travel
to
travelling
to Berlin meant a night train from Malmo (Sweden) which meant i spent
the whole day pretty much straight travelling (Oslo-Guthenburg-Malmo)
– uneventful except for the f'd up Swedish train from Guthenburg to
Malmo where i crammed myself into a seat (i had no reservation and it
seemed everyone else did) in a 2nd class car where the
air-con wasn't working. Pure hell until i asked the conductor if it
was all right to stay in my seat without a reservation. she looked
at me strange and then said – “yes if you want to” (no one had
reserved my seat) – 'but there are still seats in 1st
class in the other “non-reservable” train”. Needless to say i
relocated to the “other train” (which was just another couple of
cars joined onto my car) into an oasis of air-conditioned, uncrowded
bliss. The intricacies of train travel! The only other person in my
car was a fellow Eurailer (farmer from Mississippi taking a month off
from the wife and kids) who it turned out was also going to Berlin
and had been staying in the same hostel as me the night previously.
The world is damn small i tell you.
Slept
through most of the train ride from Malmo to Berlin apart from a few
minutes on the ferry to Rostock to take some sunset pics (the sun
setting was a brilliant event to me – having spent so much time up
north). At about 2am we were rudely awoken by various screeching,
bumping, grinding noises as the train got off the ferry – at a
snail's pace. Then, after getting rudely awoken again at 5am (this
time by the heavy-fisted conductor), i disembarked at Berlin at about
6am.
Miraculously
most of the train station was open and i managed to navigate the
Metro and successfully arrive at Heart of Gold hostel where i was
kindly offered COFFEE and a FREE breakfast.
Touristic
tales
Once
fully awake (about lunch time) i hit the town, armed with copious
brochures. After a ride on the tourist tram line i did a 4 hour free
(tips only) guided walk with a fantastic tour company (Sandemans New
Berlin i think it was called). Was a great way to see a bit of
Berlin (we went to most of the sights) without much effort. Plus our
guide Dave gave us heaps of inside info including a history lesson
(which is pretty important in Berlin). My favourite bit was seeing
the site of Hitler's bunker – gloriously enough it is now a carpark
for an apartment building (incidently – the ex-apartments of S.S.
and Gestapo officers). Most of Berlin is like that – a seemingly
innocent building or street – just brimming with history.
I
was really impressed with the way Berlin is handling it's heavy
history. Instead of trying to hide it there are huge, bright display
panels all over the city complete with black and white photos and
information in several languages. Most of it is to do with the
Berlin wall and the background behind it (scattered all over the city
along the sites that the wall once occupied) but there is also the
Topography of Terror display all about the Nazis and the 2nd
World war. The info is hard-hitting and there were a lot of tourists
around looking solemn and sad.
When
you combine all that info with impressive monuments such as the
Denkmal fur die ermordeten Juden Europas (memorial to the murdered
jews of Europe) it is hard not to be moved.
To
top that off, the next day i decided to do Sandemans tour of
Sachsenhausen concentration camp (the closest camp to Berlin). It
was a grey day, the perfect backdrop to Sachsenhausen's desolate,
haunting landscape and to a depressingly solemn day.
Our
guide, Maria, was writing a book about Sachsenhausen so she was full
of knowledge about its history. The more she revealed the more the
horror grew until shock and disgust graced everyone's faces. I won't
go into all the details but some amazingly sick things went on – by
both the nazis and the soviets (they took over the place when East
Berlin was given to them as WWII spoils). As an example – the
Nazi's made one prisoner (who had been so starved he'd filched a
finger full of butter from the prison officers' dinner) eat butter by
the pound and then strung him up and left him to die.
The
ghosts can definitely still be felt in the place, especially in
Station Z (the execution block) and the pathology lab.
So
strong is the power of Sachsenhausen that it makes you feel guilty,
feel ashamed to be part of a human race that could be so incredibly
cruel.
I
have to say i learned a lot in Berlin. Ok, most of it was of a
depressing note but there are some incredibly inspiring stories too –
such as the story of the wall coming down in 1989. My unlearned
summary – basically it came down to a GDR speaker not pre-reading
his notes at a press conference, announcing to the world that yes the
borders would be opened...when asked when...he glances at the date on
his bit of paper and says...ugghh...today. Doh! And then the locals
started tearing down the wall. Pretty amazing to be able to stand on
the spot where it happened. There is some pretty cool art on the
remaining bits of the wall too.
On
another positive note – Berlin has a lot a really really pretty old
stuff (yep – i know my english is declining from lack of use), e.g.
the Bradenburg gate, Reichstag, and all the Museumsinsel
buildings...And, some great modern architecture – on both the East
and the West sides. It's incredible how well the city has coped with
morphing hideous Communist concrete block architecture with totally
capitalist flashy malls, skyscrapers e.t.c.
Oh
and then there's all the food places – ok, i only at ethnic food
but the Thai curry and the falafels I had were primo!
It
is a cool place – you should go!
