2013 Semester in Aix-en-Provence, France

Sorry I haven't uploaded anything new lately. I was on spring break and my laptop wasn't connecting to the internet. For break I traveled with Roecker to Berlin, Warsaw, and Auschwitz. It was an incredible experience. I have hundreds of photos that I will upload. I'm going to split them up so that is is easier to follow. We arrived in Berlin on Friday after a short flight. Finding our hostel was a bit of a struggle. We went the wrong way getting off the train and ended up walking around with all of our luggage for about 30 minutes before we realized our mistake. Our hostel is in what used to be East Berlin. It's very easy to tell which side was which. The hostel was great. It was new, clean, and to top it off, it had a pool and sauna! Needless to say we spent a lot of time there. The next day, we started off with the Brandenburg Gate. Near the gate is the Reichstag, the head of the German government It's a very impressive building. From there, we walked to the Victory Column. You can climb to the top, and it has a great view of the city. We took the train to the famous Checkpoint Charlie, where people could cross back an forth into East and West Berlin. It's incredible to think how a city could be split in half so easily. On the site of the former Gestapo headquarters is a museum called the Topography of Terror. It was incredible all the documentation that they had of the Nazi brutality. One thing I noticed about Berlin is how up front they are about their history. They don't tried to hide it or anything. I have a lot of respect for that. I have more pictures coming up tomorrow. Enjoy!

Here is a view with the Berlin skyline in the background