Where is all this water coming from?: I happened upon it...the most famous Berliner of them all

So did you know that in all parts of Germany, what we call doughnuts are called Berliners? Well except for Berlin. I don't know what they're called in Berlin. Go figure Germany!

This post is a tad behind, since I am currently in Strasbourg and have even been to Darmstadt and Frankfurt since Berlin but I figure I ought to share a couple of things from that part anyhow...

Read on for a truly classic: "Jess Moment"

The Cold...
In Berlin I officially had to succumb to wearing close-toed shoes for the first time (except my wintery trips home to the midwest for the holidays) since working at Northwest Youth Corps. After being forced in 8"Leather Work Boots in the rain for 8 years, I embarked on what I call my FLF (Foot liberation front) whereby upon every day in California, I wore my open-toed shoes. Yes, even in the rain, even in 10 degrees Celcius (I'm in Europe, therefore I think in european, okay? I speak differently, think in meters, don't really tip on food service, I drink tons of coffee, eat pastries, say things like, "ciao!" "tchüss," eat mayonnaise with french fries, and smoke cigarettes...ha ha. only kidding on the cigarettes!)

And I digress...But the point of that story is to tell you just how cold it is. Needless to say, among my purchases (many coffees, falafels, and post cards) were a warm hat and another pair of mittens.

Berlin is a fascinating city and it is so cool to be walking through a major part of world history--most of which has been recently built after it was leveled in WWII.

(Brandenburger Tur--this was the former city gate... it was one of the few structures that survived WWII...it became closed from E-W Germans in 1961 as part of the death strip and the Berlin Wall)

I checked in on a Saturday night and wandered around as long as I could take it in the cold wind and rain. I went for a jog (in the cold) in the Tiergarten which is a huge park right in Mitte, the central part of the city, where I was staying.

Mauer Park... the "surprise"
The next day, however, I decided to take a walk to check out a flee market (Flohmarkt) I had read was cool. I came upon Mauer Park which was bustling with people and hipsters (they get their own category) from all walks of life and all countries. There were young, old, big, small, girls boys, shopping, drinking in the beergarden, playing music, graffiti artists, spinning records, and sporting the latest fashion Europe has to offer (see below).

(fyi, though they look small these girls are actually at least 20)
There was also an awesome (you can decide exactly how I am using this word) American playing old jazz and blues covers keyboard (and some others without category) who seemed to have a great following in the park. No one knew what he was saying in between but he was (successfully) trying to rally people up to his slightly-off-tune-quasi-energetic-airport-lounge-singer kinda way. It was great. Check video below. You may recognize this song as original by Huey Piano Smith: Don't ya just know it.

So, I sat down and listened for a while with my Pommes with mayonnaise (mmmm....), and tried to order a beer in German which they told me was only a summer beer, so snided me for thinking I could order it NOW... Well--why was it even on the menu then? jerks.

The music was entertaining to say the least and then I thought I'd go for a walk in the park after perusing all that was for sale at the flea market... I am pretty sure you could find anything:
socks, clothes, old records, suitcases, vacuum cleaners, chandeliers, books, brass fittings, ties, old suits, AND... I am pretty sure I saw someone walking away with THE lamp from "A Christmas Story." Yes, you know the one I'm talking about...

But in any event... If you know me at all, you know I can only shop for so long. So I decided I would go explore and check out some grafiti artists at work that I had passed on my way in.

If I give you the hint that this is about to be a Homer Simpson moment, (doh!) then you can tell where this story is going.

So I walk back toward the entrance and start checking out some remarkable grafitti.

I walk down and see a little more.

Then I began to notice how far this wall extended... (here it comes...)

Wait a minute...
can it be?
What is this really long wall, separated by a lot of space, and behind it aNOTHER really long wall?
I'm in BERLIN... (scratch the forehead).

DOH!
This is the Berlin Wall my friends.

Incidentally, "MAUER" is German for "Wall"...

But I'd like to think that though I didn't make the connection early on, It was rather fun to come upon it by chance, rather than look at my tourist map to go find the wall.

So the remainder of the evening until dark, I followed the wall thru Berlin (there was a path marked on my map that I hadn't realized was the wall) of which 165km of the original "iron curtain" still exist.

I ended up at the future memorial site as well as the documentation center which was fascinating and sad to read.

At this base of this building is the wall (the red panels are the memorial with information in all languages). See how close. This building may have been reconstructed. They had to demolish the buildings right along side the wall because people in "east" germany would jump out of their buildings to get across the wall into west germany. They demolished churches, etc. And then there was another wall maybe 10 meters past that runs parallel. The space in between is known as the death strip. Anyone seen in it would be shot immediately. (see below)

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed your journey... and now to end on a slightly more positive note, throughout our remaining days in Berlin, my traveling companion and I stumbled upon a few more sections of the Berlin Wall, the previous divider of Eastern and Western Germany (and some may say the world)...and wanted to leave you with this.