By total coincidence, i was here during the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall (09.11). This gave to many celebrations in Berlin, as its obviously an important event for not only people in Berlin, but people all over Germany.
On Sunday the 8th, I took a trip to Potsdam to join a tour group taking a walk along the river, which is where the wall ran, in that area. It was a nice walk, and there was an informative stop with a video at one point. We walked until the Glienicker Brücke (Bridge), which went across the wall when it was up. Its well known for being the spot where exchanges of spies took place.
On Monday the 9th, after class I went to Mauer Park, where there was a performance called "Berlin wall of sound", which involved approx 200 guitarists/basists, who lined up along a path through where no-mans land was, and performed in unison a pre-arranged song prepared for the occasion. It was impressive to see...and when i jumped on my bike and rode to the other end of the park, i could really hear the full effect. It was an arrangement, which means there were four different parts, not just everyone playing the same thing.
In the afternoon, i made my way to Bornholmer Straße, which is just around the corner from where i live. It was here that the first border crossing was opened up, 20 years ago.
The afternoon was delivering some speeches from important Deutsche people, eg Angela Merkel (the chancellor here). I actually missed it all, and arrived as they were packing up. But this was probably better, as a) i wouldn't have understood much of it anyways, and b) no-one was there to get in my way. I got some good photos however.
At night, a few of us made our way towards the middle of town. Our aim was to get to the Brandenburg Gate - unfortunately, and not surprisingly, about a million other people
had the same idea. The station was closed, and our train went straight past it, and instead we
disembarked at Alexander Platz. There were some big screens here, and a whole bunch of people, braving the cold and rain. It was also where a big line of plastic dominos throughout the city ended, that were being knocked over in a ceremonious fashion.
Alexander Platz was good - i guess one downer was that we couldn't really see the fireworks.
And a massive downer was Bon Jovi miming some crap song. I guess how this represented the importance of the day was that the wall was a shit time, and so was Bon Jovi's performa
nce.
The day was finished off with a couple of beers at a traditional East Berlin pub, close to where i live.
For full album of photos, see:
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