Berlin -- my current home...

So people always ask me why I love Berlin so much, and I always say it's because of the culture and diversity that you can find here... However, sitting here in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, I am reminded of all its history. Berlin is not just culture, good food, grafitte (spray painted walls) and music. Berlin is also history, and horrifying things that happened as recently as my own lifetime. 

"Es ist geschehen, folglich, kann es wieder geschehen." Primo Levi

Somehow this is also a reason that makes me love Berlin. Not because it can happen again, not because it happened, but because even though it happened, it has changed, and today, Berlin is one of the most accepting and diverse cities in the world. They make it a point to remember all the atrocities committed, in order to prevent it from happening again. They learn from their mistakes, instead of perpetuating them over and over again. 

The first time I came to Berlin, I was overwhelmed by all the history and horrors that happened here. It was hard to wrap my head around it. Now, almost 3 years later, it is still hard. But it's not overwhelming anymore. It is a part of Berlin, and ironically, it is a part of what makes it such and interesting and fascinating city. 

Lately there's been a lot of talk about racism, particularly against the Turkish/Muslim community. There's the whole trial going on of the woman who committed several racial crimes against the Turkish people, for more than a decade, before being caught. It's horrible! But the upside is that *she was caught* and is on trial for everything she did. It is not accepted as normal. It has no place in modern-day Germany! But unfortunately, there are still isolated cells that think that way... :( 

All we can do is hope that Primo Levi's words don't come to be proven right, and that it never, ever! happens again... 

Mitfahrge...what???

Now I have to mention the crazy Mitfahrgelegenheit rides I had.

First, let me explain: Mitfahrgelegenheit is a shared ride system, where you can post on a website when you’re going from point A to point B by car, how much you would charge people to come with you. Trains in Germany are quite expensive, so this is a fairly cheap and good alternative, although you never know quite what to expect. I used it 3 times in total.

The first one was short and mostly normal ride, just 2hrs, from Tubingen to Frankfurt…

The second was from Berlin to Stuttgart (which is close to Tubingen, where I was going by bus). First of all, the guy gave me a meeting point way outside Berlin, and it took me like an hour to get there, but I did, and on time. The guy, however, wasn’t there, and called me to say he would be 15 minutes late. One hour and 15 minutes later, he finally appeared, with his girlfriend, who he was going to drop off in some other undetermined location. Anyway, I’m already getting antsy because all I want is to get back to Tubingen, but ok. Then we start the trip, and he starts talking about the French, how he really did not like them, how they were mostly men with small penises and big egos, and were always trying to compensate for something. No joke. A few hours later, we stopped for drinks and water, and guess what? The car wouldn’t start again!! So we had to get out and push, but luckily it was a small car and we were on an incline, so it worked, and we started off again in a few minutes. But seriously!!!

Anyway, I was tired, and if you know me, you know that you put me in a bus/car/train/boat/plane or any other form of transportation, and I get sleepy, immediately. So I sort of dozed off. I had to make it to Stuttgart by a certain time, because there was only one bus an hour to Tubingen, and the driver knew it. He said no problem, we should make it there right on time. When I woke up however, he was pissed off and even though he didn’t say it out loud, it was clear that he expected me to stay awake and talking to him (about French men and their penises??). By this time we’re arriving in Stuttgart, and should be at the airport 10 minutes before the bus leaves. Perfect. Except the guy PASSES THE AIRPORT!!! He keeps going! And I’m like “But.... The airport!!!” and he says that wasn’t the entrance, there’s another one. But he was making it up, and we had to drive several minutes in one direction, then turn around and drive several minutes in the other direction, to finally get to the airport, by which time I had obviously missed the bus. I have no doubt he did that on purpose, to “punish” me for sleeping!! Idiot.

Anyway, the third one was from Tubingen to Berlin, with this crazy, old hippie woman, in a fairly old station wagon, and 5 people, one of which happened to be this Brazilian guy who was visiting his girlfriend. Small world. She was kinda funny, and her car also had issues (she had to manually start it by opening the hood and pumping gas into the motor!!) but we made it to Berlin safely, and she dropped me off at the corner of A’s house, which was great!!!

So I have to say that I think I’ll avoid mitfahrgelegenheit in the future, unless I really, really need it. :)

Germany... History, surprises, smiles and more old friends...

Tubingen

Hmmm… Germany. So many things happened in Germany that I’m not sure where to start. Let’s try with the beginning…


I was going to Tubingen with E. on Tuesday night, and didn’t even notice when we passed the border, although I wish I had… not that it makes much difference, but I’m a silly girl.

Then spent a week in Tubingen, going to all sorts of little places, eating out, staying in, cooking, and generally having a well deserved break… before going to Frankfurt for only one night and couchsurfing with a lovely British girl and talking for hours… next day I had a flight to Berlin, where I arrived in the evening, and was staying at A’s house.


It’s strange what happens when you see people who mean a lot to you after you haven’t seen them for a while. It happened when I saw E. in Zurich. It happened again when I saw A. in Berlin, though on a smaller scale because with E, I hadn’t seen him in 7 years, and with A it hadn’t even been a year yet. But it was definitely one of those special meetings full of memories and joy. We walked around Berlin for hours and hours, and I got to see as much of the city as you can see in 5hrs, then went home to sleep for like 3hrs, and get up at 5am to get a train at 6am and go to Magdeburg* (sorta) where I was going to spend the weekend.

 Berlin Wall... If you turn around, 

on the same street there's a sign for the Holocaust Museum.

Berlin is amazing though. I don’t know, I felt quite overwhelmed all of the time I was there. Granted, I didn’t spend much time there, but I guess there’s so much history, so many incredible and awful things happened there, that somehow my brain kind of exploded and I couldn’t grasp it all. It was a very strange feeling, and I think I have to go back there and spend a decent amount of time, read a lot, see a lot, and try to absorb some of that history, in order to feel more at ease…


The weekend in Magdeburg was great, with lots of little coincidences and a lot of laughter. I met some important people and hopefully that means good things for my future… but more on that later.

Then back to Berlin on Monday morning and straight on to Tubingen for another few days with E. before coming back to Berlin and heading to Paris to meet my mom! You may wonder (and A., this one is for you) why I’m going back and forth all the time, but it wasn’t originally planned that way… but the beauty of traveling without a schedule is being able to change it at will...

 Hanging out with C. and J. 

My last night in Germany, was in Berlin again, and I got to see my other dear friends J. and C. They came to pick me up, were totally happy to see me, and we spend a few hours talking and catching up on the last few months since we had last seen each other in Argentina and Colombia.
The next day, my flight from Berlin to Paris had a few interesting moments, but you can read about that here.