Berlin

We took a bus from Hamburg to Berlin. Our apartment was in what used to be East Berlin. I soon learned that the buildings in East Berlin were much less fancy than the ones in the west. They had less money and technology so they were unable to keep up with what was very modern. They are often made of concrete and do not have many balconies and are mostly like giant cubes and bricks. Dad and I walked to a market to get dinner and we went to bed early.

The next day dad and I went to see a movie and mom stayed home to work.

Today Mom and I went to the Berlin Zoo while Dad went to a work meeting. We got there just as they were feeding the wolves and it was really fun to watch the wolves eat the mice. There was also some ground beef that they ate like noodles. They were very funny. Next, we went to see the wild dogs get fed. They were much more hungry and there were a few tug of wars over various pieces of meat. We then went to see the penguins get feed. We couldn’t see much of them as there was a large crowd. We moved on to the pandas which were very funny. One of them was sitting in a mountain of bamboo eating. Every so often he would need new food and reach for a new stalk. Sometimes that stalk was too far and he would tip over into a flutter of leaves. The other one was asleep and didn’t do much. We then went to see the giraffes and they weren’t doing much either. Lastly, we went to the monkey house. There was one family that had a mother, a father, a teenager by the looks of him, and a newborn. The teenager was insane. He was swinging around and slamming the floor, Throwing food around and break dancing all over the floor. He would swing over, drop food on his father and then run away to get chased. The mother was not amused by all this. On our way out of the Zoo, we saw the very unexciting Chicken enclosure. We didn’t stop.

The next day was our first real day to explore Berlin. We started by going to the Brandenburg Gate and getting Berliner donuts there.  Then we saw the Reichstag building. This is the German parliament and before WWII Hitler had it burned down to accuse the Jew’s and build up public hatred for them. Every May 1st (which that day was) Many Germans protest and gain recognition for whatever cause they want. We saw the Pro-Communists, The Anti-Communists, The Pro-Nazis, and The Anti-Nazis. If you can think of a cause we saw it. Even the Pro-Old ladies sitting in the back of a dump truck drumming group! We next went to a Holocaust memorial. It is made up of hundreds of Stone slabs about 6 feet by 2 feet and of varying heights. We wandered there for a while and then moved on to the bunker that was occupied by Hitler in the last bit of the war. While you can’t go in as it is under a parking lot and filled in there is a sign that says what it is. It was very small as it had been expanded from a smaller earlier bunker and it was hard work to dig to make it bigger. We then went to Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie was used by the U.S. During the Cold War as a sort of passport control to help keep the tension as low as possible. Now there is a photo booth there that we didn’t stop at and a few museums.

We kept walking to the local May Day Festival. It was a long walk but when we got there we sat down at a stage where some calm country music was playing. But the moment we sat down they stopped and a new band started getting ready. When they started playing they were… Bad at best. They had some brass instruments and a guitar and some drums. The group looked just out of college and seemed to know only one way to put 4 notes together. They also sang really badly (see the video). To make it all worse they were wearing gold tights. It was BAD.

The next day we did a walk along a segment of the Berlin wall. We learned about the building of the wall, escapes, and how it was made stronger each time someone escaped. We also saw the graffiti that was painted on it. Next, we took the train to see the Berlin Clock it is a clock that shows the time using a series of lights that can turn on and off. We went inside a shopping mall to get warm and saw a water clock that filled glass sections with water as time passes. Using this you can see what the time is. We went home as it was really cold and called it a day. 

Our time in Berlin was very educational and fun and I can’t wait for you to read the next blog. Urbexing the Bagger 258!