I had a lovely Sunday. Went to brunch near a park. Just hung out in the sun/clouds that looked like they were going to rain on us and gossiped with everyone there. It was fun.
After that, we were going to go and play some football, but in the end, the rainclouds didn’t look like they were going to blow over and it was getting pretty dark, so JTW and I decided to head to Old Emerald Isle and see if we could possibly catch part of the cricket match. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out (Of course not – it’s Sunday and SOCCER day) and the bar had Irish soccer on the tele.
Well, not willing to be my own party pooper (JTW headed home to listen to the rest of the game) and having the cam in the backpack, I headed out to wander a little bit. I wound up going to an exhibit on “the topography of terror”, seeing some of the berlin wall, and then heading down toward checkpoint charlie.
I will say this. Checkpoint Charlie is in the middle of the city, and it’s got a lot of history surrounding it. The problem is that maybe it’s not what I expected in my mind. What I expected was a guardhouse, with remenants of wall on either side, and exhibits on the wall, etc. Maybe a little further down/around the corner some toursity shops.
What I got was a tiny little guardshack in the middle of the street. In front was some chick in an old army uniform holding up an american flag. On either side was a bunch of tourist shops selling various t-shirts, pieces of the berlin wall (in many many forms) and so on. The closest thing to a “museum” was walking between the topography of terror exhibit down the street – to checkpoint charlie. Basically, this is a bunch of plywood put up and laminated with the history of the division of berlin (after WW2) and the building of the wall, escapes and so on. Not really much of a museum – more just 8 foot by 16 foot panels of reading and photos all in the outdoors and on a busy street. Busy – *cough* being a relative term – there were more tour busses and tourists than there was actual people in the area.
What I found most interesting was that on the “american” side, (west berlin) there were still vacant lots, a couple buildings (with coffee shops and restaurants) and not much else. On the “Soviet” side – the “east” side of checkpoint charlie, there were shops, souvenier stands, and everyone trying to make a buck. You could get your passport stamped (In Russian or In English saying you went thru checkpoint charlie) for a fee, and pretty much anything that you want.
The ironic thing? hovering just behind checkpoint charlie on the East (think soviet) side of the “wall” was a restaurant. Ok that’s not the big deal. What was amusing was that it was specializing in “Mexican food” with “Moscow style coffee” and “american ice cream”. It honestly made me giggle. I doubt that the soviets had Mexican food or American Ice cream.
