Arbeit Macht Frei

Berlin & Prague 

A terrible shot of me at the Brandenburg gate

As our train drew close to Berlin on a cool, dreary day one week ago, Mira warned us that it was an "ugly" city, but we would soon understand why. My first impression through the window was indeed unappealing - an urban setting with gray buildings and graffiti, almost post-apocalyptic. I was a bit unenthusiastic about doing a 3-hour bike tour after waking up at 6 am and traveling all afternoon. However, I started having fun as soon as I swung onto the orange Dutch-style bike labeled "Coco Chanel". It was a very welcome change of pace from all the walking we do, and this allowed us to see many fascinating points of interest around the city such as Bebelplatz, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, the site where Hitler's bunker used to be, and of course the wall. The site of the book burning and the wall affected me the most. Reading is my second-favorite pastime, after horseback riding of course, so it is appalling to me that people would deliberately destroy literature. Putting a wall around people is also despicable, and it blows my mind that my own life began just one year after it came down. The tour was great - it showed how Berlin is a place where it's impossible to forget the history. It is eerie and unsettling but also...hopeful. 

lovelovelove

Even though I was enjoying Berlin, the following day outside the city was refreshing. We took a bus to the small town of Bad Saarow to tour the University of Berlin Pferdezentrum ("horse center"). They specialize in reproduction, so we got to see ultrasounds on pregnant mares and watch Warmblood foals playing in the picturesque rolling hills - my own personal heaven. We also saw some of the Uni students training some ponies outside and sat in on the behavior class in the indoor arena. After the tour, we took a hike through the woods to the town on the lake, Scharmützelsee. The fresh air, sunshine, and eating lunch by the water with sailboats drifting by felt like home to me. (I'm from Michigan, remember?) When we returned, we visited the East Side Gallery - the paintings on the Berlin wall. It's a shame there's so much graffiti, because some of them are pretty amazing.

My time Sachsenhausen, one of the earliest concentration camps located outside of Berlin, is hard to describe. The words Arbeit Macht Frei, "Work makes you free", are a part of the iron gates as you walk through the entrance. The word "free" on a prison gate is so paradoxical, and that lingered in my mind as we walked through the open spaces where buildings used to be, the remaining barracks, the "prison within a prison", the track of uneven surfaces where prisoners walked 18 miles a day to test boots... The hideous Soviet monument in the center was something I did not expect, but it didn't entirely surprise me that the camp was spun into propaganda about the exploitation of Soviets during the Nazi regime (without giving proper recognition to the other groups of people who suffered there until the 1990s). My mood shifted from curious but aloof to more and more disturbed the longer we stayed in the camp. Only the foundations of "Station Z" remained, but it still left an impression. Thousands of people were shot point-blank in these small, double-walled rooms or killed in the gas chamber, then carried by prisoners to the crematorium. Knowing that this actually happened is disturbing in itself, but standing in the same space is another thing entirely. When I walked through the hospitals where medical experimentation took place, I started feeling sick to my stomach. I left with a new appreciation for what happened there.

That same afternoon, we visited Bundestag, the German Parliament building, and climbed to the glass dome at the top. It was an interesting structure to see, and the views from the roof of the big park and the city were quite nice.

The Charles Bridge

How to take a scenic selfie: we don't know

On our free weekend, the entire group went to Prague. As we entered the Czech Republic, the landscape became hilly and the vibrant colors of Prague were a sharp contrast to the drab Soviet buildings of Berlin. We found our way around easily enough, and headed to Old Town Square for some lunch and sight-seeing. As soon as we arrived, there was a parade of international costumed/singing/dancing/instrument playing people streaming by and other musical performances on a stage going on, with a raucous crowd gathered around. It was fun to just sit and watch! Half of the group, including myself, decided to go on one of the group pub crawls that evening, which was a cool way to meet people from all over the world. The following day, we simply wandered around the city, crossed the bridge and walked up the hill to the castle, where the views of the city were excellent. The cathedral was beautiful - the stained glass was exquisite and golden light filtering in made the alter seem to glow. Although Paris had more things to do, I enjoyed the cheery people, impromptu festivals and street performances, and general "feel" of Prague even more.

The anatomy collection

We returned to Berlin on Monday and visited part of the veterinary school campus (the anatomy building) and the Jewish Museum. The vet who gave us the tour was great to chat with about their school, and their laboratory and specimen collection was pretty impressive. The rows of glass cases with malformed fetuses, plastinated circulatory systems, and skeletons was an awesome tool these students have access to. Something interesting she commented about veterinary medicine is that the Germans are paid less, work more, and are generally less respected than what she observed in the States and the UK. I was fairly surprised, because I think we have all these problems at home, not to mention the ridiculous amount of student debt we face.
We also visited the Jewish Museum of Berlin, and the tour focused on the building's architecture instead of the exhibits. It was pretty interesting, and I definitely would not have understood some of the aspects without the information that the guide provided. It is meant to be a place of remembering all of the lost Jewish people of Germany, in addition to their entire history within the country. The shape of the building, lighting, "voids" (large empty rooms), and the maze of uneven flooring are all supposed to evoke feelings rather than mean something definitive. It was modern and weird, but I did find it interesting.

My old friend, Archaeopteryx

The final morning in Berlin was spent at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife Research, where we got to learn about their different research projects they are conducting all over the world and learn how to use a blow dart at a target. I of course failed spectacularly. After some free time (shopping), we went to the Natural History Museum. I am a nerd and love Natural History Museums, so I thought it was pretty neat even though our tour guide was quite strange and clearly used to talking to children. Some of the cool things they had were the original Archaeopteryx fossil (I wrote a paper about Archaeopteryx and the evolution of flight in undergrad), and the preserved quagga and thylacine specimens, which are some animals that went extinct in the 19th and 20th centuries due to over-hunting or habitat destruction.

I can't believe another week is over! Time needs to slow down; even though I'm exhausted I am having a blast experiencing all the new things. The times between postings is not really indicative of where I am, but rather where I can access internet that keeps a connection for more than 5 minutes. We have already traveled to Büsum and Copenhagen, which I will write about soon!

Skål, 

~Andrea