The next morning we headed to our hostel (Inn-Berlin) on the metro, but got there a little too early so I walked around a bit. Around 8 AM we were finally let into the hostel, so we checked in but had to wait till about noon until our rooms were ready. I spent this time checking emails and going online etc, and went to sleep when we were finally let into our rooms. I woke up around 5 PM and eventually decided to go to a night club with Pepe. While we were looking for it (Q-DORF) we ran into some Middle-Eastern looking guys who were looking for the same place, so we talked with them and found it together. They were in front of us in line, but when they showed the bouncer (who was a huge, intimidating guy) their IDs they were denied entry... even though I heard one of them complaining in German about how he was from Hamburgh and spoke perfect German and his friend was from London, while the Americans behind him (us) couldn't speak a word of German. However, the bouncer let Pepe and me in despite this fact. This was my first encounter with an act of blatant racism to the extent of someone being denied entrance into a building. It bothered me the whole night and I became extremely upset when I was walking home later because I wished I would have stood up for them (maybe by publicly refusing to go inside and calling the bouncer out as a racist)... it was an extremely shocking event though and I don't think anything could have prepared me for it. If something like this had happened in America I bet that it would be all over the news and the bouncer would be arrested or sued. It certainly made me appreciate American civil liberties, especially the recent advances of the Civil Rights Movement in the 60's.
Anyway, the club was located underground and was huge with over 15 different bars and dance floors/rooms. Almost everybody there was white (go figure). Everyone seemed to be dancing without touching each other (except for some couples) which was very different from what is normal in the U.S.. I tried meeting some people but eventually gave up because no one spoke English, so I just enjoyed the music for the rest of the night until I found Pepe and headed home. By the way, everywhere I've gone so far in Europe, American music is by far the most popular kind that is played, which brings me comfort and makes me proud, haha. From what I've seen the same seems to go with movies too.
The next day I slept in, went to the grocery store and bought some food to cook for breakfast. Then we took the metro to Brandenburgh Gate where we took pictures, then walked to the Victory Column where Barack gave his speech less than a month ago! We walked around some more looking at more sights until we got tired and went back to our hostel and slept.
Today we went on the Third Reich tour where we learned all about Hitler's rise and fall. We saw the Reichstag, his bunker, and the building where the "Euphanasia" techniques (really methods for killing such as the gas chambers etc) were initially developed and used. I've always found it hard to grasp that WWII was so recent, but seeing all these sights definitely had an impact on me (although most of the buildings from Nazis are now gone, since most were bombed by the Allies).
Tomorrow I will go on the regular free walking tour of Berlin and might end my last night with the pub crawl, because Tuesday morning I leave for my main destination: Roma!
Victory Column (Where Barack gave his speech!)
Brandenburg Gate
Hotel Adlon (Where Michael Jackson dangled his baby Blanket over the balcony, located in the same square as Brandenburg Gate)
1 comment:
I hope you had a good time in Berlin. It is one of my favorite cities in Europe. About that bouncer... sounds like you had another bad experience. But don't take that one event and think that all of Berlin or Germany is like that. You are from California, and specifically the Bay Area, which is a very liberal and progressive area. Yet there are still people like that in the Bay Area as well. I am sure you encountered racist people like that in high school if not even at your college... especially after 9/11. I have talked to many people in the US who have experienced racism. I have also met many Europeans who have dated people of a different race, etc. so don't take your one experience and blow it out of proportion. If you look at how most Europeans or Germans are, you will find that Europeans tend to be more progressive. You are forgetting about middle America and the southern states, which tend to be much less progressive than the coasts. You are thinking of California (which isn't perfect by any means) and acting like all of America is like California, and that all clubs in Germany are like this one place in Berlin. If you spent more time there, you would find that racial equality is more widespread in Germany than in the US, and nationalistic or patriotic feelings, sentiment, and expression are practically llegal in Germany. For example, displaying Nazi related symbols is illegal in Germany. There is just as much silent racism in the US as in Germany, and if anything, the racism in Europe should be more tolerable than the racism in America, because America is a country of immigrants and doesn't have a long-standing history of a certain group of people occupying the country with it's own culture and values (besides the native americans), whereas countries like Germany have had a long history of unique German culture (the castles and cathedrals are there to prove it) and the type of immigrants that Germany has had up until recently have mainly been other Europeans. Now there are a lot of people from Muslim cultures moving into these European countries... and that is a very abrupt change... from around 1,000 years of relatively similar culture to a sudden shift shift to vastly different customs and values. This is even evident in countries like Sweden, which have been quite isolated since they are so far north. And by the way, America is not the only place that had a civil rights movement. Countries such as Germany had one too, which should be pretty obvious since the Chancellor (head of government) in Germany is a woman.
I just wanted to make sure you aren't getting the wrong impression about Europe. Of course I realise that you were not actually claiming that America is a lot better than Germany, but I thought I would criticize some of your comments for the sake of discussion.
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