DEUTSCHLAND, FINALLY
Berlin’s always intrigued me. There’s a lot of recent history there, but I don’t know much about Germany pre-WW1. Before I departed the US of A, several people told me I’d like the city and it was “my speed,” so I took a train to the land of my forefathers. Well, some of them.
The immediate reason I went to Berlin was for work. I booked a couple of meetings for Monday the 22nd and decided to spend the weekend before exploring the city. I was joined by my hippie, Canadian friend and we decided to stay at a hostel to meet people.
We saw all the sites in one morning. Checkpoint Charlie, Topography of Terror museum, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Parliament building, Brandenburg Gate (that was gnarly), St. Mary’s Church, and — my favorite — the ruin of the Franciscan Abbey. We were Berlin’s number one tourists.
This church sustained heavy damage from Allied bombs in 1945. It’s been left in its ruined state, and exists now as an open-air exhibition space.
As luck would have it, my one German friend (met him when I lived in Bangkok) was in Berlin for the weekend! So he and his friend who lived in the city showed us around the Berlin party scene. And oh my goodness is it a party. People say the clubs open Friday night and do not close until Monday morning, but that is not something you understand until you experience it.
Friday night we went to this warehouse district that had been renovated with bars and clubs (one of them had a rock climbing wall). It includes Urban Spree amongst others. Most importantly there was an old phone booth, made into a mini disco. You pick the song, enter, and you can use a fog machine, lights, get your photo taken. Why are these not everywhere. WHY?! We could have spent the whole weekend in this one area, but Saturday we went to a Berlin club, something I’d been looking forward to.
They make you cover both the cameras on your phone with stickers before you enter so you can’t take pics, and we were told they don’t love letting tourists in because they want to keep it cool. That message manifested itself in what was apparently a look of terror on my face. The bouncer made fun of me. Story of my life.
Sysiphos was like a music festival in a club. There was a pond, a beach, a tree house, hammocks galore, a cafe, and multiple dance floors. Everything you would need to camp there for the weekend. When we emerged from what I call the dance dungeon, the sun had come out, and it looked like people were ready to stay there and turn it around — begin a new day right there in the club. Insanity.
Additionally, Berlin has some incredible street art. In addition to the Eastside Gallery which is a section of the Berlin Wall preserved and painted over with murals, there is an excellent app that allows you to make your own street art walking tour: Street Art Berlin. It tells you the location of well known art works, the artist, and the context of the piece.
Part of one of the Eastside Gallery murals.[/caption]
I’ll leave you with one final thought — the US should probably stop making WW2 movies. After we got off the train and were trying to make our way to the hostel, we got on a bus and it was jarring to hear German out loud. Scary almost. Why? I’ve only heard German in movies or TV shows where it’s spoken aggressively, by the enemy. So when I heard German I associated it with someone to be weary of. That’s fucked up.
Berlin isn’t hiding its past. Everything, from the Topography of Terror Museum to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, is out in the open, in the middle of the city. These are our scars, these are what they look like, and we’re not hiding them was the message I got. Berlin is handling its past much better than the US is, anyway.
Berlin wall preserved at the Topography of Terror museum.
