The Sojourner - Next episodes

[Ladyzekke]

Doing just fine my furry friend! It's mid-morning here and snowing away. Looks like another boring day at home alone. What to do what to do.

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[Moridin]

LadyZekke--
How much snow are you expected to get in Virgina? I really hate winter here in MN, but wouldn't mind a day or two off for a blizzard

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[Ramon de Ramon y Ramon]

bump !

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So long !


R³

[Leonis]

Yorick, I know you...
I'm on; thank you. Stay safe.

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Yea hath Cor Leonis said?

[Griever]

Its snowing... I love snow, but we are in a tropical country... sheesh... a question zekke... do ya have a low voice or that kinky type of girly chick voice?

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Tifa has her Cloud, Squall his Rinoa, Sephiroth?? hehe

[Yorick]

F--k me! I can´t believe it!!!! Leonis! Shit this is wierd!
(Sorry about the French)
Wow! How funny man! Very cool.

Ok Berlin. The more time I spend in Berlin the more "homelike" it feels. I finally got to spend a decent amount of time with my muso friend from Australia, and we compared notes.

Man I can´t bloody write today! Berlin is still confounding me it seems. I´ve been out to Spandau and Wansee and have seen beautiful lakes.

The old town of Spandau had a market going on, and so was filled with with jostling people, aromas of cooked bratwürst and a Camerooni´s percussion school presenting it´s sonic wares. Being in an old-style German plaza an looking at old style Deutsch cars etc (Complete with drivers in old military uniforms which was a little chilling - until seeing the smiles on the old codgers faces) was a very pleasant experience.

I went with my Berlier host to the ITB, the HUGE tourist show with most nations of the world it seemed, enticing visitors to their shores. Every brochure pretty much claimed that it´s nation, had it all! Samples of Portugese, Greek and Armenian wines, San Marino coffee and a few foodstuffs made for a pleasant tastebud experience. The Armenians had a sweet made of Walnuts on a string dipped in almost dried wine, creating a drier turkish delight effect - that I apparently need to go to Armenia to taste again , as I haven´t seen it before or since!

I´ve walked down Unter den Linden - a huge boulevarde surrounded by old and grand buildings. In Alexanderplatz I looked up at a communications tower built about thirty years ago (so I was told) in the east. It was dark, snowing and had lights atop casting an eiree glow. I tried picturing myself in the Communist era, wondering how they would have felt with this thing that looked like it was out of "The Tripods" towering above them.

The more time I spend here the more like home it feels, in a wierd way. Sometimes it just feels like I´m in a different part of Sydney and have to remind myself I´m on the other side of the world.

Mind you, someone just has to speak Deutsch and my daydream is shattered.

Other times, often within an hour of feeling at home, I get intensely lonely, and feel like an alien. (Ausländer is the term I believe.)

More soon, topping up credit.

[Reeka]

Loved the report on Berlin. Stay safe, Yorrick.

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Reeka--The Hand of Death

[Yorick]

It was good spending time with my Australian friend. It was really wierd, and must have been for him also. it´s good seeing what it´s like as a "minority group". He ran into a Kurdish woman whose plight made me feel ashamed about any stress in my own life.

She´s a refugee here, but because Deutschlands relationship with Iraq is the way it is, she doesn´t get refugee status I´m told. She gets 80 DM per month and is not allowed to work. Rent, food etc. come out of this paltry amount. She speaks no Deutsch (or English I presume) so would save her 80 marks to go learn Deutsch in a cheap school where my mate was learning. She´d sleep wherever she could and basically has a very tough life. Yet for the five minutes I saw her talking to my friend she seemed sensity and quite lovely. Happy even. In the area we were there are racial problems as well I´m told, so it wasn´t the safest of areas for her.

In the process of walking around we came across bullet hole ridden buildings that are fast disappearing as the new Deutsche yuppie moves in in it´s place.
The insides of the buildings are a lottery, some palatial residences, others total dives. Even across halls this variety is common. The vibe walking through these buildings is amazing though, so much character. The idiosyncrasies are often the most interesting.

I´d seen the wooden bed-on-stilts-above-a-room situation in one apartment in Sydney (a Swiss family), but here it´s more commonplace.

I´ve enjoyed talking economic theory with a couple of people here as well.
At first an east Berliner I was talking to kept using the words "I was naieve" when referring to their adherance to the 'system'. Almost ashamed, head down
until I stated my own disillusionments with some areas of capitalism.

It must be a huge thing to have an ideology you believed in all your life to come crashing down, and the opposite ideology to "win". What ideological voids would be there?

He said his own life was better, that he himself had benefitted. To use that alone though can be a selfish yardstick yeah?

So much to ponder. I hesitated to write some of this because it is but a summary.

I´ve been wondering how much did the west create the cold war for example? By taking sides in the Russian revolution did they not create the fear and defensiveness in Russia, fearful of anti-socialist forces? How much did this fear lead to totalitarianism? Socialism doesn´t need to mean controlling dictatorship! Yet it did.

Actually the after-effects of that control can be seen here. People are more accepting of strong measures of control, perhaps because it´s still not as heavy as the past. Police shooting the heads off protestors storming an embassy (last year during Kosovo apparently) would cause a HUGE storm in Australia.

There was a case of "spot the Aussie" when a heap of us were stopped at a pedestrian traffic lights. There were no cars so I walked across despite the red man. The looks of horror I got when nearing the other side were quite humorous to me. I noticed another couple of people decide to make hesitant steps across.

All very funny until I was told there are 100DM on-the-spot fines. (oops)

Man, is this boring? I feel like I´m talking out of my bum, pondering and philosophising rather than detailing events and sights. I´m still working Berlin out, perhaps I never will. It´s in the process of change. In ten years it will be vastly different to now.

The government is moving here, surely businesses will follow. Houses are being repaired, many new works are going up (yet apparently Architects find it hard to get work oddly enough) and a facelift is quite clearly under way.

I´m glad I got to put my fingers in a few bulletholes in a dark, stone, crumbling wall, while I could still stand there and discuss with my friend whether they were from shots aimed at targets in the houses, or whether, (as the holes were in the wall BETWEEN windows rather than around the windows) the shots had been fired for a different reason, and not fired at soldiers shooting back.

Full on.

Thanks for bearing with me.






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FAIR DINKUM!

[Black Knight]

Lurking, enjoying, bumping.

BK

[Gabriel]

Berlin is a beautiful city isn't it. You made me want to go their again.