Berlin

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Tosh: 

Berlin’s a staging point for us, as we’re really just coming through to catch a cheap train to Krakow. Bonus is that Nina, Johanna’s best friend, lives there, and we get to spend some time with her and her family. Nina lives in Neukolln; which seems a very international neighborhood of the city, definitely not posh like Wili’s; Neukolln is more edgy/trendy. I’m sure that see more ethnic Arabs/Turks than I do ethnic Germans.

Like Hannover (when I visited at Christmas), Berlin has a lot of litter all around the city. Maybe Berlin was always like this, but Hannover certainly wasn’t. It’s a stark contrast to years ago when my dad made the comment that Hannover was the cleanest city he’d ever seen. It’s possibly partially due to the millions of Arab refugees that Germany took in. Having lived quite a few years in a few middle eastern countries of various stability, I know it’s certainly not their culture to keep tidy public places; likely because they aren’t used to reliable public services of the instable governments from which they fled.

All through Neukolln, I see Palestinian flags; I guess to support those folks and protest Israel’s offensive and occupation of Gaza. I wonder where the opposing views are and any Israeli flags of support; but then I think, “Oh… yeah.”

Other than the trash, Berlin is alive and vibrant. Every café, kiosk, and bar has tables out on the sidewalk filled with folks having a drink and enjoying the warm weather. The food is amazing (I love middle-eastern cuisine), and the people are all super warm and friendly. More than any other city I’ve visited, folks seem to enjoy sitting outside to people-watch and chat throughout the town.

Johanna: We’re on the train to Krakow – riding through beautiful green landscapes of Poland’s countryside with green fields, woods and small villages. The villages remind me of eastern Germany before the wall fell – monochrome, simple and often in various stages of disrepair.

After two days in Berlin, which is always draining to me, due to it’s business and sensory overload, this 8-hour train ride, might just be what we need to adjust to a slower pace of being. I can’t help but think of the way hundreds of thousands of jews would have been deported via this same route from Berlin to the concentration camp Auschwitz near Krakow, crammed into dark carts, without water or food, unable to sit or sleep. The journey would have taken multiple days, and whoever survived the grueling ride, would soon be killed in a gas chamber or otherwise. Yeah, that’s the kind of stuff my mind comes up with. We are trying to decide whether the kids are old enough to handle a visit to Auschwitz, when we get there.. to be determined.

 

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