This Christmas, I along with my boyfriend, travelled to Berlin. We canât spend christmas with our families (as I didnât for the past 3 years, itâs one of the pains of studying abroad) so we took a trip to Germany. We saw many memorials and buried ourselves in many museums. The history of Berlin was rich and recent; itâs almost like I was there but of course I canât feel the pain theyâve experienced.Â
It was quite sad to see that the famous graffiti were fenced up - I couldnât take a proper picture but hey, hereâs the back of it! The wall was put up overnight and it separated the East from the West, many friends and families had to stay apart. The wall was built to prevent East Berliners from fleeing to the West.Â
@ The Stasi Prison
This was one of the highlights of my trip. It was a tour of the stasi prison given by one of the ex-prisoners/victims. He was held guilty merely for carrying a banner for freedom. The torture stories behind the chambers were mortifying. There were no heaters in the beginning, many prisoners froze to death as if you were caught in the summer, you werenât allowed to change your clothes and you would have to wear them all throughout winter. They would overload your stimulus and then cut you off completely which made people go mental. The tactics were done in order to gain a âproperâ confession in order to bring you to trial but everybody knows the trial was just a show as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) craved for international recognition and the trials were a way to put them on that platform.
This is the parliament of Germany. The building was really cool. Yup.Â
So before the war and everything, we took a day trip to Sanssouci park. It was a park of palaces! This was when there were kings and queens and this was a former summer palace of Alexander the Great. It is often compared to Versailles (in my opinion, Versailles was much prettier :p)
@ Checkpoint Charlie
Where world war III almost began; there was a standoff of tanks from both regions.Â
@ the Holocaust Memorial
I know weâre not supposed to be happy because of all the murdered jews (it is a memorial for that anyway) but the architecture was cool and we couldnât resist a pose.Â
@ Zoologist Garten
The Berlin Zoo! To be honest, most of the animals looked pretty sad all caged up but then again, who wouldnât be sad being all caged up? :(Â
How can you go to Germany during Christmas time and not go to any german christmas markets?! We filled ourselves silly with bratwurst, currywurst, crepes, longas, Gluhwein, beer, eggnog and desserts! It was food galore :)
Thereâs plenty more about Berlin but I think this post is long enough. All in all, it was a good trip. We used the metro for most of it and got the 5 day pass, so transport was relatively cheap. We got a steal of a deal that covered our flights and hotel so Iâm happy! And that concludes my christmas :)
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