Arriving in Berlin

My predominant impression of East Germany is grey - OK we did go there on a rainy day. Thomas, our truck driver, showed us the old boarder which had been dismantled, and from that point on either you see open uncultivated land or dilapidated uncared for property. IN 1945 the WWII ended, Russia, as one of the allied forces, who had helped liberate Germany took as their prize the right to be the "administrator" of a portion of Germany. Unlike the other areas of Germany which just got lots of foreign army bases, East Germany got a whole new system, philosophy and life as arbitrarily Berlin was cut in half. The enclosed city - West Berlin - became capitalist, while the remaining surrounding Eastern block communist. East Germany remains 99.5% as it was in 1945. Houses often don't have running water or toilets inside and for me the most obvious difference is the lack of paint. Going on a train through united Berlin you see weather beaten unpainted brown buildings, half built or in disrepair since being bombed and then you pass over into neon lights, white color and life in the West.

Eventually we parted ways with Thomas just outside Berlin. We got a lift into Berlin with a West German guy who spoke Spanish to us. It is incredible how my little bits of education in Spanish French, English and Afrikaans have left me fully Euro-lingual( by the way when Europe is united in 1992 they will have a currency called ECU pronounced EEKOO (European Community Unit).