So proclaimed JFK on his famous speech regarding the absurdity of the Berlin Wall. It literally translates to "I am one with Berlin!", or if you think it's more appropriate I am told it can also translate to "I am a jelly-filled donut!".
This entry comes from Berlin, the capital of a now unified Germany. To say Germany has had a rough recent history is of course the understatement of the century. There is probably no one in Europe more aware of the travesty of war then the folk in Berlin in particular. The English bombers spared no mercy when they pretty much leveled the city in World War 2 in revenge. As a consequence there are only a few original old buildings, the rest have been torn down and some have been left in a half ruined state as an immortal reminder of the ravages of conflict. The new buildings that have sprung up to replace the old are very well designed and coupled with the giant TV tower that keeps vigil over the city, Berlin has a very mixed and wild horizon.
The Reichstag (German government house) is perhaps the coolest building on the skyline, sporting a big funky metal dome atop a classical stone building. You can actually go up to the roof and climb the massive big dome for a great view of the city and icons such as the Brandenburg Gate. Another definite highlight is the Pergamon museum, which contains all the missing statues and well preserved altar pieces from Pergamon in Turkey. It was the last pieces of the Pergamon jigsaw puzzle. Germany and Turkey will probably continue to fight over the legitimate right of those pieces for quite some time too.
One can not come to Berlin of course and not be punched in the face by some of their more depressing recent history. There is a massive Jewish war victims memorial, a series of some several hundred concrete blocks all laid at random heights. You can get lost amongst them, the idea being that begin to feel a kind of loneliness and uncertainty the Jewish population once faced. It's a nicely done artistic memorial I think.
The former SS headquarters, home of the infamous Himmler, is now nothing more than an empty block of land but they are beginning to create an open air display to educate about the atrocities devised from this very spot. Nearby is the underground bunker where Hitler so bravely committed suicide rather than face the music for what he had done. Nearby is a memorial to one of the regrettable 'Nazi book burnings', a great literary tragedy.
Post WW2 things didn't end there for the Berlin folk, tensions between occupying powers naturally led to the building of the Berlin Wall straight through the city to separate east from west. The wall stood for almost 30 years, mainly because there were no Scots or Mongolians to keep ripping it down. The wall was described by it's Communistic East Berlin constructors as an "anti-fascist protection barrier" designed to keep the evils of the West out. I have a feeling the East Berliners may have had some doubts of that claim since all the defenses on the wall were pointing inwards at them. This didn't stop some incredible escape attempts however, from flying foxes to a home made hot air balloons to a submarines made out of a bath tub.
Nowadays you can't see much of the wall, there are some small sections still remaining in a few spots through the city and each strip is surrounded by an "anti-tourist protection barrier" to stop "wall-peckers" from taking it all.
To close, and to lift spirits a little, I would like to proudly point out that Berlin has possibly wrenched the title of best hot chocolate from Belgrade. I order my usual order for the kazillionth time and was presented with a deliciously rich, dark hot chocolate with intensely deep cocoa flavour and just a smidgen of sweetness, accompanied by chocolate mousse come whipped cream, two chocolate coated coffee beans, a short bread, several small jars of spices (chili, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamon) so I could spice up my chocolate and a glass of water to refresh at the end. So in essence the hot choc was exquisite, the diversity of the offering divine and the price didn't evoke sweat palpitation. The champ is here...
So with that, the journey of a hundred thousand steps contiues ...
PS. Gift means poison in German. Remember that.
This entry comes from Berlin, the capital of a now unified Germany. To say Germany has had a rough recent history is of course the understatement of the century. There is probably no one in Europe more aware of the travesty of war then the folk in Berlin in particular. The English bombers spared no mercy when they pretty much leveled the city in World War 2 in revenge. As a consequence there are only a few original old buildings, the rest have been torn down and some have been left in a half ruined state as an immortal reminder of the ravages of conflict. The new buildings that have sprung up to replace the old are very well designed and coupled with the giant TV tower that keeps vigil over the city, Berlin has a very mixed and wild horizon.
The Reichstag (German government house) is perhaps the coolest building on the skyline, sporting a big funky metal dome atop a classical stone building. You can actually go up to the roof and climb the massive big dome for a great view of the city and icons such as the Brandenburg Gate. Another definite highlight is the Pergamon museum, which contains all the missing statues and well preserved altar pieces from Pergamon in Turkey. It was the last pieces of the Pergamon jigsaw puzzle. Germany and Turkey will probably continue to fight over the legitimate right of those pieces for quite some time too.
One can not come to Berlin of course and not be punched in the face by some of their more depressing recent history. There is a massive Jewish war victims memorial, a series of some several hundred concrete blocks all laid at random heights. You can get lost amongst them, the idea being that begin to feel a kind of loneliness and uncertainty the Jewish population once faced. It's a nicely done artistic memorial I think.
The former SS headquarters, home of the infamous Himmler, is now nothing more than an empty block of land but they are beginning to create an open air display to educate about the atrocities devised from this very spot. Nearby is the underground bunker where Hitler so bravely committed suicide rather than face the music for what he had done. Nearby is a memorial to one of the regrettable 'Nazi book burnings', a great literary tragedy.
Post WW2 things didn't end there for the Berlin folk, tensions between occupying powers naturally led to the building of the Berlin Wall straight through the city to separate east from west. The wall stood for almost 30 years, mainly because there were no Scots or Mongolians to keep ripping it down. The wall was described by it's Communistic East Berlin constructors as an "anti-fascist protection barrier" designed to keep the evils of the West out. I have a feeling the East Berliners may have had some doubts of that claim since all the defenses on the wall were pointing inwards at them. This didn't stop some incredible escape attempts however, from flying foxes to a home made hot air balloons to a submarines made out of a bath tub.
Nowadays you can't see much of the wall, there are some small sections still remaining in a few spots through the city and each strip is surrounded by an "anti-tourist protection barrier" to stop "wall-peckers" from taking it all.
To close, and to lift spirits a little, I would like to proudly point out that Berlin has possibly wrenched the title of best hot chocolate from Belgrade. I order my usual order for the kazillionth time and was presented with a deliciously rich, dark hot chocolate with intensely deep cocoa flavour and just a smidgen of sweetness, accompanied by chocolate mousse come whipped cream, two chocolate coated coffee beans, a short bread, several small jars of spices (chili, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamon) so I could spice up my chocolate and a glass of water to refresh at the end. So in essence the hot choc was exquisite, the diversity of the offering divine and the price didn't evoke sweat palpitation. The champ is here...
So with that, the journey of a hundred thousand steps contiues ...
PS. Gift means poison in German. Remember that.
