Early last morning in Amsterdam and we’re off on the train to Berlin. To be honest, I wash’t exactly excited to be going here. I really didn't know all that much about this city besides for maybe bits and pieces that I learned in school (but didn't really pay close attention to). I even kinda expected a run down, dirty city with not much to offer. Boy was I wrong!! Berlin is a fantastic place with an “I can do anything” energy encompassing the entire city. There is so much history, some old and some so recent that it happened within my lifetime. Crazy to think about how much this place has been through and how resilient it is to be where it is this very day.
First things first, Ray and I jump off the train and grab lunch across the river from the station at a place called Capital Beach. Although it wasn't quite on a beach, it was on the water and they tried to turn it into a club atmosphere with loud music blaring at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Anywho, tried currywurst for the first time and it was delish! We ended up walking from the train station to our airbnb in the sweltering heat (yes it was very hot). Dropped off our stuff, chatted with the girl who’s place we were staying at and then hit the city. We decided to continue walking (since we had already spent 6 hours on a train this am) down to the Eastside Gallery. We walked along the water and saw a few cool things along the way.
After seeing so many statues throughout our journey so far, Ray and I have decided to start making up our own names for them. I call this: Man sitting on wall with naked women
Here’s my first glimpse of the TV Tower. Good to know that if ever lost in this city, I could always look up and orient myself using the TV tower.
Another thing that I’ve noticed since landing in Amsterdam and now continuing into Berlin, is that there are a lot of sunflowers, all over. And not just any sunflower, they’re gigantic!
Though its not a Nittany, Pepe finally got a picture with a lion
We first walked through the westside portion of the Eastside Gallery… Its the open side for local people to paint on…
After walking that, we turned around went down the other side of the wall… The famous Eastside Gallery. What a remarkable experience looking at all the artwork and deciphering the feeling and emotion behind each piece. Here are some of my favorites.
Just for my mom… I found some love in the leaf of our centerpiece at dinner.
The next day we did a walking tour of the city, which was totally worth doing in my opinion. Our guide was great and it really gave us a chance to learn more about such a historical place. We started at the Brandenburg Gate, which just happens to be right near the hotel that MJ hung the baby over the railing.
Pepe always thinks he can get away with being one with the horses…
We then walked over to the Holocaust Memorial or otherwise known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews. At first glance, all I could see were large concrete columns of varying sizes, 2,711 to be exact. Apparently, the architect designed this memorial purposefully leaving out the underlying meaning. He wanted people to come and experience it for themselves and make their own meaning. For me the varying sizes of the columns represented the men, women and children who were killed during the Holocaust. Their voices silenced in these grey concrete boxes. Upon walking into the memorial, I experienced disillusion and disorientation, not knowing where to go or how to get out. I could hear people around me, but could not see them. Then they would suddenly appear right in front of me and then just as quickly disappear into the darkness. While standing in the deepest darkest part, I found myself constantly looking up towards the sky, trying to find some beauty and hope amidst all the darkness. At the end, a somewhat eery experience overcame me… I watched as hundreds of people entered the memorial and never saw them come out.
We then walked over to, well actually on top of, Hitler’s bunker… Located in a parking lot. Stepping onto the grass, a weird feeling overcame me. Oh wait, I think I was just hungry…
We then saw the building which originally was home to the Luftwaffe, the headquarters of the German air force. It was a massive building which now holds the equivalent of the German IRS. Its pretty unbelievable to think that this building survived the war… being that 90% of the city was destroyed and this building had considerable significance to the Nazis.
It was also standing here that the journey to find ausfahrt began…Hey Carol, I reckon ausfart is this way…
Ausfahrt, as many consider, is quite possibly the biggest city in Germany, with almost every Autobahn directing you to it. Driving throughout the country, it is easy to spot numerous signs all pointing towards the magical land of ausfahrt. Making things even better is, of course, seeing “fahrt” written time and time again along the road. Where is this place? Can we go there?… I’ll keep you posted on any happenings with this ausfahrt matter.
Back to some historical sights… Here is Checkpoint Charlie which apparently is only a replica of what used to be there and the men in uniform are just models (not actual soldiers).
Following our city tour, we went on another tour called the Alternative Tour, given by the same guide (I guess you can say we liked him). On this tour, we dove into the subculture of the city. Some call it graffiti, others call it street art. I am so glad to have gone on this tour since it helped me learn to appreciate the history and meaning of the street art seen throughout the city. Before this, I quickly disregarded graffiti as crap and would look away when seeing it… Which being that Berlin is the street art capital of Europe, I was constantly turning my head away. I really found it fascinating to find out how and why street art and artists boomed within this town. First off, many free thinkers and artists rushed to West Berlin in order to avoid the mandatory military service. Then when the wall came down, they poured into East Berlin due to an increase in vacant housing, essentially squatting in the abandoned houses. One famous street artist goes by the name El Bocho. He is well known for many pieces, two of which I found particularly interesting:
The cameras, from what I gather, represent the sense of someone always watching you. And Little Lucy, well she just likes to kill her cat. There are pictures all over the city of her killing her cat. Sometimes she would drown it like in the picture above or rip its head off…
Other times she would shoot it…
Or put it in a blender…
Don’t get me wrong, I love cats, but for some strange reason, I enjoyed finding these pictures as we walked around the city.
We then went to an area that is an open square for people to come display their artwork. Pepe jumped right in…
Saw many remnants of yarn bombing. If you look closely you can see the striped sweater on the pipe and an underwater scene.
There were also these little white dudes who would just pop outta nowhere…
We of course made our way to the Eastside Gallery (again) but somehow we missed these famous pieces when we were there yesterday.
We ended the tour at a random park, at the base of a huge drawing. The guide told us that if we go to a specific spot in the city as the sun is setting, the shadow of a flag actually fits right into the astronauts hand as if he is holding it.
Probably one of the weirdest parts about walking around Berlin was seeing a trail of bricks throughout the entire city… These bricks represent where the wall would have been and has since been torn down. For us, we constantly walked from one side to the other as we wandered the streets, but 25 years ago that would not have happened. At one point, Ray and I even stood on opposite sides.
There were also parts were metal pillars still remained to mark the wall.
That night we walked around the city which was really cool to see everything lit up.
One of my favorite moments so far was stumbling upon a street musician playing in Alexanderplatz. And of course he was playing one of my favorite songs “Fast Car” so I enjoyed it even more. It was lovely to just sit and take in the sights and sounds as the city continued to hustle around us.
The next day we continued with more sight seeing, including more remnants of the wall. But this time we headed up to Nordbahnhof Station to see a part of the wall which still has an intact guard tower, and inner wall and outer wall, meaning a portion of the death strip was still viewable. We had to peer through a tiny slit in the wall in order to see the eery, dark area of land known as “No Mans Land”. I had a hard time seeing this, thinking about all the people who tried to cross this and didn't make it.
Further down, there was a portion of the wall where you could actually stand where the death strip would have been (though now its more of a park than a dirt strip). Here Ray is actually on the east side of the wall in the death strip.
Alas, even the Berlin Wall still has a heart…
After getting caught in the rain and a pit stop for lunch (yummy spaetzle and amstel- beer with lemonade), we then headed to the Tiergarden. Since being in numerous big cities surrounded by concrete and cement for day and days, it felt really nice to escape the city and wander through trees and grass and lakes. On the outskirt of the trail, I could still hear the sounds of traffic, but once in the middle of the park, I felt like I had been teleported to the countryside.
Back in the city, found this for my dad…
Though in the beginning, I found the Berlin bears to be slightly odd, I grew to appreciate them. I especially liked the ones that stood on their head.
Ray and I had a fantastic time in Berlin. There was so much interesting history and captivating sights to see. The city was also much of a melting pot with many different cultural influences mixed throughout it. Not quite a typical German city, it was still an amazing place, one that we both definitely hope to get back to.
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