Europe Trip - Day 2

June 16, 2010

It is now day 2 but I haven't slept since day 1 started.

When we prepare to leave the plane Sarah says "are you ready? This is going to be like D.C. on crack!"

We (me + BKEAH) made it off the plane quickly and it just seemed right to head through customs. Somehow I led the charge, did all the talking, and got us all through. Outside in the terminal we found the tour guide Elena and introduced ourselves. Then we waited for the rest of our group to get through customs. I need to not take charge quite so much...

While we were waiting a man approached BKEAH and started talking to them in broken English. I was about to intervene but he announced he was a tour director looking for his group. There were three different EFT tour groups meeting in the Berlin airport that day.

We loaded a Mercedes Benz bus and waited for the other schools accompanying us on our trip. A group from Minnesota and one from Missouri. As we pulled away from the airport there was a retaining wall with a lot of graffiti on it. One from the Missouri group exclaimed "there's the Berlin wall". He was wrong of course. The first of many humorous moments from that group.

We went to the train station by our hotel (Ostbahnhof). The girls weren't sure what to get and Kelsey had a melt down. Her first. I had croissants, pastries and coffee. Brittany had a pretzel. Kelsey...I don't think she had anything. We've eaten about every 2 hours so far.

We traveled by train to the Berlin Wall. It is now covered with artistic creations from a local art group. It was hard to take in the history of the wall given the busy pace around it and the various art covering it. There were some poignant moments. Obviously knowing that Mary's sister Sarah was here covering the fall of the Berlin Wall gave me goose bumps.

We walked through part of Berlin on our way to the Jewish History Museum. World Cup soccer is everywhere as expected.

The Jewish History Museum was incredible. Great presentation of the history of the Jewish religion. There was many extremely poignant designs... A fallen leaves exhibit made completely of metal casts of faces... Each person is challenged to walk across the fallen leaves without making a sound... A flight of stairs leading to a solid wall... A Holocaust Tower so dark and so tall yet with one open corner allowing in a ray of light. And a garden of exile that consists of 49 columns of concrete... The ground is not level with the columns so the entire effect is disorienting, as planned.

Even though this Museum is incredible, we are too tired.

Dinner was at Alte Stadt-Mauer... Simple chicken, gravy and rice. Not too traditional, not very good.

Our hotel is by the river and very picturesque; but there is graffiti everywhere.

Goodnight Berlin.