Learning and Relearning about life.

Hey guys!

So I arrived in Berlin late yesterday evening so don't really have much to tell you apart from the fact that I stayed in and watched The Hunger Games - very cultural of me I know! But honestly I was just so emotional drained and done with the day that I stayed in and sulked pretty much the whole night.

When I woke up this morning I was still feeling groggy and annoyed. I really didn't want to go out to do anything and I was seriously considering just staying in - I'd see enough in the past week to write and talk to you guys about so what was the harm in having a day off? After an hour of deliberating I chucked on my hoodie, stuck on some Bon Iver (depressing songs for a depressive mood) and left my hostel. I'd already lost 500 quid's worth of euros, I'd just be wasting even more money if I did nothing with my day. Thank God that I did.

It was an hour and a half walk from where I'm staying to the Berlin Wall, I didn't fancy taking public transport because I wouldn't have a clue where to get on, where to get off, or if I would even be on the right tram. Walking was my safest option for not getting lost (not that it actually worked, took me 10 minutes just to work out where I was standing on the map, let alone what direction I should be walking in haha). As I'm walking to the Wall, I realise I don't actually know the story behind it. I was only going to see it because it's something everyone says you should do when you're here. I knew it was something to do with a war or conflict but didn't know specifically what. (History, although not my worst subject at school, I found very boring and I would often get caught listening to my iPod during classes - Sorry Mr Hofmann!)

Looking it up, the Berlin Wall is supposedly one of the main symbols of the Cold War which lasted from 1947-1991. It was a conflict between the two super powers of the time - USA and the Soviet Union. After World War II, the Eastern political powers like North Korea, China and Vietnam who were supported by the Soviet believed that Communism was the only way forward after the devastation caused by Nazi Germany where as the Western powers like the USA, UK, South Korea & Japan were in favour of states run by capitalist methods. The Western powers thought that the Soviet was going to use brute force to coerce surrounding nations into their communist society.

So, what happened in Germany was that the City of Berlin was split in 4 parts after the World War - one to the UK, one to France, one to the US and one to the USSR and in 1949 the the zones belonging to the UK, France and the US formed West Berlin and the Soviet was Eastern Berlin. After the split loads of people (around 2 and a half million) fled the soviet side in favour of the West. To cut the population loss the Soviets built the 102 mile wall under the pretence that they were trying to keep capitalism out. The East refused to recognise the Western side as a separate state as they planned to take it over. In 1989, some radical political changes occured in the Eastern zone including the demise of the Soviet's government as a result The Wall was completed demolished in 1992 apart from the small stretch that remains today as a token to that time.

I could go into more detail but that's the general jist of it and I know History's boring so sorry for the little lesson but I feel like I should have known this story. I feel ignorant for not having looked it up sooner. In school I was never taught (well as far as I'm aware, probably was but I was too busy listening to My Chemical Romance to remember) about the Cold War or the struggles Germany faced after World War II. I cannot help but feel like, just from my experiences, that schools in England are much more concerned with teaching their own history. While I believe this is very important, to know how far your country has come and to learn your ancestry, but may be this is why some people back home are as small-minded as they are because they do not know the turmoil that over nations have faced and they're only taught the wrongs that have been done against their own country.

I also went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. A location set with thousands of concrete slabs to remember the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It is said that the layout of the memorial mainly symbolises two things. The first being that of a grave yard, the concrete cuboids are said to commemorate those who went unburied or were a part of an unmarked grave. The other is the strange feeling of fear or unease that builds up in you as soon as your gaze upon the site. It's weird to say that a thousand blocks of concrete has made me feel such a surge of sadness. It is said this happens

because the strict and systematic placement of these slates represent the strict and systematic killings that were executed by Nazi Germany. It makes you remember that life was absolutely unbearable for victims living during this time and no amount of words or memorials will make up for what so many people lost but I suppose it was a start. It is something I think that people need to see because words can describe the feeling you get when you walk up this memorial.

Again, I apologise for the history lesson and for the gloomy tone towards the end of this post however writing this has made me feel so appreciative of the life that I have and how lucky I am. I felt so sorry for myself this morning because of what happened yesterday and losing all that money but at the end of the day it was only money. Today has made me remember that life for other people has, is and will be so much more difficult than that of my own and I'm so sorry for that. A lot of people have it worse off and at the end of the day that's probably why the homeless man took my purse yesterday. He had reached a point of complete desperation and needed that money and, despite the fact I needed it too, his need was greater than mine. I'm not exactly what you'd call happy about it but I've made peace with it if anything. So I hope the money helps you wherever you are the homeless man in Amsterdam.

#berlinwall #berlin #germany #history #memorials