Our group woke up this morning and headed out from Hauptbahnhof to travel to Berlin. Once we arrived, we headed to our hostel to drop off our stuff. The six of us gals are sharing one room, so we are thinking about it as one big sleepover! We were pretty hungry after checking in, so we went to a Bavarian restaurant. This is a picture of me, Libby, and Kara trying Radlers, which are a combination of beer and lemonade (I think these are named after bicyclists who drank them because they were more hydrating than just beer alone). Our resident director, Gerd, thought we accidentally got the drinks with lemonade in them, but I thought the Radler tasted good!

We then went on a city walking tour with our tour guide, Thomas. He was really informed (he has a background in history) and interesting! We started in Paris square, where the U.S. and French embassies are located. This is also where you can find the Brandenburg Gate, which is pictured below!

On the other side of the Brandenburg gate, you can see a cobblestone line going through the street (see photo below). This is how the city decided to recognize where the Berlin Wall once stood.

A short distance from this line is a plaque in the ground commemorating Ronald Reagan’s speech calling for Mr. Gorbachev to tear down the wall.

This line of crosses memorializes those who died at the Berlin Wall. Günter Litfin was the first person to be shot trying to escape over the Berlin Wall.

We then walked over to the area where the Reichstag, Parliament office building, and executive building are located. The highest court buildings are located in another city in accordance with Montesquieu’s principle of the separation of powers. Pictured below is the executive branch building, where Chancellor Angela Merkel works. Angie’s office is on the top left of the building, and you can see this office from the street. Thomas also told us that she lives in an apartment building.

After our walking tour, we stopped for a break to have some drinks and dessert. We then went to the Berlin Wall Memorial. Below is an image of a remnant of the wall at the memorial. Our guide told us that this final height and rounded top of the wall were scientifically and intentionally determined to be the minimum specifications required so that a person cannot climb over the wall from the ground.

This is a part of the memorial recognizing those who died at the border wall and in the border zone. Border guards who died at the wall are recognized through a different memorial some distance away.

In the border zone, on the other side of the wall on the eastern side, these spikes lined the ground so that someone jumping over would be seriously injured upon landing on the ground.

This is a view into the border zone that existed between the wall on the east side and west side of divided Germany.

Hearing all about the fear, violence, intentionality, and control that went into constructing and patrolling the Berlin Wall really made me think about borders and how we approach them. This “wall" mindset was so unsettling to consider and try to understand. Our guide commented at one point that instead of changing their economic and social policies to make people want to stay in East Germany, they just built a wall to keep people in.

After an eye-opening day in Berlin, we went back to our hostel for a break. Then we headed out into the city and had dinner at Seoul Kitchen, which is a Korean restaurant. Later we bar hopped around the city to do our own version of bar golf (which we missed at UNC) minus the costumes. We ended the night at a karaoke place, where members of our group sang Gasolina, No Air, and Larger than Life. Below you can find a picture of us that demonstrates that teachers indeed do love and have clearly mastered the art of the power point.