Seduced by Berlin

Patience is not my main virtue, but I had no choice but to wait for many years to complete my journey to Berlin. It's been 34 years since I've been there. At that time, the city was divided by the Berlin Wall and we, Soviet tourists, were allowed to see only the Eastern part of the city. I remember standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate in 1974 and wondering what it would be like to walk through its Neoclassical splendor and to discover the forbidden Western part of the city hidden behind the Berlin Wall. It was a time when only a few of the bravest or most desperate souls would attempt to climb over the Wall, and for most of them, the price was a bullet in the head...