Azerbloggyblot: Berlin: A place where resilience lives and the people dig in!

LIFE IN BERLIN

Berliner love their alcohol -- here is a biking bar

Strange how different two cites like Barcelona and Berlin can both be great but so different. These were two cities highly toted as places I need to visit when speaking with others about my interest of going into Europe while overseas.

For a city (and country) that has been through so much pain, war and destruction, it is by far the most resilient. The people are proud and can be boisterousness when it is time to be part of sport or Euro-vision song parties (their representative-Lena-won!) But on the other hand they can be laid back and a bit unassuming.

My most memorable night was when Martin, whose flat I stayed at, took me out for a night on the town. We had a few drinks and spoke about the 80's during the time of the cold war and what life was about for each of us relating to communism.

Martin in front of East Side Wall

Martin shared that he was taught that the Americans were the enemy and I shared that I always thought that Soviets were going to bomb us but also... that we (or I) didn't view the east Germans as the enemy but rather an unfortunate people who got caught up in a dictatorship and pushed the people of East Berlin behind the wall. I asked if this perspective was accurate. He agreed that it wasn't what the people of East Berlin wanted but that it wasn't a horrible life "if we did what we were told."

As we strolled down down by the water where the Berlin wall use to stand (and still does in pieces), I had flashes in my mind from 1990 new clips of what turned out to be one of the last East German's shot as he scaled the wall and jumped into the river. Just two months later the wall came down. I looked at the water lit up by the full moon and asked if the bodies were ever retrieved. They were not.

The river lit by the moon

I was touched by Martin's admission as we stood quietly looking into the water. He shared that the collapse of the Wall brought tears to his eyes because of the opportunity he has been given because of it; his ability to travel all over the world (we met in Turkey) and freedom to explore life in ways he would have not otherwise been able.

It was a moment I won't forget. As we walked onto the bridge where there was once a check-point we poked fun at one another and shared our fears about how our respective government might drop an atomic bomb on our home-land. I have to admit that I never knew that the East German people thought this about Americans also. But it certainly makes sense being that they were being brain-washed by their ruling government just as we were about the Soviets back in the states.

It was getting late and Martin would be going to a music festival for the weekend and needed to meet up with his girlfriend. I don't think neither of us were really ready to say good-night but we did. And from the bridge, Martin walked freely over to the west side and I back to the east side with a big smile on my face and tears in my eyes.

I think I will always be committed to equality and actively engage in these kinds of conversations and movements because the freedom Martin gained has touched me too. Without Martin, I probably would have skipped Berlin. Who would think that the wall coming down and subsequently Martin's freedom, would lead to my coming to Berlin 21 years later?!

My last day I hung out with another German I met in Turkey--Yester. She and Andrea highlighted my Turkey run for a week. Though Andrea wasn't able to make it down to Berlin, Yester lives on the west side and so on Sunday-my last full day, we hung out. It was great to see the places she hangs and meet her friends--which were many--we kept bumping into them wherever we went.

The highlight of the day was Karoke in the park near the flea market. In the shadow of where another piece of the Berlin wall stood, Germans gathered--no longer identifying as eastern or wester Berliners but rather as a resilient whole. People of all ages would get up and sing and no matter how good or challenged one was to carry the tune, everyone would dig in, applaud and sang along. Everyone was a star!

And that is what Germany is all about!

Peace out Berlin! I will not forget!