Originally I was planning to take the train on the night of Wednesday 24/5 or the morning/afternoon of Thursday 25/5 and maybe even visit one more city, but my mid-term date got shifted down by 2 days, so I had to take the night train on Friday.
1 or 2 stops before Liege-Guillemins, I opened the window and I swear the air coming in smelled of...
Coolie quarters aka Eurail 6-person couchette cabin. At least it beats the seats xxoos was in both to and from Berlin
2 American college girls in my cabin had these huge and heavy trolley bags, the size you usually check in. They had problems taking them down from the lintel till I helped them. Good luck to them on their Eurotrip.
xxoos said my hair was not very long and not very healthy. Boo hoo. Though she clarified later that the second was a false impression created by white hair.
When we went up to our room in the youth hostel, we found that it was full of girls, and only girls. I swear some of them were giving me dirty looks. I was beginning to suspect that the girl at the counter'd placed us in the girls' dorm, especially since the price list had entries for "Mixed dorm", "8-9 bed dorm" and the like. It turned out that the room wasn't a girls' dorm, though.
We decided to go for the Berlin Insider Highlights tour, but we were a bit too slow to catch the 10am one. We thus had some time to kill before the 2:30pm one. xxoos was hungry, so she suggested we go to Stadmitte ("city centre", literally) where she theorised there would be lots of food. Unfortunately, there wasn't. It was near Checkpoint Charlie though.
You are entering the American Sector
Checkpoint manned by, erm, wth.
someone was saying that everything in Berlin is very cheap. I was skeptical because she keeps complaining that everything in the UK is expensive, but even in the unfortunately named "Snackpoint Charlie" near the checkpoint, a Durum was €2,80 (the kebab man near my place sells his for €4,50 I think), and a 32cm pizza was €4,50 (a 23cm one is €6,50 at one of the joints here).
Conveniently located beside the Checkpoint was the Checkpoint Charlie museum. It was open until 10pm, but we were in the area already and I doubted I'd have energy after the 4 hour walk later (and unlike someone I can definitely finish everything I want to do in Berlin in a month, and can't spend a day in Keukenhof [2 hours was more than enough for me] or a whole day listening to waves at the Italian Riviera [An hour will likely be more than enough for me]). Pictures were forbidden but there wasn't that much to take anyway.
A quote from Bert Brecht on the pamphlets the government distributed after the June 17th uprising: "People had frivolously forfeited the confidence of the government and could win it back only by working twice at (sic) hard. Would it not be simpler for the government to get rid of the people and elect another?" Indeed - the hoi polloi are too stupid to know what's good for them, and must be shown the error of their ways.
The Checkpoint Charlie museum was very depressing to visit. It was a celebration of all the ungrateful quitters of East Germany who had ignored everything their government had done for them and abandoned their country instead of doing the Right and Noble thing and petitioning the Benevolent Party for change. Or better yet, writing a letter to the Party Rag.
These chao keng quitters refused to do their duty to their Fatherland and abandoned their country. As a result, those who were left behind had to work harder to make up for the loss in numbers and the weakening of the economy. Luckily, some were caught trying to chao keng and go AWOL. Besides abandoning their country, these selfish people also did consider the consequences for the families they left behind, which were looked down on for raising a quitter, and subjected to official
What these immature individuals did not understand was that East Germany was besieged from without by enemies and threatened from within by seditious individuals, and the lesson of history was that a strong police state apparatus was needed to keep the country strong. The only alternative to the status quo was utter and catastrophic collapse. The unenlightened did not understand the country's special circumstances and unique model of success, which would be threatened by any move to allow citizens greater liberties. In any case, citizens already received all forms of privileges from their government, which they should've been grateful to receive, instead of grumbling and demanding more.
One section of the museum observed that many East German guards were not enthusiastic in shooting at potential escapees to kill - targetting unarmed, scared, helpless, frightened, desperate chao keng traitors. By being lax in the performance of their duties, they were thus complicit in the escape attempts, and didn't display the admirable values of Loyalty to Country, Discipline, Professionalism and Ethics.
I really admire the East German leaders - they understood that history and counter-revolutionaries would not understand the sacrifices that they were making on behalf of their nation and people - if they had to shoot 200,000 East Germans to save East Germany from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.
"It is no longer just success that counts; people will have to know that there was resistance and that we did not tolerate injustice" - von Stauffenberg on the Hitler assassination attempt
The museum had a PC section with "World religions - Universal peace - Global ethic". What annoyed me was not the usual spiel about the Unity of religions and how they all preach peace, but how "Chinese religion" appeared as a "religion". As expected, that entry talked only about Confucianism, which even those who believe in Transcendental Syncretism do not consider a religion. And of course there were the usual claims that Buddhism was a religion, despite their evaluation of the Buddha as the equivalent of "a present-day psychotherapist".
Some parts of the museum had text written as if the GDR still existed. To think it's been almost 16 years!
The draping of a curtain over the Brandenburg Gate in 1963 was really ridiculous. Unfortunately I can't find a picture.
I thought communism was homophobic, but the Brezhnev-Honecker kiss looks really gay.
In the museum shop: "Do not snatch any postcards! We are a human rights organization, and we must support ourselves by our own means." Like prohibiting photography and charging for postcards, since taking photos when you've paid €7 to enter the place (student price) is not a human right. They also had what were labelled original schilds from the checkpoints - "Taking photos is not allowed" in French, German, Russian and English. I wonder if the irony was lost on them.
I wonder when they will run out of pieces of the Berlin Wall to sell to tourists.
This is the first time I've heard of "skilled cleaning personnel"?! The sink wasn't shining, so I didn't leave them anything. This sign is really cunning - even I thought at first that the €0,30 fee was compulsory.
Berlin has the most graffiti of any city I've seen.
xxoos did not understand why I kept taking notes. I did not understand why she took so many pictures - including one of me taking notes.
City Pissoir - public urinal. A free public urinal (with a sink inside). Woo! There were 2 ads on its side to defray costs.
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis-Kirche
The church got bombed to shreds during the war. They erected a museum inside the remains (the "memorial tower") and a new church in a modern building beside it.
Inside Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis-Kirche
Hole revealing some of the damage
Entrance to what remains of the place
Mosaics inside
Exterior
Closeup showing more damage
Asia Buffet
Why retrain to fry gao laak in Singapore when you can retrain to fry noodles in Berlin?