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Monday, May 12, 2008
BERLIN TOUR
My adventures in Eastern Europe are well under way. The first stop on my journey was Berlin, Germany. I took an overnight bus from Amsterdam and arrived at 9 a.m. Miraculously, I found the hostel with no difficulties. I stowed my luggage and came to the receptionist desk just in time to catch the free tour of Berlin at 10 a.m. Tours are done by an international company, and all the people converged at the Brandenburger Tor to be split up into groups by the language they spoke. My group guide was a hyperactive artist from Maine.
He was knowledgeable and entertaining as he gave a fantastic tour of all the main sights in the city. We went to the Holocaust memorial and walked amidst blocks of concrete, remembering those who died. We stood on top of Hitler’s bunkers, in what is now just a parking lot. We went to Checkpoint Charley and to the Berlin Wall. So much history was in every building; it was hard to take it all in. Berlin was nearly obliterated in World War II, so much of what we see today is rebuilt to look like the original. The city is still beautiful in its own right,
For the first part of the tour, I walked, listened and didn’t talk to anyone. When we stopped for lunch, I had to find an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM). As I went off to find a bank, a voice behind me asked if I was going to look for money. I said yes and realized I was talking to one of the guys from my tour. We found an ATM and got to know each other a bit along the way. He was from London traveling Europe with his friend. When we got back to the Schlotsky’s where everyone was eating, he introduced me to his friend, and we all ate together. They asked what I was doing in Europe. I explained I was studying missions and had done an internship in Amsterdam.
Jackson asked what missions entailed. I explained I wanted to be a missionary. He asked if you had to be a nun to be a missionary. They had these really confused looks on their faces. I gathered they didn’t hang out with many girls like me.
We started the tour again, and my two new friends were hilarious. They were really chill London boys with no plans in life. I don’t think that is a virtue, but they were definitely peace-loving and friendly. Their next stop was Amsterdam, where they hoped to get as high as possible and stay in a coffee-shop all day. I encouraged them to see the sights instead.
When the tour ended, I pulled out my map and started planning my next thing. The guys were talking about going to a cafe near their hostel, so I went with them. We talked along the way as they asked me about Christianity and about church. When we got to the cafe, they asked questions about Jesus. Why did Jesus dying on the cross magically erase our sins? Won’t being good and following the Ten Commandments get you into heaven?
We talked awhile. They were serious. They said they didn’t know anyone in London who goes to church. There are churches, and they don’t close, but nobody they know actually goes. This was discouraging to me. How can we be so disconnected?
After we ate, I left them and went back to my hostel. I had learned a lot from them. Europe is in deep spiritual need—even as they have so much in material goods.
