Variety in and around Chiang Mai: Climbing, Cooking, and Teeth Cleaning

We've had a busy six days in and around Chiang Mai -- some learning, personal maintenance, and soreness inducing exercise. In Chiang Mai, we learned some easier Thai recipes when we took an 8-hour cooking class with Wilson's dad. We also got our teeth cleaned and I got a Thai massage (or two). And thenafter Wilson's dad flew out of Thailand back to the US, we headed to climb at "Crazy Horse Buttress". (Crazy Horse Buttress, a very American sounding name, was unsurprisingly accidentally named by an American.)

Learning to Cook Thai Food

Fun, fun, fun to stand in front of your own wok and use a metal spatula/ to measure 2 teaspoons of fish sauce and 3 spoons of oyster sauce and then with a little help of some fresh garden ingredients create Pad Thai. In fact, the whole cooking class with the Scenic Thai Cooking company owned by an avid Thai female traveler was a very enjoyable experience.

At the beginning of our cooking class, we went to the market to understand Thai ingredients. After that we drove to a farmhouse/garden with an open air kitchen that had at least 20 cooking stations. We walked around the garden identifying 3 different kinds of basil (sweet, hot, and lemon) and eating long beans off the vine. After that we got to cook (and eat) five different dishes of our own choosing. I chose Pad Thai, Papaya Salad, Tom Yum Soup, Panang Curry, and Mango with Sticky Rice. Yum. After we left the cooking class, none of us ate the rest of the day.

Personal Care and Maintenance

Our "Korol dream" has been less of a dream for our teeth. Our calamity insurance doesn't cover dental care and thus our pearly whites have become a little less than pearly. So we decided to do a little medical tourism and get our teeth cleaned. It was a little scary because I wondered if the sterilization standards are as good as the US but then I saw the fresh clean office, new equipment, free wifi and dentists and hygenists with hygenic masks and I felt much better about the endeavor. I felt really good about the endeavor 30 minutes later and only $25 poorer after the Thai dentist had scraped the plaque off my teeth and polished these pearlies.

Climbing at Crazy Horse

The climbing around Chiang Mai is actually 35 km away from the city. And you can get there one of three ways: (1) take a shuttle with the local climbing company; (2) rent a motor bike; or (3) point to the place on a map and ask a bunch of Thai people how you get there. We went with option 3. It took us a little longer but it was much cheaper than options 1 and 2. It is not a very efficient way to go, however, so we ended up staying 3 nights right by Crazy Horse (the "crag") instead of going back and forth to Chiang Mai like most climbers do.

We really enjoyed staying right by the crag. Not only was it very peaceful (except for a lot of festival fireworks), walking through the tiny town at the crag's base was a relaxing moment before and after the induced adrenaline and physical punishment that accompanied rock climbing at Crazy Horse. And the place where we stayed there in the countryside by the crag, La Bhu Saleh, was a magical place built in Thai style, decorated with original art work, and owned and operated by sweet and gentle Thai people. We loved it.

Chiang Mai and its environs treated us well and am sad to leave. But I am sure Myanmar (Burma) will be another new and interesting adventure. Onward.

 

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A Market Culture: from papaya salads to knock off iPads

Today was the first of eleven days in Thailand that I did not stroll through a market. My dad, who was with us for a week here in Thailand said that combined between Nepal and here he had spent more time 'shopping' than the last five years combined, or maybe even ten years. He hates shopping.

We do seem to spend more time than I had anticipated in markets, but that is where the action is taking place, the spots for the best street food and epicenters of people watching. So we have joined the crowds and wandered through markets big and small, during the day and at night. The food in the markets has been such high quality, better than my previous two trips to this country. It has gotten to the point where i am disappointed if we end up having a meal in an actual restaurant, as the food never seems quite as good and it costs at least 2-3x times more. Give me the stalls, the better food and some more excitement every time.

My favorite thus far was the night market in Chiang Rai that takes place on Saturday nights. 4 blocks were closed to traffic and two rows of stalls were set up selling all sorts of food and cool twists on the more conventional stuff you see at the other markets. There were several thousand people strolling up and down the market, which had a strict clockwise walking rule up one side and down the other to keep things moving along. Only a few of the many thousand were tourists, and this made it all the better because it was not the same old t-shirts, linen travel pants and knickknacks.

A close second to this market in my hierarchy was the Chatuchak market in northern Bangkok, which takes place during the day on Saturday and Sunday. This is a sprawling place, with seemingly hundreds and hundreds of stalls, cordoned off to specific types of durable goods and food. The mix of people here was more mixed between travelers and Thais, which was fine. The thing that really impressed me at this market was how cool some the stuff was for sale. There were dozens and dozens of these little boutique stalls that were as spiffed up as many stores on Chestnut street in the Marina district of San Francisco or the West Village in NYC. Most of these tonier stalls were selling clothes, and I came away wishing that I had just packed an empty backpack and filled out my wardrobe for the next 3 months, and beyond, from here. Next time.

Beyond the enjoyment of wandering these markets, I have also been thinking about the culture of knockoffs. They are everywhere. I define knockoffs as fake goods, such as dress shirts or backpacks, that have global brand labels and are made to look as close as possible to the authentic product. They usually cost many orders of magnitude less and have a lower quality. Part of the bargain for the buyer is knowing that fake is going to fall apart before a genuine article.

Sometimes, i am a big fan of knockoffs. Throughout our travels, this year and farther back, I have availed myself of at least a dozen fake Ray-Ban sunglasses, never being willing to pony up for the real ones due to concern about loss or breakage. However, I now have a pair of real Ray-Ban prescription sunglasses that have been worn pretty aggressively for almost 2 years and have clearly outperformed the fakes that fell apart or stopped fitting. With these sunglasses you do get what you pay for, despite what I have thought for years.

I remember when Mu and I were living in Saigon, Viet Nam several years ago and had bought a ton of stuff to bring back home. We went looking for backpacks that we could stuff and bring the bounty home, going from stall to stall in the major city market. I was studying the fake Northface, Lowe Alpine and all the other outdoor brands pretty close - looking at the stitching and testing out the zippers to be sure that they would survive the trip home. At one stall, the owner came up and saw how close i was assessing his merchandise. After a minute he came over close to me and looked very apologetic - "i am sorry mister, these are not real." No kidding! But, still I loved his honesty and sales approach and we might even have bought his knockoffs instead of the others who were so adamant about their genuineness.

As we have been bumming around Bangkok and northern thailand I keep thinking about the knockoff culture that permeates. Is that girl's Gucci bag real? Probably not. What about that guy's Nikes? Perhaps? What about that seemingly fancy watch, maybe a Rolex? Or the iPads we see people using everywhere?

I emailed a few friends that work at Apple for their thoughts about the fake apple devices that are pretty common in this part of the world. For example, some of the ipads you see on the street are suspiciously thick. They wrote back the following;

- It's difficult to tell without seeing them if they are real or fake. We've seen a load of fake ones through Asia. They get close, but when you look closely, you can tell how badly made they are. They've started using Android software and just making it look like iOS. But again without seeing it, it's difficult to know for sure. If you start asking too many questions they get a little shifty

- From the manufacturing side, we make huge investments in effort, processes, and equipment to get the parts to look and fit together just right, so the forgeries look awful.

All this gets to my larger point, that once there are a few (or many more than that) fakes around, you start to question just about everything. Those Adidas bags at the market that i like, they can't possibly be real. Those electronics, how can you trust them? Which seems fine if all you expect to buy is the knockoff, but once you start thinking about getting the real one, with all the investment in manufacturing, quality and support, you just can't be sure. So the knockoff culture lets all of us buy cheap stuff that looks real, but caveat emptor if you want to step up. You just can't be sure you are getting what you are paying the premium.

I guess we will just keep perusing the markets, looking for cool stuff that we won't expect to last very long. Not the greatest sustainability strategy but the only one I can justify in this part of the world.

 

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Thailand : Turning the Heat Up and the Stress Down

Thailand has to be one of the most stress relieving countries out there. Sure, it is hot and sure, you don't speak the language. But there are so many aspects to visiting Thailand that make the country paradisiacal. And we haven't even made it to the beach or our climbing destinations yet!

Food

Two nights ago, we wandered up and down Chiang Rai's night market eating food chopped, grilled, kneaded, and fried in front of us. I was so excited about the papaya salad that a woman pounded and mixed in a wooden trestle in front of us that she taught me how to say my first Thai word: Aroi-ka. Delicious! And at that same night market we walked about 3000 steps eating our way through the stalls -- grilled squid, noodles with curry, bubble tea, fried octopus and vegetable apps, black and green bean taro cakes. With a stuffed belly, I finished the night with Pad Thai. I then ate Pad Thai for lunch and dinner the next day along with mango and sticky rice from different food stands. And still not sick of Pad Thai.

Not only is the food so delicious that I can consume repititively and in distressingly large amounts, it is also low stress because you can eat it at any time and al fresco. Food vendors abound with outside tables or to go containers so that you can take the delicious Pad Thai to your venue of choice. At the food vendors, they have copious amounts of diverse ingredients and the food is quickly made to order. They rarely hawk their yummy food either, and don't seem that bothered if you decide you don't want what they are making. I think they figure - your loss! The price is also right-- costs only one or two dollars for a whole dish. A delicious variety of inexpensive food, easily accessible and freshly made, makes me a happy person.

Atmosphere

We are currently in the north of Thailand, Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, and these cities have little of the usual developing country heart breaks, such as starving dogs and begging children, and annoyances, touts and garbage covered streets. Instead ornate temples, golden robed monks, and flowers abound. And although the city can have karoake blasting late into the night, the country side surrounding the city can be so still and quiet. A few days ago, we biked to some thermal springs 10 miles north of Chiang Rai and we soaked in quiet there. Quiet, surprisingly, has been a rare commodity during our traveling. Traveling usually brings city noises or radios and TVs blaring. This Thai country side stillness is often elusive in African or South American countries. Even in my small village in Madagascar with no electricity, usually someone had their radio blasting or kids were shrieking or goats were braying. The stillness that we have found in Thailand so far is a beautiful rarity.

People

Someone once told me an urban legend about one person dropping a wallet and a Thai person wanting to return the wallet but not wanting to bother the person by tapping them on the back because the Thai person did not want to disturb the wallet-dropper. The Thai person had a moral quandary that I would never have -- they hesitated in preventing that person from losing their wallet because they respected that person's peace so much. That story (although maybe not true) has affected the way that I travel here and how I try to show respect to each person I encounter. In return, I have noticed that most of the interactions that I have had here are filled with nodding and hand prayer salutations. Of course, there are still a few touts and obnoxious people but calmness and leaving you in peace seem to prevail. One of my favorite things about being here is how many people speak to you in Thai, smiling, knowing that you don't understand what they are saying but they want to help you anyway.

 

What a wonderful place.

 

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Vienna: A weekend at the Ritz

Muriel and I don't roll very deluxe on this grand adventure. Don't get me wrong, there are many, many times when I wished we had upgraded to a nicer hostel. Or maybe even a proper hotel. But, the economics of extended travel just does not afford traveling in the manner we got a little used to back in the day when we both had professional jobs and money was in greater supply than time.

That time/money tradeoff has decidedly switched these last 15 months, and looking back on our experiences and the mindset that we have achieved, I would not trade it for the world.

But damn does this Ritz spa make me rethink some of our revealed preferences. The sauna is wonderful, and the pool just as nice. Sharing it with great friends makes it all the better. We are staying with them through the weekend in Vienna, a city that tends towards the luxurious even for backpackers. Yesterday, I got to take my first ride in a Rolls Royce Phantom of all cars, which only equals about 142x the current resale value of our beloved subi back in the states.

The luxury of the weekend is all the result of my friend from childhood, Kathleen, and her Norwegian husband, Fred. It is super fun and amazing. The night before I arrived in Slovakia, Mu and I splurged for a private cabin on a night train from Poland to Slovakia and Hungary. Before that, we stayed in a perfectly fine hostel in the charming city of Krakow, Poland. The room was nice enough, pretty small and with a shared bathroom down the hall. I will forever remember that room fondly for watching the Red Sox win the World Series from bed on my iTouch, with the game wrapping up @ 4:38 am. But the bed was kind of lumpy, the temperature a bit hot and space on short supply. You know, basically the norm for how we travel.

Now we are holed up in the nicest hotel i have ever stayed. I did show up with a my big backpack, stuffed with clothes and climbing gear. That got a few looks coming into the lobby. The room is huge, with a balcony that overlooks the density of this charming and regal city. On the horizon are churches and concert halls. Back at the spa, I use 4+ towels a visit between the sauna, steam shower, the pool, back to the sauna and then a shower.

The fun of this experience is made so much better for spending it with Kat and Fred. Throughout the weekend, we enjoy that magical spa, walk the city, take in some Rossini at a world famous concert hall (which was a bit pretentious for me, but very atmospheric), eat a street brat, linger in the cafes that recall the fin de siècle empire. Despite a bit of a throat cold, I felt so much more relaxed after a couple nights of Ritz living.

I did find that the city itself seemed to dissolve just a little coming from such luxurious accommodations. All the nice amenities and atmosphere of the luxury had me very eagerly looking forward to returning, having a tea or nespresso and hanging out. The hotel was preferable to those quintessential cafes, maybe even at a 3:1 or 4:1 margin.

It helped a ton to be with my lovely wife and dear friends -- reinforcing that travel is so much better with loved ones. We are excited to have gotten to enjoy a taste of 5 star+ travel in Vienna, which seemed an appropriate city to see in this manner. After we sadly said goodbye, Mu and I traipsed 5-6 kilometers in the city (backpacks and shoulder bags on), walking over to our friends' apartment, and then searching for dinner and wifi so we could link up with them. That seemed more like the travel we have become accustomed to these last many months.

Very grateful to our Viennese friends for hosting us in their very comfortable apartment -- as good a transition from the Ritz that we good hope for. Now it is back to the shared rooms in hostels with no pools. The kind of places we need to stay to make this extendo travel work. We are on to Bangkok and beyond.

 

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Budapest: How do the Hungarian Baths Compare?

Budapest (pronounced Budapesht) is a delightful city -- full of ornate buildings, churches, and statues.  It is also home to many baths, as the city sits on top of a treasure trove of thermal springs. In fact, under Budapest's centuries old roads, 118 natural thermal springs spew out 70 million liters of hot water daily. Thus, a visit to Budapest is incomplete without visiting one of the Baths on offer. I visited the Szechenyi Baths with its 21 pools and numerous medicinal offerings such as "underwater curative gymnastics" and "carbon dioxide baths". The Bath's available schmorgasbord caused reflection on the baths, bathhouses, and thermal springs that we have seen across the globe -- and how I would assign superlatives....

Sunniest Personality -- Salto, Uruguay


Year Visited: 2013
While we were in South America this summer, we happened upon springs in Uruguay. I deem these springs sunniest personality because there were about 15 springs outside with beautiful fountains, green lawns, and the normal curative springs abounding.
Most Likely to Traumatize You -- Fez, Morocco

Year Visited: 2006

In Fez, Morocco, I visited a women only bath house because a friend had recommended Moroccan bath houses and the glorious massages that you could get therein. That friend may have been referring to bath houses in more touristed towns such as Marrakesh or Casablanca. Fez, however, doesn't see as many tourists even though it is an extremely lovely and a 1200 year old city. In Fez, I entered and asked a formidable Muslim woman in my broken French to gain admission to the bath and get a massage. She told me in her broken French (Arabic is most people's primary language) to strip down to my underwear and that someone would come get me for a massage. Sure enough, a woman who looked to be about 70 came and got me. The woman with thinning white hair was naked except for some saggy graying white granny panties. Mmm...this didn't look promising. It got even less promising as I followed her to a bathing area with various women bathing under taps. The old woman motioned for me to lay down on the ground in the middle of the women. And then she proceeded to SCRUB me. The women around me stopped bathing and stared at me as I lay shocked -- on the ground with a the old woman flapping as she rubbed my skin red. The "massage" couldn't end fast enough. Morocco was not a relaxing bath experience.
Grossest -- Aguas Caliente, Peru

Year Visited: 2013
After the bathhouse in Fez, I have continued (perhaps fool hardily) to ask for massages and go to baths. But the worst experience by far was the thermal baths in the city, Aguas Caliente, down the mountain from Machu Picchu. These thermal baths did not encourage you to shower prior to entering and, you didn't really want to shower because, the showers were FREEZING cold and outside. Needless to say, like 1000 other people "bathing", the night that we went we didn't shower. I am pretty sure that those 1000 other people didn't shower either because the water was dark grey. Yuck. But that did not stop the teenage couples from playing tonsil hockey and more. Gross. We left the Baths pretty quickly even though we were sore from hiking Macchu Pichu. Trying to repair sore muscles in those baths did not outweigh the risk of catching something there.
Cleanest (Probably) -- San Francisco, CA

Year Visited: 2011
I eagerly visited a bathhouse while living in San Francisco - a Japanese Bathhouse. The Japanese Bathhouse has various dunking pools, hot, cold, and warm.  And you MUST shower before entering. Absolutely lovely, except everyone is naked on the "women only" and I assume "men only" days. Normally, I would approach this in a very European manner, e.g. no problem. However, on the day that I chose to frequent this establishment, I saw a friend from Peace Corps there who I had not seen for 6 years. It was pretty awkward, ok really awkward, to hug, naked, in a body of water. But at least, it seemed to be a very clean body of water.

Most Natural -- Diamond Fork Springs, UT

Year Visited: 2002

Utah has a lot of great hot springs -- both developed (Midway) and undeveloped. My favorite are the Diamond Fork Springs. You have to hike or snowshoe in for about two miles before you come to a beautiful thermal creek nestled in the mountains. Paradise

Most Uncomfortable -- Istanbul, Turkey

Year Visited: 2012
Like Budapest, in Istanbul, it is practically obligatory to visit a Turkish bathhouse while there. I did and no nudity was involved, and also surprisingly a great massage was on offer. But sadly before the great massage, you have to lie on a very hot wet stone in your swimsuit while you are doused with the balloons of suds. The balloons of suds are fine. The hot stone not so much. I felt burned after I escaped from that thing. Even worse than an old woman's scrubbing was the heat of that stone!
Most Likely To Succeed -- Budapest, Hungary

Year Visited: 2013
I vote the Budapest springs most likely to succeed because they are spectacular in their architecture and scope. The Baroque architecture makes you feel like you are nobility from the mid- nineteenth century enjoying a rare privilege. The scope is incredible with the variety of pools, saunas, uses, and medicinal value. So, yes, the Hungarian Baths compare rather nicely and will likely succeed in providing you with what you desire from a Bath experience.

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Among a Million Ghosts: the horrors of Auschwitz

Warning: this post gets deep into the Holocaust and might be difficult for kids. Or anyone really. It sure was a tough day for me.

Several days ago, on Halloween of all days, Mu and I took the 2 hour train out of Krakow, Poland to Oświęcim, which is much better known by its name under the 3rd Reich, Auschwitz.

The name is synonymous with murder, destruction and the worst of humanity. We knew it would be a tough experience to go to the remnants of the camp and the day exceeded. Despite the horrors that we knew we would see and consider, it was a day that both of of us had dreaded but also counter intuitively looked forward to. That seems weird to write, and felt weird to think about as I mentally steeled myself for the day. Auschwitz is one of the specific places on earth where the nadir of what our species is capable of exist and that shared history, that horror must be confronted and the victims remembered. Over a million people died at these sites, some arriving at the camps less than an hour before they died in the super-sized gas chambers.

One of the most powerful moments of our day was walking the several hundred meters from the spot where Nazi doctors made the split second decision to either send Jews, dissidents, gays/lesbians, prisoners of war, Gypsies and any other undesirables to the gas chamber straight away or to the camp to be worked to death. Basically, any child younger than 15, their mothers, and any adult who did not seem strong enough to work was sent to die. 15,000 people per day.

From where the trains disembarked and the families were separated, we trudged the same path that the doomed children, women, and men had trudged -- along the train tracks. After several minutes, we reached the end of the line as the sun set spectacularly on the horizon. Along this walk, the Nazis went to great lengths to try and assuage the terror that those individuals must have felt.

As the individuals sentenced to die walked along the train tracks, they saw Gypsies with their families. The Gypsies had been instructed to give the appearance of happiness. They played music, dressed colorfully and behaved like all was well at Birkenau - Auschwitz. Then collaborators - prisoners that acted as intermediators between the SS and prisoners in exchange for favorable treatment - played soccer. All to make trainloads of people unsuspecting as they walked to their death. Once they arrived at the gas chambers, people were instructed to strip naked, so they could take a shower before they would get registered at the camp.

Once hundreds and hundreds of people were stuffed into the gas chambers, the poison was dropped on their heads. The gas used by the nazis required temperatures of 27 degrees celsius to convert from solid to gas, to do its horrific task. The heat of people stuffed into the terrifying space was used to kill them. Then, the bodies were moved into enormous gas chambers that burned so hot that they were basically vaporized. There are still ashes on the ground around the gas chambers and furnaces, where hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people died.

This day was incredibly hard, and one that I will never forget. The only other place where I have felt the hallowness and sacredness was the battfield at Gettysburg.

Better than a thousand words

Thought it would be good to share a number of pics from that day, as my ability to explain is stretched to, or beyond, capacity.

This is the entrance to the original Auschwitz, which acted more like a concentration camp than a death camp. During the day, I came to realize that there were really two related aspects of the Holocaust as manifest at the camps. One was the immediate extermination of people right off the train, as I outlined above. The other was the working of people to death in the camps, extracting everything possible from the living and dead. This entrance is what people would have seen early in the war, and roughly translates to "work will set you free'. No one was set free from these camps, until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1945.

 

Below is one of the woman barracks, in which 8 woman were huddled on the top bunk and 8 were on the bottom. Poland is very cold in the late fall and winter, getting down to -20 degrees Celsius. This one barrack, maybe the size of a grange hall or a rotary club, held 800 woman. People were supposed to subsist on 250-300 calories a day, and some lost more than half their body weight.

 

Below are used up containers of the poison used to murder thousands and thousands. The gas was manufactured into solid pebbles, sort of like the stuff used in aquariums. It killed everyone in a chamber in 20 minutes.

 

Below is the first gas chamber used at scale in the Nazi empire. Thousands and thousands died here, 500 to 700 at a time. It took 2 days for all the bodies to be burned after each extermination. Now, the chamber is lit, but when it was put to its horrible use it would have been pitch black and incomprehensibly claustrophobic.

 

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Berlin - in the shadow of the Wall

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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