Ich Bin Ein Berliner

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Just a quick stop over in Berlin to pick up Margo and to see Kit Belgum and Michael Herring for dinner. Yes, it is a bit of a detour off the road from Budapest to Krakow, but definitely worth the trip. I got to show a friend a bit of a city I love, see two friends for dinner and catch up on something I missed. What could be a better 2 days than that?

Saturday, May 24th:
Easy train ride to Prague, though there was a bit of confusion at the very end, and I had to make sure I was at Hlavni Nadrazi (Main Station in Czech) and not one of the satellite stations - I would joke about this, but Bethany and I did this 3 years ago in this same city - and was communication with one fellow passenger in English, another in German and had to help direct a family in Spanish. Eventually we got ourselves all sorted out and I had a nice 3-hour wait for my train to Berlin.
This ended up being another easy journey, particularly as I was able to get some more sleep on the ride, and we came into Hauptbahnhof (Main Station in German). The last time I was in Berlin, the station was really just an S-Bahn stop. Now, it is the central rail point of Europe. It is a massive, open, airy, gorgeous station, and I absolutely love it. It exudes the modernity, efficiency and beauty of 21st-century train travel from Berlin. The hostel I had booked was just about a 20 minute walk so I hoofed it over there, checked in and decided to walk around a bit of the Museum Island off to my south.
I had, of course, been through here before, but never had a chance to relax on the Lust Garten for a bit and then take a hike up to the top of the Berliner Dom (cathedral). So that is what I did. The garden was full of people just relaxing and taking in the sunny day. I had to wait a bit to get into the cathedral, as there was a wedding going on in a side-chapel, with a nice big photo session out on the front steps. They were doing some work on the place, so I couldn’t make it to the very top cupola, but I did get up pretty high to get a great view of the whole of the city. Not too much as changed from that view, but except for the conspicuous ongoing demolition to the Palace of the Republic. 3-years ago, it was a rusted-out structure that was near to falling apart on its own; now, they have been slowly taking it down over the last few years (and I expect them to take quite a bit longer, as the structure is so heavy that they cannot simply tear it down all at once - it could cause a large chunk of the island to slip away into the Spree). It was very weird to see just that concrete and steel in bits and pieces being slowly taken away. It is particularly odd, as Berlin in constantly building things to recall its past, where here they are taking something down.
At about this time, I had to head back to Hauptbahnhof and take the S-bahn to Schoenfeld Airport to meet up with Margolis, as he arrived just today. I made it in just a bit late, but had no trouble finding him in the arrivals area. It was great to see him and that he had made it in with no trouble. In typical Margolis fashion, he had packed not only a school-type backpack, but a massive rolling black duffel bag you could probably smuggle a small adult or large child in. It was so heavy, he might have.
After catching up a for a bit on the train from the airport, we relaxed for bit and then found that we had some time before meeting Kit (my professor when I studied here) and her new students for dinner. Aaron and I decided to walk around a bit of the neighborhood and check out the sights along Oranienburger Strasse where the New Synagogue is, as well as some other very Berlin buildings - both from before WWII and after. Then we were off to the beer garden and dinner with Kit and her kids. It was a great time to catch up with her and meet the new students, as well as some of her other former students now living in the city (one is teaching English to engineers for business), so we also had a chance to meet some of the local Berliners. Then it was off to a bar with a few of the students - there are only 8 this summer, whereas I was with 11 others - and then headed back to the hostel and bed.

Sunday, May 25th:
We did sleep in a bit today, nothing too late, but we both needed it (Aaron was still on Eastern Time and I was just tired) and our train out would be at roughly 4:00am. Today was the day to show my traveling companion a bit of the city of Berlin. We headed first to the train station to get the mandatory reservation for me and the ticket for Aaron, and then were off to see the Reichstag and Chancellery, both of which are about a 5 minute walk from Hauptbahnhof. After crossing a bicycle street race to get there, we had to wait about an hour to get to the elevator that took us to the top of the Reichstag, as I educated Aaron on some of the history, and architectural and visual language of the building. While waiting, we did get to see those crazy Germans at play as a group of about 6 people handled a life-sized puppet (each person had a stick that moved one part, and the moving of those stick in coordination made it wave or appear to walk) went and screwed around with the people taking pictures on the steps or just waiting in line. Again, same great view as I was used to, with the completed US embassy, the Brandenburg Gate and the TV tower all easy to point out. I also mentioned to Aaron the current dissatisfaction with the “Dem Deutsche Volk” (“To the German Folk”) inscribed on the pediment of the façade right over the main entrance, as the word “volk” has a strong connotation from Nazi times to “Aryan,” and so there is a planter in one of the courtyards with soil in it from every district around the country and the words “To the Populace” written, as it connotes more inclusiveness and diversity.
Next was a walk down to Parisier Platz through the Brandenburg Gate. No mater how many times you see it, it’s always an impressive structure, simply because of the absolute iconic nature of the gate itself. We also ducked through the Hotel Adlon, which is one of those absolutely stunning hotels, but is notable just as much for it’s location so close to the wall and right dead center in Berlin as it was such an epicenter of spy craft and intrigue during and between the world wars (Cabaret also begins in the bar that was once in its basement).
From the Adlon, we went on to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and I educated Aaron on the irony of the anti-graffiti spray (it was manufactured by the same company that mad the Zyklon B gas for the death camps) and the great debates over the name (“Should it be just to the Jews, or to everyone?”) and the design itself (the stele are often used by kids as a playground and the waving ground can be more than a little disorienting). The best part, actually, was the fantastic museum located below the memorial park itself. It has a great audio guide, as well as very descriptive plaques and boards. Its real strength, though, is that it does a very good job of connecting you with individuals and families, making the Holocaust a much more personal thing, rather than some abstract atrocity.
Once we finished with the memorial and museum, we decided we had to make our way eastward along the Unter den Linden, the main East-West thoroughfare through the Mitte district of Berlin. We stopped for lunch along the way, and I pulled a bit of a Margolis, spilling my coke all over everything (somehow I managed to avoid getting too much on me, though). We continued eastward and came by Humbolt University and the plaza opposite it, which marks the spot of the bonfire of Jewish and other non-Aryan works, or just works that simply didn’t fit with the Nazi ideology. Just across the Spree from there is Museum Island, and I showed the Palace of the Republic (or what’s left of it) to Aaron and then he wanted to go see the Pergamon Museum just right across the street. We ended up spending a little over an hour in there and I saw a great exhibit on some of the new, funky architecture of the museums being constructed and planned around the world.
We continued east down through Marx-Engels Platz to Alexander Platz and its famous TV tower and world-clock. Around here, our Berlin walking-tour pretty much ended as we knew were going to have to meet Michael Herring (an old friend of Kit’s and now a friend of mine) over in Pottsdammer Platz for a few drinks in about 2 hours. We stopped by an internet café to check on email and update important things like my blog and Facebook. Then it was over to the Sony Center, and while we started out on foot, we soon had to switch to U-bahn.
We met Michael right on time right where we were supposed to meet - dead center at the fountain in the Sony Center. As this was not the “real” Berlin for him, and Aaron had never had white asparagus, we jumped in his “plain car” (a gorgeous Jaguar 4-door - his “old car” is a 1956 Jaguar roadster 2-seater) and went on over to Weyer’s in the heart of West Berlin. This is the same place that he bought the whole class dinks at 3 years ago. As usual, Michael insisted on paying and bought us both dinner and a few rounds of Dortmunder lager (brewed in his birthplace). We were both very appreciative, and there was plenty of good storytelling going on, particularly as Michael was on a board that was honoring the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in Berlin. He was even kind enough to swing by the house where he worked on it (there is a simple stone marker out in front of it now) on the way as he dropped us off at Hauptbahnhof. We said our goodbyes and walked over to the hostel to relax for a bit and collect our stuff.
We had a few hours to kill, so we played a few games of foosball, had a beer or two and chatted with the other travelers in the hostel. I had a great conversation with a few Basque about the whole situation there and how their community and culture had been held down by Spain by so long, especially during the Franco regime. Then it was off to the station to catch the train…which happened to be 90min late. German trains are ALWAYS on time, case in point: this train was actually Polish, so it was comfy (once we finally got on) but late. Normally, this is a bad thing, and it was certainly not a welcome obstacle. The one definite plus, though, was that we did get to see the sun rise over the dome of the Reichstag.

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Photos

Palace of the Republic
Still taking it down, slowly

Berliner Dom
Is there something coming out of my head?

Puppet
Those crazy Germans

Marx & Engels
When I had the same picture 3 years ago, there was a mssive, copper building behind me, and now...nothing

Marx & Engels
From 2005, note the Palace of the Republic in the background