Berlin: Day 4

Today was Emily & Jenn's last day in Berlin. They were taking the bus back in the early afternoon so they could make their class on Tuesday; they didn't have much time to sightsee. But we did have time for Nick to take us to see some of the remnants of the Berlin Wall. It wasn't what I pictured. It was too nice! I accused Nick of taking us to see the fake Berlin Wall. Then I spotted a length of Wall that looked like what I had pictured - large brick covered with graffiti, with shards of glass stuck into the top. All I had to do to get close to it was climb under a fence! So I slid underneath, into private property, got my picture of the real Berlin Wall, and then strolled with the others down the length of the fake one. It's concrete, and covered with murals. Some were retouched a few years back, and some were left peeling. It was neat, though.

After taking Jenn and Emily to the bus station, Nick and I discussed what to do next. We grabbed some lunch and chatted about how we didn't want to spend anymore money, and then decided on a trip to Potsdam. Or, rather, I bullied Nick into taking me to Potsdam. It's a suburb of Berlin, and was just outside of West Berlin. The Wall extended that far, and separated Potsdam from the American occupation zone. I had read in one of my classes about a house in Potsdam. The history surrounding it was pretty representative of the struggles the War and the Wall caused. I wanted to find the house - Nick thought we'd wander around for awhile, find nothing, and return to Berlin having wasted a few hours. But we found it! I was finally able to remember the name of the bridge it was close to, so we rode a tram to the bridge. The bridge was beautiful, and the lights from the houses on the river made a really pretty landscape. The house, however, was sad. After the Wall fell, establishing ownership was a real challenge. I don't know who ended up with the property, but the house was in disrepair, with graffiti on the outer walls, broken windows, and a rusted gate to a completely overgrown garden. It was even sadder because you could tell the house had once been beautiful. We wandered around the area for awhile, which was really nice. Then we rode back to Berlin.

We were hungry, so we went and got döner - probably my last for awhile, which is sad. We ate them in the tiny shop where we bought them, then opened a bottle of wine I'd gotten earlier. We started strolling to Tachales, a hippie house. To get there, we had to walk down one of the streets set aside for legal prostitution. The prostitutes are really sad - all have fake tans and hair color, wear ultra-tight bustiers with 5 inch heels and a fanny pack. To my surprise, most of the women I saw looked attractive. Nick said others had told him Berlin whores were some of the prettiest in Europe. I thought it was pretty tragic that they were all resorting to the sex trade. On a lighter note, we saw a long series of these women, then they suddenly stopped. A few hundred meters later, we reached a huge synagogue guarded by two officers. It was very grand looking, stuck in the middle of a slightly shabby street. A few hundred meters after, the prostitutes started again. It was almost comical. We finally reached Tachales. Hippies live there, some with families, and you can walk around the place and just stroll through their "homes." They survive off the sale of their artwork, which you can buy as you walk through. It was messy and disorganized and very free-spirited; a nice change from the way I keep my place. Then we left, and I went back to the hostel to sleep. Nick was so nice - he gave me his cell phone to use as an alarm, because mine was almost dead. He took my phone and charged it that night. He really was so great to us this weekend; I'm glad he was there.