Berlin was one of those places we decided to visit which wouldnt typically be on many Eurotrippers list. But we have wanted to see it and experience it - all the history, the industrialization and all.
When we got there it became quite obvious that the city was not as tourist friendly as the others had been on our trip so far. But by no means was it bad...We were quite surprised at the fact that most people spoke and understood no English. We had assumed otherwise.
But on the positive note, there were many many street shops filled with heart shaped chocolate cookies hanging all around:-)! That sort of made up a little for the rest of it.
We spent 3 days in Berlin and were situated in the heart of the city. The first day was a saturday and we had made up our minds to somehow make it till 10pm and go to one of the clubs nearby to soak up some local music. Clubs here reamin open until 7am! We were half expecting scary germans letting loose on the dance flloor to Electronic music. It was cold as hell that evening. We had dinner and it was only 7.30pm and we had to kill time, so we ordered dessert. Done by 8. So we ignored our dinner bill for a while and refused to make eye contact with our waitress. After getting many stares, we decided we couldnt prolong this anymore and sulkingly paid our bill and trudged out into the cold. Then we proceeded to walk the streets aimlessly to kill time until 10 pm. We witnessed a car accident and I had one of my hiccup fits. A pretend coughing fit by Hari was needed to cover up Mayas hiccuping noises as passersby sneared and jumped when they heard it and of course Hari's pretend coughing turned by some weird stroke of fate into a real hiccup fit which could not be covered up!
Finally exhausted and sleepy, we made it to the club to find out that there was a out of tune band playing there that night and they had come all the way form..............The USA!!
So much for trying to soak up local music. Anyway, we quickly made it to the dance floor so as not to waste any more time and danced the night away:-)
The next couple of days were filled with visits to various places of historic interest including the place where the berlin wall used to be and the checkposts of the US control part of west Berlin, etc. All the history and geography that I had adamantly refused to study from textbooks back when I was in India was being showered on me in a crash course in 3 days. We also visited the Head quarters of Gestapo (Hitlers secret service) and witnessed via pictures and documentaries the atrocities and medical experiments on the jews and gypsies and prisoners of war. This was slightly hard to take in but very enlightening all the same.
On a ligther note, we enjoyed the tons of Christmas street markets all around Berlin. We also took in some very funky architecture in Berlin. After visiting some of the local bookstores, we quickly learnt that Berlin is very well known for unique architectures and in sme cases a lovely melding of the old and new styles. I have yet to find out if Berlin is famous for any large architecture schools. With the amount of emphasis on it I would imagine ther would be.
Berliners were not very friendly to us. We tried to ignore rude stares and looks the first day but when it continued through our entire stay in Berlin, we were compelled to take it somewhat personally. After checking and doublechecking that our clothes were in order, our fly zipped up, etc, we finally decided it had to be our skin colour that was causing the stares and rude behaviour. It is such a pity! I had just not expected it especially with all the historic baggage that this city carried.
All in all, Berlin left me with mixed feelings. I dont regret coming here but I left with the disticnt feeling that Berlin was trying very hard to look like it had more about itself than the terrible history it carries. But the truth is that it will pronbably take years for Berlin to form an identity of its own.
With anticipation and excitement, we board our train to Munich. I hear people are friendlier there...
-Maya
No comments:
Post a Comment