I better be NOT that much into it !

Picture this -> 2 guys, spending the evening sitting in a dimly lit room, completely surrounded by 100’s of vivacious girls !!!  Wooooooooo ….sounds like the ultimate male fantasy??? Well, not quite !!! For Anil and I, it was a torture beyond comprehension…. ‘cos right in front of us, was a large cinema screen playing of all things, a typical girlie-movie …insanely titled ‘He’s just not that much into you’ ! [Trust me, the name wasn't really the worst thing about the movie ;) ]

3 of our friends had dragged us into this mess, and while they sat beside us chuckling and giggling at all the supposed-jokes that the movie seemed to be so full of, we were left scratching our heads trying to figure out what-on-earth was so damn funny about them ! I really can’t imagine what would have been going through the heads of the producers when they decided to make this chunk of nonsense! Agreed, that they had managed to pull in an impressive star-cast [...including the sultry Scarlet Johanssen]…but to drag the movie for 6 long hours ??? That’s simply unpardonable ! [Ok, maybe it didn't quite last 6 hours ...but it definitely did seem that long ] …..Frankly, had they suspended us heads-down and dipped us into a tank of boiling water, whilst simultaneously passing bolts of electric current through our backs, there’s a chance that the ordeal may have been a shade more pleasurable !

 Perhaps, what left me so irked was the fact that earlier in the day, while travelling down from Leeds, I had put the 3 odd hours that I had in the train to good use by watching yet another girlie movie called ‘27 dresses’! 2 girlie movies in one day was definitely more than what my permissible tolerance levels could take ! And the fact that we were seated in the 2nd row of the ‘Gandhi class’ at the theater didn’t help either ! 

I hate to admit this….but off-late, thanks to all the wonderful friends that I have [who either drag me to the movies, or at times, merely force me to watch them myself... just 'cos they have watched it ]; I’ve been subjected to quite a heavy dosage of girlie movies – right from the outright mushy romances, to the sentimentally outrageous !!! Thinking about it, I guess I’m starting to become an authority on the subject ! I’ve actually been offering expert advice on girlie movies to some of my friends here, and believe me, they’ve been quite pleased with the suggestions

But fear not …I can proudly declare that my all time fave movies still remain ‘Braveheart’ and ‘Shawshank Redemption’….and the occassional girlie movie for the sake of my dear friends should do no harm ! Atleast, that’s what I thought ….until recently, when some of my closest mates started pointing out drastic changes that seem to have swept across my life :O ! They allege that I’ve started to think differently…. and that my entire outlook has changed ! As a matter of fact, a little bit of self-introspection does kinda reveal the gravity of the situation !  I have indeed changed in the recent past !!!….but what role has all the movies from ‘Before Sunrise’ to ‘Music and lyrics’ played in this, I am not entirely sure :O

Looking back, some of my deeds in the past couple of weeks have even taken ME by surprise ! For instance, all my life, I’d taken pride in the way I maintain [...or rather NOT maintain] my cupboards. Basically, I’m one of those persons who never believed in putting so much effort into building something that had to be broken up at some stage anyways …..Which in essence means, that I normally just throw all my clothes right into any bit of space available in my jam-packed wardrobe ! Over the years, every single attempt my mom had ever made to instill some discipline into me had disastrously ended in vain… And believe it or not, last weekend, I actually spent nearly half a day cleaning up my wardrobe ! It was hard labour, no doubt….Nevertheless, the end-result was fantastic….I actually got all my shirts neatly folded and arranged in one stack …..and the trousers in another !!! Oh, and did I mention that the formals were stacked separately from the casuals ? :O As a matter of fact, some of those shirts and trousers actually got in contact with an iron box, perhaps for the first time ever !

Well, anyways, I guess these are all fairly innocuous habits to have developed….But the greater concern to me is that off-late,  I seem to have turned into an inveterate shopaholic ! Again, thanks to the influence of the ’society’ around me, I just can’t resist picking up goodies when I see them on display at the malls ! In the last 2-3 months alone, I’ve probably spent more on shopping than what I’ve done, in the whole of last year ! Obviously, this is not one of the best traits one could develop during the mother-of-all credit crunches !!!

The list just doesn’t end there ! 2 days before leaving to India on vacation, I was faced with an eerie feeling that I had never experienced in my life before - I was already done with my packing….all 45 kgs of it ! :O In my 26 years of humble existence, I’ve made innumerable trips, across 100s of cities in over 20 countries….and never once had I started my packing more than a night in advance !

Which brings us back to the million-pound question – what the hell is happenning to me ? It’s never been this bad before, and its definitely not the right kind of direction I wanna be heading in ! But I guess it’s not too late yet….Perhaps,all I need to do is to grab a few beers, download some gripping action thrillers, sit down and chill-out !  But will that get my life back on track ??? Maybe ……‘Definitely, maybe’ !!!

The Berlin Airlift !!!

[The economy is crashing ..the Pound is at an all-time low...Industries all over the UK are shutting shop and 1000's are losing their jobs ! Honestly, the year couldn't have started-off in a more depressing way ! So how does one get away from all the madness ? Well, as for us, we pack our bags and head-off for a weekend-break to Berlin ! ]

One of the things that has always fascinated me about European cities is the rich history that most of them possess. Whilst many of these cities have not really seen much action since the end of World War 2, Berlin conspicuously stands out, having had an incredibly tumultuous existence post 1945, as well !

Once the opulent capital of the powerful Prussian empire, Berlin’s power and influence had shot up during the Nazi era, when it became the nerve-centre of Hitler’s ‘Third Reich’ ! Completely laid to waste by World War 2 ….and the ‘Battle for Berlin’ which ended it, the city hardly had the time to recuperate …before it was torn apart again by the Berlin wall ! The Soviets had taken control of East Berlin and the Western Allies had the Western half…and the decades of Cold War that followed had far-reaching consequences for the city – which saw itself caught in the middle of severe Soviet-American tensions ! With the fall of the wall in 1989 and the subsequent re-unification of Germany, Berlin regained its spot on the map as one of Europe’s leading cultural and economic centers !

Day 0  – 16th Jan, 2009
================

Technically speaking, this was not my first time in Germany. Back in September 08, during a visit to the French border city of Strasbourg as part of our France trip; Bharat and I had crossed the bridge across the Rhine into Germany ….and visited a small town called Kehl. Though we had spent just about an hour there, it was enough for us to proudly proclaim that we had set foot on German soil !

However, the real opportunity to venture into the heart of Deutschland, knocked in the late hours of a cold October night, when I came across some dirt cheap [ £40 ] return tickets on Easyjet, to the German capital of Berlin ! Following a quick conf-call with my old bootcamp-mates based in Slough – Krishna and Adarsh, the deal was sealed ! Apart from the 3 of us, Shiva too joined the bandwagon later on.

Thus on Friday evening on the 16th of Jan, Shiva and I left office a little early and took the Easyjet flight from Bristol to Berlin Schonefeld airport. About an hour later, we were joined at the airport by Krishna and Adarsh,  who had flown in from London Gatwick airport.

Adarsh, Shiva and Krishna outside the Berlin Schonefeld airport

From Berlin – 2009

Shiva and I had originally planned to put the odd hour of wait required at the airport to good use, by checking out the exquisite stores and restaurants that we expected Schonefeld to have ! But incidentally, that turned out to be too much of a luxury to ask for - the airport was pretty scanty and quite unfitting for a major European capital !

Turns out, there’s a bit of history behind that as well ! During the days of divided-Berlin, air traffic into the city was strictly regulated and only the allies were allowed to fly into their respective sectors in the city. As a result, most International long-haul flights were routed through Frankfurt – a legacy which continues to this day. Besides, the authorities on either side of the Berlin wall were forced to build their own separate infrastructure, as they couldn’t use each other’s ….as a result, Berlin had 2 airports, 2 major railway stations and so on. Whilst Schonefeld had been the main airport for the Communist half of East Berlin, Tegel airport, had served the requirements of the West.

Back in 1948, when land-locked West-Berlin was completely blocked by East Germany with the intention of starving it to submission; the Western allies had defied the Soviets by airlifting all the necessary supplies into West Berlin. The operation, referred to as the ‘Berlin Airlift’ had cost the allies heavily, but ultimately enabled them to hold on to their stakes in Berlin !

Today, Schonefeld is the hub of most low-cost airlines flying into Berlin, whilst the better flights land at Tegel ….and that kind of explains why the former seems to be a few decades behind in terms of offering state-of-the-art facilities.

Before we left the terminal, we bought ourselves a few ‘Berlin Welcome Cards’ from the Tourist-office. For just about 18 euros apiece, it included a 48-hour unlimited pass to use any of Belin’s public transportation modes, maps of Berlin, discount Vouchers, post-cards and other goodies to serve the needs of any tourist visiting the city !

As we walked out of the airport, the first sight that greeted us [..besides the ice-covered terrain] was the long line of Mercedes-Benz taxis parked on the ramp ! Germany, quite evidently, is the home to Mercedes and every single cab around seemed to be a Merc ! However, we tried to ignore that and walked straight across the icy path, to the train station, which was about 5 minutes away. From there, an S-Bahn train took us directly into the heart of the city at Alexanderplatz , in about 45 minutes !

After taking a few moments to admire the huge, lit-up TV tower at Alexanderplatz, we walked across in search of  Hotel Agon …which was not too far away. The rooms at the hotel were quite comfy with pretty decent facilities…..and for just about 30 Euros per room for a night [breakfast included ], it was a steal !

Perhaps it had something to do with us being in the eastern part of the city [which had previously been under Communist rule],  but the cost of living in Berlin did indeed seem to be unbelievably low…….. in comparison to most other capital cities of Western Europe ! Not that I had anything to complain about …but this was turning out to be one of the most economical Euro trips I’ve made in the recent past !

The view of Alexanderplatz from the balcony of our room at Hotel Agon

From Berlin – 2009

Breaching the Berlin Wall !

Day 1 – 17th Jan 2009, Berlin
====================

We had all been banking on Krishna’s supposed German language skills to take us through our conversational needs in the city. Our man, had attended a 1-month course in German, few years ago at Bangalore. But that morning in the hotel, whilst having a crash-conversation with an elderly couple over breakfast, when he translated something that the lady told us as “It is too cold outside…so remove your shoes before you go !”, we kinda got a picture on how well he might have listened to the lectures back then

Anyways, thanks to all the travelling we’d been doing over the last 2 years across various German-speaking cities in Switzerland, France and Austria, I knew enough German to comprehend that the sign-boards reading ‘Herren’ and ‘Damen’ outside the washrooms meant ‘Gents’ and ‘Ladies’ respectively ! As for the rest, Berliners seemed to speak pretty decent English …and almost everyone we met had an impeccable accent as well ! [It so happens that in preparation for the 2006 football World Cup, most of the customer-facing officials in the city had been trained in English ! ]

Our original plan for the day was to go on a guided Bike-tour around the city. However, the moment we stepped out of our hotel, we realized that the entire city had turned into one huge skating rink ! The pavements, sidewalks and squares were all frozen and needless to say, it was extremely slippery and walking in itself, seemed to be quite a perilous task !

Walking on the icy paths

From Berlin – 2009

Thus, forced to drop our Bike tour plan, we resorted to Plan B [....for a change, we had actually been equipped with a plan B :O ], which meant taking the ‘New Berlin’ walking tour. Since we had over an hour until the tour began, we explored the area around Alexanderplatz and walked down to the Berliner Dom [ Berlin Cathedral ]on the banks of the river Spree . With temperatures at around -3 that day, it didn’t surprise us that the river had blocks of ice floating across it!

A while later, an S-bahn train brought us to the most famous landmark of Berlin – the Brandenburg Gate ! Being an iconic symbol of Berlin, the Gate appears on many of the Euro cent coins minted in Germany today !

Bridging the gap between the Soviets and the Americans at the Brandenburg Gate !

From Berlin – 2009

The ‘New Berlin’ tour meets right outside the Brandenburg Gate and by the time we got there, a huge crowd had already gathered for it. The tour is organized by the same ‘New Europe’ tour company, who conducts the ‘New Amsterdam’ tour, which I had taken when I was in the city on Xmas day. Must admit, they offer some of the most informative and entertaining guided walking-tours that I have ever come across, and I would highly recommend it (in any of the cities that they operate in) ! To top it all up, the tours are free, and operate on a tips-only basis [...which means, u only pay how much u want to, if want to  !]

Our guide for the day was a Swedish guy named Linus, and with about 30 other people in the group, we kicked-off from the Pariser Platz near the Brandenburg gate !  [The statue of Goddess Victoria that stands on top of the gate today, had been taken across to Paris by Napoleon, when he defeated the Prussians in 1806. 8 years later, the Prussians had defeated the French and brought the statue back here, and named the square as 'Pariser Platz' or 'Paris Square', ridiculing the French !]

Memorial to the murdered jews of Europe

From Berlin – 2009

Linus lead us past the German Parliament building – the Reichstag and through the sprawling ‘Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe’,  to an open parking-lot in the middle of a posh residential locality ! Except for a small sign-board on one corner, no one would have even guessed what lay under this innocuous parking-lot !

This was the site of Hitler’s bunker – the one where he and his mistress Eva Braun had spent the last few days of their lives…..until he shot himself in the head, on the face of defeat [...and Eva took cyanide ] !! The site had been deliberately kept anonymous and unremarkable by the East German government, who wanted to prevent it from being turned into a neo-Nazi shrine !

The site of Hitler's bunker

From Berlin – 2009

Next, we walked across to the erstwhile headquarters of the Nazi Luftwaffe (Air-force). The Luftwaffe HQ was a massive building, and at its time, used to be the largest office building in Europe ! Ironically, the building was untouched by Allied bombings during WW2, and it is surprising how a building covering an entire city block could be missed when the rest of the city had been bombed to bits !

A little ahead from the Luftwaffe, we came across one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall ! To be honest, what I had been [wrongly ..] expecting of the wall [...given its cult status] was something as grand and as regal as, perhaps the Great Wall  of China !

The Berlin Wall !!!

From Berlin – 2009

But what it turned out to be, was something else altogether ! I mean, the compound wall in the backyard of my house in India was thicker than this [..maybe not as high, though] ! However, as the guide explained to us, for the 28 years that the Wall was in operation, it had served as a mighty, impregnable and brutal barrier between East and West Berlin….guarded round the clock by merciless Communist soldiers ! The No-Man’s land around the wall had infamously been known as the ‘Death Strip’, cos’ anyone who dared to cross over from the East to the West, would have been mercilessly shot dead ! In spite of this, many people had miraculously managed to escape, but over 200 were unsuccessful and ultimately paid with their lives ! Today, thankfully, Berlin is a free city and with no Commie Guards watching over us, we were able to freely walk across from the East to the West and back again !

From the wall, we were led to the area known as Checkpoint Charlie – where the famous border checkpoint between the American and the Soviet sectors of Berlin used to stand. Named after the 3rd letter of the phonetic alphabet [after Alpha and Beta], Checkpoint Charlie was an iconic symbol of the Cold War and was one of the only few border checkpoints along the Iron Curtain between the Eastern and Western blocs !

After a short break at a nearby Cafe, we proceeded on to see the Gendarmenmarkt Square – widely regarded as the most beautiful square in Berlin, and the Bebelplatz square – where in 1933, the infamous Nazi book-burning incident had taken place. Nearly 20,000 books that were deemed un-German by the Nazis had been burned here in one day !

The French Cathedral at Gendarmenmarkt Square

From Berlin – 2009

Opposite the Bebelplatz on the ‘Unter den Linden’ boulevard, stood a statue of the Prussian king – Frederick the Great ……who was one of the only persons to be referred to as ‘The Great’ during his lifetime. It is said that he always wore red coats to battle, so that his soldiers wouldn’t get to know if he was injured and bleeding. [...and according to our guide, it was for a similar reason that Hitler always made it a point to wear brown pants ]

The tour finally culminated at the Berliner Dom on ‘Museum island’.

The Berliner Dom

From Berlin – 2009

We left a 20 Euro tip to Linus and as we set off to grab some lunch, we came across something that we had least expected to find in Berlin – a massive protest march against the Israeli attacks on Gaza ! There were hundreds..or perhaps 1000s of Palestinians and Arabs out on the streets, chanting slogans and holding placards.

Protest against the Israeli attacks on Gaza

From Berlin – 2009

Hoardes of German riot police were on stand-by too…however, the march was peaceful and we managed to grab a bite at a Subway outlet nearby.

That done, we headed back to the Reichstag – the German Parliament house.

The Reichstag

From Berlin – 2009

Out of all the monuments in Berlin today, I believe the Reichstag holds one of the most crucial places in German history, and perhaps that of the world ! Back in 1933, it was this building that got mysteriously burned down and a certain Mr.Adolf Hitler who had been democratically sworn-in as Chancellor of Germany 4 weeks prior, put the blame on the Communists and urged the President to issue a state of Emergency…That ultimately led to Hitler taking on dictatorial powers and the rest, as they say, is History ! [It had never been officially proven as to who caused the fire, but then, you don't need to have a surname of 'Holmes' to realize that the bloody Nazis were themselves behind it !]

The Reichstag today sports a huge Glass Dome on its roof and is accessible to the public for free, from morning till late night. Virtually anyone can walk in to the Parliament building and pass through the airport-style security-checks, and take an elevator to the Dome to enjoy the wonderful 360-degree view of the city that it offers. Besides, the Glass Dome sits directly above the German Parliament Chamber and presents a bird’s-eye view of the proceedings below. It has been so designed that, should the Parliamentarians ever forget where the real power lies, all they’d have to do is to look up and see the people watching over them in the Glass Dome !

Us, in front of a lit up Brandenburg Gate

From Berlin – 2009

By the time we got out of the Reichstag, it was pitch dark and we took an S-Bahn to Potsdamer Platz – an ultra-modern district of the city, dotted with massive high-rises and futuristic malls. Up until 2 decades ago, Potsdamer Platz had been mostly a No-Man’s land, with the Berlin wall cutting right through its heart. With the fall of the wall, came major redevelopments that radically changed the face of the Platz !

Potsdamer Platz

From Berlin – 2009

Whilst Krishna, Shiva and Adarsh headed back to the Hotel, I split up from the gang and went in for the ‘Pub Crawl’, again organised by the New Berlin Tour company. Linus, our guide during the Walking-tour had recommended this, and since the other 3 do not drink, I had to make up for it all by myself ! The tour turned out to be pretty exciting and was quite an eye-opener, as well …. For about 11 euros, I was joined by about a 100 co-travellers and 3 guides – who led us from one pub to another, giving us a crash course on Berlin’s nightlife scene ! Oh ….and, did I mention there were a few free drinks thrown in as well ?

The Prussian Capital

Day 2 – 18th Jan 2009, Berlin

=====================

It was our last day here in the German capital of Berlin. BBC had predicted heavy rains and sub-zero temperatures for the day …..but as it turned out, they were wrong on both the counts !

We checked-out of Hotel Agon following breakfast, and walked across to the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz.

The Berlin TV Tower

From Berlin – 2009

The TV tower, known as Berliner Fernsehturm, was built by the Communist rulers of the East Germany (GDR) during the late 1960’s as a show of Communist Power. Standing at 368 metres, it is a cool 40 metres taller than the Eiffel tower….and can be seen from almost anywhere in Berlin !

Tickets to go up to the viewing gallery would normally cost 10 euros, but with our Berlin Welcome Cards, we got them for 7.5 euros apiece. The elevator, though cramped, took us to the top in just under 40 seconds…and being a clear day, we were presented with some spectular views of the city of Berlin.

The view from the TV Tower

From Berlin – 2009

When the communists originally built the tower, people had doubted the quality of its construction….and often joked that if the tower were to fall, it would have spanned across the Berlin wall into West Berlin …and then East Berliners would only have had to take the elevator to escape into the West But thanks to
German engineering, that was not to happen !

Next, we headed off to visit the largest palace in Berlin – the Schloss Charlottenburg ! About half an hour’s ride in the S-bahn and a short walk later, we were standing in front of the gates to this marvellous Prussian palace !

The guys in front of the Charlottenburg Palace

From Berlin – 2009

The Palace was commissioned by Sophie Charlotte – wife of the Prussian king Frederick 1 in the 17th century, and had been inspired by the Palace of Versailles, though only a fraction of its size. The palace had been heavily bombed by the Allies during WW2, and most of what we saw, was the result of painful reconstruction. There were photographs displayed inside the palace, depicting the extent of the damage caused by the aerial bombings ….Having been used to seeing reminders of the German bombings back in England, it was interesting to finally see the other side of the coin !
After a quick tour of the impressive baroque interiors of the palace, we proceeded to the large gardens at the back – which again had been inspired by the Royal Gardens adjoining the Palace of Versailles !

Being the peak of winter, the trees had all shed their leaves, and the pavements & lawns were covered in thick ice. What was most impressive though, was the completely frozen lake at the end of the gardens !

The frozen lake behind the palace

From Berlin – 2009

It was just amazing !  There was a small kid blissfully playing across the frozen lake, and seeing that, I was quite tempted to take a stroll on the ice myself. However, the one thing I wasn’t quite sure of, was whether the ice was strong enough to bear my weight?

Well, there was only one way to find out ! I immediately called on the ever-ready-to-pose Shiva and offered him the prospect of a spectacular solo shot of him standing on the frozen lake ! He was skeptical initially, but the offer was too hard for him to refuse….He precariously balanced himself on the edge of the lake … “Go further inside, mate …nothing will happen”, I encouraged him   A few feet into the frozen lake and the ice seemed as solid as concrete ! My safety thus guaranteed, I moved in

Walking on ice

From Berlin – 2009

On our way back from the Palace, we took a bus towards the ‘Zoological Gardens’ stop, rather than taking the S-Bahn trains. This turned out to be a wise decision, as we got to witness the glitz and glamour of some of Berlin’s poshest streets.

Kurfuerstendamm boulevard

From Berlin – 2009

The Kurfuerstendamm boulevard that we passed through was perhaps the Champs-Ellysees of Berlin. Designer stores and swanky malls lined the entire stretch of the street. Gucci, Espirit, Tommy Hilfiger, BMW – you name it, it had it all ! We had a late lunch at Burger King, strolled the avenue to buy some souvenirs, and stopped by to admire the awe-inspiring ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

Ruins of the bombed-out Kaiser Wilhelm Church (in the background)

From Berlin – 2009

The church had been bombed to this state during WW2, and being right in the middle of a swanky, upmarket district, it stood out like a sore thumb, as a testimony to the true horror of what the Great War had inflicted upon this city !

We had a few hours left for our flights back to Britain, but it was already getting dark and the shops were all closing down. Armed with our Travel Cards and nothing else to do, we spent the next couple of hours wandering the length and breadth of the city by all modes of transport that our Travel Cards would take us on – the S-Bahn, Trams, bus and the underground U-Bahn !

Finally, later in the night, Shiva and I boarded an Easyjet flight back to Bristol, while Krishna and Adarsh headed off to London Luton.

And thus ended, what could possibly be the last Euro trip on my current Schengen Visa, before it expires in Feb. Not bad at all, considering that since I got the visa in Sep 08, it had seen me wandering across France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Netherlands and Germany !