New City, Old Friendship

Napoleon took the statue but had to give it back
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Berlin: no longer a divided city. The wall has been gone for nearly a generation now, and the divisions evident in the city in the years after reunification are gone. Where the wall was removed, a subtle series of brick inlays and concrete patches took its place. They hold the space visually - just about, anyway. It would be easy to mistake it for simple road repairs, yet evident enough to follow out of curiosity on a long walk.

We stayed in a hostel in the old East Berlin where the arty, youthful post-reunification atmosphere seems to have stuck. The place was full of offbeat or even crazy wall murals reminiscent of the tattoo from Fangoria that Otto the bus driver in the Simpsons boasts on his belly. You know, freaky skeleton hipster man with his cowboy pal riding in a souped up convertible to the moon while shooting pistols in the air. That was our room decor. I think there was a giant eyeball in the car, too, wearing a hat - what was the hat? anyone? anyone? - it was a duck. A duck hat. But for 22 Euros a night per person, the price was awesome, and the three minute walk to the train was a lifesaver. Departing the trains at 3 am amid hundreds of twentysomethings, picking up cold pizza from a vendor cart, you feel like a part of somthing vital and alive. The cops whizzing by on bicycles were cute, too.

The arty, youthful post-reunification atmosphere seems to have stuck.

Near the Victory Column
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In Berlin we had the good fortune, coincidentally, to meet up with our dear friend John, who was there for a week's business with the Gay Pride weekend tacked onto the front. In the end, our Amsterdam friends either missed us or weren't able to make it, so we spent three days with John, visiting gay bars on Motzstrasse and Fuggerestrasse, enjoying the festival at the Victory Column (tried Absinthe for the first time, and lots of Pina Coladas), and picking up dinner fixings at the supermarket to cook in the little Ikea flat he rented. It was an enormous joy to see a dear old friend while exploring a new city for the first time.

Jason and John and a sliver of the Berlin Wall
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Berlin architecture has many echoes of Paris, while the subways and elevated trains are like a souped-up New York. But the essential Germanness of the atmosphere is unique. The city is not quite so friendly to the English speaker as Amsterdam, certainly, and we got a bit frustrated the first day running into language barriers before we figured it out. I was grateful I knew about 50 words of basic German to fake my way through it. A nervous traveler who speaks English would be well advised to brush up on basic German before arriving. And carry little maps with you - one for streets and one for trains - it will save your trip.

The last day we headed to the northeast of the city and walked for miles, choosing a cafe on a quiet side street to down several fine pilsners and watch the passersby on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Along the way we saw the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate and a passel of museums we did not go into for lack of time.

We passed through the Brandenburg Gate to find young guys breakdancing with skateboards to vintage, pre-Thriller Michael Jackson. The gate itself is an icon and a national symbol of Germany which spent about 30 years in the No Man's Land between the wall and East Berlin proper, controlled by DDR snipers. Like many national icons around the world, it has a more prosaic origin: it was one of 14 gates to the city which allowed Berlin authorities to tax people for the merchandise coming and going from town. Now it appears on coins, and there is a Starbucks within spitting distance.

There was never more than five hours of sleep in the mix and by the end, as we boarded a discount flight at Tegel, I fell asleep and started snoring in my seat before the plane even fully boarded. A quick flight back to Schiphol, a train ride to the Hague and a tram ride in the rain back to Chuck and Kees' house, and the Berlin adventure was over.

Today: back in the Hague, and perhaps some shopping at H&M, so we can be affordably fashionable. It will rain here all week and feel like autumn. Watch out for snails underfoot ... they are crunchy when you step on them, and it will make you feel bad. Unless you hate snails, in which case, get thee to this town now and tread fearlessly.