After London, Berlin.? The Gandharva Loka world music stores chain is opening it’s next chapter in Berlin in the coming weeks so I took the opportunity to check out what it’s like to be on the verge of opening such a shop.? Sylka will be the manager in Berlin.
This city is always so cool.? I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the vibe just exudes zeitgeist – it reflects the spirit of the times.? I was here a year ago but had no chance to see much.? This time I also had little time but I did make it to the National Gallery, the Brandenburg Gate and other Berlin Wall-related sites.? I really dug checking out the history of that city.? It has lived through some of the most dramatic stories of the last century or 2.
The people I met seemed to mostly be from former East Berlin\Germany.? If you’re approx 40 yrs old or more, all your formative years were lived in communism.? One lady that helped to renovate the new music store was telling me stories like how you could only buy 2 bananas per year and it was at Christmas time.? She had 3 children, so she had to negociate with the man in order to get a third banana.? He asked her to produce her passport which showed how many kids you had, and in this way she got the third banana.? She said that there were good times during this period, but she wouldn’t want the Wall back.
Maybe next time I’ll get to Checkpoint Charlie.