Berlined!

My two years of work in IISc paid off when I got my research publication accepted in a conference. The conference was in Berlin and my research adviser asked if I would be interested in going for the presentation. I jumped at this golden opportunity and flew to Berlin.

It was going to be the first western country I visited and I was travelling alone for the first time outside of India. So there was some anxiety in mind. And to add to it, Visa office had given me some scares before granting. But it turned out to be a smooth experience without any worries.

I had booked a room in a youth hostel in eastern part of Berlin, close to Humboldt university where my conference was to take place. Once I landed at Berlin airport, I had to take a bus and a metro train to reach the place. The first thing that impressed me about the city was their unified transport system. A single ticket for a day allows you to travel by any public mode of transport (bus, tram, metro train etc.). The metro trains are a major mode of transport which have a dense network in the city.

The other thing impressive about the transport system was attention to details. You would find provision to carry baby carriages or bicycles in every bus or train.

I reached Oranienburger Tor station in the evening where my hostel was located. Once I started walking on pavements, I realized that they are at least as wide as the roadways. Pedestrians are given more privileges. You can cross the road anytime on zebra crossings by simply pressing a button that shows a red signal to all vehicles. And most of the time you don't even have to do that. It's a norm for any car driver that whenever (s)he sees any pedestrian waiting at a zebra crossing, (s)he stops the car. This was a big cultural shock for me as in India, we are always at a mercy of vehicles while crossing the road and taught from childhood to cross the road only when there's no vehicle approaching from 50m either side.

The other cultural shock for me was the liberal nature of the city. I saw a gay couple walking on the pavement with their hands tucked in each other's back pocket. It's rather normal to see PDA (public display of affection) in this part of the world.

It was a pleasant evening and I was sensing presence of a water body nearby. In fact, there was a beautiful river, Spree going through the city. I spent some time walking around the river.

After a while, I realized that I was going in the wrong direction, away from my hostel. A couple (straight one!) helped me find way to the hostel. They inquired about me affectionately. Coincidentally, The guy was studying in the same university I was visiting for the conference.

On the way, I saw this store named 'Bollywood' and was pleasantly surprised. Apparently, they have shot Shahrukh Khan's movie 'Don' in the city, and he has a decent fan following there.

Upon reaching the hostel, I took a shower and relaxed for a while. I was feeling hungry and so decided to go out hunting. Once again, I walked past Spree river. But this time decided to go further ahead. I just kept walking until I came across a historic place -- Brandenburg gate. The gate is a symbol of freedom and unification of Germany.

It was my first dash with the history of Berlin and the city would offer me a lot of historical trivia over the coming week.

Close to the gate, was this parliament house of Germany. This too has some history associated with it, like how it was demolished and rebuilt. They allow tourists to have a look in, but only with prior appointment. And since I didn't have one, I stood no chance to visit it. :-(

This artistically illuminated building, 'Friedrichstadt Palast' attracted my attention. It's a beautiful theater for opera and dance performances.

I couldn't possibly miss out on capturing the sight of bikes, could I? They are in abundance in Berlin and are the preferred mode of transport of a lot of people. The advantage with having a bicycle in Berlin is that you can ride it on the large pavements without worrying for traffic lights.




On the next morning, I had to attend two talks in the conference. So I went to Humboldt university which is located on the same street where Brandenburg gate is -- Unter den Linden, which translates to 'under the lime trees'. The university has some interesting historical facts associated with it which I would discuss in a while.

After my lunch, I decided to go for an organised walking tour of East Berlin which was recommended by my hostel staff. They offer these tours for free with an expectation of a tip. I reached Brandenburg gate, the start point of the tour. An American-origin girl was our tour guide and she started the tour with markings of the famous Berlin wall. Post its demolition, German government marked the area beneath the wall with a floor of special stones. You would find these markings on the entire border of East and West Berlin. Of course, certain sections of the wall are still maintained as a memoir.

We next visited Holocaust Memorial, a structure built in memory of Jewish victims of mass murder carried out by Nazi regime during the second world war. It's an interesting structure with thousands of concrete slabs of varying height arranged on an uneven surface. There are many interpretations of the intention behind it. One of them is that it is built in that way to arouse a feeling of anxiety when you walk through it and remember the suffering of the innocent people.

After walking along the wall markings for a while,  we found remnants of the wall. There were a few war memorials around this place. Most of these buildings were demolished during the second world war and rebuilt later.

Further ahead, we encountered Checkpoint Charlie. This is the place where people used to cross from East Berlin to West Berlin during the cold war. Post reunification, they have put up a mock checkpoint there for tourists' attraction.

Next in the tour were a few cathedrals. And then we came across a library of Humboldt university. During the Nazi rule, a campaign of burning of books took place at this library. To commemorate this episode, the university puts a book stall on a pavement in front of the building everyday.

We were back on the boulevard Unter der Linden and there were numerous museums on the street. This moving sculpture found in one of the museums shows a lady embracing her dead son.

Moving ahead, we reached Museum Island where there are five big museums in an island in the Spree river. This area is an art lover's delight. Though I appreciate art, I can't claim that I understand it. So I gave the museums a skip. I didn't have sufficient time as well.

The next photo shows the biggest cathedral in Berlin. The tower on the right side is a TV tower which is one of the tallest towers in Europe. I heard an interesting story about this tower from our tour guide.

The East Berlin leader who decided to construct this tower wanted it to be a secular structure. Once it was constructed and sun came out, people observed a cross appearing on the glass sphere on top of the tower due to sun-rays. (visible in the picture) The traditionalists took it as a sign of Pope's revenge. This irritated the leader and he asked his engineers to make the cross disappear. But they couldn't manage it even after trying out many options. So the leader, in frustration, declared that that mark is a 'plus' sign and symbolizes the progress of the city.

Our tour guide ended the tour with a long story of the fall of Berlin wall and reunification of East and West. This story can be found here.

The next two days were spent mostly at the conference venue. The venue, too was an historic place. The Humboldt university is one of the oldest university of Berlin. (established in 1810!) It has 40 Nobel laureates affiliated to it including the likes of Albert Einstein and Max Planck.

This auditorium in picture is the place where the great Einstein used to take his Physics classes. He, being a Jew was not safe in the city during the Nazi rule. And as soon as he got an air of the plan of Nazis to kill all distinguished Jews, he fled from the place. (The killings did take place in the following year.) I literally got an opportunity to step on to Einstein's footsteps when I presented my paper :-). It was a proud moment and the talk was well received too.

I found two Indian guys in the conference -- Sayan and Sauvik. We roamed around in the city during the evenings.

On the penultimate day of the conference, we were all taken to the western part of the city for a conference dinner. It was held at KaDeWe mall which is the biggest mall in Europe's mainland.

It was a great gathering with a live orchestra. The food was great for people with no inhibitions about eating meat. I didn't have many options though since I don't eat pork and Germans love their pork meat.

Our last day of the conference was short and we were free after lunch. So Sauvik and I decided to go for a trip of East side gallery and Olympic stadium.

The East side gallery is a 1.3km long section of Berlin wall which is painted by artists from all over the world. It symbolized freedom. An Indian art can be found as only the second painting in the gallery. It, as usual depicts concepts like Nirvana and Karma (always a big card when presenting India to the world). There are some other notable paintings on the wall like the famous Fraternal Kiss. And there are some interesting quotes too, like this one by an Italian artist --

" I painted over the wall of shame
  so freedom is ashamed no more
  Inferno ruled too many years
  until the people chose the light
  I put my faith in you, Berlin
  and give to you my colors bright! "

We then went to the famous Olympic stadium where 1936 games were held. It's now used by a football club Hertha Berlin which plays in Bundesliga. It was a cloudy evening, but magically the sun appeared for a minute to allow us a snap of this great football stadium.

Once we returned from Olympic stadium, Sauvik wanted to have Indian food for the dinner. So we found one Indian restaurant and had a sumptuous Biryani.


That was my last day in the city. It concluded my joyful stay of five days. I found German people very affectionate and hospitable. They would smile at you and say 'Hello' while passing by. And they are very disciplined too. I forgot to mention this one incident when we asked a guy to take a snap. He was arranging books in his book stall at the time and promptly denied saying he was busy in the work. This is how a nation progresses, by discipline and dedication! I regress. I found Berlin to be a young vibrant city. I was wondering where all old people had disappeared until I visited Goettingen where I found my answer.  That's a topic for another time though. Berlin surely won my heart and I would like to go there again in future.

Vielen Dank Berlin! Es war eine tolle Zeit.