Europe 2003 - Part 11: Berlin, Deutschland

The evening was spent with David, in a flat at a majorly rundown area of East Berlin. I always enjoy cities up close and personal and this was it - a far cry for the Berlin that tourists would see. He met me at the stairs of the U-Bahn Neukolln and went to his place up many dark stairs. The place was hippy and VERY tastefully decorated. Now I forgot the names of David’s two sisters - Jennifer and ? But the tall “waitress” character was the craziest hippy in Deutscheland and a really tall guy (Torsten?) reminded me of Sybren from Stuttgart. We made pizza and put it to bake one by one in the gas oven and then sat down, ate it, talked like nuts, opened my wine and mellowed out. I said goodbye for a totally cool hippy evening in old East Berlin, dodged the Persian rugs and candles and David’s guitars and went out a happy man. Getting home was an adventure since a couple of U-bahn lines were closed, so making friends quickly was a helpful skill to have to get from road to bus to road again in homeward direction. The Turkish population here is very high, and unlike England, kebabs are eaten while people are still sane! lol!

The day begins again in Berlin youth hostel. I thought I had to leave for Lyon tonight but its actually tomorrow, bumhole me! Having got over this palaver, metro rides were had to Checkpoint Charlie. Reponsible for the quote:

You are now leaving the American zone

The legendary Checkpoint Charlie museum was very touching and explored how people tried to sneak out of Soviet East Berlin using almost every concievable method possible - there were model old Volkswagens on display with hidden compartments to hide people, diving gear made from a tip, makeshift tunnelling equipment, someone even got through in the stomach of a pantomime cow - if people are desperate then necessity is the mother of invention. Border soldiers who didn’t kill people who tried to escape (missed the shot on purpose for example) were themselves “removed from service”. The monumental struggles that occured resulted in a day of great hope in 1989 for German and world history. In 1989, the Berlin wall fell and the world gasped as East and West Berliners met on the wall and cried and celebrated the end of conflicts that were without parallel in the Western World. TV pictures and photos of the Reichstag, the graffitied wall, the Brandenburg Gate flashed that day across people’s minds and the lyrics of “Imagine” found an eternal place in history. And it was just in 1989! I felt privileged as a visitor - able to breathe an air of unity and marvel at this unique and complex city that has set an example to freedom-loving people.

In the afternoon I met the two Stefi’s, Anne and Tina and we all went to some totally “out of the way” places like a music and art school (where I thiefed a poster) and to the edge of the presently standing Berlin wall. There exists a bar with sand and all next to the river - the locals knew it as “the beach”. The girls and I spent all the rest of the afternoon here and I dozed off into a lush sleep on my deckchair, which must’ve lasted hours. Before sleeping Anna had bought me a special green Berlin beer. Anna shook me awake and I was lost for a minute before it sank in where I was - at a beach bar next to part of the Berlin wall that still stands. Wouldn’t that be simply unthinkable just 15 years ago? The beach bar - Princess (Birke) mailed me from the States about this - is it the same one?

I rode a really old Dutch bicycle that belonged to one of the girls and had a hilarious ride over a U-bahn bridge to an Indian restaurant, where we all had a great dinner finishing with lassi. It is fairly scary to have dinner with so many girls (one more came later). Anna and her friend from Hamburg went home tired (Anna personal note - thanks for meeting me with all your friends, it was appreciated a lot!) and a handful of us headed for the bars of Kreuzberg. There I met Marcus, a boyfriend role and architect and generally great chap who gave me a cool red and white jacket to wear since I didn’t have any and I told his girlfriend I was getting cold! We went for COCKTAILS in East Berlin, which was all wierd and quiet and looked Communist. Marcus and I shared POWER cocktails (quoting from the menu) and discussed linguistics, differences and arse jokes (with the ladies of course!). I didn’t stagger to bed this time, but it was darn late, same replacement bus service confusion …

At breakfast having spicy steamed beans - my mojo wanted to be a tourist so I packed out and dumped my rucksack in a paid locker at Berlin Zoo Station. Then feeling light, had a big bratwurst sausage dog on the street and mineral water for lunch while admiring the magnificent Reichstag. The bus tour was okay, and like the old story about the English and German rivalry at the beach (nicking each other’s sunbeds every morning), many seats had purses and food on them to indicate “get lost from this seat”. I really hate tourists, even though today, I am one! Lol! Back at the square in the afternoon, I dozed off on a bench looking at a mesmerising fountain of Zeus and his children, which I haven’t found in my Rough Guide. The fountain is centred with Zeus sitting on a shell, his children accidentally gliding into the pool and lobsters, crabs and serpents waiting to devour them below. And water gushes everywhere on green curves.

NOTE TO ALL BERLIN NEWCOMERS - go round it! It is located directly opposite Berlin’s TV tower, and made me sleep fresh as a daisy. Often, I see Rennaisance and Baroque sculptures (or any at all!) and I struggle to understand their artistic context, their reasons for being so, but in this case, I studied Zeus and it’s curvatures and detail, imagining scenes of a God ruling a violent sea, his children prone to dangers. Good yes.

Tomorrow evening, my lifestyle changes and I meet my brother, Mark and later Gaz, and we settle down to work in a vineyard in Villefranche-sur-Saone in Beaujoulais a while. Vive la France!

I love you all, and updates will be infrequent while I’m on the farm! Please promise me that you’ll drink lots of water, drive really fast, and take care of yourselves! Bye for now, I got an overnight train. And see you in Lyon in lovely wine-powered France.

[Photo omitted - Caption: Me with Anna and her friends in Berlin]

[Photo omitted - Caption: Anna and I at a random art museum, where I thiefed a few posters]