Berlin

As a Jew who has done many a school project on the Holocaust, who has met her relatives that were directly impacted by the Nazi takeover of France and Belgium, who feels connected to Israel and is proud of the Challah recipe she learnt from her mother, the idea of going to Germany never really tugged at my soul.  But Steph wanted to go, and I checked out some travel guides which told me that Berlin2011 is a very different land than Berlin in 1933, 1944, or 1961, so figured I might as well push myself out of my comfort zone.

And I am so glad that I did.  Berlin MIGHT have been my favorite city out of all of the cities that we visited.  Because Berlin knows its destructive and cruel past, it is rebuilding itself as a place of acceptance and celebration of those who are different - a dynamism I've never before experienced in a city.

Berlin City Hall from across the street

From closer

Brandenburg Tor at night

During the day

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Doors at the current tax office - former Luftwaffe HQ - you can see - covered in bullet marks

At the Berlinerdom

At the National Museum

All the art that I wanted to buy

At the Reichstag - WHAT A HISTORIC PLACE - during the #occupy protests

#occupy-ing

At the Berlin Wall

Rememberance to the victims of the Holocaust at the Jewish Museum in Berlin

Stairs to nowhere at the Jewish Museum in Berlin

Cracks of the original ceiling in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church - it was bombed during WWII

The new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Ampelmann, traffic light man

At Tacheles, (click for deets!), a building squatted by artists for the past 22 years

Artist trash

OBVIOUSLY

The Human Project Lives

Berlin at night

XOXO peace out playas !

p.s. Next time I promise to talk about TEACHING since thats all anyone seems to be asking me about!  Haha.