Heavy Lifting

It is interesting how sometimes I have so much to say, then, I have nothing much to say at all. Last I had written we were leaving Somebathely, Hungry getting some R&R and on our way to Wein, Austria. We spent one night in Vienna before spending one night in Prague, Czech. We had a really great time in both cities and did a few more of our “run, run, run, and barely catch our train” dances before heading to Berlin, Germany. We decided to spend three nights in Berlin since we had some much needed laundry to do and it would probably take a good portion of the day.
I thought I would have lots to say about Berlin, and in many ways I did. Berlin turned out to be a really cool city to visit and spend time in (both East and West parts). But there are so many obvious remnants of the war, it was also very heavy hearted and overwhelming. I wasn’t sure how to share it, or if it would even be worth reading; and honestly there isn’t really much to say that we all don’t already know.
If you don’t remember exactly, it has been almost 20 years since the fall of The Berlin Wall, Die Berliner Maurer. The evening of November 9th of this year will mark the anniversary to the date. Standing before the wall and placing your hand to the cool cement you could only imagine the very surreal experience. Just twenty years ago was an end to the absurdity that was this wall. There was so much history exactly where I was standing, a brutal history of repression and war. It was enough to make your heart hurt for the whole rest of the day. The wall may have been made of concrete, steel, and barb-filled wire, but it soaked up every human moment like a sponge. Standing there in its shadow you can still feel the sharp despair it held within itself and the overwhelming joy it exuded when it was beaten down with fists and hammers.
On our last day we went for a jog and visited the Holocaust Memorial- yet another magnificent and heavy moment. The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin was designed by an American-Jewish architect and was erected to honor the six million Jews murdered during the war. We didn’t get a picture of the memorial; and to be honest, no picture could ever capture it justly - but the image has forever been burned in my brain. If the memorial was supposed to inspire grief and humility it certainly succeeded. The memorial itself is comprised of approximately 2,700 dark concrete tomb-like structures on approximately an acre of land. Some structures are very short, and some over ten feet high. The ground the memorial is situated on was not paved to be flat, and so as you look out at it or walk among its narrow paths, it seems like a rolling sea of dark tombs and makes you try, I mean really try, to imagine just how many people six million is. And then again, your heart hurts.
Our time in Berlin ended with a long walk along the border of where the Berlin wall divided the city. Some pieces still stand and where the wall was torn down there is a line embedded in the ground made of stones that goes throughout the city and is marked Die Berliner Maurer 1961-1989. On our walk we ‘crossed’ over the wall several, several times, each time feeling stunned by how easy it was knowing that just over twenty years ago, that was not the case.

From Berlin we headed to Nürnberg, just a few hours away by train. In honor of Cinco De Mayo, we went in search of Mexican food and margaritas! We knew that this could quite possibly be impossible in a small random town in Germany, but in the most random course of events, we bumped into a placed called Enchiladas (where of course they had no idea it Mexican Independence Day). We celebrated with some margaritas (yum) and burritos (yuck) and toasted our friends back in San Diego who we knew would be celebrating this holiday rightly. Afterwards we, as George would put it, “stumbled in” to George’s Tavern English Pub to watch Manchester United beat Arsenal for the Champions League semi-finals. We had a blast at George’s, drinking beer, watching futball, and holding conversations in English (something we hadn’t done in a long time). It was great. So great in fact that we decided to stay when all the others left to catch the last metro ride home. Since our hotel was close enough to walk to we decided to close down the bar around 2am with farewell shots from George; Jason to the tequila, me to Sambuca. Sambuca doesn’t actually taste bad it you take it at the end of a long night. ;)
We would spend only one night in Nürnberg before heading to Stuttgart to meet up with one of Jason’s rugby friends from college, Adam. Adam is moving here from home for the next three years on a work assignment and is going to join us on our travels through the weekend. I believe the weekend will be spent bouncing from Stuttgart, to Düsseldorf, to Brussels, then Amsterdam. This is going to be very interesting. I’ll let you know how it goes!!!!

Days Traveled: 29
Distance Traveled: 19, 034km/11,896.25mi
Countries visited: 12
Out of: Advil