M.A. to Europe: Berlin

I got up at 5 am to catch the Berlin-Warsaw Express, which left just after 6 am. Another nice long train trip, but this was was only a mangeable 5 hours!

Here is what makes Berlin so cool to me: I spent one winter and spring living there while I was a college student. Back then it was WEST Berlin and EAST Berlin. Sooooooooo different now! Most of you probably won't understand this post or why I put the pictures places I do here. But it carries a lot of meaning to me ... In fact, I was almost overcome, emotionally, while standing where the wall used to be, looking at the Brandenburg Gate. It used to on the other side of the wall, guarded by a brutal Communist dictatorship. It meant certain death to try to walk up to it and touch it. I was almost overcome again while I stood looking at the difference in Potsdamer Platz, a bustling intersection now, a bull-dozed over no-man's land just beyond the wall back then. Anyway, here are some of my pictures.

Arriving at the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

The handy map!

The KuDamm, the major shopping street, I lived a block from.

Believe it or not, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, enshrouded while they clean and renovate it.

Here's how it used to look, the bombed-out shell of a church left that way as a memorial after World War II.

Crazy for soccer!

My old street!

Entrance to my Pension.

The outside ... it still looks the same!

The train station down the street.

The great Berlin curry wurst, with pommes frites!

The ever-present fruit store.

The train station where we used to enter East Berlin. The rail line ended here back then and the East Berlin border guards spent about an hour with your passport before being OKed to enter the east.

And this used to be the exit from the border crossing onto the streets of East Berlin, which then had a mostly bombed-out appearance, very grey and drab, still from WWII. Now it opens up to new buildings, just a few steps from a lively shopping area.

The Russian embassy, still in the prime location in Berlin.

THE main street in old Berlin, used to be in the east, now regaining its once-prominent position. Several of the best museums in the world are just down the street.

The Brandenburg Gate, from the east. This area used to be no-man's land.

Where The Wall used to be.

My pic, standing where the wall used to be.

One comment: after all these years, I STILL could not go up to it and touch it! Back then it was a communist dictatorship that kept you away. Now it was Cocal Cola and Hyundai, who were sponsoring a "fan mile" for the soccer games. Thousands of fans were assembling in the other direction to watch the game on this big-screen TV, behind me in this picture. I'm sorry, but but it is just wrong to keep people away from such a symbol of freedom and democracy. It shouldn't make anyone compare it with the old Communist East Germany!
(By the way, shouldn't it be a "fan kilometer" in Europe? Just wonderin').