Thus far, not using a phone really hadn't presented any major problems. On this day, though, it would've been nice. Christian and I skyped for a bit and he said that he was knocking out some additional work and wouldn't be available until 2pm. He suggested that I rent a bike as that would be the best way to see Berlin quickly. I thought about going back to sleep, but I knew that if I did, I wouldn't get back up for several hours, so instead, I did more wandering (including purchasing some cool stuff) and rented this sweet ride from my hotel.
Oh yeah, that's right...Not only was this bike bright orange, but it also featured a front basket, a bell, and count 'em -- three bicycle locks -- clearly this hot rod was a prime theft target! It's best if you read the next few passages while listening to this.
I met Christian, and after he finished laughing at my bike, we were off. We started by heading down this main street in East Berlin.
As we rode down this street, we stopped at an intersection. To our right, a girl stood holding a box and wearing a crown. She was accompanied by a couple of friends. She came up to us and apparently asked us for money (she only spoke in German). She also held a homemade wheel made from a plastic plate. I looked closer and saw that there was a spinning needle affixed to the middle of the plate. I turned to Christian and he said that this was a bachelorette party, and that the girl was raising money for her wedding.
There were two options for donating money -- one was to pay one Euro and take a piece of candy from the box she was holding. The second was to pay two Euros and spin the wheel. With Christian egging me on, and figuring that this was some sort of German tradition, I gave her two Euros. She smiled and presented the plate to me. I spun the plate and the needled pointed to "MUND." Her smile grew really big, Christian laughed and said, "No way!" and she asked me if I was sure. I didn't really know what the hell was happening, but I laughed, nodded, and a few seconds later, I realized what was going on.
So, as it turns out, the two Euros option was for a kiss from her. The spinning wheel plate thingy was divided into several different sections corresponding to where she would kiss -- there was one for the hand, cheek, wrist, and MUND -- mouth. Yet again, the delicious randomness -- on a random day in April, I stood in the middle of Berlin, kissing a random, soon-to-be-married girl while a friend I met a month earlier in Sydney cheered me on. WTF??!!
As we rode off, I asked Christian if that was a common German tradition. He laughed, and said, "Hell no! I've never seen that before!" Ha!
We continued to a bridge where I was able to catch some nice pics of the city. The river in this pic is the river which divided East from West Berlin (Spree River, maybe?).
We then made our way to the Berlin Wall. Contrary to what I thought, large tracts of the wall are still intact. Famously (though, again, I didn't know this), the wall has been adorned with art. Some of the artwork was really amazing.
Around this point, Christian told me some crazy stories of growing up in East Berlin (he was a year older than me -- 35) and how schools and grocery stores were crappy and falling apart. He said that once the wall came down, almost overnight, he could see the money starting to flow into the East. He was thrilled with the idea of a unified Germany, though he said some really old, old school types, still wished East Berlin and East Germany existed.
Of course, the path to the other side of the wall was no longer blocked by guards willing to shoot and kill those trying to escape (not only would they have had to get over the wall, they'd have to swim the river, too). Instead, on the other side, a quiet park stood. Very surreal.
We then made our way to the west side -- Kreuzberg. This was the first and only "touristy" place that I experienced in Berlin. Not surprisingly, since it was on the west, it felt significantly more developed and cosmopolitan than further east. We rode around a bit, including going through a park where tons of anarchists relaxed, before we stopped at a cafe for a drink.
From there, it was off to another bar in the neighborhood. As it turned out, this bar was next to the club where I had been the previous night. Ha! The area looked quite a bit different in the daytime. hehe
By this point, our stomachs growled at us, so we headed to an amazing German food restaurant. When we arrived, there was a wait, which seemed to perplex the hostess -- it was as if she had no idea how to deal with the situation where all the tables were full (we were the first and only people on the wait list). After waiting a few minutes, we were seated and Christian convinced me to order this plate, which upon first glace looked fairly disgusting to me, but turned out to be one of the most delicious meals I ate on the trip -- vegans beware!
Next up was Checkpoint Charlie -- one of the only "legal" ways to pass through East and West Berlin during the Cold War. I found it interesting that the signs indicated when the traveler was moving from the "American" side to the other side.
We continued past Checkpoint Charlie and headed towards one of the main symbols of the reunification, the Brandenburg Gate. Along the way, I took some pics of things I found interesting.
It's hard to see in the dark, but this is the Jewish monument. It was a cool place -- in the foreground, there was a labyrinth of stone blocks. At first blush, it looked like the blocks were aligned at the same height, but upon closer inspection, the blocks are of varying height and sizes. It was crazy. Apparently, this was somewhat controversial at the time because it was designed by an American.
Here's the gate -- it was spectacular. Unfortunately, there was a lot of construction in the area. Boo.
Nearby, other cool buildings like the Parliament building stood. My phone's camera struggles a little in the dark, so some of these aren't the greatest.
And...Finally, here's the German equivalent of the White House. I gotta say, I dig the modern architecture a lot more than what is used for the White House. This place was really, really amazing to me. Umm, yes, I would like to live here, please.
We finished the tour by going to a bar for a last drink together. More about that in the next post...
No comments:
Post a Comment