on this, my last full day of the tour, i started my day by going to the Checkpoint Charlie museum. the museum is fascinating. it started off during the Cold War with stories and items showing how people escaped from the DDR (East Germany). it now houses many more such items but also has a large exhibition on people overcoming oppression. in essence, the museum celebrates liberation. so, after a long tour that had frequently focused on oppression and life under occupation, i had come full circle and was learning all about people who overcame these things. it was the perfect place to conclude my trip.
some of the ways people escaped were fascinating. one woman was sewn into the passenger seat of her husbands car. another woman was put in two suitcases with holes in the sides on the upper shelf of a train compartment. a girl snuck out in a hollowed out speaker. a guy stole out in a hollowed out stereo. another man hid in a plastic cow that was being transported ostensibly for a fair of some sort. the list is long and the amount of creativity that went into these escapes could fuel Hollywood for years.
i spent a good portion of the day in the museum because it is deceptively large and contains a very large amount of information. i, of course, wanted to read every last thing. even so, i couldn’t do it because it was just too much.
after the museum, i retraced my tour from the day before to take more photos. at the end of the evening, i went back to my hostel to meet a girl i had met on the tour and who happened to be staying at my hostel as well. we had agreed to meet up with some other people from the tour, but beforehand we were going to go up in the roof of the Reichstag (the German parliament) which supposedly has a gorgeous view and grab some dinner. the former had an extremely long line, so we walked to where we were going to meet the others to find something to eat. we ate some falafel and met the others for an organized pub crawl.
the pub crawl was fun for the socialization aspect and i got to see some great German clubs. and it was a good way to reorient myself and finish my trip. i got back to the hostel at 2ish and went immediately to sleep.
Posted by iain at September 5, 2005 01:54 PM