End of Berlin

Sorry about the lack of updates. Internet was kinda sparse in Munich, and 14 times more expensive in Interlaken (that is not an exageration...we didn't touch the internet except to race to get that one line on with our last few Swiss Frank cents). Anyway...

When we last left you, we were in Berlin. We spent our next day in Berlin checking out the Reichstage, revisiting the Brandonberg Tor (gate), and the Hambuger-Bahnhof meseum (modern art). We also had lunch at a Kabob place who's owner went by Kojak (because he looks just like Kojak). He knew about 25 words of English, and we know about 5 words in German. Somehow, we managed to talk to him for over an hour. He was a really neat guy. He brought out Turkish tea for us, which was pretty bling bling. That night the three of us had a few drinks with a South African guy (who could do some wicked magic tricks) at a small corner shop with a table outside. (The guy, like every other one we've met so far, hit on Knechtel for a while...).

The next morning we got the pleasure of meeting up with Joj, who was fresh off a 36 (at least) hour, death defying train trip from the Ukraine to Berlin. That day we walked to give Joj a quick view of the city, tried to go to another mesuem, but it was closed (because it was Monday), checked out a Guggenheim museum with lots of interesting art (and several autographed pictures, including Biggie, Gwen Stephanie, Courtney Love, Keanu Reaves, and Cameron Diaz), and Tacheles.

Tacheles is a small area in Berlin right near our hostel. Pre WWII, it was a Jewish department store. Leading up to WWII, as the Jews fled, the Nazis used the building as an administrative building. During WWII, the building was mostly destroyed. And it was still that way when the Berlin wall came down. As everyone was running out of East Germany, a bunch of West German Hippies ran into E Germany to squat, and ended up living in this abandoned building. By the time the E German government got around to organizing the land that building was on, the people were so ingrained into the community that the community protested their being evicted. The government tracked down the family of the guy who used to own the department store, and he supposedly rents out space in the building to these mostly artists for about 1 euro a month. The building is covered top to bottom in grafitti. In the rooms are mostly studios where they both create and display their art. In the courtyard, a mixture of art, a hippie bus (also covered in grafitti), a bar, and a bon fire. Every night, we heard music coming form Tacheles, though we never made it over. All in all, a pretty awesome place.

That night, we boarded an overnight train for Munich (in seats, not beds)...

(Hopefully we can get the rest of the blog caught up soon)...

Erti and David