Day 26 – Day 1 in Berlin – Monday June 18th

I met a large group of girls downstairs in the lobby of the Hotel California at about 10am. We went straight for Zoo Berlin. There they had the largest number of species of any zoo in the world. We saw a large variety of monkeys first. It always makes me sad to see orangutans though because they appear so sad usually and very humanistic.

We saw elephants, lions, tigers, wolves, tapirs, flamingos, camels, giraffes, polar bears, seals, penguins, hippos, rhinos, and jaguars to name a few. They had a baby polar bear which was a main attraction at the zoo. It came out between 11 and 12 for public feeding. They had to move the crowd out in fifteen minute shifts to make the crowds reasonable. The zookeepers literally were tackling the bear and rolling in the dirt with it. They made it seem like polar bear bites just didn’t hurt.

We met with Dr. Bob at 1pm to go see the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. It was very interesting with all of its stories of daring escapes out of East Berlin. The most creative, I thought, was a homemade scuba tank and accompanying gear that was made from scrap metal and tubing. We were rushed a little to get through, so I missed some of the museum. I got the gist of it though. From there, we saw the last remnants of the Berlin wall. They were mostly chipped away, but they were an impressive part of history nonetheless. The Topography of Terror was literally right next to the wall, but I had to breeze through it in order to stay with the group. We walked to the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. The gate was beautiful and so was the Reichstag. We did not go inside the Reichstag, but apparently the view from the top was great.

Next was the Holocaust memorial across the street from the gate. It seemed almost plain from the street. It appeared to be just black slabs of different sizes all thrown together. Once inside, however, I realized that the slabs were over ten feet high in places. I lost sight of everyone I was with in seconds and the instant feeling of loneliness in a maze of black towers was almost frightening. The memorial really showed how something so innocent looking from the street could be a maze of solitude and terror.

Rob and I met in the lobby of the hotel at 6pm to grab dinner. I had a duck salad and a rack of lamb tat was both affordable and delicious. We met Dr. Turkett and Dr. Bob at 7pm and headed to the playhouse down several blocks from Checkpoint Charlie. We saw the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. It was in German, but they made it very visual. They changes quite a bit to the story. The figurines were made of ice instead of glass and they cut several scenes with Tom. They even changed the ending slightly. It was still worthwhile though; the acting was engaging and well-crafted.

We headed back to the hotel, but since Rob was sick and the other guys had gone, I was left with little to do. Luckily, there was a large group of people in my room (maybe 12 or so), so I took everyone to “Klo” (the toilet bar Dr. Rast suggested to me). It was very fun. The novelty of the bar was that they played pranks on you while you sat there and they played funny videos and had fun paraphernalia all around. Seats shook or changed heights, spiders and foam hammers fell from the ceiling, and the waiters would sneak up on the table and scare us. We all had a good time and left happy.