Once again we had a successful kickoff, this time in Berlin. It was a great experience and I learned a lot about the history – its a pity that they’ve cleaned out most of it but luckily some sensible persons stopped them so theres still some scars left for the next generations to see. I understand though that they wanted to get rid of it, they wanted to start with blank sheets and who are we to decide that they should be a gigantic museum.
Our hotel was located near Alexander Platz, a grim area with concrete and enormous roads but deeper into the city centre we found the cozy buildings, the ones that I imagine thinking of Germany.
We walked a lot, took the trams, trains, subs and buses – I think we were everywhere. I took a lot of pictures but I think this is my favourite. Hundreds of snowmen near the Dom:
Heres from an area where they haven’t removed all scars, the wall, the tower and the fusebox is still there. Lots of people tried to pass this area but failed.
Here is one of the Stasi buildings, this is were the new arrests were taken in and interrogated. An artist once asked people in Berlin what they would like to know about the building – the artist printed their questions onto these signs on the building.
We also visited the ghost stations, Checkpoint Charlie and all the other sites. We had a great guide who could tell us all the details. One of the things that surprised me was that so many of the citizens were members of Stasi, some says each 6th were on Stasi’s payroll – no wonder people got psyked out. They couldn’t trust their neighbor.
Else there were lots of great buildings to see, here is the Berlin Cathedral (Berlin Dom) seen from the DDR Museum, I stitched it together from many shots:
Have you seen a bigger gate than this? This is what the communist leaders would see when they came to Berlin for a visit:
They wanted to tear this down too but so many people live there now so they were denied.
Here is the known TV tower in Berlin, I tried to catch the “God’s Vengeance” but a bit difficult from this angle.
Last week Joakim and i visited Myrkdalen, a two hour drive up in the mountains, a great ski resort which its guarantied to have snow during winters. This was January 23.. I am way behind schedule posting to my blog.. sorry.
Heres on our way up, I love the drive.
After a few incidents I’ve started to record my driving – I see a lot of fun and tragic stuff. This for instance is something I see every day:
From midnight the authorities in Bergen decided even and odd numbers on car registration numbers only can drive on dates fitting the last number, odd numbers can drive on odd dates.
We’ve had a lot of pollution lately and they have measured it to be way above allowed level. It reminds me of China and the olympics, didn’t they do the same?
Have you experienced something like that?
They have initiated free buses but they have too few drivers so the route buses are struggling with delays.. Funny?
They are also reducing speed limits from 80 to 60 and removing lanes so one of them can be used to commuting. I picture long queues tomorrow morning..
The No2 measurements were way above allowed level, this is the last 72 hours:
Minus 12 degrees celcius here now, they’ve forecasted minus 19 tomorrow. Brrr… But I love it.
Music by Visa Röster (feat o2), a remix of Zoids. From Kwed.org
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