Small note of excitement from last night – we had a drink at the Ramones Museum – a small cafe that features live music and more Ramones memorabilia than you can shake black jeans at. Just beside us were photos and notes from Eddie Vedder, David Byrne and other rockers that beer has made me forget – all previous visitors of the museum. Thankyou Marthese for indulging me in a little rock’n’roll geekdom.
The day started at the DDR (German Democratic Republic) Museum, a highly interactive museum that conveys quite clearly what it was like to live in East Germany when it was under Soviet control. Plenty of artefacts, recreations of rooms and exhibition drawers you can pull out and discover tell the story of mostly comfortable lives, framed by firm state control, a lack of resources (16 year waiting list to get a car) and the constant threat of Stasi surveillance. While very informative and fun, the museum also oozed nostalgia for a bygone era, which made me feel slightly uncomfortable and made me want to speak to Germans who lived in a divided Germany and find out how they remember it, and how they view it today.
Marthese engages in a little state surveilance
It’s someone from the Department of Transportation! They say we only have to wait another 6 years for our car!
My intense interrogation of the cardboard man yielded no results. We put him back in his cell.
We then dined by the River Spree at the DDR Restaurant with a menu straight out of the East. Hearty meals, but I’m sure we ate much more than most DDR citizens would have.
Egg Roulade with a view
My dish was called “The Rabbit Imposter”. I don’t know why. Meat loaf (mit Spreewald Gherkins), carrots and mash.
A sudden horde of bikes ride from the East!
A beautiful sunny day, Marthese and I made our way to Mauer Park on Wiebke’s suggestion. Very glad we did! On Sundays, Mauer Park puts on a huge market and thousands of people travel through, listening to the multitude of live musicians and cooking up their own BBQs on the grass. We had a drink and listened to a few street musicians before heading over to an amphitheatre to see the largest Karaoke gathering ever. An Irish host invited local and international volunteers from the crowd to sing, and we were serenaded by over-exuberant extroverts from all over the world. Some of them could even sing! I was sceptical at first, but laughing and singing along to karaoke in such a huge crowd was a lot of fun. Anyone who plans to visit – the karaoke started around 3:30pm, and the bands all kept playing as we snuck away around 5pm. Definitely the place to be in Berlin on a Sunday afternoon.
Mauer Park
Berlin Karaoke
Elias Rambles 