October 30th - Aus Berlin II!
I know it's yesterday's date - I was halfway through writing this yesterday when the computer froze but (miraculously) LJ saved what I'd written, so I'm just going to carry on from where I left off! So, pretend it's Friday (and be happy in the knowledge I will blog again later, with pictures, etc!)
Last day today DDDDD: Short breaks are so crap - I lose two days just to travel (which means I have to do all my homework over the weekend!) and I only get to spend two days in the Land of Awesomeness that is Berlin. I love it here so so much and I don't want to leave. This place makes England look even more dull and boring than it already seems and... I don't want to go. Two days is far too short. I guess I'll be spending my lunchtimes being sad about being in England for the next month or so :P
So, today was a much nicer day than yesterday - less cloud and no rain :) We went to Sanssouci, palace of Frederick II (or Frederick the Great). On the way we stopped off at Wansee (which is beautiful) and saw the villa where all the high ranking SS officials were informed of Hitler's Final Solution for the Jews. It's hard to imagine people discussing something so horrible in such a wonderful place. We also visited Glienicke Bridge (ironically named Unity Bridge when it was rebuilt after the war) - halfway across was the border between West Berlin and East Germany, which is still viasble by eye: the tarmac changes and the two halves of the bridge are painted in slightly different colour greens. It was also the place where Soviet/Western spies were swapped.
Next to Sanssouci. The area it's situated in is massive, although Sanssouci Palace itself is relatively small (there's only about 12 rooms - compare that with the New Palace which has at least 300) but very very grand nontheless. There's lots of marble and art and stuff. Voltaire stayed there once - we went in the room he stayed in. There's a little bust of him over the fireplace now. We also walked around the gardens, which were very pretty (especially with all the leaves turning autumn colours. After this, we paid a short visit to the place where the Potsdam Conference was held (it's a luxuary hotel now). Learnt some interesting things - apparently an aide had to go into the main room first so Stalin, Truman and Churchill/Atlee could all go in at exactly the same time so non of them were superior to the others. We had lunch in Potsdam (I totally ordered some drinks auf Deutsch as well!) and I ate a Berliner (never has John F Kennedy been so yummy! Bad pun, ino, but I had to make it :P). And then back on the bus and back to the hotel.
When we got back, we caught the S-bahn from Savignyplatz to Haupbahnhof and walked to the Berlin Medical Historical Museum, which sounds more boring than it actually is. It's all about the medical history in Berlin, from denistry to curing diseases but what you really want to look out for is the Gallery of Specimens on the second floor. It's full of all the weird and wonderful examples of medical conditions - they had gallstones, lungs blacked by smoking, hearts with valves, kidneys, skeltons of hunchbacks and people with scolosis, slices of tumours, brains and breats and prostates with tumours, skeletons of people with other bone disorders, a megacolon, skulls of people with hydrocephalus... The worst things (imo anyway) were the babies at the back: they had babies with huge tumours, headless babies, ones with cyclopia; sirenomelial; diprosopus; polycephaly. It doesn't really sound that bad but they looked awful. Really, really awful. It made me feel quite sick (although I guess the fact there's a chance of me giving birth to something as horrific as one of those babies doesn't help in the slightest. I have a freshly inspired urge to never ever get pregnant. Ever.)
Afterwards we went back to Haupbahnhof (which is also a shopping centre!) and I bought a mug with the "You are now leaving the american sector" sign on it and a bag. And spent ages staring at Unser Sandmännchen cutlery for children :P And then we went back to the hotel and had dinner and other boring stuff.
This morning was equally boring - breakfast, packing, leaving, flying back to crappy old England (You could tell we were in the UK when we landed. There was a huge cue for Border Control when we got there and only two people at the desks. The lack of German efficiency made me sad.) On the plus side, I am now super inspired to learn German so I can go back (and maybe stay!) in Berlin ASAP!
Last day today DDDDD: Short breaks are so crap - I lose two days just to travel (which means I have to do all my homework over the weekend!) and I only get to spend two days in the Land of Awesomeness that is Berlin. I love it here so so much and I don't want to leave. This place makes England look even more dull and boring than it already seems and... I don't want to go. Two days is far too short. I guess I'll be spending my lunchtimes being sad about being in England for the next month or so :P
So, today was a much nicer day than yesterday - less cloud and no rain :) We went to Sanssouci, palace of Frederick II (or Frederick the Great). On the way we stopped off at Wansee (which is beautiful) and saw the villa where all the high ranking SS officials were informed of Hitler's Final Solution for the Jews. It's hard to imagine people discussing something so horrible in such a wonderful place. We also visited Glienicke Bridge (ironically named Unity Bridge when it was rebuilt after the war) - halfway across was the border between West Berlin and East Germany, which is still viasble by eye: the tarmac changes and the two halves of the bridge are painted in slightly different colour greens. It was also the place where Soviet/Western spies were swapped.
Next to Sanssouci. The area it's situated in is massive, although Sanssouci Palace itself is relatively small (there's only about 12 rooms - compare that with the New Palace which has at least 300) but very very grand nontheless. There's lots of marble and art and stuff. Voltaire stayed there once - we went in the room he stayed in. There's a little bust of him over the fireplace now. We also walked around the gardens, which were very pretty (especially with all the leaves turning autumn colours. After this, we paid a short visit to the place where the Potsdam Conference was held (it's a luxuary hotel now). Learnt some interesting things - apparently an aide had to go into the main room first so Stalin, Truman and Churchill/Atlee could all go in at exactly the same time so non of them were superior to the others. We had lunch in Potsdam (I totally ordered some drinks auf Deutsch as well!) and I ate a Berliner (never has John F Kennedy been so yummy! Bad pun, ino, but I had to make it :P). And then back on the bus and back to the hotel.
When we got back, we caught the S-bahn from Savignyplatz to Haupbahnhof and walked to the Berlin Medical Historical Museum, which sounds more boring than it actually is. It's all about the medical history in Berlin, from denistry to curing diseases but what you really want to look out for is the Gallery of Specimens on the second floor. It's full of all the weird and wonderful examples of medical conditions - they had gallstones, lungs blacked by smoking, hearts with valves, kidneys, skeltons of hunchbacks and people with scolosis, slices of tumours, brains and breats and prostates with tumours, skeletons of people with other bone disorders, a megacolon, skulls of people with hydrocephalus... The worst things (imo anyway) were the babies at the back: they had babies with huge tumours, headless babies, ones with cyclopia; sirenomelial; diprosopus; polycephaly. It doesn't really sound that bad but they looked awful. Really, really awful. It made me feel quite sick (although I guess the fact there's a chance of me giving birth to something as horrific as one of those babies doesn't help in the slightest. I have a freshly inspired urge to never ever get pregnant. Ever.)
Afterwards we went back to Haupbahnhof (which is also a shopping centre!) and I bought a mug with the "You are now leaving the american sector" sign on it and a bag. And spent ages staring at Unser Sandmännchen cutlery for children :P And then we went back to the hotel and had dinner and other boring stuff.
This morning was equally boring - breakfast, packing, leaving, flying back to crappy old England (You could tell we were in the UK when we landed. There was a huge cue for Border Control when we got there and only two people at the desks. The lack of German efficiency made me sad.) On the plus side, I am now super inspired to learn German so I can go back (and maybe stay!) in Berlin ASAP!