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Especially at one time, I had an easy time traveling knowledge. Even in big cities that, experienced as a traveler, I found electrifying because of the many things to experience and because, if you have limited time, you have to plan well. And, as mentioned, several times in this blog, I like to plan. Not all travel acquaintances are good, the worst happened to me in Cuba, but also in Hamburg I took a big catch.
But I very much welcome the unexpected. In my first time in Berlin, for example, I happened to come across the colorful parade of a gay pride. They were the first ones at the time so it was a very fun discovery for me.
I also enjoyed the historical and cultural attractions with gusto, starting with the fabulous Pergamonmuseum. Perhaps of the many I have seen around the world, it is the museum I enjoyed the most. Mostly because of the fantastic (and very large) exhibits from so many different areas. But I cannot omit the reflection that they would be better off in their places of origin. I stood open-mouthed in front of the Babylon Gate and thePergamon altar, also thinking about the fact that they were disassembled and reassembled 5,000 kilometers away.
I was a boy beginning to be curious about the world when the Berlin Wall fell, which I associate with this song from the time of the Scorpions: wind of change
They can be knowledge on the road even if you don’t talk to them: the German in tears
I also really enjoy being in historically important places and in addition to admiring them, reflecting on the events that took place there. In Berlin there are many, both related to Nazism and the wall. Such as the featured photo, the mural with the kiss between the two communist leaders of East Germany and the USSR: I found it fascinating on the subway to get off in one station perhaps former West Berlin and get back on in the next one, former East Berlin. In 2003, the difference was still obvious and gave the feeling of having passed from one world to another.
One episode that stuck in my mind happened during a visit to the Topography of Terror. This is an open-air exhibit set up where the Gestapo offices once stood and showing original documentation from the time. As I scrolled through the panels, I realized that a girl at my side was crying her eyes out. She was German and I imagined she had found some reference to a relative, perhaps a grandparent.
We often forget it, but Nazism initially fascinated the majority of Germans (who later repudiated it wholeheartedly). But it was also the executioner of many countrymen. For example, from the earliest days Hitler wiped out opponents, gays and the handicapped. Another place that struck me greatly was the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche; a church in ruins, left as it remained after the bombings of World War II.
Another place that gave me much sadness was the Zoo. It came to me to go there because of the title of the famous novel, which, however, has nothing to do with the animals, which, as much as I enjoy meeting them in their natural habitats, I find it unbearable to see them caged.
He looks like Heidi’s grandfather
In general in such a large and much buzzing city, it did not make much sense to target specific locales. Especially not being able to easily satisfy myself that they were still open or the same. I used to travel miles to get to a place marked in my paper guidebook and find that it no longer existed. Now of course everything is easier to do certain verifications.
If on the rest of the trip I made many acquaintances, I cannot say the same in Berlin, but where one small encounter made me laugh so hard. Near the television tower and Alexander Platz is a park with statues of Marx sitting nearby and Engels standing. A German couple asked me to take their picture in front of the 2 philosophers of communism. Then the boy asked me if I wanted it too. I usually don’t like to go and ask strangers to do that, but in that case I couldn’t say about us.
As I posed, the girl said something to me in English that I did not initially understand. I laughed it off and burst out laughing, both at the mockery of a character who incites such seriousness and because one never thinks that certain important characters from our boyhood are shared by people from other countries as well.
He looks like Heidi’s grandfather
Heidi who?
The one with the little goats that stood in the mountains.
Hamburg and Lübeck
Compared to previous trips, on this one for the time I was well organized, not only for places to visit, but also for places to eat. Perhaps it was not so worth it since the local cuisine, with few exceptions, is not really the best and at the time, except for kebabs, I was not used to going to restaurants of different ethnic cuisines. I remember feeling bad for the waiter myself when at a place where they prided themselves on their variety of sausages I took the house dish, but, (a perhaps unrepeatable event for me) left it virtually untouched because I found them inedible.
Hamburg is a very interesting city even though I found it a little gray, but maybe I was influenced by the weather. Up there in the north even in summer you can find yourself in days that look like our winter days. Coincidentally on the one sunny day I took the day trip to Lübeck which I found splendid with all the red brick buildings. Sometimes one’s impression of a place really depends on the randomness of the weather. Then unfortunately the memory of the ending of that tour proved to be unforgettable for something else as well.
Traveling knowledge to avoid, the exits at 3
I always had my platonic love in the back of my mind and would get nervous or despair waiting for his always late replies to my text messages. In the meantime, however, I tried to distract myself and until the end I continued to meet women.
In the hostel I befriended an American woman of Malaysian descent. I have always been intrigued by the Asian female world. Let alone at that time when we did not yet have the many Chinese in Italy that there are now. We went out and returning there was a very chaste kiss. I went to bed thinking it might be a start, if only to see each other again the next day. Instead, I crossed paths with her only toward evening and she almost didn’t say hello.
The real disaster, however, was right after that. In a bar I started chatting with two rather nice friends. At one point they proposed that I get a room in an hourly hotel nearby. Movie situation, which I never, ever thought I would find myself in. All rejuvenated I eagerly accepted. As soon as we went upstairs one said she was going out for something but would be right back. In the meantime the friend kept me quiet by saying we would have to wait for the other.
I did not realize that the one who had left had taken my wallet. When she returned, they left immediately, alluding to unspecified contingencies and apologizing profusely. Still shaken by the change from everything to nothing, I realized that, considering the room, cash and credit card purchases (which they left me); I had been swindled out of 550 euros. Truly a genius.
Back to Berlin
I have returned to Germany several times, often with company. In 2025 I went back alone for a weekend in which to take a look again after a long time at Berlin and Dresden, which I had seen too fleetingly. Perhaps it is because I have been to practically all Western countries, even considering the U.S., Canada and Australia, but by now visiting the beautiful cities, more or less modern, no longer gives me the excitement I once had.
Everything is quite taken for granted, if only because there is so much homogenization especially for stores and people all dressed the same. Thanks to improved technology and mass tourism, it is also really easy to get around and visit. The whole part, which could have been more or less considered adventurous, no longer exists. Once upon a time, as this article and the next one from the same trip show, there was also a lot of ease in meeting new and interesting people. Now, not only when traveling, it is much more difficult, if only because everyone is isolated with their smartphones in hand.
In this link the video made from the roof of the Reichstag: Live video from Berlin
Traveling knowledge are almost extinct, but surprises happen
As I was looking for a place to dine behind Berlin’s main station, so in a super central area, not far from the Brandenburg Gate. I was reflecting on the above and how I was now much more interested in nature than in cities.
Just then, in a ‘aiola next to the sidewalk where I was walking, a fox! Two meters from me, as close as I had ever been in any woods.
On the plane ride back I was on the aisle, next to me was a grumpy chick. While next to the window was a very smiling girl. When the latter asked the stewardess for a beer, and it turned out that her credit card was not accepted, after asking her if she had an app for passing money to individuals, she offered to pay for it.
Maybe I wasn’t ready enough, I should have just given a damn about the cranky chick and talked to her a little bit. Maybe she just didn’t like me enough, and there was no hookup, but from the little she told me she was really nice and interesting. She was even a sociologist at a Dutch university, studying how technologies have changed our lives, one of the main themes of my novels.
Links
Previous stop: Meetings on the road, bet dinner with a Korean woman in Germany
More travel by way of Germany
- Traveling in Western Europe, feeling like home
- Traveling during the Covid – Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg
- Going to the Czech Republic and also to Bratislava but not only
The tale of when always two girls robbed me in Havana: How to do it without money on a trip to Cuba, real adventure. These are verbatim accounts of the same misadventure (in Italian):
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
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