Sunday, July 15th: Arrived in Berlin at around 6pm, after flying from San Diego to San Francisco to Frankfurt to Berlin, and then taking the airport bus to my hotel near the Zoo garden. Whew… I was tired but knew I needed to get on the European time zone quickly, so I checked into my hotel and went for a walk. One of the first things I eyed was the "Curry 36" curry wurst stand that reminded me of "Pinks" hot dog stand in Los Angeles. There was quite a line and it looked like it was probably the popular tourist thing to do. Stealing a glance at some patrons' plates I noticed that it looked merely like cut up hot-dogs with ketchup and a plate of fries with a huge glob of mayonnaise. I just couldn't bring myself to try it at that point, and the jury is still out as to whether I should or shouldn't. Instead I grabbed a sandwich of cucumbers, cheese, tomatoes and some type of spread on a white roll. Bo-ring. I almost think the currywurst might have been better. Perhaps I'll give it a try… My walk took me past the beautiful zoo gardens and into a lovely park. I happened to see a trail that looked like a nice jogging path so I took the path and continued to walk until a gorgeous, lush, green park opened up before me. I was so taken with this park. I kept walking and discovering more greenery and more beauty with every little pathway. It was the famous Tiergarten in the center of Berlin, and I fell in love. I managed to take a few photos with my iphone, but the pictures just don't capture the beauty as seen first-hand. After about an hour's walk, I returned to the hotel, showered, read a bit and went to sleep. I would need plenty of energy for the next few days.
Monday, July 16th: After taking in a quick breakfast at the hostel (where our students and I were staying), I went straight back to the Tiergarten for another long walk, followed by a little jaunt around the neighborhood. It was beginning to rain, and I was set to meet up with the students for a film showing that was required for their class. The students in Berlin are taking a 20th century history seminar which includes classes on world history during that time as well as a special course on everyday life in an authoritarian and dictatorial society. Film assignment for the week was "The legend of Paul and Paula". It was a rather strange film made during the 70's in the former East Germany (DDR). There weren't political undertones per se, but there were definitely messages about what might happen to you if you chose to behave a certain way. Following the film, I met with the students to get their feedback on the program and their experiences, and then I sat in on the lecture and class discussion. I am so impressed with the students in this particular class, and I think it is a direct reflection of their instructor, who is brilliant. There was a great discussion about the film and others the students have viewed for the course, and on the different perspectives at the time of people who lived in East vs. West Berlin and Germany. There is so much history here in this city in particular and in Germany overall, and I would have loved to take the courses for the full five weeks with these students. Monday night we hopped the train to an area near Alexanderplatz (a hip, trendy area with plenty of great restaurants and bars), and had a big group dinner with the professor and our on-site coordinator, Evgeniya, who is a friendly and professional young woman who is originally from Russia and moved to Berlin in 2000 to attend university. Dinner consisted of an antipasto tray full of veggies and cheese and bread, followed by pasta, and then pizza. Oh my gosh the bread that is consumed in this country. At this point, I'd had bread with nearly every meal, except for the little chinese take-out box I grabbed before the movie. I needed something that wasn't bread. Thus, I also skipped the pizza. Dessert was a nice yogurt-mousse concoction which was fresh and light.
Tuesday, July 17th: Woke up to a somewhat cloudy day, and more bread to eat downstairs for breakfast. The buffet at the hostel offers a few choices of bread, several salami and other mystery meat slices, a fruit cocktail of sorts and some more of the yogurt-cheese blend spread and more cucumbers and tomatoes. I skipped the salami and other unknown meat options and stuck to bread with butter and fruit. It was to be a rather long day of visiting the Sachsenhausen former concentration camp about an hour outside of Berlin, followed by a hurried trek across Berlin to the Shonefeld airport for my flight that evening to Copenhagen. To say I was looking forward to the Sachsenhausen visit is a bit odd as it is a rather depressing part of history, and I was fairly sure I'd get emotional. I felt prepared, however and wanted to know more abut the people who were taken there as well as their stories. Unfortunately, it seemed we were quite rushed through the museum and I didn't have much time (if any) to stop and read their stories. I caught a glimpse of a few photos and brief descriptions of the prisoners. We had a guide and he was very informative but our time did not allow for independent exploration. I wanted to know more about the people - who they were - whether they got out alive, or not. It was a sad visit of course as I thought about the thousands of men who were forced to work there in absolutely horrible conditions, and of course the thousands of lives that were lost there. Just thinking about what happened to all these men now as I think back to the visit, it makes me tear up. I have no tolerance for senseless violence and maltreatment of human beings (or animals for that matter). There was a quote from one of the survivors of the camp, written on one of the walls of the building where so many innocent people were killed during Hitler's "final solution". The quote read, "And I know one thing more - that the Europe of the future cannot exist without commemorating all those, regardless of their nationality, who were killed at that time with complete contempt and hate, who were tortured to death, starved, gassed, incinerated and hanged…" Andrzej Szczyplorski, Prisoner of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
The monument below is actually a Soviet memorial to their own victims of the camp. The Soviet army liberated this camp at the end of WWII.
Wednesday, July 18th 12:35AM - Copenhagen, Denmark. I arrived in Copenhagen rather late, and was scheduled to meet the next group of students at 9:00AM. I was hungry and sleepy and didn't want bread. Oh, and I had no Danish Krone (money) so I would have to wait. The morning came too quickly and I was downstairs for the grand buffet that was offered at this rather lovely 4-star hotel in Sydhavn. Again there was a ton of bread, but also eggs and lovely cheeses (like Brie, Gouda, and some others I didn't recognize), bacon, whole fruits, tons of preserves, yogurt, cereal, you name it. And the coffee was alright. I decided to go for eggs, cheese, and fruit, and oh yeah… bread. It was all delicious. I met the students and our on-site coordinator, Anne in the lobby and we headed to the city center for our tour of the Thorvaldsen museum and the Danish parliament. Having slept very little and feeling the jet-lag creeping in (sometimes it hits me the third day rather than the first). We also stopped by Anne's apartment in the city center area and had some traditional Danish sandwiches. They were basically slices of bread with various different toppings on them, mostly cold fish, and other cod meats, eggs, potatoes, vegetables or shrimp. I had to be a bit careful with my belly and just ate one with boiled egg slices and bread. After lunch I basically slogged through the tours, taking several pictures of Thorvaldsen's great sculpture works, and absent-mindedly leaving my camera in the locker during our tour of parliament. Following the tours I had a meeting with the students, who told me they liked Copenhagen a lot, but that it was quite a bit more expensive than they expected. I quickly found that out as well, when I went to buy a Sprite to soothe my aching belly (was it the cheese? It couldn't have been the bread…), and I found out the bottle of soda cost over $3.00, when the same would cost about $1.29 in the U.S. Anne looked at me with her Sparkling Danish eyes and said, "Oh yes. We Danes don't drink sodas like Americans do. We have very high taxes on anything with a lot of sugar or fat in them. That way it's cheaper to eat healthy". Hmm… I thought. What a concept. ;-) That must also explain why my grilled chicken salad was only $17.50 when the burger and fries were over $20.00. The high prices would continue, as would the and rain for the next 24 hours or so. I managed to have a lovely dinner with the professor that evening (pasta, with chicken and mushrooms and gravy, accompanies with a glass of pinot); then spent a good part of the next day recovering from jet-lag and general lack of sleep and rest over the past days. It was a nice day to take it easy, as it was raining quite a bit and it was grey and cloudy everywhere. I did go out for a bit (to get some bread), but mostly caught up on sleep, and some chats with Anne and the students to get a better sense of what we can and can't improve for next year.
Friday evening I met up with my friend and former flat-mate from Barcelona, Melissa. She's a Dutch girl that I met while we were both studying Spanish in Barcelona in 2005. Since then, she has come to the U.S. once to visit when I lived in L.A., and I have gone back to BCN once while she was living and working there. She now lives in Copenhagen with her boyfriend Nicklaus who seems to be a really great guy. Melissa is also expecting a little baby girl in December so it was really exciting to celebrate that with her. That night, we went to dinner at a nice Italian place in Norreport. I hadn't noticed anyone really looking at me, but I was asked three times about where I was from or about my accent, and one guy even said he thought he knew me from somewhere! I guess he had worked in America for awhile and perhaps all of us Americans look alike :) It would be strange if he really had seen me before, but I was so caught off-guard by his mentioning he thought he'd seen me before that I quickly blushed and dismissed it, thinking it was a "line". Melissa and I had a laugh, and also had a great time reminiscing about Spain and catching up on life thereafter. I would spend the whole next day with Melissa and Nicklaus and stay with them the following night.
Saturday, July 21st was an absolutely perfect day! The sun was shining bright in Copenhagen, and I had two wonderful tour guides to take me around the Norreport area. I can't say much more than it was just beautiful! Pictures to follow on Facebook…. We stopped for awhile and Nicklaus and I had a couple of beers while Melissa had some juice, and we just watched tourists and locals walk by, as well as ships sailing in the harbor. We also say one almost naked guy with a sign on his ahem… belt… that said something about getting married, and another guy wearing a cow suit for presumably the same reason. Apparently it is common for the Bachelor parties to consist of some sort of humiliating act the groom must endure. I have to admit it was hilarious! And yes, I took pictures. The day overall was so nice I wished I'd had one or two more days in Copenhagen. Melissa and Nick live in a nice apartment with great views and two balconies on either side of the space. We had a drink and watched the sunset, and Melissa cooked a nice Danish supper of meat balls with potatoes and gravy, as well as a spinach, beet and goat cheese salad (she is a woman after my own heart). I definitely could have stayed another day. We all had a great time chatting and just relaxing as well. I Skyped with Mark and the boys before going to bed and resting up for my departure back to Berlin the next morning.
Sunday, July 22nd: Whew. I hadn't had any time to write or upload pictures (and incidentally I brought the wrong photo card reader so pics may have to wait)… I knew at least my mother and Dad would be interested in what I've been up to :-) so that more or less catches up to now. I arrived in Berlin just after 2:30PM, and took a series of trains to get to my hotel in Prenzlauer Berg (a neighborhood North east of the city center). The hotel is great and they even have Mark's favorite beer (Kostritzer) in the vending machine, as well as some jagermeister if I want to act like a 20 year-old college student. My internet signal isn't working in my room, but I am hoping this will be fixed or I'll be moved tomorrow. Although… I do like my cozy, quiet little room. I went out for a walk of the neighborhood and noticed a nearby Biergarten that looked okay but didn't seem to have food, so I hit up one of the many local Turkish eateries and enjoyed a full plate of rice, chicken and salad (no bread). ;-) Tomorrow I can get up whenever I like… sleep in if I want to… and then leisurely take on the day. I'm planning to do some sight-seeing and will likely end up back in the Tiergarten at some point. But for now…. Guten Nacht.
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