3 Days in Berlin

Berlin has been surprisingly different. I've heard so much about it, so much good things about it, and i can't say it didn't meet my expectations, but it didn't exceed it either. Berlin is a beautiful city, yet also a very run down city. Yes, both combined, within the span of one street, you can have some really modern, beautiful architectures blended with some famous historical strictures such as the Brandenburg Gate, yet down the same street, graffiti and half demolish building with vacant office rooms give this sense of ery and empty feeling.

Anyway, some highlights of the city for me included hanging out with some good party people on the 15th floor patio over looking Alexanderplatz, where they filmed part of Bourne Identity. It was quite neat to remember that movie scene and standing in the center of the square or on top of the roof top. Another thing, people dressed as casual as they liked, kinda a nice change from the Toronto club where youºre expected to dress to some standard..... i mean the club was handing out blankets to keep they customers warm... what a nice change.

I learned that berliner is a jelly filled donut... so in Hamburg, the people are called Hamburger, Frankfurt, the people are call Frankfurters (German sausauge), and Berlin people are call Berliners.... so when JFK said he was a Berliner, he was saying he was a jelly filled donut. You wonºt be getting speech writing like that anymore, with the power of accessubg high speed information thru the internet.

Berlin, the wall... i have two words to describe how I felt opelessness and depressed. You look at the wall, itºs actually quite intiminating, standing about 15 feet tall with a round top edge. And the wall extends as far as the eyes can see. So you start feeling itºs hopeless if you put yourself in the shoes of someone living in tthe time whent he wall was up. Guard towers positioned to prevent unwanted traspasser, round top on wall so it would be difficult to cling to it for any type of climbing, and you start to feel depressed because all ideas that you come up with to get across begins to look farfetch when you put it on paper. But I must say thereºs been some great attempts from hang gliding, ziplinging, to hot air ballons. But what a site it was, you felt like a part of history when you walk thru the city seeing remenance of the wall.

I love beautiful architectures, Berlin has a hand full from the Reschstag to the Brandenburg Gate, and you walking around town, you donºt realize how large the Berlin borders are. But the strctures are beautiful and definiteily mementos.

Finally, I would just like to talk about the Jewish Mounment. It wasnºt much of an site that you would gravite towards. Except the more you look, the more you realize it resembles a cementary, and the awe and importance behind it. When looking and reading thru the information on the site, i was in astonishment of the well describe events of the geniciding. And i loved the reverence each person showed in the exhibition for the 1 hr - 1.5 hr tour.

ps. thanks mas and pat, the foot places you guys picked are excellent
oh, and the two girls we thought were canadian, they are, i bumped into them two more times before i left monday... what are the chances eh?