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Published: September 19th 2005
Line of the Berlin Wall
Where the wall once stood, there now runs a line two cobblestones in width.After being held up in Prague waiting for my laundry to be done, which should have been done on time, I grabbed the 1530 train to Berlin. The laundry cost me a €1 for wash and dry, but I don't deem waiting until that late for it to be done as a worthwhile use of my time. But anyway....
I arrived in Berlin around 2100 and headed for the undergound to grab the subway to get over to my hostel. The Berlin underground system is huge, ridiculously huge, and confusing too. Somehow I managed not to get lost and quickly got a ticket and found my way to the U2 line. Within 30 minutes of getting off the train, I was relaxing in my hostel, which after the Prague arrival, was very welcome.
Day one in Berlin, a city overflowing with fascinating history, and I did..... absolutely nothing at all.
I walked out into a beautiful sunny day, thought to myself "I can't be bothered today" , and turned around and went back inside. No worries, I just relaxed and read a book, and got lost in my own thoughts for a day. The hostel I
The TV Tower
Not the greatest picture, but that huge disco ball in the background
in with the cross on it is the TV Tower. am staying at is only 15€ a night, and I extended my stay accordingly. Exciting, no?
Take two, I woke up and felt ready to take a stab at this city. After sorting myself out with groceries and food for later, I grabbed the U2 to Alexanderplatz and climbed the impressive TV Tower there, the pride and joy of East Germany at one time. Standing at 368 meters tall, it is actually the second tallest structure in Europe after some other tower in Russia. After taking the evelator up, I was about 200 meters above Berlin, and up there you can see EVERYTHING. Berlin is a very large city.
The funny little story behind this TV tower is that the globe construction on it reflects light in the shape of a cruciform, a distinctly Christian symbol. This was not intended, especially since the people behind its construction were the Athiest Communists of East Germany, who oppressed religion at every turn. As a result, this effect has been nicknamed as " The Popes Revenge", cute!
From Alexanderplatz I walked over to Hackescher Markt to meet up with the tour group I would be joining for the
day. Berlin is a large city with much to see, and on my own I knew I would struggle. The tour was quite good, well worth the 9 euro asking price. I will spare you all from a detailed play by play though, and instead will just share the parts I found most interesting.
the Berlin wall was built by East Germany in 1961 to stop people from fleeing from East Berlin into West Germany. The conditions and quality of life weren't quite up to par in East Berlin, and the Communist government was very oppresive, which as a result led to many people simply leaving and going to West Germany where better opportunities were afforded to them. But this meant that huge parts of the East Berlin workforce were leaving, including many skilled professionals. Something had to be done, and one night at midnight in 1961, about 40Km of barbwired fencing was erected as a barrier to keep people in East Berlin. So Basically people went to bed one night with freedom to leave, and to enter West Berlin, then in the morning it was almost impossible. This barrier was eventually built up into a wall which completely
The empty room
This is the room of the library which has empty shelves in memorial to the book burnings that took place at Bebelplatz. surrounded WEST Berlin, and covered close to 200Km. This lead to much tension afterwards for obvious reasons, but the wall stood for 28 years.
Checkpoint Charlie, the border gate at the Berlin wall saw a few shaky events between the Russians and Americans back in 1961. That standoff is well known and documented though, as a part of the cold war. Instead I will share one of the stories of an escape attempt at this gate. A West German man who had fallen in love with a woman living in East Berlin had proposed, and desired to move her to the west with him after marriage. This was allowed by the law, but the girl couldn't leave her mother behind in East Berlin, and the laws wouldn't allow for the mother to go with the married couple. The man hatched a daring escape plan which would get his fiances' mother through Checkpoint Charlie. He noticed that the single bar used for the gate was positioned rather high up, and so he thought that given a low enough car he just might be able to squeeze under it. He got an Austin Healey convertible, and one day drove over to
The East Gallery
This is the part of the Berlin wall that was left in memorial and covered in excellent murals by artists back in 1990, and repainted in 2000 by the same people. East Berlin to see his fiance. He grabbed her and her mother, loaded up their belongings, and then sped down the street towards Checkpoint Charlie with all 3 of them ducking in case the authorities opened fire, and to not be decapitated. He calculated well and the car slipped just under the barrier and they sucessfully escaped East Berlin! The barrier was adjusted shortly thereafter.
Bebelplatz is the infamous site where 20000 books, written by people deemed as undesirables by the Nazi government, were burned. There is a small memorial to be found here now, a window gazing down into a room of empty bookshelves, and a plaque which features a quote by Heinrich Heine, the author of some of the burned books, which translates to "Where men burn books, there they will finally also burn humans". He wrote that back in 1820, and sadly it was a prophecy destined to be realised with time.
After the tour I was exhausted as it was a hot day and we covered a lot of ground. I found my way back to the hostel and cooked up a good load of pasta for myself, something I haven't done since leaving
Canada. It was good, and I ate 3 huge bowls, Mmmm.
Another late start for me in Berlin, I slept until 1300. Bad habits die hard I guess...
Today I decided to go see the East Gallery, which is a stretch of the old Berlin wall that was left standing, and runs for about 1.3Km. It was left in rather good order and features murals painted by artists right along its length. Many of the originals that were painted back in 1990 are no longer visible due to the elements taking their toll, but in 2000 some of the artists returned and refinished their work and it is still very much there to see today. I walked the full length of this, and some of the murals are fantastic, as my pictures show.
After this I walked right up to the Museum Island, and saw the Pergamon Museum. this is a fantastic museum that shows much of ancient Greece, including the complete Altar of Zeus, which came from the ancient city in Turkey which the Museum took its name from. The highlight for me at this place though, was seeing the Ishtar Gate of Babylon,
the real deal! They rebuilt this ancient gate inside the museum and it is incredible to see, with its glazed blue bricks and pictures of the gods on it.
After the Pergamon I started walking back home, passing many patio bars, cafes and Jazz style musicians playing their hearts out. A very fun walk, Berlin is a cool city.
Woke up even later today, no idea whats up with this trend, but it will have to end in the next city I travel to....
Just a few sights to see, and a train ticket to book today. I walked all the way from the hostel to Bahnhof Zoo, the main train station here in Berlin. It was about 6Km, and took me along unten der linden, through the Brandenburg Gate, past the ReichStag which houses the German parliament, and into the Tiergarten.
The Reichstag only earned a short glance from me, since despite its historical importance, it is a reconstruction and there is not a lot to see there. The historical importance is noteworthy though, since this building was the source of the excuse Hitler needed to declare a state of emergency and seize
Ampelmen
See the little green and red men on the signs? They are called Ampelman, and exist from the times of the wall. I like them much better than the boring ones we have! complete control of Germany back in 1933, which was the first step in what we all know to have happened in the following years. Basically the building, which at the time was the Parliament, caught fire and was heavily damaged. The true source of the fire has never been proven, but its convenience is rather suspect.
The Tiergarten is a huge park located just into the west side of Berlin, and it has a lot to see in it. There are gardens everywhere, and lots of people enjoying a good BBQ, or playing table tennis on one of the permament tables placed there for public use. I took the short route through it, skipping the beer gardens, and only really saw the magnificent Victory Column. This column was placed near the center of the park in 1873 to commemorate the victory of Prussia in the Danish-Prussian war.
I eventually reached the Zoo train station. I had to arrange for my transport to Belgium tomorrow and so I got to enjoy another loooooong line waiting to talk to the tickets man in a German train station. After about an hour of standing in line, I was up. Now typically
in train stations people ALWAYS at least understand English, and if you ask them, they don't like the question too much, and often they give a flat out "no" in response. So I walked up to the teller and politely asked for a Ticket to Brussels for tomorrow morning. I should have asked if he spoke English.....he went off in a huge rant about how English is not his language, that he speaks German and I must at least ask him if he speaks English rather than assuming, rabble rabble rabble, rant rant, googlety moogly. Anyway, I guess he was having a bad day, and I just apologised and asked again. I got what I needed and left.
From the train station I went to see Potsdamerplatz, which is famed as being the largest construction site in Berlin after the wall fell. This place features a lot of large offices, most of which have glass fronts. One was pretty cool, it was wedge shaped, and the Sony centre which is a mock up of Mount Fuji was also cool too. Not a lot else to see though, other than the brilliant blues group blasting out all the classics in
the square, which I stayed and enjoyed for a little before walking home.
Ugh, shortly after buying some butter, ham, and a large bottle of ice tea at a grocers (the butter and ham were for the pasta I was making), I was walking towards the hostel, and within 2 blocks a guy bumped into me, and dropped his container of yoghurt. He seemed quite cross and wanted my ice tea, my response was "no way". Being the decent person I am though, I was going to give him money to buy a replacement, fair right? Evidently not, while I was going through the change in my hand this guy decided to lay a hard punch in my stomach, rather rude of him. I got winded pretty good, and since he was waiting, I signalled with my hand for him to wait a sec while I caught my breath. I looked at him during this time, he was a big guy and fit the football hooligan stereotype perfectly, he was obviously no stranger to fighting, and so rather than getting my head kicked in over some ice tea, I gave it to him. I walked up the street with
Hitlers bunker
Believe it or not, this car park here is roughly where Hitlers Bunker, in which he killed himself, was thought to have been. him for a bit, talking. He apologised for punching me, since he only punched me because he thought I was a tourist.....umm....I had told him I was from Scotland and now this doesnt make me a tourist...the guy was an idiot, but I shook his hand and accepted him apology. He asked me if I wanted to grab a beer, I said no, and left him there. That is the story of the German punch, like it? I didn't.....but no real harm came of it at least, so *shrug*. Not the first punch I have taken, and I can certainly guarantee that it will not be the last either.
After all that stupidity, I just went home, made my pasta, ate it, and chilled for the rest of the night. Since I was bumping into all the wrong people in this city today, I didn't want to tempt fate since things always come in 3's, haha.
Berlin was an okay city, but a little boring and manufactured feeling at times. They insist on rebuilding the old things here and they lose a lot of authenticity for it, sadly. The city is spotless, and the people are
a mixed bag, as you should realise after reading this.... It was worth a stop, but I won't be cherishing any fond memories of my time here.
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Andy HoboTraveler.com
non-member comment
Correct observations.
I am Andy the guy from the Hostel in Berlin. Great Photos, I wish I was not so lazy, and would feel like collecting more photos of places. I like your calvalier way of thinking. I agree with these comments, and nice to read a truthful blog, that says the good with the annoying. Your comments. "Berlin was an okay city, but a little boring and manufactured feeling at times." and... "The Berlin underground system is huge, ridiculously huge, and confusing too" The German culture seems to like to force you to deduce how to use a their systems, however in the end the visitor either needs a guide or lots of patience. Personally I find I am annoyed with big cities, and want them simple. Have fun, and blog often, so I can read something interesting daily... Please. I got a picture of that loud bum in the park next to the Hostel... hehehe http://www.hobotraveler.com/2005/06/berlin-bums.html Andy of HoboTraveler.com