Birthdays, Berlin and Bono
The title about sums this post up. Flo and I have both recently celebrated our birthdays.
On Flo’s actual birthday, we threw a party for him here at our house. We’d invited about 30 people (one for each year?), so we planned to have it outside, but then the weather wasn’t very nice. Our amazing neighbors offered that we could have the party in their barn, use their electricity, their tables, their drinks, their potty, their decoration. They are so unbelievably sweet. And, they were going away for the weekend, so they wouldn’t even be able to make sure we didn’t mess anything up! So we grilled and partied in their barn, which worked out really well.
On the weekend between our birthdays, we drove to Berlin for the weekend, so we could see U2 in concert. That was our present to ourselves. What was supposed to be a six or seven our trip turned into 13 hours, due to an overturned truck that had been hauling hazardous materials. Luckily we’d brought along books for me to read aloud to Flo, so we made the best of it. Because of the delay, we didn’t see much of Berlin on Friday night. We pretty much ate dinner at the Italian restaurant on the corner from our hotel (amazing food!) and went to bed.
On Saturday, we wandered around the city for a bit, seeing the things you’re supposed to see in Berlin. We saw a bunch of famous landmarks and went into the museum and Checkpoint Charlie. The museum doesn’t cover a lot of physical ground, but there is SO much stuff to read and look at in it. It discusses the history of why the wall went up, various attempts at escape (successful and otherwise), various uprisings, various everything connected to the wall, actually. About two thirds of the way through, I got overwhelmed and stopped trying to read it all. It was very interesting, though. I learned a lot about the wall and realized how little we really learn about that in school in America. It’s like we spend so much time on Nazis that we don’t have any time left for Commies. After all that, we went back to the hotel to rest a bit before going to the show.
Now, I’d never seen U2 in concert and I’m not a crazy fan. I don’t own all the albums, not even one t-shirt and I certainly don’t know all the lyrics. Still, it was a life goal of mine to see them live, so this was it (and no, they weren’t playing anywhere closer to Filderstadt). We actually got there and while we were waiting in line to buy wieners for dinner, the opener started playing (we didn’t know who was opening). I got really worried that we’d still be in line when Bono came out! But my fears were unfounded. We got to our seats about halfway through a set by Snow Patrol. It turns out we even knew some of their songs! Then, after a bit of a break, U2 came on and rocked out. It was pretty much what I would’ve expected, after having seen concert DVDs – a mix of new hits and old tunes to sing along to, a little political message peppered in and Bono acting like he knows everything and has it all under control. Which makes me think, perhaps he does know everything and have it all under control… Anyway, it was definitely worth it. I’m glad we went.
Sunday morning we got up slowly and then met my cousin, Abie and his son Marvin for breakfast. That was fun, as I haven’t seen Abie in yeeeeaaaars. Then we drove home and there was only about one hour of traffic jam on the way home. For pics of Berlin, click on the one below.
And then it was my birthday. Prepare yourselves for one of the weirdest birthdays ever, and yes, I wanted it that way. We went to Dachau to visit the concentration camp there. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to visit one and Germans have a mandatory field trip to one when they’re in school, so none of them would want to go with me. They get so much Holocaust history crammed down their throats, they really can’t take any more. So I figured on my birthday, Flo couldn’t say no. He was very gracious anyway. So we went there. We didn’t take any photos. That would have seemed weird to me, even though everyone else was doing it. It actually wasn’t as emotionally impressive as I’d expected. After the end of the war, the camp was used first to house German soldiers (POWs) and then refugees and I don’t remember what after that, so basically only a couple of buildings remain. Two of the prisoner barracks have been rebuilt, the crematory still stands, the maintenance building and the building where the SS had their administrative offices. The gate with the famous “Arbeit macht frei” is still there and a museum is housed inside the maintenance building. I guess, to enjoy the museum, you would’ve had to live in a cave and never heard of the Holocaust or Nazis. I found that most of the information was stuff I already knew. What I did like were some of the more personal details about prisoners who’d been in Dachau. Otherwise, nothing looked like it did when it was used by the Nazis, and so the overwhelming emotional impact I was expecting didn’t happen. But I’ve been there now and seen it, so I’m satisfied. In the evening, we went to our favorite restaurant for dinner and then saw Ice Age 3 at the movies. And there you have it – our birthdays! Phew!
Juli 30th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Once again, thanks for all the pictures. Berlin is not anything like I pictured it to be. I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it. There were a couple photos of note though, a) the wall was much smaller than I had envisioned, b) loved the Obamas photoshop shot, good thing there were stairs so you could be taller Kristy, c) your broken mannequin shot – I love the shadow silhouette in front of you.
Glad you guys had a good time at your party Flo, looked like fun!
love you both!