My Very Own Self
"Sugar and spice and everything nice, My Dearly Beloved and then Some
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|  || Sunday, November 19, 2006 || Tues, 31st Oct – Fri, 3rd NovDays 56 – 59: Berlin Slept over on at the Paris Orly airport. 4 am check-in. Sleeping on airport benches is no joke I tell you. I think I now qualify fully as an experienced traveller. I have borne and lived through tremendous hardships. Did Berlin with Lay Boon and her 4 other friends: Qiuwei, Derek and Jonathan (all her fellow IE scholars) and William (British-French, house and school mate to Derek). Here is a nice photo of all of us. Well it’s the only one I have so I hope it’s nice: [Well couldn't get it in time... but eventually it'll come on] Had a wonderful time in Berlin. The company was great (like does attract like!) but over and above the company, the city was an immense experience. History permeates it. Its very air resonates with echoes of the past. The great events of yesterday – the fall of Kaiser, Hitler’s ascension, World War II’s advent, the Holocaust’s scars, victory of the Allies against Hitler, his suicide, the fall of the Nazi regime, the zonification of Berlin, then the spectre of Communism, the tearing down of the wall and German reunification – still cast their shadows. This city has not forgotten. My flight reached Berlin around 8. Lay Boon and friends only arrived at 2. So I waited six hours at the Berlin airport. SIX hours. Just had to tell you that. Anyway it was afternoon by the time we got to our hostel (may I thoroughly recommend Generator hostels to all of you. Clean, convenient and breakfast included.) Late lunch/early pre-dinner at a Greek kebab place. After France, Berlin prices were amazing cheap. Ordered a lot and stuffed myself.  [Lay Boon’s currywurst and fries, Derek’s falafel and my rice and aubergine]Then dinner proper at a fancy restaurant which brewed its own beer!!    [Not the best pork knuckle I’ve ever had, the dessert platter, the tau-sa pao that was not] Day 2 dawned freezing cold, grey in skies and rainy. It was in such cold, grey and wet weather that we took a 4-hour walking tour of Berlin. Walking in rain, wind and a thin coat in 5 degree weather is no joke I can assure you. It saps the body and spirit. Just as well. We got a first-hand experience of what life must have been like under the Communist regime. Then I thought: if you’re going for the true East German experience, you might as well look like one of them:  [For the record I bundled my head up because the day and wind were bitingly cold. Could not feel my ears.]Then tea, the Bundestag (German Parliament - lovely view from its domed roof) and dinner. A good dinner.  [From left to right - Row 1: Either a Church, a Museum or Palace, Coca-Cola Berlin Bear, the most famous of all Berlin signboards; Row 2: THE Wall!!!, Communist mural, Jewish War Memorial; Row 3: The balcony from which Michael Jackson dangled his son, German Arc de Triomphe, the Bundestag]Concentration camp on Day 3. A sobering experience. Here, once upon a time, people lost their lives. Yet the place has a strange peace. I suppose in death all is forgiven. They must have been so exhausted towards the end; it would have been too tiring for them to have to bring hatred into the grave.   [Gate and stones on bench: Gate says freedom from work (or something similar). It was a Nazi lie. Essentially, the Nazis told the concentration camp inmates (which at the start mostly consisted of criminals and Communists) that they would be liberated after they worked off their crimes. But the years and deaths which intervened without sight of freedom told otherwise; Part of the concentration camp building; A memorial covered with stones. Apparently this stems from the Jewish custom of placing a stone on graves, which according to one version of its origin, means ‘someone has remembered’.] Had an excellent chocolate-coated spice cookie. Huge and good. Bought a second! Lumpy liked it too.  On the way to dinner, it snowed. There was I in my autumn best and it SNOWED. One day I will look back and be able to laugh at this. Not quite yet. I can still remember the cold. Day 4 was off to Hamburg!! Oh and Lumpy found a friend:  [Lumpy and Derek’s bear]
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