August 25 2014 Berlin and Into Finland

August 25 (Actually August 26 for me by now) 2014

Päivä neljä ja Tervetuloa Suomi. Day Four and Welcome to Finland! (I still remember some pretty basic Finnish)

Spent our last morning / early afternoon in Berlin walking to the Memorial Center for the Unsung Heroes.. which turned out to be quite fascinating on multiple levels..

First it’s located in an old tenement in the old Jewish section of Berlin.. through an archway where you find a lot of attached three-story walk up buildings like what you have or used to have in NY’s lower east side.. The walkway is filled with graffiti (most of it trying to be art (capital A).. ) and several of the buildings appear to have NGO art groups of various sorts.. But amid all of this there is one floor of one building with an exhibit about Anne Frank and then a building with an exhibit (permanent) about a German who helped blind and deaf Jews by employing them in his shop that made brushes of all sorts.. Later he hid them and although he himself was arrested several times continued to help Jews escape. He was a conscientious objector.. and because he had money was able to buy his way out of the prison sentences. He continued to track his Jewish employees even when some were caught.. trying to get them out of concentration camps.

And then next door to that is an amazing exhibit (done in quite a sophisticated presentation — with digital stories and interactive displays) taking advantage of a fairly small space. It’s the stories of Jews who were helped by Germans to escape the holocaust .. and the stories of the Germans who helped them.. The exhibit enables you to see the images of the people involved in each story.. the Germans and the Jews.. and the extended members of the families.. And to listen audially to a narration of the story… Very complicated webs. Each unique reasons for helping and connecting.. and each with very different ways of helping. It was fascinating.

Then headed to Berlin Airport to catch our German Wings flight to Helsinki… plane was late so we arrived in Helsinki at about 9:30 pm .. dashed to a great restaurant — Gaijin — an Asian flair restaurant that does it with a little Finnish twist.. We had amazing sashimi (naturally because the fish is soooo fresh in Finland).. and also a wonderful Korean Bulgogi. We had some interesting appetizers including a sui mei with sweet potato inside.. and a duck bun.. ended it all with a miso cheesecake with rhubarb.. Yummy.

It’s raining here and the prediction is for rain the entire four days. We are at a fairly non-descript (very un-Finnish design) Radisson Hotel.. because I had a lot of Radisson points.. so I guess I can’t complain — price is definitely right.. But hard to believe they allowed this building to be here in Helsinki.. It’s total non-design.. or worse.. bad design. But good location (and very close to where we used to live.) Given that I was just here in Helsinki about 10 months ago, my explorations will be limited.. maybe a lot of shopping (too bad the euro is so high)..

But the only other thing to report before I crash is…

I managed to “not see” a step at the Berlin Airport.. I was in search of an outlet to charge my phone.. all were in use.. and I spied one across the way.. I didn’t realize that we were in an area that was one step higher than the other side of the room.. So i missed the step and landed “hard” on my left foot.. on the side sort of.. So now I’m in pain and have trouble walking.. I’ve gotten ice so I’m hoping for a miracle.. Lots of walking here in Helsinki.. If I need to, I will go to a pharmacy tomorrow to see about getting an Ace bandage.. or maybe I need to go somewhere to get one of those “boots”.. Right now I’d do anything.. One of our friends used to be the head of the state department of health.. so I assume she will be of help. Just hate to lose a whole day when we have so few days here..

Oh well.. Time will tell.. Time to ice. Hyvää yötä! Nakemiin… (good night.. good bye)

Fern