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David Hasselhoff saved the world from communism
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When I was in Munich Tessa, an Australian girl I met at the lindy exchange, invited me to stay with her in Berlin where she is currently doing a study abroad semester. Not one to turn down an offer for free accommodation, I made plans to meet her at the train station upon arrival in Berlin (she went back a couple of days before me to return to school).
Berlin is a really interesting city. It has a very ugly modern history that the city seems to be embracing instead of trying to hide. Obviously there's that whole issue of the wall, but this was also one of Hitler's main stomping grounds during his rise to power and WWII. But it also seems to have become a bit of a cultural center for Germany. There are loads of museums and a number of theater groups (unfortunately none had shows in English while I was here and hello, goodbye, please, and thank you aren't exactly enough German to understand a show).
Berlin is also a rather dirty and ugly city. The buildings were mostly built in the 50s-60s, replacing the ones destroyed in the war,
and tend to look more like concrete blocks than anything else (though they have built many of the historical landmarks in as much of the original style as possible). There is also a lot of graffiti covering buildings, sidewalks, trash cans, electrical boxes, and anything else that has an open canvas. Some of this is of the artistic or political variety, but the majority is just simple tagging. Four days of non-stop rain, pretty heavy at times, didn't help to make the city look any more beautiful.
I took another free walking tour which was pretty good. The guide wasn't nearly as energetic or entertaining as the guide in Munich, but he was still very informative (though he used the word folks way too often). The four hours were spent mostly in East Berlin covering many of the important sites and the history of the city. It was really interesting seeing the division of the city and where the wall used to be.
Most of it is completely gone, though they have used bricks in the ground to mark where it once was, creating a path through the city. There are still a couple of larger sections of the wall still standing, one of which is called the East Side Gallery and was made into an art exhibit/graffiti wall in 1990.
I also learned that the story of JFK saying I am a jelly donut during his speech in Berlin in the 60s is only an urban legend. And an urban legend that the Germans have never even heard before. He actually did use the correct grammar to say I am a Berliner. Too bad because it makes for a great story.
Especially because of all the rain, I was very happy to discover that Berlin has a lot of really good museums. I went to a contemporary art museum that was a bit too contemporary for me at times. Once exhibit was literally canvases painted all in one color. The Jewish Museum in Berlin is the largest in Europe and listed as a must-see in every guidebook. The museum itself had a lot of information, but the best part was the building. It's built in the shape of a large zig-zag line. It's very easy to get turned around while walking through it. I also went to a really good museum about the different resistance movements throughout German history. I learned about a couple of groups who planned large, complicated assassinations of Hitler, none of which were successful.
I really liked the relaxed feel of the city. It seemed to have an anything goes attitude. I can definitely understand why it gets a reputation as an artistic and diverse city. It was a nice place to be, but it was also time to move on. Next stop - Poland.
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| 68. | David Hasselhoff saved the world from communism - Berlin, Germany Sep 28, 2007 (  40 ) |
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