Travelogue – Berlin 2008 (part 4)

“People of the world — look at Berlin!” That is US presidential candidate Obama’s catch-phrase when addressing about 200,000 German admirers at Berlin’s Tiergarten park last Thursday 24th July evening. Indeed, that succinctly describes the feeling I had when venturing deeper into Berlin last May 2008.

I started my venture in the eastern side of Berlin looking for Checkpoint Charlie as pointed by Big Kahuna as one of the must places to be visited. But I ended up feeling as though I was walking through the pages of a history book retracing those significant places, events, people that lived through Berlin and made up the great world history.

5 minutes after getting my passport stamped at tourists’ ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ spot in Potsdamer Platz, I couldn’t help but noticing the streams of tourist busses passing by the location, without stopping, heading to some other part of the city. Aha! Without having any clue whatsoever on where I should be going, the tourist busses gave me an excellent clue on which direction I should be heading.

I could always hop on the public buses as I had with me a 1-day tourist passcard; but I decided to use God greatest given transportation mode, my own 2 feet. Although it was physically very very exhausting, it was nonetheless very fulfilling emotionally because the adventurous side of me was able to enjoy breathing in Berlin air, smelling the aroma of the historic city, listening to the sounds of Berlin city which of course was very quietly serenading so much so it did at time sound a bit eerie. It was early Sunday morning, what do you expect!

These snapshots of photos summarised my feeling.

All in all, I started setting my feet in Berlin with not much expectation other than to attend a business conference, en route to Paree. But that was the beauty of it all; I ended up with a very wonderful, enchanting and special experience, one of the best in my lifetime so far undoubtly. Partly because, with some calculated risks, I was venturing it on my own with only my own thoughts and conscience as companion.

Berlin is indeed a city of “Wind of Change” at least to me!