The high road...

I've taken the high road and am now happily esconsced in Glasgow in Scotland - having sadly left Germany and Ji behind....

Berlin - what a fantastically brilliant city in so many ways.

One of the things I am discovering about this blog is that, after a couple of days have passed, it's hard to remember all the things which have happened - because so much happens. It's kind've amazing how much you can pack into a day!!

Berlin was hot - in so many many ways... But temperature wise it was hot. Yah - some serious heat at last (although there was some on earlier parts of the trip I guess!!) - and this seemed to make the days, the people and the place more relaxed and langued - except my sister who didn't like the heat at all...

I did all kinds of things in Berlin - and as a suggestion for anyone who is going there - do one of the walking tours first - it'll give you a brilliant overview and insight into the city and where things are. Also, stay in Mitte - the historical part seems to mostly be in the old East Berlin.

The walking tour showed me all kinds of interesting things: where Berlin started (did you know that in Germany they pick the starting date of a city by the oldest document/reference that has been found to the city - so in Berlin it's something like 1239 - even if it's been around longer than that), one of the last beach bars, how to tell old East Berlin from West Berlin (generally the trams, the pre-fab buildings and pedestrian crossing lights (although they are now been used in West Berlin), the museum island, the monument to war (with a very powerful sculpture in it of a mother holding her dead son), Humboldt University where Marx studied, Einstein taught and 29 Noble Prize winners have come from, the prettiest square in Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie (where the guard post is not the original and a fence had to be put up to stop the woman who owns the Checkpoint Charlie museum from putting up crosses - she's been voted the most embarrassing Berliner for a few years running apparently), the SS torture prison - which I went back to, Hitler's bunker where he died (it's now marked by a sign which was totally unexpected when it went up), the Wall (there's not much left now), the Holocaust memorial (which is very very must go see), the Brandenburg Gate, the hotel where the gloved one dangled his baby, the Reichstag (the dome of which was closed for cleaning). Woven into the tour was a stunningly informative commentary - so very worth it.

One of the things that struck me about Berlin is that it's really easy to forget that not only is there the whole history of East/West Berlin but there was the Nazis before hand.

What else do I do in Berlin? Well, visited the gay museum (which was ok'ish - mostly gay history about Berlin, although it did have Maplethorpes's photo of William Burroughs standing in a William Tell pose (which is how Burroughs, out of it on LSD, had previously tried with his wife - unfortunately, he missed the apple). Had currywurst - I came, I currywursted, I left. More food. The DDR museum (on the history of East Berlin) - interesting but didn't really play up how the DDR was the most perfect police state to date, it did mention how things weren't available, but how there was employment, everyone had what they needed (do you really need a plasma screen?). It didn't, however, explore the psychology of what it must have been like to have been in East Berlin seeing the west and freedom but not being able to get there.

Which reminds me of the holocaust memorial - it is amazing - huge blocks on uneven ground that you walk through and it gives a sense of disorientation. But, controversial as it's only to the jews - what about the gays, the gypsies, the others murdered? So Berlin has agreed to two more memorials - one for the gays and the other for the gypsies. This has got Berliners asking - when is enough enough? The other controversy is that the anti-graffiti coating on the blocks is made by some company that has some connection to IG Farben - which made zyklon b which was the gas used to gas the victims of the holocaust. I also thought it ironic that the memorial is diagonally across the road from Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide.

Anyway, the history of East/West Berlin is fascinating - you've got to wonder at the psyche of people who have to wall in people so that they can't leave. You've also got to wonder about the wall in Berlin - and how that's what the jews are doing in Israel to the Palestinians. Yet the jews don't seem to get that they are creating a ghetto - which is what they were put in 60 years ago...

There was more food in Berlin, the Altes Museum seeing things which were thousands of years old (Greek and Roman), Nephretiti (or however that's spelt), amazing old papyrus, chocolate, cakes, meandering, wandering, looking, checking out, caiprihinias (which are great when it's hot - addicted to the brown sugar I think) and then it was leaving....

So on Friday it was a last wander around and then out to Berlin Tegel airport to catch the plane to Stansted and then to Glasgow. Sweet. Checked in sweet. Had a last chat to Ji. Sweet. Said goodbye to Ji. Sad. Passed through security. Searched. Again. But sweet. Then waited. And waited. And waited. And waited for Air Berlin to fly the spare part needed from Munich to Berlin to fix the plane. And waited. And three hours late left Berlin. Arrived in London. Told that we were booked on Easy Jet the next day and had a hotel for the night. Opps. Didn't they tell us in Berlin? Opps. No trains or other planes, Heathrow had been shut, the weather had been abysmal earlier in the day. No real problems for us (it was the Hilton) but meant I couldn't see Helen and Mark, and meet Nicole, until the next day (today) and for the people travelling to weddings in Glasgow it was a major bummer. The weather though in the UK has been abysmal and the mechanical fault in Berlin was just life...

So a hotel for the night where I got reminded how expensive things are in pounds. Sure, 7 dollars for a glass of wine in a restaurant in NZ is cheap - 7 pounds though convered to about $20 dollars is like ouch. Or 3 pounds for a cup of coffee (about $9NZ) in the restaurant.. Double ouch.

So be it though.

This morning is was EasyJet to Glagow - interesting, most cramped seats ever, a scramble to get on the plane (no allocated seating) - but we got here safely. To be met by Mark. Who told us how two weeks ago there was a terrorist attack at Glasgow airport! Go figure.

And finally I got to see my friend Helen and meet her beautiful daugher Nicole! Yah!

I've just been called for food - so better go!!

Yah!

ps. Just a thought - the pedestrian lights here in Glasgow have a seconds countdown so you know how long before they turn green and you can cross the road. Most excellent... :)