Watching Indiana Jones (of all things) last night with my husband I was reminded of one of the more memorable places I’ve ever been.
I was 21 years old and on my first trip overseas. A Contiki tour through Europe - comprising something ridiculous like 13 countries in 5 weeks. Many would say, not enough time to enjoy any of it and I might agree but for the fact that at 21, I had no idea what in Europe I wanted to see.
Sure I had vague images of the Colosseum and the Eiffel tower but aside from these bastions of what Europe was in my just post teenage mind - I was stumped as to what I actually wanted to see. So I just went with the flow. Loving almost everything I was, albeit briefly, exposed to.
Of all that I most adored on this trip: cobbled streets in Florence, friendly bocce players in Barcelona, the hushed silence in Notre Dame, one place chilled me but also stuck with me in a really memorable way.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade reminded me of it last night in a scene where an Austrian woman (a bad-guy mind you) holds back a tear at a Nazi book
When I visited Bebelplatz, Berlin at first I didn’t understand what the empty shelves illuminated underground meant.
I didn’t realise I was standing up on the site where Nazis burnt over 20,000 books in 1933.
The monument is elegant and simple and is something I’ll never forget. Nearby to it there is a plaque which quotes Heinrich Heine, a German poet: “Where books are burned, in the end people will burn.”
Thanks Indiana Jones for triggering a memory so powerful. Thanks to the tour guide who adequately explained Bebelplatz to me. Thanks to a world where, thanks to the internet, expansive libraries and blogs like this - we are all free to read, grow and learn.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebelplatz)
Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicized young entrepreneurs and is the founder of http://www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: http://www.kirstydunphey.com
Recent Comments