Berlin, Germany, Day Three
We got up early (again! Why do we do it!) and headed into the city (grabbing the first of our average 3 fresh pretzels daily!), to start our walking tour of Berlin. Our guide, Lisa, was terrific. She was born in Berlin then moved to Scotland when she was 13, then back to Berlin after uni. We started out with a quick walk due to the S Bahn being out of comission and before long we were walking past a checklist of Berlin’s sights, such as the Berlin Dome, museums and squares. We passed through the square where hundreds of thousands of books were burned and there is now a monument set in the ground of an empty library, very interesting. Our tour also took us past the big TV tower, which is probably the most obvious of Berlin’s landmarks. Almost all of the tour was through old East Berlin and there were many stories of the differences and relationships between the east and west. We passed Checkpoint Charlie and talked about what used to be there (the Soviet checkpoint); a bit more intimidating than the American shack that you see today. Lisa was telling us how her parents used to put bananas in her backpack and try and smuggle them through to the west for their friends to sell on the blackmarket. After this, we saw a section of the wall still standing and made our way to the Monumement to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This recently completed monument was intriguing and quite thought provoking, something we are glad to have visited. We then passed by the site of Hitler’s bunker, now an intentionally non-descript carpark, on our way to the Brandenberg Gate, where the tour finished. One parting note from the tour guide regarded a more recent scandal - the hotel from where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from the balcony!
We then caught up with Laura, one of the Victorian girls that I was on exchange with in Berlin 12 years ago! She is studying in Berlin now and living with her German boyfriend. It was great catching up again after all those years and having a laugh about our crazy days in Berlin (12 years ago!). We got a currywurst (the new craze in Berlin) then heading up to the rooftop café of KaDeWe, the largest shopping centre in Germany. It had a great view of the city. Martine met us here and we had a wander around the shopping centre before Esko picked us up for a tour of East Berlin. It was interesting seeing some of the original buildings pre- and post-wall. Some streets are all completely re-furbished buildings to show off. We also saw the longest remaining stretch of the wall, which is about 1.5km long and is now known as the ‘East-Side Gallery’. It’s the part where artists expressed their opinions when the wall came down. In the past month or two it was cleared and the new artwork is going up. Some of the original artists have been asked to re-paint. With a fresh coat of paint, I think it’s really changed the feel of the wall, it no longer resembles the wall for what is was or the desperation of the original artists expressing their opinion. Nevertheless, I still find it interesting to look at and try to imagine it in it’s original state.
We then heading to a supermarket to get some dinner and stock up on German chocolate and gummy bears. Yumbo!
Martine cooked us a delicious dinner and death by chocolate tart for dessert. We had another engagement cheers and some raspberry schnapps. Simon then set up the pay tv set that’s been sitting on the dresser for months. They were ecstatic to see they now have 100s of channels (even though they don’t watch much tv!). Martine was very excited to see then tennis. Then an AFL game appeared! She was rapt…. until she realized it was dubbed in German! This caused a breakdown and she had to go outside to get some fresh air. It is ridiculous though, the only people who would want to see it would be Aussies! They didn’t even include the siren sound. Funnily, the game they were showing was the last week’s final with Collingwood and Adelaide, so Simon was very happy to watch it, even if it was in German! He tried his best to convert Esko and his daughter to Collingwood, they were getting into it too! It was great staying with Martine and Esko and catching up. We had lots of laughs. Katie xo
