Peace Now

Today we were super busy. We woke up at about 6am due to the guy in our hostel snoring like an angry dying hippo. 

The first thing we did was head to Oranienburg where the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial is. Oranienburg is a very small town about an hour north of Berlin and was absolutely adorable. All of the houses were so cute with beautiful lawns full of flowers. 

This one was still under construction:

We then walked about a mile to get to the camp. It had been bombed in 1991 so most of the original buildings were gone but they had built exact replicas according to descriptions given by survivors. All of the original walls, barbed wire, and watch towers were still around the perimeter. It was very eerie and sad. In the prison building they had set up memorials in each cell and a bunch of them had flowers that people had stuck through the gate. 

Going to the camp was sad but an important thing to experience. We spent about two hours there and made the journey back to Berlin. 

Once we got back we were walking down the street when all of a sudden some lady comes up to us and asks if we want a free mojito! There was a promo team for Havana Rum and we got to go up into a parked trailor and make our own mojitos for free!!! We were up there with some other people and we each got our own little bar mat with all of the ingredients and a Cuban woman walked us through all the steps. 

*cheers*

We then walked to the city center and did some sight seeing. 

It was really cool to see the Reichstag. I've been reading a book about the history of Nazi Germany and this building played such a major role in the war.  

We walked through the park and found a little beer garden which was much more tranquil than the one in Munich, sigh. 

We also went up to the top of this monument. I can't remember what it's called but it is in the center of the city and has been there through all of the chaos that Berlin has seen over the years, which is a ton.

We climbed the spiral stairs allllll the way up and it was so worth it. 

A little perspective, this is the golden statue on the top: 

On the walk back to the hostel a little later we saw this piece of the Berlin Wall: 

Berlin is full of a lot of sad history. It is a much more stoic city than Munich, which is expected given all that it has been through. It was a very enlightening and humbling place to visit. 

Now we are on the train to Brussels, Belgium!!