Travel Post #1: Berlin, Germany! (July 24th)

     Hello and Happy Thursday! :) Today, I am finally forcing myself to buckle down and begin blogging about my travels through Europe this summer. These posts will be going up throughout the next month or so, because unfortunately, breaking them up by day is the only way I can keep these entries from getting too long and unsightly. On top of that, I have just begun training for my new job, which is over eight hours per day. Plus I have 200ish pages of reading to get done before September 19th. Basically, doling these travel logs in small increments makes this process much less of a struggle. I'm sorry if it makes for tedious reading, but I hope you enjoy regardless!

July 24th, 2013

     After three connection flights and around 17 hours of travel, my two cousins, Kyle and Kenna, (You will be seeing a lot of them, so might as well give a proper introduction) and I arrived in the Berlin airport at about noon. Customs was practically nonexistent as we snaked our way to baggage claim, and luckily my sister, Natalie, was there to receive us on the other side. It was the first time I'd seen her in almost a year! As she'd been living in Berlin for 11 months, she showed us how to use the S-Bahn and refused to let us nap for more than an hour because she feared our sleeping schedule would be off for the duration of our trip. Though incredibly considerate of her, it meant we weren't allowed to go to bed until 9pm. Or, in our accustomed time zone, 12pm.

     The time awake was not too dreadful, however, because Natalie took us to East Side Gallery! It is this gorgeous collection of graffiti art on what still remains of the Berlin Wall. It's quite insane to think about the fact that 30 years ago, people could be murdered for attempting to climb over it. But I love that its dark past has been transformed into something beautiful, and something in constant fluctuation. Which I suppose could be extended into a metaphor about Germany itself. My sister claims the reason she loves Berlin so much is because it was weighed down by communism and war, but the city is now coming back alive! That must be fascinating to watch. I also became increasingly interested by the people in Berlin because, at least some of them, were walking pieces of history. Anyone over the age of 40 or so could potentially remember what it was like when the Wall was up. It was just a thought that struck me whenever I saw older folks. This is a bit of a ramble, but it's quite cool to think about. 

     I also really liked something fairly new on the Wall (my sister said she didn't recognize it from the last time she visited), which was a photography display of different walls keeping people fenced in and out throughout the world. There are a lot more than I knew about?! That's a quite frightening thought.... And the exhibition included the wall on the border of Mexico and California, which resonated with me for obvious reasons.

Anyway, here are some photos from the East Side Gallery :)

     For lunch, my cousins and I had Döner for the first time, which is a popular Turkish fast food item. Though I'm sure it is wonderful most of the time, this particular time there was a GIANT, BEIGE, HALF-MYTHICAL MOTH FLY THING desperately trying to escape from the glass compartment where the red onions were kept. It was just staring at me and desperately ramming into the glass after I'd finished ordering. But I had been in Germany for less than 24 hours, and I didn't want to be that entitled tourist, so I didn't say anything. In the end, I'm glad I didn't speak up because Natalie casually mentioned while we were eating outside that Europeans don't care as much about bugs landing in their food. Unfortunately, I'm a spoiled and picky Californian, so I was plagued by mothish-horror-filled thoughts, and could not finish my meal. But my sister loves Döner, so don't steer away from trying it simply because of this story! Haha. I'm just haunted by it... casually... I tried to eat a Döner sandwich in Vienna and literally couldn't get my mind over the matter. That was when I finally confessed a much less disturbing version of this story, in the hopes of explaining my point of view without ruining their lives as well.   

     Afterward, we also went to this airport-turned-public-park called Tempelhof to hang out with one of my sister's Spanish friends and just chill out for a bit. They drank beer. Kyle took a light snooze on the grass. We saw people dancing interpretively. It was nice.

      After a long day of walking and experimenting with new things, I made a bed on my sister's floor out of a single sheet with two puffy, winter coats underneath for padding. Needless to say, it took less than a half hour to fall asleep.

♥ To be continued... ♥