Our time has ended in Berlin and we are now moving on to Essen. We arrived after a short 2hr train ride and the atmosphere is totally different from Berlin. The area is greener and spaced out more.
We learned that Essen was an industrial city with a lot of coal mining and steel factories. Housing was built near railroads to support workers and their families. In order to work as a coal miner, you needed to have kids, so the job could be passed on. Most coal miners only lived to their mid 40s.
We also visited two of the main rivers that people used. The first being the Rhine River which is where the clean water was and the Emscher River which is an open sewage canal for the residents. As of now the canal had a very foul odor to it, but engineers and other professionals are working on improving the quality in the next few years, so that people can enjoy the river and not run from the smell.
For years Essen was thought of a low class city because of all the industrialism, but has recently just started to build up and bring more people in. They want people to remember what the city once was, but they are also improving and rebuilding.
I like Essen the most so far because it has a more comfortable feel with its suburban areas, which is what I’m used to back at home.
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