Prague is beautiful

With a sparkling river, patches of trees and hills throughout, orange roofs, and spires protruding all over; Prague really is gorgeous. It is the most beautiful city we've seen so far in my opinion. There is a great diversity of landscape and architecture throughout. It is the first city we've been to that has any sort of hills, which not only frames the city in the valley, but also makes for some beautiful spots to sit and admire from.

We spent our days here mostly just wandering and enjoying the citys beauty. Prague was mostly untouched by WWII because hitler had wanted to make it his cultural capital once he had conquered all of europe. He also intended to make the Jewish quarter (which we will visit today before we head to Munich) into a museum to an extinct race of people. Following WWII, Prague fell under communist rule for 30+ years. during this time, Prague was a dark and dreary place. Unable to display it's true beauty until the reign of communism was lifted.

But alas, hitler didn't win, communisum fell, and thankfully we are now free to stroll through such beautiful places as Prague castle, old town square and the Charles bridge. Locals will tell you that Prague was built to be the beauty that it is today, and it was just waiting for an opportunity to blossom. It is now one of the busiest tourist destinations for both Europeans and international visitors alike, and for good reason. If you have a chance to see Europe, make sure that Prague is on your list of cities to see. Words really do not do the sights here justice, so I will let pictures tell the story (Greg will post them soon)

-The bear

Late thoughts on Berlin

Berlin as a city is unlike any of the cities we've been to so far and probably will be to on this trip. The most recent history we've encountered really relates to ww2 but berlin adds a whole other dimension in that it started ww2 and was the city that symbolized the cold war.

We'll start with the ww2 stuff. I have a new found respect for germany in that it's museums and memorials not only remember ww2 and the holocaust, but admit responsibility. These cites are not just tourist attractions but carefully placed archives that remind the people what happened and how they vow "never again." For instance, the holocaust memorial is called The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe( no way for anyone to make excuses or denials with that title) and it is perposefully placed in the middle of the main area near the Brandenberg Gate and government offices as if to say, "hey people/ goverment, never again!."

That night, as steve and greg have said in their blogs, was very special due to a chance encounter with our new german friend, Yergen.

Sometimes when you least expect it, the stars align to give you an experience you can really only have when traveling. It began with a period of indecisiveness in deciding where to go for dinner. Close and cheap or subway and unknown prices as our hunger grew, that was the question. And again when we got to the restaurant there were no tables so we could have sat with a few guys at one table but took our chances and waited at the bar. A few minutes later the hostess was about to seat a couple who arrived after us but we respectively reminded her we were here first. "the table also has a man at it, if you dont want it i am giving it to the couple", she says in her german accent. Hunger had taken over so we all agreed. We sat for a while not knowing what to eat from this strange menu so when the man put his magazine away steve asked for his opinion, which ended up being the spark of it all(thanks steve).

Two hours later we had discussed politics, his love for jfk and why bush and america's actions after 9/11 with iraq lessened his respect for america. Then he really started dropping knowledge bombs. He started talking about conflicts between countries and even people and how everyone thinks their right because there is no black and white, no absolute truths, only different shades of grey. That flowed into how because of technology, so much information is being sent out that you need to take a step back to form an opinion. More was said but you get the idea. Now a lot of it we all pretty much knew already but it was the way he was speaking, the examples he was using and the fact that he was a 60 yr old german man and his perspective was one we have never heard of before. And of course you've heard the finale, he picked up our check and simultainiously as he stood up and we respectively prostested his actions he says, "it's alright, i will eat a little less tomorrow." And after we accept and shake hands he leans in slighty and says,"if you take one thing from this dinner it should be this. There are Germans today who are different from the ones your grandfathers fought against." Boom, the final knowledge bomb. All this while in the background, and i swear im not making this up was U2- Still havent found what im looking for, haha.

As the guys both said, we were left shocked and amazed. My final note on the dinner was that we talked about sport for a little and found out he's a big hockey fan, of course he is!

The rest of our time in Berlin was amazing. A very interesting experience at Cedar for passover where i sat across from a professor teaching abroad from what school, the University of Delaware of course, who interstingly enough gave steve and i reassuring thoughts on the schools we are going to next year. She said it was good for me to go somewhere new and especially for my degree, dc is will be great. And similarly to steve how Corvallis is a wonderful/beautiful area to live in if you like the outdoors(in case you havent figured out yet, steve is the bear and outdoors is kinda his thing).

On the train to Berlin i got very excited reading about what we'd be doing and now having left, it not only met my expectations but far exceeded them.

A quick note on the present. We are in Prague now and it is great. A beautiful city of mixed styles of arhitecture and buildings that date back centuries because it was one city not destroyed by the world wars. Steve and i spent his bday walking around and spending the afternoon in the park where steve took his hacky sack abilities to a new level. At night greg met up with us after his side trip to visit family and we went bowling.

Right now we are spending some time planning the rest of our trip which is so weird. 3 weeks in we finally have the dates marked till the end. We all agreed this was the way to do it. We learned so much on how to travel that booking the whole trip would have hindered us more than helped. What a trip!

More details on Prague coming soon...

Berlin: The Newest Old City in the World

Being in Berlin today is surreal. There is no other word to describe the experience. I know of no other city in the world that has been through what Berlin has, no other city that has hosted as many real-life dramas as the ones that have unfolded just in the past century.

Berlin was decimated after world war one, rebuilt and then broken down again when the stock market crashed in '29. It was controlled by and served as the center of government of (quite possibly) the most evil regime ever to walk the earth, and was re-decimated all over again throughout the second world war. When Hitler finally fell, there was a break in conflict for about 20 minutes before it changed from The Allies vs. Hitter to Democracy vs. Communism. The city was split in two politically, and then physically, as the Berlin Wall separated forms of government, ideals, and families and friends. The city turned violent again for 40 years as the wall claimed the lives of the many who tried to escape the East. Berlin was a microcosm of the whole world, west versus east packed into one tiny division in Northern Germany. When the wall came down, Berlin was free... Finally.

The rest of the story is being written day-to-day. Modern German is barely 20 years old, it is building itself for the umpteenth time... And its incredible. Berlin reminds us that history is ongoing, we are part of it. Where else in the world can you stand on one street corner and simultaneously see Hitler's old HQ, Stalin's old government building, remnants of The Wall and people walking cheerfully about. Berlin- because of its rocky history- is a success story. Of the countless people who tried to ruin it, they all have failed. It is beautiful, it is young, and it is free.

--

We arrived 3 days ago and hit the ground running. According to everyone we talked to, we knew that there was more to do than there was time in the city.

That first day we set our sights on the first major milestone in the 20th century, the Holocaust. For each of the memorials or museums, i will split up my thoughts accordingly to make it easier to follow:


The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe: from the outside of this massive memorial, you can see thousands of white pillars, each identical in length and width and differing only in their height. It's hard to explain what it looks like from afar, like a collection of rectangles that seem to flow up and down. As you enter the memorial, walking through the pillars, you realize that the ground begins to dip and the pillars rise. While the concrete barriers were only a few feet high on the edges of the square, when you are in the center the stone rises high above you, 10 feet or more. This feeling of insignificance in the presence of physical barriers is something that many of the memorials have in common (in Berlin and elsewhere in Europe as well). The architect of the memorial, an American Jew, has always refused to comment on what meaning the memorial can take on; instead he maintains that whatever it means to the individual is the correct meaning. I identified most with one possible explanation: the blocks represent a sort of measurement of anti-semitism. From the outsides they are low, sometimes peaking out from just below the surface. As you descend into the depths of the world war, the blocks rise in the same way that policies against Jews did- slow enough to almost ignore that they're rising at all. Before you know it, you are trapped in the middle, completely disoriented, lost, stuck, dominated by the stones and the intolerance of others.


Below the memorial is a small museum that personalized that holocaust. As told to us, Stalin once said "one death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic." it is very hard to internalize how man people perished in the holocaust, and this museum does a really good job of doing it. They present a select few individuals who died in concentration camps and present personal things, heirlooms, and most powerfully, last letters and notes. I got really choked up reading the last words of individuals, telling their children, parents and loved ones goodbye. I highly recommend a visit to this very moving exhibit.


Topography of Terror: a few blocks from the above memorial is the old headquarters of Hitler's SS and Gestapo. Because of the horrible things that happened inside the walls of the old building, the German government decided to leave the area as rubble after it was bombed during the war, and never rebuild it. On top of the rubble stands a brand new building housing an exhibit on the measures that Hitler and his various enforcers took in scaring the public into submission. My favorite part was a small exhibit on the trial of Adolf Eichman, which happened after the Israeli government tracked him down in hiding in South America.


That night we decided to get a recommendation of somewhere to go for dinner. Our extremely over-enthusiastic hostel receptionist absolutely insisted that we go to an authentic German restaurant, which I was less than excited for because I was already hungry and getting there involved a tram ride... But we eventually decided to try it out- and I'm very excited we did. The restaurant was quintessential Germany, a small dining room where guests of different parties dined together at small tables with a staff of about 4 or 5. After some amazing German beers at the bar, we were invited to take a seat with one older gentleman who had already been there a while. We obliged and found ourselves wedged at a tiny table with someone who probably spoke no English.

About 2 hours later, we had discussed absolutely everything with this very nice man, a German from the south who had many opinions on everything from Hitler to the new Libyan conflict. He was able to put a german perspective on so many things that I had never considered. He was extremely candid and warm with us, not hesitating to give us his true opinion. Through him we learned about the German political system- a unique structure based on the failings of WWII- as well as politics in Germany today. It was a wonderful conversation. At the end of it, our new friend Yergan made the ultimate gesture and picked up our check. It was remarkable, considering he had just met us. When he got up and left, the 3 of us just smiled for about 5 minutes before finally getting up and leaving. One of the reasons I truly love traveling.

--

On the second day, we made 4 new friends. It was the first day of the jewish holiday Passover, and we decided to try and find a Seder that we could attend. We found one: an Israeli woman named Keren was hosting a big seder in the southwest part of the city that night. While we were discussing details in the lobby of our hostel, 4 girls asked us if we were talking about Passover and if they too could attend the seder.

During the day before the Seder we did a free walking tour of the city with a great guide named Taylor. He was entertaining and knowledgeable about the city and its history and we were able to learn about tons of sights downtown. The tour lasted over 3 hours and by the end of it I felt like I had a much better timeline of historical events that happened in Berlin.

We returned to the hostel later, found some Kosher (we thought) wine and headed to the Heidelberger Platz subway station to get on with the Seder. The event was held in a big building that had been donated for use for Jewish events. The Seder was big, probably 75 people, a mix of a lot of Israeli ex-pats and traveling English-speaking Jews such as ourselves. It was very informal- even compared to my family's Seders- and we were eating within about an hour of getting there. During the dinner, we met two Americans, Max and Becca, who were studying abroad in Berlin as well as Suzy, a professor from the University of Delaware on a 4-month teaching stint in Berlin.

The Seder was great, and it again felt surreal to participate in an ancient jewish tradition celebrating the liberation from oppression... in Berlin! The capital of Jewish oppression since slavery in Egypt a few thousand years ago. I kept thinking, "if we had a seder here 60 years ago, we could have been killed, and now look at us."

That night we returned to central Berlin, got some drinks on the trendy Oranienberger Strasse, and then finally headed to bed.

--

Our last day was spent at the Mauer Berlin Wall park and the Jewish museum.


Mauer: this was a park near us that recreated the conditions of Soviet entrapment via the Berlin Wall. The wall was only the most visible part of a long, thoughtful plan to keep East Berliners trapped in socialism. In reality, the system involved two walls and a large area in between, known as the "death strip," where guards shot-to-kill anyone caught trying to escape. The park, still under construction, goes to great lengths to show you what it looked like to be in East Berlin throughout that time period and was, in my opinion, very effective. Two short movies put a very human touch on the whole situation and educated us about the soviet measures.

The Jewish Museum: this museum, that daringly attempts to cover jewish history since the dawn of time, was pretty interesting. It was designed by the same guy who is designing the 9/11 memorial in NYC, and he makes pretty imaginative use of architecture to evoke lots of emotions. The building is a giant zig-zag with big open spaces, called "voids", that represent the holes in German Jewish society caused because of The Shoah. Most evocative with me was the Holocaust room, a massive stone room that was unheated and lit only by natural light coming in from a diagonal slit in the top corner of the room. Standing in there, the ceiling towering above me, I felt as Jews must have: trapped. The museum, while interesting, covered things very familiar to us (like what Shabbat is) and in that sense it was a bit redundant.



For our final night, we thought outside of the box, and hired a 6-person circular bike and pedaled around the lit city. With a backpack full of beers, we obviously were quite a sight as onlookers called out, cars honked, and cameras flashed at us rolling through town. Our onboard captain Olaf was standing atop the wall the day it came down, so he was pretty qualified to share with us Berlin historical anecdotes as we scooted along.




---


At the end of the day, this is the picture I will always think about when I remember Berlin: three girls lounging happily in front of The Berlin Wall.


It failed. The Nazis tried to oppress and they were defeated. The Soviets tried to choke West Berlin into submission, and they failed. The wall was constructed to keep people in, and just look at it now.

Berliners are busy re constructing their city- again- and from here on it should serve as a living testament of the triumph of good over evil. Every person who goes to Berlin, goes out and smiles, plays hackie sack, goes to a museum or just gets some drinks with friends is, in my opinion, throwing salt on the wounds of failure of Nazis and communism.

Just feet from where Hitler once paraded through the Brandenburg gate, now there is an evil empire of an entirely different kind: Starbucks. For Berlin, it's an improvement :-)


Greg

Having too much fun to Blog!!!

Sorry for the delays in posts. Berlin has been AMAZING and we are very sad to leave. Dave and Steve head to Prague today while I take a one-day detour and visit my family near Nuremberg in Eastern Germany. I will be using the 5-hour train ride later today to blog, so expect lots of posts and lots of pictures sometime late today.

Talk soon!

Greg

A great start to Berlin (cont)

We got some advice from our hostel receptionist about a good German restaurant to grab some dinner at. When we arrived at the restaurant there were no tables available, so we decided to grab a beer at the bar and wait. The hostess offered us a spot at a small table with one man already sitting there. Hungry, we decided to sit down. He was quietly reading a magazine and having a beer, while we sheepishly discussed what we'd be having. He eventually suggested a dish that consisted of pig ankle, mashed peas, sauerkraut, and potatoes. It was delicious!! After ordering, we got to talking with the man about politics in both Germany, America, and the rest of the world. Our conversation continued throughout dinner and another round of drinks, winding through all sorts of topics from travel to technology to languages to the German view of war today. Almost three hours later, our dinner paid for, we found out this man's name was Jurgen. It was an amazing dinner and even more amazing conversation, the kind that makes a trip like this worthwhile (as greg put it). In the end, Jurgen left us with this: "if you take one thing home to America with you, I hope it's that there are Germans today much better than the ones your grandfathers fought long ago."

What an amazing dinner and evening. I hope Berlin can continue to impress as much as it did on day one.

-The bear

A great start to Berlin

Today we made it to Berlin! It was a long day, starting at around 7am when we began our trek thru Copenhagen to catch the train to Berlin. Since we were unable to reserve seats for the train, we were expecting to stand for the duration of the 6 hour journey. Fortunately, we were all able to find seats...phew.

Once settled into our hostel, we headed out to get a jump on the many sights of the city. We had hoped to join a free walking tour at 4:00pm by the brandenburg gate, but the tour never happened for some reason so we made our own afternoon agenda. First, we visited the memorial to the murdered Jews. This is Berlins holocaust museum, which is made of 2700 concrete stones that have a very somber look but feel like a playground at the same time, so there are kids running all over the memorial. The museum is underground and it is very well done and very moving. The museum included some first hand
accounts of the events that occured in extermination camps, these were some of the most moving stories I have ever heard from the holocaust. We also had time to visit the topography of terror museum, an exhibit about the evils of the nazi regime built on the former site of nazi power. After seeing museums on world war II in both London and Paris, it was quite an experience to see the same topic covered by the germans. They do not want to cover anything up, mostly they seem to want the world to know that they are sorry for what happened and never wish it to happen again. This was confirmed by a wondeful German man we had the pleasure to have dinner with.

-The bear

Already leaving Copenhagen???

It seems as if we just arrived here in Denmark (and in many ways we really have). Yesterday and today were chock full of walking around and experiencing this city.

Before I had arrived, the only things I knew about the city were that my cousin Gabby studied abroad here, and it gets really cold in the winter. When we met Christian, our danish friend who we met back in Brussels, we learned a bit about the city which was truly reinforced while we were here.

First of all, Denmark was rated (by somebody) as the "happiest country on earth" a year or two ago. We were "warned" before we arrived that if we stood on the street corner studying a map, trying to find our way, a local Dane would almost certainly come and offer to help out. This we found to be true within about 5 minutes of arriving on the train, hen a local guy jumped off of his bike to ask if we needed help finding our way.

Copenhagen is in many ways the most similar to Amsterdam; people are friendly, bikes are everywhere. It is much more spread out, though and is, unfortunately for travelers like us, verrrrry expensive. Yesterday we spent the day walking around the city. From our hostel west of the city center, we walked into the middle of Copenhagen, walking along what we learned was Europe's first all-pedestrian street. It was typical Europe, nice designer shops, stylish people walking to and fro. We made our way east all the way to the harbor, and specifically to the picturesque Nyhavn (Danish for "new harbor") where multi-colored pastel houses and restaurants surround the city's oldest working harbor. It was, as my cousin described it, the picture you see when you get a postcard from Copenhagen.

We took a great boat trip that lasted about an hour and took us through all of the winding canals that come off of the main waterway through the city. In a city founded along the water, taking a boat ride to get aquainted was a great idea: we saw the royal theatre, the opera house, the famous tower over the water, the famous (and equally as unimpressive) little mermaid statue, and countless other really nice sights.

We found an amazing middle eastern restaurant last night and treated ourselves to a great meal. We had not eaten "out" really since meeting our friend Chloe's family in Paris a week or so again. To save money we constantly cook food in kitchens at our hostels. It was a nice change of pace.

Today we woke up and headed to the central train station in order to book train tickets (more on that in a minute), and then headed down to the south of the city to tour the famous Carlsberg Brewery. It was a nice, standard brewery tour- complete with two nice glasses of beer and was a nice refuge from the cold and drizzly conditions that were outside.

Afterwards, we tackled Copenhagen's public transportation system and headed to Christiania, a very interesting place. Christiania was a military installation and barracks along the river for many years. After world war II ended, the government eventually started to move the military from that outdated base to a new one further down the river. After the military moved out, on the 4th of September 1971, a couple hundred neighbors broke down the fences and became official squatters of the abandoned military post. 40 years later, this small area still enjoys autonomous control of their community, which include the legalization of marijuana and various other laws. The neighborhood, while very unique because of its hippie inhabitants, is about what you would expect from a 40-year-old autonomous hippie commune: it's a bit of a shit hole. Like I said, one of the most unique places I have seen. I am glad we went and saw it.

After christiania, we headed back to the hostel for a great shower and getting stuff ready for tomorrow. Unfortunately they are out of seat reservations for our 5-hour trip to Berlin tomorrow, so we will most likely be riding standing up the whole time. Yay! not.

I really enjoyed being here in Denmark. This is a great part of the world, with smart, successful, good looking people who enjoy (through high taxes) great healthcare and other civil programs. I really really really want to return to Scandinavia and see Norway and Sweden as well as more of Denmark.

This also marks the northernmost point of our adventure- it's all downhill from here, and I am definitely looking forward to some nice warm weather.

Our next stop is Berlin for 3 days, which I have been looking forward to immensely. Not too long ago this was a city inaccessible to a person like me, it is a city that is still in the middle of rebuilding... I am excited to see what it is truly like. The Jewish holiday of Passover begins on Monday as well, and spending it in Berlin takes on- for me- a very special significance.

Talk to you from Deutschland!!

Greg











Danish park





Weird Danish ad urging women to breastfeed


On train here to Copenhagen