Bedside in Berlin
I was sixteen when the Berlin Wall fell. Not particularly interested in world affairs at that age, the event passed without me paying too much attention. A few days later when I visited my Aunt Hella, she told me about the night when she escaped across the Wall in 1963, and I began to understand a little more about the magnitude of the moment in history we had just witnessed.
It took me thirty years before I made it to Berlin, seeking to retrace my aunt’s footsteps and to appreciate the city for all it offered. Despite my family link, it had never been high on the list of places I most wanted to visit. I had felt the same way about Germany in general, yet after a couple of weeks working my way across the country, I had loved every minute.
Most large cities have a hop-on, hop-off bus which takes you for a lap of the city where you can see 90% of the city in a couple of hours. No doubt Berlin has such a service, but here you would experience far less of the city than in most places. Berlin is not a city to be seen as much as it is to be felt. Berlin is far less dependent on a small list of special places to see than Paris, Rome or New York. That isn’t to say there is nothing to see, but the magic of Berlin lies deeper.
After the end of my trip to Berlin, I returned to work in a department of the public service. We regularly utilised temporary staff to ease the shortfall in our regular staff numbers, but at this point of time we had cast the net further than normal. We had a Canadian backpacker working with us. It was only meant to be a short-term position, but within a few weeks, the threat of COVID-19 had seen border closures and various other restrictions. Recruiting became harder, while for our newest staff member, leaving became impossible.
Unable to carry on with her plans of sightseeing around Adelaide before continuing onto the next city, our new employee was trapped into a life that consisted of work, returning to the hostel, then repeating the routine. From the outside, it appeared the most disappointing travel experience imaginable. She viewed it far more positively. Travellers love getting a taste of the local life in amongst the tourist experience. The reality of the early COVID-19 stage meant that she was living exactly as the locals were. It felt like a new world for us; for her the adjustment was no greater than it was for anyone else.
The Berlin Wall has now been down for longer than the time it stood. It remains fundamental to the perception of Berlin, and its legacy is fundamental to the modern Berlin experience. As COVID-19 impacted us half a world away, I saw similarities between our modern form of isolation and the one Berlin had known. Watching the traveller caught behind the COVID wall, I saw her story as a fascinating example of a unique travel story. It just seemed more perfect if it was reimagined in Berlin.
Bedside in Berlin was always designed to tell the story of the city of Berlin through the eyes of both the unique travel experience of my backpacking colleague, and the life story of my aunt. While I have portrayed Berlin exactly as I found it, my colleague and my aunt have been strongly fictionalised into the characters of Amber and Marta. In both cases, the real people offered fascinating stories, but keeping the focus on Berlin, I wanted the characters to fit the narrative of the city and the unique point of history we faced.
Bedside in Berlin features tragedy and triumph in equal measure, for each extreme in the human experience brings relevance to the other side. For a city like Berlin, this is particularly relevant. It’s triumphs stem from its tragedies. Its unity is strengthened through its past division. There is balance to every element of life, and Berlin exemplifies this.
Bedside in Berlin will be released on March 31, 2023. The E-book is available exclusively through Amazon. For people in Australia, the paperback can be bought through this website, while readers around the world can purchase it through most online book retailers.
I hope you enjoy it and I hope it inspires readers to visit one of the world’s most fascinating cities.