I would like to say we planned this whole weekend knowing that it fell on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, but we are just strangely lucky it seems...
So we arrived, as logic says if our shadows are there, we must be too!! It was just the four of us, Rachel, Bruce, Chris and I. This picture is from the saturday morning though. Our flight actually got it at a decent hour on the friday night so we unloaded all our stuff at the hostel and headed right out to explore. I didn't bring my camera because I wasn't sure what the night would bring.....
First things first we headed for the Brandenburg Gate. It was lit up and tons of organising was going on for the festivities to come later that weekend. We made our way through the gate and up to the Reichstag and went up to the huge glass dome at the top where you can 360 degrees or berkin skyline. very cool. and cold. also we didn't get into the reichstag until 10, their last group... it's a big attraction at all hour apparently.
we headed back to the hostel and stopped at both a currywurst place (wurst ie sausage with a bunch of curry powder and then the ketchup is ladeled on. more ketchup then anyone would ever need on anything. but don't worry they give you a bun, to sop up the mess with!!!) and a kebab place, we couldn't decide. after one bout of currywurst though we didn't go back, and adopted the kebab shop as our kitchen away from home.
We then stumble upon this amazing building, very close to our hostel. More about that later, when there are pictures to help describe.
A view of the river on the way back towards Brandenburg Gate.In the distance you can just make out the Berlin Television Tower, built as a symbol of Berlin under Communist direction. There is a phenomenon related to this tower though called "the Pope's REvenge". The material used for the ball is highly relective and when the sun shines on it it produces a cross on the ball. Not exactly in line with communist philosophy, wiki it if you are interested, it has it's own page....
The hustle and bustle to organise the festivities for the monday. there were electrical wires going everywhere. poor victoria, her gate was just getting lit up like christmas.
The german flags adorning the reichstag and the bottom left is the "wall" that they toppled during the aniversary ceremony. hundreds of domino style peices of art lined up all along the path of the wall.
This is one of my favorite photos i took. it is the back corner of the reichstag. the sky was absolutely beautiful on saturday.
The german people.....
The line up in the daytime ws even longer than at night.
Party picture, me and reichstag.
the "wall"
I don't think they were praying i think they were imitating a poster of barack obama that did not make it into the picture.at this point we were waiting for our walking tour to start......
Rachel, XY view.
The walking tour was led by an irishman named baaaaarry. really great guy. took us back to the gate and the reichstag and gave us some history. we then crossed over the the holocaust memorial. A stark city block, littered with precisely placed tomb shaped blocks. Rising and falling through a dip in the center. Walking through it, the blocks start at your waist and rise until they are well over you head. you could get lost there. at night there are lights within the memorial creating shadows and corners so dark you can't see your hand. The artist wanted this place to integrate into everyday lives. he wanted people to interact with it, feel what they would and hope that it would remind them of the past.....
This empty car lot is the location of Hitler's bunker where he and his wife Eva committed suicide.
This building was built in the time of nazi germany and was built in a way that it would "make good ruins". Hitler beleived what he was building was to be a 1000 year empire..... It was the largest building of it's kind at the time of it's construction...
The largest remaining section of the wall. It is picked over to the point of crumbling by the people selling "peices of the wall" to the tourists. you could find them everywhere....
Rachel and bruce, posing as per usual.
Checkpoint charlie, highly commercialized now.
Said to be the most beautiful square in berlin, perfect place for a tourist photo.
Rachel again.
and again
Chris! he didn't like getting his photo taken, i had to sneak it....
This is the "memorial for victims of war and tyranny"
The berlin cathedral, the end of our walking tour, and just in time to take advantage of the beautiful lighting.
The catherdral and I.
Barry sat us all down for the finally of the story of how the wall came down. he was really very good. And apparently it all came down to a really big screw up during a press conference...
Look what they found!
This is coming up to the graffiti building but not quite there yet...
There it is! The balcony on the top left is a day and night club. the music is so loud we could hear it in the basement. During the day there are also artists pawning their wares throughout the building. People painting new graffiti on all the walls, playing instruments... That first night we watched a band called texas couscous for the longest time. then i leaned on some fresh paint so my jacket is blue! ~ish
There was a courtyard below the building full of gigantic metal statues and other art...
SAturday night we joined a GIANT pubcrawl over 100 people and got a tour of the berlin nightlife. at one point we were in a bar with apparently uninforced fire codes because there was nowhere to move. you rode currents of people and hope it took you to the bar, or bathroom, or whereever. We stopped at our favorite kebab shop on the way home....
We spent sunday going first to the eastside gallery then to a really cute outdoor market.
One particularly famous portion of the wall...
Angry Chris. i like this picture but i don't know if he does.
One of the artists painting on the wall.
The outdoor market was jammed with all sorts of goodies. we wandered till we got cold at which point i bought a nice pair of wool socks which i promptly donned. we then had all dressed baked potatoes. a genuine one with every thing from couscous, corn, pickles, beans, all sorts of strange salads. it was heaven. and so nice and warm!
After the market we walked out to find this very discreet outdoor karaoke setup. we stayed for a bit, saw one really great old guy sing. But being in europe has gotten under our skin and just the right of this picture is a mobile pile of speakers that somebody hauled into the park and a strobe light so we went there and had a rave for a bit instead. until it got shut down by the cops in army fatigue anyway......
On the way home bruce bought a bottle of sparkling wine , just cuz he could. we accidentally popped the cork straight into the roof but it didn't leave to much of a mark...
Berlin is an beautiful city. So many interesting people, history, stories. It was an amazing, amazing weekend!
