It is nearly two decades later, but it is still touching.
23 February, 2008
Potsdamer Platz
Last weekend I acted the part of a real tourist and took a walk through Tiergarten on my way to Potsdamer Platz.
I would like to buy a bicycle, so I can ride my bicycle, (bicycle, Biicycle). It would make travel a little faster but for now I walk and pretend like it keeps me healthy.
It was a colder day than it had been in a long time but still above freezing at about 2 degrees Celsius. I am getting used to measuring the temperature in Celcius and actually getting good at the conversion thanks to my handy-dandy-Mac-unit-converter. So at a balmy 35.6F, Steffi and I made a day of it.
The park is right near my apartment and a pleasant place to stroll. We saw first the Schloss Bellevue where the German President lives (the president is more of a figure head there – the chancellor, Angela Merkel, who is more like the prime minister is the one, and she is responsible for governmental policies).
It was a much shorter walk than we thought it would be and we arrived by the Berliner Philharmonie after only 25 minutes. A strange façade of bright yellow, the buildings are home to some of the worlds greatest orchestral ensembles and soloists. I did not see a show. I am waiting for visitors to do that with.
Walking onwards, we arrived at the giant shopping mall. OK, it’s a little more than that, however, it had a lot of English speaking tourists and really felt like Time Square for a moment. Except for the giant Lego Giraffe that made me think more of Downtown Disney. In the giant shopping mall, which was in fact out destination, we headed for the gelato place. A small sit down café that served coffee, crepes, and gelato. I don’t need much more to be happy, but they provided it, in the form of the most delicious pistachio ice cream I have ever eaten in my entire life. Topped with strawberries and served on a warm crepe, it was as close to heaven that I’ll ever be ☺
I point out here again the striking contrasts that persist in Berlin. Once leaving gelato joy, we walked outside and visited the Holocaust-Mahnmal (Holocaust Memorial) which is a field of stone blocks on uneven ground that mimics waves disturbed and in motion.
Next we followed the Berliner Mauer marking, i.e. the former path of the Berlin Wall. There are four panels remaining in the Potsdamer Platz, near where the wall first came down. A young man, dressed in checkpoint-uniform, would stamp your passport with the old stamps as though crossing to and from the west and the east from or to the British or American sector. All in all something like 10 stamps were branded in the passport of a couple bright-eyed Japanese tourists as I listened to their make-believe journey through a divided Berlin. It was pretty unreal and hard to imagine – it was of course life at one time.
The Berliner Mauer stood directly in front of Brandenburger Tor the former city gate into Berlin. This picture is of the restored gate viewed from the East. You can’t see her too well, but Else is peaking up in the background over my head from where she stands in Tiergarten. During the Cold War, this view would be impossible, and the gate would be backed by the Mauer. It was at this spot that the wall first came down.
We then headed back towards my place stopping off at some additional government houses. There we saw the Kanzleramt, the building where Chanellor Merkel (is supposed) to live – kinda like the White House, and like Bush she spends more time elsewhere. She’s a bit different though and actually remains in Berlin where she governs instead of on a ranch in Texas. I offer peace and ask you to forgive the American stigmatism of selfish greedy pigs that precedes me. We are not all like the citizens you hear about most.
That ended the day and we shuffled on back home. It was a good day. Only 999,999 other things to do before I head back to the States.
Check the post above for a link to one of my favorite songs and one that I hear often in Berlin. Scorpions, "Wind of Change" -- it's starts and finishes at the Potsdamer Platz. It is nearly two decades later, but it is still touching.
I would like to buy a bicycle, so I can ride my bicycle, (bicycle, Biicycle). It would make travel a little faster but for now I walk and pretend like it keeps me healthy.
It was a colder day than it had been in a long time but still above freezing at about 2 degrees Celsius. I am getting used to measuring the temperature in Celcius and actually getting good at the conversion thanks to my handy-dandy-Mac-unit-converter. So at a balmy 35.6F, Steffi and I made a day of it.
The park is right near my apartment and a pleasant place to stroll. We saw first the Schloss Bellevue where the German President lives (the president is more of a figure head there – the chancellor, Angela Merkel, who is more like the prime minister is the one, and she is responsible for governmental policies). It was a much shorter walk than we thought it would be and we arrived by the Berliner Philharmonie after only 25 minutes. A strange façade of bright yellow, the buildings are home to some of the worlds greatest orchestral ensembles and soloists. I did not see a show. I am waiting for visitors to do that with.
Walking onwards, we arrived at the giant shopping mall. OK, it’s a little more than that, however, it had a lot of English speaking tourists and really felt like Time Square for a moment. Except for the giant Lego Giraffe that made me think more of Downtown Disney. In the giant shopping mall, which was in fact out destination, we headed for the gelato place. A small sit down café that served coffee, crepes, and gelato. I don’t need much more to be happy, but they provided it, in the form of the most delicious pistachio ice cream I have ever eaten in my entire life. Topped with strawberries and served on a warm crepe, it was as close to heaven that I’ll ever be ☺ 
I point out here again the striking contrasts that persist in Berlin. Once leaving gelato joy, we walked outside and visited the Holocaust-Mahnmal (Holocaust Memorial) which is a field of stone blocks on uneven ground that mimics waves disturbed and in motion.
Next we followed the Berliner Mauer marking, i.e. the former path of the Berlin Wall. There are four panels remaining in the Potsdamer Platz, near where the wall first came down. A young man, dressed in checkpoint-uniform, would stamp your passport with the old stamps as though crossing to and from the west and the east from or to the British or American sector. All in all something like 10 stamps were branded in the passport of a couple bright-eyed Japanese tourists as I listened to their make-believe journey through a divided Berlin. It was pretty unreal and hard to imagine – it was of course life at one time.
The Berliner Mauer stood directly in front of Brandenburger Tor the former city gate into Berlin. This picture is of the restored gate viewed from the East. You can’t see her too well, but Else is peaking up in the background over my head from where she stands in Tiergarten. During the Cold War, this view would be impossible, and the gate would be backed by the Mauer. It was at this spot that the wall first came down.
We then headed back towards my place stopping off at some additional government houses. There we saw the Kanzleramt, the building where Chanellor Merkel (is supposed) to live – kinda like the White House, and like Bush she spends more time elsewhere. She’s a bit different though and actually remains in Berlin where she governs instead of on a ranch in Texas. I offer peace and ask you to forgive the American stigmatism of selfish greedy pigs that precedes me. We are not all like the citizens you hear about most.
That ended the day and we shuffled on back home. It was a good day. Only 999,999 other things to do before I head back to the States.
Check the post above for a link to one of my favorite songs and one that I hear often in Berlin. Scorpions, "Wind of Change" -- it's starts and finishes at the Potsdamer Platz. It is nearly two decades later, but it is still touching.
09 February, 2008
Over Three Weeks In
Here’s the long and short of my life. I moved to Germany this January and I am in Berlin for pretty much the whole year. I have a nice office at the Museum für Naturkunde, access to a ton of fishes that were prepared before there were animal rights, and a super cheap, super nice apartment to live in when I am not in the office. Bummer is that I don’t get to share it with everybody the way I would like to, but I make due and took some pictures. They are already up on facebook and myspace.
This afternoon I will go to a neighborhood called Kreuzburg where I will vote early in the democratic primary (I still do not know for whom) and then will be like a tourist and hang around that neighborhood with my new friends Steffi and Florian. Steffi is my age, almost done with her PhD and was dying for somebody to arrive her age almost finished with her PhD… we were fast friends which is really nice and makes the whole, “Hey, you’ve just moved across the 2nd biggest pond on the planet, to a country where they don’t always speak your native language and none of your friends or family are ever likely to step foot on.,” a lot easier. Florian helps me a lot with my German and in return I help him with his English when he asks -- great to sit next to him. It’s been over three weeks already and I understand a lot more german than I did when I got here, I have more confidence when I try to speak german, but it still doesn’t make it any easier with the communication is not affective… Allow me to tell you a short story about my near breakdown yesterday…
Picture it, 6:25pm on a Friday night… about the time that MOST stores in my neighborhood shut down for the evening. I was sick all day and really tired. I decided to go to the bank and make a deposit so I could pay my bills here… Problem was, I had no English option on the ATM machine and could not remember the word for DEPOSIT. So, I decided I would go to the teller man and ask him, “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” He said a resounding, “NEIN!” and I did my best German to ask “Wie sagt man Deposit?” How does one say, Deposit? And I even did a little sign language to indicate money goes in… That did not work. So I said, “Wo sind die Tickets?” And made sign language for deposit slip… he pointed me to a table. I went to the table and thought, maybe I could look at the deposit slip, and figure out the word for DEPOSIT… NEIN! But then a young guy from the bank came over and said, “Kann ich Ihnen helfen?” JA! DANKE!!! And I started talking to him in English… “I just need the word for deposit, I can do it on the machine in there, I’m sorry I am not speaking german, I’m so tired.” Well, the word is einzahlen. Good to know. I made my deposit, walked outside, and almost started crying right there on the sidewalk. GRUMBLE…
So I walked to a grocery store, bought Sauerkraut und Gourmet Kateschinkenwürfel (no they don’t sell cat waffles here – it’s one of the many variations on pork that exist in Germany)… I went home and made dinner with the two and tried to relax. I still felt ill (krank) but I felt better. Most things have been really straightforward though. Setting up the bank account was no problem, finding a great apartment was no problem, cell phone – well that was a problem and still is… just not gonna happen. The landline will get hooked up on 20. Feb and you can call me at that number then…
OK, back to Berlin. I really REALLY like the city. I know that I only spent two hours in SF so I cannot compare it really, but Berlin is awesome. It is my Philadelphia+ and I like it better than New York because the buildings are not as tall so there is more sunshine. IT’s really bizarre. I work in the former East Berlin and I live in the former West Berlin. It is a 25 minute walk each day and it is a pretty clear mark between the two halves still. Mostly because the building that I work in still has bullet holes all over it. It is dirty and dark and fascinating.
They started reconstructing the ruined wing that goes between the museum collections and the building I work in. That is, they starting that two weeks ago, yes that is 60 years after it was blown up in the first place.
The neighborhood I live in on the other hand is fairly posh… I live across the street from a discrete plastic surgeon and a discrete dentist, a shoemaker is down a little further as is an interior design firm, also, some type of biomedical research lab is right next door. I see them each morning with pipettes and other scary equipment through the window. The trainstation is really close and i am walking distance to the equivalent of Central Park called Tiergarten. I enjoy the contrast. Makes me really appreciate what I have.
This afternoon I will go to a neighborhood called Kreuzburg where I will vote early in the democratic primary (I still do not know for whom) and then will be like a tourist and hang around that neighborhood with my new friends Steffi and Florian. Steffi is my age, almost done with her PhD and was dying for somebody to arrive her age almost finished with her PhD… we were fast friends which is really nice and makes the whole, “Hey, you’ve just moved across the 2nd biggest pond on the planet, to a country where they don’t always speak your native language and none of your friends or family are ever likely to step foot on.,” a lot easier. Florian helps me a lot with my German and in return I help him with his English when he asks -- great to sit next to him. It’s been over three weeks already and I understand a lot more german than I did when I got here, I have more confidence when I try to speak german, but it still doesn’t make it any easier with the communication is not affective… Allow me to tell you a short story about my near breakdown yesterday…Picture it, 6:25pm on a Friday night… about the time that MOST stores in my neighborhood shut down for the evening. I was sick all day and really tired. I decided to go to the bank and make a deposit so I could pay my bills here… Problem was, I had no English option on the ATM machine and could not remember the word for DEPOSIT. So, I decided I would go to the teller man and ask him, “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” He said a resounding, “NEIN!” and I did my best German to ask “Wie sagt man Deposit?” How does one say, Deposit? And I even did a little sign language to indicate money goes in… That did not work. So I said, “Wo sind die Tickets?” And made sign language for deposit slip… he pointed me to a table. I went to the table and thought, maybe I could look at the deposit slip, and figure out the word for DEPOSIT… NEIN! But then a young guy from the bank came over and said, “Kann ich Ihnen helfen?” JA! DANKE!!! And I started talking to him in English… “I just need the word for deposit, I can do it on the machine in there, I’m sorry I am not speaking german, I’m so tired.” Well, the word is einzahlen. Good to know. I made my deposit, walked outside, and almost started crying right there on the sidewalk. GRUMBLE…
So I walked to a grocery store, bought Sauerkraut und Gourmet Kateschinkenwürfel (no they don’t sell cat waffles here – it’s one of the many variations on pork that exist in Germany)… I went home and made dinner with the two and tried to relax. I still felt ill (krank) but I felt better. Most things have been really straightforward though. Setting up the bank account was no problem, finding a great apartment was no problem, cell phone – well that was a problem and still is… just not gonna happen. The landline will get hooked up on 20. Feb and you can call me at that number then…
OK, back to Berlin. I really REALLY like the city. I know that I only spent two hours in SF so I cannot compare it really, but Berlin is awesome. It is my Philadelphia+ and I like it better than New York because the buildings are not as tall so there is more sunshine. IT’s really bizarre. I work in the former East Berlin and I live in the former West Berlin. It is a 25 minute walk each day and it is a pretty clear mark between the two halves still. Mostly because the building that I work in still has bullet holes all over it. It is dirty and dark and fascinating.
They started reconstructing the ruined wing that goes between the museum collections and the building I work in. That is, they starting that two weeks ago, yes that is 60 years after it was blown up in the first place.
The neighborhood I live in on the other hand is fairly posh… I live across the street from a discrete plastic surgeon and a discrete dentist, a shoemaker is down a little further as is an interior design firm, also, some type of biomedical research lab is right next door. I see them each morning with pipettes and other scary equipment through the window. The trainstation is really close and i am walking distance to the equivalent of Central Park called Tiergarten. I enjoy the contrast. Makes me really appreciate what I have.
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