Berlin (March 2, 2008) -- Since my last visit here in2003 was a bit weird, what with staying in the strange land that is East Berlin, I came back for a long weekend to give this town another shot.
The ruling is still a lukewarm one in favor, mostly because, I think, that on both occasions I arrived directly from Paris, a city that I love.
This time around I am staying in a southern part ofthe city that is dominantly Turkish. (The Germans lost so many men in WWII that they needed to bring Turkish over to help rebuild the town. The Germans thought they would leave after rebuilding the demolished city but they never really did. This part of the city, perhaps coincidentally, does resemble Istanbul.)
So I am staying at the apartment where my friend Thomas is staying with his sometimes girlfriend, Louisa who recently moved here for an internship.
I have never seen an apartment like this one. It is huge and is like a hostel with bare concrete floors, highceilings and five permanent occupants along with several other people, including me, crashing on any soft surface available. In addition to this strange set-up, the place is covered in bizarre objects and graffiti.
For example, in one corner there is a plastic snowman next to a model of a skeleton wearing a devil mask. In the bathroom, there is a large plastic evil-lookingoctopus above the toilet and to flush the toilet you push what looks like a large rat tail that is hanging out of the mouth. And there's only one bathroom and one shower and they are in the same room. Apparently, the place is owned by a non-involved landlord and every occupant contributes a little decoration before leaving.
The young people living there now are a bit more normal than the scenery. There is a nice Spanish girl with some kind of mullet who says 'Si' even where she is speaking English. A Japanese guy who is a DJ and tried to tell me that going to a night club at four in the morning last night was a good idea. I had not slept more than an hour in two days at that point, thanks to a very early flight Saturday morning.
Then there's two strange women of an unknown nationality who just stay in their room unless they are in the kitchen making a tea. And there is an Australian guy. And there's also a German guy who just got back from two weeks in Mexico.
We are the UnitedNations. The apartment below it is very nice though. I know because I walked in and then around the place thinking it was where Louisa lived.
The nice women quietly on the Internet seemed not at all scared that a strange man was pacing around the apartment.
No, Louisa doesnot live here, she said, thankfully without a scream or a knife.The highlight in terms of sight seeing in a town where just about everything was blown to bits in the 1940s was the nuclear fallout shelter I visited this evening.
It's still functioning and is located below amall in the center of town. It was built in the 1970sby the mall's developer at the request of thegovernment.About 3,000 people could live in very cramped quartersfor two weeks in the shelter.
At the end of the tour, the young blonde German women giving the tour concluded by telling us that she would not try to get down into the safety of the shelter because life downthere would be so miserable. And, as a matter of fact, she thinks that the government built the shelter only to have something to point to if the people asked what might happen if Berlin was hit with a nuclear bomb. So it was propaganda, basically. Don't forget to visit the gift shop!
It was, at least warm down there. Cold weather traveling is not for everyone. It is hardly for me. But I had some excellent training in December in eastern Europe.
The key is to overdress since sightseeing involves a lot of walking around outside, sometimes while lost. You won't look like the natives, but you don't look native frozen to death in the gutter.
Speaking of lost, when in a city where the street names are strange and thus hard to remember, having acompass is crucial.
I have been kicking myself quite often for giving my compass to the two girls from NewZealand when we parted ways in Bratislava. I learned later that they never used it again. If you learn nothing from these rambling emails, please remember to take a compass when you are traveling in another country or even another city.
Because of the lack of a compass, I have been at the mercy of the map reading skills of Louisa and Thomas.
Both haven't spent much time out of Paris, so this has been bumpy. And this is not the town to walk around even in nice weather because it is sprawling and features cars racing all over the place aiming forpedestrians.
This is in stark contrast to Paris where the pedestrians have the right away and it is not unusual to lackadaisically crossing the street.
Hearing a carhorn honked in aggression in my direction was a thing I have not heard in a while and it quite naturallymade me want to get back to Paris, just like the last time.
Happy Monday, one and all. Spring is around the corner. Never forget. And vote on Tuesday if you live in Texas or Ohio.
Take care,
Brett
