Part II

This past Wednesday we had another excursion day with our class. This time we went to a museum called “The Story of Berlin.” It was interesting and had all the history of the city including a huge section on the DDR of course.

After going through the museum though, they took us beneath the museum to one of the bomb bunkers that was built in case of an atomic bomb attack. It was never used but had crazy amounts of beds and these weird bathrooms. Actually, it was extremely creepy down there. I stopped behind the tour to take a picture or one area and my camera wouldn’t work so of course by the time I did get the picture everyone had moved on to a complete other section of the bunker and I was left alone. Let me tell you, I booked it. I looked up a realized there was silence surrounding me and everything was basically dark besides this blue light that lit the place a little. I don’t care whether or not the place was actually used… that place is the exact place where ghosts would love to haunt. So yes, I high tailed it through horror-film looking hallways until I found the group again.

This is the picture I stopped to take. Told you it was creepy

The bathrooms they would have used

Beds

And alas, there was an “I am embarrassed for my country” American on the tour. Yup. This woman, who just fed every American tourist stereotype, was ridiculous. Not only was she rather large wearing socks up to her mid-shin with sneakers, camera around her neck, and sweating as we stood there (it was not hot down there) but obnoxious. Immediately when the tour began, she’s waiving her hands in front of the tour guide’s face and challenging everything she said. When we stopped to look into a window of a room, the focal point of what the tour guide was talking about, she stood in the middle of the doorway and braced herself across it so no one could see into the room. Instead we just stared at her. I can’t even justly describe it. I had to laugh. She continued to interrupt the tour guide and point out things about the bunker that the tour guide was just like “actually no mam’ that is not how it happened…” You know when you watch a show or someone and you feel embarrassed for them? This was one of those times. After the tour, I looked at the kids in my group and they were all said, “and that is why Americans have a stereotype.” But the day was fun all in all.

We went to Schloss Charlottenburg on Friday, which was only like 20 minutes from my apartment. The castle is HUGE so we only toured the “old section” but that took like 2 hours in itself. Most of the upstairs of the castle was destroyed by bombs in WWII, which was really sad. They recreated a lot of it, which I always hate because I don’t feel like I’m looking at the actual thing anymore. But the parts that were preserved were really neat and the garden was beautiful. They wouldn’t allow photography inside so all I have are outside shots. Oh well.

Garden

Don't ask

This weekend was pretty crazy. First, the street I live on had its first Schroderstrasse day. All of the people on the street opened up their apartment building and had cakes, coffee, games, live music, wine, beer, and so on and so on. It was like a giant neighborhood party but in a city so it was even cooler. All of the apartments have courtyards in the middle of their buildings so they all had different things set-up inside. I have been walking by this alley everyday and I catching a glimpse of this really old building when I walked by. I have always been curious to go see it but I felt uncomfortable because it’s next to where people live so I finally got my chance this weekend! It was made in the early 1900’s and there are broken windows and stuff. People live in the building adjacent but almost a part of it. Other than that it is run down and so old I love it. It looks like it would have amazing history inside if someone let us go in. We did get to go into the creepy basement of another building though where a girl had made “art”. I don’t know how she worked down there alone because it was really scary. There was an old phone on the wall from 1904 that still had numbers for the police that dated back til then (Volkspolizei). It was cool.

The building to the right of the red brick church is mine

They do it in Germany too

Kids making massive bubbles

That is the old building. Not to frightening with kids out front but very OLD

Basement art. The sheet flew up and then dropped to the floor over and over again

Old telephone

Then, later in the evening, there was a bunch of bands that played. One was from Austrailia and I bought their sampler CD. Theyre really good. There was this 80 or so year old woman that popped her head out the window and started dancing to the music. She then came out on her balcony to dance too. It was so cute. I have a video Ill see if it lets me post it.

In between scary art basement and dancing granny, we ventured down to the main part of the city because they were celebrating Christopher Street day. It was a gay pride day and over half a million people flooded the streets. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen! There were ridiculous costumes and floats everywhere. Kathleen and I jumped right into the crowd and everyone was dancing and having a good time. I loved it. Ill post some pictures of it. I can’t even imagine what Oktoberfest is like.

At the end of the night, everyone from our apartment buildings sat in the court yard and they projected Mama Mia on the wall of the building. It was a really cute family evening. Germans love American music and all the moms (and Kathleen) were dancing and singing Abba like crazy. Perfect ending to the night.

Oh, also, before the parade, we ran into a group of street performers that were fun to watch. Ill post that video too. Keep watching til the end its when it gets good.

and another one

And this is just a cool door

Oh and I forgot one thing about Hamburg. During our tour, we started hearing people in the distance yelling the same thing again and again and eventually ran into a huge demonstration against the Iranian president. I thought it was interesting because I have never seen a huge protest and I had been following the situation on the news.

This is the end tail of the protest but it went for miles and police we everywhere