Berlin: Where West meets East

Erin and I went to Berlin for a quick 2 day trip.  We took the train on Wednesday morning and returned Thursday night.  It was a 4.5 hour ride each way, and I am SO glad we didn't drive.  The weather was rainy and gray and driving would have been slow.  The train, however, goes around 200km/h!  Plus, we could relax and read rather than worry about getting lost :)

 Berlin is a HUGE city.  I think it's like 10 times the size of New York, distance-wise.  It is not managable completely on foot, so we relied a lot on public transport, busses, trains, and subways.  We managed to see all the "highlights" in our short time, but didn't do any in-depth museum-like stuff.  Most of the time, I prefer to just experience the culture of a new city and you can't really do that in museums.  I like to wander about and poke into shops and look at random statues on the street and people-watch.  Erin felt the same way, so that's how we toured Berlin.

 These photos are at Checkpoint Charlie.  During the Cold War, this was the border crossing from the West into the East, the American-sector into the Russian-sector.  There was a big display going over the history and politics of this crossing point and it was really interesting.  What is especially crazy to me is that NO GERMANS were allowed to cross here for any reason!  Only foreigners could cross.  So, if your family was cut off overnight (which is when the wall barriers were erected-in just one night), you couldn't visit them for nearly 20 years.  But, if you were just a tourist or business person from any country other than Germany, you could cross back and forth.  How cruel is that?

The remnants of the Wall are not here.  At this point, it was completely knocked down by celebratory mobs in 1989.  But, thanks to pictures and the historical background, I could imagine what it must have been like.

 I thnk it's quite fitting that the first thing you see when passing into the American side is a McDonald's!

 A Russian soldier overlooking me as I enter the East side.

 The East side of the city is where most of the sightseeing is.  The East still feels really Russian or Polish.  Quite gray, but not as plain and Communistic as I expected.  There are a lot of signs in Russian and Polish still.  Here is what used to be the Russian Government offices, and is now the Russian Embassy.

 The Brandenberg Gate is also on the East side, by all of the Embassies.  It was the original entrance to the city long, long ago. 

 That's the American Embassy behind me.  While standing in this area, Erin and I got interviewed by an Israeli journalist.  Weird, but he seemed to be the real deal.  He asked us how we felt about Germany raising their terrorist warning level and if we as tourists would change our plans because of it.  So, we may be quoted in an Israeli newspaper. 

 Something else we found on the East side was a really fun pub.  It is a chain of Czech pubs and this is the first branch opened in Germany.  It's cool because you pull your own beer and the computer counts how much you drink so you only pay for what you drink.  We were there during a quiet time, so we chatted with the owner and the waitstaff.  The owner is originally Israeli, but lived most of his life in Czechoslovakia, then moved to LA for a few years and hated it, and now lives in Berlin.  The waiter was a young Russian guy, who claimed to be 21, but Erin and I think he was more like 14.  He had only lived in Germany for 6 months.  It was cool to talk to him, because his accent was just like that of any Russian-speaking-English in movies.  He told us that many Russian young people leave Russia to work as restaurant staff in Western Europe and America to help them get ahead.  He has friends working in Chicago right now and hopes to go someday.  The whole "streets paved with gold" fable is still alive in parts of the world. 

 After leaving the pub, we went in search of the remnants of the Wall.  After a slight detour, we found it.

 What is left is now an art gallery.  It is still quite long at this point, and makes it possible  to imagine how long it really was and how isolating.  The wall itself is totally flat and slippery.  You could never climb it without a ladder.  And here, on the East side, Russian guards were given orders to "shoot to kill" any one attempting to climb it.  I can't even imagine what it must have been like to stand here 20 or 30 years ago, desperate, knowing that just a few feet away over the wall was the life you dreamed of. Wilder, yet, is that the entire wall was built in just 3 days.

Since we had managed to see all the major historical sights on Wednesday, we decided to shop on Thursday!  We found the largest department store in Europe KaDeWe, or Kaufhaus Der Western (Department Store of the West).  It was a lot like Marshall Field's/Macy's in Chicago.  We wandered all around the 7 floors and enjoyed the all-out Christmas decorations. 

We left Berlin mid-day and made one last stop to buy the kids a souvenir.  Dunkin' Donuts.  Yep, all over Berlin, East and West, there were Dunkin' Donuts.  How completely random, but Munchkins made for a great souvenir for Aidan and Delainey!  I wonder why there aren't any in Frankfurt?