Berlin

On Friday June 20th, early in the morning, I took a Lufthansa flight to Berlin from Cologne. About 45 minute flight as expected went by really fast especially since I was asleep the entire time. After getting off the plane I took the bus and subway to Pegasus Hostel as its website had suggested. I was in Berlin for 3 full days.



Day 1
My first day in the city was pretty exciting. I was still tired from staying up all night after celebrating Germany's Euro 2008 Quarterfinal win over Portugal, but had enough energy to walk all over the city and do a preliminary sightseeing. I first walked to Mühlenstraße, a 10 minute walk from the hostel and near the Ostbahnhof (East Train Station). As you may have guessed, this was the eastern part of the city once under Soviet influence/rule. And Mühlenstraße still features about a mile long stretch of the original Berlin wall. After the reunification, many famous graffiti artists were commissioned to paint the portions of the wall. Now, almost 20 years after the fall, the government is looking for ways to preserve this portion of the wall and the featured paintings; this is obviously very ironic as the West Germany's government 20 years ago was doing all in its power for the wall to be destroyed.
Standing in front of this structure I kept reliving images from the movies such as "Other People's Lives" and "Good-Bye Lenin", both of which featured a story of East Berliners trapped on the wrong side of the wall.
After a quick tour and a few pictures I wandered towards the biggest building I could see in the distance, or the TV tower, for no other reason than I knew it was located at the Alexanderplatz or the Mitte (German for middle) part of the city. There I walked past several interesting buildings. In the pictures one can see the interesting composition of buildings, from new to old to destroyed. I was crossing between East and West parts of the city during the walk and the Communist era buildings in the East certainly make one remember the recent past, but then other buildings such as the Berliner Dom reflect more remote history of the city.
During my stroll I noticed that around most bridges there are street musicians playing either classical or folklore music. And the styles were mixing between what I believe were German interpretors to Rom ones. And they were reminding me of the movie "Dom za Vjesanje" (Time of the Gypsies is the English title), as the music sounded similar and it could have been a rendition of Bregovic's "Ederlezi" soundtrack. This all made it for a quite nice experience.
Next I walked past the Brandenburg Tor (Gate), which is the gate to the city that ended up behind the Wall by a few feet. Right across the street in fact there is a memorial to the victims who were shot while attempting to escape to the West. In front of the Gate one can take a picture with stand-ups dressed in Soviet and American army uniforms, one holding a Soviet flag and the other an American one. A great tourist trap but nonetheless a reflection of a place that was once divided.
A few feet down the road is the Reichstag, or German Parliament Building. "Dem Deutsche Volk" sign is inscribed on the front facade, which is German for "To the German People". The building is a mix of historic architecture and modern engineering. Inside, in fact, features a big what seems to look like an upside-down mirror pyramid enclosed by a glass cupola. Very neat sight, but more than just aesthetics this "sculpture" is an intricate solar-panel system that captures daylight through the cupola and turns it into energy that provides electricity to the whole building. Talking about self-sustainability...
From the Reichstag one can venture straight to the Tiergarten, a huge park in the middle of the city. Alongside the park, runs Strasse des 17. Juni, which leads to Große Sterne Monument. The name of this street derives from people's uprising in East Berlin that took place on June 17th, 1953. Interestingly, along this street one can find also a Soviet War memorial that commemorates those Red Army soldiers fallen in WWII.
After the long walk, I headed towards Postdamer Platz, which was completely destroyed in WWII as it housed Hitler's bunker (or it was near it). On the way to it, there is a huge memorial dedicated to Jewish Holocaust victims. It is a very powerful sight; it is composed of hundreds (maybe even thousands) cement blocks creating an interesting maze one can walk through. The passages then go up- and downhill creating interesting optical illusion while walking through. And one is really overwhelmed by the magnitude of the evil that prompted for this memorial.

Day 2
Day 2 had a bit of a late start due to having gone out with some Irish guys I met at the Hostel on the previous night. I needed sleep after making it back to the Hostel at 5:30am. The adventure with the Irish necessitates a blog post on its own, so I'll try to post it later.
On this day I visited Checkpoint Charlie, which used to be a security/border checkpoint through which most diplomats went through between East and West. Also a spot where US and Soviet tanks faced each other in a power stand up. Today a replica checkpoint exists as a monument and of course two stand-ups wearing US and Soviet Uniforms complete the scene. All around this place there is quite a bit of construction going on as I believe Germans are trying to undo the damage that the Communist era did to this part of the city. Besides that there are also quite a few informational signs discussing the history of the Berlin Wall. To commemorate its divisive existence, a two-row cobblestone line has been placed throughout Berlin's roads where the Wall once used to stand. This line at times cuts through a large city street diagonally and it's an eyesore, but it drives home a point, the Wall was so senseless.
My next stop was the Olympic Stadium. This place hosted the controversial (because of Mr. Adolf Hitler) 1936 Olympic Games. It has since been remodeled; its history and remodeled architecture create one great sight. I spent about an hour walking around, getting close to the soccer field. For me it was more than the 1936 Olympics; this was where Italy beat France to win the World Cup two summers ago. I cannot wait to show pictures to my Italian friends as I don't believe any of them have made it there yet.
After touring the stadium I went to see the Schloss Charlottenburg, which is the biggest Palace in Berlin. It is surrounded by a nice and quite gardens and a big park. I ventured into it, found a bench and enjoyed the scenery for a while. I needed to re-charge after a long walk especially since later that evening I was meeting some friends who were also visiting Berlin. I knew another long night awaited me.

So this is as much as I will write about touring Berlin. Day 3 I spent entirely visiting Potsdam, a town about 30 min away from Berlin, known for the Potsdam Conference, and you can read all about it in my next post.