Mauerfall Celebration

The actual Celebration. It was nuts! We got there around 3:30 to get a good place because we had read on the flyer that the dominos would fall at 5:00 and we wanted to stand next to them. We get a place after walking around for a bit and then it starts to rain. We don't have an umbrella with us so that was unhappy. Then 5:00 rolls around and nothing happens. We wait until about 6:30 and still nothing has happened and we are now drenched cuz it's still raining and and getting dark and colder. Then 7:00 comes around and the actual festivities start. However, it wasn't the falling of the dominos right way. All the political dignitaries show up: Nicolas Sarkozy, Dmitri Medvedev, Angela Merkel, Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama (via video) and Gordon Brown. When Sarkozy was announced the whole crowd booed. I was so surprised.

I knew that he wasn't super well-liked but I didn't know he was that disliked. Anyway, they all speak, saying inspirational things like "The Berlin Wall is a symbol for freedom in our world", etc, etc. It was all in their native tongues and Russian sounds REALLY cool and French sounded completely foul coming from Sarkozy. I have no idea why. Anyway, Hilary Clinton spoke and said, "Concrete and barbed wire are now gone, although that still exists." Or something to that effect. We just kind of stopped and went "huh??" It didn't really make any sense and was absolutely hysterical.

So then there was singing, a funny song about freedom ("Freiheit, Freiheit!") in epic opera voices but that sounds more like "Freizeit" to Jana, which means free time, not freedom. Then Mikael Gorbachev was interviewed. He's a hero here and I was amazed to even be in the same vicinity as him. I've heard his name a million times and read all about him in history but to actually by in the same location as him and here him interviewed was so cool.


Then the man who "opened" the wall, Guenter Schabowski, was interviewed. He was the one who received the papers detailing the new regulations for travel on Nov. 9th, 1989 and misread
them. It was so interesting as well. I mean, a lot of political jabber and reminiscing but still so cool to be a part of. Other notable political figures were interviewed, people that grew up on both sides of the wall were interviewed, it was really cool. Then the dominos started to fall but they fell in three sections, which we didn't expect. The first interlude, there was more interviews and Bon Jovi came out and played "We weren't Born to Follow." It was quite comical. Then during the second interlude Johnny Danger played another freedom inspiring song and it was again comical for us Americans. Afterwards all the Dominos fell and it was just a cool experience overall. I feel so blessed to have had the oppurtunity to experience something like that. I still can't quite grasp the Wall even existed, kind of like I can't grasp the fact that there used to be segregation in the South with seperate drinking fountains
and so much more. These
large historical things I know existed but my life has been so sheltered and calm and safe and normal that it's hard to completely understand what went on. That's why it was so cool to see a commeration of something so monumentous.

Definitely a once in a lifetime thing. So cool.