To be honest, Berlin as a city is often just ugly, smelly, dirty and with creepy people. A lot of them. Half of the houses in Berlin, especially out of the city center, is abandoned and loosing it's match with nature. But when I got used to all of these, I even started to like it because it creates very specific atmosphere. You feel that anything you do is still part of norm and it feels kind of free and safe, a bit hippie. I think this city had really painful history and life developed amazing diversity in ideologies, styles, expressing and just being in order to survive with mental health.
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| One of many abandoned factories in Berlin. Still beautiful. |
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| Mauer Park. One of the places you don't know if it's dreadful or nice. And with looots of creepy people. |
I have been to Berlin before and always I think a lot about the past times. Being in the city center is not possible without noticing the line on the ground marking position of the Berliner wall, the Jewish Memorial with very powerful atmosphere or Checkpoint Charlie. In a way it is strange to me. I am from postcomunist country and these places are very powerful to see. And it feels a bit more alive when you are biking along the East-Side Gallery, the longest remaining piece of the Berliner Wall where artists send their messages to the world and young kids are spraying there ugly tags because it is badass. Walls separating people. So Belfast and also so not Belfast.
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| Checkpoint Charlie, welcome to the West |
It surprised me, how the Berliner Wall is low. You couldn't climb on it, probably even not with help. But in comparison with the Belfast walls it is just a tiny piece of fence. In Belfast the problem was preventing people from killing each other. I heard the Belfast walls were more act of protecting the communities than separating the people. In Berlin it was enough to prevent people from climbing over. It was the higher power which decided the people shouldn't talk to each other even though they would love to. When I see both those places, it just comes to my mind, what a stupid and frustrating idea it is to build walls between people and sadness takes place in my heart :(.
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| The wall in Belfast |
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| The Wall in Berlin. See the TV tower from Alexander Platz? |
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| TV tower in Alexander Platz with cathedral at Museum island |
Berlin is not only about nazi stuff and the Wall. There are other amazing historical buildings too. The building of Reichstag is beautiful and majestic.You can even make a reservation and visit the building for free, take a lift up to the roof and make a tour with an audio guide which will tell you about history of the building and point at the most important things you can see around. It is a very good way how to start a stay in Berlin because it gives basic overview of main sites in the city center. That's why I've been there the last day of my stay :-P. And if you want to go around more, the Museum Island or just getting lost in the connected courts inside houses and all the little alleys are a great place to spend time too. The problem is that after 3 weeks I have too many things to write about that it is hard to talk about all of them. But if you want some advice where to go, write me ;).
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| Reichstag awaiting |
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| Potsdamer Platz with crazy buildings |
To sum up my stay, I think in a way I fell in love with Berlin. It is really amazing city with so much diversity and it will be great pleasure to come back again sometimes. As I am now experiencing more other countries and cities than Czech on long term bases, it is great to really feel how every place has something interesting and beautiful to offer and still it remains totally different from other places in the world.
Motto of the day: Anywhere abroad you will go, it wasn't a bad choice.
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