The wall, or its shadow, is everywhere.
It is at the sunday flea market, right above the thousand+ person karaoke. At the famed Brandenburg Gate, which tenuously connected East and West until 1989. At the new shopping district full of glossy buildings and chic, modern international citizens. In a memorial that approximates the terrifying visual and visceral effect of the Wall on East Berliners. Along the Spree river.
On a bike ride around the city, we cross the Wall's brick memorial in the sidewalk and streets at least a handful of times, probably more.
One thing I did not know about the Berlin Wall was that it was far from straight. I always imagined the city divided neatly 50% to the West and 50% to the East. A neat little pie chart of a cold war city. This could not be further from the truth, as the Wall traced its way through the divided city in an irregular path, sometimes mirroring the Spree river but really never having much linearity. The randomness of the path made for a disconcerting sense for us visiting for a few days, as it proved very hard to know where we were at in the East/West schism. I took to asking our friends frequently where we were, and never felt good about my predictions.
Berlin has been on my list of desired travel destinations for quite some time. I have read so many travel articles about the art culture, the bars that never close and the uber-international vibe. It was all the more desirable with a good buddy from grad school, Olli, calling the city home with his lovely girlfriend, Ina. Combining travel with visiting friends or family is just about my favorite thread of our year+ away and this long weekend certainly kept that momentum going.
Getting shown around the city by Olli and Ina was such a pleasure. My favorite day was the one when we headed out on bikes, traversing the city to see monuments to the Wall, urban gardens, hiked in a park, eating and drinking on classic euro streets and a eventually made our way to a huge airstrip that has been turned into a massive park, Berlin Tempelhof. The park has people skate-sailing (kite sailing with skateboards), bikers, runners, strollers, rollerbladers and loungers. The visual experience of a massive area in this dense city with basically no trees or anything to break to eye was stunning in a way that I would not have anticipated. It didn't hurt that the time we went was sunset - pretty incredible.
Back to the Wall - Our last day in Berlin, we cruised to the aforementioned flea and karaoke for lunch and people watching. On the way back, we walked down several blocks of the preserved dead zone between the various stages of the Wall. The Wall was not just one partition, it was actually a set of boundaries and guard stations, which was laced with anti-personnel mines. For 35+ years, hardly any people stepped foot in the dead zone. All told, 168 people died trying to cross the Wall.
Now? The grass and open space was perfectly taken care of, it took a minute to figure out that this was not just another sweet urban park. We walked by groups of people speaking 6 or 7 different languages. There was a little boy on his Skut, jetting around the pathway that marked one of the old Wall's footprint. I thought about what the Wall represented, a divide between two distinct ideologues. Berlin is now a global crossroad, one that I would recommended to basically any traveler. This park, and the city more broadly, are a clear affirmation of which side won the Cold War.
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