Hitler Monuments
2005-10-31 12:26 GMT
Day 4
Yesterday I mentioned about the state you achieve after few days of drinking. I still agree that it isn't as bad as hangover or at least less painful, but it is hard to get kicks out of anything while you feel like bloated, but melancholic creature without any ambitions or goals in its dark life. To get over the feeling Felipe took me to a sightseeing tour to Berlin, which is a good and justified thing to you when you are trying to maintain your tourist status (includes ignorance of local customs and total lack of knowledge about the public transportation system).
Wandering like lost zombies in broad daylight, hopefully not as smelly, though in the morning I could smell Panzerfaust from another room, we visited some of the sight in Berlin. Most of them were dedicated to some group killed by the nazis during the second world war. Definately the most interesting one was the monument for the jews, which is located near Brandenburger Tor. Naturally batteries of my camera died immediately when we started our sightseeing, so you guys have to satisfy to my verbal description of the monument.
It doesn't look much when you are walking towards it. First impression is something like huge park for grey concrete slabs, graveyard or suburbia from beloved USSR. But the thing is these slabs vary in size which isn't obvious before you ”enter” the monument. First few rows are just like picnic tables, but when you walk down to the lowest part of the monument the slabs are 4-5m high. You can't really hear the traffic and the whole feeling is really peaceful and meditative. When you pass row after row of these slabs and look behind the corners you can see different kind of people in identical alleys and you become a part of the monument by yourself. I recommend visiting that monument if you happen to end up in Berlin with enough time on your hands.
For those of you who can't make it, I drew a picture.
We also saw parliamentary house and some other monuments dedicated to other dead people while we walked around. It was a nice afternoon. Rest of the day was spent on visiting Jason the Columbian, who as all columbians is either grower or seller of drugs (in this case the former one, although in really small scale) and watching some movies with food from The Chinaman and couple of beers. Altogether day helped to feel much better in the next morning.
Joe