Watchin’ every motion in my foolish lover’s game
On this endless ocean, finally lovers know no shame
Ahem. Sorry. Distracted again.
Berlin, Germany.
Our tour of Berlin started at Warnemunde before joining a modern train for a 3 hour ride inland to Berlin where we were given the authentic prisoner experience by being fed on bread and water. Just kidding. There was no bread.
Once off the train it was on to a bus to tour the city, with the first stop being a remaining section of the Berlin Wall.
At first glance from the height of the bus, the Wall doesn’t look so imposing, but once you are at ground level and listening to the background describing it’s hasty construction and the impact it had on people in Berlin it boggles the mind as to how and why it came about in the first place.
The concept that the Berlin Wall was literally built overnight and split the city in a heartbeat is incredible and disturbing. Can any of us imagine what it would be like if our cities were barricaded when we woke up tomorrow morning and family or friends who lived on the other side of the city were suddenly on the other side of the wall, a river and armed guards etc?
Another stop at Checkpoint Charlie further reinforced what a crazy world it must have been to live in Berlin 50 years ago. The city being divided into quarters with checkpoints and soldiers everywhere and people wanting to be smuggled out of the city, but risking heavy penalties to do so, as were the people who set up organisations to assist escapes through converted cars and tunnels. And to think we just have to worry about whether the nightclub district is safe at night.
The next stop was the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial and again it was hard to comprehend how any of those infamous events could have started in the first place. At which point does a nation decide it is acceptable to start killing their own countrymen in great number? And how do they rationalise it away to believe that it is for the good of the nation? The tour of the Jewish museum brought more questions than answers, but one particularly confronting experience was going into the ‘Holocaust Tower’ which we walked into and unexpectedly found ourselves in a small dark room with only a shaft of light at the far end of the room high up on the wall, and a ladder which was too high to reach which was next to a single light bulb which wasn’t lit. It was an effective way to convey a feeling of being herded into a near helpless situation with only a glimmer of hope wherever you turned.
It was a couple of interesting and thought provoking stops, but we were glad to end with a drive through the centre of Berlin, because the architecture is very impressive.
Next stop: Estonia.
*dingalingalingalingaling*
sherpaderpas 