Deckman reminded me today of my trip in 1989 when parts of the wall were still up and people were traveling back and forth..cautiously I think..between East and West. I wanted to witness and participate in the end of a war and WWII it was. I had planned to be there Christmas but due to train schedules etc. I was there the day after..after arriving in Venice instead in the morning of Christmas Day..with the porters at the train station singing opera and the sun just coming up and people coming over the bridge..and a lovely bathroom at the train station I should add.

I made it to Berlin the next day..saw lots and lots of what looked like Menorrahs in windows in East Germany. I asked a train employee if we were in east or west Germany...East or West..makes no difference he said. It was early morning when I got there and only one couple was in sight..and the woman had the exact REI jacket as me. No stores open so I had to scratch at the wall with my bare hands and first I wrote the names of my nieces and nephews on the wall. I took some chips from the wall..which was very soft..like rotten almost. Not at all sturdy. There were guards behind the wall in E. Germany and I handed them some chocolates. There was no sound but later you would hear this tap tap tap and more and more as people came with hammers to chip away. There was still quite a bit. Then streams of the little Yugo? cars coming through..people said to buy bananas..they were shocked at the prices. A woman in a restroom kept saying fifty phenig fifty phenic in shock..we paid for her visit to the loo. It was very hard to find anything open and I walked forever and finally found something in East Germany..which was beautiful like Venice...not at all grey and bleak like were were told.

Went through Checkpoint Charlie and came back, which was nice.

I saw something on Yahoo yesterday I think asking for pictures..does anyone have that link? I can't find it. mg