Travels across Germany

It seems as if I have meerly blinked twice since I was last writing about my adventures in Germany, but in between those two blinks I have seen so much and experienced an amazing amount of things.

In Germany, there is a two week holiday for the end of October, and I was blessed with the opportunity to travel across Germany in two trips. The first trip was to the Rhine River for the better part of a week, and the second was a Rotary bus trip to Berlin and back. Both trips have made me come to love Deutschland even more, and allowed me to finally see in person the things I have only read and dreamt about.

The Rhine River

The first trip was with my Host family. They took me to see the Rhine River and the Castles in the surrounding area. It was a long drive to reach the Rhine land, but well worth it. The scenery is beautiful and the image of the river cutting through the mountains leaves a pleasent image in your mind. The town we stayed in was St.Goars, and we stayed in a youth hostel  (Jungenherberge) that was located on the side of a mountain, directly under the ruins of a Castle.

 A youth hostel is a bording school; a class learns and lives in the building, and vistors are allowed to rent out the spare beds when they are passing through the area. It was a cozy establishment with a great view and

the view from the hostel is simply amazing.

 I was also able to see several castles, and each were different in their own respective and unique ways. One was almost two thousand years old, another an imperial fortress built for cannons, and yet they all shared the trait of towering over the landscape, standing testimony to the genius and the imagination of people.

I have always dreamed of seeing castles. My childhood was full of movies, toys, and games about medieval knights and their fortresses of stones (my parents can testify) and so seeing castles has fullfilled one of my biggest dreams. It is a unique experience seeing the objects and buildings that you have only read about, and can finally put an image to and say 'I was there'.

The Rhine River is an experience I will never forget, it has been one of the highlights of my life so far; being able to experience the history that I am so fond of. Thank you the Lihl family for bringing me on this adventure.

Berlin

As soon as I arrived home from the Rhine River trip, it was time to pack for the week long trip to Berlin. I hastily packed my bags and went to sleep, because the following morning I had to catch a bus!

The trip to Berlin was organized by Rotary, and gave a breif overview of Germany history and politics since world war two. It was a fantastic experience with a great group of friends, and once again I was able to see the history I have long since read about in person.

The first stop was to a DDR (German Democratic Republic, or East Germany) border museum. As soon as we arrived though, we saw snow on the ground and had a huge snowball fight. For many people, it was the first time every seeing snow, and I think they had a great first experience.I sure had fun.

The museum itself was very interesting as well, and had replicas of the security forces used by the DDR to contain people trying to flee the country to the west. This was the most informative part of the trip for me, as I had no idea that the border defences were so highly guarded, and the policies were so cruel. I had an idea, but I was no where near as knowledgeable as I am now. I am glad that I know more now about the situation between the East and the West, and just how lucky I am to live where I live.

The next stop was a concentration camp. Konzentrationslager Buchenwald. What you feel walking into the gates of the camp is... indescribable... The entrance to the camp has an iron gate, and the words on the gate read 'JEDEM DAS SEINE'. 'To each their own' or, 'To each what they deserve'

The words themselves give you a shivers down your spine, the implacation of suffering clear.
Going to the camp was not a happy experience. But it is a good experience, a neccessary experience. It is a sobering reality of what has and can happen in the world, and allows us to learn from the horrors of the past so that they will not be repeated in the future. The camp is saddening and yet insightful, and makes sure that you will never forget the camp, and what went on during the holocaust.

 Each stone represents where a 'house' used to stand, where prisoners were forced to sleep in small quarters with no personal space.

 The building is a crematorium.

The border of the camp.

I am glad to have been able to learn. I think everyone should visit a concentration camp to learn what was, so that they can prevent what might be. The museum symbolizes this simple yet extremely important notion by giving everyone a free 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights booklet, something which was created in response to the wake of world war two, and the tragedy that was the Holocaust.

The next stop was to the Berlin Wall. 

It was amazing to see all the artwork (and graffiti) on the wall, and all the opinions and beliefs that can be mirrored through art. I will always remember Berlin as the city of graffiti, as the graffiti was everywhere. On the walls (of course), on the streets, on the sides of buildings (in the air!) and even inside the parliment building. I am not making this up.

The Reichstag was an amazing sight, and we had a guided tour inside the German parliment building. The building is full of history and reminders for both the government and the people about the past and how they must always strive to do what is right and not neccesarily easy.

 The graffiti I mentioned eariler is one such example. During the second world war, during the battle of Berlin, the soviet troops captured the Reichstag, and the soviet troops wrote all over the walls with their names and home towns. The German government decided to keep the graffiti as history, and the origional stone is intertwined with the historic stone as a reminder of the past.

The German parliment is a very impressive building, the second largest tourist attraction in Germany, and is also host to a 360 degree glass dome, from which you can see Berlin.

The huge dome offers a great view of the city at night, and is one of the most interesting buildings I have ever seen in my life. It is something to see for sure!

Berlin is also a very historic city, full of statues and museums. The city is very old, and I took many photos of many statues and buildings (all can be seen on my facebook) and the following is a small collage of Berlin.

I had a fantastic experience traveling to Berlin, and I have gained so much as a person and as a German exchange student being able to travel and see what I have seen. I would not trade anything in the world for what I have experienced, as I believe my experiences make me a better person, a more complete person. It has also shown me that I was sent on exchange to the best possible country. Deutschland.

I would like to thank everyone that helped make this possible, and I hope you enjoyed the little bit of Deutschland that I have shared in this blog.