Miles and Miles of Sorrow and Hope The tour bus that we crammed into smelled like feet and young men that had been tramping through three European countries, while living out of one backpack each. The atmosphere was veiled in three parts exhaustion, two parts raw nerves, and one part nervous energy. The game schedule put our soccer team on the pitch with an East Berlin team somewhere around noon. There were a few of us – see at least eight – that were “advised not to participate” in this particular friendly due to a tactical miscalculation at a certain Bier Garten in Munich . Some people – see the chaperons – did not find our hijinks amusing. The dudes who work here have no sense of humor At any rate, East Germany, specifically East Berlin, was a surreal experience. The tour bus came to a halt at Checkpoint Charlie, brakes squealing and screeching like a dying bird. It was like a toll booth. If a toll booth had steel-y eyed guards with automatic rifles. There were two guards on the bus asking (demanding) proper documentation, and a flock of them swarming around and over the bus like locusts. There were mirrors wheeled out and shoved under the bus.

Original Source (East)Berlin,Germany – Once There was a Wall…