Christian #4: May 24

Today we went saw a few of the World War II and Cold War historical sights in Berlin, of which there are many. We started off at Checkpoint Charlie, the American checkpoint at the Berlin Wall and access point between East and West Berlin. During the Cold War, Soviet and American tanks were lined up on both sides aiming at each other, ready for a Cold War to go hot. This was one of the real front lines in the Cold War and remains an iconic symbol of that conflict, showing up in many documentaries and spy movies. It was an incredible place to visit.

After Checkpoint Charlie, we headed to another symbol of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. Constructed by the Soviets in 1961 to supposedly "protect East German citizens from radical fascism", it kept East Berliners from emigrating and divided the city. Again, a powerful symbol of a Cold War and literal "Iron Curtain" that permeated and defined so much of American and Soviet culture for so many years. Right next door was a terrific museum that we went to called Topography of Terror. It was located on the old site of the SS, Nazis secret police, headquarters during their reign in Germany. Called the "Darkest Time" in German history, the museum walks you through the steps and different stages that Hitler and the Nazis used to gain control of the government and create the Third Reich dictatorship that was so powerful and dangerous. I would highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Berlin.

We had lunch near the Sony Center, which is one of the largest buildings in Berlin and has an interesting architecture. It is a large circular building with the center taken and replaced with a plaza. But what makes the Sony Center so unique is that its roof is made out of sections of a cloth like material stretched between wires spaced out with gaps in between so that it looks like a turbo jet fan of gigantic proportions. Its a neat building and we spent some time relaxing in the central plaza area.

Next stop was a trip to Museum Island near the Reichstag to visit the Pergamon Museum. In the 19/20th century, the city of Pergamon was discovered in modern day Turkey by a German archeologist. It was a large city part of the Greek Empire, but allied with Rome. They established a dig and helped to preserve many of the artifacts. The Pergamon Museum displays many of their finds and replicas with some of the actual structures integrated in. One of the most significant finds was of the alter at Pergamon. The replica takes up a large room roughly the size of half a football field and looks very much like the temples of Rome built to honor the gods with its many columns and angular construction. It would be an imposing structure anywhere, but especially in the ancient world and was interesting monument to visit. The Pergamon also house a replica of the grates of Babylon and many of surrounding pieces of art. These gates led to the great city of Babylon, that once was the seat of power in the Middle East, but then rapidly declined. A magnificent accomplishment anywhere, again especially impressive for the ancient world. The gates were lined with lions they said to honor their god of Earth, but I think they were preemptively praising the great work and pride that Lovett Lions represent and had been foretold would come.

For dinner, Sam had been and is still obsessed with going to places that have live jazz music. He found a spot that looked good and we decided we would try it. It was pretty far out of the center of town and turned out to be in a rather interesting part of town. Thanks to Sam's Blackberry, we have been able to have a constant English-speaking safety net to help us out. But this time Google Maps had this place in the wrong place and so we wondered around in this area trying to find this fabled spot. After a while, we finally stubbled upon the spot. So glad we did; the food was excellent! We tried some local beverages, had great sausage, and a wonderfully helpful and funny waitress.

We headed back to the hostel for a little to get ready to head out and go to a club, for Berlin is the nightlife capital of Europe. Whether it was because it was Pentacost (although no flames of fire came down and let us understand German, but maybe next year), it was a Monday night, the city has been incorrectly crowned, or we simply missed where the party was, Berlin was dead that night. We spent more time walking around sketchy neighborhoods trying to find where we were going and eventually found the intended "club". This place had all of ten people in it. After an excellent fake emergency exit strategy, which fooled the rest of us, failed, we left the "club" and went to the train station. There some of us got McFlurries and were walking along, when trouble made a beeline for us. Two teenagers, probably drunk, came up and starting harassing us. We ignored them and they eventually left, but not before coming up behind Sam and batting his McFlurry away. After that we all went home, not defeated but to regroup for our next day's assault on Berlin.

-Christian