I toured Berlin on my own on the 8th. I saw the Brandenburger Tor (the old gate that was the primary guarded east/west entry point), I saw the old SS Gastapo headquarters, former Checkpoint Charlie, and one of the longest remaining sections of the wall near the new industrial park buildings Potsdammer Platz.
Part of me wishes I would have done more research before coming to Berlin and seeing all of this. Part of me, however, is glad I didn't. I know the wall was built sometime around the 60's. I know there was an American section, a British section, and a communist Russian section. I know that the communist Easterns were not allowed to the democratic West side. Although the magnitude of what I was seeing did cross my mind, it didn't hit me as emotionally as I thought it would. It was just a wall standing there, cold and gray, unemotional and thoughtless. I think that comprehending the horror and the sheer captivity of it all would have been too much to bare.

And now for the first episode of WHAT THE HELL IS IT?
Afterward viewing the wall (I was starving), I walked into a sandwich and pastry shop to get a bite to eat. I had no idea what was being served since it is all in German, so I pointed to a cheaply priced sandwich that looked like fried chicken. I still don't know what kind of meat I ate. Don't get me wrong, it was really good, but I couldn't really enjoy it because I don't know what I was eating. For some reason I was really scared it was liver.