paraphernalia

Somehow today ended up being totally German-centric, and by the end of it I really got a feeling that Berlin played a hugely important role in the 20th century. I guess that isn't totally surprising given that I'm in Berlin, but somehow today was different. For example, the Soviets conducted the Berlin Blockade, leading to the Berlin Airlift because it distracted the US from the Chinese Communist Party coming to power in 1949.

I finally got around to doing a walking tour of Berlin this morning and it was fantastic (with Insider Tours). I really like all the different aspects of this city - from the subcultures, to the food, and the history - and this tour gave a great run-down on all of them. Our guide was a British guy who'd lived in East Berlin during the Cold War, and added loads of personal anecdotes, which made this far better than any museum exhibition. He also felt quite nostalgic for the 'old times' and quoted a survey undertaken in Berlin in 2002 that stated 10% of East Berliners and 25% of West Berliners wanted the Wall back. Interesting given everything I've read so far have said almost the opposite! I even got some tips for negotiating the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from others on the tour.

I spent this afternoon in the Deutsches Historische Museum, which covers the entire history of 'Germany' in its many forms from 2000BC to now. After 1900 its fairly repetitive (given that I've studied the past 100 years many times), but learning how Germany has changed so much was fascinating.

After dinner, Julia and I met up with Anne, whom Julia is going to Ecuador with in a few months, for cocktails. Awesome drinks, and great company in a quirky Spanish bar in the middle of Kruezberg. Yay!

Random YouTube video:
Pussycat Boys hilarous!

As promised, I'll write a bit about the museums I visited today.

First stop, the Jewish Museum. In one word: amazing. I walked out 3 hours later with a new level of knowledge of Judaism. I guess that should be expected after visiting a Jewish Museum, but I learned far more than I expected. What I also appreciated was that it wasn't all about the Shoah (Holocaust) or persecution, rather it was a celebration of the Jewish faith. Yes, they discussed the Holocaust and other forms of persecution, but with a focus on the future, not the past.

The museum itself is architecturally stunning, which seems to be a trend throughout Europe. The Jewish Museum only has one square feature in the entire building, and that is the memorial garden, which itself contains non-square colums. The Axes in the basement are moving, and really well-presented, covering both the positive and negative repecussions from the Shoah - i.e. migration and death.

There was also a Freud exhibition on at the time (Mum you would've loved it) which attempted to shed some light on his life, his theories and why people attend therapy in the first place. Essentially they couldn't explain it, so they just showed it from his perspective, which was just as effective. The room with all the couches, where you can sit and listen to psychology depicted through film was great - you'd be surprised how often 'the couch' is used in films!

Next stop, after a massive downpout and lunch of currywurst, was Checkpoint Charlie. CC served as one of the checkpoints between East and West Berlin, and became the most infamous one because it was the location of the tank stand-off during the Cold War. The checkpoint itself has been moved to a traffic island in the middle of the road, but the whole area is dedicated to the Wall and the people who lost their lives trying to cross. It's another example of the ever-changing Berlin, as the district is entirely new (since 1991). They are also attempting to create continuous and coherent relics and monuments to the Wall, and there is now an exhibition at CC showing how this will be done. Interesting that they've waited this long to do that, but when a city is completely broke, it's not totally surprising.

From there, I checked out the Topography of Terror exhibition, which covers the SS & Gestapo, their prisons, and the Nurnburg Trial that followed the end of WW2. Fascinating stuff, and not covered in any of the other museums I've been to so far. Free too!

Finally I visited the Jewish Memorial - the one you may have seen with all the uneven stones. As opposed to the Jewish Museum, this memorial is entirely dedicated to remembering those lives murdered in the Shoah. It doesn't mince its words, and it definitely sets out to emphasise the enormity of it all. Definitely confronting, particularly the use of the word 'murdered' not 'died' as in many other places.

After that I felt a bit numb so I went on the internet and booked all the boring necessities for the rest of my Europe trip - train tickets and Edinburgh Tattoo tickets.

After another excellent brekkie of muesli and croisants I was about to head out to explore the museums of Berlin when I saw something that shocked and appalled me.

I have a mullet!!

Argh! After all this time bagging out this particularly nasty form of haircut, I have fallen victim to it myself! Usually it's hidden under a mass of curls and frizzy hair, but because I only just washed it and it was quite straight it was plain to see. This calls for drastic measures - a haircut!

But not just yet, it's too expensive in Berlin!

I will write about all the museums I visited today, but I will do that post later on, as I'm about to have dinner. For now, a list of the miscellaneous notes on the side of my diary shall suffice!

• Bonn was the capital of Germany from 1945-1991. Berlin only reclaimed the position on June 20, 1991, after a narrow victory in the Reichstag.
• I read a quote the other day that sums up (to me at least) why I visit museums, concentration camps and the like. "Each of us today is shaping the background history of tomorrow". To me this goes along with the idea that "He who does not history is doomed to repeat it".
• Loads more people smoke in Germany than any other European city. They also smoke everywhere - in the internet cafe as I speak actually, as well as in airports, train stations, restaurants - everywhere!
• Almost everyone who owns a dog takes it with them everywhere they go - including public transport, museums, and planes! And they all seem to be massive, great, hulking German Shephards!
• 'Multilingual' as a term is technically 'Multilanguageable'. Not that anyone would ever say it, but think about it, when do we say 'lingue' in any other form?
• Hot and cold have different starting letters in many European languages. Thus 'C' is hot (Chaud) and 'F' is cold (Froid) in French. IKEA and others have solved this problem by just painting little red and blue patches on taps. Not before I burnt myself in a shower though
• Ambulances DO shound different here - they have a more musical tone. Bill Bailey was right!
• I read this cool ad on a billboard in Singapore many moons ago. "Every little drop dreams of being German beer when it grows up".
• And finally, some thoughts on travel in general from me:

  Everyone travels with the next destination in mind - or at least on a long trip. Nowhere was this more evident then in Singapore where everyone focused on what to see outside the city then on what was within it. Some of us made the effort and were rewarded with a feeling that, at the end of our semester, we knew the place. We knew the short cuts, the best makan (food), the buses, the language, and most importantly, the people. Granted, Singapore is smaller geographically than most cities with 4 million people, but the effect is the same. So next time you're travelling, stop thinking about what's up next and take in what's around you. That's living for the moment
  

After an early flight from München, I arrived in at Schönefeld Airport at 9:40. From there I went straight to the brand-new Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) and checked my luggage into the left-luggage depot.

There I encountered my first problem. It's a brand new station (opened in late May this year), so all the entrances and exits aren't completely finished. Being the person that I am, I managed to find one of this unfinished exits and found myself on the street 10 seconds after getting off the train. This in the largest station in Europe!!

So I went back up the same escalators, walked across the platform and down another set. Aahh!!! This place is HUGE! Seriously massive. And it's all glass, so you can see all 3 levels of trains, with at least one train leaving every 90 seconds. Crazy stuff!

So after that little excursion I did a little self-guided walking tour of the area around Berlin Hbf, including the new Reichstag building (and later up it), the Brandenburg Gate, the Soviet memorial, and Unter den Linden. Berlin is under constant construction, especially from the East, and nowhere can you see this better than from the Reichstag, which sits very close to where the Berlin Wall ran. There are cranes everywhere!

The highlight of the day, however, was the tour I went on through two bunkers under the U-Bahn (subway). This was organised by Berlin Underworlds, and was FANTASTIC! It's so interesting - the bunkers themselves were rarely bomb-proof (it was too expensive) and many of the early ones weren't sealed, so were essentially useless in the event of a nuclear attack. The fundamental problem with them was that there was NEVER enough for more than 1.5% of the population, which meant essentially they served as a disperal mechanism.

Our guide described it succiently: In the case of Hurricane Katrina, everyone fled the city, leading to blocked roads in all directions, and thus no emergency supplies could enter the city. In Berlin, instead of everyone leaving, the idea was many would run to the shelter, and by the time they realised they weren't going to fit in any of them, the army etc. would have been able to enter the city. Clever but cynical.

For accomodation in Berlin, I am staying with a friend of a friend - specially Julia, who was in Singapore when I was there, but we only met briefly. She is originally from Bonn, but moved to Berlin last week, and has very kindly offered space on her floor for me! And so we decided to meet in Potsdamer Platz, but having never been there before, I got hopelessly lost (sensing a trend here?!), and failed to find the ALDI (our meeting point).

Eventually it all worked out, we met and had a great Green Curry for dinner. AND it turns out Julia works for the German equivalent of AusAid and is going to Ecuador soon for a development project! Small world!

And now I'm buggered, so I'm off to sleep!

Tchuss!