Group Trip: Prague and Berlin

This past week, the entire N-Spice group was taken on a weeklong trip to Prague and Berlin. We left at 8 am on Monday morning and on a tour bus with a crazy but talented ecentric at the helm we rode all day Monday.

Not counting our arrival at 10 pm on Monday night, Tuesday was our first day in Prague. As with any major city, we needed to see the important sights, so Aloisa had hired a tour guide for us. The tour guide walked us all over the city and we saw some historical sights and the high points of the city. One of them was a huge gothic church, which was very impressive. At this point I'll insight the Cathedral Idea and not even try to describe it.

Wednesday morning we were taken to Melnik castle. I think Europeans like to use the word "castle" freely, because it didn't look like what I think of when somebody says "castle," but it was still interesting.

Wednesday evening we attended a Black Light Theatre. It was really entertaining, and since it was pantomime there wasn't a language barrier to overcome. The idea was that the show alternated between a funny story that played out between two crooks and a cop, and crazy dancing and effects that were made by bright clothing and black lights.

Thursday we went to Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp, and we went on another tour. It was just like what you see in pictures if you've seen pictures of concentration camps, so I don't need to elaborate much. Then we travelled to Berlin.

Friday was spent in Berlin. First, we went on yet another tour, but this tour was really good for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that the tour guide came onto our bus, and we took the bus all over the place, so there was far less walking - I don't mind walking but at that point I had walked quite a bit in the previous week, and was happy to not have to walk between all of the sights. The other reason is that our tour guide was incredible; he had plenty of information, none of which was overwhelmingly useless like other guides, and his enthusiasm and wit made the tour very enjoyable. After the tour we had the chance to walk around for about eight hours to do whatever we wanted to do, so with a group I went to see cool sights like the Reichstag (the German Parliment building), Checkpoint Charlie (place where Soviet and U.S. tanks had a long, tense staredown), and the wall that seperated East and West Germany. I also saw the only thing that I really wanted to see in Berlin: the Brandenburg Gate. The Brandenburg Gate is the really big gate with the chariot statue on the top. It stood in the no-man's-land between East and West Berlin during the division, although it was built far earlier and for a much different reason. I think in 1989 the big party after the reunification was held at the Gate, and it is the location of the yearly New Year's Eve party in Berlin. And I just have to include this quote about it because I laughed so hard when I heard it. My brother, who likes to take pictures of him riding on various statues, said to me the about the chariot on top of the Brandenburg Gate, "That would be the big prize."

My description of the trip certainly doesn't do justice to the trip, but I had so much fun and as an added bonus I didn't have to go to school for a whole week.