Berlin

this city has impressed me (in 48 hrs!) in ways i did not imagine.

i walked for 4 hours today. just meandering through the heart of the city. following, for a while, where the wall used to be. visiting landmarks i had heard of but never visualized. seeking out a story. discovering a history lesson.

my hotel is deep in east berlin. each taxi driver keeps telling me this.

you can feel something in the air here. it is a city with multiple histories layered onto each other. there is this push pull between wanting to forget and needing to remember. and such resonance with crisis happening now, in other parts of the world.

(i keep wishing i had my copy of the past is a foreign country with me.)















"Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum ["I am a Roman citizen"]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!"... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!""
- JFK, 1963

*****

I tried out this app as my guide today - and was very pleased with the results. I had a paper map to tell me which direction to head in, but this provided some background on all the stops I made. (without being connected to the internet!)