Mayy 21, 2004
BERLIN, GERMANY
City Tour

I love Europe; I know I've mentioned that already, but one thing that always strikes me is their double-decker buses. We don't have then anymore... yet they do. It's alive and living, as a sight-seeing vehicle and as a means of public transportation.

After arriving in Berlin and checking in a very quiant and pretty hotel, we headed out to join a city tour. I love the subways and public transportation in Europe, and Germany is no exception. Well... except for the fact that trying to pronounce the places would give your tongue a vigorous exercise (try pronouncing [correctly!] "karfunktumm" and places like "sindtwelden" or something). Still it's better to chance the subway because at least, you can understand the letters, right? Try taking the subway in Egypt or China or Japan (although they don't have subways there... from when we were there... from what I remember, that is). Good luck trying to figure out the names of the places you're going to.

We decided to take the City Bus Tour (less chances of getting lost that way and you get to see all the points of interest) and then just return to places that interested us the next day. So that's what we did.

Important to me was the Berlin Wall since isn't that what Berlin is/was famous for? We finally did see it. Or at least, where it used to be since Berlin tore it down a few years back and what's left is just a mark that marks where the Berlin Wall was. And it's now found in the middle of the city, in the middle of the street. You really can't recognize it or even picture how it used to be even though there are descriptions aplenty.

We also went to the Jewish Museum which was very symbolic. It also saddens me to see how much discrimination can be found in man. Apparently, the Jews have been blamed from everything and anything under the sun until man has become more 'civilized' and accepting of others. Still... it's just really sad and shameful for something like that to happen in such a grand scale. Paolo, my WWII-fanatic kabarkada, told me just recently that Germans are ashamed of that part of their history. In retrospect, who wouldn't be? You're sharing the same roots as the one man who committed mass murders of millions of innocent people. Although I'm really glad I never tried it, Paolo said that they especially hate the name "Nazi" and I guess there's some truth in that since I never saw the Nazi flag anywhere. And I have to admit to liking that symbol since it seems so... complicated yet simple.

Of course, in going to other countries, one must learn useful words in their language. Words like "danke" which means thanks and other highly useful words like "ausgang" and "eingeng" which means exit and entry, respectively. Wish the vacation could've lasted longer.