Part 3

Our last day in Berlin was definitely an eventful one! We headed first to Checkpoint Charlie in the moderately heavy rain. Only a few of us had umbrellas on hand (I did…thanks Mom!) but the others stopped to get umbrellas. In case you can’t imagine it, more than ten people with umbrellas trying to walk in one general direction on a sidewalk is a nuisance to any other traffic that may arise. We also looked like a gigantic group of tourists approaching from afar, I’m sure. Checkpoint Charlie was pretty cool. We got to see original pictures, signs, and stories of those who passed through and worked there. It’s really strange to think that the wall was torn down just months before I was born. Next, we headed to the Berlin Jewish Museum. It was way more massive than I think any of us would have imagined. It had floors upon floors of pictures, info, and hands-on activities, and for once it wasn’t all centered around the Holocaust (NOT trying to say that the Holocaust isn’t important, but I’m sure if I was Jewish, I wouldn’t want my culture to be ONLY associated with the negative). We made a quick trip back by the Hostel for our luggage and headed out to catch the train. Katie, Kathleen, Adam, and I ate at (you shouldn’t guess this…) McDonalds to remember what it feels like to refill a drink, or attain one with ice (neither are common practice ANYWHERE in Germany). We thought we were one of the first groups to arrive at our platform, but suddenly the train was pulling into the station. I had the least amount of luggage, so I decided to scout ahead and reserve a ‘Harry Potter car’ (a private compartment with six seats) for our group (just to let you know, this plan had worked every other time previously to today). I noticed more people than usual were trying to board the car with me (we were boarding the 2nd to last car), but I shoved my way through into a ridiculously tiny hallway outside the ‘Harry Potter car.’ I had just secured a compartment with four available seats (through a raving, hardly moving crowd) only to realize that I didn’t see my group. I panicked for about thirty seconds or so (it was already chaos), but then I saw the tops of their heads. As I was motioning for them to come sit, a young lady approached me and said (in perfect English), “These are reserved compartments. Look outside of the door.” Surely enough, she was right: the sign said reserved. I should have thought it odd that she immediately sat down and motioned to a couple of her friends, but I set out sojourning for another compartment. I met up with Kathleen, and we stayed trapped in the tiny aisle of a moving train trying to make our way back to the ‘un-reserved seats’ for almost thirty minutes. Finally, we made some headway and ran into people headed our direction. At first, we were irritated with these boys making it impossible for us to pass, but I finally asked them if they spoke English (they did) and where they were from (Holland). We talked with them for a few seconds and finally realized that they had come from the extreme front of the train looking for unreserved seats, and we had come from the extreme back of the train looking for unreserved seats. Guess what? None of them were reserved. The signs were just permanent. It was at this moment I wanted to make a tiny voo-doo doll of that wretched girl who sent me away from the first compartment and poke it in the knee with a pushpin, but it was too late: she’d been sitting in that compartment for half an hour by this time. We left the Hollanders and headed further towards the front where we knew the rest of our group resided. We had a lot of issues passing through aisles filled with suitcases and people, but we eventually made it and sat down. It was a miracle, because I had envisioned us standing in a tiny cramped aisle with hundreds of people for the entire two hour train ride. Once we got back to Dresden, we went and got picnic materials and headed to our Phillip Glass Kronos Quartet/Dracula viewing. The quartet played music to accompany the (ENGLISH!) movie! It was pretty impressive, and super entertaining. Now I’m tired of typing, though, and it’s time for sleep.