11 June - Germany Trip Part 2 (Day 144)

Upon arrival, we checked in to a very big youth hostel. It was recently opened in April and the facilities were all very new. It was during registration that I realised she held a Malaysian passport. This showed how little I knew about her. She picked a female dormitory while I went for a mixed dorm. She had bad experience last time in a mixed dorm because the guys were snoring away. I would be experiencing worse later on.

After some washing up, we had our breakfast at a small coffeehouse. Sitting by the window, we were deciding whether to join the walking tour as it was drizzling. In the end, we went for the tour which was very informative and entertaining. Most of the tourists were Americans, and our guide was a Scottish. His thick Scottish accent took me quite a while to get used to.
Although the tour was only half a day, it was very enriching as the guide was very experience. It was in fact a historical tour, with the timeline starting from rise of Prussia, to WWII, to the Cold War and ending with the tearing down of Berlin Wall. He told us a great deal on Federick the Great, one of the most famous German kings. But why was he The Great, I have cleanly forgotten by now. I guessed he was the one who made Prussia powerful. By the way, Prussia was the northern Germany in the past, and Bavaria together with Austria was the southern part.

The guide also brought us to this carpark behind a condominium and said that this used to be the bunker where Hilter committed suicide following the surrender of Germany. He also shared with us some info on the Nazi and the SS but they don’t ring a bell now. The only thing that I could still remember vaguely is the Berlin Wall. After WWII, Germany was divided into 2, West and East, with the Allies controlling West and Soviet controlling East. Berlin itself was torn into 2 as well. In fact, Berlin was situated in East Germany, and hence people in West Berlin were kind of stranded.

As communism was crippling East Germany, many professionals in East Berlin fled to the West. This resulted in a talent drain and as such, the East ordered a wall to be erected and placed guards there. The Berlin Wall was not a single wall. It was in fact 2 walls, one on the West territory, the other on the East. The middle ground is known as Death Strip, or No Man’s Land.

Despite the risk of being shot, many still took their chances to cross the No Man’s Land. The Easterners wanted to escape from the communists, the Westerners wanted to visit their love ones who were still trapped in the East. There were many casualties of course. At the end of Cold War, the communist government of East Germany was crumpling. People could sense that freedom finally had arrived and thus gathered at the Wall. During the press conference, the East government was pressurized by international media’s questions on the dire situation of the country. In the end, whoever the decision maker for the East at the time, broke down and answered “yes”, the Wall will be opened.

It was immediately broadcast all over the country. One student climbed on top of the Wall, took a sledgehammer and slammed it against the Wall, producing a crack. He was immediately shot down by the guard using a water gun. Another student took his place. He was shot down as well. But there were thousands in line to do the job. None of the guards dared to fire a single round, as they heard the broadcast themselves. It was chaos then. A good kind of chaos as everyone, women and children did all they could to break the wall. Soon, the Berlin Wall was demolished. The Cold War was over.

It was touching story on how people in the past who were deprived of freedom, fought and attained it in the end. As a finale, the guide gave a summary of what he had shared with us whole morning, in a quick 90sec. He earned himself round of applause from us and some tips from a few tourists.
After the tour, we went in search of the famous CurryWurst in the city centre of Berlin. We found this out from the guide book but to our disappointment, it was not a restaurant as we had expected. It was just a roadside stall near a cross junction. And it was nothing special. Sausage with curry powder. Then we went shopping in a large shopping mall, something like the Takashimaya in Orchard. It was the first time I entered a shopping mall in Europe. It would be silly to spend our time in shopping mall like this and hence we decided to visit the Jewish Museum. I had a glimpse on how hard lives were for the Jews, from the past till recent years. How they were made scapegoats for every little disasters happening in Europe, from The Plague, The Great Depression, The War and so on.

After that, we returned to hostel to bathe and rest. XP had caught a cold while walking in the rain and made herself a cup of Panadol Lemon Tea. I had no problem with rain. I was from Brittany after all. Having rested a bit, we decided to explore the night life of Berlin. I had info that the night life was crazy, with sex pubs everywhere. People literally perform sex on stage in those pubs. But both of us were not really into such adventures, and moreover she was feeling rather unwell, and hence we opted for an Irish pub. There we exchanged gossips about our teammates and speculated a few scandals.

At 1130pm, we decided to call it a day. I returned to the 8-men dorm and found that I was the only one back by that time. I guess most people would exploit Berlin nightlife to the fullest. When I was about to fall to sleep, I heard a couple entered. Weird noises were coming from the bed near the entrance. “ooo, argh… yes… oh… come on.. yeah.. argh~~~~”. “Was it good baby??? Argh….” After 30min, they left. I tried not to pay much attention to their sex moans.

Shortly afterwards, another couple entered and were talking at the entrance. Not another sex party? I thought. One of them switched on the lights and the girl came over to wake me up. She asked was I here alone all the while and did anyone else entered the room. I said yes and I heard them having sex. She said her bed was in a mess and there was a used condom lying around. The boyfriend asked if I could recognize them and I said no because it was in the dark and I was far away. They felt that someone just came in to have a convenient sex since the bed was near the door. They left and reported the incident and requested to change their beds.

After the sex saga ended, it was 3am in the morning.