I went back upstairs and and wrote the story about the day before. My walking tour of the city started at 11:00 AM. I needed to leave here at about 10:00 AM. I finished writing the story at about 8:00 AM and started feeling very sleepy. I decided to have a nap for awhile.
I woke up and looked at the time. 9:30 AM. "Holy Shit", I thought, "I have half an hour to get myself organised and figure out where I had to go". Not good. I just threw everything in my daypack, double checked where I was supposed to meet the tour guides and headed downstairs. I asked the girl at reception where the nearest ATM was as I only had 15,00 Euro. There was an ATM across the street so that was Ok, but I still had no idea where to get a taxi from.
After using the ATM I decided to head towards town. The hotel is not far from the downtown area. As I got to a big intersection, I found I was at a train station. "That's right, I remember now", I thought. It's the old central station that the taxi driver had pointed out last night. I didn't realise it was that close to the hotel. It is now the 'Zoo Station'. I found a line of taxis and got in the first one. The tour was to meet at Brandenburg Gate in East Berlin. It was not too far but due to the traffic, we nearly didn't make it in time.
I arrived at the meeting point and got my ticket. One of the guides pointed to the area where my tour would be leaving from and I headed over there and took some photos and had a cigarette. The Brandenburg Gate is really nice. It is part of a big plaza type complex. Just behind the gate itself, people dress in costumes and are there for kids to take photos with for money. I guess it's a non musical form of busking. There was Mickey Mouse, Berliner Bear and the one that I liked was Darth Vader. All the people I was standing with were laughing as we watched him walk up the street.
There was about 50 people that wanted to do the tour, so we were broken up into 2 groups of around 20 odd. Our tour guide Lewis came over and introduced himself and we went around to say which country we were from. There were quite a few Americans, some Canadians, some English people and me. When I said I was Australian, I heard a few girls behind me say "Ooh Australian". After talking about the Brandenberg gate, we went to see the Reichstag.
The Reichstag is the German Parliament building. It is one of the most famous in the world for obvious reasons. It was where Hitler governed the Third Reich. I always imagined it was a lot bigger, but I guess after seeing the one in Romania, everything looks small. On the way there an elderly English gentleman started a conversation with me. I don't recall his name but we spoke quite often throughout the day.
From there we visited the Memorial For The Murdered Jews Of Europe. It's quite an interesting design. It has stone columns of different heights and the floor has different heights. This is the Jewish memorial, but there are others for Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, the disabled etc. Lewis gave us a few minutes to walk around and reflect. Some people were crying others were disinterested. I walked through it and took in the design. The interesting thing is that there is no signs or plaques or anything.
Just around the corner from the memorial is the site of Hitlers bunker. It is now a carpark for an apartment building. There is no access to the bunker so you cannot go down into it. There is no markings or plaques or any kind of memorial to Hitler. It is just known that this was the site where Hitler and Ava Braun ended their lives. It's not that Germany want to hide the past, but they do not want to celebrate a monster. Lewis told us the story of the last days of Hitlers life. I didn't take any photos as it was just a patch of gravel.
We walked around and saw some more old buildings that had historical significance, such as the former Nazi Air Force headquarters which survived the bombing and became the Headquarters of the East German communist government.
Just around the corner from the East German government building is the last remaining stretch of the Berlin wall. most of the grafitti is now gone because people have come and chiselled bits of the wall out for souveniers. It has now been fenced off so people can't touch it.
It was a crazy situation. There was a wall that ran all the way around West Berlin, which was in the middle of East Germany, however was not a part of that country. If you look up a map of East Germany you will see what I mean. In the middle of a communist country is a small little island of a free market economy. The stories that Lewis told of how life in those times was, were very good and helped paint a picture of how confusing the situation for the people was.
Not far from this area is Checkpoint Charlie. Lewis gave us a 25 minute break, so I took the opportunity to buy some souveniers. The Checkpoint Charlie that is there now is a tourist exhibit and doesn't really accurately portray the real checkpoint Charlie, but it is in the actual location.
From there we walked to Humboldt University. This University is famous for a couple of reasons. It's the university that Albert Einstein attended and the courtyard is where Nazi students burnt any literature deemed to be 'unGerman'.
After visiting Humboldt University we made our way to a place called Museum Island. It's a beautiful little area of Berlin which contains a few museums. and monuments. There is also an old church there. The buildings are spectacular. This is where the tour ended. Lewis told us the story of how the Berlin Wall was brought down by a miscommunication between the East German President and the Press Secretary. It's an interesting story.
Lewis offered to take some of us back to a nearby restaurant/bar that he and his colleagues go to and a small group of us went. While there I had 2 Augustiners and started talking to a couple from Liverpool in England. Chris and his wife were very friendly and I gave them my email address with the intention of catching up for a beer when I am in Liverpool. I also booked a ticket for the alternative city tour the next afternoon. It sounded interesting. Berlin is a really cool city.
After finishing the beers, we left and I walked around to find a taxi. I didn't walk far before I found some taxis outside a station and I went back to the hotel. I drank some more beers and then went to bed.
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