Berlin in brief

Phew am I exhausted. But Berlin was great. I arrived Friday night after stopping at the Buchenwald concentration camp on my way from Frankfurt. Buchenwald was very sombering and thought-provoking, as expected. It was quite eerie to see the crematorium and ovens where human bodies were actually burned. What really made a big impact on me, though, was a photo exhibition that they had, because they had, from the US Army archives, a set of 10 or 15 color photos, from just after they liberated the camp. I had never seen any color photos of WWII before, and it really made it a lot more real. Although really, it was impossible to imagine those sorts of things actually happening, even being there, because it was just so inhuman that I think our minds block it out. But I am glad I went (still no apostrophes).

Ok, but on to lighter things. So yeah, I arrived Friday to Berlin, where I met up with my friend Laura and her two friends. It was really nice to have some company, and we had a really great time. We stayed four nights, which is my longest stay in one place, and covered pretty much ever major tourist attraction, which is an amazing accomplishment, because Berlin is enormous. But pretty neat. It's funny (omigoodness I found the apostrophe!), because there are a lot of really awesome buildings, architecturally speaking, but they're not really well organized, and you really have to go running around to see all the cool stuff. But it was well worth it, and since one of Laura's friends had a guidebook, we really got a lot of the historical context, which was super interesting.

Speaking of Laura's friends, haha it was kind of a crazy experience for me, because both of the two other girls were Catalan, and even though we spoke Castellano most of the time, they would talk amongst themselves from time to time in Catalan, and it was really a trip for me to be hearing and speaking both Catalan and Castellano while simultaneouslz being surrounded by German conversations. On top of that, like Amsterdam, everyone in Berlin speaks perfect English, so sometimes I wouldn't notice the German at all and feel just like I was in Spain. Except not.

Haha, no, we were definitely not in Spain, which was made quite clear as we discovered that our daily schedule really didn't coincide with the German clock. Personally, what time I eat or do things doesn't matter so much, and I'm apt to go with whatever the local custom is, if nothing else so I don't miss out on food availibility. But the other three really just couldn't fathom eating dinner at 6:00, and all four nights we basically sat down to eat while everyone else was starting to party for the night. We'd finish up about when the U-Bahn here was filling up with people who had already had way too much to drink, and when we were ready to go out for the evening, well.... let's just say the streets were pretty much dead. But we managed to make it work, so no big deal in the end. I was just amused as to how shocked they were and the fact that it really took all four days to catch onto the German routine.

Ok, so, let's see... any people or places to recount? Well, today, after the other three left to catch their plane, I went over to the Olympic stadium, where I watched to guys sneak down to the field level, jump a fence, sprint to the grass, lay down on their back for half a second, get up, and go sprinting back over two fences up to the visitors area (which was about 3 or 4 normal stories up a flight of stairs). A security officer ran out yelling but only half-heartedly chased them, and I saw them later walking smugly away somewhere else in the stadium.

My favorite place I visited would definitely be the Schloßgarten (finally, something easier to type on a German keyboard), way out west of the city center. We rented bikes one day and headed out there, and it's just an absolutely gorgeous park, very nature-y and whatnot.

Well, I think that's all to report for now. Tonight I board a sleeper train to Sweden, and I'll be in Stockholm by 1:30 p.m. or so on Wednesday. Wowowow this trip is going by quickly! And on top of that, I'm going to be back in the US in nine days!! I can't believe it. It's going to be so weird... spending green money?!?