Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Knowing it was going to be quite warm, I woke up and put the only pair of shorts I brought with me on, along with a t-shirt and flip-flops. I hopped the U-bahn and headed for the Eastside gallery on the border of the boroughs of Kreuzberg and Friedrichschain, which made up parts of east and west berlin from 1961 to 1989 while the wall was standing. The eastside gallery is a stretch of the wall that is still standing, as a monument and piece of public history. I walked through the neighborhood on the east side and noticed there is still quite a bit of graffiti and it is a bit grungier than the neighborhoods I've visited on the west side. The Spree river also separates the two boroughs and there's a unique bridge called the Oberbaumbrucke that connects the two sides. I crossed the bridge from East to west and could see the east side of the wall from the bridge. The east side of the wall is splattered with random graffiti, mostly from tourists and others who have visited the wall. I even wrote my own initials and a peace sign, a heart and a flower with the date 24-July-2012. The wall is about ten feet high, and would have been very difficult to climb without help of some sort. This area also would have been a difficult place to climb as it was highly monitored by the guards. On the west side of the wall, there are beautiful murals, some of them by amateur and professional artists. There was a mural painted by someone from Denver, CO, which caused me to pause for a bit and think about the victims of the Aurora shooting that happened just the day before. I also remembered being a child (about 14 I guess at the time) and watching the news with my parents, when the Berlin Wall came down. I remember seeing people jumping on the wall, playing music loudly, and of course, the graffiti. It was quite a sight to see in person, and I tried to imagine how it would have been to live on either side during that time.

The following day, actually I went to another Berlin Wall memorial, closer to the neighborhood I am staying in, which was a popular area for Eastsiders to attempt to cross. The wall in this area divided the east and west, straight through a neighborhood, where many families, longtime friends, lovers and neighbors were split apart by the wall. It was an area where you could see the other side from your third floor window and people would arrange to look over and wave at particular times, being careful not to be caught by the guards, as they could be imprisoned in the east for attempting to make plans to cross the wall. The memorial here was both for the survivors who successfully crossed over, or tunneled under the wall to West Berlin, and also for the many who lost their lives trying to cross in order to get to their loved ones, their families, or simply to a better life on the west side.

I am surrounded by so much history here in Berlin, and it's impossible to see it all, but I am making my way through fairly well.

After the wall, I was ready to take in some museums, and was lucky that the on-site coordinator, Evgeniya allowed me to borrow her annual pass. On Tuesday I headed back to the Altes museum, and to the Pergamon, which I was told was a must-see. Both are impressive museums with collections of ancient historical artifacts, sculptures and various pieces of history. My favorite in the Pergamom was the gate of Ishtar, and my favorite in the Altes were the ancient grecian armor masks. It was quite hot on Tuesday and was expected to be even hotter on Wednesday. I took a break on the lawn in the lust gratin again, and then grabbed some souvenirs for Mark and the boys, then grabbed another Turkish dinner (seriously, I could not find regular German food - only currywurst), and then headed back for the night.

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012:

As mentioned I visited the Berlin Wall memorial in the morning, and at 9am it was already getting quite hot. I put the shorts on again and a camisole top and resolved to buy a couple of light-weight sundresses later. After the wall memorial, I hopped the U-bahn and headed towards the Zoo gratin where I was planning to rent a bicycle. Unfortunately, when I got to the rental shop I had no ID on me, so I wasn't able to get a bike. Darnit! I'd have to walk around all day in the heat. The good news is that I could walk through my favorite park, The Tiergarten and relax in the shade whenever I liked. It was a nice walk through the park, where I grabbed a few pictures of the Victory tower (from some of the early wars with France), and made my way towards the other side of the Brandenburg gate. Along the way, I passed by the architecturally impressive parliament building, the Reichstag, which was quite a beautiful sight as well. I took a few photos and continued towards the B-gate, stopping for a bit to listen to one of the bands playing outside, and taking in a bit of the shade. Several artists and bands perform outside of these attractions in hopes of selling their CD's or making a little cash. Most of them are quite good as well. I liked this band. They sang a song called living on the border, which you'd think was about the wall and the east vs. west, but was really about a woman who couldn't decide to stay or leave her boyfriend. I took a little video of them. The next song was horrible, so I went along my way. I had wanted to see the Brandeburg gate from the other side and it was just as lovely, though not as heavily packed with tourists. Also along the way, I encountered another Soviet monument which was memorializing the thousands of Soviet soldier who died in the fight for Berlin. This monument was huge and gorgeous. The Soviets really knew how to make beautiful, large monuments memorializing themselves.

Next up was Potsdammerplatz, a modern area with tons of museums, shops, restaurants, and yes, war and wall memorials. The first memorial I visited was the Holocaust memorial (also called the memorial to the murdered Jews). It's a rather large space consisting of several blocks of concrete arranged to look like graves, I believe. I felt a heavy sense of sadness there, but also wondered why the monument seemed so impersonal. I suppose since the number of people who were killed during the holocaust was so large, it would have been difficult to have a  grave stone for each person. :(

Walking in intense heat towards the plaza I also stumbled upon another wall memorial. Apparently there are about 60 of them around Berlin in various different places. It reminds you that the wall covered a great deal of territory around and through the city of Berlin. Wanting desperately some air conditioning, I decided to walk towards the Kultureforum and check out the museums and a respite from the heat. It was a bit of a walk from where I was and as I passed by the Lego discovery center, I heard a little boy saying, "heiß" (Heiss), mama, heiß (Heiss)! I know this word from Eriden and Antares, and it means HOT! It was about 90 degrees and way too hot to be walking around. I made it to the nueu gallerie, where some modern art is housed. I am not a big fan of modern art (60's, Andy Warhol-type stuff), but I thought I'd give it a look with my free pass and enjoy the cool indoors.

When I walked inside, the first thing I saw was a sculpture of a white police man beating a black man who was on the ground. Yikes. First murdered Jews and now this? I hoped there would be some "happier" art within the walls. What I found were random creations of things with neon lights or splattered paint, and a sculpture that I am fairly sure was made with garbage. Ha. Typical modern art. The best were a neon sign that just said "A four color sentence", with each word in a different neon color, and my ultimate favorite (and reason I have a love/hate - bust mostly hate - relationship with modern art) was a white canvas square with a sign on it that says, "The content of this painting is invisible; the character and dimension of the content are to be kept permanently secret, known only to the artist". Are you kidding me? Wow. Either the Germans really do have a sense of humor, or they take their "modern art" very seriously. :)

Fortunately, there was one Picasso painting, which I am obliged to love, since after all, I am Spanish… and I did really like it. There were a couple of others I liked as well, but I prefer impressionist art... which I am not finding as much of here in Berlin, but I don't think anything can compare to my favorite museum in the world - the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. Speaking of which, I'd really like to go there again…

Back to Berlin… I'm finished with this gallery and head back outside into the heat. I must go shopping right away and grab at least one or two sundresses. Fortunately, I stumble upon a rather large underground mall on the way to the U-bahn, and I am pleased to find that several of the stores are having huge sales on summer items! After browsing a few different stores I find a great place that has several light-weight sundresses at rock-bottom prices. Perfect - I take three, and hop on the U-bahn back to my hotel to shower, throw on one of the dresses and head back out to have dinner and walk around the city.