A Tale of Two Cities

Unlike Garfield, a Tale of Two Kitties, my chosen title for this blog actually reflects something Dickens might have been interested in. Instead of referring to the timeless comparison of Paris and London, I am writing about East and West Berlin.

Capitalism against communism, freedom against opression, choice against mandates, and hope against despair. All of these elements were actually separated by a 10 foot high wall erected in the middle of the night.

The communist Germans were actually entertaining, in a sad sort of manner. They discovered important things such as: children prefer wood to concrete as a construction material for their playgrounds. They tried repeatedly to compete with the capitalist West and failed. The Trobi is the standard example of this. The East Germans built a diminuitve, polluting, slow, and ugly automotive that was supposed to compete with the beetle and other western cars. Shockingly, the car was terribly constructed, poorly distributed, over priced, and had a sixteen year waiting list to get it. There may not be a better metaphor for the East German government and why on November 9th 1989, the Wall came down.

I have four minutes left on the internet, so I am going to quickly summarize the ambience of Berlin. It is a spacious city, and that was a welcome feeling from the oft congested London and Paris. The food is excellent (especially currywurst) and the people are very friendly. German is a hilarious language with ridiculous cognates. For example, thimble is fingerhoot, or fingerhat. The Wall still stands for a stretch of just over a kilometer in the East, and it is covered in beautiful grafitti now. The Reichstag, their parliament building, is a well designed and efficient building that is quite accessible to the public and provides a view of the cityscape.

I have 1 minute left, so I must run to the Italian beach with Tom! We miss you all and will give you detailed stories when we return! Rome tomorrow by the way....

Joel