City that personifies Germany
Berlin to us, was touted by one and all who’ve been there, as their favourite German city and boy did this melting pot live up to its reputation!
Chapter 1: History Lesson
Berlin carries majority of the weight of Germany’s history and with most of it being as recent as 23 years ago, there still lingers in the air and on the streets – an aura of historical significance.
We kicked off our walk around the perimeter of where the Berlin Wall once as at the famous Bernauer Straße U-Bahn station which has been longstanding since 1930. The station was closed twice, once during WW2 in 1945, and the second time in 1961 when the Wall was erected and is the starting point for a self guided historical tour of the Wall. It is a marvel that this station has lived through a war and a half!
The walk around the perimeter was punctuated with interactive kiosks at various points which offered plenty of information on significant historical events that took place over the lifespan of the Wall.
On our second day there, like we do in most cities, we undertook a free walking tour of the city where our student guide chronologically detailed the events of Hitler’s rise to power and the world war that ensued. The most amusing part of the tour was when we were led to Hitler’s ‘tomb’ – a carpark in a suburban area of Berlin. Quite fitting that there was no monument to remember this crook of a man by.
Post the tour we walked past a street exhibition titled ‘Topography of Terror’, yet another chilling account of Nazi Germany’s terror rule over the 1930s and early 1940s.
Chapter 2: Couchsurfing: The worlds largest melting pot
Filipa and Lukhas a couple from Portugal and Slovakia respectively who had previously resided in Iceland and now in Berlin were our hosts during our 3 day stay. We had 2 other couchsurfers, Maya and Adnan, from Lithuania and Pakistan respectively join us for dinner on the second night. Judging by the locations cited above, you can only imagine the number of languages each of them spoke Ranging from Spanish, Portuguese to Icelandic, Czech and Slovakian, Russian to German, Hindi to Urdu and Lithuanian. We were treated to a an language exhibition, one that has strongly inspired me to learn atleast 2 languages at minimum during one year’s travel.
I also seem to have found a fellow raving mad lunatic in Maya and the two of us unleashed our zest for travel and a good laugh at the weekly couchsurfing meeting. As with all travelers you meet and decide to meet again, Maya and I have decided to meet up in Colombia to practice whatever little Spanish I would have learnt by then and travel for a couple of weeks through the country.
All in all, Berlin is the city that depicts modern Germany – a secular, melting pot of different cultures, where people do smile at your in the streets.
The Facts