the values of G

By the end of April, I went to Germany for around 7 days.  Honestly, I had no idea what I should expect from germany.  Seems like now I am not really interested to see buildings or beautiful places in every spots in the world. I'd prefer to see the way the local people think and how they live their life.

As a country, Germany is not that interesting for me. I can say it's like a big version of Singapore, with a few touch of historical and old school building from the past.  The Berlin Mauer (Berlin wall) being mentioned in every travelling guide book, it was not as great as has been written in any books I've read. So do the other tourism spots in Germany.

BUT, I love the values I learnt there. I am not a big fan of historical studies, not at all. Ask my friend, and everybody knows I couldn't understand what the professor was saying in the European Economic History class.  For me, it's a less-interesting subject to learn about the past.  So what's so special about G country?  I joined the 4-hour free walking tour in Berlin. Starting from the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) 'til drop and I learnt a lot. I also visited Kassel, Frankfurt, and Witzenhausen. All cities are unique and very well-established.

Some of my highlights:

Reichstag

1. Reichstag or the Parliament building, people can visit the building in the top level and the floors are made from glass, means that visitor can see the parliament members when they're debating about law, etc. Why? The idea is to remind the parliament members that the people (standing above them) are the people who had choosen them to sit in the parliament, and those are who the parliament members should work for.

2. The ex bunker of Nazi, place where Adolf Hitler used to hide.  Don't expect to see this ex bunker as a museum or very historical place.  It's now a parking area, in front of a very normal appartment for common people.  Why? They blown up the bunker in the past, and then made it as a parking area. It was a dark moment for Germany and now they want to show people that Nazi was nothing any longer, even the very secret place of its leader is now being used as a parking area where people can walk through it as they want.

3. As I learnt from the history, during Nazi period, G has killed millions of people. Nowadays, many people still 'dislike' G due to their past. How the G should tell their children and grandchildren that they'd done something so bad in the past? Do they hide it? NO.  They teach children at school the real history, they allow books about it being published. For them, they don't want to hide anything. Tell people what's happening in the past, let children understand the history and how bad it was so none of G people would like to repeat the same situation. That by knowing the real history, they learn to not repeating the same mistake in the future.
4.  All the historical sites are in open area, that everybody is free to see, read and feel the condition, as history is for everyone to learn and remember.  and the stoty about how the east and west were reunited is very surprising, a misunderstanding statement.
5.  They DO care about organic products and separating the garbage, the most I've ever seen so far.
6.  You can refund your plastic bottle to the supermaket.
7.  Their salads in the supermarket are great!
8.  Trains are very punctual. Never try to go without tickets, they check all the time.
9.  Everybody speaks perfect English.
10. Lift is 'only' for elderly.
11. The typical houses.
12. You can only find very good and great cars.

the typical house