Funday Monday

La Moulin de la Galette by Pablo Picasso

 This morning started off pretty slow. I watched some movies then had a late lunch. After lunch Nicole and I started our day. First things firsts, the Visions of Modernity Exhibition. Their we saw paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, and other famous artists. 

Landscape with Snow by Vincent van Gogh

Tourist shot with all the types of chocolate display

 After the Exhibit we went to a chocolate store where we learned the process of turning cocoa  into chocolate, saw opportunities for touristy photos, and ordered our style of hot chocolate in the flavor we wanted. I chose white chocolate, it was amazing.

Me with my white hot chocolate

My sad attempt at golfing

 After the chocolate break it was time for black light mini-golf. The course was extremely complex! I told Nicole that I have a bachelor's degree and she has a law degree, we should be able to do this, but she told me that we needed a golf degree to be successful. It was pretty fun none the less. In one room you even had to hit the ball off the wall to get it in the hole.

Atmosphere at Mini-Golf

The area we sat in for dinner

 After mini-golf we were so hungry so we went to try another Arabian restaurant. I'm so glad we did! Everything we had was amazing! I had tea, fried goat cheese, and felafel. The people were also really nice! We sat in the seating where you took your shoes off and sat on cozy couches with small tables. I loved every bit of the experience! 

Me at the Arabian Restaurant

The Stasi-Prison Tour

 The Stasi-Prison

Me inside the first prison building.

Today Nicole and I went to the Statsi-Prison Gedenkstatte (memorial) site. Nicole is very familiar with the state of Germany after WWII and the rise of the Soviet Union as she grew up here and was taught the history as well as lived some of it. But to me most of the information is new.

It is hard to think that right after one extreme, another extreme was presented to Eastern Germany. Many people left Eastern Germany to get to West Germany to prevent being under the ruling of the Soviet Union. I learned a lot from the tour, but be cautious because this is my re-telling of what I leaned and at some points may be misspeaking.

1939 Brick building turned into Special Camp No. 3

The first buildings rooms (cells)

The place where we toured was where the Soviet Union took people that were against them or had different political views that did not support the communist party. The people would just be "kidnapped" and taken to this place and have no idea where they were and would be interrogated. They Soviet Union worked out of this old brick building on the left that was once a kitchen and eventually it turned into a Soviet Interment Camp called "Special Camp No. 3".

There were 91,000 hired employees (Stasi's) who work as spies of the people breaking into houses, listening to conversations, using video to film activity within houses, etc. Any activity that either showed to be against the dictatorship or any planning on escaping East Germany resulted in being captured and taken to one of the prisons.

In the 40's and 50's the conditions were terrible. The camp would at times hold about 4,200 people at once in poor conditions with little food provided. The old cells had only a wooden bunk and a bucket for waste. Up to fourteen people was normal in a room and the bucket was only emptied once a day.

Physical and psychological violence was common to the prisoners. Many would sign confessions just

in hopes of being set free or to stop the torture.

The picture to the left here is a replica of the a torture tool used. It would drop water on your head constantly and if you got tired your face would fall in water.

In the fifties they stopped most of the physical torture and had most of the inmates in bad conditions, but conditions that were better than the original, they had toilets available for their use. Only the individual's who spoke against the Soviets or wouldn't cooperate while in prison would be punished in physically damming ways (but it was up to the guards who was deserving).
 
 To hear some of the stories being told and all the information made me so sad for the people of East Germany. To live in a world that is not free is almost imaginable to me. It made me feel so grateful to know that my government is not spying and to know

Right before strip was cells, left of strip is interrogation rooms

These are the newer rooms

that I have the ability to speak my mind and have an opinion of my and i don't have to worry about what might happen to me for thinking my own way.

Some of the prisoners who were kept here are the ones who actually give the tours. It must be so hard for them to return here and walk around the place where they were kept against their will. This tour was very educational and eye opening to the horrors that occurred after WWII and provided the reasons of the Cold War.

To think that it all only ended twenty-three years ago! People were still imprisoned here in the 1980's!

Me leaving a cell

An interrogation room

Happy Birthday Celebration

The Birthday Boy (Nicole's Dad) & Boris (Nicole's Boyfriend)

Today we celebrated Nicole's father's birthday. To celebrate we drove out to Storkow, Germany where they lived.

For his birthday I brought him a liqueur, which  he seemed very excited about and opened right away.

Nicole and her sister Katja

We quickly stopped by Nicole's Grandparents to say say hello. They seemed like the nicest person. He took time to speak about his father during Nazi, Germany and how much his father did not want to fight. His father became a soldier, but was given the dirty jobs that those who didn't support the war were given. When given the chance he tried to switch to the Russian side, but the German's got word and he was then killed. I am so happy I got the chance to meet him and his wife. I wish I would have gotten to know more of his history and his families history.
After the quick stop we went bowling. They wrote my name down and the bowling people are obviously not used to the name Tiffini, because my name became Tiffang. It gave us all a good laugh.

I got a chance to meet Nicole's sister as well. She asked me if my cousin, Julia was as high (tall) as me. She was very surprised about how big I was.

Also due to the language barrier, I told her uncle "I'm Tiffini, nice to meet you." He replied, "No." I would like to think he meant 'No English' instead of 'No it's not nice to meet you' haha.

It was a blast. They did comment on my bowling style though. They said I looked professional. I tried to explain the ball didn't think so, because it isn't hitting the pins like I want it to. Game one I scored 95 and game two 98.

Nicole said bowling had only been around East Berlin for about ten years, because when the wall was up they didn't get things like that there.

After bowling we went to Indian food for dinner. It was a fun experience and I enjoyed speaking with Katja. One of the few who spoke English. I felt right at home =).

Gendarmenmarkt Square

After the Underground tour we went to lunch at an Arabian restaurant. It was the first time Nicole had been there and it was an experience that we enjoyed but we would not dine there again.

Following lunch we went Gendarmenmarkt Square. All I can say is WOW!

Gendarmenmarkt Square is the area where all the fancy hotels are located, for example my aunt's favorite, The Hilton. The square was named after the Gens d'Armes, a Prussian regiment of the 18th Century. These people were mainly French who were kicked of out france in 1685. They used one of the churches as their house of worship that is located in the square. By looking at the square you would never guess that it was damaged in WWII. It has been restored to its original state.

 The Deutscher Dome is a German church built in 1708. It didn't originally have this much charm, but in 1785 Carl von Gontard helped in making the Dome what it is now. The detail work is amazing on this church! Could you imagine going here every Sunday? 

As you can see in the photo it is a very cold winter day in Berlin and everyone is bundled up, including me. Today I wore a coat, gloves, a stocking hat (home made by my grandma-thanks grandma), a scarf, jeans, leggings, two hoods, and three shirts and believe it or not I was STILL freezing!

 This is a statue of Schiller Denkmal. He is supposedly somebody famous. An artist or something...I think I'll google him later. His name is on the statue though so he must be important.

. This is the Konzerthaus Berlin Building. It stated as the Schauspielhaus, but then it burnt down. It kept its walls and columns that survived teh fire and added some special touches to make it the building it is today.

Here is the Franzosischer Dom. It is almost identical to the Deutscher Dom (don't worry I didn't post the same picture twice =P ). We climbed all the way to the top to lookout above the square. It was very high and 3 Euros, but totally worth the experience.

On our clime up to the top of the Franzosischer Dom there was an Art Exhibition by Simone Ghera, which consisted of photographs of different dancers in different famous cities. I snapped a couple shots of his work that we got to see throughout the church. You can look at more of his work at www.simonegheraphotography.com.

Gesunbrunner-Bunker Underground Tour

Dinner last night was great. I had authentic Japanese wontons and a delicious dessert made with pomegranate. It was a long walk to Suse's house, so we didn't get back until quite late last night. That is one thing about Berlin. The city is very large, but all of the people either walk, take the Underground (subway), take the street train, the S train, or bus because finding a parking spot for a car (if you have one) is almost impossible.

We got home late, but made it a goal to get up and out of the house by ten to make it to The Underground Tour. We toured the Gesundbrunnen Bunker, which was built to keep the citizens of Germany safe during air raids in WWII. The tour was full of interesting artifacts from the time and provided good knowledge on the topic. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures though, which was a huge bummer for the tourist inside me.

The bunker had many different rooms that held many people (but not enough during the time of emergency). It had areas for both men and women to use the bathroom too. It was interesting how small the bunker compared to how long it was needed to be used, but the German's thought that the air raids would only last for minutes  instead of hours, because at the time built planes couldn't fly for to long, but as the war continued planes became more advanced.

Many times the people would be stuck in the bunker for hours standing crammed together. They would be in there for so long that they would light candles at ankle level, waste level, and shoulder level to be sure there was enough oxygen for the individuals to survive. Once the ankle candle went out, the mothers would have to pick up the children so they wouldn't suffocate.

There was one mother and children room that was meant for women to be able to stay the night inside it with their children. But, those given the room first were women who worked, because these women needed to be well rested so they could get in the factory in the morning and help prepare the war equipment that German soldiers needed to fight.

One really cool thing about the tour was the glow in the dark room. This room was painted with glow in the dark paint so if the power went out the men hired could do their job if the power went out. Their job was to run out before the citizens in the bunker and make sure it was clear to evacuate the bunker.

Surprisingly enough, these bunkers were not actually completely safe. It was nothing like Hilter's bunker, which was really far down under cement (we are talking really really far). This bunker was close enough to the top that if a bomb it the ground right above the bunker, the sealed room it hit would be destroyed as would the rooms touching it. So it really wasn't that safe for the citizens, but the citizens were not aware of the dangers.

I would recommend this tour to others it is really interesting to see the stuff and hear the facts provided and we only froze a little bit. Because I don't have pictures you can look at www.berliner-underwelten.de so see if they have any, but it's not the same I know.

Berlin Facts & Fashion!

More Pictures associated with Berlin Facts & Fashion

Nicole and I went on the free tour of Berlin that I previously mentioned yesterday (I think I mentioned it anyway). It was very fun, but very cold. We choose to give a generous tip and then left during the intermission because we couldn't feel our toes. I would do it again any day (in the summer weather).

During the tour we were able to see the remainder of the Berlin wall, and old cars used in East Berlin when the wall was in place.

We also saw an old statue that was re-named Victory (because it was in Germany than stolen by the French, then taken back by the Germans).* It is funny to me that it is is named Victory however, because it is located on in the Pariser Platz (Paris Square) and it is located diagonaly from the French Embassy building...So who really was Victorious here???

On the outskirts of Pariser Platz is the Academy of Arts and the Aldon Hotel.* Which is a famous hotel where the extremely wealthy stay for visits. However, it is more famously known as the hotel Michael Jackson hung his baby out of the window.

We also went and saw the Jewish Memorial which is more famously known as the Holocaust Memorial. But that name is incorrect because there are other sites for lost individuals in this war and this sight is specifically for the Jewish people lost. The meaning of the piece is not released so that each individual can come up with his/her own purpose. Did I mention how good the tour was yet? I learned lots.

-Hilter's "Resting Ground" Not Picture Worthy-

And lastly we stood over the bunker where Hitler spent most of his time during the war. It is also where he killed himself. Because the Soviet Union took his body and cremated it and then dropped his ashes in the river (with the idea that he would never have a true resting place) this could be considered his resting site. No "In Memory" sign for Hitler is there, he is not mentioned in any fashion, just a parking lot to apartments where renters take their dogs to use the toilet.

That's enough history for now! I hope you enjoyed the facts!

After the walk we ate home made potato soup dinner, then rushed to the fashion show.

We waited in a line for a long time and saw the first two shows on a screen because we couldn't get inside.

But things then looked up and we were able to make it inside and to catch a show in person. The show that we went to was of designers who used all Eco-friendly products.

It was very fun! We even left with a goody bag (which is in my hand in the photo) that had free eye liner in it (Score!).

Today was very easy. We went shopping looking for new European walking shoes, but failed on the hunt. We went to Thai for lunch and then shopped some more. We did make a pit stop at Curry 36, a famous sausage street restaurant  in Berlin (famous for sausage, curry, and ketchup-it was tasty!).  Now I am home resting until dinner time where we are dining at one of Nicole's friend's house.

That's it for now!

Arrival: Berlin, Germany

I have arrived in Germany!

Well actually I arrived yesterday at about 1pm Germany time, which is about four in the morning Pacific time.

The plane ride from Seattle to Frankfort was a long one. It took about nine hours and I could hardly catch an ounce of sleep. The food on the plane was not bad, I just wish it was in American portions =). 

I then arrived in Frankenfort, Germany and waited for my plane to Berlin. That flight was a quick one.

On the plane and at the airport I was mistaken to speak German, which was flattering. Unfortunetly, I just had to give the people a strange look and say I only speak English.

Boris picked me up from the airport and we took the bus and train and then walked the rest of the way to Nicole and Boris' apartment.

I was trying very hard to just stay up and go to sleep at Germany night time, but unfortunetly, after Boris made us lunch (pasta and pesto scauce) I went to contact family to let them know I had arrived on time and couldn't even keep my eyes open.

I went to sleep at three in the afternoon Berlin time sleeping off and on and didn't get up until 8:30am this morning.

Nicole and I are going to a fashion show tonight. I'm really excited! It is fashion week in the city and we get to go! I hope to get lots of pictures to share later of the event! 

More to share soon!