Berlin in a Day

We strategically arrived in Berlin very early in the morning and grabbed a bite to eat at the hostel before meeting up with the free Berlin tour we had looked up in Munich. 

Our walking tour was put on by New Berlin Tours, which comes highly recommended.  Our particular tour started at the Brandenburg gate and was led by a cheery Irishman named Barry, who we came to love very much and who did an absolutely fantastic job leading us through the city on this cold drizzly day.

Our tour took us around Berlin highlighting important places and points of interest in the history of the city both in relation to Nazi power and World War II as well as its later importance in the communist race and obviously leading up to and finishing with the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Barry showed us the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, The Holocaust Memorial, and dozens of other museums, monuments and memorials.  Barry entertained us with a half hour or so rendition of the story of the fall of the Berlin wall from the steps of the [protestant church at the end].  In addition, he gave us a very interesting visual of what it would have been like to try and cross the Berlin Wall from East Berlin to West Berlin including dozens of booby traps, armed watchmen, snipers and electric fences. 

One thing I found extremely interesting was the similarity of stories between the walking tour we received in Munich and the one here.  Both guides spoke of a terrorist attack on a building in their respective city by the communists that led to the beginning of Nazi power and eventually World War II.  When we were in Munich, we were informed that the Commy’s set some old building on fire which led to Hitler being given power to imprison anyone.  When we were in Berlin, we were informed that the Commy’s set some old building on fire which led to Hitler being given power to imprison anyone. We asked Barry what he thought about this and naturally, he said the guy in Munich was lying.  I guess I could Wikipedia it, but I’m lazy.  So if anyone figures out which story is correct, let me know.

After our walking around, we did what we are famous for on this trip.  We ate dinner at the hostel, started drinking, and never left.  We started with the most amazing cheeseburger I think I’ve ever had.  It had 100 things on it that I can’t remember: avocado, fried egg, beets, god knows what else.  We ended up playing a combo game of quarters and “I have never” and drank way too much Jaeger and that was that. 

Munich: The Third Reich and Dachau

Originally, I was going to only write one post about our 2.5 days in Munich, but since yesterday’s was 100% about booze, I decided I would separate the drunk part of our trip from the sober part because Munich does have a lot to offer besides beer.

Though, the first thing you should do is go to the Hofbrauhaus when you get to Munich.

The SECOND thing you should do is go see the city.

I’m a big fan of walking tours – especially cheap/free ones.  Today we had planned to go on two.  The first of which was a Third Reich Tour around downtown Munich and the other was a tour to Dachau which is a town about 30 minutes outside of Munich and is home to the first Nazi Concentration Camp.

The Third Reich Tour was amazing. We met up with our guide who was from the states and who walked us all around Munich telling us the story of Hilter’s rise to power starting at the beginning. We learned all about the Nazi Party, Hitler’s first political speech at the Hofbrauhaus, the Nazi headquarters building, the struggle between the Nazi’s and the Communists for power in Germany and the similarities between the rise of the Nazi party and current events.

Turns out, when Hitler declared “war” against the communists, he did so by blaming a terrorist attack on them and getting the people to believe that communists were all terrorists. In doing this, he instated a law that any person could be arrested if they were believed to be a potential terrorist and for no other reason.  These terrorist prisoners were all sent to Dachau, which was setup as a holding ground for political terrorists, but turned into the first concentration camp.  Some of this just sounds way to similar to some things going on in the world right now.

In addition to all the history, we learned about how the Nazi party and it’s reputation has impacted present day Germany.  It is still illegal to do the “Hail Hitler” salute and if you are caught doing it (for any reason, no matter who you are and how much you’ve had to drink) you will go to jail, and your fine is 1 month’s salary of whatever you make. Cuh-razy!

Dachau was amazing as well.  There’s not really a lot I can say about concentration camps other than, you need to go to one. Walking around this place, the bunkers, the maintenance halls, the torture rooms, gas chambers and extensive open yard space really made you feel a bit eerie. Each room brought more stories of prisoners being forced to stand for hours in one spot, being tortured and beaten by guards and living on the smallest of small rations.  And the most shocking part of the whole thing for me, was that Dachau was actually used as a “model” concentration camp and was the one that was always filmed and photographed to send propaganda that the camps were really not that bad.  We saw radiators in each torture chamber and when journalists came to see the camp, these were always turned on and happy plump looking prisoners put into the cells they contained.  And although I had heard stories of gas chambers and mass executions hundreds of times in school, seeing them for my own eyes was just.  Unbelievable.

It was absolutely incredible.

Trying to Keep Up With You...

These blog entries are all starting to sound the same.

Today I got drunk in Dublin. Today I got drunk in Galway. Today I got drunk in Munich.

Damn you Brian, Emily and Diana for ruining my liver and my life for the past 2 weeks. (As a side note and for proof that I’m not doing this alone and that it is as bad as it sounds, read Diana’s post from her Liver’s perspective).

Anyway. We got drunk in Munich. Surprise.

After arriving, we drew a map of town and where we were going to walk to.  What we should have made the last stop but made the first was to go to the Hoffbrauhaus and have a beer. HA. A beer. Ya right, because we’re so good at having just UN beer and than leaving. Naturally, we got there at about 2 and stayed all night. We ended up eating dinner there (an entire pig’s leg, but we didn’t know what it was when it came to our table). We took our picture with men in Lederhosen and watched a different old man snort tobacco.  We had a conversation with a waiter who spent 30 minutes trying to tell us where he was from (including a map drawn on a napkin) and when we finally figured out it was Iraq, he responded, "no! no! it's not Iraq, it's blahsdflkjsiweldk which is NOW PART of Iraq. We are so happy your people are there to bring peace blah blah blah." So... you're from Iraq. Then we walked home arm in arm singing REM’s Losing My Religion and I’m not sure how we didn’t get arrested.

So then, rather than calling it a night at 9 PM or whatever time we got home. Brian and I decide to drink more at the hostel and when about 5 kids got stuck in the hostel elevator for an hour (which has a clear glass door) we decided it would be fun to take our beers out and drink in front of them and talk to them. I also vaguely remember a joke being made about Germany and gas chambers but even though the voice sounded like a girl, I’m sure it was Brian who said it.

To make the night even better, once we DO go to sleep, Brian is snoring like a jackhammer (which the rest of us are completely used to at this point) but apparently the 3 Asian girls sleeping in our room were not and they made a complaint to the hostel staff.  So I am awoken (awakened, woked up) by a very large overly German German man with long blonde hair and a Bruno accent, screaming at Brian telling him off in German.  After about 5 minutes of negotiation in terribly broken English (and Asians speaking German to Fabio) the man gives the girls ear plugs and finally leaves.

HAHA. God it was funny.

But seriously. Why stay in a coed mixed dorm hostel for €12/night if you don’t expect to be kept up all night by snoring men and drunks. Who stays in hostels and doesn’t bring their own earplugs?

Pretzel anyone?