I had a bit of a rough introduction to Berlin. My wallet was stolen in a bar on my second night, which caused no end of headaches. But I spent a week and a half in the city and while it was difficult getting by for a while, it’s such a great city that my thoughts about it quickly turned around.
First to the wallet – I got caught by a classic trap apparently. I was sitting in a bar having a drink with someone I met that day. I had my wallet on the table right in front of me and this guy came up begging for money. He had a letter which went over the wallet, and while I was politely telling him no the wallet was taken. The Berlin police (who were very pleasant to deal with) say it’s an old trick.
As it turns out Visa and Mastercard will send you cash from your account through Western Union in such circumstances, which is what got me through until I could get a replacement card. And my travel insurance should cover the cash in the wallet and expenses, so it’s mainly just inconvenient. Plus I feel stupid for falling for an old trick!
But anyway, Berlin is an amazing city. It’s arty, funky, grungy. Like Newtown but without the try-hards. And it has an amazing history from the last century which fascinates me.
This is the tower in Alexanderplatz, which is one of the major squares of the city, and the major square of East Berlin. The tower was built in the 60s as the cold war was heating up, as was the world clock in the foreground. The view from the tower is pretty good, but hard to photograph because the windows are dirty!
Only a few stretches of the Berlin Wall have been preserved, and I think the most famous stretch is the East Side Gallery, which is now covered with murals on one side and graffiti on the other. I kind of love what they have done to it and the symbolism behind that. There are also two other parts of the wall which are preserved, one of which has a very interesting memorial. Some of the stories about the impact of the wall on the people of Berlin are fascinating and tragic.
This is Checkpoint Charlie, probably the best known crossing from the east to the west. This is a recreation of the original checkpoint. There are photos of what it looked like in the late 80s – it was a multi-lane thing that looked like a motorway tollbooth by then. Nearby is a museum with a lot of information about the wall and more personal stories, including some of the attempts to escape from the east. Some of them were downright crazy, which I guess goes to show how horrible life must have been then.
I did a day trip out to Potsdam, which is the capital of the Brandenburg provence. It’s also where Churchill, Truman and Stalin met after World War II to divide the spoils. Unfortunately I got there too late to go inside the palace where the conference was held, but this is the outside.
The Reichstag is a beautiful old building, and the Wall actually ran right behind it. It’s been interestingly redone by an English chap, as it had to be expanded once the Wall came down. The glass dome on top is an amazing piece of architecture. You can walk up a spiral ramp to the top and the views over Berlin are very nice. I did it at night though, so no photos!
The Brandenburg Gate is right around the corner from the Reichstag. One of those landmarks that’s quite amazing to see in person.
So Berlin just has a really cool feel to it. I happened to stumble upon some markets on a Sunday in this big, vast, rather unappealing looking park. But there were hundreds of stalls, people selling interesting food, people drinking beer, barbequing, playing music, performing, just sitting around talking and having a good time. One of my favourite things was this guy who was putting on this huge karaoke event – it must have been in front of a few thousand people in this ampitheatre. People were getting up and singing, and as always with karoke there was a variety of quality. But when it was good it was so good and the crowd really got into (especially for an old dude wearing suspenders who belted out My Way in German).
It’s a good example of just the casual but interesting vibe that’s all over Berlin. I think I like a city when there’s a good use of public space. This usually involves people drinking beer! But it’s not in an ugly, get your shirt off and bash people up sort of way, as it probably would be if this was common place in Australia. It’s just people having a good time, getting out of their house and enjoying their city. And there’s a lot to like about that!
On another note, I have a theory that a country's economy is casually related to its public transport network. The Berlin metro doesn't have any ticket barriers! I reckon in Australia CityRail would be broke in about half an hour if they did that. I guess enough Germans are honest enough to not abuse it (just like all backpackers, of course).
So yeh, Berlin – do it! Just don’t get your wallet stolen. I’m now in the UK and have a credit card again (woooo!). More on that later.
No comments:
Post a Comment