Brannon's Euro-Trip

Achtung baby!

Last night I caught the train to Berlin. On the train I met a girl named Katrina, who is from Belgium but is living in Berlin working. She´s a professional cello-ist (cellist?) and was coming home from an audition. It was interesting to talk to her since she´s a bit older (29) and similarly trying to make a living of performing. But I think she´s doing quite well, she has done tons of travelling and she has a CD coming out soon. Musicians have to go through the same sorts of job seeking processes as actors. And so of course it can be frustrating. Her mother lived in Buffalo, New York for a while (though she´s originally from Germany) so we talked a bit about the States.
I found my hostel soon enough and went to sleep as soon as I could. I was exhausted.I woke up late and it was SNOWING! It´snowed all day and it´s really nice, abeit cold. I went to coffee house and had a pastry that I still have some of in my bag because it is too sweet to eat much of at one time. While I was there and warm I tried to plan my day. I started out by heading to Reichstag and then to Brandenburger Tor. Right around where the wall was. But I couldn´t tell what was remains and what was just construction. I think I´m going to take a tour tomorrow since I have such a short time here. That way I can´t have missed too much by breezing past and not seeing more than a big building or statue. Today I did a good job of sightseeing. I´m trying to take my mother´s advice and look at the rest of my trip as the start of a sizable 3 week European adventure instead of the tail end of a 3 month one. It´s hard not to get lazy with the short days. But today did a fair bit. I stuck to the Berlin Mitte section of town where my hostel is located. That´s the middle of Berlin, sort of bearing east. It used to be divided by the Berlin Wall.
I went to the opera house and got a ticket for "Tosca" the Pucchini opera that "Passion" the Sondheim musical is based on. It only cost me €4 and I´m pretty excited considering A) it´s all in Italian and B) I was assured by the man who sold me the seat that I would not be able to see a thing. Ha. Next to the opera house a giant Christmas fair is going on. They were finishing up putting a small iceskating ring up and most of the vendors and rides are all already there. There´s a ferris wheel and a roller coaster and a scrambler. And cotton candy and candy apples. And even a few cheesy/scary games you can win prizes from. So I took a stroll through. Then I went out to Museum Island. I didn´t actually go into any of the museums. I also saw the Berliner Dom which is the Protestant version of all the ornate Catholic churches I´ve seen.
I decided to go into an exhibit on Anne Frank. Partially becaues I was freezing. But it was excellent. I really like exhibits more than museums. They tend to be smaller and concentrate on only one thing. So when you leave a couple hours later you really have seen the WHOLE thing. I just feel like I learn and retain more compared to when I´m overwhelmed and scattered. It was in German but I watched a 30 minute documentary in English and the English guide covered almost all of the writing on the exhibit. I knew quite a bit of the information having read Anne Frank´s diary at least twice and having studied the Holocaust. But it´s still so striking to realize that these things, that to my mind are just distant stories, actually happened. It´s spooky. In the background of the pictures of Hitler and the Nazi soliders there were many of the same sights I saw today.At several times during the exhibit I had a pang where I either felt I might throw up or cry. One of these times was looking at a replica of was the newspaper ad Otto Frank put in (among a thousand others) looking for his daughters. He lost his entire family. And this is only one persons story. One of six million. It´s just bewildering. And the really disturbing part to me is it wasn´t that long ago. 100 years ago Anne Frank wasn´t even born. I know there have been many, many other atrocities in history and some are still going on. And it seems they all come down to people making the assumption that THEY can say that one life is more valuable than another. Whether because of religion or race or lifestyle or just fear of something different than themselves. It´s a dangerous line of thought. And it is prevelant in our society.
Off the soap box. After the Anne Frank exhibit I went to the supermarket so I am about to go back to the hostel and eat. I´m up to date on my pictures! Hoorah. I should have downloaded that Easy Upload thing MUCH sooner.

posted by Brannon @ 6:34 PM