 

Parliament meeting room

Viewing dome of Reichstag

Brandenburg Gate from viewing dome

View of eastern Berlin

Some of the international students looking out the oculus at the top of the viewing dome

The sun came out at the end of the day!!!

Giant mirror in the viewing dome

A CLASSIC story!  Sophie, our tour guide, told us a great story about the TV Tower, the iconic symbol of Berlin.  It was built in the 1960s by Walter Ulbricht, the then-leader of East Germany.  Ulbricht was a staunch socialist who had even gone so far as to remove all the crucifixes from the churches in East Berlin in order to show the power of socialism over belief in God.  He intended the tower to be a symbol of the East German socialist government, and he built it very tall, so it could be clearly seen from West Berlin.  The ball on top was designed of stainless steel with rows of metal tiles on it, like a disco ball.  Well, when the tower was finished and the sun came out, it shone on the metal tiles and made an enormous glare in the shape of--guess what?--a cross!  Ulbricht was furious.  He ordered the cross to be covered up.  They tried everything from paint to horse droppings, but nothing worked.  So Ulbricht had to live with it.  And to this day, you can still see the cross when the sun comes out!  I saw it myself, and I was cracking up at God's sense of humor!!!



Schloss Charlottenburg!  This was really, really neat.  It was the former summer palace of several important Prussian rulers, including Frederick the Great.  The first inhabitant was Sophie Charlotte, queen of Prussia in the late 1600s.  After she died, her husband Frederick William named the palace after her.  A lot of it was damaged in the bombings during WWII, and entire sections have been rebuilt. Not all the original furnishings survive, but what is still there is amazing--so ornate and elaborate.  Sophie Charlotte collected porcelain pieces, and her husband and future generations continued the pastime.  So the place is full of Chinese porcelain that belonged to Sophie Charlotte and Frederick William, as well as Meissen porcelain (the famous stuff from Dresden).  It was sooooo cool!  I took so long on the audio tour that everybody else had already left by the time I finished!  Only Ninni stayed behind and collected my coat and backpack for me . . . what a good friend.  :)

Porcelain room, where Frederick William displayed thousands of pieces of Chinese porcelain after his wife's death.  Amazing!!!

Frederick the Great's table silver.  Imagine being invited to one of his dinners!

The spoon was a foot long. . .

Our group outside the palace . . . I'm third from right.

Gemäldegalerie!!!  This is one of the Berlin city museums, and it has all the old art works.  I saw stuff by both Bruegels, both Holbeins, both Cranachs, van Eyck, van Dyck, van der Goes, van der Weyden, Dürer, Rembrandt, Hals, Vermeer (!!), Gainesborough, Rubens, Botticelli, Raphael, Giotto . . . it was AWESOME.  I was surprised and excited to see Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs and Baglione's Sacred Love Conquering Profane Love, neither of which I realized were in that collection.  I also learned that despite all those soft, playful paintings he is known for, Rubens did have a dark side--he did a number of moody, bleak landscapes, one of which contained an image of a gallows.  Very Romantic, not so Baroque.  And I discovered a couple of new paintings which I hadn't seen before but which I fell in love with.

Above: Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs.  Below: Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Necklace and Baglione's Sacred Love Conquering Profane Love.

Guess I'm going back.  I didn't have time to visit the Pergamonmuseum while I was there, so I'll have to do at least one more day in Berlin sometime soon.  Thinking I'll wait till winter is over--maybe the weather will be better, and I can go hear a concert in the Gendarmenmarkt while I'm there.  At any rate, I'll be sure to allow more time for the trains in the future!  So Berlin, you and I aren't done yet . . .

And of course you've already heard my harrowing missed-the-bus story, so I guess that's all for now.  It was a really cool weekend.  Mom and Dad, when I come home, don't forget to ask more about it.  I could go on for a while about the architecture and famous paintings!

A few more pictures:

Berliner Dom, the most famous church in Berlin

Berlin Wall (I went back at night to take pictures)

Brandenburg Gate at sunset