an afternoon with Hitler

On Monday, I felt sufficiently relaxed and rested that I decided to start being a tourist. I'd paid a whirlwind four-day visit to Rhea in Berlin two years ago, where I saw a few of the sights, but to get a more in-depth view of the city I decided to do a couple of walking tours.

Helen, who I had met during orientation for the English camps (she was one of the instructors) was also in Berlin with her father so we decided to meet up and do the Third Reich tour of Berlin - Nazi Germany. The tour was run by Jared, a very enthusiastic and very knowledgeable American guide and there must have been about 30 of us at least on the tour.

Jarred took us by foot and bus to a lot of the major sites of Nazi Germany history, starting with the bombed-out Memorial Church, which was damaged in an air raid during World War II. The church was not restored and the remains of the church serve as one of many World War II memorials.

We then boarded a bus to East Berlin, where the battle of Berlin took place and saw bullet holes in buildings and learnt about the events that took place during the final battle of the war.

We visited the site of the Air Defence Ministry, where the Lufftwathe co-ordinated the Battle of Britain and Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry, buildings which are still used today for various governmental purposes. It was a strange feeling to stand in front of these buildings which once served a very different purpose, and seeing people going in and out, carrying out their everyday business in these sites which played such a huge part in history.

Possibly the most chilling part of the tour was the 'Topography of Terror', a street where Himmler's SS and Getapo headquarters were located. 

Berlin history three-fold - in the back, an example of a typical building erected during Hitler's rule. He wanted all buildings to be uniform and plain, intimidating, imposing. Few of these buildings survived WWII. In the middle, a one of the longest remaining sections of the Berlin Wall. In front, the foundations of the SS and Gestapo headquarters.

An outdoor and indoor museum, the Topography of Terror focuses on the cellars of these buildings, as the buildings themselves were demolished during the war. The tiled cellar of the Gestapo building, where many political prisoners were tourtured and executed,is a sobering site, and the exhibitions which run the length of the Topography of Terror give context to these buildings and provide a very brief overview of the history of Nazi Germany.

Indoors, the information is much more detailed, walking you through the events of Third Reich rule chronologically, and broken down into sections about before Hitler's rule, the formation of the SS and Gestapo, political prisoners, concentration camps and the events of World War II. One could spend hours in there, and as we only had 20 minutes, I came back the next day on my own for a more in-depth look.

We also visited a number of memorials, the most sobering being the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a 4.7 acre site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs of varying height arranged in a grid pattern on an undulating field, somewhat resembling a graveyard.

(Pic from Wikipedia)

Tthe grandest was one of the three the Soviet memorials, which was erected only months after the capture of Berlin. It is flanked by tanks and features a huge statue of a Soviet soldier atop a curved wall. It's also a burial site of around 2,000 fallen Soviet soldiers.

(Pic from Wikipedia)

We visited the site where Operation Valkyrie came to an end after a botched assassination attempt on Hitler, and spent some time at the exact location of the bunker where Hitler spent his final days and committed suicide, and learned an in-depth account of the last few days of his life.

The tour finished in front of the Reichstag, the site of the Reichstag fire in 1933, which was a turning point in the establishment of Nazi Germany as it was used as evidence by Nazis that the Communists were plotting against the German government. The president at the time, at the urging of Hitler (who had just been sworn in as chancellor), instituted mass arrests of Communists, including all of the Communist parliamentary delegates. With their bitter rival Communists gone and their seats empty, the National Socialist German Workers Party went from being the minority tomthe majority and thus allowed Hitler to consolidate his power.

The building was essentially destroyed during the Cold War, but was reconstructed in the 1990s afger the German reunification and was officially reopened in 1999. It again houses the German government (Bundstag).

The tour was so interesting, and it made me wish I'd paid more attention in History at school. It's amazing to see so many memorials and monuments pointing to World War II, it seems that Germany is determined not to forget the atrocities that were committed during the war. The Jewish memorial is right next to the Reichstag, serving as a warning to all the politicians who travel past it each day the consequences of abusing power.

a quick border-hop

On Saturday, we decided to venture further afield, across the border to Poland. For no other reason than just to check it out, see how different it was, add another country to the list. Rhea had never been to Poland, despite living in Berlin for three-ish years, so we hopped in the car and made a little road trip.

It took about two hours and then once we hit the border, EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT. Well no, not really, in fact we weren't even sure that we had crossed the border until we came across a big shopping centre / market with Polish signs. We carried on through a couple of tiny villages, they were so quaint and old-fashioned, with steep roofs and peeling paint.

We decided to buy some food at a local supermarket and have a picnic, and boy, was it cheap! It cost the equivalent of €9 to feed the three of us. On our way back to Berlin we stopped at a nature reserve, a huge wetlands which was lush and green and supposedly housed hundreds of species of birds and other creatures. We climbed a lookout tower and it was hard not to instead see a likely spot that thousands of Polish and German soldiers would have trudged through during World War Two.

Our favourite street sign on our wee road trip

After our lakeside picnic, we headed back to the apartment and chilled out with some beers and hilly competitive table tennis at the local park.

The next day, after having a delicious brunch with Rhea's friends Tracey and Steve, we headed to one of the biggest parks in Berlin (I think) to experience what has apparently become a Sunday afternoon institution - karaoke in the park.

Apparently it's been running for many years, and every Sunday afternoon, a thousand or so spectators gather to witness the good, the bad and the downright terrible, all in the name of an afternoon's entertainment.

Rhea had mentioned the karaoke in passing a few times when we'd caught up by email or Skype over the years, but I had always assumed these were talented singers and it was enjoyable because the singing was so good - but the exact reverse is true. There were a couple of really good singers, but for the most part, they were terrible - but they didn't seem to care and neither did the crowd, who would join in and sing along if the person holding the mic needed a lift.

After an hour or so of entertainment, we wandered the huge array of markets in the park, and past many families and groups of friends who were enjoying the afternoon sunshine with barbecues and beers.

change of pace in berlin

If someone had told me before I left New Zealand that the most relaxing part of my trip would be a 10-day visit to Berlin, I would have thought they were crazy, but that's exactly what my trip to Berlin was!

After spending nearly two months with essentially strangers (all very nice strangers, and ones who didn't stay strangers for long, but still) it was something of a relief to visit an old friend from New Zealand (well, she's not from New Zealand but I met her in NZ... Anyway...)

I'd decided a month or so earlier to make this trip of a couple of reasons - 1. Rhea is a great friend who I hadn't seen in nearly two years and 2. After spending the previous two months travelling every week or two weeks to a different place with a different host family, different colleagues and different students, I was pretty much exhausted. I loved the idea of being able to relax, sleep in, chill out, watch TV in English, and spend some quality time with great friend Rhea (and Anke).

I was greeted warmly at the airport by Anke which I really appreciated, to be honest I had always taken airport greetings for granted until recently, as a lot of my previous travel was to visit friends or family. After walking through arrivals gate after arrivals gate after arrivals gate with no one to greet me, it was so good to see a friendly face!

Having a beer on the balcony on my first night in Berlin

Rhea had made sure to stock the kitchen with Jo-friendly foods (CHICKEN HOW I MISSED YOU!!). We may have eaten chicken every night (sorry guys) and I was also super stoked with the English muffins and eggs which I made for breakfast every day.... It's the little things! Breakfast in Italy was always sweet, with biscuits and cakes on the breakfast table every day. Don't get me wrong, it was great but it was good to have something savoury.

I loved the food in Italy, but after nearly two months it was great to take a temporary break from pasta.

The next three days were spent sleeping late, watching TV (Orange is the New Black - great show) and just generally chilling out with Rhea and Anke and it was bliss! On my third day, I ventured out of the apartment with Rhea (she took the day off work) and we went for a bike ride / shopping / cheesecake hunting, tapas for dinner (very un-German but very, very good). I was still in chill-out mode for sure.

Photobooth fun in Berlin

como and clooney part two

For my second full day in Como, I again treated myself to a sleep in and relaxing morning, before making the hike into the town. This time, I took the scenic route, through the main part of the park and it was just a beautiful hour-long walk through dense bush, which was great as it kept me cool, for a while at least.

Today, I'd decided to check out one of the towns in the hills around Como, to get a fantastic panoramic view of the lake, and just check out a smaller town as opposed to the bustling, tourist-filled city.

The tiny town of Brunate is accessible by funicular (cable car), so I decided to take a ride roughly 1.4 kilometres up the steep hill to check out Brunate.

The view of the lake from the front of the funicular

Once at the top, I spent a few hours checking out the beautiful views and enjoying the sleepy little town, talking to a couple of locals, one of whom pointed out George Clooney's house to me in the distance, as well as another huge villa where some scenes from Ocean's 11 were filmed - it seemed like many of the locals are proud of their town's brush with celebrity. The same man also pointed out where Italy ends and Switzerland begins - so crazy to see another country so close!

The view of Lake Como from Brunate, George Clooney's house is somewhere in the distance and the Alps in the background is where Switzerland begins