Numerous bad request headers. I'll share an album on Facebook and link it when it becomes available. I had some initial thoughts of Berlin typed up, so I'll just mirror them here. I don't think photo-taking was very necessary for Berlin though. The entire experience was very saddening.
1 - Berlin Wall. I watched many videos and listened to audio clips depicting the issue with this divide between East and West. Since the borders between East and West were put up in a matter of hours in 1959, tens of thousands of families were split down the middle. It didn't matter who they were. All of Germany was split. Half of it stayed within the Iron Curtain, half of it in the West. The families and friends would not be reunited until 1989 when the wall fell down.
2 - Jewish Memorial. What's there to say? This was a chilling experience. This was a very simple memorial dedicated to the six million Jews murdered and massacred in the genocide of the 2nd World War. There were no signs, no descriptions, not a single hint of what the memorial was about. Perhaps this is a better way to think about it. Rather than feed us information, it forces us to reflect and try to remember what actually happened. We ought to think about our human capability for destruction so we don't make the same kinds of mistakes again. The memorial itself consists of numerous concrete blocks which grow drastically taller as you walk towards the centre of the square. Since these blocks begin to get taller than you (1.7m) around 1/3 of the way in, it becomes increasingly windy because it all gets channeled at you. Being inside the memorial felt extremely uneasy. It was as if the blocks were closing in on me. Add to the fact that it was rainy, cold AND windy, I caught a minor glimpse of what the sentiments were for the Jews at the time.
3 - Soviet Memorial for the fallen soldiers in the Eastern Front.
This reminded me a lot of the movies we had to watch in Socials 10 and 11. Although I did not really feel too much for the Soviet Union by observing the memorial itself, there was certainly a good history lesson in the little museum which hid behind the memorial.
So you can see - my trip to Berlin was mostly about the war. There was some minor lapses and dips into sausages and alcohol, but that was about it. In particular, Berliner Weiße was absolutely delicious. Also had some liver sausages and blood sausages. Kind of icky to be honest, but I should have expected it since it -WAS- internals that I had.
Country count was upped by two since my stop took me to Riga. :D
Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=560314&id=727335006&l=00c1a639c4
Country count: Iceland, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Russia(next up!!)
honestly. layover countries don't count. i never counted japan until i actually visited tokyo, and you don't actually get to see the country, so how does that even count???
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