The cultural hub of Europe, underground and alternative, the Berlin wall - but what does this all mean? Well, I can't remember too many details about it since it was all the way back in January... but it was pretty cool (as in cold), and very interesting to learn about East and West Germany post WWII.
 |
| Our first experience at an Ice Hockey game. We picked up great seats and cheap tickets at the gate via some seedy fella outside the stadium. It was kind of a short low scoring affair but we had a couple of beers and kept nice and warm. |
 |
| The famous Brandenburg Gate - complete 1791. Part of the city old fortifications. In 1806, the Quadriga (sculpture on top) was stolen by Napoleon's soldiers and taken to France as a victory trophy - returned after Napolean was defeated. It was one of the only things left standing post WWII. |
 |
| Reichstag building - built late 1800's. |
 |
| The famous Hotel Adlon - where Michael Jackson hung the baby over the balcony. |
We didn't know a great deal about the Berlin wall, or the history of Berlin in the later part of the 20th century, it was fascinating to experience it all. Its hard to imagine that it was just 1989 that a concrete barrier physically divided what seems like such a modern city from East Germany.
It was basically built over night in 1961, when the East German Communist Party constructed a barrier to stop East Germans defection into West Berlin.
After WWII, Germany was split into the federal republic (west, ran by the allies), and the democratic republic (east, ran by the soviet union). Berlin was in the east, but as the capital of Germany it was shared between the allies and soviet union post war.
In the 50's, an inner german border was closed from east to west, but the border through Berlin remained open since its hard to split a city. As eastern people began to come to terms with the soviet governed area of Germany, millions over a 10 year period left the area which caused the government to take action and effectively divide the city.
 |
The famous east side gallery, an intentional memorial of freedom originally established after the fall of the wall in 1990. Recently the original paintings and messages have been restored since the originals were damaged by erosion, graffiti and vandalism. Some of the original artist from 1990 have been involved in the restoration.
|
 |
| Checkpoint Charlie was a crossing point between east and west Berlin during its separation. It was gate for Allied diplomats, military personnel and foreign tourists to pass into Berlin's Soviet sector. Would have been an interesting stamp on your passport during the walls standing. |
 |
| The untouched east wall still standing as a grim reminder |
 |
| Pour your own beer at a restaurant in Berlin. |
Our Christmas/New Year workaway.
Lychen, a small town north of Berlin with a population of about 3000 people was the destination for our festive season and the new year. We wanted to experience a European Christmas, but this didn't really turn out to what we had in mind. Our hosts were a young separated couple living in different parts of an old large house with a 5yo daughter. The bloke was a vegetarian, and had a lot of strong opinions on a lot of things. The mother was more open minded, and to our liking enjoyed meat.
 |
| The area was really popular for its lakes. They freeze up toward the end of winter and are perfect for ice skating. It hadn't got cold enough yet. During summer it would be a great place to swim and paddle around on. |
 |
| There were a handful of ewes running around the place, they were pretty toey. This was about as close as you could get to them. Not sure the bread. |
 |
| One of my tasks was to split and stack wood sheds. It was a relaxing job which kept me warm outside. |
Our jobs while staying at this workaway were mainly spent in the mothers home pottery, which was a sort of studio room in a shed - we were weather proofing the inside by rendering the brick walls. Other then splitting and stacking a bit of wood, this was really what we spent most of our time doing over the couple of weeks. It was pretty enjoyable work, and it was good to learn how to get the render mix right for application and the technique to get smooth walls. We had a nice little stove in the pottery so we were quite happy just tinkering along - stopping for the odd coffee and shortbread.
Christmas was a bit of a sad state of affairs. The christmas tree was brought in on Christmas eve, where we opened presents with the little girl and had a bit of a vegetarian feed and couple of beers. In this home Christmas Eve was more of the event compared to Christmas day. The highlight for us was speaking to family back home.
 |
| Ling, Amy and I with our christmas chocolate and a frothy. |
 |
| Our christmas eve family dinner. |
New Years was a little different because our hosts had some friends come over for a couple of days to celebrate it all. Again it was a little be low key, since it was so bloody cold to the point where we couldn't really spend much time out side...
 |
| Yes, you can by fireworks over the counter at your local supermarket. |
 |
| Setting up and watching the New Years street fireworks at midnight. |
 |
| The chickens were bit sick looking - maybe just depressed about the weather? |
No comments :
Post a Comment