Berlin!

Aaaaah, Berlin! Trese, I promise not to say unt even once! Just that once while I was typing it, and it was a little one;) I get to the international info station right as they turn off their light. They couldn't resist this smile, could they? Thank God, no! Especially since they aren't supposed to close for another eight minutes, and I have no clue where I'm going;) they direct me to the bus and I'm off whew! Phewww! Two degrees is cold, celsius or Fahrenheit! I catch my breath and then take a deep breath of Berlin air ahhhh! Argh! There's my bus! Sprint! Oh the visual! I jump over a couple things and there I am! Perfect! I'm not leavin' for another eight minutes! Whaddami in New York? Could have done without that info! I show him the address of where I'm headed and he just laughs and then says a lot of german words-maybe he knows my friend in St. Goar? I smile and plop down. The guy across the aisle from me tells me to stick my bus ticket in the little yellow box and get it stamped. Oh! I can do that! He's from Hamburg but spent a year in Australia and is so darling. We don't get to talk too long before a woman pushes a green button and motions to me. The bus stops, there's my hotel. I probably should have walked. But it's dark, and I'm glad to have spent time talking with this man. The woman looks like she's ok with me jumping out, though;) I don't see a bus stop, I think he just dropped me off. My friend reads my mind and agrees. Have fun and be safe! "St. Christopher and a rosary won't do it all!" , he says. I thank everyone and jump out. The street light have huge spheres all lit up in blue;) easy-peasy check in. I throw my bag in the room and head down to the lobby. The other thing he told me was to get a drink! He said he sensed I had some Irish in me and couldn't believe I hadn't had a drink today! There are two business groups of people in the lobby bar drinking. You can just tell! They have pained expressions on their faces and are gulping their (presumably free) cocktails. You can totally spot the boss of the group nearest to me. Especially since the brown-noser is practically sitting on his lap. In front of brownie is a beer that sweating. I'm sure he'll drink it right after he finishes the presentation he's giving...on his laptop! The woman next to him rolls her eyes and takes a huge gulp. I do not miss those days! Although they got me to where I am today! Literally! I'm at the Marriott! Points! I know, but I figured it was dark and a big city, so safety first and all that. My new friend agreed with you, btw and said to save the points and look at my sofa. Not his sofa, it's a website. I can't find it, but I'll keep looking! He said it was great in Australia. Now the sad part, everyone from the first business group is up and leaving. After brownie leaves, several of them come back and order another round. That one woman is still rolling her eyes. I bet brownie is very successful and saves his money, too! But I don't want to hear his presentation! The second group is in it for the long haul. I see questionable decision making in their collective future!

Good morning, Berlin! It is sunny and warm and wow I can see straight in their offices! Hilarious! It's cute to watch everyone get settled at their desk. I totally know which one is me...she's all organized looks around and is up! Who can she talk to? Buzzing around...ooh, I should go to breakfast and see if I see any of the people from last night....just one and he appears to be with his wife this morning. There are models in the executive lounge this morning. Girls about fourteen with long legs, long faces and long hair...seriously their legs are about as thick as Ryry's! The middle aged men seem distracted. I'm off to explore the city! I think about giving the bus a second try (after Edinburgh) but decide against it, especially since its 23€! I think I will be the tour guide today;) my first stop (eventually) is the Topography of Terror. The exhibit is free (go!) and really well organized. You go at your own pace, read what you want, listen to recordings if you want...there are plenty of people here, but it's still fairly quiet. Everyone is taking the information in in their own way. I feel like its not an exhibit of information that Germany is necessarily proud of, it's more like a necessity, it's real and the word that keeps coming back in my head is respectful. It's just done very well. It's still overwhelming! I look at some of these letters and pictures and think in another month from then, my mom is being born. How could this happen in her lifetime? Rockhurst gridiron star and his wife are welcoming their we daughter (we all know that article by heart;)) that same month, women are being marched through Berlin with signs of shame around their neck proclaiming they've disgraced their country by consorting with prisoners. In the middle of town they are seated and their heads shaved. It just seems so bizarre. Of course it gets worse as I wind my way in. It has to get worse, it's a horrible part of history. Like the museum, it's so organized...systematic. I can't believe the memos that are signed and dated and it happened! I turn to read a poster from 1941 and see modern Hush Puppies (if there's such a thing!) on the feet of someone on the other side....Uncle Bob? Nope! The poster essentially asks "what has the fuhrer given you?" then it goes through all the improvements since he's been in power...more education, more houses being built, people are making more money....it's scary. It would be hard to argue if you were one of the chosen ones...the Volk Community. About this point there's a weird machinery kind of noise. Not a good noise to hear when your reading about gassing people. The windows are opening. I don't know why. It's freezing outside! I look down, I've been in this exhibit for almost two hours and I'm only on 1941! I don't care because its so well done and I want to show it the respect it deserves. 1941. That's the year my dad was born. Now I'm really disliking the pictures of soldiers marching down the street. Around the corner is going to be my Grandpa! And back in the states, my Grandma is having to deal with him being so far away...and Little Docky! I want to turn the corner in this exhibit and have the Americans march in and save the day! Not yet! Some of the people who were examples of getting protective custody for going against the country and it's values? Cabaret (essentially, they mean homosexuals, which is eventually identified as its own class of miscreants) Socialists (this picture looks exactly like a beautiful girl one row ahead of me on my last train), democrats, communists, priests and deacons who have the gall to pray for Jews, lawyer....sorry Sean and Wiese, but it added an odd moment of levity.
There's a picture of a group of soldiers celebrating...they're at a retreat with girlfriends, champagne, the whole thing. 30 km away is a camp! It's so foreign to me. How can they celebrate? It makes me wonder where I would have been in all if this if I had been alive and in Germany. I think we'd all like to believe we'd revolt. I don't know, the whole thing is surreal and scary. Here are racial evaluation cards. They are literally measuring parts of someone's face to judge! There are pictures at Dachau. This makes me think if when Julie and I went to Dachau. We were physically sick. It's the one place I can honestly say I felt evil all around me. Then we got back on the bus that took us there and there were a couple of guys our age from Jersey who wanted to know if we wanted to go party? Soooo not what we were feeling, but thanks. And this Himmler? He's scarier to me than Hitler because I haven't heard as much about him. He seems to take great joy in announcing the lengths he'll go to to ensure germanifcation. How does this happen? Ugh! Now I'm just walking through how they took over countries. I'm taken back to Three Days in May". Where are the Americans?" Oh thank God! Around the next corner are pictures of American soldiers as well as fall of Hitler. Finally! And just when you think it can't get any more gut-wrenching....there's a special section dedicated to children if the era. I had never heard of "Child K". Evidently parents of a severely disabled child wrote to Hitler to ask his permission to euthanize him. This evidently lead to the euthanasia of more children, sterilization of deaf people and the argument that it was morally the best decision to make as they were sparing these children and their parents a horrible life. There are individual pictures with stories. One child "died" upon transfer from one home to another...I'm not putting the quotes in, they do. He was murdered. And they quote the mother as saying "he was capable and showed emotion every day". 4200 children (70,000 people total) murdered in less than one year! Its bad enough to do these horrible things to a fellow adult, but I cannot imagine children! To be fair, they did TB testing on these people to find a vaccine and over half the physicians initially licensed lost their licenses because they had some sort of genetic flaw somewhere. Ugh! Bridget, you are never allowed in this exhibit. I feel about like I did after leaving Dachau, except for better educated. It's mentally and emotionally exhausting.
I'm going to head toward Tiergarten. First past Checkpoint Charlie from the Cold War. I stop to take a picture for a girl traveling alone. Next I travel along Wilhelmstraub on my way to Unter den Linden. I pass "Curry at the Wall" no thank you. I walk down Unter den Linden into Pariser Platz. Here I have the rare chance to put on a German military hat and pose with an American flag and Darth Vader. Sorry, Sean. Instead I opt for a warm table inside Theodore Tucher where I've decided to have my first German beer! And pumpkin stew with sage and duck. Yum! Now through Brandenburg Gate into Tiergarten. Well, Mom, I have news for you. It's currently the site of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week! Is it possible that I "had breakfast" with some of the models? It is when I tell the story! On to The Soviet War Memorial. It's a beautiful dedication framed by two tanks which tell the story. Whoa! I've got to get to the train station to head to Dresden! Fromm Dresden I'll head to Prague. Ever been! Now I've just got to get to the station on time. Darn you, Berlin! If you could just be boring and have no history I'd be there by now! Plus, Haubtbaunhof has tons of shopping, not that I'm buying. But it's known as the shopping center where trains come! Now I've got the Brady Bunch singing "Keep On" in my head. Seriously? You've got to keep on keep on keep on dancing all through the night....actually a great song when you're walking quickly, now running! Of course I get to the station with plenty of time, book my sleeper car for my next journey (to Prague) and grab a diet coke, I mean coke light and head to the platform! I actually get a seat heading forward (!) and there's an outlet! I can charge my iPad! Oh happy day! Now, what will I do in Dresden?