We hopped on the morning train from Amsterdam towards Berlin. About two hours into the ride we had to switch trains. Originally Nathan had said that we had a one hour transfer at this stop whose name starts with a D that I will never remember. When we got off the train we checked the stations time table just in case and saw that our train left in five minutes. We hopped on the train and sat for another four hours until we finally got to Berlin.
From Berlin's Ostbahnhof (train station) we easily found our hostel and checked in. We spent a good portion of the evening doing the necessary laundrz, logistics planning and dinner. While we were making dinner (or should I say while I was making dinner) we met a really nice Australian guy named Saul who told us a little more about what to do in Berlin. He mentioned that the East´Side Gallery is a great thing to see and open all night. He asked if he could come with us and of course we said yes. We went down about 11:00 right after it had gotten dark. We walked past the train station and down towards the river to an section of the Berlin Wall that is still standing.
The East Side Gallery is an open art gallery with street art from 1990 that was put there after the Berlin Wall fell as a sign of freedom and liberation. Some sections of the wall have been left completely open to the public and as such have been tagged to the point where you can't always find the original art. There are some sections, however, that have not only been roped off, but are being restored in commemoration of the 20th anniverssary of the wall coming down.
The next morning I woke up early and went for walk back along the East Side Gallery to see it in daylight. Its incredible. The millions of people from all over the world that have signed the wall and the artists who created the original depictions of freedom share the same wall space that once they would not even have been able to get close to.
At 11:00am we met the New Europe Free walking tour to get a chance to see more of Berlin. We went to the Brandenberg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, the largest remaining piece of the Berlin wall, and some interesting stops in between we never would have found on our own. The history of it all is incredible. I honestly did not know much about Berlin coming in, but now I'm glad to say I understand the city a lot better (I'll explain that more later).
After the tour we went over the Jewish museum. The museum has information and artifacts dating back to medieval times. It was an interesting and very interactive museum. There was always something to listen to, watch, or answer. There was also an area in the back of the museum called the memory void. When I heard that I was really intrigued, so I went back there. It is literally a void that runs the entire length of the museum. The ground floor of the void has been filled with flat faces made of metal to signify the Jewish population that Europe and Germany lost.
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