Berlin

On the left, me and my travel companions (ie two of the coolest girls ever, Alizeh and Krissy). On the right is Alizeh riding one of the countless Berline bears. The bear is a symbol of berlin. Also, it's the guardian of the west. Just a side note.

Berlin both met and defied my expectations. I left Prague Friday morning with Krissy and Alizeh, slept on the train, and wandered around the train station before finding my friend Nick, with whom we would be staying. It was a gorgeous day-clear and sunny, no smog tent. Berlin is a very colorful city so the sunlight helped to highlight all the interesting architecture and the bright bright paint covering all the buildings. The colors looked the way the Edwar Scissorhands neighborhood would have looked if you turned the brightness up on the tv screen. Nick is on the NYU in Berlin program which just started this year. The dorm is located at the edge of East Berlin. The site of the wall was about 40 feet from his door. You can still see the site of the wall, it's all land being dug up and roped off. If you look closely you can see that the streetlamps are different on either side. The NYU dorm is old communist housing. I was actually surprised to see that the vestiges of communism had been largely erased. Sparkling new facades covered buildings which should have looked grim and gray. It looked a little like a yuppie's paradise which was quite disconcerting but would make for good shopping, I guess. Nick lives in the Turkish neighborhood and we thoroughly enjoyed the food.
Krissy, Alizeh and I decided to do our tourism in one go and do a four hour walking tour of historical sites in Berlin. Here are the highlights:

























On the right is a picture of Krissy and me at Brandenburg gate.
On the left is the Air Ministry which escaped bombing during WW2. During communist rule this building became the Ministry of Ministries. You can see a mural under the portico. It is a depiction of what life under communism is like- a piece of propaganda filled with smiling workers all clad in blue and white-the colors of communism in Berlin.





























On the right is a close up of the top of Brandenberg gate.
On the left is me in babelplatz, in front of the opera house. The opera house was rebuilt twice because it was apparently a favorite mark for bombs. On the square is the library of Humboldt University which prides itself on producing genius. The founder of the university is responsible for the "publish or perish" practice for university professors. The idea is that professors should never stop being students, they should continue to learn and bring new ideas to the classroom.















Both of these depict the Reichstag.


























On the left is the Berlin wall. It looks kind of puny but there were actually two walls, an outer and an inner wall. This wall is only about 10 feet high and is now protected by a wire fence.
On the right is a sign from checkpoint charlie, one of the most famous crossing points from east to west berlin. Our tour guide, Brian, whom you can see in the air ministry photo, told us a funny story about east berlin escapes. There was some dude who was studying in Berlin and his girlfriend was from East Berlin. He was getting ready to leave and wanted to take his girl along. So he went into West Berlin, rents a tiny tiny two door car, goes back to East Berlin, grabs his girl and says "Let's go." She replied "Ok, let's. But I can't leave my mom behind." So they put mom in the trunk, get in the car, drive up to the checkpoint. The checkpoint had thos moving arms that you see in parking garages worldwide. So the arm goes down, the guards start to walk over to check the paperwork, the guy slinks down in his seat and guns it- the car fits under the arm and they make it to freedom. This story caused a huge sensation and was printed all over. So of course there's another guy with a gf in east berlin. He leaves, goes to West Berlin, rents the exact same car- not even just the same make and model, the same actual car- goes back to east berlin, waves at the guards, grabs his girl, drives up to the checkpoint, guard starts coming over, he GUNS it and they make it to freedom. After that spikes were added to the parking arms. Ha.






















On the left is an art museum on museum island. The architect is Schoenkel (I think that's spelled correctly) who designed pretty much every architecturally significant building in Berlin. In front is the world's largest stone bowl which is outside the museum because the columns were erected before the bowl was finished so it wouldn't fit through the door. Moral of the story: always take measurements before you begin to furnish.
On the left is the giant TV tower in Alexander Platz. It is a great landmark since it can be seen pretty much anywhere in the city. In this picture we are really quite far from Alexander Platz. The TV towers in these european cities always seem to be big landmarks and tourist sites. I remember marking myself by the defunct tv tower in London, and in Prague, certainly, the tv tower is something to see. A Czech sculptor covered the tower in giant purple babies.This is the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. It was designed by Peter Eisenman, a New York artist. His design was selected from several others in a design competition. The memorial is modeled after the Jewish cemetery in...PRAGUE where over 100, 000 jews are buried. The plot of land is wavy and the cement slabs vary in height. In fact no two slabs share the same plane in the whole memorial. They increase in height, from sharing a plane with the ground and then rising to 15 feet high, from the edge to the center of the memorial. This memorial, as you might guess, carries with it lots of controversy. The artist wanted the memorial to be in this spot because it is one of the most highly trafficked areas in Berlin. He wanted to make sure no one would miss it. Here is another interesting part of the controversy which tour guide Brian shared with us: The slabs were treated with a special chemical to repel graffiti. In the process of treating the slabs, I think they were about 1/3 of the way through, the company supplying the chemical realized something. They were supplying a chemical to protect the memorial to the murdered jews of europe. Guess what other kind of chemical they supplied to the germans. That's right- zyklon B, the poison gas used to murder jews in concentration camp gas chambers. So of course they switched companies, but there are still stones treated by the original company left in the memorial. I think that it can be seen in a positive or negative light, depends on how you look at it. For reference, here is a picture of the cemetery in Prague:
Turns out that while we were in Berlin the celebration for Fat Tuesday/ Shrove Tuesday/ Mardis Gras/ Whatever-you-choose-to-call-it had already started. Everyone dresses up in crazy costumes and partakes of the parade. Instead of throwing beads, like they do in New Orleans, Berliners throw candy and hand out beer. Kids and adults alike can be seen with their umbrellas upside down catching candy along Unter der Linden, on of the main streets in town. Here are some pictures:






















The nightlife in Berlin is famous and definitely exceeded expectations. Especially the gian 4 story warehouse called "Panarama." Very German. All in all Berlin was a beautiful city, full of designers and architects, young people, snappy dressers, crazy hairstyles. Berliners love to recycle and care for their environment. They smoke more than the czechs. BUT I did get the distinct impression that the city had been whitewashed. I wish they'd let the grit show through a little.