Hello Berlin!

We landed in Berlin and were greeted at the airport with heat! Good old fashion sun shining summer heat! I was so excited. After having the season be fall all summer long, the sun felt good!

We then took a cab to our hotel (excellent choice), and settled in. The rooms were actually really nice, and it was just Emily and I sharing one, and we had a lot of fun in there!

Then we headed down to the hotel bar (where we actually spent a decent amount of time), and Dad and Ron had already made friends with the bartender, who was giving them directions on the map for good places to eat.

As we headed out of the hotel this crazy girl yelled after us "Hey! Were you going to leave without me?" We turned around and saw it was Cari! She surprised us Mellos and joined us in Germany. After dinner when we got back to the hotel, we learned that JoAnn had arrived also. We were all finally where we were supposed to be, and ready to roll.

The next day we went to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. It was one of the most amazing, interesting days I had up until that point. For those who don't know, I am really interested in reading and learning about the Holocaust so it was exciting for me (I know how wrong that sounds, but it's true) to get to see what I had been reading about for years. The camp was mainly for political prisoners, so it was not a death camp like Auschwitz, but it still had a gas chamber and a crematorium where they did mass executions. It was a really somber day to say the least.

The next morning we hit some more sites. We did the Jewish museum, and then Checkpoint Charlie. I found it so unbelievably how much the German people had to go through. First they get blamed for World War I and go into debt having to pay for it. Then World War II happens, and the Holocaust along with it. Then not long after the end of all that the Russians come in, and the Berlin wall goes up and families are separated literally overnight. It was so sad!

We then walked to a beautiful area called Gendarmenmarket. It was this cute square where there were two churches (facing eachother, and looking like mirror images) and the Opera. There were also a ton of little restaurants all over.

Then we walked over to Brandenburg Gate. It was neat looking.

Last but not least that day we saw the Holocaust memorial, and museum. (Thank you family for letting me see all that!) The memorial was so neat looking on the outside, and then was like a maze when you walked into it. It's hard to describe, but I have pictures!

The museum was small but amazing. They had one room where they would project a victims name on the wall, and then their story was told. They said it would take over six years to tell each persons story, even if it only took twenty seconds for each person. It was very moving.

The following day we tried to go into the parlaiment building but the line was over two hours long. So we said screw it and went souvenir shopping instead. We had had a lot of history in the past couple of days!

The next day we got on another plane, and when we landed...everyone spoke French!

What did I learn while "studying" abroad today? The German people rock. They are the nicest and friendliest to us foreigners. I can't wait to some day go back!