Berlin

Berlin, 25-27th Mar '11

Berlin, the capital and the largest city of Germany was on my list for a long time not only because of it's history but also for an Autobahn drive experience. Ulm to Berlin is around 640km and it took us just 4.5hrs by car. We travelled across five autobahns at an average speed was 140kmph. The best autobahn was the A9. It was a trilling drive as we had only dark moving clouds to race with along the scenic wide road.

As we approached the Berlin city outskirts I could see that famous straight flat 10km stretch which used to be a test track for Mclaren formula one. It was dusk on a Friday evening and as we were getting close to the city center, I had a very non-Germany feeling. Something was not right. We got off the car at Ostbahnhof and took the local train to our hotel. We then went to the downtown for dinner. Few places in Berlin looks so different from the usual big cities of Germany; Half broken buildings, Walls with graffiti, trash scattered on the ground, people with weird dressing/hair style, open shops after 8pm, differently designed traffic light symbols, cheap not so hygienic food etc. Maybe I had this feeling because, I had seen south Germany exhaustively and was trying to map Berlin with it. We roamed around a little and had the famous Berliner Curry-wurst and Doner for dinner and hit the sack.

It was early Saturday morning and I was at the Brandenburger Tor. This place is considered as the heart of German bureaucracy. It is a remarkable and historic gate. I have known this symbol of Germany for so many years, that standing in front of it did not bring much surprise. But what did surprise was the look around it. Right opposite to this gate stood the hotel where Michael Jackson ones dangled his son out of the Window. I spent some time around this place reading through history. The US and the French embassies are right around the corner and the red, blue and white hit your eyes more than the black, red and gold. The closest place where I could see the BRG flag was at the The Reichstag (German parliament). It is an old beauty with a modern large glass dome. German democracy runs out of here, and if the ministers have any doubts under whom they are working, they could look up to see pedestrians in the transparent glass dome. I give in to the Glass dome concept. Amazing thought by the architect.

I moved on to see the place where the Berlin wall once stood (only a small part of it remains). In fact, I managed to capture a photo of me stand on either side of the virtual wall. I walked pass re-living some more history in Holocaust Memorial, war memorial, the French church, place of Hilter's death (now a parking lot), former east German Parliament, the remains of the Berlin wall, and the famous Checkpoint Charlie. The Americans were/are so jingoist that they have a McDonalds right at the check-point and a Star-bucks cafe a few meters away!!!

At the end of my half day walking tour, I felt that the whole thought was to conceal the dark parts. Egs: Holocaust Memorial has no mention of whom the memorial is for; War memorial talks only of a lady who lost her husband in WWI and son in WWII. There is not a soldier's named mentioned; Hilter's bunker building is now a common parking lot. I had to read-up on the aftermaths of WWII to really understand why this was done and it then made lot of sense.

Evening set in and Berlin was a city to see at dusk. Especially Alexanderplatz, TV tower, Potsdamer Platz. I was also at the Berlin film festival Boulevard where SRK and Aamir Khan take pride to walk. I also saw SRK's name embossed on a star. I made sure to step on it as I walked passed it (I get cheap trills by making fun of SRK ;) ).

Further in the evening, I was at one of the oldest part of Berlin which is just an abandoned place now. I cannot recollect the name of the area though.. shabby old roads, and lot of party goers on the street. It is mostly referred as "Berlin underground". A few meters ahead was the street where there were lot of small restaurants which played live music. I was then told that lot of German less known trance music has it's origin from that street. We enjoyed the music a bit and then I was too tired after a long day. We soon called it a day and this day had gone into my history books.

Next morning, we were at the modern city centre, shopping and in no time it was noon and time to get back to Ulm. I was excited to start my return Autobahn experience, but not before I promised Berlin that I will be back visiting her soon...

I leave you with a T-shirt quote I read in Berlin: "Berlin ist arm, aber sexy".