from East to West

I'm writing this post from Wayne's Coffee on Al. Jerzolimske, listening to what can only be described as a techno-remix hiphop inspired version of "I Want to Dance with Somebody." I will really miss European music when I return to the States.


A few weeks ago I hopped on a train to Berlin, for my first excursion into Continental Western Europe. In all honesty, I never had a strong interest in visiting Germany before, and hardly expected to enjoy it as much as I did. But Berlin is hip, young, and happenin'. It's had a hard history and was the basepoint for a lot of really horrible historical events, the city seems to be fully engaged in dealing with this. I think that one of the best proofs of this is the way they chose to rebuild after World War 2. Some buildings were repaired and some were rebuilt, but throughout the city there are modernist buildings look to the future rather than the past and are reminders that the Bauhaus movement started in Germany.
Perfect example is the Reichstag building. A fired destroyed the building shortly after Hilter took power, and it was abandoned during the Nazi regime. The building is in West Berlin, and after the War, Germans decided to move their capital back to Berlin from Bonn, and to restore the Reichstaag. The damage to the dome was irreperable, and so architect Paul Baumgarten constructed a transparent glass dome in its stead. The dome is open to the public, and is constructed in a way that allows the German government to look up through the building to see the sky and the public, a symbol of government transparency and trust between the public and the government. Here's a photo from inside the dome-while the view was awesome, my pictures of it didn't come out so well since I was, uh, encased in glass.

One thing that I really enjoyed in Berlin was the free tour that Jess and I took our first day. They have them throughout Europe, apparently, and are a great way to see the city on a budget. Our tour guide was a super snappy Japanese-British woman who had been a model-actress, moved to Berlin for love, dumped the guy and stayed. Normally I think tour guides are pretty annoying but she was really informative.


Unfortunately, I can't remember exactly what this awesome old buidling is. But I do know that it was on Museum Island, which is one of many places in Berlin that is full of cool museums, so we can pretend that it's also a museum. Here's a statue near the enterance of what I am sure actually is a museum.

On our tour we learned that the Gates of Babylon are housed in the Pergamon Museum, and that they are one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Of course we had to go-why not knock one of the 7 Wonders of the World off our "to see" list when we have the opportunity, right? Even if it is a little creepy and imperialistic that the Gates of Babylon are in Berlin. Disappointing news though, is that I just looked this up on Wikipedia, which is of course the epitome of factually correct information, and it doesn't look like what we saw were ACTUALLY the Gates of Babylon, or that the Gates of Babylon are ACTUALLY one of the 7 Wonders of the World. But still, Museum Island was cool.


We also saw the University in Berlin where, during the Nazi period, a huge list of books were banned and burned. Now, there is a permanate used book stand outside of the University that sells, among other things, the books that were banned. I think the proceeds are donated. Here are some copies of Marx and Lenin. The books had awesome covers, too bad I don't read German.

So of course it's impossible to go to Berlin without taking many, many pictures of the wall and its awesome graffiti. Here I am standing on either side of where the wall used to be, with a delicious caffeinated beverage in hand. This photo is cool, but after I took it I realized that I am not standing simultaneously on East and West Berlin soil, since a) the road is obvi paved and b) there were actually 2 walls throughout the city with a "death zone" in between.

Near where I stayed the first night in Berlin is the famous "East Side Gallery," which is a section of the wall that's covered by graffiti.
The graffiti is really cool, though a lot of it looks like it's seen better days. Here's one panel that I liked a lot.

Here's a picture of Berlin's Holocaust memorial, which is really interesting and quite controversial. It's unmarked, and takes up nearly a full block in the center of the city. There are concrete pillars of varying heights that get progressively taller as you walk through them. The feeling is pretty intense, and open to interpretation. The idea is that you can't live or visit the city without a constant reminder of Holocaust-it's impossible to look the other way.

I only had about 3 full days in Berlin, but it was great. Unfortunately, the trip took place over a month ago and I'm already hazy on the details. But, I think this at least gives you the general idea...that it's awesome.

Next update: Krakow and Gdansk with my Hilary!