(Post from friday)
Hallo! :) Today we went to Berlin! We started the day with a two and a half hour bus ride. It was really fun because everyone is starting to get closer as friends. Our first stop was at a huge church that was destroyed in the war. We were all a little confused as to why, but it was very pretty so we just looked around. They let us wander around the mall next door for about 45 minutes which wasn't very much. The rain was putting us off schedule.
Our next stop was Hohenschönhausen, a Stasi prison on the border of Berlin. It was a prison for people who fought against the government or tried to cross the Berlin Wall illegally. They used physcological torture that would drive people insane and force them to tell the guards any information that they had. I thought it was an extremely interesting trip. One thing in particular was, when a prisoner needed head shots, they would put them in a chair with the number thing in front of them, and leave them in the room for a very long time. It was discovered later that there were X-rays behind the wall where the prisoners were being photographed. Three people died of leukemia generated by these X-rays.
Our final stop was an hour and a half walking tour through Berlin. Our guide was very informative and told us a lot of very good information. He showed us a bunch of places in the city. I liked seeing Checkpoint Charlie and the pieces of the wall that were all over the city. We started and ended the tour at the Brandenburg gates, which were also very interesting to hear about.
All in all, today was a lot of history, but I enjoyed it very much.
More tomorrow! :) Choos!
Zoë :)
I missed this post somehow but am glad I just found it. I love that you visited Checkpoint Charlie. As you probably remember, pop pop and I crossed through there in the 1980's before the wall came down. It was very eery going into East Berlin at the time. Can't wait to see your pictures!
ReplyDelete