Brandy and Bruce and Berlin

Two friends of ours from Victoria, Brandy and Bruce, are heading to Ghana next week to take part in a Habitat for Humanity building project. They've been planning towards this goal for some time, and worked tirelessly raising money for their trip. You can read all about the adventure here. They decided to take advantage of their time on this side of the ocean to visit some of Bruce's relatives in England, a friend of theirs in Switzerland, and us here in Jena. They were here from last Thursday to Monday, and we decided to take advantage of the weekend for a trip to Berlin, which we hadn't yet gotten around to visiting.

But first they had a couple of days in Jena, of course. Thursday evening, after I got home from work, we sat around catching up and sampling a variety of local beers before heading out on the town for supper. The first place we wanted to go to was completely full, as were the second and third places we tried. Finally we found a bar/restaurant on Wagnergasse, the cafe-lined street downtown, which had a vacant table and suitably German-style food. Over beers before heading out we were discussing some of the cultural differences between things in Germany and in Canada, and one of the things that had come up was the outfits worn by tradespeople, particularly carpenters. While they don't always wear the sort of protective gear that we're used to seeing in Canada (I haven't seen protective goggles on a construction site yet here, and hard hats are few and far between, even as people walk below loads), but the carpenters often wear these cute little vests and corduroy bell bottoms with two zippered flies. Construction workers in Canada wouldn't be caught dead wearing these things, but here it's completely normal and expected. I'd read an article on Der Spiegel online about their tradition as journeymen as well, where they go out in extra funny outfits and hitchhike around the country for three years and a day, staying at least 50 km away from home, with only a small pack, in order to learn different techniques to master their trade. The article explains that it's much less common than before, but they can still be seen sometimes around Hamburg, where there are lots of jobs.

Anyhow, I'd mentioned this earlier in the evening, not thinking any more of it, but while we were sitting down to a tasty supper two of these guys walked in with crazy outfits and hats, and one of them launched into a spiel explaining that they'd just arrived in town, and were collecting some change to get a hotel room for the night. Then they went from table to table, asking for money. I explained that we were foreigners and weren't so familiar with the tradition, and the guy (who spoke perfect English, as he's not from our region of Germany), gave us a bit of an explanation. They also had these awesome spiral-shaped walking sticks with them, which come from a branch of white beech which had a vine grow around it while it was still developing, and the wood grows into a spiral shape as it grows around the dead vine. Here's Bruce and Brandy with one of the journeymen, though he definitely had less crazy bell-bottoms than the other guy. They were super-friendly, and we saw them again later at another bar. One of them said that if we saw them a third time they'd buy us a round. Naturally, we didn't see them again.Friday Bruce and Brandy explored the city a little, checking out the market and some of the shops, and sampling the local bratwurst (three in Bruce's case!!!), and we had a relatively quiet night at home as we were catching an early train to Berlin Saturday morning. Our friends Calin and Susanne came along for the weekend too, and we all met up at the train station. Jeremi brought some snacks for the train, including some leftover sprout salad which we're picking at here, and a giant sausage, complete with giant knife and protective cloth, which Bruce cut up for us on the train.

After arriving in Berlin at 11:00 we bought transit passes for the weekend and headed to our hotel to drop off our bags. Our hotel was in the west end of the city, in a neighbourhood called Charlottenburg, and conveniently located near both a subway stop and an S-Bahn (commuter train) station. It was also located between two strip clubs, but the hotel itself was great. The room that Jeremi and I had was just hysterical. It was so narrow that with the two single beds in it there wasn't enough room to walk between them properly - only one calf could fit in the space at a time and you had to sidle through. But it was clean and friendly, and the breakfast was great.

We took the train back downtown, and started walking toward Checkpoint Charlie, which used to be one of the controlled crossings between east and west Berlin, going from the American sector to the Soviet-controlled side. We wanted to stop somewhere along the way for food but it took us a while to find a restaurant as the neighbourhood was a bit posh, and filled with brand-building flagship stores. There were several car dealerships (including Bugatti, Ferrari, Mini, and VW) which were all about the showroom experience rather than actually having a test-drive or anything like that. Finally we stumbled into a lovely Italian restaurant which had great food and was conveniently located at Checkpoint Charlie. They also let us hang out for a while after the meal, lingering over desserts and coffee, as we waited out the terrible hail storm outside. Finally the weather was clearing up a bit, and we headed out to read all about it on the various information panels. (Unfortunately we don't seem to have the pictures that Brandy and Bruce took that day - we forgot our camera so we're relying upon theirs, and the pics from this day seem to have gone missing from our computer.) From there we walked over to one of the few surviving sections of the wall (or sort of surviving, it's pretty chipped away) and then on to Potsdamer Platz, a square downtown, where we were able to warm up with some Gluehwein, as they were having a sort of winter carnival, complete with a man-made toboganning run for innertubes. From there it was just a short walk to the Brandenburg Gate, but we were poorly dressed for the conditions, and we were cold, so we took the subway one stop instead. The Brandenburg Gate was pretty impressive at night, all lit up, and we went through and just beyond it to the Reichstag, the German national parliament building. While the building dates to the 19th century, it's been significantly renovated, with a very modern-looking house of commons (or equivalent), and an impressive glass cupola which is open to the public until 10:00 every night. We waited in line out front so that we could check it out, and it was a great view of the city. What was most impressive to me is that the top of the cupola is completely open, and all the glass panels on the sides aren't quite sealed, but rather overlapping with open air in between.

At this point it was getting later, and we were starting to think of supper. Calin had heard that there were lots of bars and restaurant around Oranienstrasse, so we headed there. (In addition to forgetting the camera, we also forgot the guidebook. Not the most organized when packing early on a Saturday morning I guess.) There we lucked out, and found the best Turkish restaurant, where we ate like kings and queens for a surprisingly small amount of money. It was truly amazing, and I want to go back just to eat there again. (It was called Hasir's, if you're ever in Berlin and looking for Turkish food. I think they have a few locations throughout the city.)


After this we were really full and tired, and decided to head back to the hotel to recharge for Sunday rather than taking advantage of the much-touted nightlife that Berlin has to offer. It was still midnight by the time we were done eating, so we weren't such big wimps. The bars that we went by seemed pretty cool though, and it reminded me of some areas of Montreal a bit.

The next day we got up and ate our fill at breakfast, and then headed out to explore more of the city. We took the train a couple of stops and got off at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. This church, built in 1895, was partially destroyed by bombing in the Second World War (though it was the only building left even partially standing in the Platz where it's situated). Rather than rebuilding it completely or tearing it down, the city decided to leave it standing, but heavily damaged, and they built a modern (and charmless) church next to it. Today it's seen as a powerful war memorial, which was especially fitting as we were there on what is Rememberance Day in Canada, Veteran's Day in the US, and Armistace Day in the UK. (Jeremi and I were even wearing poppies, as he'd brought them back from Halifax.)
A brief aside about the significance of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month: we were all taught that this was significant as it marked the signing of the peace treaty with Germany which ended The Great War, and this is why it was remembered. In Germany, no one knows this, and this date is celebrated as the beginning of Karnival, or Fasching, as it's sometimes called. This carnival season lasts straight through to lent, but from what I can tell (thus far), they really only celebrate at the beginning and the end of this period. In their case the celebrations are not at 11:00 am though, but rather at 11:11 am. Could it be that the Germans just wanted to hurry up and sign the treaty so they could make it to their Karnival party in time? (I'm really just kidding about this, but it is strange that this solemn day of remembrance for many Allied countries is a party in the Fatherland.)

I'm not sure if it's related to the carnival season or not, but November 11th is also Martinstag here, or St. Martin's day, which is seriously celebrated in Austria and parts of Germany. Part of this celebration is a traditional meal of goose, which is because of the legend of Martin hiding in a barn because he didn't want a crowd of people to find him and to make him bishop. The geese made so much noise that his hiding spot was discovered, and the crowd was able to make him their bishop. To remember the good deed of the geese, they're now regularly eaten on this day. (Not how I'd like to be remembered.) Okay, sorry for the aside, back to Berlin.

Next we walked through this big park in the middle of town, where there's a Tiergarten (Zoo). We didn't actually go in to the zoo (it was a bit pricy), but here, through the bars, to the left of the tree trunk, you can almost make out this poor elephant getting snowed on.
I've actually only been to one zoo in Europe, the one by Le Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Aside from the monkey house and possibly the lions (the exhibit was closed while I was there), the most popular animal was the raccoon. They don't have any in Europe, so they actually have them in zoos, and they're so playful and dextrous and cute that they actually do make pretty good zoo exhibits, if you weren't raised to think of them as giant vermin. But I digress. Here's the gate at the zoo, with lots of cool animal heads around the sides.While we were walking Brandy also noticed this billboard, which is kind of cute. The message translates to "Save our horse chestnuts", and down below there's a message saying "Stop the moths, collect the leaves". I'm guessing that they have some sort of a parasitic problem with the horsechestnuts here, which, come to think of it, I often saw turning brown in the middle of July or so. But Brandy also just thought the little chestnut-helmut guy was cute, which brings me to another not-completely unrelated aside.

The little chestnut man is put together with matchsticks, as you can see better from this enlarged picture I downloaded from the website of the city of Berlin. This is a common craft-like thing here, it seems, an activity commonly done by children, something like we used to do with toothpicks and peas or pasta and marshmallows, or any other such stick and joint combinations. But here they don't just use pieces of wood the size and shape of matchsticks, they use genuine matches, complete with heads. Yup, children in Germany are actively encouraged to play with matches. Don't believe me? Here's a picture from a couple of months ago, in September, at the Neugassefest, a street party in what seems to be the pre-gentrification Fernwood of Jena. (For those of you not familiar with Victoria, I mean a fun neighbourhood with lots of dirty hippies.) The picture's not great, but we didn't want to seem incredibly creepy and over-interested in a children's craft table with other people's kids at it. But see? Look! Kids playing with matches, all under the watchful eyes of their parents and volunteers at a neighboorhood street festival.
Here's a zoom in on the offending matchstick and chestnut crafts - sorry for the poor resolution. Safety Bear Julia was not impressed.
Okay, the asides are over for now, back to the Berlin narrative.

Our next stop was the Siegersaeule, or Victory Column. This quite impressive column used to be located quite close to the Reichstag (parliament building), but was moved to the centre of the park back in the 1930s (I think). There's a spiral staircase through the middle which opens onto a lower observation deck with decorative mosaic scenes of war and glory, and also an upper observation area which looks over the whole park and much of the city.

From there we headed into the city, to walk along "Unter den Linden" (under the Linden trees), the main boulevard through the city, lined with embassies and museums. We stopped for lunch at a place serving some good German fare, where Jeremi got to have Currywurst (a hot dot with a curried tomato sauce and fries), Bruce had 6 Naumburger sausages with sauerkraut, and Brandy had a schnitzel bigger than her head. (Calin, Susanne, and I had less "German" meals, so they don't get mentioned here.) Here's Brandy with her giant schnitzel...

...and Bruce with his sausages.
From there we headed over to the museum island, which is literally an island filled with museums in the middle of town. In another Remembrance Day-related item, we stopped at a war monument which consisted of an almost empty columned building, with a statue of a woman holding her dead soldier son inside, lit only by a hole in the ceiling above her head. Given the grey weather and rain, this was particularly evocative. A wreath had been placed in front of her, complete with British-style poppies.

Despite the terrible weather, we decided to keep walking around rather than exploring any particular museum. I loved the sign at this traditional-looking art museum though, in huge neon letters, reading: "ALL ART HAS BEEN CONTEMPORARY".
From there we headed yet further east, checking out some statues...
...and the red brick city hall, opposite the giant TV tower. (It's actually called that - Fernseherturm, which means television tower in German.)
From there we wandered around a bit further, through a nice section of town around the Nicholaikirche, until it was time to head back into the city to warm up with gluehwein and beer before our late train back to Jena. All in all, it was a great trip, and I look forward to visiting again. And it was a good chance to catch up with Brandy and Bruce before their big adventure in Ghana. I can't wait to hear all about it!