Berlin 6.20.16 - 6.22.16
i am currently on a tour of prague, berlin, amsterdam, and the hague with 20 students studying global human rights. follow our travels over the next few posts!
|| day 3 ||
Early wake-up call for breakfast and we were checked out of the hotel by 7:45am! Goodbye, Prague!
We are taking a tour bus from Prague to Berlin, which should take about 4 hours. Half way there, we stopped in Dresden. It's such a beautiful small city, with a crazy history. If you don't know about Dresden in WW2, do a quick google search, then come right back here and look at how gorgeously they have rebuilt it.
As a history teacher, and as a lover of architecture and cathedrals, this was an necessary selfie. Dresden Cathedral + statue of Martin Luther in Germany. So much history nerdiness in one photo. LOVE.
We only had about an hour and a half in Dresden, which just like Prague, we all agreed was too short. Though fortunately, we were able to grab a bite to eat. I made sure to get my first authentic German meal. Duck, red cabbage, and some type of potato thing that I know I'll never eat again anywhere else in this world. It. Was. Amazing.
Back to the bus for another 2 hours until Berlin! Most of us slept, which is unfortunate, because apparently we were on the autobahn, which is always an experience one must look out the window during!
Rolling into Berlin, you can immediately tell it is completely different than Prague. So fast paced, so many people, and so much more graffiti. Prague was a quaint, old city. Berlin, while old and laced with so much history, still has this feeling of new: technology, architecture, fashion...
We had a quick stop at our hotel to drop our bags, and then out to explore! One of our tour directors, Alec, took us on a walking tour of a few of Berlin's highlights before we were to have an early dinner.
Some of the walking tour's highlights:
After the short 1-hour walking tour, we had dinner...in a mall. It went exactly as you could have imagined. Cafeteria trays and all. We were not super thrilled with it.
Post-sub-par dinner, we had an hour of free time before a really special event. In that hour, I took a few students over to T.K.maxx. They really wanted to see if it was just like T.J.maxx back at home and do some shopping. Guess what? It is exactly like T.J.maxx back at home.
The special event that was planned for us was a panel discussion with people that grew up in East Germany, West Germany, and a U.S. CIA agent that was undercover towards the end of the Cold War.
Students gathered to hear stories of what Germany was like during the Cold War. Truly fascinating stories from both sides of the border.
And that wraps up day 1 in Berlin, day 3 of the tour! Gute nacht!
|| day 4 ||
Today. Was. Incredible.
Truly.
I probably should just make today its own blog post, but I'm too OCD and want to keep each city in order, in its own post. Ugh.
So what made today my favorite day of the entire tour? First, I'm a history teacher. Today was laced with history. But not boring documentary history. History that teaches us, as a human race, how we have treated one another, how we have suffered, and how we have endured. I had several moments today where I got teary-eyed, like the overly-emotional dork that I am. But I'm okay with it.
Today started with a great continental breakfast at the hotel. I still like Prague's food better, but it was a huge buffet of food, and the waitresses were happy to fill my water bottle with ice - something that is weirdly hard to come by in Europe. I actually overslept a little bit, so it was a quick 3 minute stuff-my-face-really-fast breakfast, get some ice, and run downstairs to meet the kids.
Our morning on the tour bus began with a guided tour of Berlin. We got to hop on-and-off the bus, which was great. Our tour guide, Ulli, was one of the very best tour guides I've ever had in any city on this earth. I mean it. She was young, knowledgable, funny, and engaging for the teenagers, who I'm pretty sure half of them are still jet-lagged at 9am.
Ulli had the tour bus take us all around Berlin, and see some amazing architecture AND ... the wall! Here are some pictures of all we saw with Ulli as our guide...
Part of the Berlin Wall. It's too impossible to get more of it in one picture. It's tall and amazing and a harsh reminder of the division the people of Germany experienced for far too long.
The Spree River - to the left is West Berlin, free and beautiful - and to the right is East Berlin, currently free, but still has so many visible reminders of life under the Soviets.
The four chaperones from our school. 2 teachers, 1 police officer husband, and 1 mom of a chaperone. :) In front of the Konzerthall Berlin.
An old government building - now a museum - that has yet to be renovated since World War 2. These are bullet holes from Soviets and Germans fighting at the end of the war.
Germany's Parliament building. The glass dome at the top is a new addition, and allows the people to look directly into the Parliament's chamber below. It is symbolic that in Germany, the people are now above the government.
Anywhere in Berlin where you see the double-lined stones, is a symbol of where the Berlin Wall once stood.
The Brandenburg Gate. Home of Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, and Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" speech. Amongst many other historical events... :)
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
Checkpoint Charlie
It was here that we said goodbye to Ulli. I seriously miss her, and wish she could have taken us all around Berlin for days and days.
We were allowed some free time around Checkpoint Charlie to grab some lunch and do some souvenir shopping. I bought so much stuff for my classroom. In the US, any history posters you find in stores are all very patriotic, or of World War 2. I want the nitty-gritty of history though. I want raw and real. I found some posters from East Berlin that were amazing, lots of post-cards that I'll hang around the room, and little trinkets to put on my desk or give as gifts to family.
Our group gathered back up, and walked a couple of blocks over to the Topography of Terror Museum. Super fascinating museum about the what the Nazis, and then the Soviets inflicted on the people of Germany - from Jews to Poles to Gypsies to Homosexuals. Very somber and eye-opening. To teach those subjects is one thing. But to be in the city of Berlin, reading stories and looking at pictures first-hand is on a whole other level of appreciating history and what the human race can endure.
It was at the Topography of Terror that I had a moment I wish I could freeze in time. About half way through the Holocaust exhibit, a student walked up to me and asked me a question. I don't even remember what the question was, because about 30 more questions rose up after that. Several more students gathered around, where we huddled around a map of Europe and I got to teach an impromptu lesson on World War 2 to teenagers. Unless you're an educator, I don't know if you can possibly understand why this makes my heart burst with happiness. So let me break it down:
These kids. Nominated by their teachers as "leaders," coming on this trip of a lifetime to learn about Global Human Rights. And each of them made sure to have an open-mind and open-heart. I get choked up again just thinking about this moment with them.
This subject matter. The holocaust was one of the most devastating events in human history. World War 2 was one of the deadliest wars in human history. Discussing the cruelty of mankind's ancestors with the future of humanity is something that you hope they walk away and say "never again."
This moment. I am so incredibly fortunate to be doing what I love. I know a lot of people that got their degree in education, and can't find a teaching job. But me? I've worked in 3 school districts, in 3 states. Each time, getting the opportunity to teach the subject I love: United States History. So to teach (outside of a classroom setting), to students that are actually listening to every single word I say and asking questions like their brains just need more knowledge, in a museum in a city that a lot of this history went down in...well, I just got teary eyed reminiscing about this moment all over again.
Thankfully, my mom captured this moment on her phone. I want to frame this photo. Future leaders of the world, and I had the honor of teaching them in this moment.
Heart status: happy.
Our day didn't end here! Surprisingly, this is only about 2pm. More to see and do in this epic of all epic days...
We stopped at the Jewish Museum, which I didn't take pictures in, but it was amazingly cool. The architecture of the museum is a piece in itself. If you're ever in Berlin, put this towards the top of your list and thank me later.
The Jewish Museum had a little courtyard, so after we took an hour guided tour, we sat down with all the other tour groups from our district, and our tour director, Vanessa. Vanessa told us about her experience working in a refugee camp this past year. It was heartbreaking and eye-opening to hear her stories, and realize that the issues of the past in Europe are happening again in the Middle East. The students had a lot of questions, and really took everything she said to heart. We are so fortunate to have a tour director that has a personal connection to our theme of global human rights. She makes sure that each day the students truly understand why everything they are seeing is so important. Love her.
Off to dinner finally. We had falafels. It was weird. We all expected a German meal again. I think we've learned after tonight to not expect to be eating native food of the city we're in. Just expect to be surprised!
Good night to my favorite day of this trip. I wish I could relive it at least one more time, to catch any small details I might have missed. From now on, I promise to soak up every single millisecond!
|| day 5 ||
FINALLY a morning we got to sleep in a little bit! We didn't have to be ready to go until 9:45 today. It was heaven to sleep in a little bit and take our time getting ready.
I wish the rest of the day could have continued on that path of amazingness...unfortunately, it did not.
First stop: a street art class. It was SO FUN, and everyone made some really cool things:
However, the street art walking tour after the class is a whole other story...I can't write it all, because I would be doing the reality of the situation a disservice. You needed to hear our tour guide's voice, see his mannerisms, and be in that moment with him where he was essentially encouraging our students to become criminals and damage private property. He told us how to break into buildings and homes, and his parting words to us were "Now go pick up a spray can, and find a building to put your name on!"
Yeah, it was bad.
Some students defended him, saying that he was just an artist, and graffiti was just his artistic expression. But most students saw right through him. One student in particular even stated "Guys, you're trying to blur the line by claiming artistic expression, but that has nothing to do with this. It's someone damaging property that isn't theirs. He's a criminal. Simple as that." (actual quote that I caught on camera)
Typing all of this, it doesn't sound like it was that bad - but please believe me when I say that this man was nothing but rude, disrespectful to the chaperones (he knew that one of us was a police officer and two of us were teachers), condescending, and encouraging of teenagers to engage in criminal activity (oh, he was from New York by the way, so it's not like it was some random German dude saying all this - this guy was from the states and just wanted to bash all hard-working people from back home.)
Okay, I can't talk about it anymore because I'm getting heated just writing this all down, and I know that no one outside of our group of kids and chaperones will truly be able to understand just how much of a d-bag this dude was.
The positive that came out of it was that we had a wonderful talk with students after the dude left. We talked for probably an hour about everything that happened, and how each of us felt listening to him talk about "art"/destruction of property/criminal behavior. I think the kids were really receptive to listening to what we had to say about what it's like to be a victim of that type of behavior, and how violating someone's person or property is a truly awful thing that can happen (hello, global human rights tour!)
After lunch at a food truck stop, we visited the Stasi Headquarters Museum to learn how the Soviet police would spy on people in East Berlin. The topic was really fascinating - all students agreed on that part - but there was no air conditioning and no where to sit in these small cramped rooms with the tour guide. So after walking around in the 80 degree heat with a d-bag criminal for an hour, the last thing we really wanted to do was stand for another hour in a cramped, humid museum where we had to climb 4 flights of stairs...did I mention there was no A/C? Fascination in the topic had dissipated.
Dinner was in a non-air conditioned restaurant with rude waiters. On the menu was a hot stew, which didn't help the situation of being covered in sweat all day long.
After dinner, we had a special event planned for us. We were going to visit a refugee camp. Or so we were told.
What it ended up being was a walking tour of some Berlin highlights we've already seen (Checkpoint Charlie and Topography of Terror to name a couple), by a Syrian refugee, who compared some of what the Jews in Europe experienced to what Syrians are experiencing today.
His stories were incredible, and we learned so much about the Syrian Civil War going on right now. Our eyes were definitely opened to what refugees have to endure.
However, again, we were tired, we were told it would be something different, we were in the heat, on our feet...cue exhausted and crabby teenagers.
Part of me feels so guilty for complaining after hearing what this man had to go through to flee to safety. But the other part of me says "I'm too agitated, frustrated, and HOT to be able to appreciate this moment. Can I go home?"
I think everyone took cold showers that night and passed out.
Berlin has been a mixture of things. If I could break it down, it would be: day 3 was beautiful sights and photo-ops, day 4 was so special and meaningful, day 5 was mostly a let-down. A hot, sweaty, frizzy-hair let-down.
Tomorrow: On to Amsterdam and The Hague!
xo, jaclyn
