Berlin Day 2 (May 24, 2011)

Today we attempted to make it to our tour of Berlin, but due to some very bad directions, we missed it by just a few minutes and had to reschedule for tomorrow. We decided to relax and regroup at Starbucks. The Starbucks here are super nice! I've seen several that are two levels and full of couches and things. In this one, we even saw some American backpackers asleep on the couches upstairs haha. After that we did a little bit more browsing in the shops before going to the Story of Berlin Museum. I enjoyed this museum very much because it gave a detailed history of Berlin from its beginnings, through everything with Hitler, the wall, and the most recent history. It was really crazy to see what sort of things went on here. I had never even heard about some of the crazy things he put the German citizens through. Some of the most interesting things we saw there were pieces of the Berlin wall and an underground bomb shelter. The bomb shelter was an actual shelter that had been used during WWII and was located about 6 stories under the building that housed the museum. The shelter was built to house 3600 people for a period of two weeks in the event that a nuclear attack occurred. The people were packed in so tightly that the shelter was said to have an atmosphere similar to a green house. There were no mirrors or silverware allowed in the shelter because they didn't want people to use them against each other or to commit suicide. They also only had blue colored light because it influenced blood circulation giving people a calmer demeanor and prevented veins from being visible to further prevent suicide attempts.

Fun fact: The little men on the crossing signs in east Berlin wear hats and the ones in west Berlin do not.
-Brooke

Story of Berlin Museum

Marina with the Berlin wall

Me with the Berlin wall

The east Berlin traffic light men