Berlin nach Poznan

The next day we were off to Poznan, but not until noon. This meant I had a little more time to sightsee. I took full advantage of this and got up early that morning for breakfast and to head over to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial. This memorial was/is quite controversial among the Berlin populace as there were issues regarding if the Jews should have their own memorial in Berlin versus all of the victims of the Holocaust, and why this memorial needed to be in Berlin. The early morning was a nice time to go there and reflect, nonetheless.

Afterwards we were planning to visit the inside of the Reichstag which is the German parliament, but, unfortunately, the dome on top and the parliament were closed for cleaning. We still had too much time to head back to the hotel so we took a trip out to the western suburbs of the city and visited the Olympic Stadion. That was really cool. I was filled with feelings of awe at the building itself and a sense of history and pride when I saw the track and imagined Jesse Owens beating everyone else in 1936. It was a definite odd juxtaposition of feelings.

Then in my last act in Berlin I ran around the area by the hotel for a good 20 minutes trying in desperation to find a doener. I finally succeeded and enjoyed every last bite of my Turkish/Berlin delicacy. The next 6 hours were spent on a bus heading to Poznan in Poland. The highlight of the trip was the hour spent at the border having our passports and bus checked.

The Polish countryside was quite a shock in comparison to Berlin. Much more rural, and much more rundown. When we first entered the Poznan city limits comments were being made left and right regarding the dilapidated state of the city. However, as we headed further into the center of town and closer to our hotel the better things appeared. After getting settled into our hotel we headed for our first Polish dinner, which was nothing to rave about, but not horrible either. Then it was just a chill night as people tried to catch up on their lack of sleep.