Marlyn is turning one… in Germany! On 27.08 I left my country, transitted in Amsterdam and continued my journey until I arrived Düsseldorf on 28.08. For my Jubiläum I chose to celebrate it in the capital, Berlin!
What a coincidence that Berlin happened to be my nickname for a short time bzw really short time like max 3 weeks. It all started when I was hmmmm 14-15 yo or so, I went to church, wore a white T-shirt with a colorful bear and Berlin was written there (little that I knew Bear is Berlins icon) One of the church lady asked me whats my name, I said Marlyn but somehow they pronounce it as Merlin causing some people to call me Berlin, not sure because of my T-shirt or they just… stupid haha 😉 one of my friend-Richard still remember about that and…….one plus decade later, Marlyn visited Berlin.
To honor this anniversary, I made a preparation #like a Germans 🙂 I bought a number 1 balloon, brought a German mask from someone in my office and signed up for a 3.5 hours free walking tour about Berlin Historical Story.
Aaannndddd here it is, me, my mask and my ballon are ready 🙂
My travel guide’s name is Arthur from Brazil yes there are some Brazilians that likes Germany. I would describe him as a cool guy, I dont know if he really knows Berlin or he is high so he knows everything hahaha
Spoiler not spoiler, there will be only 1 original building in this tour that wasn’t destroyed as almost 85% of Berlin were rebuilt based on the original.
We gathered first at Alexander Platz, we visited a red city hall called Rotes Rathaus, behind it there is a new white Rathaus but its name is not weißes Rathaus sondern Neues Rathaus #German creativity.
Next, is Fernsehturm which has a restaurant that turns every 30mins and an observatory deck, however its not a charity so you need to pay for it. “Does it worthy? Nope! Because Berlin is flat so you can go up to any building and the view will be the same” quote from Arthur! Not meeeeee Berliner, don’t get upset with me 😉 He also said “When we have sun above us, there will be a shadow of a cross but we will never see it because here is the current weather” Well, wir sind in DE, nicht wahr?
Moving on to Museum Insel, I visited it before its so cool I like it! Arthur brought us to Humbolt Forum which is… only… one month old, not joking! Then there is a monument that shows mother hugging her son and cries 🙁 Still around that area, there is Humbolt law university. Arthur said they have Karl Max signature on the Fenster, no one can verifies it as we cant get in, not corona reason but more because none of us is studying there 😉 however he was so sure that his signature does exist…irgendwo. There is also a “symbolic” shelf underground and in that place 70K books were burnt! A really emotional quote from Heinrich Heine “Where they burn books, they will too in the end burn people”
Moving on to the most famous, Brandenburg Tor! Unfortunately, there was an anti-vaccine strikes…so here is me and my ballon together with the protestors.
Arthur mentioned something that I never paid attention before, we saw the pink pipes and apparently more pipes on our way, why is that? because apparently Berlin is a swamp city 🙂 Next, he brought us into one of Hitlers Bunker, where now it covers with a parking platz. Then, there is a statue of someone silhoutte face and this guy was someone who tried to kill Hitler by arranging everything alone for 2 months and failed miserably because Hitler finished his speech 5 mins earlier, he was tortured so much and in the end he got a bullet on his head.
Spoiler revealed! The only original building that has not been bombed back then! Finance administration building! It is used as a marking point due to its giant size, so… as long as pilots passed it they got confirmation to dropped the bombs.
Then Arthur brought us to our last place, Charlie Check point. We have 2 pictures of the officers from America and USSR however none of this guy named Charlie. It represents the 3rd (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie) out of 8 check points in Berlin. We finished the tour here but I went inside the museum too because I really intrigued with a story of how East Berliner escape to West Berlin.
Arthur recommended a very small “museum” called Tränenpalats just 6 blocks away from Charlie Check Point and imo this is waaayyyyyy more interesting, the information and the presentation are very very good. FYI no need for admission ticket plus a strong wifi 🙂
To close it, I visit Treptower Park enjoy one last minute before it started to rain 🙂
What a nice day to rejoice my anniversary. Me, my mask and my ballon really had fun 🙂
Thanks Germany, looking forward for another Marnniversarlyn.
Much love!