27/03/07

        JPN

Had a breakfast at eight.

It looked like this youth hostel was used to be an apartment.

We took the subway at nine to the city centre.

It was a warm springy day.

We came across a book market inside a university's courtyard.

There were some very old Japanese books, which we enjoyed reading.



A war memorial.



To be honest, none of us had done any research prior to this trip.

So nobody knew anything about the historical significance of the buildings or the places we visited.

I first regret that I didn't do any prior study (although it was partly due to us being so busy during the term).

But hearing a lot of people say that they get dissapointed seeing a gap between

over-emphasised photographs on guidebooks and the reality (which sometime look smaller or simply different),

perhaps, not knowing anything, I can see things with fresh mind and maybe

this is one way of travelling.

Well, at least, that is how I forgave myself for being a bit lazy.

It is always useful, in such circumstances, to visit the city's museums that tell you about its history.

So when we came across this Deutsches
Historisches Museum, we easily reached a consensus to go inside.

This museum houses paintings, objects and manuscripts from 100 BC to the present day which all relate to Germany.

It was surprisingly well presented museum.

For almost every object, there was explanation in English, which was very helpful for non-German speakers.
 
We ended up spending four hours in this museum.

The section on the World War II was presented in good detail.

It described how a war, that took the lives of more than 50 million people, happened,

how the German people's lives were during the war, and how the country recovered after the war.

There was a class of students visiting the museum,

which made me think that the history education in Germany is very thorough.



A photo of the three in front of the Berlin Cathedral.



I was appointed as the official photographer of this trip.

But none of them really appreciated my role, as they often run away whenever I tried to take photos of them.



After lunch,

we went into the Berlin Cathedral.

This was a relatively new cathedral, built from 1894 to 1905.

Like many other buildings in Berlin, this Cathedral was bombed during the War

and majority of the building, including the prominent dome, was destroyed.

On the pamphlet it said, that it was finallyed restored during the 1980s.



Masa found out that we can climb up on the roof.

The three of us climbed up, but Izumi stayed down, as she is acrophobic.



We had a good view of Berlin.

Compared to Britain, I got an impression that the city is more modern.

The word 'war' crossed my mind again.



  Before the museum shut at six,

I decided to go into the Pergamon museum with Masa and Izumi (Chie went to the Altes Museum).

Personally, I wanted to see the German paintings,

but there were so many different museums and art galleries in the area,

that I did't know which one had the things I wanted.

Here again, I was made to think prior research is quite important.

Nevertheless, Pergamon museum was very interesting.

It was using the space very effectively.




The essentials of travel are

the will to learn and to explore.

But to be more realistic,

stamina and money are also quite important.

Although we don't have much money, we do have stamina (I think),

so wherever we went, we walked.

Walking is always a good way to learn about the city as it gives you the sense of direction.

The Berlin Wall separated the city.

There were four checkpoints, with gates for people to go through;

we visited one of them called check point Charlie.

From 1961 to 1989, a difference in the ideology, or rather, politics, separated the city.

Like I was told by one of my German friends,

I was able to notice a difference when I walked from the West of the city into the East.



We were very tired by this time.



We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

Masa, who cannot eat hot foods, was having difficulty eating an extra spicy food,

which we ignorantly ordered.



The bridge near our youth hostel happened to be the bridge

where many people from the East marched into the West when the Berlin wall collapsed.

Despite the historical significance of this place,

there was hardly anybody, neither in the morning nor night.

I felt, perhaps gradually, people will forget what happened in the past.

I hope not.



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