Allison Body

“Ich bin ein Berliner”…

I knew I would love Rome, it would be impossible not to adore the streets of Prague, Budapest was my heritage, and Oktoberfest was its own experience, but I had no idea how much I would enjoy Berlin. I did not know what to expect in Berlin, besides WWII history, and I am still trying to figure out what about Berlin appealed to me so much. These are a few factors I have come up with:

1. Museum Mania. We spent all day Saturday going from museum to museum: one about the history of Germany under communist rule, one that spanned the entire history of Germany, and a contemporary art museum, which was my favorite. There was so much history to learn about, and Berlin is also a huge hub of contemporary art. I think I could live there for a while and only scratch the surface of the museums that city had to offer.

2. Oktober. The morning of our last day a few of us set out to find a flea market…we spent two hours walking around a park, but never found it. None of us regretted it though because the leaves were beautiful and the park was full of sculptures, monuments, and even one of the largest instruments in the world—a giant tower full of bells. Whenever we got frustrated with the fact that we couldn’t find the market, we just kept reminding ourselves “But we are in a park…in the fall…in Berlin.” We had no complaints after thinking about that.

3. Yesterday and Tomorrowland. Germany was unlike most cities I’ve been to because it has several extremely modern, futuristic-looking buildings juxtaposed with old and historical buildings. We walked past the Reichstag one afternoon and experienced an eerie feeling of being in some sort of post-apocalyptic world. We saw the Reichstag, the empty lawn which used to be full of crowds at Hitler’s rallies, and then all sorts of oddly shaped glass and concrete buildings that seemed straight out of Tomorrowland in Disney World—not to mention it was freezing, cloudy, and windy. The total imagined effect was not far from the reality: something terrible had happened here, something that radically influenced the future and our knowledge of what horrors humanity is capable of.

4. Love the ones you’re with. Finally, I think I loved Berlin because of the group I was with. It is one of our program trips, so the majority of the people in my program were there. After almost two months we have really gottent o know and like each other. A visiting friend of mine commented on how surprised she was that all of us seemed to genuinely enjoy each other’s company, despite the fact that we are a diverse group, and I think it is mostly true. All of us wanted to make the most of what Berlin had to offer, and we had a good time doing it together—having serious conversations about the history of the city, cracking jokes, and jointly appreciating how it feels to be young and travelling.

I would love to go back to Berlin some day to see more of what it has to offer, but right now I have a full travel schedule ahead of me: Ireland, Florence, Terezin (a concentration camp), Paris, and Vienna! It’s going to be a busy November!