Moving Woes

Oh, man. Still a lot to do.

This is after I've already sold most of the furniture (why my clothes now live on the sofa and armchair, instead of in the wardrobe, and why my bed is a spare mattress on the floor), but shows the stuff I still have to sort into the boxes labeled TAKE – SHIP – STORE.

I guess it doesn't actually look like that much. Feels like much, though, since pretty much everything piled there is Important Documents that need to be pored over individually!

(In a weird way, though, I kind of recommend moving continents and having to jettison almost everything you own. Very freeing! Makes me want to pare it down even further, get that good feeling of putting on a backpack that contains everything you need, and just keep moving...)

Europe, How I Haven't Known Thee

Speaking of East and West...

Now that I'm moving away from Europe after 8+ years (um...I have mentioned that, right?) I thought it would be fun to make myself a map, a visual representation of where in Europe I have and haven't been. I've certainly traveled a lot in my time here, but I know there are also a lot of places I haven't been (and still want to go!)

But it wasn't until I sat down and colored in this map that I realized, wow. Look at that stark divide. I knew there was a lot of Eastern Europe I hadn't been to, but sheesh, the difference is more pronounced than I realized. In Eastern Europe, I've been to Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia, which sounds like a lot, until you see this map:

Look at that dividing line, cutting straight through Eastern Europe! Okay, big trip to not-yet-visited countries coming up in my future sometime, hopefully.

For anyone who cares (which is presumably...just me?), here's where I have and haven't been in Europe:

HAVE BEEN: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark (including/plus the Faroe Islands), Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom (including all parts: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales). That's 29. (Counting only sovereign states, not counting as separate the autonomous countries within other countries, like the Faroe Islands.)

HAVEN'T BEEN: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, (Kazakhstan), Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Ukraine, Vatican City. That's 21, though that includes numerous micro-states that most people never visit, as well as some countries that are mostly Asia, not Europe. Taking out those, I guess it would be only 15 or 16. (Depending on whether you count Russia!)

25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall

Yesterday, November 9, marked 25 years since an East German party official fumbled a press conference where he was meant to announce that a (somewhat) eased travel regulation for East German citizens would soon be implemented, allowing people to cross the border if they first obtained the proper permission; instead he accidentally declared that, as far as he knew, the border was open, to everyone, effective immediately.

This led to masses of East Germans gathering at Berlin Wall checkpoints, after they heard the news on (technically forbidden, but everybody watched it) West German TV. Which led to the East German border guards, not yet even informed of the new travel regulation, having no idea how to react as more and more thousands of people arrived, demanding to be let through. Which led to one East German officer making the decision to defy orders and lift the checkpoint barrier.

Which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and history as we know it.

That first fateful border crossing occurred at the bridge on Bornholmer Strasse, just a couple miles from where I live in Berlin, and I spent both this 25th anniversary and the 20th anniversary five years ago there. Five years ago, the celebration involved a massive line of larger-than-a-person dominoes that were then ceremoniously toppled; this year, the city erected a wall of illuminated helium balloons, which were then released into the air on the night of November 9.

They didn't illuminate the entire 155-kilometer (96-mile) length of the former Berlin Wall, but they did do a decent stretch of the part of it that ran through the city, from Bornholmer Strasse in the north, through the Brandenburg Gate and over to the Oberbaumbrücke in the east. Here's a map:

Unfortunately, I didn't think to bring my camera along two evenings ago, when I was just strolling along up close with the lights near Bornholmer Strasse, so I don't have pictures of that. But seriously, anyone who's interested only needs to search online for "Lichtgrenze" ("light border," the name of the installation) and there are about a gazillion beautiful pictures out there. What I've got are a couple shots from last night, when the balloons were released.

A small section of the lights through the middle of the Mauerpark, a park created along a section of the former wall:

Balloons being released into the sky above the Mauerpark:

People watching from atop a wall...though not the Wall:

All in all, I found it moving to be here for the anniversary and its celebrations. I'm glad I stayed in Berlin this long, to have the privilege to be here for this!