Berlin
I was stationed in Holland from 1987 to 1989 and I first
visited Berlin in 1988, before the Wall came down. My impression, and
that of everyone I've talked to, was that it was a bleak and dreary place.
Everything was stark; there was no color or vibrancy and the people themselves
looked pretty gloomy for a Saturday afternoon. When we went to East Berlin, we
had to be in uniform and we were escorted by several KGB officers. They took us
on a tour of the city and I remembered they kept us away from the wall. They
focused on the parks and statues etc, going into great detail about their
historical figures. In the early afternoon, we were released from the group
tour and free to roam about on our own, each with our own personal KGB tenders,
following at a not at all discreet distance. Several of us headed to
Alexanderplatz, where we understood all the shopping to be. Prices were really
cheap in the east and everyone was looking forward to some bargain hunting. In
Germany, in the 80's, there was much more emphasis on the family and quality of
life. Shops closed just before dinner during the week, and around noon on Sat.
One Saturday a month shops stayed open all day; this was called Long Saturday.
Sadly for us, it was not Long Saturday and we had maybe 30 min to shop. I
remember myself and my friend, all but running down the aisles, just looking for
something to buy, anything would do! Many of us ended up back at the bus empty
handed, but the more professional shoppers came back dragging down comforters,
lead crystal and other big ticket items. Going back to Berlin was
very high on by list, and I was really curious to see how different it was. I
have some British friends, Deanna and Paul, who were stationed in Berlin before,
during and after the wall came down. It was really interesting talking to them
about their thoughts and experiences and I couldn't wait to see everything for
myself.
Thursday we did the Hop On Hop Off bus and riding around, we
really had no idea where the wall used to be. East and west truly
had merged. I was telling Mic about the Berlin Airlift. He seemed really
confused about why we needed planes to get the supplies in. We finally figured
out that he didn't know Berlin was deep in the part of Germany under Soviet
control. It's really interesting how different our view of history is. Of
course I learned about WW II from the US perspective. Being in the AF, I
learned even more about our role specifically. Finally, I had an up close and
personal lesson on Berlin. I clearly recall all the paperwork we had to do
before the visit because it was a communist country. It seemed like hours of
briefings and dire warnings on what not to do. One friend was so scared, she
backed out of the trip. We took the troop train through East Germany and when
we looked out the window, we could see armed military watching the train anytime
we slowed down. Being silly young girls at the time, we hung out the windows
waving and blowing them kisses. We were escorted and followed at all times
while in East Berlin. I well understood that West Berlin was basically an
island, surrounded by hostile territory. As a Danish citizen, Mic would know
none of this, because Denmark was busy making its own history. I’m certainly no
history buff, so here is a quick history lesson, thanks to an Air
Force Fact sheet. http://www.afhso.af.mil/topics/factsheets/factsheet_print.asp?fsID=17711&page=1
The victorious Allies of World War II divided Germany into
occupation zones: the American, French, and British zones in the west and a
Soviet zone in the east. Within the Soviet zone lay Berlin, formerly Hitler's
capital, also divided into four sectors, each administered by one of the wartime
allies. The Soviet Union had granted each of the three Western Allies a
20-mile-wide air corridor leading from their respective occupation zones to the
city; but no such arrangement governed travel by road or rail--that depended
upon the continuing cooperation of Soviet authorities. Scarcely
had the war ended when relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union
began to deteriorate. Eastern Europe came under Soviet domination and in June
1948 the Iron Curtain closed and the Soviets imposed a blockade on the ground
routes to Berlin.
Lacking the ground forces to punch through the blockade, the
Western Allies had no choice but to rely on airlift if their sectors in Berlin,
with a combined populace of some two million, were to survive. The U.S. Air
Forces in Europe had 102 C-47s, each with a cargo capacity of 3 tons, and 2 of
the larger C-54s that could carry 10 tons apiece. It was called it Operation
Vittles because, "We're hauling grub." The first deliveries took place on 26
June 1948, when C-47s made 32 flights into Berlin with 80 tons of cargo, mainly
powdered milk, flour, and medicine. In mid October 1948 the British airlift
merged with the US and together, until the blockage was lifted in September
1949, we delivered more than 2.3 million tons of cargo.
Anyway, back to our visit, we continued riding around the city
and got off at the Brandenburg Gate for a walk around. This Berlin icon, built
in the 18th century, was one of the only things that looked the same. We then
walked over to Checkpoint Charlie, which was the American checkpoint between the
east and west. It was a re-creation because the original was torn down with the
wall. Just across the way was an exhibit called The Wall Panorama. We went
inside this round building and the first thing we saw were hundreds of pictures
showing life when the wall was up, and as it came down. The main exhibit was a
life size, 360° projection of an average fall day. It was taken from the west
side, and if you look around, you can see a small petting zoo, people walking
around, a food truck... If you look to the east, you can see no people, the
wide death zone, barbed wire, the windows boarded up on the buildings facing the
west, and a guard tower with two guards. One is looking with binoculars and the
other is taking pictures. That is exactly what I remember. I took so many
pictures of the guard towers with the guards taking pictures of us. There were
cameras everywhere, the first generation CCTV I guess. It was a
very genuine experience, it didn't take much imagination to picture yourself
really standing on a balcony and looking east.
My friend Annette was also in Berlin for a conference so we
planned to meet up for a boat ride down the river Spree. It was a beautiful
evening and we enjoyed seeing Berlin from the water. After the boat ride, we
headed to the Fernsehturm or TV tower in Alexanderplatz before it got too dark
to see. It was easy to find, the tower is 1207 ft or 368 m tall. It's the
tallest building in Germany and the 2nd tallest in the EU, but only by .5
meter. It has a viewing platform and we were fortunate enough to be there on a
clear day and the views were fantastic! We were starving by this time and how
lucky for us, there was a Vietnamese restaurant nearby.
On Friday we continued the bus tour in the rain.
The good news is we had our choice of seats, the entire bus was empty for most
of the route. Some French people got on at one of the last stops and the older
gentleman came up front while the rest of the family sat behind him. We tried
to tell him not to sit there; every time the bus stopped, water from the canvas
top sloshed down right where he was sitting. Eventually he got what we tried to
tell him; too bad it was after he got soaked when the bus slammed on the
brakes. He was surprisingly good natured about it as we tried not to laugh. We
drove by the East Side Gallery, which is a 1.3 km long
international memorial for freedom. The gallery consists of 105 paintings by
artists from all over the world, painted in 1990 on the east side of the Berlin
Wall. It reminded me of the barricade art when I was in Iraq, were people
painted unit logos or memorials or patriotic or motivational art on all the huge
concrete barricades surrounding the buildings or compounds. Eventually the
rain stopped and we were able to walk around some more. We met Annette near our
hotel at the Bikini Building. It's really just a mall, but there are
restaurants on the top floor that overlook the zoo. It sounded like a really
cool experience, too bad we didn't make a reservation. We settled on a great
looking steakhouse nearby and we were not disappointed.
On Saturday Mic wanted to check out markets and record shops so I
booked a tour to Sachsenhausen. Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi
concentration camp from 1936 to May 1945. It was originally a work camp, with
the prisoners working at a nearby brick factory. Executions were by shooting or
hanging. The large scale murders were carried out in other camps to the east,
such as Auschwitz. In March 1943, the camp moved from a work camp to a death
camp when the commandant ordered gas chambers and ovens to be
constructed. About 30,000 people died there from exhaustion, disease,
malnutrition, pneumonia, etc. due to the poor living conditions. It wasn't
just Jews; among the prisoners, there was a "hierarchy": at the top, criminals
(rapists, murderers), then Communists (red triangles), then homosexuals (pink
triangles), Jehovah's Witnesses (purple triangles), and Jews (yellow
triangles). Most of those killed were Russian prisoners of war (about 10,000)
and 100 Dutch resistance fighters.
I decided to take a guided tour so I could learn more.
Our guide was good, but he was more of a big picture guy; explaining the
political climate of the day etc. I was more interested in the specifics
of this camp. It was a small group with some interesting people. It was good
to have someone to talk to about what we were seeing. One interesting
fact; Joseph Stalin's son was at the camp and essentially committed
suicide. There was about a 10 foot strip of land, just before the barbed wire
fence. It was called the death zone because anyone stepping into it would be
immediately shot. It was said one day Stalin just walked into this zone and was
shot.
The camp was basically some building inside a large compound. The only
building we went into were the barracks, but we also saw the ovens; such a
gruesome site. We saw the remains of a building and pictures that went along
with it. While it wasn't originally an extermination camp, many, many people
were still killed there. There were a group of 10,000 Russian soldiers for
example. They were told to enter an administrative building single file, to be
measured for new uniforms. One by one they entered a soundproof room and were
told to sit with their back against a wall. As soon as they were lined up, they
were shot in the base of the neck. They were carried out and the next would be
brought in. It was a somber day for sure, but thankfully, not as graphic as I
was prepared for. I thought the Holocaust Museum in both Washington DC and
Detroit MI were far more personal and moving.
I walked around quite a bit and was exhausted, so I headed back to
the hotel for a quick nap before dinner. At home I usually walk about 10,000
steps, (about 4.5 miles) according to my fitbit. When we travel that goes up to
15,000 to 20,000. This day I had walked 20,000 by mid afternoon and I was
starving! Annette and her friend had suggested a place called Mirchi Singapore
Restaurant for dinner so we headed out. The place was fantastic! We were
sitting at a small table for 4 and the waiters moved us to a bigger table. When
they started bringing out the food, I could see why. The four of us got
appetizers that were a full meal themselves. Add the rice and naan, plus our
meal and now we had enough to feed us and 4 more. The food was delicious too, we
stuffed as much as we could in, but there was soooo much food left. I had seen
many beggars, both at the train station near our hotel and just walking around
digging through the garbage cans. I couldn't in good conscience let all that
perfectly good food be thrown away. I had the waiter bag it all up, I was sure
we would see someone on the walk home. Can you imagine how thankful someone
would be for such great food instead of dinner dug out of the garbage can?
Wouldn't you know it, we saw no one! Even the group at the train station was
absent. I was so disappointed, but we left it by the door where we usually
saw homeless people. It was gone the next day, so I'm hoping it went to good
use. In the US you see so many people begging for money. I do a fair amount of
volunteer work because I genuinely want to help people. I won't give people on
the street money, but I have bought them food numerous times. Mic and I were
eating lunch one day, in Berlin, and a guy came by and asked for money because
he was hungry. I said no, but offered him half my lunch. He looked at me like
I just spit on him. A perfect example of why I don't hand out money.
Monday morning I wanted to do some shopping on my own. Our flight
wasn't till late that evening, so I left Mic relaxing in the hotel and I went in
search of bargains. Our hotel was in the Tiergarden area and there were several
malls and a huge shopping street. The first mall, Europa Center was
disappointing as far as shopping went, but I did find the liquid clock. One of
the things I remembered from my visit in the 80's was this clock called the
Clock of Flowing Time. It's 3 stories tall and tells time using 12 large and 30
small glass spheres. The small ones are minutes, each one takes 2 minutes to
fill with a neon green liquid. When all 30 are full, the liquid flows into the
larger sphere and the next hour begins. You tell time by how many large and
small balls are full. At 1am and 1pm they all empty out and cycle starts
again. The flow of liquid is controlled by a pendulum, which is driven by the
flow of water in the upper basin. I wandered around for another hour, but I
didn't really find anything to buy, so I met up with Mic and we went back
downtown to see the sights we missed, including a closer inspection of the East
Side Gallery. After walking around for a few hours, we were both really tired,
so we decided to go to the Tiergarden park and find a nice sunny patch of grass
to lay in and catch some sun. I've mentioned before how I miss grass and trees
because Malta is pretty dry. I could think of no better way to spend an
afternoon then in a park and apparently this was not an original idea. It
seemed like every open meadow was filled with like minded people. It is a huge
park and very pretty with manicured meadows, tree lined paths and an English
Garden. You probably want to stay away from the part with the high fence and
security cameras, Tiergarden is bordered on one side by the insane asylum. We
even saw a group of not so shy nude sunbathers. And on that note, we headed
back to the hotel to gather our bags for the trip home.
I loved Berlin! It's such a vibrant city. Great transportation, very
walkable and a never ending list of things to see and do. I'm seriously
planning on going back for a few months, maybe to study German at one of the
many language schools. My plan had always been to live in different countries,
including Germany, to really immerse myself in the different cultures. Aside
from the fact that Mic needs to stay in Malta for business reasons and I have
some really great friends here, it makes sense logistically to have one home
base and travel from there. The solution we came up with is we continue living
in Malta, but I spend a month or two somewhere else, a few months out of
the year.
I did notice some funny things in Berlin: I never saw so many people
picking their nose. I'm not talking about a quick swipe, I'm talking about a
full on mining operation and an intense examination of the treasure. I saw it
everywhere, in cafe's, on the metro, walking down the street, it was crazy. On
the metro I saw a guy stand up, reach down into his pants and pull his tighty
whities up around his armpits. The he went back for his pants and pulled
them up too. Then he adjusted his suspender straps. Not any tighter mind you,
just pulled them back up on his shoulders. When we got to the hotel, we still
had time to kill, so we ordered drinks from the bar and sat back to wait.
Suddenly I saw a commotion at the bar. From what I could gather, someone was
running hot water to wash some dishes and a pipe burst. It almost looked like a
fire, the whole bar area was engulfed in steam. Someone ran and got sheets, but
apparently they couldn't shut off the water and it was still pouring out. For
the next 30 min or so, it was all hands on deck as some put down more and more
layers of sheets from the laundry room, and others grabbed squeegees and tried
to push the water back up against the bar and the now mountain of sopping wet
sheets. I'm not sure why they didn't use much more absorbent towels, maybe
those had already been washed. Eventually, someone came over and opened the
back door. They still pushed water into the bar area for another 10 minutes
until someone decided to push the water outside. All this time, water is
still pouring out of the pipe. They finally got the water shut off just as we
were leaving. I must say, it was really hard watching the whole thing. As soon
as I saw what was happening, I thought don't use sheets, use towels. Maybe you
should open the patio door and push the water outside to the drain instead of
back in the already flooded bar. Nobody likes a bossy, know it all bystander so
I just sat back, watched the show, and bit my tongue.
Link to pictures
https://goo.gl/photos/2PmcTFQFb5ag7RXK6
https://goo.gl/photos/2PmcTFQFb5ag7RXK6
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