Berlin rocks my socks!!!
Trip Start
Aug 02, 2007
1
69
73
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Berlin,
Germany
Friday, November 21, 2008
April enjoying Berlin
. The museum was excellent. It was full of personal recollections of events leading up to the war and during the war. One of the best parts was the collection of stories about how people escaped from the east towards the west. There were good stories, sad stories and funny stories. (April has a few on her blog). The museum went on to explore other social unjustices in the world, and gave a country by country short history. It was while wandering through the museum that I finally started to realize the permanence of it all. Late one night, the east German authorities started working about midnight, and by 6am there was a wall encircling West Berlin. It doesn't matter where one was living or what business one was doing on either side of the wall that day, once it was up no one could move from East to West anymore. And no one wanted to move from West to East. So people risked their lives trying to sneak from East to West.
April and I had a great time wandering through the streets of Berlin finding dinner, fending off compliments from the restaraunt greeters standing at the entrances trying to gather more diners. We settled on an Indian place, and the food was fantastic!! I forgot how much I love love Indian food. The spicier the better. Mmmm...
The next morning April and I had decided to check out this 'free tour' company that was from our map... A tour guide swung by our hostel to walk us to the checkpoint (at the Brandenburg Tor). In chatting with her, we learned a bit about Berlin. The atmosphere of the city is different than that of Germany as a whole. The people are much more open-minded, and much less 'must-follow-rules!'
At Checkpoint Charley
. For example, when crossing streets, people here wait at the little 'don't walk' light, even if there is no traffic coming. In Berlin, about half the people walk on the red... much more daring... :)And now, the highlight of Berlin (and the trip)!! The free tour is given by a company with guides that work for tips. That means that they are really interested in giving a fabulous tour with lots of great information. And it is!!! There is so much history in Berlin, from many different time periods, not just WW2. It's been a central part of world history, and has scars and stories to prove it. The tour was amazing, full of information and I was able to finally string together my scattered bits of history into one long stream. The tour was about 4 hours long, and along the way I fell in love with the city. It is really neat having the major historical events of the city be only 30 yrs back. The day we took the tour was the 19th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. I could go on and on and on, but most likely I couldn't convey the excitement about every bit again. So, I'll post photos and tell stories for the photos...
The city is one I will be able to come back to many times, I think. There is lots more to do and see and experience. That is partly why I think I like it so much
Bebelplatz
. April and I met great people in our hostel. We ate breakfast with a group of Italians and got a lesson in Italian language. We had tea with two girls living in Munich, originally from Poland and France, and chatted all about Germany. I love traveling and staying in hostels because one meets such great people! We were invited both to Italy and Munich...April and I had such a fabulous time traveling around!!! It's been an amazing blessing to be able to spend so much time with someone who makes me so happy!! We've spent an inordinantly large amount of time taking photos of ourselves, laughing at some random comment by one of us, recording said comments, and then laughing hysterically. I'm quite happy.
Enjoy the pictures!
