Berlin it is!

"Work will Set you Free": the ominous statement on the main gate to Sachsenhausen

I had one day. One day for what? To get back to London from Stockholm (my previous trip that was under $100 a day. You know? Ten trips from London for under $100. My latest travel attempt) and prepare for my next cheap trip.

It required some laundry, some emails, and of course printing out my boarding passes before the airport – the trade-off for traveling on budget airline EasyJet. That proved more difficult in London than I figured. Now that everyone has wifi no one needs computer labs. The fear of missing my flight grew as people I asked in coffee shops and stores looked at me as if I had two heads.

“Do you know where I can find a internet cafe?”

“Huh? Um…well there might be one. Turn left at…..”

I went on my goose- chase and an hour later I found my hole-in-the-wall, paid 80p and exited with two boarding passes for……BERLIN! It’s time for another Rock Fever Column for Monday!

Clothes were thrown into another carry-on. This time I made sure that I packed even less than I had for Stockholm. I didn’t want another run-in with a troubled, low-cost carrier worker (remember Ryanair and my clothes layering? visit here for the story if you missed it.)

A train from London Bridge to Gatwick took only half an hour and cost a lot less than the Gatwick express. Try £16 return vs.  £16 one- way!

I was ready for Berlin. Too bad EasyJet wasn’t. For a delay of three hours I received  £3 to spend on whatever I wanted. How generous.

I had a good book so I wasn’t worried about killing time, but on the other end of the trip, i.e. Berlin it made it difficult. Not because there was no transport. Nope. Berlin has a great metro which stops around midnight, but then night buses kick-in to pick-up the slack.

Unfortunately as I looked at the night bus schedule the directions given by my Eco-friendly hostel did not seem to translate. Luckily I had my cell phone.

We decided I should find a taxi.

I’m glad I did. He was very friendly and immediately I realized Germans were going to be more approachable than the Swedes (I’m sorry Sweden. You were not always the most welcoming). The entrance to my hostel was hidden down a 100 foot path through the woods with no lights. Horror film came to mind and I was glad I was not walking down it on my own.

I had decided for my Berlin trip I would try and save the environment. Well or at least pay-back the carbon footprint of some of these flights. I found an Eco-friendly youth hostel -Jetpak – located in one of the beautiful parks of Berlin. Doesn’t really jive with your view on Berlin does it? I mean the park thing.

It should. I had never seen such a green city. My hostel was located in the Grunewald which is 32 square kilometres of mixed forest and lakes, even a beach, in the city! I know crazy. Even crazier? They still have wild pigs running around this forest!

After a solar powered shower and heated water for my coffee, I decided to hike back along the wooded path to

Wandering near the Eco-Friendly Hostel

find my bus. I felt better already about the airline fumes.

No exact change needed on the buses and for about €4 I could travel on all the public transportation I wanted too for that day. Berlin was getting better and better.

My flight to Berlin was $40 one-way. My hostel was €20 a night. Transportation €4. I was on my $100 budget.

Now for entertainment. Berlin is a city piled high with history. With every corner turn you peel away another layer. I was in heaven. Berlin is also beautiful….in segments. Thanks to Hitler and his successors – the Russians – buildings were destroyed at various times and rebuilt with very different aesthetics. This makes Berlin an interesting city to explore.

The most disturbing architecture of the regimes?

A former concentration camp – Sachsenhausen – on the outskirts of the city. This was a prototype prison that Nazi’s use as an example for every other they would build, it was also used by the Soviets when they took over parts of Berlin. It was where I felt I needed to begin my travels through Berlin. With New Berlin Tour – a company that offers affordable and even free tours of various European cities – I had a PhD student as a guide with nine other people for €14. A 40 minute metro ride delivered us to this triangular-shaped, work camp turned concentration camp and its ominous gates with the “Work will set you free” slogan.

At one point 60,000 workers were trapped by 200 soldiers here with various methods including a watchtower that could overlook the entire triangular layout and a death strip where prisoners were shot – no questions asked- if they tried to leave. Besides physical constraints, the SS Guards inflicted psychological constraints too. Prisoners were sectioned into various groups – homosexuals, political prisoners, jews, etc… and the guards would treat the different groups better or worse depending on their status.

By the end of the war as the Soviets moved closer to Berlin and the Nazis became desperate, Sachsenhausen’s ovens and death marches away from it, turned into systematic killing machines of Soviet POWs and Jewish Prisoners.

Entrance to Sachsenhausen

The grounds are now bleak and filled with very few structures to actually see since much was destroyed during de-nazification. There are, now, two reconstructions of the sparse prison blocks that would be filled to overflowing and a specialized prison where cells kept high-interest internees – i.e. the man who tried to kill Hitler – in solitary confinement.

A depressing and conflicted site. The difficult history is further depicted across from the “Work will set you free” Gate. The former SS Guards’ training site now houses the area’s Police Academy. But therein lies the debate and controversy that continues in Berlin and Germany as a whole. What to do with Nazi relics? These are useful buildings that could be reused and should be reused. But what about what they stood for before?

It was a thoroughly sobering afternoon that silenced any complaints I had about the cold in the air. It was time to return to the centre of Berlin.

Stay tuned for next week when I travel in the Centre of Berlin and visit here for daily wanderings by Robyn!