Final days in Warsaw

We finished up in Warsaw with a tour and a farewell meal. Before our tour we went to Bar Bambino which is a "Milk Bar". Milk bars are self serve cafeteria type restaurants that serve traditional Polish food. These bars were the only restaurants around during Communist time. I enjoyed some delicious golobaki (big surprise) and they were delicious! After out tour, Ryan and Brett shared a (disgustingly) huge meat plate and finished it. I had to stop eating my salmon as I was getting sick just watching them. The theme to our tour was communism in Poland. Despite the heat, the tour was actually very interesting. We headed back to the hotel to pack up our stuff since we were off to Krakow in the morning.

Day 3

Friday was a busy day. We started the morning off at the Forum for the Dialogue Among Nations. This organization seeks to educate students about Judaism. The lecture lasted about two hours and we had a short break before our next activity. We stopped at a burger place for lunch, bad idea. The burgers were ok, but I felt pretty sick after eating. However, I mustered up some strength for our meeting at the US Embassy. We met with JP Schutte and he spoke to us for about an hour and then opened it up for questions.

After the embassy we had a few hours to kill. We once again hit the gym and then got ready for our Shabbat dinner with ZOOM, a Jewish group in Warsaw. The dinner was a lot different than we were expecting. The members of the group were a lot older and the space was pretty cramped. However, we did have some delicious dinner. After we finished dinner, it started to rain. We made the 25-minute walk home in the rain and by the time we got back we were soaked! We dried off, hung out for a few and called it a day. 

Day 2

Thursday we started our day off with an incredible breakfast buffet. It was so nice to have the all you can eat breakfast buffet back like we had in Munich. I of course stuffed my purse (with snacks for later) and myself until I couldn’t move. After breakfast we headed out to meet our tour guide for a tour through Jewish Warsaw. The tour was very interesting. We got to see some original buildings that survived the war as well as a remaining piece of the ghetto wall. We also stopped in a synagogue that also survived the war.

After our walking tour we had the afternoon off and went to grab some lunch. We walked back to the Old Town and found this small square with outdoor restaurants. The place we picked had Polish food as well as some other cuisines. I settled with a salmon salad that was delish. The best part of the meal was the complimentary cherry vodka shot at the end. 

We headed back to our hotel and hit the gym. The gym at the hotel is so nice we had to take advantage. We finished up at the gym, changed and Ryan and I headed out solo for some dinner. We wandered through the area around our hotel and found a great Polish restaurant (big surprise). I was so happy because they had golabaki (stuffed cabbage), which I have been searching for. Ryan also had a traditional Polish dish called Bigos, which is a stew. After dinner we went to a bar around the corner and had some coffee. We headed home to try and catch up on sleep. 

Warsaw

We have arrived in Warsaw! Our first day here was perfect: cold and gloomy, a nice break from the heat wave we had in Germany. We took about a six-hour train ride and arrived into the city around 1:30. Luckily our (really nice) hotel was just a few blocks away. We settled in and decided to go out and explore. We walked around for about an hour and then came home to do some (sink) laundry before dinner.

We went to a very popular place called Zapiecek for dinner. There are about a dozen locations within a mile radius of our hotel, but the one we went to was in the Old Town area. We had some yummy polish food and of course some vodka. We decided to walk back towards our hotel to find an after dinner treat. We decided on a place called Grychan, also very popular here. They had over 15 different flavors of ice cream and various pastries. After a long decision process, I settled on the hot chocolate. It was an excellent choice! After we got our sugar fix, we headed home for an early night.

 


  

Berlin Part 2

Day 7

Friday we visited the Topography of Terror, a museum located just feet from a large remaining piece of the Berlin wall. This museum gave a great history from the early 30’s all the way to the end of the war. It also did a nice job of incorporating the significance of the wall. We went around in groups and chose some sections that we found interesting. We then gave short 2-5 minute presentations on the section we chose.

After our presentations we were given a two-hour break. A few of us went to grab some Mexican food for lunch. After some fajitas we met the group at the New Synagogue, which was really not a synagogue. We learned that the synagogue burned down during the war and was never rebuilt. Some of the synagogue was still standing and they built a museum inside. After a tour through the museum, we took our tour outside. We stopped at some familiar sites and talked some more about the Stolpersteine (Stumbling stones).

After the tour, we went back to our doner shop and got some falafel. We met up with one of Ryan’s friends and we all grabbed a drink. We hung out for a few and then headed back home.

Day 8

Saturday we spent a few hours at the Center for the study of Anti-Semitism at the Technical University. The lecture was very informative and we learned about the various groups that still exist in Germany. After the lecture, some of us went to grab sushi. We decided to go back to our flats so we could do some work on our papers that were due Monday. We met up with Ryan’s friend again, headed back into the city and ate at a really great place with fresh made pizzas and salads. My salad was amazing!

Day 9

Sunday was our first official day off in Berlin! A few of us went to the Flea Market that is very well known in Berlin. To say the market was huge would be an understatement. We spent two hours walking around and didn’t even get to half of the booths. Ryan got some German marks and some photos and I got some jewelry and photos as well. We were going to walk more but it was very hot. We figured we needed some lunch so we headed back into the city and ate at the same pizza and salad place. My salad was amazing once again. After we were stuffed we went home to work on our papers some more. We finished up our papers and went back into town to grab some Thai food. We went home to work on our presentation and called it a day.

Day 10

Monday we started the day off with our presentation. They lasted about an hour and a half. It was really great to hear about all the various sites that people visited. We gave a great presentation and then we were given the afternoon off. A few of us headed out for lunch and stumbled upon a great Greek restaurant. We had complimentary ouzo shots and I ordered grape leaves and eggplant. Then all of us ordered Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts and were then served complimentary watermelon. Overall it was a great dining experience. We finished up just in time to head home and relax before our 4:30 dinner date with the other dialogue group that was in Berlin. We went to a restaurant that served the largest pizzas in Berlin. Unfortunately, I can’t eat pizza and I was still very full from lunch. However, it was nice to sit and relax for a few. We headed home around 7 and a bunch of the kids from the other dialogue came over to our flats for some drinks. We hung out for a while outside and got to know each other. After a few hours we all branched off. Ryan and a few others and I went back to our salad place for a late night snack. We headed back home to try to get some sleep.

 

Day 11

Tuesday we had the morning off. A few of us headed out for a walk and to grab some Korean food. Lunch was amazing and we were so glad we finally found a Korean place. We then met the rest of the group at the Office against right-wing extremism. This was a great extension to our meeting we had on Saturday. It was nice to see the side that helps to deal with these conflicts. The meeting lasted about an hour and a half and we were then given the afternoon off. We headed back to our neighborhood to take a short break before dinner. We did some packing and then headed out to meet Greta (our favorite tour guide) for taco Tuesday. The place we went to was so great!! They had delicious margaritas and 1 euro tacos. A bunch of us hung out there and chatted with Great. Natalie and Veronica met us for a little bit and then we all headed back home. We had a great last day in Berlin and an amazing 11 days. It will be sad to leave, but I am so excited to see Poland.

Berlin part 1

Day 1

We arrived in Berlin last week Saturday.  We stayed in loft style apartments (4 of us per room). The rooms were nice and cozy and the best part was the mini fridge and hot plate so we could cook some meals! Our first day we headed on a six-hour walking tour from 4-10 pm with Greta (the best tour guide ever). We got a great overview of the city and saw a good chunk of historical sites. We of course had to stop for some late night doner after the tour. We headed back home so we could get some rest.

my "crib" that I slept in

Day 2

Sunday we started the day off with a Third Reich bike tour. The tour was so relaxing and informative. We saw a few of the same places we saw with Greta, but it was nice to get another person’s opinions and history on these sites. Some stops included a Jewish neighborhood and a Holocaust memorial. We stopped for some yummy Thai food on our bike ride also. After the tour we headed home to relax before heading out for dinner. A lot of us were not feeling well so we decided to go out for a second bowl of Vietnamese soup. We once again called it an early night.

Day 3

Monday we spend the better half of the day at Villa Wansee. This was the site where the implementation of Final Solution was discussed. We had a really great guide who took us through the Villa museum and then did a nice lecture and open discussion. We enjoyed lunch outside the villa and then headed back home. We decided to stop at the grocery store for some breakfast foods and dinner. We relaxed for a bit and then headed to bed.

Day 4

Tuesday was our second tour with Greta. We saw many more great sites and learned a lot about the Berlin wall as well as East and West Germany. We also got to see Tempelhof, the old airport. After the tour we stopped at a biergarten alongside the airport runway. As if we hadn’t walked enough, Ryan and I decided to back into the city and take a walk and get dinner. We walked for about an hour and then agreed on a nice Thai place (yes we love Asian food). We stuffed ourselves and then headed back home.

The runway

Day 5

Wednesday we visited the Anne Frank Center as well as the Museum Blindenwerkstatt on Otto Weidt and, and the Silent Heroes Museum.  In visiting these sites we learned about how traumatic moments shaped society during the Holocaust as well as how they affect our memory of the Holocaust and thus society today. Though Anne Frank was not from Berlin, nor did she ever live in Berlin, the center gave a nice overview of her life and her accomplishments. We had some discussions on her as well as the whole idea of being hidden during the Holocaust. At the next two museums we learned about the other side of hiding, those who helping to hide those who were being persecuted. Overall I really enjoyed these museums and learned a lot about the struggles people endured during the Holocaust.

After the museums we walked around the area for a few and had some lunch. After some relaxing back at our loft, we headed out to get some doner. By now we found our favorite place and even established a friendship with one of the guys working there.

Day 6

Thursday we had somewhat of a day off. We were broken up into small groups and explored various sites that we would later give presentations on. My group chose to go to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp just a half an hour away from our flats. I found this camp to be a lot different than Dachau. Even though the camp had been torn down, there were a few buildings that had been re-built using the original materials. We spent a good two hours there and walked through the whole site. They had some really great museums that we also explored. Sachsenhausen felt more like the concentration camps we read about in textbooks in comparison to Dachau, which felt very touristy. We collected all of our information for our presentation so we decided to head out. We stopped for a snack afterwards and then took the train back to meet the group at the Reichstag.

The Reichstag is essentially the capital building in Berlin. The building itself is beautiful. We were given a tour through the entire building and finished off by walking to the top of the dome to watch the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful! We finished up around 10 so we decided to head home.