The East and West, the Ups and Downs, of Berlin

Well, Berlin started off to be quite the interesting experience! We were supposed to be staying in an Airbnb place that had great reviews, but I hadn't heard from the host in quite awhile so I was getting suspicious. When we reached Berlin and got into wifi, there was still no contact from her and I looked back at her reviews and they were all great until the most recent one that said the host cancelled on her the day before! At this point I was beginning to worry, but we went to the address anyway. At the address, there was no one there with the host's name... Okay at this point, I was beginning to panic. Jeremiah remained calm and we walked around the area for awhile, sent the host an email (never heard back), attempted (and failed) to figure out how to use a pay phone in German, and by the time 9 pm rolled around, I was simply done and we just decided to stay in a nearby hostel. It turned out that the hostel was quite inexpensive and very nice! Also, with my mom's help, she was able to call Airbnb for us and get us a full refund. So while it may seem like my awesome, positive view on Airbnb is now changed because of this experience, you would be wrong! They were very helpful and understanding with helping us deal with the issue and even gave us a $75 coupon to use toward a future Airbnb stay! So, it all worked out despite a stressful beginning. And we found gelato afterward to make up for the stress... 

Our first day in Berlin started with a walk through the Tiergarten which is really a massive park right in the middle of the city. It was beautiful and green (which so far it seems that much of Germany is), but unfortunately terrible for both of our allergies. Jeremiah has always had an issue with bad allergies, but this was the worst I've ever experienced. Let's just say, we had to buy quite a few more of those little packs of tissues and blew through them. Quite literally. But we pushed through the day and went on a free walking tour of Berlin. Our guide was from the U.S. and he was an excellent, informative guide. We visited and learned a lot about the Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews (Holocaust Memorial), the former location of the Fuhrer's bunker, part of the Berlin Wall, and Checkpoint Charlie, among other sights. Something interesting about Berlin is that the history, compared to the other cities we've been visiting, is very recent. That makes sense considering it pretty much had to be rebuilt after the World Wars! But just to see the remnants of what happened during World War II and the Cold War in particular were really fascinating. We both kept commenting on how mind boggling it was that the Berlin Wall was up until 1989! That's so recent! Another thing, that our tour guide pointed out, was that he admires how much Germany accepts their past mistakes. So many terrible things happened there, but now they have these memorials to remember what they were once like. Consequently, many of the sights were free, we figured, to show as many people as possible what had happened in the past so as not to repeat it in the future. 

After our tour we went back to the part of the Berlin Wall that we had briefly visited which was located right next to the "Topography of Terror" Museum. This is the former location of the SS headquarters where they also had a prison underground to keep and torture their major political opponents. They now have remnants of that prison and a museum building on top that has information on the SS, Hitler, and the Holocaust. The purpose of the museum was to try to give a better understanding of how Hitler became such a big influence and movement in Germany and much of Europe. We ended our long day of walking and touring by trying a food apparently well-known in Germany called Currywurst. It is a Bratwurst cut into small pieces, covered in ketchup and sprinkled with curry powder. I was a skeptic, but it was actually quite delicious.

Our second full day in Berlin we visited the two other remaining parts of the Berlin Wall. Each very unique, one covered in graffiti, and the other more of a memorial sight that had remnants of the inner wall and many of the traps and obstacles that were set up between the walls. We hadn't realized before coming to Berlin that it wasn't just one wall. Originally it was just barbed wire, but eventually it became the big well-known wall, an inner wall, guard towers, a patrol rode, and traps in between the two walls. Wow. All to keep its citizens from going into West Berlin. That day we also went into the new dome of the Reichstag and into the museum underneath the Holocaust Memorial. It was definitely a slower paced day than the day before and it was a short day as well. My allergies had turned into a full-blown cold so I was exhausted and Jeremiah was a trooper so we were back in the hostel early and I got 11 hours of sleep that night! I felt better the next day thankfully. I also learned that Jeremiah is a very good caretaker! 

We had originally planned to stay in Berlin for four nights, but since our Airbnb fell through we decided to book our hostel for only three nights and to make a trip to Kassel, Germany. Kassel is a smaller town Southwest of Berlin that is actually the hometown of my great grandma! Jeremiah and I thought it would be interesting to see the town she came from since we were close enough and to give us a little family history! Plus we were able to use our $75 Airbnb coupon to stay there essentially for free! First of all we ended up staying with the nicest lady, Anne, who picked us up from the train station and everything. We stayed in her basement that had it's own kitchen that she stocked with food specifically for us (she told us this, we didn't just assume), and she let us use her washing machine which was much needed. She claimed to speak very little English, but Jeremiah and I were definitely impressed with her English. She's visiting the U.S. including the Grand Canyon in October so we also showed her some pictures of our Havasupai hike to show her some of the beauty in AZ! 

After we settled in we set out to explore the town. It was pretty cool to think that I was potentially walking on the same streets or at least the same areas (as it has probably changed a lot) that my great grandma did when she was really young, around 1920! I wonder if my great grandchildren will someday walk the streets of a potentially very different Mesa, Arizona and think about where I walked and grew up. It's an interesting thought...

We basically hiked (it was a long, steep walk) up to this Herkules monument which was really amazing. Unfortunately it was undergoing some construction so it wasn't quite as spectacular as it probably could have been, but the view made up for it. It sat at the top of a hill overlooking the whole city which was, again, beautifully green. Every so often the monument has a water feature that is on that is basically a huge staircase with water descending it which I'm sure is amazing, but that wasn't running while we were there either. Our host said it is very busy when the water feature was on so it's not quite so enjoyable. That made us feel a bit better! We made our way down the hill stopping at different landmarks: a waterfall, and two different castles. The castles looked like they were out of storybooks. One in particular was very old and literally looked like it could've been the set of a Disney movie! 

The next day we rode the train to the specific suburb where my great grandma was from, Rothenditmold. We just stopped by really, because we didn't have any specifics like an address or anything, but we can still say we were right there! We also visited the city center that had an antique market sale in the street (I bought a purse which I'm very excited about), the Orangerie park, and walked along the Fulda River. It was a really nice short stop in Kassel. Jeremiah and I were both glad that we decided to stop by, because it gave us an idea of where a part of my family came from and it was a slower paced, more restful day and a half. 

So despite the rocky beginning to our time in Germany, it turned out to be a great time. So far I am loving Germany. Favorite country so far? Maybe... At the end of our trip we'll let you know our favorites, if that's possible! Jeremiah and I keep commenting that throughout our trip (and life) that just when it seems like something bad has happened or is happening, God makes something good out of it! He has a reason for everything! We're still trying to figure out the good in our terrible allergies right now though... 

Staying in Germany, Munich here we come!