You are now leaving the American sector...

Now time for the tales of Berlin as promised several entries ago. The entry has been late in coming because of this guy eating my entire life:



Thanks Fred -_-...

Berlin is the largest city in Germany and is also a site of a great deal of history for this country. As such, we visited many world famous monuments including the Berlin wall. I was a lot more pensive and withdrawn this trip and I apologize in advance if I become too poetic or abstract in my telling of my journey through Berlin.


Day 1: Bikes and potatoes.
Bright and early Thursday morning we crawled out of bed and made way to the Hauptbahnhof to catch our train. In Germany, there are several types of public train used for different purposes. The regional trains do just that, they travel the region. We take these to Köln and Düsseldorf. Then there is the other: the I.C.E. I am not quite sure what it stands for, I just know they are much faster and more direct than regional trains. We took the ICE to Berlin. Given that it was much faster, it still took us 5 1/2 hours to arrive in Berlin.

The Berlin Hauptbahnhof was gigantic and overwhelming compared to Bonn's or even Köln's. It was very much like an airport with the light romantic flavor of rail travel. I say this because train stations are much different than airports or bus stations. There is a kind of romance about them that makes me feel excited and happy.



Berlin's transport system had very few surprises. After everything I've experienced here in Europe, the transport was easy. We made our way to the hotel to drop off our luggage before going back out to catch our bicycle tour. I have not ridden my bicycle in a few months and finally working those muscles felt amazing. On top of the glorious rush of endorphins, we got to see a living history of the Berlin wall and made ourselves a part of the city life. I found it difficult to imagine that some of the areas we biked through would be heavily guarded about 20 years ago. There is very little evidence of Berlin's separation unless you look very closely.

To end the first evening, the group ate dinner together at a potato restaurant where I had the most heavenly schnitzel I've yet to have. Most of the evening, I was pretty dead because of my fool-hearty decision to drink a glass of wine on an empty stomach. yeah....never doing that again.

Day 2: East Side Gallery to Chancellery
Lars had us up early the second day. He planned on showing us the East-Side gallery, a section of the Berlin wall that had been left intact for the purpose of remembrance and as a celebration of freedom. In other words: a half-mile stretch of MURALS. Here's a few of my favorites:



Lars urged us to look quickly so that we could continue on with our other appointment: The German Chancellery. Now this building is fairly new, built within the latter part of the 90's. From the outside, you wouldn't be able to tell that this is the very seat of the German government. Their version of the White House if you want to think of it that way. We just missed seeing the lady Chancellor (IE: the big lady in charge). She had to take her helicopter out to attend a funeral for several German soldiers. I will talk about the specifics with German government later, but for now, think of the Lady Chancellor as the big boss of Germany.



I enjoyed the building very much and through our eyes even the tour guide found new appreciation for the architecture.

The remainder of the day was spent wandering some pretty amazing areas of Berlin. We visited the main shopping district before meeting up with Lars again at the Alexanderplatz station. Gathering 16 people together is really a hassle, especially since we aren't all completely punctual.



From here we had to hoof it to make it to some lectures at the Pictoplasma festival for Art, Film and Animation. I found both lectures we watched very interesting even if the rest of the class had their own criticisms. We saw the creators of this odd music video of a NASA track, Fluorescent Hill. Slightly creepy, but cool.

Afterwards, the group decided to revisit the Jewish memorial we passed the day before. This place pushed me into another state of mind and made for really neat photography. I would go into the more poetic feelings I had, but it becomes to complex so I will simply say that I felt inspired.



Lars then showed us one of his favorite areas of Berlin. Wandering here felt a lot like wandering through Austin. There was music, art and bars everywhere. We entered a building that was coated with graffiti inside and out. It was a colorful chaos leading up to a bar overlooking the whole district. Several artists had set up shop in this building, whether or not it was legal for them to be there didn't really cross our minds. We had the privilege of meeting an amazing artist called Alexander Rodin whose works reflected the utter decorative chaos of the building. They were so beautiful that I had to buy a print to show my appreciation.

Day 3: Sachenhausen and Museum Island
This was a day of contrasts. To begin, we boarded a train out to visit the Sachenhausen concentration camp (as if I needed another solemn experience). The grounds were eerily peaceful with blackbirds warbling and crows calling greetings to each other. Unlike the subtle evidence of war Berlin showed, the camp revealed all its secrets.

Sachenhausen was originally meant as a work camp for male inmates but it served the purpose of training the SS in the cruel techniques of 'managing' their posts. Digging beneath the surface here shows the dehumanization and brutality that occurred here. The workers were literally worked to death, some lasting only a few weeks before they died. Sachenhausen also served as a place to keep Soviet prisoners of war before extermination (execution is too nice a word for what they did). What really hit me was the gas chambers and crematorium. I was doing alright up until that point, but there was no way I could keep an apathetic expression for this. Sachenhausen did become a bit of an extermination site near the end of the war. Historians still have no idea how many actually died here.



I placed a small, reddish stone on a slab outside the crematorium. There was not much else I could do to express my sorrow for these poor victims of cruelty.

Then on a lighter note: we went back into Berlin to visit Museum Island. This is the contrast I mentioned. I had a difficult time readjusting my mood for museum hopping. But those feelings soon faded when I entered the Pergamon museum and caught a glimpse of the famous Babylonian masterpiece: the Ishtar Gate. I have no idea how these museums manage to transport and fit gigantic monuments within their galleries, but they do somehow.



The only other museum I went to was the New Museum, home to the famous bust of Nefertiti. Tip: you aren't allowed to take photos of her, but the sign that states this is not so obvious and the fact that you are allowed to photograph everything else is confusing. Nefertiti is beautiful and I feel so lucky to have been able to see this masterpiece of the Amarna period of Egyptian art.

I spent the remainder of the evening to myself. I needed a break from my classmates and a chance to explore the town at the mercy of my own whims. I also craved Tandoori and hunted around Alexanderplatz to find an Indian restaurant. After about an hour without luck, I settled on Japanese food instead. Good choice on my part as the meal cured some of my homesickness for my favorite Japanese restaurant in College Station. Mmm Miso Soup of the gods. I spent about an hour and a half at the restaurant working on a few sketches and attempting a still life of a vase of bamboo. I needed that night to myself so badly and I managed to make myself feel special and awesome. I guess you could say I took myself out on a date.



Day 4: Jewish Museum
As our last planned activity, we made a trip to the Jewish museum. I adore the architecture of this complex and the designs of the exhibits really impressed me. My favorite piece was not intended to be as amusing as I found it. We got to step on crying metal faces. I thought it was hilarious but really this was meant as a holocaust memorial. Oops. Neat photos anyway:



Oh yeah and we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie as a last minute thing before hopping on the train back to Bonn (see photo at the top). I am glad to be back in Bonn for a while. There's far too much to be finished in the next few weeks and the stress might just kill me. But, I'm finished rigging the character and am now ready for animation. Wow, quicker than I thought.

Upcoming: Cologne Role Play Convention and possibly a venture up to Düsseldorf.