Today was surreal; I’m deep inside what used to be East Berlin. The last time I was in Berlin was 24 years ago, starting to sound like I’ve been around a while, and at that time I was 18, and more than a little naive. Some say I’ve never grown up! J
In 1984 the wall was still up, check point Charlie was huge, and the cold war was still going on. To me the cold war never really ended, it just petered out. The reason for this is that I was living in Australia when the cold war ended.
So back to staying in deep East Berlin….. a little surreal. We visited Tante Rose last night and a few rellies turned up. One as young at 26 and Bea’s cousin and her husband. They had no need to learn English so Bea was made to translate all night.
I’ve now had some of the propaganda refuted, ours not theirs.
Life was not as bad over here as we were made to believe, that said to get hold of a Trabant there was a 12 year waiting list, that’s right 12 years. Yes things were more difficult under the communist regime just not as bad, in terms of clothing, food, accommodation, jobs etc that I was lead to believe. I’m not condoning communism just that the our propaganda machine was a little over zealous perhaps?
So today I went on a 4 hour walking tour of Berlin, I got to see:
Hitler’s bunker, now a car park!
Checkpoint Charlie, now there was a disappointment, I thought that they’d kept to checkpoint as it was when I was here, nope they took it back to the 60’s
Holocaust memorial, now that was really moving. Not quite sure why, see photo’s later.
Brandenburg gate. Now this was seriously strange, last time here this was behind the wall in the death zone. Now there are buildings right up to it, the new American Embassy officially opens on the 4th July. How quaint!
The place where the socialist students burnt the non Arian books. Now there is an empty rooms full of empty books there, there is a window into the subterranean areas.
A “Ghost Station” where the Soviets used to make sure the western trains where not allowed to stop. Guards marched up and down to make sure. I travel through these 24 years ago. Today I walked through a fully functioning underground station that was a Ghost Station in 1984, chances are I traveled through it then.
The War Memorial was also at bit weird, again 24 years ago it was a soviet controlled and it was a memorial to the fallen soviet soldiers. It was their eternal flame.
Now it’s still a site to fallen soldiers just been expanded to everybody affected by war.
Again see the photo’s. When I was here last, there were two soldiers outside, who were at attention and holding a rifle out in front of them balanced on one, yes 1, hand. When they got tired, as you would imagine they would, their right foot would come across to a small button on the ground and ring a bell for 5 seconds. 5 seconds later the other soldier would do the same. 5 seconds after that the rifle got thrown in the caught in the other hand, steadied and held. These guys were not allowed to move anything else other than their eyes.
I still remember their eyes following the officers who were dressed in RAF uniform.
Today it is very different!
The last thing that was almost more than I could cope with was the East Berlin TV tower. The list goes up at 6 m/s and gets to the top of a 204m tower in 40 seconds. It’s fast enough to make your ears pop.
At the top, it struck me that here I am in East Berlin, thinking back 24 years ago. If you’d said then I’d climb this bloody great big tower 24 years in the future I’d have bet you everything I owned that it wouldn’t happen.
A few of final thoughts, I am totally blown away with the changes that have occurred in this city. Yesterday I indicated that I thought that there was a subtle neglect. In the centre of town this is far from true. There a large number of old building under going renovation, most of it bullet damage and general climate repair, like soot build up. In the area we are staying it’s not unusual to see people opening their first beer of the day at 8:00 am. Unemployment of East Berliners is running at 14 - 18%, we are staying in a rough part of town.
What else can I say, this city is an amazing set of contrasts. It has stirred me to my very core and challenged my understanding of what I thought had gone on in East Berlin.
Any questions please raise them, I’ve got a whole 5 days to get them answered.
27 June 2008
26 June 2008
Berlin (I am a donut)
Let's try this again. Finally arrived in Berlin. Internet access is 8E per hour or 15E per day..... good job somebodies got an unsecured wireless lan around here :-)
Bea's Aunt was at the airport to meet us. Does not speak a word of English, nor I German.
So we resort to speaking slowly and loudly.......
Trip to the hotel was interesting, twice we were on the wrong side of the road going past on coming cars trying to turn again us. I almost crossed myself twice. Since discussed, with a relative, (what's the son of a cousin called) driving here you have to have at least one near death experience on the road per day otherwise you have not lived!
We for a walk this morning, Bea says nothing will be open, she was wrong the bars are still open and there is a free topless bar near here as well. Not that I have gone into either of them.
My impressions of Berlin, subtle neglect. Graffiti everywhere, things not a tidy nor well kept as they should be.
Paris airport is a nightmare, flight at 10:50, we left at 11:10. We thought we'd get to the airport, breeze through security and go sit in the lounge. Yhea right, the French want you to queue for no apparent reason.
So, queue to get on the escalator, do that again.
Get to terminal, where are the check in desks, big queue for Eazy Jet (or so we think).
No desks, but there is a BA Business/First and Gold members, we get to check in.
We then go right how do we get through, yes you've guessed it, that queue for Eazy Jet, isn't a queue for Eazy Jet, it's the queue for passport control (You take you luggage and baggage through passport control).
Queue up at the gate, get through security screening, queue up for boarding. NB we did not sit down from the time we arrived to the time we boarded in 2.5 hours. We only just got on the flight in time.
I'll now see what I can do about some pictures and a hire car.
Bea's Aunt was at the airport to meet us. Does not speak a word of English, nor I German.
So we resort to speaking slowly and loudly.......
Trip to the hotel was interesting, twice we were on the wrong side of the road going past on coming cars trying to turn again us. I almost crossed myself twice. Since discussed, with a relative, (what's the son of a cousin called) driving here you have to have at least one near death experience on the road per day otherwise you have not lived!
We for a walk this morning, Bea says nothing will be open, she was wrong the bars are still open and there is a free topless bar near here as well. Not that I have gone into either of them.
My impressions of Berlin, subtle neglect. Graffiti everywhere, things not a tidy nor well kept as they should be.
Paris airport is a nightmare, flight at 10:50, we left at 11:10. We thought we'd get to the airport, breeze through security and go sit in the lounge. Yhea right, the French want you to queue for no apparent reason.
So, queue to get on the escalator, do that again.
Get to terminal, where are the check in desks, big queue for Eazy Jet (or so we think).
No desks, but there is a BA Business/First and Gold members, we get to check in.
We then go right how do we get through, yes you've guessed it, that queue for Eazy Jet, isn't a queue for Eazy Jet, it's the queue for passport control (You take you luggage and baggage through passport control).
Queue up at the gate, get through security screening, queue up for boarding. NB we did not sit down from the time we arrived to the time we boarded in 2.5 hours. We only just got on the flight in time.
I'll now see what I can do about some pictures and a hire car.
