2 more
exciting weeks have passed since I last wrote.
On Monday I
visited a barber after school, which came as a surprise to many people when I
walked into school!!
I enjoy finishing school at 12:50 but every day I regret
staying up until after 11pm (I’m writing this at 11:54pm) the night before as we
have to get up at 6am. Unfamiliar faces are now familiar faces, as I am getting
to know people.
For the last week it has been school holidays, and Vinzenz told me that I had to pack a bag for 4 days, but that he wasn’t allowed to tell me where we were going. I was very surprised and excited when I found out that we were going to Berlin (we were already in Munich by the time I found out). We caught a double decker bus at about 12:30am from Munich to Berlin, and we got to sit up the front on the top level, and it was so cool because I’d never been on a double decker bus.
For the last week it has been school holidays, and Vinzenz told me that I had to pack a bag for 4 days, but that he wasn’t allowed to tell me where we were going. I was very surprised and excited when I found out that we were going to Berlin (we were already in Munich by the time I found out). We caught a double decker bus at about 12:30am from Munich to Berlin, and we got to sit up the front on the top level, and it was so cool because I’d never been on a double decker bus.
We arrived at about 8:30am in the morning. It was cold, and we walked around Berlin all day looking at lots of shops, the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church and the Rolls Royce dealership. We stayed in an Airbnb apartment for three nights, which had a creepy clown picture next to my bed.
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| Inside the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church |
The second day was cold but I assume it gets much colder in winter. First we
visited the Berlin Wall memorial, which was really eye opening to how hard it
would have been for the people who were separated from each other. There was a
wall of pictures of the people who were killed trying to cross the border. One
of the most moving things I saw was a picture of a kid that was simply labelled
“11.05.1970-11.05.1975”. It makes you question what went so wrong, that a kid
had to die on his fifth birthday as opposed to playing pin the tail on the
donkey and eating cake.
Next we went
to the Brandenburg gate, and it was just as good as I expected. Then we went to
the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Where there are thousands of
concrete slabs all with different heights and a sloping floor. Suddenly the
heavens opened up above us and we were subject to millions of raindrops. The
weather made sure there weren’t many tourists, but also made it very powerful.
One thing that I’ll never forget was seeing the raindrops slither down the side
of one of the slabs and seeing the tears of the millions of Jewish people.
Their last tears. The tears of their families and their friends and everyone
that ever knew them.
After that
we went to the Reichstag building (Parliament building) where we finally got to
see blue sky.
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| The Brandenburg Gate |
On the third
day it was very cold, and we just cruised around. Out the front of some houses
they have tiny plates of metal identifying the previous Jewish owners as well
as when they were moved into concentration camps and killed. We went into the
official Ampelmann shop and I bought a key ring.
On our last
day it was Halloween which apparently is a lot more popular in Berlin than in
Wandiligong. We walked around the Spree River and went to a market and a
museum. I’ve discovered that in Berlin there are lots of double decker buses.
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| Berlin Under Construction |
The first
half of our exchange is over and I am looking forward to what the second half
holds.
Oliver
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| Two watches priced at 79,250 euros and 70,150 euros |
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| Stolpersteine - memorial plaques around Berlin |
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