BERLIN WALL PHOTO OP
The year is
1989 and the world was a much different place than today. Your writer of this blog was in a serious
relationship that many thought and hoped would lead to marriage, kids, suburbia
you know the drill and who knows it may have.
At that time, 2 work buddies and myself were thinking about a trip to
Europe for 3 weeks.
The deal was
each of us would select a place to go and we were going for Oktoberfest so
Munich could not be on thew list. I
selected Salzburg Austria, one work cohort selected Amsterdam and the third
selected Berlin. Now I will admit I was
not crazy about going to Berlin at that time, as Berlin lied in the heart of
East Germany and having a Canadian passport that listed I was born in West
Germany, did not know what kinds of concerns this would raise. I was game to go though so plans were made.
I am not
going to go into details of the trip, just the circumstances that lead to this
photo. We boarded a train in Amsterdam
bound for Berlin, a night train so we could sleep on the train and save money
on a hostel room. Our first indication
that going to Berlin was going to be a bit different than most countries we had
visited was when the train stopped entering East Germany and instead of a
conductor asking to see our tickets, we were greeted with 3 I am guessing were
police officers or soldiers, as two of them had very scary looking machine gun
type weapons.
Now imagine
this, 3 Canadian guys, mostly drunk, passed out, and in some foreign language
we hear some asking for something, we think they are asking for our tickets, so
we are showing them our tickets half asleep, hoping to pass out again, then
being prodded with the barrel of a gun.
Let me tell you that wakes you up in a hurry and leaves a memory for life. Staring into the barrel of an automatic
weapon, has the amazing ability to sober one up in a hurry. They wanted to see our passports, not our
tickets and after examining for what seemed forever the train moved on.
Now Berlin,
was an amazing place at that time as this was the beginning of the fall of
communism in Eastern Europe. German
people were getting out through Czechoslovakia and Hungary as they were easing
restrictions on traveling to the west.
Unlike other European countries at that time, no signs were in English,
the four languages most signs were in, German, Russian, and not sure of the
other 2, maybe Polish.
A couple of
things we found out after being in Berlin for a couple of days and partying
with the locals, one they felt if there was a war, they would be the first
place invaded so party like there may not be a tomorrow, second thing was there
were still people trying and dying getting from East Berlin to West Berlin. We were there in early October 1989 and
someone had died in September of 1989 trying to get their freedom, shocked me
as I had heard nothing on any news outlet back in Canada.
We went to
the museum at Checkpoint Charlie, that was a combination museum/art gallery was
an amazing place. It detailed the many
ways people had gotten from East Berlin to West Berlin and let me tell you was
a testament to mans desire for freedom.
The art was very powerful and made one think. I often wonder what became of this museum/art
gallery after The Wall fell.
Now we found
out from the locals was you could not get near the Berlin Wall anymore, there
were barricades and such and armed police officers stationed there. The reason being there had been quite a bit
of vandalism and destruction of The Wall.
On the East Berlin side you could not get anywhere near The Wall or they
would shoot you.
We quizzed
the locals extensively about security, and consequences if you were caught
trying to get near the wall. After many
beers, some of them told us kind of a way to do, that was less risky.
Now the
picture attached to this blog, you will see I am standing right by the wall so
how did I pull this off, well an interesting story and shows how crazy, stupid
Canadians can be. Well relatively simple
really.
We found the
place where the locals had said the security was the least amount and only some
minor metal security fences. So while
two of us casually walked along the barricade the “designated photo op” person
wandered in a different area and at a time of his choosing he hoped the
barricade ran for The Wall, stopped for a brief time until security started
approaching and then ran for safety of streets far away.
Now while he
stood at The Wall the other two of us took as many pictures as we could till
our buddy started running.
Yes, we
spent 3 separate days going to The Wall to get a picture of each of as at The
Wall. Now imagine standing at The Wall
trying to remain calm, while watching security people, and guessing when the
right time was to start running.
To this day
I am not sure how serious they were about chasing us, and what would have
happened if we had been caught. By the
way, when I mean security people, basically soldiers, they were in full camouflage
outfits with military style weapons.
It was worth
it for this picture, which was taken by a good friend, who then blew it up to a
large photo and framed it and gave it to my parents for Christmas 1989.
I still
remember coming back from a work shift in Fort McMurray in November, little
over a month after getting home and turning the TV on. What did I see people standing on The Wall
with sledgehammers smashing The Wall, people dancing on The Wall. I remember standing there for like 30 minutes
not moving, not believing what I was seeing.
I am so glad
I was able to see The Berlin Wall before it came down.
Also am glad
I was able to spend a day in communist East Berlin, which was an experience to
say the least, another blog entry some day.
