Deutchsland Ist Wundershun

With a visit by Pope Francis this past weekend, the entire Museum was shut down and the majority of employees were barred from the premises for security reasons. For some reason the title of a newly hired volunteer did not raise me to the level of importance needed to participate in the Pope's visit. His loss, however, is my gain, as the long weekend allowed for a quick trip to Berlin.

I created this co-op with a fellow Northeastern student, Manish Laungani. Manish studied abroad in Berlin this past spring semester, so he was anxious to return to Deutschland the second the chance presented itself. His knowledge of the area allowed me to see Berlin, a city I visited during my aforementioned Dialogue of Civilization, as a local. During my last visit, I saw Berlin in the context of the Holocaust. This visit, I saw Berlin as the food capital of Germany.

Germany is known for its biergartens, open air restaurants were patrons share large tables with strangers, drinking beer by the liter and sausages by the foot. Berlin has an abundance of biergartens, but the street food and hole-in-the-wall restaurants are what make this city rough around the edges and oh so delicious in the middle.

Berlin would not be the city it is without Turks. A large Turkish population still occupies a province of Berlin called Kreuzberg. Berlin culture is influenced heavily by the still discriminated population. One of the greatest contributions Turkey has had on Germany is the Doner. Doner kebabs can be served in bread or in a box over fries. Rotating skewers of meat are thinly chopped and combined with cabbage, cucumbers, a special garlic sauce and hot sauce. Being a vegetarian, I ordered my doners with falafel. I wish I had taken a picture of one of the three doners I had in a 48 hour period of time, but the speed in which I devoured each of them did not allow time to take a picture. So, unfortunately, my description will have to suffice.

The biggest food discovery of the weekend was Mai Linhs Restaurant, an authentic Thai restaurant on the outskirts of the city. I never thought that the best curry I ever tasted would be from Berlin. My tofu yellow curry was so amazing we journeyed 30 minutes out of the way to have lunch everyday of the weekend. The restaurant is barely large enough to accommodate a kitchen, so there is only outside seating. This is a hidden gem of Berlin and should be a must-see for anyone visiting the city.

The most remarkable thing about my weekend in Berlin was the differences from my previous visit. Instead of Holocaust memorials and museums being our days' destinations, they were stumbled upon along the way. We ended up at the famous Jewish Memorial in Mitte and Hitler's bunker accidentally while walking around. Instead of watching locals jet past these sites as if the profound memorials had become normalized, we were the locals. We were unexpectedly confronted with the Holocaustic history of Berlin on multiple occasions and, for me, this solidified how special this city is. Berlin has dedicated memorials and commemoration spaces to almost all victimized groups, including the increasingly overlooked homosexuals and Sinti und Roma, both experiencing extreme cruelty during the Holocaust. Just like me, visitors and local citizens are forced to remember the Holocaust while they go on a morning run or commute to work. It is admirable the responsibility Berlin has accepted in the form of these memorials. Returning to Berlin allowed me to see this city as multifaceted in a grungy historical way.

This is the entrance to the Anne Frank Museum in Berlin. We stumbled across this famous graffiti image on our way to meet some friends and seeing it at night unexpectedly was very moving

On the bus ride back to Poland, we began planning our next trip to one of my favorite cities in the world.