[rktman]

Yup. Utopia. I went across in ‘62 and it sounds like things didn’t improve much over the years between when I was there and you were there. We took a bus through Checkpoint Charlie and when we got to the east side the east German soldiers boarded the bus and bee lined to me sitting all the way in the back. Teenager, blonde hair. Yeah, I was a real threat. LOL! Papers please. The difference between West Berlin and East Berlin was astonishing at the time. Like you said, vibrant and prosperous to depressing in an instant.

[Covenantor]

Yeah, that blond male thing. I got the fish eye a few times along the wall. Tall, wide shouldered, short haired blond man wearing coat and tie. Made me recall that HS classmates said my yearbook photo looked like a recruiting poster for the Wehrmacht. Guess I really did look like that. F’em they can’t take joke.

[dfwgator]

We took a bus through Checkpoint Charlie and when we got to the east side the east German soldiers boarded the bus and bee lined to me sitting all the way in the back.

"Some of the East German police were rude and suspicious. Others were suspicious and rude." - C.R. McNamara (One, Two, Three)

[ponygirl]

One of our guys took the train to Prague from Munich, traveling solo. He was a frat boy from Florida State, had blonde floppy hair and a surfer vibe, dark suntan. When he got to the border, he said the Soviets entered his car and he was sitting with his back against the wall and his legs up on the bench, feet crossed at the ankles. The soldier asked for his passport, looked at it, handed it back while glaring at him, then without saying anything, used the butt of his rifle to shove his feet off the bench. Then he walked out and slammed the door.

Two other girls who were with us were riding the subway to some of the outer boroughs of Prague and noticed this man kept staring at them. Then he walked over to them, without saying anything, and got down on one knee next to them to inspect their shoes! They were both wearing those high-top Reebok shoes that were popular at the time...with the Velcro fasteners at the ankle. Then he stood up, muttering something in Csesky, and walked off.

And the trains themselves were a totally different experience. The lavs on the trains on the western side were like airplane lavatories, you know, flushable with tanks. The train on the east side...well, you lifted up the lid and could see the train tracks zipping by underneath you! And I still remember going through Dresden and how miserably depressed that place looked. It looked like they had never bothered even rebuilding after the war. Nothing had been painted. Windows all still broken out. Huge heaps of garbage piled next to the train tracks.

But communists do it right, so we're told. They are true stewards of the environment because they don't make anything.