The nerd in me comes out even more...

Now I realize you don't know this, but all of the stories here are very jumbled. My mind has been jumping all over this trip, so there are a lot of things that happened the first day that will get told here, and a lot of things that happened Saturday that I made it look like happened on Friday. Best part about this? I am the only one who knows what happened when! MWAHAHAHA!!! Back to Berlin.... Saturday was a really fun day. I had seen just about everything I had planned on seeing. It is amazing how much faster the scooter is apposed to walking :)

The first place I wanted to see was the Jewish Museum. I was sort of expecting something like the Holocaust Museum in D.C. (which is amazing by the way). Instead what I got was a history of the Jewish people with a tiny bit dedicated to the ones killed in the Holocaust. I was really kinda disappointed by this actually. I think I would have found it interesting if I didn't go in with the expectations I had. About the only exciting thing that happened here is that they found the knife in my bag... ooops... forgot about it. They took it and I picked it up when I was done. Wooo.... excitement.

At this point I was a little annoyed, I was so looking forward to this! Oh well. I decided to go and find some lunch, but apparently nothing really opens until 4. Really?? Do people in Berlin not eat lunch? Finally I found a little bakery that had food. I decided I was going to try and use my German and not try to rely so much on my English. I was doing decent until I got flustered and the girl didn't want to deal with it. She wasn't rude, but you could tell that she didn't want to be the one that this little American girl used her awful German on. So it became more of a point and say thank you conversation. Suck. I then went to this lovely bench and ate my food

Now I know to most of you this just seems like just another bench. And well... I guess it is. There is a little more to it for me though. Before I came to Germany my Grandpa Ludwig sent me a copy of his first cousins life story. His name was Herbert Kurt Ludwig, and while I don't think I ever met him, because of reading his story I felt extremely close to him. The first girl he kissed ended up being the last one he kissed as well. He kissed her and then later proposed to her on a bench in a park in Berlin. In the book there is a picture of the bench, but try as I might, I couldn't find the actual original bench. It is a very bad picture and it was also taken over 50 years ago. Luckily for me, I have an amazing imagination. This bench fit all the criteria he talked about. It is in Berlin, just down the way from a train station, and it kinda looks like the same place. I know I might sound crazy, but I really enjoyed pretending that this was their bench.

This is the Rotes Rathaus, which I am almost confident was where Herbert was married. The church didn't have the authority to marry them in Germany at this point, and so they were married in the town hall and then had a ceremony in the LDS chapel. The picture of their wedding day is really hard to make out, but I am pretty sure this is the place. The other place that was an option as well I check out too. It is most definitely not the place. So I choose to think this is where they were married :)
This picture right here makes me laugh. I was kind of at the point of... what do I do now? So I decided to take some fun pictures. I set up the shot, set the time, ran to the other side and hopped up, then realized I was being watch and started to laugh. They did too and said something in German and carried on their merry little way. Just another crazy American in Berlin.

The next set of pictures has a common theme that is really easy to pick out :) Before I left Natalie and I were laughing and saying how I should take an army man with me and take pictures with him all the places I go. Well we never found one before I left but a few days before heading to Berlin, I got a package from Nat. With this army man in it. So here are his adventures in Berlin (I feel like he needs a name. Suggestions are welcome).

While in Berlin I went to the Memorial for the killed Jews. I don't understand the significance of the layout or the style... It was interesting but I didn't understand so it didn't really do much for me. Underneath this is a different story. There is a museum underneath filled with a lot of quotes and excerpts from letters. It is amazing to see how much fear can be held in a letter still over...60+ years after it being written? The end is what got to me the most. There is a room that is dimly lit, and on the wall a name comes up. Then you hear the story about this person. 2 year old, killed by the Nazi's at Auschwitz. 47 year old, specifics pertaining to his death unknown. It just keeps going and going. Some survive, most die. Some survive the concentration camps, only to die a few days after liberation. It was really hard to stay in there for too long. So much sadness.

There were a lot of little things in the city that remind people about what happened, in hopes I guess of it never happening again. The first quote I read in the Memorial to the killed Jews was "It happened, therefore it can happen again. This is the cor of what we have to say" by Primo Levi. In the city there are "stumbling stones", and on these stones there are names of people killed in the Holocaust and how they died. Just simple, to the point, a reminder to never let it happen again.

These are the stumbling stones I found. It is amazing to me how many people have no idea that they are even there. Few people noticed it. Just kept walking. Not knowing what they were passing. It was odd to see. I was annoyed with people and just wanted to shout at them to look. But I have a feeling that would not go over. People already thought I was insane walking around with my board :)

One thing that really made me laugh in Berlin, was how many guys would try and hit on me, which threw me off, and then I would reply that I don't speak German, which would then throw them off. Needless to say it was just a lot of awkward hitting on. It made me laugh every time, but I am starting to wonder if I should get me a shirt that says "Don't hit on me in German. It is useless" just because then I could laugh at the random pick up lines people use. Those are still my favorites in case you were wondering. They make me laugh and boy do I have some fun stories because of them!

One of the highlights of my day was when I got on the train. All of the sudden a band started playing! Just a kind of fun jazzy kind of band. I really just wanted to start doing swing dance right there in the middle of the S train. Being partnerless I decided against it. I just enjoyed it. They played between one stop and the next, and as soon as we stopped, so did they. I saw random people throughout the day getting on and off of the trains, a group of them with instruments. They seriously made me happy! I am pretty confident that they were just there to make people happy. There wasn't much time to collect change, so in my thought process, they did it to bring a smile to people's faces, which they succeeded with.

After a long day of site seeing and shopping, I decided to drop everything off and just board around. It was a great time! Other than the times I would hit the cobblestone wrong and would all of the sudden be forced with figuring out how to deal with the sudden lack of board under my feet. Have I mentioned how much I hate cobblestone?? Cause I do. They are awful and should all be dug up and replaced (yes they are pretty, but not fun in the least bit to skate on).

During my skate, I skated along the East Side Gallery, which is the longest piece of wall that is still standing. I was here the day before on the scooter and took pictures... check out the blog before this one if you have no idea what I am talking about :) It was really fun, I WAS SKATING NEXT TO THE BERLIN WALL!!! The little nerd in me that I usually try and keep repressed had way too much fun with this and can't be contained while I tell this! I was fantastic!!! Ok... I think I got the nerd in check now.