Berlin: Euro Tour Part I

*this is a serie of a 4-part entry of the author's euro trip recently..

Date: Monday 11th December, 2006.

The 4 of us departed for Berlin via Nurnberg, Germany. Dad was not feeling so well and in the end our journey of 8 hours took us around 14 hours. We stopped a lot for naps and short snacks but eventually got to Berlin all safe and sound around 1 a.m. at uncle zalazfian's house. The residential compound in Berlin was an apartment which was all rented out to the embassy staff and office suites. This first picture is of dad and mama with the Berlin 'Malaysia' Bear. Bears are the symbol of Berlin, which is similar to Bern (Swiss).

Dad and mama in front of the malaysian embassy/residence

We took a Berlin Tour Bus that costs us 12 euros for students and 14 euros for adults. The bus took us within Berlin and provided a tour guide to explain the becoming of Berlin. As we all know, the Berlin Wall was broken down in 1991 and much of Berlin's infrastructure construction took place after the reunification. This is evident in the big bigg buildings we found in Berlin and the wide roads and big open spaces in between the roads which could also be used as parking lots during the evening. Neat huh?

The remains of the Berlin Wall

East and West Berlin was separated by a great wall, much like our friends in Palestine. The occupation of Germany took place when both the Americans and the Russians won the war, so they wanted to claim the land. In the end Germany was divided into two, the east for Russians and the west for the americans. We visited Checkpoint Charlie, a famous US checkpoint where people who only had access (thus the stamping of passport et all) could go to the west. The political instability was very suppressing and a very famous photograph of soldier jumping over barbed wire so that he could escape to the west still poses a strong notion.

Checkpoint Charlie

The US army guardhouse (pictures with the guards costs 1 euro each)

The stamp collection, the different stamps people got to go in or out of west berlin (stamping could also be done on your own passport for 1 euro).

This signboard can be seen on t-shirts, mugs, posters..it is the actual text on the signboard still found today in Checkpoint Charlie to tell citizens that they have reached the border.

This is at Checkpoint Charlie, a monument for..don't remember the name for..don't remember the deed. Hehe..

Beberapa org malaysia stuck in a demonstration back in the days..nape mama senyum time protest??! Taken at a poster exhibition, which was just along the whole street.

In the Berlin City Tour bus, we didn't have the luxury of getting off too many stops because we were on the last touring bus for the day, they had to shorten their services due to some government event later in the day.

Passing by the monuments for remembering those who died..

The happy tourists.

Later, we toured Berlin by ourselves. The embassy wasn't too far for us to remember our way back. Europe really celebrates christmas, in every town we go there will definitely be a christmas bazar, which consists of lots and lots of vin chaud (hot wine), alchocolic punches and more drinking..Everyone is all pink and merry! Haha. The germans however ar famous for their saurkraut big sausages, potatoes and mushrooms. Mmg mengiurkan, especially if you've been walking around town all cold and living off bread and oranges. So in the end, we found the most halal looking stall, a vietnamese preparing mee goreng. She used sunflower oil and after much confirmation, it was all vegetarian. Sedappp~~

A big plate of mee hoon goreng at 3 euros, dirt cheap.

The candy stall at the christmas bazaar.

Erdenbeeren mit schokolade!! Not sure if the sentence is correct or not, but i found chocolate covered strawberriess!! 3 euros each.

Yummmyyy, overall, Berlin nye choc-cov-strawberries were the best

dad with amin syukran

And finally, a picture with the hosts of 2 days and 2 nights, encik Amin Syukran bin Zalazfian. Thanks for your hospitality and good food! Makes me more round by the minute. Owh, and it turns out that uncle zalazfian is the son of my mom's mentor when she just started teaching back in negeri sembilan!! damn coincidence no? en zalazfian is from tampin and they both went to the same school, but him being a much younger junior of course. Skali mama browsed through their photo album and saw someone she recognized. Small world!!

In a nutshell, Berlin is pretty darn modernized even with the set back of the wall. Their economic sector is really something many other countries should follow suit.

I'll be back with more tales..stay tuned =)