Berlin- Day 1

Something is really forcing me to write this part, last week it was a Deutsch movie and today it was Don2. So I am here to narrate my Berlin tour of May 2011. 

This time it was three of us (Mom, Sister and me) taking the train from Melsungan reached Berlin at 5 in the evening. Calling 5 p.m. evening would be an insult because the sun never sets before 11 p.m., so I better call it afternoon. Stepping down in the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central station) was really exciting. I was eagerly waiting to see Sigi (aunt) and Hans (uncle). We haven’t met for 5 years. How are they doing? How do they look in their own country? And several other questions were hovering through my mind.

cheers to the night with my German family

Then I saw her, a tall beautiful lady looking for us and I hugged her from the back. She gave a big smile and she said, “Riti!! You are in Berlin now! Welcome”. I found my uncle in the Volkswagen, waiting for us and greeted in his typical Anglo-German words. We spent 3 days in Berlin and 2 days in a place known as Fehmarn, by the side of the Baltic Sea.  There was so much to happen and I could not hold myself. Yes, I was DAMM EXCITED!!!! 

It will be stupid enough to call the city clean as they all are. But when you can compare each and every picture in your Grandma’s album, what you can say is amazing. The buildings with smart structures and every veranda has been decorated with flowers. We went to an Italian restaurant for pizza and unfortunately I had to eat one huge pizza all by myself. My sister kept on smiling looking at my terrible condition. Finally, we reached at Sigi’s house. We were really tired and hit the bed leaving the house trip for the next day. 

If...

Sometimes you get things in your hand. You want it, but then you try to push it away. The best part is that even you get things according to your requirements, you push it away. And then you think over it, why? How could I? You get no answers but a silence and broken thought and memories that you do not like to remember but it keeps on poking you.

People get butterflies in their stomach as for me I get punches, as if been kicked hard. Things soothes down no doubt but, how long? Then the most crucial word comes “If”. Your present being compared to your past and your dreams keep on telling you, “If you have done that, this wouldn’t have been the result.”

'Hell', you shout or may be you cry in the darkness.  “If” haunts you and by the end of the night you go deep down to sleep. Its morning again and you are fresh with new zeal. But whatever you do, “If” never leaves you.

Introducing Berlin

It’s been a month since I updated about my trip to Germany. I was talking about castles in Denmark but then suddenly a movie that I saw yesterday shifted my focus to jump over the castle part and take my friends to the days I spend in Berlin. But I promise to elaborate my wondrous experiences with castles very soon.

Mukherjee family has an old connection with Berlin, since the day my uncle got married to a German lady, back in 1960’s. I haven’t seen him because he passed away much before my birth but we still are in touch with my aunt, though she has remarried. In spite of a woman belonging to the era of mid 19th century, my grandmother was a very strong lady. I must say she was modern enough to accept her daughter-in-law’s second marriage and even accepting my step uncle in her son’s place, especially at her age of 86 years.

As a kid, I used to go through all the pictures in my grandmother’s album of Berlin and fantasize my dream to visit the distant land. Moreover, being a student of history, the amount of knowledge that I have gathered studying about Germany was much more than any other countries in the world. So when I landed in Germany, a smile was on my face thinking, “At last I am here to know you better”. 

Germany, a land that had reached the zenith of power, with time grovels in the dust of devastation. It is a country that has witnessed the merciless dictator to rise and fall, at the same time bears the pain of the Wall that separated them from their loved ones. Berlin is one of the places in the world that still holds the evidences how inhuman, we, the human can be. It warns us not to repeat the same mistake that have taken away millions of innocent lives.
 

In other words, my trip to Berlin was like the pages in history book which was coming alive in front of my eyes.

Let it be......

                                  

                                    There are hardly any days that I do not write

                        Some remain kept and some are quite

                                      some say…. Few things are best untold…

                               some say…. Speak your mind or lose

                    As for the mind it is puzzled now .. what to say and what not to lose

                          I bind it hard, I bind it tight … letting the wind to pass as time

                                   Marooned with moments and happiness at par..

                                             ..and all I say.. let see how deep can go the scar…

Thoughts***

Suddenly clouds gathered around, a bit of hope now lost its track,

Flickering mind try to find a way but the walls of heavy clouds resist the path.

She steps back but pushes to move ahead

The thought of getting there, kept her alive.

Last time she missed her chance, fearing to lose something more..

If she misses it again, she can’t think of as this time it is important in itself.

I hardly know whether she will get it right, but I know her hope is true this time

Believe in yourself, and I know she does but will she find her track again?

Copenhagen- The City by the North Sea

True enough, it does not take a week to reach Denmark from Amsterdam, as the journey was only about half a day.  We reached the city of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark early in the morning at 8 am. Another country I stepped in, within just one week- Germany, Holland and now Denmark. Last week I was in my home at Kolkata, thinking “summer in Europe” and am already in the continent. Wow!!

Change of guard at Amalienborg Palace

Like always, our first destination was already decided by our guide, Sayanda, and we followed the map and set forth to our journey. Denmark is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. I said to myself, “Ok so here is that set of theory that I read in my Political science books.” The ability to carry old with new has pleased me since my very inception to this foreign land that ruled the portion of the world once. We had this wonderful opportunity to witness the “Change of guard” session in front of the Amalienborg Palace. 

It is a huge palace, (as it should be) covering a large area in the city and there were royal guards standing on each of the entrances with still and straight view, very similar to the guards, back in London.

Distance Please!

Like typical tourist, I hopped on and clicked some pictures with a very smart looking royal guard, who actually warned us of keeping a safe distance in a hush but strong tone. Funny eh!! 

 There were sudden shouts, I mean commands and these guards changed their duty position marching away. We came to know, the Queen would be going somewhere and immediately 5 or 6 Mercedes (my eyes were fixed) drove out of the Amalienborg Palace towards the city.

Of course not Mercedes, but the Queen is in there??

 

My sister - Inside the Amalienborg Palace

 A portion of the castle has been opened out for the laymen to enjoy the visual bliss of the richness of the castle. The rooms were huge, exceptionally decked with classic royal stuffs and furniture. I stared at the dresses, so well designed and I recalled my fairy tale stories with princess wearing similar dresses, gorgeous they were. I was very happy to know that the king have a son, I said, “I have a chance”, but then the thrashing moment came, the wedding picture of the prince along with a child was on the palace wall. With broken heart and shattered dreams of ruling Copenhagen, we moved out of the castle to our next destination. 

Marching ahead, we visited the Marble Church. It was beautiful and as the name suggests, it is made of marble.

Marble Church                                                      

Not knowing where to go next, because our guide decided to give us a surprise, all he said we need to rest. There was an exotic fountain with fresh air around, we decided to halt here and catch up our breath. There was a statue in the fountain with excellent architectural depiction and a powerful posture of a man who stands with angry bulls.

Cherishing the surroundings, Sayanda said, “Now we go to see the sculpture of Little Mermaid.” I stared at him for 5 seconds and started hurrying, looking at the map by myself to reach the next stop. We walked by side of the North Sea, enjoying the sea breeze and smart looking buildings. With the soothing sun rays and clear blue sky without the horizon was something beyond my ability to describe. In one sentence, “I loved it.” 

The Little Mermaid statue was a present from brewer Carl Jacobsen (The Carlsberg Breweries) to the city of Copenhagen, made by a then little known sculptor called Edvard Erichsen.

She was sitting on a stone, self composed, looking for something, that’s how Little Mermaid looked. As the story goes, Little Mermaid fell in love with a prince and left her marine life to be with him but the end was painful, inspite of getting the human features by drinking the magic potion, she failed to get her love. She was asked to kill the prince, if she wants to live. Little Mermaid couldn’t do that because she loved the prince. She was left with one choice and she did that by sacrificing herself to the sea.

In my memory forev

As a kid, my sister was the story teller and I don’t know how many times I asked her to narrate this story.  “The Little Mermaid" was written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1836, and first published in this very city of Copenhagen. We took some snaps posing with the mermaid statue and moved ahead. 

 In Copenhagen, I was introduced to a mouth watering dish known as Donor Kebab. This is a Turkish roll and I loved it so much that from then onwards wherever I went, if I was asked, “What do you want to have?” I say, “Give me a donor kebab please.” (Detail coming later)

And we hopped again to another destination, with map in my hand as I am the guide now. I am not good in reading maps, as in India you don’t need one, as you can find routes at every round and corner, now and then alleys popping out from nowhere. But things are very different in Europe; at the end of every road you will find stands or boards on buildings with names of connected roads according to its direction. So, reading map is easy if you keep your eyes onto the boards. 

Rosenberg Castle

Successfully, I guided us to Rosenberg Castle. It is a renaissance castle located in the heart of the Copenhagen city. The castle was originally built as a country summerhouse in 1606 and is an example of Christian IV's many architectural projects. We were late and had only 1 hour in our hand to see the entire castle. I was repenting the time loss, the first castle that I could have enjoyed was about to get close. We ran from one corner to another, but could not enjoy much. We went to the treasury and my eyes got dazzled with the sparks of rubies, gold, diamond and what not. 

Nice..How much!!

Well, we were asked to leave as the time was over and the castle got closed. The garden belonging to the Rosenberg Castle has been opened out to the public; we stroll around watching boys and girls to play, studying and enjoying the sun rays with fun.  

Canal Cruise at Copenhagen

We took a canal cruise and went along the city cannel lines. The city has modern buildings by the side of the old ones, a typical trademark of European culture.

It was a wonderful trip seeing the sun rays getting softer, painting the sky with golden brush and the azure sky getting darker as the sun began to set in the west, the land of beauty.  

 While returning back to our hotel at 9 pm at night, still enough light though, we came to the centre of the city. We were informed that the queen was about to leave from the Town Hall. My mother was like, “I want to see the queen, please.” So, we decided, well we should see the Queen after all, this is a constitutional monarchy.

People waiting outside the Town Hall for Queen and am happily posing 

 We were waiting for hours and as for me, I was checking on to some handsome people around when someone said, “Hey here comes the Queen!” We glued our eyes to the door that got open and a young lady came out, good looking. Well I said, “Nice.” But then someone said, “Hey that is not the Queen people, look behind.” Naturally, being tourist we believed the unknown man and soon found a frail, faded, old women coming out waving her hand and surprisingly, I saw a woman waving hand to her along with others, looks similar to my mom. Well, my sister and brother-in-law realized the amount of excitement that was building in her finally burst out in waving hand.  But Ma was sad; she thought the Queen would have dressed in her big glowing gown as the picture showed back in the Amalienborg Castle. Rather she was wearing a very modern and common dress.

Statue of Copenhagen's greatest author and poet Hans Christian Andersen, famous for his stories such as "The Snow Queen", "The Little Mermaid" or "Thumbelina".
 

First day in Denmark was fun. I read about castles, have seen them in movies but to witness it was something very different. As if, it feels massive and royal. Returning back to the hotel, somehow I felt, I am in love with Copenhagen. The moment I hit the bed, I dozed off, waiting eagerly for the sun to rise to know and see more.

Amsterdam.. Here I Come!!!

Sorry to keep you waiting, if you were actually waiting for the Amsterdam part to begin. Let me not take your time and come straight to the point.

Yes, the very next morning I and Ma woke up 5 in the morning to view the first day at a distant land. Well, it was a simple view but very neat and clean. A small green lane with a little space left for three cars to park below the pine tree. Yes! A real huge big pine tree, I don’t remember the last time when I saw this tree, apart from Ma’s craze to decorate its fruits in the drawing room. I couldn’t go back to sleep because as the Indian timing says it was already ten in the morning. I hate jet lag!!

View from Didi's hous

 I don’t remember what I did after that. At 2 p.m. maybe or after that, I remember buckling myself tight and sitting beside my Didi, who was driving her Volkswagen to get Sayanda from office. Initially I was afraid to ride with her, but by the end of the tour I must confess, she is good at driving, though parking gives her trouble at times. 

Ma and Didi waiting for the train to arrive

Anyway, we packed our bags and ran off to the nearest railway station, which was only 10 minutes away. And from Kassel we started our journey to Amsterdam  and reached our destination by night.

The hotel was very cozy and the view from the window was awesome, which we saw the very next day when we woke up, once again 5 am in the morning. To be more specific, though we landed in Germany but the first real look of a foreign land was Amsterdam. I wish I had taken the picture; it’s all in my mind now.

Day 1: The great guide Sayanda as planned; we would be visiting the world famous Tulip Garden at Keukenhof. My Indian friends would recognize the place very fast if I name a few movies… remember the Bollywood song of  the movie Silsilah “Yeh kaha a gaye hum” or may be “ Dil ne yeh kaha hain dil se” of the movie, Dhadkan. The layers of yellow, red, pink that went down the hill, yes that is the place I went in and I witnessed a beauty, a nature, the green smell that will last forever. I felt at certain point of time, the greatest fashion designer in the world is the creator.  She knows (it must be a women, she knows how to leverage beauty after all) where and how to decorate same thing but with a different cover. 

Tulip Garden at Keukenhof

But many know, my patience burns out easily and after watching the tulips for hours I felt like I needed a break now. However, Keukenhof was no doubt beautiful and a balm to the eyes and mind.

We came back to Amsterdam and didn’t wasted time and we were out again to visit the world famous Red Light Area. Yes it actually means what it says. I knew about this place as a friend told me but my firsthand experience was “kan ta gorom hoye gelo”, in English “embarrassing”.  There were prostitutes all over the place bargaining for the clients. But gradually, things soothed and the funniest part was people come here to visit even holding the hands of their child. Surprised huh!! So was I. 

Blown with the wind

Day 2: We visited a cheese factory and enjoyed the ambiance, looking eagerly at the 500 years old windmills, still working. Oh and those famous wooden shoes with a special demonstration about why and how they are made. Usually, the farmers put those on and work on their field so that their leather shoes don’t get dirty or wet. Woohoo cool na.

Ok, now when you are in Amsterdam and if you have not taken a ride through those wonderful canals, hey are you kidding me! We did that too and had enjoyed the wonderful tour throughout the city waving hands to unknown and they wave back, amazing (in India you do that, people would think you gone crazy). Every building got a lever at the top to pull up stuffs inside the houses because the entrances are really small and at the same time all of them share their walls with their neighboring buildings. We saw the 1 meter house can you believe it and people live in there. Finally the sun sets at 9 and the rush still in the road says evening hasn’t ended yet. But we went back to our hotel to get back the energy for the next day trip.

 

Ride along the canal

Sayanda and Didi in front of the one meter house

 

Day 3: A very happening day, we visited some of the world famous museums like the Rijksmuseum and watched some of the jaw dropping paintings. Oh I can still see those in front of my eyes. Every painting speaks, has its own grace and shows the passion of the painter. Some of them even left their resemblance. I came to know about Vincent Van Gogh. An artist who was under so much mental pressure that he cut off his ear and even drew a picture of himself and it is a very famous one. That moment I realized Don Mclean has sung the song “Vincent” for this man and right then I really understood the meaning of the whole song. We visited Rembrandt’s house and was taken aback with his senses. A man was demonstrating a technique that has been specially designed by Rembrandt to take out photocopies of his painting or to add some more designs to it. I was really thrilled and thank god my face showed it to the demonstrator who gifted me one of his demonstrations of Rembrandt’s work. My mind said out loud “Bingo, treasure!” 

An excellent work of Vincent Van Gogh

Kudos to Rembrandt

There was so much to see and learn but we needed to leave as our next stop was Anna Frank’s house.

Yes the very girl who was hiding in a small room and wrote the brutality about Nazi exploitation in a diary known to the world as “Anna Frank’s Diary”. Each and every moment that she has encountered was being played on a tape throughout the house. Every wall bears the testimony to her fear and the impending Holocaust that was about to occur. I suddenly found something warm on my cheeks, silent tears was actually rolling down my eye, I couldn’t stop it.  There was a cupboard with a collection of all those translated version of Anna Frank’s Diary and I suddenly felt proud to see one of the translated versions was in Bengali, my mother tongue. None of us were speaking much, things happened years back but the ingrained pain will last forever, may be some day people would realize you don’t win anything by killing those innocents. 

Anna Frank Museum

 

The trip to Amsterdam came to an end as we moved on to our next destination Denmark on that very day on a late night train. Everyone dozed off and as I look outside the window with heavy eyelids I felt, 

 So much to see and learn, so much happiness and pain that burns                      
They become a part of history, some we know, some remains unturned.