"Berlin" a Berlin Travel Page by PaulKirk

My first was in 1981. I went to see Aston Villa play Dinamo Berlin. We stayed 2 nights in W Berlin and went over to E Berlin for the match. We went over the Wall by S-bahn to the Friedrichstrasse checkpoint where we had to buy 25 Ostmarks (?10) which was hard to spend as beer was about 25 pfennigs (10 pence) and there weren't many places to spend it. Going through the checkpoint was an experience.E Berlin was lifeless except that many of the older buildings were there with W Berlin being more modern and commercial. It wasn't as forbidding as I expected and the locals were friendly but suspicious. But in a police controlled state that was to be expected. There was some trouble after the match when Villa won and the Dinamo fans came after us. I ended up being pinned to a fence by some E german plain clothes cop who I nearly belted until he showed his Stasi card! Close call! An East German tried to hide with our group to get out to the West. I think he thought they would just send us back to W Berlin without too much of a check. Wrong! They checked everyone and he got caught. He was dragged away behind a screen and we could hear people shouting at him and it sounded like he was getting a good kicking too! All exciting stuff. I wonder what he's doing now?

The second visit was in May 1989 and was a Stag Week. The Wall came down in November but there was no real sign of of it happening so quickly in May.
We went to East Berlin again via Checkpoint Charlie and visited the historical centre. There were more bars and the people were friendlier than in 1981. A guard having lunch in a bar let us all try his greatcoat and cap on. The best part was playing a joke on one of our group. A Conservative who had nothing but contempt for Socialism and belittling the locals. His Visa was in his passport and in his jacket on a chair. He went to the toilet and I pinched his Visa. At Checkpoint Charlie on the way out he found it was missing. He nearly fainted. A night in the cells while they checked his identity was on the cards. The guard demanded his Visa and he fell to his knees groaning that he had lost it. I handed it over much to his relief and the guard said in perfect english "Your friends are a lot of bastards!" We laughed our heads off.

Since the wall came down I've been back a few times and it's stlll true that Berlin is the biggest building site in Europe. Cranes fill the skyline. It's a great city to visit with plenty to see and do. The local beer is OK with Berliner pils the most popular but there's a wide range available. Some of the local beer is cloudy like a Weisen beer but quite palatable. It's a truly international city so there's plenty of diversity in restaurants and eating places. Travel with the buses, U-bahn and S-bahn is simple and 2 or 3 day passes for all local sevices are available. It's a safe city and I didn't feel in any danger whilst I was there. It is definately worth a visit.