F E L I N E R S

Leading somewhat gypsy lives, one of the things that we don't get the luxury of is doing is being able to catch up with friends and families whenever we want - everyone seems scattered in places around the world; dinners, nice conversations and birthdays seem to be things that we reluctantly sacrifice in order to travel the world. It is the way life is - you just simply cannot have everything.

That is why when Jason, one of the very few people, if not the only person whom we became close to in St Louis decided to visit his friend in Berlin, we decided to join in the party over the weekend. After all, this is Europe not America - travel is interesting and most cities are major transport hubs well-served by carriers after carriers of budget airlines. Delays are almost almost unheard of compared to US airports and travel time is superbly short. It takes a little less than an hour to get to Berlin from Amsterdam with airfares costing as little as 100Euros return including taxes. We lived in New York for a year without really travelling anywhere within the US, mainly because there was nothing we wanted to see. Sounds kind of harsh but true. After awhile, all you want to do is get away from the American culture. I wanted to see Hawaii but it is something like 10 hours away from the East coast - I might as well be flying to Spain.

Anyway, back to Berlin. Going to Berlin is a real learning experience for me - I did learn a little about WWII in high school but not much really - rough introduction to Hitler & Mussolini and their atrocities, bits and pieces of the Japanese occupation in Malaya coupled with stories of hiding in the jungles and surviving on sweet potatoes by my late-grandmother. Being there I was confronted with everything that I didn't know and I find myself scratching my head thinking, "What piece of important history was taught to me in school besides how Malaysia gained our independence?"

Berlin is loaded with history everywhere you turn. Of course, it is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany with a population of 3.4 million in its city limits. It was also the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and of course, the Third Reich or Nazi Germany.

After WWII, the city was divided; East Berlin became the capital of East Germany while West Berlin became a Western enclave, surrounded by the Berlin Wall from 1961-1989. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of all Germany.

Berlin today is well-known for its nightlife, liberal lifestyle and low cost of living.

An iconic symbol of the Cold War, the wall divided East and West Berlin for 28 years, from the day construction began in 1961 until it was dismantled in 1989. During this period 125 people were killed trying to escape to the West.

Today, new and old exist side by side.



Potsdamer Platz, once the most bustling traffic intersection in Europe, was totally laid to waste during WWII and then left desolate during the Cold War era when the Berlin Wall bisected its former location, but since the fall of the Wall it has risen again as a glittering new heart for the city and the most visible symbol of the new Berlin.

Sony centre in Potsdamer Platz

Roof of Sony centre

The Brandenburger Tor or Brandenburg Gate is Berlin's only remaining city gate and is a true symbol of the city. Because it was situated in the no man's land behind the wall, just like Potsdamer Platz, it also became symbolic of the division of the city.

The Brandenburg Gate consists of twelve columns built in the Doric order of architecture and this allows for five roadways, although originally ordinary citizens were only allowed to use the outer two. Its design was based on the gateway to the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.

On our way to the Brandenburger Tor from our hotel in Potsdamer Platz we walked past the United Buddy Bear exhibition.

They take the form of a two metre tall fibreglass bears, which had each been painted in the style of a particular country. The bears were chosen as they are the heraldic symbol of Berlin. There were more than 140 created, each of which was painted by an artist from a different country in the United Nations. This was meant to represent each of the members of the UN. This United Buddy Bear exhibition has been to a few countries around the world.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial, is a memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Aisenman. It consists of a 19,000 square meter site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field.

I find Berlin a fantastic shopping destination. Often people say to me that the shopping in NYC must be great but I find it uninspiring actually, unless you're into designer labels. In Berlin, you only need to land yourself in Kurfurstendamm, or Ku'damm as the locals call it. It is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin and this broad, long boulevard can be considered the Champs-Elysees of Berlin - full of shops, houses, hotels and restaurants.

Along the Ku'damm, we saw the Wilhelm Memorial Church that was destroyed during a British RAF bombing raid in WWII. The only remainder of the old building is the ruin of the belfry which is also referred to as "the hollow tooth".

The following day we visited the Topography of Terror, an outdoor museum located in
Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS, the principal instruments of repression during the Nazi era. It was a chilling learning experience and I drew a few parallels between the fate of Jews in Europe to the Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge ruling.

The buildings that housed the Gestapo and SS headquarters were largely destroyed by Allied bombing during early 1945 and the ruins demolished after the war. The boundary between the American and Soviet zones of occupation in Berlin ran along the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, so the street soon became a fortified boundary, and the Berlin Wall ran along the south side of the street.

The wall itself was never removed from the site, and the section adjacent to the Topography of Terror site is the second-longest segment still in place after the East Side Gallery in Friedricshain.

Further down the street is Checkpoint Charlie, the famouscrossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Checkpoint Charlie was designated as the single crossing point, by foot or by car, for foreigners and members of the Allied forces.

Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of east and west, and for some East Germans - a gateway to freedom. The Berlin Wall was erected with great efficiency by the East German government but naturally there were many means of escape that had not been anticipated. Read more about it here.

We also visitede Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, a private museum full of information and stories of people escaping from East to West Berlin. Some of these stories are unbelievable! The most extraordinary escape being by hot air balloon! Particularly of interest was the story of Peter Fechter who was shot trying to escape and was left bleeding to death, receiving no help from either side.

Timm, Jason's friend brought us to a bomb shelter, the only WWII air-raid shelter that is continously opened in Berlin, the Berliner Gruselkabinett. We had fun as they turned the top floor into a horror house and we scared ourselves silly. On the other hand, it was eerie enough just walking down the damp and gloomy tunnels of the World War II bunker. On the ground floor were medical scenes from bygone days and in the basement was an exhibition documenting the fascinating history of the air-raid shelter.

Berliner Gruselkabinett

We topped off the day with what else but beer. And wurst, of course.

The boys with their beers. L-R: Timm, Jason, Peter.

Waking up the next day with too much beer in our system, we made our way groggily to the Jewish Museum Berlin, a museum covering two millennia of German Jewish history. It was closed during the Nazi regime and was revived later on when a new building by the architect Daniel Libeskind was officially opened.

The entrance to the museum, the old building

Daniel Libeskind architecture. The new building which houses the permanent exhibition

It is a much-talked-about and unusual building. The design is based on a rather involved process of connecting lines between locations of historic events and locations of Jewish culture in Berlin. They form a basic outline and structure for the building. The concept of absence, emptiness and the invisible portray the disappearance of Jewish culture in the city.

Exhibition space in the Libeskind building

Adam and Eve with firstborn

Kids space. It is quite an interactive museum.

One of the main attraction of the museum is the Garden of Exile. It consists of forty-nine concrete stelae rising out of a square plot. The whole garden is on a 12° gradient and disorientates visitors, giving them a sense of the total instability and lack of orientation experienced by those driven out of Germany. Oleaster grows on top of the pillars symbolizing hope.

photo from wikipedia.com. Libeskind says the Garden of Exile attempts "to completely disorientate the visitor. It represents a shipwreck of history."

That's our weekend trip to Berlin. It was a quick one therefore we missed a few major sights like the Reichstag or the Parliament Building albeit just around the corner of Brandenburg Gate. It was reconstructed by world reknown architect Sir Norman Foster. Yes, Berlin is an architectural fest. We also didn't get to stroll in the Tiergarten.

And oh why poor, sexy Berlin? The Governing Mayor said in 2004 in a television interview, "Berlin ist arm, aber sexy." ("Berlin is poor, but sexy.")

The city is both Germany's undisputed lifestyle capital and worst economic laggard. Judging by the bustling cafés, thriving art galleries and ubiquitous club scene you'd never know that Berlin suffers from nearly 20 percent unemployment. Per capita income is the lowest of any major German city. The economy has shrunk by 10 percent over the last decade, and the city's public debt, amounting to some €80 billion, is more than that of Peru, Ecuador and Guatemala combined.

Here are some more random photos.

Everyone wants a piece of the wall now.

I want this one.

Fernsehturm or TV tower