Art Daily: Berlin Day Five

Took The Cold War Berlin tour today. We started at Zoo Station and ended at Alexander Platz. A few of us went over to Museum Island to the Pergamon Museum. After, I had Indian food with Chica and Joey from Gulfport of all place. Chica even teaches classes at St. Pete Yoga on occasion. They are leaving for Paris on Sunday as well. They are luckily staying at a friends apartment for three months. We have plans to meet back up next week.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mumtaz-berlin

Friedrichstrasse station is in the East and is where those from the West had to go through to visit the east. The building above is now a museum but when the wall was up you had to go through, here if you where a Westerner, to get back home. They allowed you stay only 24 hours at a time and only once a year.

The Matt Damon Bridge

The closest I'll ever be to Matt Damon.

The Bourne Supremacy anyone?

Above, Barnaby is explaining this building used to be the US Embassy in East Berlin. It is now empty and it has been since the Embassy was moved near the Brandenburg Gate.

The buildings next the embassy are also empty. No one can live that close to an embassy apparently.

The blue pipes are water for construction. And there is a lot of it. There so much they keep them above ground so they don't have to keep digging up the streets.

Russian Embassy

It's really starting to rain now. British Embassy.

French Embassy

This was the spot of the last wall so soldier from East Berlin working in the ghost stations could get into West Berlin.

This is the outer wall how West Berliners saw it.

This is the inner wall and how East Berliners saw it.

The distance between the inner and outer wall. There were lots of terrible things in between.

This is a great site explaining everything above.

http://www.rearviewmirror.tv/crossing-the-berlin-wall/

Back to Prenzlauer Berg.

East Berlin Street lights

This was a Stasi hospital before the unification.

Berliner's where tortured in the basement. Barnaby taught English when he first came to Berlin (for those who don't remember, he's British). He taught mainly older people. A friend of his had a friend who was held by the Stasi and was personally tortured by Putin himself. That tells you where he's at. Why would he lie?