Berlin! History! Beer! Biking! Magic!

There is a program called March of the Living that takes Jews from the Diaspora on a two part trip - part one is in Poland, visiting concentration camps, and part two is in Israel, seeing the "rebirth of the Jewish people." Unintentionally, I seem to have placed myself on a reverse March of the Living journey. 

After three final and intense days in Israel, I happily boarded a plane for Berlin and after an extraordinarily bumpy flight and nerves that even my Xanax couldn't fight, I arrived in Berlin and made my way to my friend Hillary and her husband Andreas' beautiful apartment. The next morning my friend Lindsey joined us and we walked all over Berlin. Berlin is officially my new favorite city in Europe. They have incredible bike paths and restaurants and bars and everything is so affordable. 

It really blew my mind to walk along the route of the Berlin Wall. Israelis and Palestinians, when they are looking for something hopeful, reference the Berlin Wall. A wall that could never fall really fell. A people that were forever divided really live together. I still can't get over the fact that this city was divided and controlled so violently for so long and now you cannot tell east from west. Truly, it was moving. Some photos below. 

 

 

 

Also in Berlin, it was fascinating to see the way Germany tells its history. We stopped by the Memorial to murdered Jews and saw some of the sto

lperstein (tripping stones) that memorialize Jews from Berlin  who were sent to concentration camps. These stones are raised in the sidewalks in places where Jews lived before they were deported. 

  

It is truly crazy to walk down streets that seventy plus years ago were the sites of massacres and thirty years ago were divided and feel like you are walking down one of the most exciting and wonderful cities in the world. I have not had an experience whee I have felt so in awe and curious about something in such a long time, and it was sort of wonderful to be so, so intrigued. 

Of course we also had lots of fun biking around the city, drinking beers, avoiding rain storms and experiencing Berlin life. My only regret is that I did not get to buy any clothing as I hit the stores at the wrong time - the tallness of the women made me certain I would find everything in extra long! 

 

 

 

Now we are in Poland, which is bringing about some much weirder feelings about Jews in Europe and the past few weeks in Israel and Palestine. However we are off to the Czech Republic early tomorrow morning so I will save my meditations on Poland for another time. 

Auf Wiedersehen!