Prague, Berlin, and the beginnings of a long stay in Portugal

So I did Prague in a day. I can't decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing. I found the city very overrun with tourists, and I spent the day dodging maniacs on segways. However it was a beautiful city. I feel like if I had had more time I would have been less rushed to see the typical tourist sites and could have explored and found the funky local neighborhoods that appeal to me much more. So here are some pictures of Prague. 

John Lennon wall

I thought the locks were just a Paris thjng but I've been seeing them everywhere. 

View from the Charles Bridge

This is the astronomical clock and about 1/27493738 of the people who were gathered around it. 

I hate to complain about tourists because technically I was a tourist. But I wasn't on a Segway or taking pictures with an iPad and I definitely wasn't so oblivious of my surroundings that I was walking down the middle of the street that cars were driving on and didn't hear or chose to ignore their honking. Also someone asked me for directions in Czech so I like to think I blended in. 

Next I headed to Berlin. This is a city I had been wanting to visit for a very long time. My hostel situation was a bit interesting because the lobby was a bar. Not like the lobby had a bar in it; the bar had a reception desk in it. And a friend I made in Budapest was in Berlin at the same time so I automatically had someone to hang out with. There was a free walking tour that started at my hostel. I had an awesome guide and I saw the major historical sites my first full day there. For example, Brandenburg Gate

The hotel where Michael Jackson hung his baby out the window

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews (fun fact: this is not actually called the holocaust memorial. It is only dedicated to the murdered Jews. There areseparate  memorials for every group of people affected...homosexuals, gypsies, burned books, etc)

And Checkpoint Charlie

After the tour, I visited the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall. It is over a mile long and decorated with beautiful graffiti. 

Heheheh Pink Floyd

That night I also did a bar crawl. I think Berlin really appealed to me because it is a huge mash up of very blatant history and very modern, hip, European culture. Berlin is infamous for the tragedies that have happened in the city, but it is also a very vibrant city with a very active nightlife. My tour guide earlier in the day explained that Germans are hesitant to feel national pride. For example, at American sporting events, it is commonplace, even encouraged, for attendees to wear red white and blue and carry American flags. This is taboo for Germans because what we see as patriotism is interpreted as German nationalism, which has much more sinister connotation. I also found it interesting that German school children are required to visit three concentrations camps during their school career. 

Which I did the next day. I took a tour of Sachsenhaussen. This was a work camp, not a death camp. I found it very eery and emotional. I also didn't feel right taking pictures at the place where so many horrible things happened. These are the pictures I did take. 

If a prisoner stepped over the line I to the gravel, the guards shot to kill. 

This is at the site of the gas chambers and rooms where countless prisoners were shot. Sachsenhaussen used carbon monoxide instead of cyanide so the gas chambers weren't used very many times. Instead, a process was created where prisoners were put through a fake medical exam and then shot in the back of the neck through a hole in the wall. Prisoners were also loaded onto trucks where the exhaust was pumped back into where they were loaded and killed that way. 

The next day I saw drunk Australians get detained by metro police for mooning incoming trains and some stupid white girls get yelled at in German for doing cartwheels across the tops of the stones of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews. It was terrifying, but also very satisfying. The girls were visibly shaken. 

Also don't believe what anyone says. Berlin public transportation is a nightmare and a mess and incredibly confusing. 

One last interesting thing. These are called stumbling stones. They are spread across Europe in front of places of residence where people were deported during the Holocaust. They are very simple, just names, the site to which they were deported, and he death date if it is known, but I think they are a very powerful way to remind people of what happened in the past. 

And now I am back in Lisbon, one off favorite cities in the world. I rented an apartment through airbnb so I had the opportunity to sleep in a room by myself. I have also grown weary of having the same superficial conversation over and over again. "What's your name?" "How long are you staying here?" "Wher elsee are you traveling to?"  It was great to meet so many people and hear their stories, but I just wanted the chance to not have to talk to anyone for many many hours. 

Today I took a train to Sintra and visited the Palace Pena. It is built high up on a hill over the city and was used by several different rulers. 

It was also foggy and cool up on the hill which was so welcome. 

That is actually 2-D. It is painted to look like carved stone. 

The palace was beautiful, but I enjoyed the gardens more. After being in so many different big cities, it was nice to be in large amounts of green stuff.  This is Cruz Alta, at the highest point of Sintra hills. 

The palace in the distance. 

So tomorrow I am meeting up with everyone else and heading to Mira de Aire for field season. I have been very carefree and structureless for the past three weeks and that is all about to come to a crashing halt. But I am definitely looking forward to it.