Blame Canada: Mel Mel does Berlin

Mel Mel at Schloss Charlottenburg.

This post is just from my point of view. I spent a few days in Berlin alone whilst Dave visited a friend of his on the other side of the country. As this is my first time in continental Europe, I thought I would show what I have been up to.

Berlin was a bit of a revelation to me. I didn´t really know what to expect and I wans´t even sure that I would like it that much. Happily, when I arrived and found my hostel (after some minor U-Bahn and S-Bahn confusion), I was transported into a very cool world with a lot to see.

Before we make it there though, I would like to make one comment about my adventures in Salzburg. For those who know me well, you´ll understand that no trip to Salzburg would be complete without going on a Sound of Music tour. And so I did. I did not make Dave come with me though, which surely has to earn me some points in the good girlfriend book! I have attached a photo of me outside surely the most important stop - the Gazebo! This is where the song Í am Sixteen´was filmed and Liesl ran around on top of the seats. I think you can probably see from my expression that I am pretty excited to be there.

Okay, back to Berlin. I stayed in a cosy little place called ´David´s Cosy Little Backpacker Hostel´- seriously. It was perfect for my needs though as they didn´t take any groups larger than three people, and it was in a really quiet little street, as shown in my photo below. The only truly disturbing thing was that although you needed two keys to enter through the three outside doors (two into the courtyard and then one into the actual building), once you were in the hostel, you couldn´t lock your room dooor. I was a bit freaked out by this, even more so when I was awoken one morning by a hostel worker knocking on the bedroom door next to me, calling out, ´Sir. Sir! Are you in there? The police have been calling and you´re late for your appointment this morning.´ Not the most comforting of things to hear!!

None the less, nothing bad happened to me, and David himself was a really lovely guy. The location is excellent and the rooms are really comfy. I only have positive things to say (mainly!) about the hostel, so I was happy I chose that one out of the millions which are available in Berlin.

The majority of my time in Berlin was spent walking - for hours. With the sun not setting until about 10pm it is easy to become lost in the sights of Berlin. As someone who had only limited time, I found this fantastic! My feet, however, were less impressed with my excess pedestrian action and showed their displeasure via several excrutiatingly large blisters. I persevered, though, and the following piccies are of my sightseeing days.

Berlin has an amazing amount of history, which I found out about during my walking tour. One rather amusing story that was relayed to me was about the TV tower. During the time that Berlin was split in two, the powers that be on the Eastern side wanted to show that they had just as much technological prowess as the Western side. So they decided to build a television tower to show just how fantastic they were. Unfortunately for them, they didn´t know how to do it, so they had to get the Swedes in to design it for them.

The man who commissioned the tower was a Communist and also an atheist. Before the tower was built, he had spent a long time removing all the crosses from churches throughout Berlin to get rid of any religious symbolism. Sadly, when the tower was completed he realised that when the sun shone on it a giant cross was created that could not be removed. Sucked in, I say!!

I walked down Friederichstrasse, which was known as the Cabaret Mile. There were more than 120 cabaret clubs there at one stage, including the Kit Kat Club (´Life is a cabaret old chum...). Marlena Dietrich was also discovered there, performing in one of the cabarets. Cool!

I visited the Jewish Museum as well as the monument for murdered Jews. They were incredibly touching places, especially the museum. The architectural and artistic design of the museum is extremely effective in conveying a sense of loss and emptiness. The design of the museum is zigzag and in the lower section there are three axes - the Axis of the Holocaust, the Axis of Exile and the Axis of Continuity. In lots of spaces around the building there are intentional voids - large areas which have been left empty and without light or heating - to convey the missing Jewish people who were killed during World War Two.

By far the best example of the design was in the Garden of Exile. It is a large, rectangular area with enormous blocks which tower into the sky. Althoguh the space is an exact rectangle, the ground is uneven, and so in walking through it you are completely disoriented. It actually creates a feeling of physical sickness and discomfort, especially when you get out of it. The idea is that this is how exiled people feel when they are forced to leave their country and begin again somewhere foreign. This design is very similar to the memorial for murdered Jews, which is in the picture below.

I must say though, that this memorial has nowhere near the emotional and physical impact that the Garden of Exile has. Sadly for the group who commissioned the memorial, it has not been very successful. The location where they built it ended up being on top of Goebel´s bunker, which they didn´t realise until more than half way through the building process. They also realised at the end that it is a ´poorer copy´(not my words, but my sentiments) of the Garden of Exile. It is a great shame that something which is so important has ended up being such a great disappointment.

No trip to Berlin would be complete without a trip to the remainder of the Berlin Wall. I was lucky when I was there, because some areas near the Brandenburg Gate had been closed down to set up for a celebration on the weekend, and I was able to take some pictures of the line that the wall followed down the street. I didn´t know many of the stories of escape over the wall prior to going to Berlin and I did hear a good one. A man who worked in the Ministry building next to the wall as a cleaner took his wife and child up to the top and hid inside over a weekend. On the Saturday night they threw a big wire flyingfox line (or whatever!) across to friends waiting on the Western side and then slid down the line over the wall. No one found out until the Monday when they noticed the dirty big wire coming down from the building. Needless to say, security was tightened after that!

I visited Bebelplatz, which is where the Nazi´s burned 20, 000 books. There is a great memorial there, which is just a white room. On all four walls are empty bookcases, to remind us of all the books that the Nazi´s destroyed. Luckily for us, all of the books that they burned are still able to be found somewhere else today, so they didn´t accomplish their goal. There is a big plaque in front of it with a quote from someone who lived through the Spanish Inquisition which says something along the lines of ít is impossible to burn a book, as the knowledge cannot be lost´. A great sentiment. Sad, though, that humans seem to be making the same mistakes over and over again.

Just two more memories, for those of you who have persevered all the way to this point! The absolute best museum for anyone going to Berlin is the Pergamon Museum. Located on Museum Island, it contains ancient architecture which has been recovered by archaeologists and reconstructed inside the museum. When you walk in the first thing you see are the front steps of the Altar of Pergamon. It is just enormous - easily 30 metres across and taking up the entire wall. It is only about a third of the entire structure and is made of marble. Around the walls they have the bits of the reliefs that they were able to find, which depict a great battle between the gods and the giants. The gods won, for anyone who is interested. There are fantastic scenes of Zeus getting ready to throw his thunderbolts and Nike and Athena slaughtering various giants. Not all of the pieces are there, and some that are loook pretty weatherbeaten, as you can imagine. Still - it is a sight to be seen.

Other rooms contain Roman, Mesopotopian and Islamic structures and facades. I was absolutely fascinated and had I more time, I could have easily spent hours wandering through. Just the sheer size of the structures is enough to make your jaw drop.

Finally, the Reichstag. I am telling you now, Canberra has some serious catching up to do in terms of impressive parliament buildings. This thing is massive, and can be seen from several different locations in the city. It is not only the size that impresses, or the age, but the atmosphere which surrounds it. There is a feeling of solemnity which makes me feel that perhaps somewhere inside, people are making important decisions which will affect many people. It has only been in the last few years that the German parliament has returned to the Reichstag and I hope that the awe-inspiring architecture will help them to make lots of good decisions for their people.

I am going to leave you with some pictures of the other places I went. I had to buy a new camera before I left, because my old one broke in the car park at Sydney International Airport. I have been able to experiment a bit more, and the resolution is a lot better, so here are some of my better pics for your viewing enjoyment.