Back again...Berlin 2013

Back again....I just can't seem to say "no" to working GYLC. Every summer... This year was the first year we took the GYLC crew to Berlin. Sadly, they traded Budapest for Berlin... people with a much higher pay scale than me made that decision... (ie: they actually get paid.. I do not) Anywho, to be sure we were ready for bringing 5 buses and 250 high school students from 63 different countries around the world to Berlin, Scott and I went early and scouted things out. We spent two very cold and very rainy days wondering around town seeing the places we would be taking the kids and figuring out where the nearest StarBucks, pharmacies and ATMs would be. It was very helpful to see everything before the kids came. 

We checked off all of the sites we needed to see for the program and then we had some time to see things we would not be able to do with everyone, like dinner at the top of the TV Tower. It was a fun rotating restaurant with great views of the city, even with the gloomy rain.

By the time we came back to Berlin (a week later) with the whole group, the weather had changed drastically. No more rain, no more gloom. Now it was sunny and hot!

Awesome Ops team with Scott and Jimmy!

We visited the Reichstag building (Parliament) and took a tour of the dome on the roof. Getting everyone through security and making sure we didn't leave anyone inside took a long time but overall, was a success.

Then we started our walking tour of Berlin passing by the Holocaust Memorial (designed to look like a Jewish cemetery) and the few parts of The Wall that still stand in tribute. 

We went to Check Point Charlie (the best known passageway through The Wall and into the American Sector and allowing passage from East to West during the Cold War) and then we went on to lunch.

 Throughout Berlin there is a line of bricks placed side by side to indicate where the wall was. Its kinda crazy to be driving down the street and see where East and West Berlin were split.

On our last day in Berlin we went to the Brandenburg Gate. The Brandenburg Gate is one of Berlin’s most important monuments – a landmark and symbol all in one with over two hundred years of history. A former symbol of the divided city, it drew visitors who used to climb an observation platform in order to get a glimpse of the world behind the Iron Curtain, on the other side of the barren “death-strip” which separated east from west Berlin, geographically and politically. It was here that on June 12, 1987, Ronald Regan issued his stern command to his cold war adversary admonishing him with the words: “Mr. Gorbachov – tear down this wall!”. The speech delivered to West Berliners was also audible on the east side of the Gate and echoed President von Weizsacker’s words which translate as: “The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.”

Berlin is a fun city with a lot to do and see but mainly a lot to think about as you can physically see how different things were in the not-so distant past. The fall of the wall is one of the big historical events that has happened while I was alive. It is very cool to see the changes that have taken place in the world in the past and it is exciting to think of what more can change in the future.