"Say yes to freedom, peace, dignity and respect for all."

(A quote from a mural at the East Side Gallery...)

I went to Berlin this past weekend, and I had such a great time! I really didn't expect to love Berlin as much as I did. I went on this trip with the landscape architect students, along with 10 other girls from the fashion studios, on Thursday morning and arrived there in the afternoon. We started the day off with exploring the city a little bit, going to the Holocaust Memorial, which was really interesting. You walk around the corner from the Brandenburg Gate and come across this area filled with giant concrete blocks, or as some others call it "a field of stelae." What it basically looks like is a giant concrete maze, with blocks of varying heights. That night, some of us went over to the Turkish Quarter of the city and grabbed some awesome food- a gyro platter with homemade salad and lots and lots of chicken, falafel, pita, and tabouli for only 5 euros. The owner even gave us some dessert tea for free after we finished our meal!

Holocaust Memorial

Friday, we went out to the Berlin Wall Memorial, which was really incredible. It's located in the middle section of the former border, and is in memory of the city’s division from the years the wall stood, and of the victims of communist tyranny. There are parts of the wall that are still preserved, as a reminder of what used to exist here, that are covered in graffiti. And across the street from the memorial is a "documentation center," where you can go up on an elevated platform and overlook a preserved area of the Berlin Wall, showing how it used to be back when the wall stood, including a watchtower and the "no man's land" zone separating East and West Berlin. It was really weird to see what used to be there.

View of the "original" wall from the documentation center

After visiting the Berlin Wall Memorial, we hopped on the train and took a visit to Potsdam, which is so cute! We grabbed some lunch and walked around to look at some shops, and then went through a few parks. It was a really relaxing day, and we were lucky to have lots of sunshine and a 65 degree temperature outside.
Saturday, a few of the girls and myself went to the East Side Gallery, which is a strip of the Berlin Wall that is covered in murals (around 100 of them!) from artists all around the world. It was beautiful and really cool. We actually split off from the main group to see this sight, instead of going to some museums. And I'm really glad we did, because it is definitely something I would have been really bummed to have missed out on seeing. I took a TON of pictures of it, so check them out on my online album for Berlin :)

So cool!

Sunday, we only had a little bit of time, so we went over to Museum Island and strolled around for a little bit. We happened upon this really cool street market and walked through that for a little while. There were some local artists out selling some great paintings, handmade jewelry and clothes, and then lots of people selling antiques, too! It actually made me miss the Raleigh Flea Market a little bit. After that, we went to this restaurant right around the corner from the hostel that we had all been wanting to go to since we saw it for the first time- it was a big outdoor restaurant/cafe with swinging basket chairs and REALLY tasty food. I was really happy that I got to eat lunch there right before we had to leave. I grabbed myself a tomato, basil, fresh mozzarella, with homemade pesto sandwich along with a glass of white wine. It sooooo good! It was the perfect way to end my trip in Berlin, especially since I got to enjoy my delicious meal outside in the 70 degree weather!

Having fun in the basket swing

We got back to Prague at about 8 pm on Sunday night, and were very pleased to see that a lot of trees and flowers had started to bloom in the short 4 days we were gone. It was a very nice "welcome home" surprise to see springtime approaching! I was sad to leave Berlin, but it was also nice to come back to a beautiful city in bloom :)
And good news: I finished my costume! I took some pictures today for the Art To Wear fashion show back at NCSU for their pre-show, so I'll try and get my hands on some of the pictures to post up here later. I do, however, have some pictures from the photoshoot we did last with Robert Vano of my jacket for my costume...

I'm so happy with it! I can't wait to see how the pictures we took today turned out!