It was like the history textbook in Sec 2 came alive for me
Visited the working place of Hilter, where he died..
what happened to him.. the concentration camps and stuff
Somehow, this whole trip reminds me alot of Spy Lau
Probably because he's such a Gamer and thought me the
first German word 'Shy...'
Day 01
Abit of hiccups on the journey to the airport
Was supposed to hop onto the 0330hrs coach but we
only reached the coach station at 0410hrs
Reason 1: One of us in the group overslept
Reason 2: I flagged the bus to the coach station but the
driver didn't stop for me (Shy-man!)
Upon arrival, it was immediate emergency rush for check-in
Unfortunately, Jeep forgot to remove her metal 'green tea'
from her backpack which resulted in her whole backpack
being ransacked and checked at the customs (Yet another delay)
So it was stressful from the coach all the way to the plane,
fearing that the plane would fly off without us
But Thank God for his hand, we made it
Introducing the Berlin team (All MOE civil-servants to be)
From Left to right
Eugene Abel Ananias Teo (Physics)
Zhang Junli (Psychology)
Amelia Leong (Geography)
Kam Mei En (Psychology)
And so, up the plane we go
The nightmare of travelling with me
I was very suprised I was the last man standing though
First dosage of Germany Air
Headed down in a train to the hostel
Arrival at our hostel. Very very nice
Room was spacious, toilet and shower rooms super clean
Very helpful and friendly staff, 10/10 rating lah!
After checking in, we went to do the No. 1 most impt thing
Filling our stomachs
We joined the 1300hrs Berlin walk tour
I was so tired, at many points when the tour guide
was explaining to us stuff at stop points...
I was standing and falling asleep
Trying to keep awake
Berlin Cathedral (1894-1905)
Television Tower, Berlin's highest building at 368 metres
Kind of reminded me of Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower
Into the small alleys
Can you spot the star of David?
Gate to the Parliament House
Brandenburger Tor ("Brandenburg Gate")
From this point onwards, I started to be awake as we
entered into the more interesting part of the tour.
Talking about the Nazis, SS soldiers.. Eradication of the Jews
as well as Hilter's works
Sowjetisches Ehrenmal
(Monument to Soviet Soldiers)
Shot delicated to TY the Arty Artillary man
as well as the JI terrorist hunter CPT Lee
These stonestabs are supposed to be a Holocaust memorial for the Jews
The tour guide mentioned 'The Highlight of this memorial is
that its design and architecture makes no sense at all'
This picture is the very place where Hilter had his command
post back in the days of WW2. Now its a piece of apartment house.
Would you want to buy a apartment here?
Underneath the fore-ground was Hilter's bunker where he shot
himself dead and fed his wife poison cynite
Our very entertaining tour guide asking
Charity (The psychologist) to disect and reason
Hilter's behaviour and decision making process.
The Berlin Wall (Separating East and West Germany for 28yrs)
Almost 80% (I dare say) of Berlin's street walls are
painted with Graffiti art which is really beautiful.
Its not the half past six kind of painting like those in SG,
but really nice ones.
Matching gloves and Beanies as well as crumpler!
Shot delicated to Dad. You'll love this
It was a long day, and we went hunting for dinner
near our hostel
Upside down Mac donalds?
We told ourselves that we wanted German Sausages
and we did. It tasted good man!
And some crazy ideas from the Jeep to eat ice-cream
in the ice cold weather in Bens 'N' Jerrys
Day 02
You might be able to take others sleeping
because you're the last to sleep...
But wait till you're the last to wake up
We woke up at 10am and had a time of devotion
and sharing together before we set off for the day.
Acknowledging that he's in our team as we journey
through the day.
As we 'sacrifice' our play time off and putting him
before us, our weather was GOODER then Good
It felt as if it was like some church camp
bringing back many fond memoriese of the past
Can Joshua Lau or Hailer teach me how to
pronounce this very special Word?
Morning shopping with a trolley
And it snowed for a good 20 minutes
We did nothing but just stayed put enjoying
the falling snow on our shoulders. Beautiful.
I love snow
And we visited the interior of the Berlin Cathedral
There was a prayer service going on, the sounds of the
traditional organ sent sudden chills down my spine..
I thought it sounded kind of freaky
And we made our way to the top of the cathedral
Look! The Angel can play guitar
What can I say about European architecture? Grand?
Seeing this thing in a church building is very freaky
Lunch time! We headed to a shopping mall (very empty though)
Shot delicated to a list of ppl..(In decreasing order of obession)
Cho cho, Bunny, fish, Nelle, charcoal, Ah Lau, Eva, Sophie and Richie White
A German lunch
These are the 3 must try over in Germany
(Sausage, Pork Knuckle, Beer)
German 'MRT' Where the streets have no name
We headed to the Jewish museum and there was a special
exhibition on 'Social construction and prejudice'
Social construction - 'How individuals view people, perceive issues around him
in accordance to the way society has shaped his thinking'
Sham(2008)
For example 'Boys toilet must be blue and girls toilet pink'
'Ugly people are evil' (Isn't that how its portrayed in fairy tales?)
'People with body piercings are bad people' (uh huh..)
Wondering what you're looking at?
Israeli artist Tamir Lahav-Radlmesser asked friends and acquaintances throughout the world for samples of their pubic hair."
Dennis Kardon responded to the stereotype of a 'Jewish nose' by multiplying it. The artist cast the noses of real Jews from America's art world and reworked them with meticulous precision."
Spare a few change please?
Columns of concrete slabs to commemerate the Jews
I thought it looked abit like a C.S Map fy_iceworld
Racial colour tones of the World
Its interesting how we used to feel bored and sleepy
in history classes, but now, I'm so interested in the happenings
A piece of clothe to be worn by the Jewish
during the days of Hitler's dictationship
Extra exhibitions
Exterior of the Jewish Museum
While we were out, I exclaimed 'God where is the snow?'
and it was interesting... it began to snow a few minutes after that!
The weather was freezing cold (Much colder than London! -5'C)
We walked into Dunkin Donuts to escape from the cold for awhile
And soon, it was past the parliament gates to the Parliament house.
The tour guide told us last night that the view up the Parliament house
could oversee the whole city of Berlin at night. Chio la
We arrived at 2130hrs and they close at 2200hrs
The guards told us that there's no way we could make it
up in time.
'There was a time, when people say that we cannot make it,
but we did...'
Can't really see much up there due to the snow
and looking down, thats where the German parliament hold
their political meetings
Can you spot the reason for this picture?
Back in hostel, we decided to give the bar
at the basement a visit..
And played UNO card... with punishment
(No. of pictures indicate no. of loses per person)
Junli became abit seh that she said things like
'Its late, I think I need to wash my teeth and brush my face'
Day 03
We took a train and visited Portsdam
(Sort of the more country ulu side of Germany)
At the train station, we consumed more sausages!!
Arrival at Portsdam
Was it Germany or Holland that I said we're in?
This Palace kind of reminds me of resident evil 4
and of course, Spy Lau
Bathtub
Section movement
Somehow, its an enjoyment to me to be
looking at the trees at this angle
Queen Zhang Junli (Not Zhang Ziyi)
Relieving of our childhood dreams of tree climbing
The main palace ground
I was telling Eugene of the effects of Acid rain
on the statue, discolouring it
He replied 'No.. the statue forgot to throw the
dynamite on his left hand in time'
As we walked on, there were many little distributary
paths that lead to secret gardens like these
The Windmill
From afar, we saw 'Movenpick' and went into its courtyard
Only to return to our little wish of becoming kids again
For a while, just for the moment, free of anxieties,
work stress, expectations, it felt good
Look at how happy these kids look
Inside Movenpick
Before we head back to hostel,
we wanted to check out one last spot 'The pyramid' in a park
It was dark and by the time we arrived, the park was shut close
It was freezing cold in the night, and the house at this
deserted lane look freaky and scary.. looked abit like the
Changi village area?
Waiting for the bus in the cold
Because it was so cold, all of us started
jogging on the spot and singing all sorts of songs
Campfire, praise, worship, cheers.. army songs?
You name it, we nailed it down, but we enjoyed it so much
Along our journey while we had to change bus,
we saw a snack shop and purchased some kebaps
which tasted fabulous in the freezing cold
The man tending the stall was so cute that we
asked him to take a picture with us
Junli's happy meal in Germany
Look at the chocolate milk. Very interesting!
You put the chocolate beads inside the straw
and as you suck 'white fresh milk' through it,
it dissolves the choco beads to become choco milk
Shot delicated to Hailer Chong
At the end of the day, it was playing card games
in the room 'Loot' it was called
Day 04
We wallop the hostel buffet since it was the last day
Choice of different hams
and different Cheese
Can you name them all? I can't
Today's visit was to the Concentration camps..
Look at these pictures and imagine the voice of
an Old deep voice 'It was a sad day in German history...'
Layout of the concentration camp
Houses of the SS soldiers
The roll call parade square
The prison cells
The hanging post
Sleeping area
Toilet
Storeroom where some acts of
torture and accidental murder occurs
The shower area. Sometimes, as much as 200 people
are squeezed into this small bathing area. Some were
being drown alive in the feet washing area on the right
On the road towards the execution sector
The wall that the Jews were shot alive
and of course... the infamous gas chamber
Well, perhaps this was the sunset that the prisoners
see behind that wall
Its indeed a very very sad place to be
Very very sad..
And so that marks the end of the tour in Berlin
On our way back
Shot delicated to my friends like
Talib, Hafiz, Osman, Sofian
Journey back to the airport
The public transport work on a 'I trust the citizens' basis
You can hop on without paying, there are no gates, gantries
or whatsoever for buses and trains
But in our 4 day stay in Berlin, we were stopped twice
by civilian dressed 'officers' that were checking
At Berlin airport
Marche bakery huh?
And its 'Home' sweet 'Home' for us
'I want to wash my teeth and brush my face'
I really enjoyed myself in Berlin
The place itself isn't that fantastic, the history
is very rich though.
But I guess its the combination, and the company.
These are a really nice bunch of people to
travel with. Selfless, and know what it means
to 'abandon' themselves to serve others, and of course
'abandon' their 'face' to just let loose everything
and enjoy even if it means looking 'kuku' / 'crazy'
Goodbye Berlin!!
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