Berlin - Day 2

We woke up at leisure at 10 or so (and God bless all these hotels/hostels to serve breakfast till 11:30.)

I don’t know why but we were in an especially leisurely mood, so we ate slowwwly and then sat with the map and slowwly figured out what-where-why. Berlin has shit load of museums and such. Lots of options are always a bad thing. And then, as usual, we made a plan and started off. I don’t remember the plan exactly, because as usual, we did not really stick to it.

Along with behaving leisurely, we were also a little out of our minds…as we left the hostel without fully gearing up for the chilly weather. In other words, no jackets/gloves or cap. I am not used to winters so I cant handle wearing layers of clothing.

So, we figured out all subway trains – this that and reached Potsdammer Platz. An area that relatively newly built but was central to most of the places we had planned to visit.

On reaching there, it struck both of us how brave we were trying to be and ended up really foolish. The cold was skull-numbing and we looked at each other like ‘brrr…lets go back and get our jackets or at least gloves and caps.’

And yes, we went back to get all those.


(I think cold also makes your mind contract and as a result maybe the blood flows really slow and you think very slow or something - Have to look this up. It could be true. Sounds like a theory.)

Anyway, so, not only did we quite shamelessly wasted our time in getting appropriately dressed for the winter…upon reaching Potsdammer Platz again, when we were purposefully walking towards the Brandenburger Tor , we got quite distracted by this whole fair sort of thing with all sort of yummy fried aromas wafting in the air. So like lil sniffy dogs, we hopped from one stall to another began to eat. It was pretty strange because both of us had a ‘complimentary-and- therefore- filling’ breakfast.

We first had fried champignons (button mushrooms) with spinach (highly disgusting), then, some sort of nice sweet-sugary-fried-but-light- balls you get those a lot here, and then chocolate crepe (which was the winner) –

(Notice how demented I look…I guess it was the sugar surge!)



(Also, because it was very windy day combined with bad-hair day! )

Anyway, we managed to wrench ourselves out of the wretched fair and walked towards Brandenburger Tor.

Walking up all those streets, you feel, there is something really eerie about the place. Maybe it was the weather, but I was thinking, maybe it IS true – something is really dreary and grey about the city. The air hangs heavy in that city. Quite inexplicable it is – how you feel.

Before Brandenburger Tor, we found the Museum of Holocaust – also called the Museum of the Murdered Jews. Was built recently – 2005. Looks like a cemetery, but isn’t. Just being there gives u the heebie-jeebies. I learnt later that it is deliberate – to give the visitors a sense of insecurity. Sets the mood for the museum.

Ironically, for us even the clouds matched the grey stelaes (steel-ays). Perfect mood setting.

And as we stood waiting at the entrance of this museum – it started snowing – The first snow in Europe!


Dint get a chance to really, enjoy it. Was too cold and we rushed inside and entered a different world. Snow, was long forgotten.

Took an audio tour this time – was worth it.

It is dedicated to all Jews murdered in Europe during the holocaust. It’s divided into 5 big rooms (or were there 7?) and begins with pictures from the holocaust period from 1931-1945.

It’s unbearable to look at some of the pictures and reading the descriptions. The next room has letters preserved from people in the concentration camps to their loved ones.

The lighting is so apt. Gives you goosebumps. I was trying hard not to cry as I read all excerpts and tried telling myself ‘It’s over, we should be thankful it’s over.’

Then I came across a letter from a 12 year old girl to her father just before she and her mother were being taken to the pit to be executed.

They used to shoot the people at the edge of the pits so their bodies fell right into the pits. Lesser work.

“They are taking us to kill us…
….I love you daddy.. "

The letter was dated 31, July, 1942.

It was quite blurry after that for sometime. So, I sat for sometime and trying to wipe off all signs of crying.

There were many such rooms and pictures, and stories of families which had all their generations wiped off.

By the time I reached the last room, my head was spinning. I couldn’t bear to be in the last audio room which shows the names of people who were murdered and then their biography is read out. It is a part of the Jewish culture … about how when they die..something. I don’t even remember it now. I was so dizzy with all the brutality and such organized mass murders over years. Mind-numbing in the real sense.

(PS:Day 2 shall continue… feeling a lil dizzy just thinking about it.)