Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland!

Our last two days in Germany went splendidly well. On Friday morning, we were able to ascend to the top of the Reichstag, headquarters of the German Parliament. Not only was entrance free, but since we arrived at 8 am, there was no line (or “queue” in British parlance). We received free audioguides, though far more information was provided on the ascent up the cupola than on the descent. The cone has an opening at the top and acts as a heating/cooling system for the building by funneling air and precipitation into specially-constructed chambers. Later, we went to the Story of Berlin. After spending Thursday engrossed in WWII and occupied Berlin, I appreciated the eight centuries of context the museum provided. We were able to visit a bunker (that was never used) and learn about the crowded and basic living conditions that people would have lived through for up to fourteen days. Friday night, we ate a nice Southeast Asian restaurant in the neighborhood of our hostel and I was able to indulge my love of seafood by ordering shrimp. Saturday was spent souvenir shopping and visiting the Stasi Museum in East Berlin. The Stasi were the state security service in East Germany and monitored the lives of many citizens as portrayed in the film The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen). There were two translations in the entire museum, so my German-English dictionary came in quite handy! I saw some official documents, including a New Year’s one that said, “Best wishes from the Stasi.” On the top floor, the curators had prepared a jail cell to look like the ones that had been used for prisoners of the Stasi. Looking at the spy exhibits showed how far Big Brother technology and public knowledge has advanced – in one birdhouse the Stasi had installed a camera whose lens took up the entire entry. In the age of web- and nanny-cams, most of us would easily be able to spot such an “obvious” camera. Due to high demand for the Berlin-Paris line, only my housemate S and I were able to go back on the Saturday night train since we were leaving on other trips on Monday morning. We all ate dinner at the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof) station – I ordered a currywurst with fries in German!