Disconnected

On this overseas trip, I actually did bring my cell phone, but only as a portable viewer for electronic maps. Incompatible technology however, leaves me disconnected, in a land where having a cell phone is assumed.

Running low on virtual memory

Turning on the television only furthers the digital divide. Unlike in Sweden, where foreign-language programs are never dubbed, but only subtitled in Swedish, the only English-language channels here are usually BBC World and/or CNN. The CNN International edition (including The Daily Show Global Edition) is quite different from the original, and more like the BBC News. Which only serves to make Fox News (where available) seem even more distasteful in comparison.

No Bush

The Americans you meet overseas are on average, not the same as those you meet in America. Still, I wonder what they make of all the state-run networks, and the handful of private independent networks. Not to mention Al Jazeera...

Nevertheless, you can always count on catching an episode of
Die jungen Ärzte on RTL or Lost on RAI.

Fußball ist König

If I can't be in Italy with the Azzurri still in the hunt, then I might as well be in a place where everyone is caught up in a big semi-final game.

This is a place where household names like Ballack, Schweinsteiger, and Klose have resonance. The Schwarz-Rot-Gold is everywhere, on buildings, cars, shirts, and painted faces. With the Turkish consulate down the street, there are also plenty of Turkish flags. On the news, one gentleman had sewn together halves of the German and Turkish jerseys.

Fighting the jet lag and lack of sleep, it becomes difficult to keep watching the game on TV. There is a lot of tense waiting by the fans, for their team to pull ahead, or hoping desperately for the equalizer. The reaction to goals by both sides is instantly heard, up and down the street. In this well-played and entertaining match, there are several, and none of the ugly kind.

Vienna Calling

In the end, the home team pulls out a victory in the last minute of regulation time. With the windows open for lack of air conditioning, it takes a bit longer before I can sleep, due to the requisite honking of horns.

Going international

After four straight weeks of travel (24 out of 31 days in May), three weeks at home is quite refreshing. However, the layoff also meant that today, I became the dreaded clueless infrequent traveller, during a moment of inattention, while stuck in the security line behind a clueless infrequent traveller.

It's been 18 months since my last trip to Europe, and my first time in the new international wing of Pearson. The glass art is nice, as are the metal sculptures, so tempting for children to play on.

Das Crazy

Another Year Over...

Only 30 more sleeps until Christmas. That also means it's been 11 months since the last one. Where did the year go?

Hungarian Christmas

It was such a wonderfully refreshing vacation last year: so peaceful, and such fun times with new friends. Just looking at the photos and thinking back, brings out the good feelings again.

Christmas Shopping in Budapest

There is a long layover in Frankfurt on the way home. Time enough to hit one last Christmas market. From the airport, it's a quick ride on the S-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof downtown. Compared to Budapest, Prague, and certainly Bratislava, the commercial centre of Frankfurt has a more sophisticated feel, but not as much to see.

European Central Bank

Even the advertising is higher-tech than back home. In some of the tunnels, there is a video display or projection system, which matches the speed of the train, such that large advertisements remain visible in the train windows. For the most part, it works rather well, and is a testament to the power of the advertising Euro in driving the development of high-speed electronics. One simpler, but no less innovative practice is how the large and complex transit system maps are placed on the ceilings of the train.

Deutschherrenkirche

The Main river is a major commercial waterway. In the Second World War, much of the historical city was destroyed. The result is modern re-construction, but still charming.

Frankfurter Weihnachtsmarkt

One last snack on the go: a seasonal bread, with raisins.

Nikolaus

Then it's back on the U-Bahn, to the airport, and home.

Your papers are not in order...

The Hungarian language belongs to an entirely different family than the other languages of Central and Eastern Europe. That fact, combined with a misunderstanding at the hotel shop (about transfers) leads to a run-in with the Budapest Metro transit police.

Analogue!

They travel in ominous packs wearing Eastern Bloc leather jackets. Then they flash their credentials. Right out of those 1980's movies and TV shows. The ticket inspectors on the Berlin U-Bahn are less imposing, but more insidious, disguised as young students or elderly passengers.

A trip to the gulag is averted by paying a "fine" of 5000 HUF (about $25 CAD) to purchase a three day tourist pass (face value 2500 HUF).

On Ice

Ghost Station

Literally passed through the abandoned Yorkville subway station last weekend. Due to tunnel construction work, trains are temporarily being shunted through tunnels and platforms not normally open to the public. Like in the former East Berlin, the train trundles slowly through the station, but does not stop.

My first couple of hours in Berlin last year were spent navigating their subway system, in search of Landsberger Allée. This involved first obtaining Euros at the airport, dealing with a surly clerk at the transit desk, a bus ride to Zoo Station, dealing with a non-English speaking clerk at the tourist bureau, and then figuring out that there was also a weekend reroute, and having to plot a convoluted course across multiple lines to get through it all.

This is pressure-cooker German: standing in each place for a couple minutes at a time, mit Wörterbuch, closely studying the route maps, listening intently to every syllable of an announcement, or waiting under the digital signs for the scrolling message to repeat, and translating a couple more words on each pass.

Speaking with an acquaintance who works for the TTC, the re-routing here took almost a year to plan out. Unlike many other systems, the layout is simple and normally easy-to-use, with only one line serving any given platform, and always in the same direction, to the same terminus. Passengers are not accustomed to checking the destination of the train pulling in to the station. However, with good pre-publicity, constant announcements, numerous staff on hand guiding passengers, and the clear special signage, there didn't seem to be too much confusion after all.

Nevertheless, while it was once a world leader and pioneer, the Toronto Transit system now lags badly. Only recently has the next desperately needed expansion project been approved. Hopefully, continued attention to the "good state of repair" policy will keep the system aging well. In London and New York, they have experienced major failures of some track equipment which is now over 100 years old.

Speaking of old, the Budapest Metro has a Millennium Line, just like the Vancouver SkyTrain. Except that the Hungarian version commemorates the 1000th anniversary of the migration of the Magyars, in 1896. Back in the days of the Empire (Austro-Hungarian), Budapest actually had the second subway system in the world, after London.

Oktogon Station

World's oldest subway systems:

1. London (1863 steam, 1890 electric)


2. Budapest (1896)


3. Boston (1897)


4. Paris (1900)


5. Berlin (1902)


6. New York (1904)

World subways I have actually taken:

• Montréal Métro


• Vancouver SkyTrain


• Boston T


• Chicago L


• New York subway


• Pittsburgh T


• San Francisco BART


• London Underground (Tube)


• Stockholm T-Bana


• Berlin U-Bahn


• Frankfurt U-Bahn


• Vienna U-Bahn


• Budapest Metro

Dresden

On the flight to Frankfurt, there was a "Weihnachtmärkte Weltweit" photo essay in the Lufthansa Magazin, about the "global phenomenon" of German Christmas markets, in varied and unexpected locales. One of places visited was Dresden.

Dresdner Weihnachtsmarkt

Dresdner Weihnachtsmarkt

Dresden is the capital of Saxony (Sachsen - one of the new Bundesländer that we didn't learn about in German class). While building the new, they are also uncovering the old.

Archaeological Dig in the City Centre

There is an impressive mosaic showing the procession of the medieval dukes of Saxony.

Fürstenzug

There are other mosaics from the Communist era.

Workers Unite!

Much of the city centre was destroyed in 1945, including the most significant cultural and historical buildings. They have since been rebuilt. Despite outward appearances, this part of town is actually quite new.

Semperoper (Opera House)

The most poignant success story is the main Lutheran cathedral, which was rebuilt in time for the 800th anniversary of the founding of Dresden in 1206.

Fire-bombed Remnants of the Frauenkirche

Reconstructed 1992-2005

Ich bin Berliner

Despite bitter cold, I thoroughly enjoyed a walking tour of the city. Our expert guide, Torben, made it truly informative.

There has been an enormous investment in rebuilding Berlin as the capital of reunified Germany.

Hauptbahnhof

One unique symbol of the former East Berlin has thrived - the Ampelmann. After careful consideration of the multitude of capitalist wares, I settle on an Ampelmann ice cube tray.

Der Ampelmann

The main shopping street was once divided by the wall, including the famous Checkpoint Charlie. Today, this seems hard to believe, amid the fanciest shops in the city. Back home, the wall has become an almost abstract concept, difficult to grasp by some under the age of 30.

Friedrichstraße

Another famous boulevard is Unter den Linden.

Unter den Linden

The majestic Brandenburg Gate has been a symbol through many events in German history, over the last two centuries.

Brandenburger Tor

The restored Reichstag has a transparent cupola, with a sophisticated funnel system which lets sunlight in, and hot air out. All symbols of modern democratic government.

Inside the Reichstag Dome

'tis the season for Christmas markets.

Berliner Weihnachtsmarkt

Tag am Museum

Like the National Mall in Washington DC, several of Berlin's major museums are grouped together, on the Museumsinsel. There are major renovation plans in progress on this island, which means that a couple of the buildings are unfortunately closed.

Berliner Dom

The main cathedral of Berlin is also located here.

Altes Museum

The Old Museum's most famous piece is the bust of Queen Nefertiti. The building itself is by Schinkel, the noted architect of Berlin (as we have learned).

There is only time to visit one museum, so it will have to be the Pergamon. Main attractions are the Altar of Pergamon, and the Ishtar Gate. Unfortunately, I checked my camera, so other people's photos will have to do.

Im Terrorhaus

Not living in Europe, it's easy to become detached from history. There just isn't a lot of it readily apparent in daily life. No experiences like stepping out of a modern subway (T-Bana) station into the 800-year old Gamla Stan (Old Town) in Stockholm, and buying some snacks from a 7-Eleven inside a medieval building.

Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche

In Germany, and Eastern Europe as well, there is also the lingering sadness of more recent inhumanity. In many towns and cities in this part of the world, there just aren't that many buildings which survived the war. It sometimes seems that each city has its own House of Terror, to commemorate so many victims. Walls with bullet holes, or worse.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen

I'm not able to properly describe the experience of visiting a concentration camp. Certainly, compared to other people, I don't have as deeply emotional or visceral a connection to the events which occurred in places such as these, but there's no mistaking that chilling feeling, of emptiness, and the presence of human suffering. Multiply that by the realization that this was a relatively small camp, and that there were so many others. On top of this, add the atrocities and violence committed by all parties, throughout the world, in the course of waging war. Then consider that even today, there are those who deny such things happened, or even celebrate them.

Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen

After the war, Communism moved in to continue the oppression.

Marx-Engels Platz

Strictly from a philosophical perspective, the basic tenets of Marxism are well-intentioned, and appropriate for their time. Considering human nature, they quickly become impractical, and easily corruptible.

You are now entering Democratic Berlin

When it takes authoritarian rule, paranoia, secret police, heavily defended walls, and Warsaw Pact troops to keep the populace in the system, then the evil of Communism becomes clear, and Eastern Europe is the worse for it.

Berliner Fernsehturm

Dem Deutchen Volke

It's been a long time since the 1990 Ontario High School German Contest. Looking back, it's astonishing how well we were taught, and how much we had learned in only two years. It was a unique time, heady days filled with words like die Mauer and Wiedervereinigung. In retrospect, much more optimistic than today.

One of the reasons that I chose to study German was because my grandfather had taken a doctorate at the university in Darmstadt, many decades ago. One of the reasons I did not take OAC (Year 13) German was that everyone else in the class would actually have been to Germany at some point. That discrepancy has finally been corrected.

Reconstructed Reichstag

The stories told in history class about "democratic" Berlin and free Berlin were not ancient and forgotten ones. Even within my recent memory, walking along certain of these streets would have been difficult, if not impossible. It's been 17 years of rebuilding, with much to show for it, yet still so much to repair.

East Side Gallery

Broken Through

Former path of the Berlin Wall

There is a sense of sadness, of the gravity of history. Yet also some leftover optimism, amid current economic and social concerns. The deserted Olympic Stadium embodies some of this feeling, as the site of both the infamous 1936 Summer Games, and the happier 2006 World Cup.

Olympiastadion

Im Flughafen, Rauchen ist nicht verboten

Stepping out of the gate and into the Frankfurt (am Main) airport, the first breath you take is a harsh reminder that this is now Europe. The smell of cigarette smoke is pervasive, and follows you into every nook and cranny, even those which are nominally labelled non-smoking zones.

Between the A and B wings of Terminal 1 (Lufthansa), they also have a long tunnel with flashing lights and strange music and sound effects, similar to the one in O'Hare Terminal 1. Of course, here the sound system for the spacey music is by Grundig.