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Published: July 30th 2006
Brandenburger Tor
A Berlin landmark, the Brandenburg Gate becomes the symbol of unified Germany.Ich bin ein Berliner
-JFK, 1963.
(A famous speech: ‘I am a jelly donut’ by President John F. Kennedy while visiting Berlin in 1963. We’re pretty sure what he meant was ‘I am a Berliner’, referring to a person from Berlin. ‘Berliner’ is a German word for ‘jelly donut’.)
Wednesday, August 6, 2003 Berlin, Germany: a surviving city Brandenburger Tor, or the Brandenburg Gate, is no doubt an ideal place to start our Berlin adventure. This gate has etched many significant Berliner (and thus, German) events since its completion in 1791 by the Prussian Emperor. Or if you will, it served as the ‘triumphal arch’ of notorious Nazi Regime that chose Berlin as its headquarters in late 1930s and early 1940s. Ironically, beautiful stretch of
Straße Unter den Linden that terminates at the gate reminds me of some infamous Nazi parades, where Hitler arrogantly waved from his open roof vehicle to his Nazi followers along the street, right hands were stretched out in a salute position. The gate also witnessed the burning book event at the nearby
Pariser Platz by Nazi in 1942, a scar that marked Berlin as an unholy place. Refer to the Indiana Jones: Last Crusade episode.
Reichstag
The famous Reichstag glass dome, designed by Sir Norman Foster. If all of those mentioned events are not enough to plummet Berlin to the lowest spot in the world’s proudest moments,
Brandenburger Tor also became the very spot where divided Germany was defined during the cold war in 1960s. East Berlin, who was a Russian sector, erected a wall overnight that divided the city into East and West Berlin. Many Berliners had to pay harsh consequences in order to cross this defined boundary. In 1989, almost as quickly as it rose, the wall was demolished to open up the modern, unified Germany. And guess what is left from the wall?
Brandenburger Tor.
The modern Bredenburg Gate is an inviting element in the city’s attractive tourism business, with permanent United Buddy Bear exhibition nearby. Contrary to the location’s dark history, this exhibition promotes world peace and love, as it is reflected by its title. Every nation is artfully represented by one bear each, and it is no surprise that the United States chose green ‘Bear Liberty’ as its representation. I wonder what French would think of the choice.
For us, today has been a long day since it started this morning in Prague, so a Starbucks that oversees
Dem Deutschen Volke
To the German People, 1916. Brandenburger Tor is a logic place to refuel our day. Or better off, we are supporting our American capitalism by consuming Starbucks coffee, while sitting, chatting about our trip so far and Europe in general, and looking at nearby
Brandenburger Tor through the Café’s window.
I’ve read it somewhere that Berlin is one of the most destroyed cities in Europe as the Second World War consequence, and more than half of the city’s structures were bombed out by the Allies mortars and bombs. The Bradenburg Gate is lucky enough to witness and to survive the catastrophic event, but no so much with nearby
Reichstag, or the German’s Parliament Building that was completed in 1872. An inscription
Dem Deutschen Volke, to the German People, was added in 1916 to emphasis the function of structure.
After a long queue to get to the top of
Reichstag, we were disappointed to find out that the glass dome designed by famous British architect Sir Norman Foster was closed for visit due to renovation. This structure was a controversial project of replacing a long time gone Prussian dome that got destroyed by fire during the war and Soviet occupation, with a modern sleek
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche
The bombed church is left in ruins as a reminder of the Second World War event in Berlin. glass and metal architecture. The view of famous Berlin other landmarks are very tempting; for instance, the
Postdamer Platz’s Sony centre is visible in a near distance across a river.
This is when it gets interesting; Ryan realized that he lost his green ‘Welcome Berlin’ savings coupon book we have purchased earlier somewhere in the
Reichstag. So for the second time, we rushed to the top of the structure in a completely different mood, and looked for the small book. As Ryan were about to kick himself in the butt, we had a good laugh and declared that this is part of our backpacking experience, of losing things.
Thursday, August 7, 2003 Berlin, Germany: an ode to the best pillow in Europe My pillow in our hostel
die Fabrik worth of a special mentioning. It is a huge square, has a thick cushion that forms to my head perfectly, but thin enough to bend and fold. After staying in strange new hostels and apartments in the last couple months, for the first time I woke up around 10:30, feeling lazy and drown in my bed. Thanks to the pillow, I had a very good rest last
United Buddy Bears
Myself and Jason are standing with the Indonesian bear at the United Buddy Bears exhibition. night; in fact, it was too good that it was hard to get up from bed this morning. Apparently Ryan and Jason have some unspoken agreements with me with the matter, as it turned out that we were moving in the same slow pace through the morning.
Breakfast consisted of several Dunkin Donuts that the twins have purchased last night. As we found out this morning, making a payphone call instructed in German with none of us speaking the language is fairly challenging. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jason found out that our Paris hostel doesn’t have our reservations, so another sharp stone in our journey.
Berliners are interesting.
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche is another Berlin landmark with its distinctive severe appearance due to its bombarding during Second World War. To get to downtown Berlin from our hostel is an adventure itself. Our U2-Bahn transferred us to the U3-Bahn at the station
Gleisdreick, but due to construction, the U3-Bahn line stopped at the
Mockernbrucke station, and headed back to where we started at the hostel! All announcements are in German (duh!) and we have no idea how things work out. So we asked people around, and came across to
Berlin from above
From the top of the Reichstag. an interesting Berliner girl, who was helping out by translating all announcements.
She is a German-born American, was raised in Berlin and works as a flight attendant, and I’ve never met anyone as arrogant as her. Proud to be an American, she was an interesting character. We had to listen to her thoughtful complains of Germany, starting from people’s preference of natural armpit look, their teeth hygiene, their lack of tongue brushing, and the German transportation system in general. If you think she was doing it in quiet, well I wish she was, as she was more like an English announcer in a quiet train ride. People started giving us nasty looks, as obviously people here understand English just fine. Finally we got rid out of her due to her stop at downtown was approaching. We wished her good luck for her haircut mission, and moved on.
Allies bomb landed in the heart of the
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche some sixty years ago, destroyed part of the bell tower, all of its rose windows, art idols and mosaic tiling wall inside. After the war, an attempt to restore the church was observed, and people of Berlin chose not to completely demolish
"Berlin"
The sculpture of unified East and West Berlin, with the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in the background. the ruins, instead it was left standing as a constant reminder on how war affecting life. A new congregation place, complete with modern bell tower was built next to the old compound soon after. Naturally, the most interesting part of this landmark is the ruin; with half tower is still standing, gaping huge empty openings on the wall where grand rose windows used to decorate the half burned mosaic of Kaiser Wilhelm, and even a statue of armless Jesus which still bear a scar of war. It is a powerful memorial to see a replica model of the church before and after the bombing, along with photographs and stories behind it.
Next to Gedächniskirche is the Europa Centre, where we got some Berlin souvenirs at a nearby tourists shop (the Hardy boys got a steel cup for their uncle, and I got a beer stain for Beau). I tried to be nice to Ryan since he is still down from losing his Welcome Card last night, so I bought him a bottle of his favorite Sprite for €1.50, which ended up even since he gave me some money anyway.
Chilling by the world fountain in front of the
Potsdamer Platz
The Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz, the one with umbrella onion shape roof. Centre, I reflected back on what we’ve seen so far in Berlin. It is definitely a modern and sleek European city, possible to build modern structures due to its destroyed condition after many wars. This is what I imagine a German city would feel like; a Mercedes Headquarters is definitely a plus; we are enjoying ourselves in the midst of dynamic architectural style, with many young professionals and friendly atmosphere.
Our lunch consists of a crappy plate of pasta (nothing like the authentic Roman pasta I miss so much!), a roll of bread and a glass of medium size Coke for €10.65. Yes, it was an expensive lunch at
KaDeWe, or
Kaufhaus des Westens, the biggest department store in Europe. The food court is located under glass roof of the seventh floor of the building, and I couldn’t resist of thinking of how much better my €2.50 Doner Kebab dinner last night, compared to this.
I never thought that €500 would be spent this fast.
We spent our afternoon at the
Zoologischer Garten, or the Berlin Zoo that crowns the honor as the first public zoo in Europe. It was a quiet and relaxing experience, as we
were wondering amongst giraffes, penguins, seals, orangutans, and many birds. Surprisingly, Ryan got away by paying a reduced entry price of €7, saving the €2 from his student ID, whereas Jason’s and my admission are also €7 each from the Welcome Card coupons.
For modern Berlin experience, we visited
Potsdamer Platz with its world-famous Sony Centre building and onion-shaped dome roof structure. Ryan was busy checking out those architectural connection details on glass and steel (what a dork!). People watching in the interactive sleek fountain in the middle of the Centre was entertaining, we ended up spraying water to each other and being laughed at by the locals. After rejecting Jason’s idea of seeing an American movie here, we chose to chill at the
Arcaden at the back of the Centre, where a mound of grassy landscape is formed in striking angles.
Well an IMAX Show sounds like a better idea than a regular American movie here in Berlin, so we decided to check out the ‘Ocean Wonderland 3D - Under the Water’ show after having dinner at McDonalds
Potsdamer Platz. Admission ticket is €8 and for 45 minutes, we enjoyed seeing the show in German without any
Arkaden in Potsdamer Platz
A Berlin style shopping mall. translation.
It was another successful day in Berlin, and I really enjoy our experience so far (although I went through my €50 budget today). Our spirits are high, and deep down I’m considering whether I should move to Germany. The first step closer to the idea is to learn the language, so might as well start now.
Friday, August 8, 2003 Berlin, Germany Thanks to the best pillow in the world I’ve experienced, we started the day by 10:30 this morning (same story as yesterday). We decided to start off from
Arkaden at the
Potsdamer Platz, as Ryan wanted to get a new pair of shoes in replace of his rugged Filas. So after purchasing a pair of sleek ‘German’ brown casual shoes for €27 at the second floor of the shopping mall, Ryan ditched his Filas on the spot
Jason had the rest of the day figured out: we went back to the Europa Centre for €6.45 KFC lunch, had a quick glimpse at the
Gedächniskirche, and headed out to an English Garden of Victoria Park, where I decided to catch a power nap while guarding everybody’s belonging and shoes. While Jason and Ryan
East and West Berlin
Where am I: West or East Berlin? were playing in knee-deep water; I was snoozing by the waterfalls; that is what I would call ‘serene beauty’.
German Coke cans are unique in shape and size, they are longer so contain more liquid inside. I bought a German coke for sis’ collection in a small snack store on our way to Checkpoint Charlie.
Checkpoint Charlie is another infamous border line during Berlin Wall era. The intensity was at the highest in Checkpoint Charlie, where the American and Soviet sectors met. The checkpoint now hosts a permanent museum where one can learn what happened during the cold war, and lots of older American tourists were all around us. Looking at the exhibition and the recreation scene of the checkpoint (complete with barbwires and sacks of sand), I couldn’t help but getting angry at the U.S. occupation in Berlin. What the heck we were doing here, halfway around the world?
Berlin’s TV tower,
Fernsehturm, lit. means ‘toothpick’, offers a restaurant with Berlin view on top of it. After having a McDonalds meal at nearby
Alexander Platz, we decided to have some dessert at the
Fernsehturm café. €6.50 admission fee, ten minutes waiting in line and an elevator
Beware: East Berlin
The stout guy is the sign of East Berlin. ride later, we found ourselves at #9 table waiting to order our desserts. I would consider ourselves lucky, since we didn’t have any reservations but we got a nice table almost instantaneously.
The slowly rotating café platform where we were sitting brought us around Berlin’s famous landmarks, as we ‘glided’ through Unter den Linden, Reichstag, Bradenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, Tiergarten and the bridge by our hostel. One rotation roughly takes place in one hour to the starting point.
European dining experience is pretty painful for most Americans, as we prefer something quickly and instantly. After waiting for about half an hour, we got our orders taken, and after another long time of waiting, finally our snappy waitress brought us our items: I had regular €3 black coffee (instead of the ‘Black Forest’ chocolate cake - they were out), Jason’s Amarillo Ice Cream and a glass of Coke and Ryan’s Baked Potato and a glass of his favorite Sprite.
After the two hour dining experience, we decided to split up as the boys wanted to be back at the hostel and I wanted to be back by the Bradenburg Gate at our last night in Berlin.
I
Fernsehturm
The Berlin TV tower. had an excellent quality time by myself, staring for several hours at the gate. People watching around was very entertaining, many tourists came and went with many pictures in between. A German family, an Italian couple, and a weird-posing Chinese couples. In fact, it was out of ordinary that I was keenly looking at them, as the picture session consisted of the girl with an umbrella was walking as if she was on a catwalk, and the guy was crawling around her, taking pictures. Then two Chinese business men, one was posing and talking on a cell phone, while the other guy was taking his picture with the gate as a background. No wonder people are always commenting about ‘those Asian tourists’
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