13 Juni 2012

Sad day of Holocaust memories. The group started off the day at the Topographies of Terror, which is the site of old Gestapo barracks. A display of stories spans the length of where the barracks used to stand, and a museum at ground level houses a further exhibition. Lauren and I wandered through the exhibit silently, taking in every touching story we read. We came across an interesting photograph showing some soldiers standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate, guarding it during the beginning of the building of the Berlin Wall. It made me stop and think about how lucky we are to have moved past a time like that. Our experiences at the Brandenburg Gate include partying with the locals for public viewings of the Euro Cup. We are lucky to be in a place so rich with history and so able to move beyond it.

After that, we got to visit the Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind. All the architecture majors were running around taking pictures and touching the walls of the buildings because we were all so happy to be there. This building is fairly recent, and comes with a lot of thought behind it. Its shape is created from a stretched out Star of David, and it is overlaid with a system of voids that represent the pieces of Jewish history that were lost in the Holocaust. I appreciated this building because of the amount of thought and symbolism contained in the design. Its concept is directly related to its purpose. Besides the fact that Lauren and I got lost for a moment inside of it, it was a great afternoon. We even made a friend there!

After the Jewish Museum, we walked over to an exhibition of Zaha Hadid's work. Even though it was a small exhibition, it was still super impressive.

And that night we FINALLY got to up to the top of the Reichstag Dome by Norman Foster. It was well worth the wait and such a beautiful view at sunset. Can't wait to go back before we leave.

And after that, the group went out to the public viewing of the Euro Cup. Goooooo Deutschland!