Quick Rundown of Gdansk

I Am Overwhelmed!
Readjusting to Berlin is more than I expected. I caught something coming home (or the overnight in the train station just made me sick) but I was feeling pretty gross yesterday. Feeling better today, but suddenly there's piles of work to be done! I had an essay due yesterday that I ended up writing at 6AM because I was so tired on Sunday. I got enough sleep last night, so that's most likely why today is a better day. Anyways, here's a little overview of the rest of the Poland trip, which really deserves a whole lot more than it's getting from me.

Absinthe...?
After our city tour of Gdansk and some afternoon touristy shopping, we attempted to enjoy an absinthe bar. However (unfortunately or fortunately depending on who's reading this) it wasn't real absinthe, and overall a waste of 15 Zloty. Zloty are Poland's currency, and 1 is equal to like 25 cents. Poland is very cheap (so I bought way too much stuff).

The next day we went to the WWII Museum which was amazing and overwhelming. Poland is right between Germany and Russia, so they were double occupied during the war. This gave the museum a good balance of histories, focusing on not just Nazi war happenings (like in Germany) but on many perspectives. They had so much to talk about I might make another post about it another day. That night we had Thai food for dinner, and went to an old Nazi bunker for drinks.

The morning of our last day in Gdansk we spent very tired, walking around the castle of the Teutonic Knights. It was huge, and majorly reconstructed like most things in Poland. I was very tired and could not tell you anything about the castle except that they used cabbage to wipe after using the bathroom. After the castle, I went back to Warsaw on the train for my Treblinka trip.

Back to Real Life
While the Poland trip was fun and I made great friends, I'm happy to be home in Berlin. This city is comfortable to me now, and since I finally have an apartment I can settle in like everyone else. More fun to come this weekend, when Oktoberfest comes to Berlin. (I refuse to go to Oktoberfest because EW beer and vomit and camping for three days? 0/10) I also have plans in the works for Prague, Paris, and Madrid trips soon, but first, midterms.

I Almost Forgot!!
Yesterday I went to the old Berlin Jewish cemetery with my class and I saw Moses Mendelssohn's gravestone. Completely unexpected and exciting. This is a city where things HAPPEN. We also visited an old building where a blind German saved a bunch of blind Jews by giving them work throughout the early years of the war. Most of them died after being given up or taken to camps, but it is the last known hiding space of Jews during WWII in all of Germany. An honor to have been inside.