GERMANY berlin (it´s cliche but you gotta bike around berlin!)
after four months in europe, i finally made it to berlin! my first stop was the tv tower by alexanderplatz to wait for randall. i was really excited to hang out with him since i saw enda in korea but had not seen randall since cusco… i sat in the fat tire bike tours office and a few minutes later randall arrived after giving his tour! on foot his place is kind of far, so he let me use a bike which meant i could not wear my backpack…but was amazed when he picked it up and rode his bicycle with my with it like it was nothing. good thing, since the last time i was on a bike was in mendoza riding around to all the wineries!
the next day, i got to go on the bike tour with randall. the people in the group were all nice and got along…and it was funny when one of the guys decided to ride in between this water faucet/fountain thing by the reichstag but got drenched as he slipped and skidded through it. it was especially funny since one of his mates caught it on video. ahahaha still makes me laugh.
on a more serious note, information given on the tour was thought-provoking and sometimes amuzing as we rode to famous sites (you know, like the brandenburger tor, a parking lot that now covers hitler´s bunker, checkpoint charlie…) around berlin. i never do tours since i end up getting distracted and bored, and i much prefer to read up on a subject. but since my friend was leading it, i kind of had to pay attention…and ended up getting a lot out of it. imagine that. the most powerful site for me was the memorial to the murdered jews of europe. we briefly stopped here where randall explained that the concrete slabs were purposefully uneven and on a slope to create a feeling of disorder. i think he said it was built this way so that it would be similar to how people felt going into the concentration camps. the next day, i rode back since i wanted to spend some time walking through this memorial. i was quite surprised to find a lot of people stepping all over the slabs, while others were playing hide-and-seek. this also contributed to the disordered feeling, as some were really somber while others giggled and enjoyed themselves.
Leave a Reply