One of the most fun things I did in Berlin during the Fulbright Conference was to rent bikes with my two fellow Fulbrighters from Bulgaria and to ride around Berlin. There was a bike rental shop near our hotel on Alexanderplatz and we were able to rent our bikes for three hours for only 6 Euros.  The bikes were in great shape and I had so much fun riding around.  So much fun.

[caption id="attachment_778" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Me and my bike &quot;Billy Holly&quot;"]<img class="size-full wp-image-778" title="CAE and Bike " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/dsc06078.jpg" alt="Me and my bike &quot;Billy Holly&quot;" width="500" height="666" />[/caption]

We didn't take an organized tour but instead traced a route through the city that let us ride down Unter den Linden, past the Holocaust memorial, past the remaining chunk of the Berlin wall, through Checkpoint Charlie and in and out of a number of interesting neighborhoods.  The was ideal for us because all of us had been in and around Berlin for the previous couple of days.  It allowed us to cruse through the city on our bikes and stop when we wanted a closer look at things but we didn't have to stop every where.<!--more-->

[caption id="attachment_779" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Three Bulgarian Fulbrighters at the Brandenburg Gate"]<img class="size-full wp-image-779" title="Brandenburg Gate" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/dsc06096.jpg" alt="Three Bulgarian Fulbrighters at the Brandenburg Gate" width="500" height="375" />[/caption]

I asked a German girl to take our photo at the Brandenburg Gate.  It seemed like the perfect picture to mark our time in Berlin.  She was happy to take the photo.  I knew however that I was in Germany when the girl gave me back my camera and told us to have a great afternoon.  She was both nice and friendly in a way that I am not accustomed to after living in Eastern Europe.

But really, how could we not have a great day? Look at how beautiful it was.  The sun was out, there wasn't a cloud in sight and we were riding bikes through Berlin.  Okay, it was fairly windy but it was still great.

I haven't really ridden a bike in years. Luckily for me, Berlin is an incredibly bike friendly city.  After seven months in Sofia,  I was shocked by the divers in the city.  They gave both walkers and bike riders the right of way.  And, there are large designated bike paths.  It kind of felt like I was riding my bike in a fairytale.

All afternoon, I found myself thinking: long term, I need to live in a city where I can ride my bike around.  That city doesn't seem to be Sofia and it may not be many cities in the States.  Riding around the only city, I could think of in the States was Portland, Oregon.  I am sure there are other good bike riding cities in the States I just couldn't think of any of them.  Oh and there are certainly great bike riding cities all over Europe--I just don't happen to live in one this year.

As I said earlier, riding my bike around the city felt at times kind of like a fairytale.  The streets are wide and clean, the traffic is routine and the city feels well ordered.  But it certainly hasn't always been this way.  Berlin was a divided city and still there are signs of this.  Parts of the Berlin Wall remain to remind of this.  It's only been 20 years since the wall came down.

[caption id="attachment_780" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Berlin Wall on my bike tour"]<img class="size-full wp-image-780" title="CAE and the Wall " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/dsc06113.jpg" alt="The Berlin Wall on my bike tour" width="500" height="666" />[/caption]

I've seen the wall the before.  But this time it meant more.  It was incredibly powerful to me even though today there's not much of it standing. This wall was torn down at the end of 1989.  I watched it on tv--this reunification of East and West Germany but at 8 years old I didn't know what it meant for the rest of Eastern Europe.  Hell, I am not even sure I knew what was at stake for the countries of Eastern Europe (or the names of those countries).

Now I am living in one of those countries, Bulgaria, and we talk about the years following the fall of Berlin Wall as "the change."  There was no physical wall to take a hammer to here; there was no reunification to celebrate.  There was just the abrupt end of communism and the complicated, messy process of democratization to undertake.  Shortly after the change in Bulgaria inflation soared, the country was faced with a severe food shortage and war broke out in neighboring countries.

Today, the wall stands in Berlin crumbling, a relic and a reminder, but standing in front of the wall looking at the concrete and rebar that made the wall, I was reminded of the way my own city, Sofia, is exposed and crumbling.  My perspective has changed.  The wall didn't seem as big to me as it did the first time I stood in front of it five years ago.  It wasn't as powerful as it had been when I looked on it originally.

I think that my time in Sofia numbed these feelings.  The wall came down in Berlin and Germany became one.  I know that this transition wasn't easy or seamless but Eastern German was taken in.  Integrated.  It was different here in Bulgaria and Sofia still bears the marks of this transition.  One day it was and the next it wasn't; only there wasn't a wall to take down.

Standing at the wall this second time, it was clear to me how important the symbolism of fallen wall was for the Germans.  It is a point to move on from, a touch stone to look back to, a marker of history and the distance the city and country has come since 1989.  It made me wonder: how do we mark the passage of time here in Sofia? and what walls have we torn down or do we still need to?