Hi All,
'Ich bin ein Berliner'. JFK famously said this but it turns out that the literal translation is 'I am a jelly donut' not the intended 'I am a Berliner'. Bugger. Something got lost in the translation but then politicians tend not to make much sense. So for my version it is 'Ich bin ein Doner Kebab'. You are what you eat :-)
Still in Berlin. Seem to like it but can't really put a finger on the reason.
We originally booked the hostel for only 3 days but have since added 2 and then 1 more day and probably could keep on adding days. I think that the city encourages the art of living.
Many of the places we have visited a packed full of thousands of years of history but Berlin is different. It is more a recent history and it has only been 20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall. The city does not have much of the old and grand architecture than can be found in Paris or Vienna but has many new and interesting buildings such as the sony centre.
The circus hostel dorm has been a revolving door of people. We have had a constant companionship with Lucy, a young Australian, who has been overseas for the last 3 and a half years. She is a bubbly person who has the ability to party until she only has enough emergency energy to get to bed, flop into it and fall asleep in between the start of the flop and landing on the bed. A breath of fresh air. She is from Stanwell park and happened to be taught art by Mikes mother: he and I wintered in Antarctica together in 2001. The seven degrees of separation indeed apply in this case. Then there was a strange american cyclist who was ranting conspiracy theories about swine flu and the world economic meltdown. We ignored him after a while. A couple of young American engineers who were working on wind turbines dropped in for an entertaining berlin saturday night but one of them left his stomach content on the bar, floor and the person next to him, clearing the bar, ending the evening plans prematurely. The other dropped by us at the other end of the dorm in his sleep looking for the door to get to the toilet and got sternly redirected by Vanessa from our end to he door and as he approached each bed on the way out of the dorm. No need to stray to far for entertainment.
We visited a flea market on Sunday. They sure like the old records. Anyone for some 'ELO'? Bit expensive at 15 Euro so had to give it a miss.
Plenty of great street art on the buldings and in some of the windows of buidings. I find the quality as good as Paris.
Stayed in last night and watched berlin DVDs. Vanessa and I on her bed watching one and Lucy watching another on hers. Later we swapped. First was about the monitoring of people by the secret service before the berlin wall came down and the second was about a family where the mother was a strong supporter of the communist party, had gone into a coma then the berlin wall had been pulled down, she had awoken but had a weak heart and her family pretended that nothing had changed...
Went out to the Gendarmenmarkt art gallery via the interesting architecture of the sony centre. Fabulous hans holbein picture and the usual More outstanding Rembrants. Love the clever play on light he used. Masterful.
Went for a loop around the city on the train system. Suburbia is medium density housing. Nothing really stood out for more exploring but did drop into the Ostbanhof which doubles as a large and modern shopping arcade and even houses two supermarkets. Handy for Sunday when most other supermarkets are closed.
Today we went to the reichstag, parliament house. 2hr wait to get in and it was cold. We were amused by some great buskers with a life size puppet for a while. Got pulled up by security after the bag scan. Only had two knives, a cork screw, a vegetable peeler and a can opener in the bottom. They let me through with them anyway! Good views of city from the dome on top that overlooks the parliament (keeping an eye on the politicians) but not worth the 2hr wait.
Visited the topography of terror museum. Fascinating and very
graphic information about the SS and its activities. Quite shocking
really. Have the lessons really been learnt? I seriously wonder
whether this will happen again one day with the impact of mass
immigration in Europe. Hopefully not.
Not decided on our next city so will keep on putting off the decision. Think we are travel fatigued at the moment and enjoying the rest in the same place.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
