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Published: November 13th 2008
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SUNDAY
It was 19 years ago today that the Berlin Wall came down. How incredible to be here on such a day! And the story is even more incredible! In fact, the entire history of Berlin is fascinating! I've discovered that to really, truly appreciate a city you need to find someone that thinks that city is the greatest city in the whole world. Spend a few hours with them and you'll begin to agree. 😊 That's what Beth and I decided to do today. The hostel gave us maps and information about a free, daily, 3 1/2 hour walking tour of the city. We figured we'd spend probably twice that amount of time trying to find everything in the first place, plus this came with a guide to explain the history of everything. So we signed up. (OK, well, actually we didn't have to sign up for anything, cuz it was for whoever showed up at 11am by the Brandenburg Gate. But if there was a sign up we definitely would have signed ourselves up. But since there wasn't I guess we just did it mentally and that was good enough.)
We spent the
morning chatting with a group of four Italians that were staying in our hostel as well. They were on a long weekend holiday to see Berlin. A wonderful friendly bunch, and we all had a lovely bit of conversation. I even got a bit of an Italian language lesson!
Il mio nome é Aprile (OK, how amazingly gorgeous is my name in Italian??? Oh, I guess you really can't tell unless you hear it. But believe me, it's lovely!)
Io vivo negli Stati Uniti. (I'm not giving translations, you've gotta try and figure it out)
Come ti chiami? (It helps if you know some Spanish). Actually, the one giving me the mini-lesson said that he prefers speaking Spanish to even Italian! And later we met a French and a Polish girl that are living in Munich, Germany and the French girl said her favorite language is Spanish as well.
Hmmm .... sehr interessant. oder
Hmmmm.... que interesante. After morning tea with the Italians Beth and I found a little cafe just around the corner to have some pastries, coffee and orange juice. Delicious. And I was so proud of myself for ordering
Our tour guide, Em, on the right.
OK, so not the most flattering photo of her, but she's very animated. (another piece of the wall is behind her) the orange juice all by myself!!
"Orangesaft, bitte." Yeah, this is hard stuff!! Actually, it's not that bad to figure out a question or a phrase; it's when they respond back to you that your thinking, "Um, I don't have a clue..." Or, there have been a few times were I understand the gist of what they're saying, but don't have a clue as to how to respond! It's all good fun though! And being able to laugh at oneself is a MUST! 😱
At 10:30 one of the free walking guides stopped by our hostel to take anyone to the Brandenburg Gate that wanted. It was just Beth and I, so we had nice chat with Natasha during the 30 minute walk there. She's from Scotland and has been in Berlin for several months. She loves it. It's the best city on earth, she says.
There's a large group of people at the corner Starbucks, the meeting point for the tour (it was surprising how many Starbucks there are in Berlin!). After being sorted out into the different groups (the organization also does more in-depth, paid, tours of specific parts of Berlin's history, and in various languages ... while we were waiting I had fun listening in on a group of Spaniards. OK, definitely Spanish, but definitely different than Central American Spanish.)
Our tour guide was a short and spunky girl, Em, also from Scotland. She explained that all the guides volunteer and live off of tips they receive at the end of the tour. But the tour is completely free because the organization believes that everyone should have the chance to get an entertaining and informative tour of Berlin. Actually, they have free walking tours in several other European cities such as Amsterdam and Madrid. Em graduated with a history degree, traveled a bit, and stays in Berlin doing this because, "It is absolutely the greatest city in the world."
Even though she was feeling a bit ill, Em's energy and enthusiasm was contagious. Beth and I both knew that we were in for a treat and were immediately reminded of our favorite history instructor of all time, Nancy Beers. We took classes from her at KVCC and I thought about changing my major to history just to take her courses. It's people like that, who LOVE history not for facts and dates, but for the stories, and they make it come alive and they make it memorable!
That's what Em did for us today, on the 19th year anniversary of the end of the Berlin Wall. And since we saw SO much, and since there's SO much I want to share, I'm going to try to split it up into a few posts. We'll see how long my writing keeps up and how much I can remember! I'll try to be like Em and keep the history fun and fascinating and the learning practically painless. 😊 (Oh, and feel free to make comments or corrections. I'm not an expert on any of this, and didn't take notes during the tour, so if there's anything I get mixed up a bit please let me know! But hopefully I'll keep myself out of trouble and just share what stuck with me!)
I hope this all is even a fraction as interesting and enjoyable and Em made it all for Beth and I!
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