Leaving East Germany

We got a lift out of Leipzig which is a more industrial city than East Berlin. It is also enormous but the people seem to be making more of an effort to upgrade themselves with the occasional flower pot and curtains in the window. We saw two long lines outside banks as we drove through. Then we got a lift with an ex-East German, born in East Germany traveled extensively in the Eastern block but now living in the west half and doing business with the old East half. He said he never wanted to escape before, life was hard but reliable. Everyone had work - even if they had to halve a job to give 2 people work. They lacked competition. Products were either over produced and not wanted or produced but no choice of brand etc. He does still feel loyalty to the East but as he said Socialism is very nice as an idea but totally unworkable. It is also not very uplifting spiritually if you can never strive for something better. He said now that he is free to travel there are places he would like to see but first he has a lot to see in West Germany. He is one of the lucky ones, he now has a nice car and job which even sends him overseas and a new life. Other East Germans are finding the transition harder. Our next lift after a grueling 2/3 of an hour wait, was with one of the drop out types typical of Berlin. He drank 2 beers while driving from Nuremberg to Munich. As Paz put it - he was pretty but needed a dam good scrub! Home at last and ready for all the upheaval and planning and anxiety of transition period from chambermaid to traveler.

Leipzig Hotel Merkur

The Merkur Hotel was 5 stars but definitely not up to par with western standards. Just little touches gave it away as being from the east. We got through the front door with our back packs on and got escorted to our room by a very helpful porter. He mentioned how much he liked Proteus and Paula went into a diatribe on "do you know how they grow?" given in a tone of voice I have come to know as "now let me explain it carefully because you are a foreign idiot". . We only realized after this that he was hanging around for a tip. He even demonstrated how each draw opened and closed. Oh well can't he see we live on 16 marks a day! We had free chocolate, fruit and perfume in the room and after a luxurious bath and putting on our gowns we fell into a stupendous sleep in soft beds made by some one else! Next morning we had one of those beautiful buffet breakfasts. I treated myself to bacon for the first time in ages, along with many other delights. We had dinner in the staff canteen the night before - it was more expensive and not as nice as our staff canteen in the Munich Sheraton.

Hitch Hiking from Liepzig with Mr. Shutz

Mr. Marcel Shutz was educated both in Switzerland and England then joined the diplomatic corps. He was posted in East Berlin before the wall came down and has now been moved over to West Berlin. He hoped to be posted in Latin America next. He speaks no Spanish but says no one cares "if you know the language - although it helps - so long as you are prepared to learn". Having lived under the communist/socialistic system he was able to speak about it. He said things were just not available. They couldn't paint their houses, there was no paint. Everything was left by the Russians as they found it after the war. People were born under the new system without knowing about the west, and a better life so they grew up influenced by the propaganda and supporting it. Every foreigner was watched, it was quite a joke.

Once he picked his visiting mom up from the station, dropped off his mother and sister off at his house and took their passports to the police station, accompanied by his father to register them. As he walked in the door a lady behind the counter said " Ah Mr. Shutz you've come to register your mother and sister who are at your house, and this is your father."They move every move you made. There always seemed to be a little car following you. The Trabank care characteristic of East Germany, you had to order them 13 years in advance and no one could afford one anyway. Things were available but always for a price. Once he bribed a butcher with a bottle of Whiskey for a joint of meat as he was having an Eastern official for dinner. The official asked where he had got the meat, when both of them knew damned well where it had come from or rather how he had come by it. "The butcher" our little Swiss answered innocently. The officials were all East German but all well trained and indoctrinated. The "high brass" were originally shipped in from Moscow.

2 months before the wall came down a man was shot climbing over the wall, what a waste. The East Germans have a very high percentage of working woman so kids aren't looked after well and grow up wayward. But everyone in the family has to work to survive. Rent was very low, 25 marks a month. It was payed to the "society". the landlord is the government so no one can do anything to the property (like paint it) even if anyone could afford it. The responsibility has been taken away from everyone as they don't own the property so everything is left in bad condition.
Our Swiss ride was totally in favor of the free market and didn't enjoy his time in East Germany at all.

We asked him about the EEC and if he thought Switzerland should join. They can't join until at least after 92' as the EEC has said that no new members can join until the present ones are up to par. He sees the main problem as economic as joining the EEC will bring the value of their Franc down and mean no more save haven for tax. A hornet's nest will be opened up if people now protected financially by the independence of Switzerland become open to investigation. Our short but energetically verbal driver was on his way to Liepzig to open a watch exhibition and was most impressed that we would be staying at a hotel of a higher level than his.

Leaving Berlin

The houses in the East looked black cut in half tall and heavy, however close you come to them they remain just a silhouette with no definition or detail. We found two lots of the Berlin Wall still standing, one with graffiti on it. On the west side the whole wall was bright with colored graffiti and there was one it where we could chip away a bit. The lady at the tourist office had suggested that we take a bit of the wall as it had been already sold three times over. We became disheartened by the weather and our whirlwind tour. With our lift in to Berlin we had actually already seen the Brandenburg Gate and other monuments and we were just too tired to walk around any more.
We took a tube to find the burnt out synagogue (which we never did find) but we came above ground by a Turkish restaurant. I craved something spicy so we ate there, a chilly spiced kebab.
Basically in Berlin we just wanted to see what was necessary to see to say we've "done" Berlin, and then get out. We spent about half an hour traveling on the underground coming up at various points. At one intersection where we surfaced there were about 8 police mini vans and the officers were frisking passes by at random up against a fence. Eventually with much use of the public transport we got to a freeway (autobahn) and got a lift all the way to Liepzig with the Swiss Consul to Berlin no less!

Check Point Charlie - Berlin

After a long tube ride home and a long walk we got to the outrageously priced camping grounds in the dark and set up camp on sand and rain and lay low through the frozen hours. The next day was a bit of a balls up. We felt pressured for time as we had to be in Leipzig that night, plus the May 1st threat plus there was very rainy weather (no umbrella, and only summer coats). First we returned to West Banhof Station and put our packs in lockers. The same piles of people still lay about. Then we got on a tube for Check Point Charlie. It was very disappointing and not even worth taking a photo of, just a boon gate. There is a very good museum all about the Point, the wall and peace itself. There are sections in the museum about the great escape from East to West Berlin and of great pacifist victories i.e. Gandhi, Poland, Czech Republic. However the museum was too extensive with too much reading material and a lot of French students crowding the place so I didn't even see it all. Then we set off to walk down the path towards the wall and the Brandenburg Gate. The weather was exactly the atmosphere I imagined for Communist countries - grey, misty and wet.

Labour Day Demonstration in Berlin

West station was even worse, piles of people in the corners, out of their minds. Punk hairdos everywhere and suspicious looking little men is grey raincoats just watching people. We went into the tourist info office and had a very helpful lady arm us with a map marked with the ex-wall and the main streets of West Berlin. We also got a map of the subway. Just then the sound of a waterfall or strong wind eased itself down the street growing louder as it became clearer that they were human voices. "What's that?" we asked knowing full well what the answer would be. "Oh don't worry it's just a police thing or a demonstration because tomorrow is Labour Day." Great, it seams where ever we go disaster follows in our wake. We left the tourist office and bought a 24 hour train and underground ticket and set off for on the long journey to find the camp ground. Accommodation in Berlin is very expensive and officially fully booked. While waiting for our tube the sound we had heard came inside the station in the form of young hooligans "demonstrating" there was no where we could really go so we just stood tight. The sound they were making was that shrill rolling of the tongue that Blacks do in South Africa and Moroccans do in Israel. When they were in view - on the other side of the platform thank God, they appeared to be somewhere between school and varsity age. There were several made up with clown or horror make-up and several mohawk hairstyles. The noise died down as the group spotted a girl they obviously knew on our side of the tracks. She wore black stockings, short black skirt, black polo neck and a red floppy hat. She had thick glasses on and shoulder length hair. As she recognized members of the demonstrating group she started to wave the hat at them and they greeted her back by singing opera to her. She responded with an aria of her own. It struck me that this was just like a drama department full of activists. That calmed me down.

First Impressions of Berlin

The road leading to Berlin is 30ks long! The ride we had gave us a guided tour. First he passed over Check Point Charlie - the most famous passage across the ex-wall, then he drove into East Berlin, Strangely the greatest monuments are on the East side - the State Opera, the Brandenburg Gate and a burnt up synagogue which was destroyed during the Crystal Night Nazi attacks on the Jews. The synagogue hasn't been rebuilt there is just a sign saying "never forget this". I have never in my life seen such depravity, on the streets of East Berlin there are down and outs, out the bottom dangerous people. The streets feel like dead. We were dropped at the daunting East Barnhof Station - even I gripped my rucksack tighter. Our guide book says "autonomous rebels express aimless discontent through destructive activity and armed opposition to police - especially on May Day, May 1st blow outs! These animate the streets with obligatory car burnings and molotov cocktails." So what do we do but arrive on the eve of May 1st.

50% or more of Berlin's population is Turkish, there is very high unemployment and general discontent. We had been dropped at the wrong train station for information so we had to take a tube to West Berlin. The city is huge. Because the people in East Berlin are still recovering economically tube prices are 0.20 in the East and 2.5 Marks in the West. The tubes were very old, graffiti every where, abandoned bottles, litter and people with faces of stone. The people were staring with constant terror, they look dishevelled, dirty and mumble to each other and themselves about the war. Berlin has over 100 theatrical productions each nights and numerous museums so I think we just saw the bad side.

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).

29th April Truck ride to East Germany

We had asked to get a night free accommodation in the Leipzig (East Germany) Interhotel which is associated with the Sheraton. This is one of the Sheraton employee perks, they get a free night in one of the hotels every now and again. So after one day of recovery at "home" (Munich) we set off hitching to Berlin on 29th April then to end up in Leipzig on 1st May and hitch back to Munich on 2nd May in time to restart work on 3rd May. We thought we were very lucky when it looked like we would make it all the way to Berlin with only 2 lifts. One business man in a Merc then a truck (these big big ones ) we were also thrilled that the truck only had to cover 500ks but the truck trip ended up taking 9 hours!! A waste of a day but a very entertaining trip.

Thomas, our truck driver, was very proud of his truck. In the cab(in) there were a number of gadgets and conveniences. He is from Denmark, was transporting cheese. First he offered us coffee or tea. We were very impressed. He cleaned our cups with "Ints" a strong disinfectant that we use to clean in the hotel. Then he merely wiped out the cups. He boiled the water in a filter coffee machine, poured it, added sugar and served it to us - all while driving!

We watched the road while he watched the cups. The seats int he cab were hydraulic - they could fold up, respond or not respond to suspension, lean back and best of all expand to fill out the curves of your back. This was in the passenger and driver's seats. Paz and I took turns sitting on the "bed" that runs behind the seats. The driver also had a finger joy stick which can be used instead of the peddles, so he can put his feet up - and he did - while driving. He also read and drew while driving. He had a computer keyboard and screen on a cord which he could pull in front of him, lean on the steering wheel and send messages back to his company in Denmark. Thomas also had a radio, C.D., cassettes and a large supply of food in a fridge. HE got all his food out and shared lunch with us. I was sitting on the "bed" behind so Paz had to "play mother" and prepare the food on the large table-like dashboard. There was a full range of kitchen equipment and Paz made sandwiches for all of us while we were in motion on a very bumpy East German road. There is only one main road in East Germany and it is in bad condition.

Paz and I were in hysterics as Thomas reverted to a little boy as he requested what he wanted on his sandwiches, and totally ignored the road. Paz didn't stand stand a chance filling all our sandwich orders. Thomas had one with Pate and gherkin then one with Bree cheese, sauerkraut, then sausage slices, mustard and dried onions! Thomas was very interesting but very slow.

With out warning he stopped at one point because - although he hadn't told us - he had to stop every 4 hours to rest by law. Thanks to the truck ride though we got a view of a little East German village where Thomas had to go to drop off some cheese. Thomas told us that when the Berlin wall first came down and he came to this village all the villagers came out to see the truck as they had never seen one like it before.