Bustling Berlin

Last week I meet up with a good friend of mine from college in Berlin. He was in Germany for a conference and I was able to pop over for a couple days. We had a great time catching up and seeing a bit of the city.

Berlin is a modem European city — and it is rapidly changing. There are cranes and construction everywhere. Rick Steves jokes that if your guidebook is a couple years old it is describing a different city. Indeed the Hauptbahnhof — or main train station — had moved between my 2006 edition and his 2008 edition. Good thing that wasn’t where we agreed to meet!Perhaps it is due to all of the construction, but my first impressions of Berlin weren’t the most appealing. It doesn’t have the old world charm and charisma of a lot of European cities. It grew on me though and I found it was more attractive when lit up at night.

One of the most interesting parts of the trip was seeing Checkpoint Charlie — border crossing between East and West Berlin. The nearby museum chronicles the history of the wall and the separation of Germany and Berlin. It was amazing to see the ingenuity and dedication that people invested on trying to get out of the East. They hid in cars suitcases and surfboards. It reminded me of a documentary that I saw recently about the Gaza strip and the Palestinians struggle tunneling under the wall to reach Egypt so they can get food for their families. The risks were great, but so were the rewards.

From Checkpoint Charlie we followed the double cobble stones embedded in the ground marking the former location of the wall until we got to the east gallery where a piece of the wall remains. It is covered with artwork from around the world echoing the sentiments of freedom and peace. Along the way, we passed houses that were right on the border. It’s hard to imagine living there with only a few feet separating you from freedom and perhaps perhaps family and friends.I was a child when the wall fell. I remember it was a major event, but I didn’t appreciate its magnitude. Being there I was really able to gain a much stronger appreciation.