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Published: August 8th 2008
"Berlin ist arm, aber sexy."........"Berlin is poor, but sexy." spoken by Berlins' mayor in 2004 Many cities are recognisable by their grand old buildings. London has Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Edinburgh has Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile, Beijing has Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City, Prague by Wenceslas Square and Charles Bridge. Berlin is unlike these other cities in that much of what is recognisable about it was built in living memory. The dust is still settling around Berlin after momentous, traumatic change - you can still see pieces of the Berlin Wall and where it once stood and sealed up bullet holes in buildings. Walking around Berlin, you can identify whether you are in the old east or west Berlin by the traffic lights at pedestrian crossings. The pedestrian traffic lights have two styles; one where the green and red men have hats (East Berlin) and the other style without hats (West Berlin). The feeling you get walking around Berlin and talking to people is that history has only
just happened and there is a rawness to it - though Berlin is not a morbid place.
Despite all this recent history Berlin is definitely
a 'sexy' city. The historical buildings sit alongside fantastic graffiti art. The Brandenburg Gate now shares its home with a Starbucks coffee house. We saw an ancient half demolished church, whose courtyard has been converted to a beer garden, with posters advertising bands on its walls. Anything seems to go in Berlin. No-one seems to care how you dress, or generally what you look like. You can drink alcohol anywhere - including on the metro, and whilst strolling down the street. You can hang out in the public parks, and have a mini-party, and no-one seems to mind - the hippies and punks sharing BBQ areas with suburban families and children.
We got to go to the Fete De La Musique, a series of free open air concerts on the week of the summer solstice. We met up with our German friend, 'Kamikaze' Christian, (who nearly sent Toby to his wedding day on crutches after a game of 'touch' football - lovely bloke though). We also met up with our Aussie mate Dylan, who could only be more laid back if he was six foot under, as well as Christian's German friend Matthias. So after we arrived at our
Today... Through the Round(ish) Window....
We never did work out what that building was.hostel in the East of the city, we caught the metro over to Kreuzberg, a trendy area of the city.
The guys greeted us with beers in hand, and we headed off to the pub to watch one of the Euro 2008 games, before we checked out the outdoor festival. The area was packed with people, but the atmosphere was chilled. There were all age-groups there watching the bands play, and the beer was cheap and free flowing..... People handed out free sparklers to wave around during the songs. Towards the end of the night, one of the staff from a beer stall handed out free miniture bottles of Raki to everyone. This is a Turkish spirit, about 45% in strength.... and best avoided..... however, the guys decided to indulge with Emma nearly having to carry three blokes home.
Matthias, our local guide, also happened to consume the most Raki and as a result put everyone on the Metro heading the wrong way down the line. Eventually we did make it home though. Of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without some 'wurst'.... bratwurst that is (or German sausage). We also ate a bit of 'Curry Wurst'
- a Berlin speciality which is sausage covered in curry powder - just what you need after a few drinks to top the night off.
A couple of days later we also went for a German BBQ with the lads, which was also a great experience. They have disposable BBQ's in Germany, which is just an aluminum box with fuel in it. You put it on the ground in a park, light it up, and start cooking. Matt, being an excellent German host, brought a truly monumental amount of sausages and meat, which he insisted we eat in such excessive quantities that we were constipated for the next week. It did taste fantastic with a few German beers though. When the weather turned on us we went back into a pub, watched the Euro 2008, played some foosball, and had a great time. Many thanks to Matt for being a great host and showing us such a good time. Thanks also to Christian for giving us a tour of the Reichstag and 'the best city in Germany'.
The Brandenburg Gate, Baby Dangling, and Hitler's Bunker
Berlin wasn't just all beer and sausage, we did actually go on
The Guys B.R. (Before Raki)
At the music festival in Berlin a free guided-walking tour of Berlin city. The tour leaves everyday of the week from the Starbucks in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate. The gate itself is an imposing structure built in the 18th century, and it sits on the edge of Pariser Platz (or 'Paris Square'). The gate survived the bombings of World War 2, and since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, it has served as a symbol of peace and reunification. When we were there, it was due to be used as a backdrop for a live screening of the Euro 2008 semi-final - a game between Germany and Turkey - which, we were told, held special significance due to the large Turkish immigrant population in Berlin. We did see quite a few cars driving around waving either the Turkish or German flag, but unfortunately we left the city before the game was played.
On the tour we were told by our guide that the Pariser Platz was made even more famous - or infamous as the case may be - a few years ago. On the square is a hotel called the 'Hotel Adlon' - said to be one of the most expensive hotels
in Europe. It was from a window of this hotel that Michael Jackson dangled his baby son in 2002, to the shock of the world's media. I think a few of us in the tour group were more impressed by this last fact than the other historical significance of the square. Shameful I know.
Just around the corner from the Pariser Platz is Berlin's 'Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe'. This memorial is huge, consisting of 2,700 rectangular, concrete black slabs - of all slightly different sizes and different angles on the top of the blocks. The memorial has been both praised and strongly criticised. Some say it is too abstract, and is not located in a significant place, while others have welcomed its arrival after many years without any memorial at all. You can wander in and out of the stone slabs, and walk into the centre, until eventually you can see nothing else but the sky and the stones. The significance of the stones has never been explained by the monument's creator - however some say that the stones are like rectangular coffins, others say that each stone represents the individuality of those who died.
Just Chillin.....
Dylan and Matt find a resting place on the street There will be no graffiti'd comments on this particular monument. The memorial has been treated with an anti-graffiti agent, which caused controversy a few years ago when it emerged that the company supplying the agent also supplied poison gas for use by the Nazis in concentration camps. Many people called for the anti-graffitti agent to be removed. Our tour guide did point out though that during the Nazi era, German companies didn't have the luxury of choosing neutrality: you were either with the Nazis or against them. You were either manufacturing goods for them, or you got to see the inside of a concentration camp for yourself. So the anti-graffitti agent has stayed on the monument.
Despite the qualms some people have about the location of the monument as well, it is in fact hard to miss. Due to it's size and location next to the Brandenburg gate, most visitors and Berliners would see it and would have to look at it. Many politicians drive past it every day on their way to the Reichstag as well. Perhaps this was the designer's intention.
"Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!".....
"Nobody intends to put up a wall!" spoken by the leader of the GDR, in 1961 - 2 months before the Berlin Wall was built
Of course, as we know, the Soviet backed government of East Germany did put up a wall around West Berlin, and in 1989 it finally came down. Today you can still see a couple of sections of the wall dotted around the city. Some parts are covered in graffiti, while one fairly long stretch of it actually now has a metal wall protecting it. A wall to protect the wall; apparently people had been chipping bits off the wall and trying to sell them - hence the need for protection. In the areas where there is no longer a wall, you can follow the line of pale coloured brick which mark out the wall's previous location. It's strange to think that it was less than 20 years ago that this city, and Germany was divided. It's made more unbelievable as you walk around the area near the Brandenburg Gate - an area that was a killing ground for East German sentries while the wall stood - and is now home to brand new shiny office blocks, and modern billboards.
One of
the strangest parts of the walking tour was when we stood on top of the place that Hitler is said to have killed himself. You can stand right over the area that was Hitler's bunker in the last months of the war, and our guide pointed out the place across the street where his remains were allegedly discovered by Russian soldiers. As the story goes, Hitler and his new wife Eva Braun committed suicide in the bunker before the end of the war. The area is now just a pavement seemingly normal, but underneath it the bunker and its tunnels still exist.
Overall we really enjoyed our time in Berlin - which was made even more enjoyable by the fact that we celebrated our first wedding anniversary there as well 😊
A Brief Stop in Dresden
After Berlin we travelled by train through Germany, into the Czech Republic and then back into Germany again. We really enjoyed these train rides. The trains aren't that cheap by other European country's standards, but they're clean, quiet and don't involve flying! We were also extremely lucky with the weather in Europe, so the German countryside looked magnificent under beautiful blue
More Graffitti
Unfortunately the batteries on the camera died when we got to some really good examples... oh well skies - all rolling hills, rivers and quaint little towns. After we left the Czech Republic and spent a couple of pleasant hours gazing out of the window, we arrived in Dresden. We only had a day and half there, and the weather was so hot that we didn't wander around as much as we might have otherwise - but the city is certainly a worthy place to visit.
Our hostel was a good distance from the town centre, so we used the tram system and spent time exploring the old parts of the city. Dresden was heavily bombed during World War 2 and the scars of this bombing can still be seen. The bombs used in Dresden were incendiary bombs, so when they were dropped they started fires. At that time, much of Dresden's buildings were wood so a massive firestorm ensued after the bombing and the city was nearly burned to the ground. During the Dresden firestorm, temperatures during the bombing rose to 1500 degrees celcius, so even people hiding in their cellars underground were cooked alive, and the walls of stone buildings shattered in the intense heat.
Today, the stone buildings which have been rebuilt
are a mix of salvaged stone from the firestorm, and new stone to replace areas which couldn't be salvaged. In consequence, the walls of the buildings in the old town have patches of light coloured stone in between black stone charred from the firestorm - a permanent reminder of the cost of war in Dresden.
We really enjoyed Berlin and Dresden and both are actually much more than their history. The stereotype of Germany often portrayed is of stern, unyielding, efficient people, and a conservative society. The people we found were happier, friendly people though all their efficiency could be seen when passing through the checkout of the supermarket! They love their beer, they love their sausages and they love their football. We've only scratched the surface of the Germany - I hope we find our way back.
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Christian
non-member comment
Uhhyeahh
Hi guys, hope you're doing well and you had a good trip through russia. Just wanna say, that I had a fantastic time with you in Germany. Thanks for that and see you the next time. Somewhere. Bye Christian