Berlin, Potsdam & Zerbst Germany

Berlin & Zerbst Germany: 10-13 November 2017 

This trip was the best and worst. Lets start from the beginning and get the worst part of the trip out of the way. November 10th was awesome because Carli came back from Finland! She traveled from Helsinki, through Riga, Latvia and landed back safely in Vienna in the morning of the 10th. We got home and had just enough time for her to shower and pack new clothes for the weekend. We left Vienna for Berlin less than 10 hours after Carli returned. 

Sketchy Czech Train

At the train station, we were told that the tracks between Vienna and Berlin were under repair, and the train ride would be taking an alternate route through the Czech Republic, and that we would have to take a coach bus at 5 am from somewhere in the Czech Republic the rest of the way to Berlin. We boarded our train, and it was a ghost train. There was maybe two other people in the sleeper wagon, and we had a compartment to ourselves. The train was a Czech train, and wasn't very nice. It was late, and we were tired, so we made our beds, locked our compartment door with the latch at the top of the door and the chain in the middle, and went to sleep. 

Train Robbery in the Czech Republic at 1:00 am

I was dead asleep when I woke up to Carli screaming, and I rolled over in time to see her sitting up, terrified, and looking out the now open compartment door. Someone had somehow managed to unlock both locks on our compartment door, and sneak in. Carli heard the chain rattle against the door and opened her eyes to see a man standing between us. Thankfully, her panic scared him away and he didn't hurt us at all. After Carli calmed down enough to explain what happened, I immediately checked my pants which were hanging on a hook right next to my head. We were so smart, and had both of our iPhones, and my wallet in the pockets. I saw my wallet only halfway in my pocket and my heart skipped a beat as I realized it was not the way I usually put it in my pocket. I grabbed it and opened it to find all of our cash gone. Thankfully there was nothing else missing, and thankfully Mr. robber man was nice enough to put the wallet back where he found it. I looked for the phones next, which were miraculously still there. the only other thing out of place was Carli's backpack. She had put it on the top bunk all the way against the wall opposite the door, and when we woke, it was sitting on the floor right by the door, between the bunks. I jumped down and inspected it to find that it hadn't been opened yet. Thankfully, Carli had woken up. We think that she woke up just after he took the cash and managed to bring the backpack to the floor and scared him away just before he had time to go through the bag. It was an absolute miracle that Carli woke up, because in the backpack was her passport, and travel documents among other important things. 

In reality, we had been lulled into a false sense of security with all of the train rides we had been on up until this point. We had never before felt in danger or insecure, but after the break in, we just wanted off that train. from 1-4 am, I don't think we got any sleep at all, and I squeezed into Carli's bunk to help her fall back asleep, and we put our legs through the straps of our backpacks. After four of the longest hours of my life, and the train authorities being of no help, we finally reached the sketchy train station in the Czech Republic where our sketchy bus was waiting to bring us the rest of the way to Berlin. We were able to get some sleep on the bus, but when we arrived in Berlin, we were so exhausted.

Belin main train station. We made... barely.

Now for the many reasons why this trip was the BEST!

CAROLIN! Carolin has been my little German sister since 2011 when she came as a Rotary Youth Exchange student to live with my family in Michigan. She has been part of our family ever since we picked her up from the airport almost 5 years ago. She was waiting for us at the train station. After the long stressful night, it was nice to be with friendly people again... the Germans!

German Reichstag Building

The Brandenburg Gate

The Berlin Wall

Though there are sections of the Berlin Wall that are still standing, the vast majority of it was torn down. There is a line of bricks that runs exactly where the wall used to be. It's neat to see it going through normal parts of a city, and you would never have guessed it unless that was there, or you had a map. "Berlin Wall 1961-1989"

Currywurst is a must when you go to Germany. 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Berlin has one of the richest histories of any city I have ever visited, for many reasons. It is simple to visit a place, and see things, and monuments but miss what stories those monuments and places are telling you. This is the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, and the artist supposedly "designed it to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.  

The pillars range from 7.9 inches to 15 feet 5 inches, and they are built on an uneven surface making it disorientating to walk through.

This is checkpoint Charlie, the most famous border crossing point between east and west Berlin.

Jewish Museum

There are a number of "voids" in the Jewish museum, and this one was special because it was full of thousands of steel faces which went back into the dark. The artist's idea was to allow visitors to walk back into the void and on the sculpted faces for some reason that was explained in the audio guide. We didn't feel comfortable walking on the faces, as we felt it was too disrespectful, despite the intentions of the artist.

On this tree, you wrote a wish on a pomegranate, and hung it on the tree.

Carli and her Trabi in the gift store.

I recognize this bridge from some movies, so we took a picture with it. 

Potsdam

This is one of the only pictures we got while in Potsdam. This is where Carolin lives and studies, and we stopped by her place to pick up her car and drive the rest of the way to Zerbst.

Zerbst

Carolin grew up in Zerbst, and we went to visit her awesome family! We went on a bike ride around town with Carolin, her boyfriend Max, and her sister Charlotte. This is the entrance to Hogwarts... I mean her high school. But it's something like the oldest school in Germany! They even have an astronomy tower.

This is a cathedral in Zerbst that was bombed out beyond repair during the war, and was left standing in the middle of the city.

It was a party night on Saturday as it was Carolin's father's birthday. They had some family over and we had a very good time with them. The Schreck's are amazing people, and we love them a lot.

Sunday morning, we went to Church in Magdeburg, and were going to catch a train from there back to Vienna, but ended up going back to Zerbst and joining the Schreck's for Sunday lunch. 

We were happy to have lunch with them, because they were having a boar roast. Carolin's dad is big into hunting, and had hunted this boar earlier in the year. It was so good! 

We were so sad to leave Zerbst, and Carolin and the rest of the Schrecks. For most weekends in Europe, we were always on the go, and traveling, but for that weekend, we really felt at home.

Carolin Running along our departing train. Until next time Carolin! We love you!