Berlin and Krakow

The past week in Berlin and Krakow has been an intense one. We've had several walking tours of each city, a day trip to Wittenberg, a concert, a ballet, and a heavy academic load. We've also found ourselves adjusting to low temperatures that are pretty far out of the ordinary for a bunch of Californians! We're discovering the virtues of hats, gloves, and lots and lots of layers.

View of Museum Island in Berlin

Berlin itself is a neat city with a fun nightlife and an exciting downtown not far from the apartments where we're staying. We spent a week in Berlin checking out monuments and museums and taking day trips to outlaying areas. We have also had some excellent guest speakers from Berlin during our class sessions.

Downtown Berlin

Fragment of the Berlin Wall

In front of the Brandenburg Gate

On Wednesday we left for Krakow, Poland, and it took us all day to get there. We spent all of Thursday touring the city and exploring on our own. Krakow is an absolutely beautiful city with a really complex history starting well before the middle ages. It has beautiful castles and churches, as well as the biggest town square in Europe. We arrived back in Berlin this afternoon, and we'll be spending three more days here before moving on to the Czech Republic.

Castle Hill in Krakow, Poland

Not surprisingly, we've been studying some very difficult material in the past couple of weeks, focusing primarily on the Holocaust. We've spent two days visiting concentration camps (Sachsenhausen in Berlin and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland), which has been emotionally exhausting but also extremely valuable. Being in these locations has helped us to grasp on a deeper level this dark point in European history, and has allowed us to grapple with some tough questions. I'm thankful that this has been a group experience, and that we can see these sites and ask questions together. I wouldn't trade my time in Berlin and Krakow, but it will be a relief to shift to a lighter focus once we leave Berlin on Wednesday. Then it's on to Prague!