Day 3

So, I made it out of Amsterdam alive today. I enjoyed the city very much and I plan to spend at least a couple more days there when I return in a month. I didn't do too many of the touristy things, except I did visit the Anne Frank House.

It was just as moving as it sounds. Although her story is remarkable, it is the realization that there are 6 million other stories just like it that make it so hard to bear. After spending the entire day enjoying the freedom allowed by bicycle transportation, it pained me to read that one of the first things the Nazis took from the Jews was their bikes.

This morning I took the train to Berlin. Every car was packed full with foreign kids just like me. Everyone had a big backpack. Everyone was stopping at Amsterdam and Berlin. Everyone was reading a guidebook that said ''Europe'' in big letters on the cover. Everyone was writing down things in their notebooks so that as soon as they found an Internet cafe they could type up their experiences in a blog. And so on.

I fell asleep in Holland and was awoken at one of the first train stations inside Germany. The train stopped and everyone was kind of looking around to see what was up. Into our car walked a German police officer. He began talking to someone a few rows up from me. The second that policeman began speaking in German, I almost needed to change pants. I was taken back to every WWII movie I had ever seen. And this is after hearing the soft, soothing speech of the Dutch for 3 days and now we were all being pelted with the harsh syllables of the German authorities. Soon, a few more policemen entered the train and began asking to search this man's bag. Eventually, I saw one officer pass to another a small bag containing a few grams of marijuana. When the accused man was ushered outside, I realized it was a man who had been sitting next to me only an hour ago. He was a little strung out looking, but he certainly didn't look like the terrorist type. It was all very strange. I'm still not sure why they called out this man in particular. On a train full of college students recently vacationing in Amsterdam, it's not hard to guess that some of them are going to be carrying some pot with them, but this man was no student. Strange.

If this post so far wasn't enough of a clue (although I myself only recently came to the realization), this trip is going to VERY jewish oriented. Even the geographic layout of my trip is like a reenactment of European Jewish history. Everywhere I go there are Jewish museums and memorials. Tomorrow, in fact, my one full day in Berlin will be filled with them. I have yet to come to any fully realized epiphanies about my heritage, so I will leave that for another day, but if you are looking for some insight on the Hebrews, it is coming soon, I promise.

My hostel here in Berlin is in the Mitte District, east of where the wall used to be. Rick Steves, the author of my sole guidebook, can't stop talking about the reunification of this city. True, the joining of capitalist West Berlin and the communist East is a big part of the city's continuing history and the reason for all the cranes that are constantly at work here today. However, I was born the same year the Wall came down. It has been 19 years now since this city was divided. To a young person like me, and probably much of the young people in Berlin, it is like ancient history. The World War II history of Berlin actually hits me harder than its Cold War one probably because of its Jewish focus. But I have yet to fully explore the city so I will save my judgements for a later date.

(One thing I did notice: Here, Häagen Dazs is a restaurant, like a real restaurant with plates and waitresses and stuff. I thought that was pretty funny.)

On tap: One full day seeing the sights of Berlin and then the night train to Wien (Vienna).