Berlin: The most important moment

This is a multi-entry blog. For the first part, click here. For the second part, click here.

Next, we walked by the American Embassy. I found two things to be very amusing. First, it was located directly beside Brandenburg Gate. That must be a prime piece of land, and I thought it was hilarious that it belonged to the Americans. To add insult to injury, there was even a Starbucks across the street.

Second, there appeared to be more security at the American Embassy than anywhere else in the city. The military personnel pacing back and forth around the perimeter looked ready for a fight. They appeared to be just waiting for someone to jump onto a bench, pull out a gun, and start screaming. It didn’t happen, but every time I passed by the American Embassy, the men patrolling outside looked like they were ready to rumble.

As I mentioned, the American Embassy was directly beside Brandenburg Gate, and that’s where we went next. We had briefly stopped at the Gate the previous day when we arrived in Berlin, but now we could actually take time to marvel at it. I took as many pictures as humanly possible, then simply sat back and stared.

The entire structure is larger than I imagined it would be, and I felt so small beside it. In front of the gate, on Unter den Linden, is a double line of bricks weaving awkwardly down the street. I asked Katie what the line was, and she explained it is where the Berlin Wall used to be. Even though the wall has almost been completely removed, it is still important to remember where it stood. The wall cut off Brandenburg Gate, and separated the street into two halves. Not very practical, if you ask me.

Brandenburg Gate was a short distance away from the Holocaust Memorial, and that is where we went next. The memorial is fairly new, and it was erected in 2005. I took a number of photos, but I really can’t do this incredible structure justice. It was designed by Peter Eisenman, and takes up 205,000 square feet. Each of the 2711 gray stones are a slightly different shape and size. They seem to wave and undulate when you walk through them, and the floor rises and falls as you work your way into the middle. Eisenman wanted to create a feeling of disorder, and he succeeded.

Officially, the memorial is named the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and it can be visited anytime – night or day. There is also a subterranean visitor’s centre, where photographs and information is available.

An interesting piece of information is that the company that makes the grey anti-graffiti paint the memorial is painted with is also the same company that produced the Zyklon-B gas used on Jews in concentration camps during the Second World War. Startling and upsetting to be sure, but the company has volunteered to re-paint the memorial free of charge every seven years indefinitely.

We next walked about half a block and arrived at the site of Hitler’s Bunker. There was nothing left, as the Soviets filled in the underground space with cement during the Cold War, but standing on top of it was enough. There is an information billboard set up nearby that explains where everything was, but otherwise the spot just looks like a pile of grass in front of an apartment building. It was intense – to say the least – to be standing on top of the exact spot where Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide together during the last days of the war.

The second last stop on our walking tour was a large piece of the Berlin Wall. Throughout the walk, I was becoming increasingly emotional, and I was growing concerned that I wouldn’t be able to hold it together when we finally reached the wall. As a history lover, I have studied Germany for years. I wrote essays and reports about each of the locations I visited that day, but this was the first time I had actually visited them all in-person at once.

Thankfully, Jill understood my feelings, and helped me have a moment alone with the wall before the rest of the tour arrived. We ran ahead, and reached the wall when no one else was around. Taking a deep breath, I ran across the street, and Jill started snapping pictures. She managed to capture a photo of me standing in front of the wall, alone and contemplating. It is my absolute favourite photograph from my entire European adventure. You can’t tell in the picture, but I was crying my eyes out the entire time.

The last stop on the tour was Checkpoint Charlie, and it was the most anti-climactic part of the walking tour. There was a museum – which was gigantic and interesting – and also a number of information billboards, but everything was a re-creation. The real Checkpoint Charlie was destroyed years ago. I spent a few moments taking it all in, and then Chris, Jill and I took off on a very important mission. We decided to spend the afternoon exploring the Berlin Zoo.

I think that’s enough information about Berlin for now, so I'll pick up the rest of my tale later...

Auf Wiedersehn for now.

My heart goes out to Japan

As the death toll rises and the damage to property is calculated, I can feel my heart breaking for the poor people in Japan.

I pray that those who are missing are found, and those who lost loved ones can gradually begin to pick up the pieces of their lives.

I've decided not to write blog posts about the disaster because there is already so much coverage. But I'm watching - everyday - and I'm silently praying for the safety of the tiny country halfway around the world.

A successful media advisory

Occasionally, I Google myself.

This isn't a vanity thing. Recently, I have become the "go-to girl" for media advisory creation and distribution. Last week, I sent out about 30 advisories to media outlets around Manitoba that explained what the IPP Presentations at the Convention Centre were all about.

Well, I now know that my advisory worked on at least one media outlet. ChrisD.ca - a local journalist and blogger - pasted my advisory on his website. I don't know how many people read it, but knowing that my efforts actually worked is a fantastic feeling.

If you want to see the post, click here.

And, if you need any kind of media exposure for an event, organization or activity, please hire me :)

Another CreComm milestone is complete

Today I stood up in front of roughly 200 people and talked for 10 minutes about my first book.

I was nervous for about two days prior to the presentation. Earlier today - and especially first thing this morning - I was losing my mind with fear. Normally, I am not afraid of public speaking. But this was one of the most important presentations I have ever made, and I didn't want to ruin it.

Strangely enough, as I sat in the dark theatre waiting for my turn to stand up on the stage, my fears disappeared. I've been working on this book for a year. Of course I want to tell people about it. And beyond that, I want them to buy it and read it.

Overall, I think the presentation went well. I have copied my speech below, in case any of my out-of-town readers are curious what I said.

My aunt and her parents in 1916.

*****

I believe that a person can’t truly understand who they are until they understand their family’s past. The actions of our relatives are a part of our lives forever, whether we want to admit this or not. The woman featured in the book trailer that just played is my late great-aunt Rose. She led a fascinating life, and I chose to make her story the topic of my IPP.

Good afternoon everyone. For the next seven minutes I’m going to tell you all about my first book, Pieces.

• I will discuss where the idea for my book came from
• I will walk you through the process of how I actually wrote the book
• I’ll read a short excerpt that I hope will interest you
• And I’ll talk about the final product.

The idea for what would later become my IPP was first introduced to me in August of 2007.

• My great-aunt Rose – who was living in Armstrong B.C. – called my mother one day and announced that she wanted visitors.
• Rose was 91 years old at the time, and as she told my mom on the phone, she knew that she was going to die soon.
• Mom obliged, and said she would visit Rose, and I opted to tag along.
• We spent a weekend in Armstrong, and our visit quickly turned into a fascinating history lesson.
• In the four days I was there, Rose gradually told me her life story.
• Why she decided to confide in me, I will never know, but thankfully I was smart enough to take notes.
• I left Armstrong with three notebooks filled with information, and a great appreciation for what Rose had been through in her life.

And then, a year later, she died.

• Rose never had children, and most of her relatives besides my immediate family were also dead.
• The way that I saw it was that if I didn’t write her story, no one else would, and there was no way I could ever let that happen.

So, when it became time to pick an IPP topic in the spring of 2010, it was obvious what I would choose. I was going to write about my great-aunt Rose’s life, and that’s exactly what I did.

Once my IPP was approved, I was faced with the daunting task of actually writing the book I had proposed.

• I also had an added difficulty because most of what I was writing had actually happened.
• All of the locations, characters, and incidents were real, which meant I needed to conduct lots of research to ensure I got all the details right.
• To make the writing process easier, I decided to take the summer off - not work - and instead write a complete first draft of Pieces.

The month of May, and part of June, was dedicated to research, and after I finished researching, I started writing.

• Sometimes I suffered from writers block, other times I had insomnia, but gradually, I made progress.

At the end of the summer, when I returned to classes, I had achieved my goal and managed to write a complete, 100,000 word first draft of my book. From September until January I edited and revised the draft in an effort to produce an end result that actually resembled a real book.

Now, I would like to share an excerpt with you from the completed version of Pieces.

The scene I am going to read is from the fifth section of the book.

• Rose has just found out that her mother Olga had been sent to Selkirk Mental Institution in 1939. Rose hasn’t seen her mother in 40 years, but she chooses to visit her inside the walls of the Institution.
• Another character who is mentioned in this scene is Carolyn – Olga’s nurse –and I hope you like it.

To read the excerpt, click here.

That’s only a small excerpt, and if you want to know what happens next, you’ll have to buy the book.

So, where am I now with my IPP? Well, I’m happy to announce that I have received all 150 copies of my book, Pieces, and they are currently available for purchase.

• I will also be having a book launch at cre8ery gallery on Sunday, March 20, and you are all welcome to attend.

I want to take a moment, before l leave you, to thank the one person who made this book possible.

• My great-aunt Rose was an amazing woman, and I am so grateful she was brave enough to tell me her life story.
• At the end of the day - at the end of the school year - this book is really a tribute to her and her life.
• It has been almost three years since she died, but by writing this book I feel that I have ensured her memory and her life will never be forgotten.

Thank you for listening to my presentation, and I hope that what I have shared with you has made you just a little more curious about your own family history.

Berlin: The walking tour continued...

This is the second part of a multi-entry blog. To read the first part, click here.

I won’t go into detail about every single building and monument we visited, and instead I’ll stick to the highlights. We walked down Unter den Linden – an iconic boulevard - in what used to be East Germany. It is named after the lime trees that run down the boulevard. They were removed during the Second World War, because Hitler felt they interrupted the fluidity of his marches, but were replanted in 1951.

This street is very important, because it is down it that Hitler marched during numerous parades. At one end is the Berlin Cathedral, a gorgeous Gothic structure. At the other end is the Brandenburg Gate. Through the gate is the Tiergarten, and down the street is the tall, impressive Napoleon Memorial. The street is a combination of large, important buildings, shops, restaurants, embassies, and hotels. It’s absolutely magnificent.

Gorgeous St. Hedwig's Cathedral. The famous domes are impossible not to stare at.

We passed St. Hedwig’s Cathedral, the Berlin State Opera, the Neue Wache (National War Monument), and stopped at Bebelplatz, a small cobblestone square off Unter den Linden. This square is significant because it was the site of the Nazi book burnings on May 10, 1933. Over 20,000 books were burned. There is a small plaque that marks the spot, but it is in German. If you walk a little bit further into the square, there is a huge sheet of clear glass built into the ground. Underneath the square, a memorial has been constructed. In a large white room are many empty bookshelves. Enough room to house the 20,000 books that were burned.

Across the street from Bebelplatz is Humboldt University. Some of the most famous students and professors include Albert Einstein, Otto von Bismarck, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, and Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm. The building is still used as a university today, and I hope the students there appreciate the historic place where they go everyday to learn.

Further down the street, we stopped at the Russian Embassy. There wasn’t really much to look at, but Katie wanted to point out that a hammer and sickle is still chiseled above every window and doorway on the building. Even though the USSR officially fell in January of 1991, there are still reminders of the past communist presence everywhere, because for nearly forty years, the Soviets controlled half of the city.

There also used to be a statue of Lenin in front of the embassy, but it was removed to the interior years ago. We could only observe the building through a very high, very imposing metal fence, but I still was glad to have the opportunity to take a look. Imagine all of the people who have walked inside those walls, and conspired behind the security of locked doors and closed windows.

I quickly want to talk about Hotel Adlon. It is located beside the American Embassy, and is about fifty feet from Brandenburg Gate. This hotel is significant because it is where Michael Jackson held his son out the window while paparazzi snapped photographs. When I was in Berlin it was right after Jackson died, and Katie was unsure if she should tell the story or not. We all convinced her to keep sharing the detail with her tours, because it was a legitimate piece of interesting history.

A photo I snapped of Hotel Adlon. I also zoomed in on the balcony...

TO BE CONTINUED...

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE!

Berlin: The Beginning

I have been saving this travel blog post, because I knew it was going to be very difficult to write. I have wanted to visit Berlin since I was a child. In fact, the reason why my brother Chris and I went on this specific Contiki Tour was because it passed through Berlin. That was my one requirement... I had to see this magical city.

Even twenty years after the Berlin Wall has come down, the city is still rebuilding. There are construction sites, cranes, barriers and workers everywhere. Old, dilapidated buildings are being torn down for new, twenty-first century replacements. Some areas of Berlin look exactly as they must have fifty years ago; others are unbelievably modern. It is truly a surreal experience.

I did a lot of research on Berlin prior to leaving Canada, and I was armed with maps, street names and pictures. I did this for every city, and trust me, planning ahead saved us a few times. Coincidentally, a walking tour of the city had been arranged previously for our Contiki group, and it was an exact match to the route I had planned to take. We were to set out first thing in the morning, and would spend half of the day wandering around Berlin. I couldn’t wait.

Before I start talking about the sightseeing we did, I have to talk briefly about our hostel. Wombat’s Hostel. It was one of the better hostels we stayed in, and was definitely the cleanest. The rooms themselves are on the smaller side, especially because we had to cram in five girls, but the building is spectacular.

There is a bar on the seventh floor, a large dining room, an Internet station, laundry, and telephones. The walls are painted funky, bright purples and greens. The lights in the entire building work on motion sensors – to be more eco-friendly – and one can only enter their floor with a key card (which ensures everyone is safe and supposed to be there). We also had the most amazing view, as you can see from the picture below. Not only could we see some very interesting graffiti, but we could see the Fernsehturm - the television tower – in the background.

The view from my hostel window. Gorgeous.

One other great thing about our hostel was its location. We were thirty seconds away from the Rosa Luxembourg subway station, and about ten minutes from Alexanderplatz. This meant that we could easily walk to the city centre, and easily find our way home if we got lost.

We met our tour guide – Katie, an American – at the statues of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. She took a moment to explain their significance, but I already knew the background. Marx and Engels were Germans, and co-wrote The Communist Manifesto, a book that would become very significant throughout the world. Vladimir Lenin, a Russian, took the theories in the Manifesto and applied them to what later became the Bolshevik Party. The statues stand near Alexanderplatz, and are one of many reminders of the past.

Marx & Engels immortalized.

TO BE CONTINUED...