Berlin!

Hey Everyone,

I'm sorry it took me so long to post, things have been crazy, and it took me a long time to sort through all the pictures from Berlin! I was talking with my roommate last Thursday night, and we decided we would love to take a weekend trip to Berlin. My roommate has a friend who lives in Berlin, so we made plans to see her. It took about 6 hours to get there, but it was worth it! Berlin is such a beautiful and interesting place! The first night we were tired, so we just checked into a hostel and went to sleep. 

In the morning, we met my roommate's friend for brunch, and then we went out and walked all over the city. We started by searching for Komischer Oper, one of the three major opera houses in Berlin, and we bought tickets to see Rigoletto that evening. When we left the building, we noticed that there were green manikins all over the place wearing old-fashioned clothes. We followed the signs that they were holding, and we discovered a store that sells old opera costumes and set pieces! It was such a wonderful store, it was 3 stories high and filled floor to ceiling with beautiful paintings, furniture, costumes, and more. 

After the opera shop we went to Gendarmenmarkt where we saw the Französicher Dom, the Deutscher Dom and the Konzerthaus Berlin. They are all incredibly beautiful, and in the center of the area is a lovely white fountain (you can see all of these in my pictures but I put in some wikipedia links if you'd like to learn more!) While we continued to walk, we stumbled across a small "fashion monument" erected temporarily outside of the tents that were set up for the Mercedes Benz Berlin fashion week. It was going on that weekend and we had no idea! I wish we could have seen it ourselves, but we did take pictures of the monument! 

We also went to the Berliner Dom, which was my favorite building- it is so breathtaking. You can see the charring on parts of the Dom due to bombings during the world wars, but the cathedral is intact. Inside we found out that concerts are held in the Dom frequently, as well as tours. Right next to the Dom was the Museuminsel, also known as the Museum Island. There are five large museums of art and history in one area in Berlin. I wanted to go inside and look around but unfortunately we only went for the weekend, so I'll have to go back to see them again! 

After sightseeing all day, my roommate and I changed our clothes and went to Rigoletto with my roommate's friend and her brother-in-law. We had a wonderful time, and afterwards went out for some food and drinks. The next morning, we went back to my roommate's friend's apartment for some breakfast, and then set out for more sightseeing with her brother-in-law. He showed us the large tower in Berlin. We went to the top and took lots of pictures of the city. Many large cities in Germany have similar tall towers that are popular tourist attractions. After the tower we went to see Nikolaikirche, the oldest church in Berlin. It was built between 1220 and 1230, and it was incredible. I love seeing buildings that have that much history, there aren't any buildings that old in the United States!

My roommate's friend and her husband met up with us that afternoon for more sightseeing. We all went together to see the Brandenburger Tor- it was so incredible. There were tons of people, including a variety of actors dressed up as everything from soldiers from different wars to chickens and gorillas, trying to have people pay to take pictures with them. They were very entertaining! Just behind the Tor was a marking of the old location of the Berlin Wall. Beyond this were some older and some modern, rebuilt government buildings- the home of the Chancellor, the building of the Parliament, and others. They were very beautiful. We also saw the Holocaust Memorial in Friedrichstadt. It consisted of many concrete slabs of various sizes, with small walkways in between. The architect designed the memorial in this way so that people viewing the memorial might feel the same feelings of instability and entrapment that Jews felt during the Holocaust. 

Finally, the trip had to come to an end, and my roommate and I returned home. We had such an amazing time! It was a wonderful experience, and I can't wait to go back again! Things have settled down back in Mannheim, though. I managed to get a residence permit, and I'm slowly figuring out how to find everything that I need. Every day is like a new adventure here :). I'm almost finished with my German course already! My exam is this week, and I'm starting to prepare for it. I'm excited for this class to end and for my university courses to begin! 

I'll post again soon about the trips I made this week to Speyer and Frankfurt! I love and miss you all so much!

-Bekah