A Conclusion in the Making

After Joels quick departure this morning, I was rudely awoken by the man as he decided that slapping me was the best way to wake a sleeping giant. I was groggy. The night before I had gone out with a couple Canadians and an Aussie ... we were in search of the elusive German female. We went immediately to the direction that the Aussie said he had seen them in a previous night. We went to his hunting grounds and saw nothing but tumbleweeds rolling past us, and the strong musk of old German men. A very disappointing beginning to our nightly endeavours. The four of us, out of the corner of our eyes, spotted 3 people of the fairer sex walking in our direction, we all puffed out our chests, sucked in our guts and prepared for the pick-up lines of the century, I dare not drop them here for I fear many of you would simply liquify out of envy of these three girls. We began talking, and they walked right through the four of us as though we did not even exist, slowing merely to tell us the bars were in any direction that they were not going ... crash and burned on attempt number 1. We roamed for a few more minutes before spotting another two, although these ones did not seem or look as refined as our first encounter. We approached with somewhat more care. These two were completely happy to help us, probably taken a back by our ravishing goodlooks. They even suggested that they lead us to the bar. We obviously obliged. As we walked, their bar of 5 minutes away turned to 15 minutes then 20 minutes before we finally got there. I seedy little pub in the outskirts of the old Soviet Bloc. The four of us bought 4 large beers, unknowingly the girls bought a small coke each, proceeded to chug them down, and left the four of us to fend for ourselves in our new surroundings. Probably for the better, we discovered on our walk, that the girls were 17 and 19 ... the 19 year old sporting a 5 month old child, ad the 17year old newly pregnant ... whoa, can we ever spot them in the dark. It was a fun adventure to end night 3 in Berlin.

After Joel's departure, I went out on my own to the Jewish Museum, it was an interesting experience and essentially gave me a crash courses in the mast millenium of Jewish history and the turbulent times their people have gone through over the centuries. It was very interesting seeing the advancements of Jewish culture and their contributions to Germany over the years ... it was largely focused on Jews in Germany and did not stray too much away.

Following the Museum, I went to a travelling exhibit on the life and times of Anne Frank, very interesting to me sicne reading her diary this past winter. It was strange seeing the actual reports of transfer to Auschwitz from Westerbork of her and all the females of her family. As well, I found it fascinating reading the newspaper ads taken out by her father to seek the fate of his family, he being the only member of his entire family to live through the Holocaust.

After the Frank Museum, I headed back to the hosttel as again for the fourth day in a row, the rains fell on Berlin. People were scattering everywhere, and despite it being early afternoon, the prospect of a 'down-night'was already in store. We all hunkered down and waited out the rain. Strangely enough, 3 guys came into our hostel early that evening, turns out they were from London, and one mentioned he knew people from my hometown ... in a town of 150, 000 and over 19 highschools, it is not uncommon to have no clue who people are talking about. Strangely to me, he was dropping names of people I knew very well and grew up with. Morgan and I went out for a romantic dinner and the Blockhouse steak eatery. over candlelight. Real nice, HaHaHa. We stayed in the hostel and drank all night and updated blogs and writings. I nice night off and change of pace.

The following day, Morgan and I headed to the beautiful Berlin suburb of Wannsee, and the house of the Wannsee Conference ... the official decision to the "Jewish Question"was made in the walls of this house. The decision to exterminate the Jews of Europe happened here. Strange considering the sheer beauty and elegance of the property. There was a canopy of trees lining the driveway as you walked up to the mansion. Rich mahogany adorned the walls and ceiling crowns. Chandeliers shimmered in the sunlight in nearly every room of the large estate. It was a house most people would envy living in. It had luish gardens that gave rich, splashes of colour to every corner of your vision. Sad that the history of this house does not at all follow with its elegance. We moved through the extensive exhibits that touched on the complete modern history of Judaism in Germany, and the path to oppression, the pogroms, deportations, and exterminations. IUt was very involved and informative. When you were standing in the room and realized that you were standing over the table where the actual decision was made, was a different feeling from the other places we have been thus far.

After the house we headed back to BBerlin, and split waqys for the day. I headed back to the Reichstg and Brandenburg gate where I sought out the former location of Adolf Hitler's Bunker ... strange that it is situated nearly directly across the street from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. From here, I went to the Tiergarden. Each city, as it seems, in Europe has a beautiful expanse of lush greens with rivers and lakes right in the middle of town, many rivaling New York's Central Park, and London's Hyde Park in size. It was beautifl and relaxing walking through the gravel lined paths. I met up with a guy I met the previous day and we decided to head towards the lake. We started off in search of the lake from the vague images of the blurry map we had in front of us. Nothing more than our immaculate sense of direction and female radar shedding light on our path. We decided to go off the beaten path for a bit, and started blazing our own trails. We pushed through a dense row of hedges, and emerged at the "promise land"... the two of us emerged from the bushes cleared our eyes in preparation to join a flock of youth in an afternoon of nude sunbathing and sun pleasures ... instead we emerged in the middle of a vast field of naked old-man ass. The youngest being a youthful 55 likely. To our left old people were playing handball, others playing wiffelball, some doing naked yoga, and others simply stretching to toe-touches in the warm sun. I have never left a scene in such a hurried-fashion and straight line in all my life.

After boiling our eyes, we headed back for the safety on the known parts of town, promising never to return to the depths of naked manland. We walked around the town, until returning to our hostel. Being our last night, the group of us simply stayed in, watched some badly dubbed English movies in German ... Kevin Costner dubbed in Prince of Thieves, is quite a movie in German. We started talking, and before we knew it, it was well past midnight and our morning trains were fast approaching ... our excursions through the capital of Germany, both beautiful and disturbing all at the same time was an experience I will never forget ... I would love to return to this city someday when the chance presents itself.

I leave for Hamburg ...