After the Wall

 
I’m watching the celebrations in Berlin for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the wall on tv and I thought I’d write about my experience. I was in Berlin two weekends ago with a group of friends. It was a nine hour drive crossing the Czech Republic (with an unintentional detour in Poland). We arrived late on Friday night and on Saturday morning we did a four hour walking tour of Berlin. Walking through the Brandenburg Gate, the Death Strip, and Checkpoint Charlie, among other symbolic sites of the Cold War, really was a lot to take in at once. Later that night we went to the East Side Gallery, a remaining strip of the wall. It took my breath away when as I saw it in the distance. I thought of what it represents as I walked along the retouched murals that cover it. Its history is quite overwhelming and a bit hard for me to completely understand since I never lived where and when it stood. We also visited the Soviet Memorial on Monday before leaving. It was a reminder that I'm more connected to the wall than I realize, because my grandparents and parents all lived in the Soviet Union and remember the day the wall fell. It was a great feeling to be in a city that contains so much of world history – history that is still recent and relevant to my life. For the first time I truly felt connected to the past, and not just alive in the present. It was a first time in Berlin for many of us and I think we were all changed in our own way after a weekend in the city.

Innsbruck: Afterthoughts

I just got back from a weekend in Innsbruck with two other exchange students from my home university. Every time I come back from traveling, I have this feeling of calmness and fulfilment. There's much to take in from every place that I visit and I don't want to let it slip away. Every place that I've visited in my life has affected me in some way, and I don't want this memory of the beauty of Innsbruck to fade away. But I know that when I wake up in the morning it will already be somewhat distant, since I have to get back to reality in Vienna. Since my move, I've experienced the chaos and traditions of Oktoberfest, seen Munich, capital of Bavaria, been to the famous Neuschwanstein castle in Germany's countryside, seen the unbelievably small country of Liechtenstein, taken a train across Austria and seen an innumerable amount of towns surrounded by the Alps, and visited Innsbruck. Being here has reminded me of how much I love to travel. I'm looking forward to letting every experience and every new place change me, and most of all I hope to hold on to it all forever.

Viennese Sunday Afternoon

Sitting on a park bench in the city center, the sun glaring, I hear an accordion in the distance. In front of me is a statue of Johann Strauss. I observe tourists taking pictures with the statue and continuing their stroll through the park, many with an ice cream cone in hand. The benches are full of people, like me, quietly contemplating the beauty that surrounds them. Behind me people are resting on the lawn, some having picnics.

The accordion stops. A few minutes later, a famous Russian artist’s music starts playing somewhere near me, but I can’t pinpoint its source. People on bicycles, sagueways, and skateboards pass me by. Many others are walking their dogs. I listen to all the different languages being spoken. A passerby enthusiastically yells out that Russian singer’s name I had forgotten, “Visotsky!”. I realize that the man sitting two benches down is playing the music from a boombox. As the sun starts setting, I look around and am reminded of the architecture of this city – majestic. The man sitting to my right occasionally chuckles with contentment, and I understand why, as he answers his phone in Russian. I haven’t been conscious of the time – I could well have been sitting on this bench for hours. This morning an episode of doubt took me over, but all I feel now is peace.

This… is Vienna.