To the area and their affairs as more remote towns and villages are reached the number of casualties is likely to rise Iraqi Kurdish t.v. Is showing pictures of badly damaged buildings with many families on the streets apparently fearing aftershocks such was the earthquake strength that it was felt as far away as Israel and Kuwait. City who announced that he was quitting as Lebanese prime minister earlier this month says his aim was to give his country a positive shock speaking publicly for the 1st time about his decision Mr Hariri said he would return home within days to formally submit to his resignation. Donald Trump is attending the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian nations in the Philippines at the end of his extensive tour of Asia he's due to hold talks with the controversial president of the Philippines Rodriguez. Who's admitted personally killing people as part of a campaign to eradicate drugs that's left thousands dead Howard Johnson is in Manila we can expect them to have a friendly discussion I met up with the president a touchy just a couple of days ago and I asked him what he expected to talk to Donald Trump about he said that there be talking about trade his he said that one thing that he didn't expect him to talk about though was an extrajudicial killings and human rights referring to the thousands of drug suspect of being killed on the president but you go to tout his war on drugs. The or parties in Papua New Guinea's say they'll begin on Monday to forcibly remove more than 400 asylum seekers from a detention center which was closed 2 weeks ago the men who have been refusing to move to other facilities despite having their water food and electricity cut off the asylum seekers say they fear reprisals from the local population NY The deputy regional representative for the un refugee agency says Australia should now step in we've been very consistently saying that Australia best primary responsibility for the refugees and asylum seekers who indeed turn away and forcibly relocate them here N.G.O.s us now Rule 4 years ago and Australia will have to continue to assume that responsibility to find a solution for them world news from the b.b.c. People in the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland go to the polls later to elect their 5th president since the region broke away from Somalia more than 25 years ago the authorities hope the vote will boost their case for international recognition the Somaliland author it is of also called for access to social media to be blocked throughout the day to prevent what they deem to be fake news. Investigators from the u.s. And Asia have visited the site of a jihadist attack last month in which 4 soldiers from each country were killed the u.s. Military said the team spoke to people in the village of Tongo Tongo in the west of New Shia and examine the local area to try to determine exactly what had happened the attack has become a major issue in u.s. Domestic politics because of the deaths of the American troops. The Slovenian president had a ball route to pack or has won a 2nd term in office after beating rival Marion Sharrett in a run off Mr park whore who served to secure in about 53 percent of the vote said he would focus on political unity and stability during his 5 year term and I'm a welfare groups in Australia have condemned a bounty on feral cats that has been brought in by a local authority in the north of the country to claim the payment of nearly $8.00 for an adult cat and $4.00 for a kitten hunters must provide the animal skin still most of the reports from Sydney it's estimated that wildcat scale more than a 1000000 birds every day across Australia and have driven some ground whaling species and smaller mammals into extinction the council in the state of Queensland is offering up bounty to encourage farmers and residents to kill as many as they can welfare campaigners in Australia argue that shooting or trapping them is cruel because they're such prolific breeders won't reduce their numbers in the long term . B.b.c. News. European investment in its infrastructure is helping remain yet again fans as a bargain destination in the truly old world of Eastern Europe Hi I'm Rick Steves I used to hate traveling to Bucharest but we'll learn how Romania is changing and what it offers visitors a little later on today's travel with Rick Steves Let's start the hour with a look at how much the city of Berlin has gone through in the 20th century after severe economic setbacks in the 1920 s. Nazis and then communist asserted power then the cold war brought a deadly wall that divided the city for 28 years now Berlin has been reborn yet again as though my bleak capital of one of the world's leading democracies. I'll never forget being in Berlin I think was 1999 and I happen to be there during the opening week of their new parliament building the right stuck in the newly restored it had sat like a bombed out Hall just on a no man's land on the Berlin wall for an entire generation suddenly the Cold War is over capital moves back to Berlin Berlin needs a new capital building stead of bulldozing the old historic Capitol building they renovated and they incorporate in it a beautiful glass dome I was on the top of that glass dome surrounded by emotional German and it occurred to me while the history that this city has seen today we're going to talk about the history that burners have gone through and how it matters to our sightseeing and we're joined by 2 guides from Berlin programmer is a tour guide ended journalist and Macy Hitchcock gives tours of the Cold War and the Nazi era as it applies to travelers visiting Burma in Holger thanks for joining us All right thank you what do you think about a German standing on the top of the rice dock in 1999 teary eyes they're old enough to remember when when when Berlin was essentially demolished what it Berlin look like in 1945 when they were children well there wasn't really that much left of Poland specially in the inner you know city center area around ice talk to God Like the largest green space that was basically gone there was no trees left I think about 4050. Percent of the buildings in the inner city were completely gone so it really was you know building was hit hard but you know for the reasons that we all know about it and it really had to be slowly being built back and I remember actually I stock as a school kid like we came over in a school trip to Berlin when I was I don't know like whatever 1516 years old and the rights that were actually used for an exhibition on German history it's only to go to school kids would go there but it was not a Parliament anymore it only came back after as he said reunification that when the capital was moved from Bonn to Berlin that they said hey we're going to put our parliament right back in there so now it's amazing to have it restored and people can go and it's really it's like an open thing that people can visit and have a look what it looks like and it's a powerful sort of symbolism because the people are literally looking down on their representatives absolutely gorgeous demanding that we're going to keep an eye on you guys and we're going to learn from our past that's kind of so like really transparency I think is the word to hear this in open glance Dome where the light is coming in shining into the Parliament and you can look and watch down and see your kind of legislators your people who are making the laws and see it as they work and it's quite it's quite interesting I think I don't know any other parliament that allows visitors right next to enter really and tourist as well as local citizens are well welcome to go there and celebrate what Germany is now and how it's learned from a century Holger you mentioned as a student he went there and there was an exhibit on German history right there in the Capitol building with with all these emotional memories of the war and the destruction I think that was that called the questions on German history or something like this are going to go to she takes and as a tourist I went there and it was moved over later to the French cathedral What is that on their own dominant party Yeah and I thought Germany is going aggressively to teach it to the young generation to learn from the history and even today I think you know maybe a generation ago it was complicated and difficult to talk about but today you find German school groups going to concentration. Camps go into exhibits about what happened during Nazi times and so on and there's a real enthusiasm for learning about the history. It's travel with Rick Steves and our guides to the 20th century sites you can explore in Berlin our progress Amer and Maisie Hitchcock Calder is a broadcast producer with the city's Public Radio Arts outlet Any also leads customized tours of his city before we locating the grim and lazy I also worked as a broadcaster in London now she produces pod casts about Berlin and leads tour groups around the city may see when you as a guide welcome somebody to Berlin How can you just in a quick nutshell explain what Berlin has gone through since the end of World War 2 until today I know that's kind of ridiculous but just in about one minute can you give us a sweep from the end of World War 2 until today freedom you know very very quickly it was divided into you know the allies got here 1st they divided into oh actually into actually 4 parts you had West Berlin and then you have East Berlin was taken over by the Soviets West Berlin was run by the Western allies Britain France and America whatever side you were on when Berlin was divided that's the one you were in basically when the Berlin Wall was built you couldn't go either way initially So you were stuck there you may have grown up under the Nazi regime and you end up in East Berlin you got a different regime got the Soviets So you were liberated from that seed tyranny and this horror into a communist world the d.r. It's quite a trauma you've grown up knowing one thing which has been imposed on you then suddenly the Soviets are there and they were basically your enemies up until 945 and relations don't really thaw very quickly you've got this new regime you're under that if you're lucky enough to be on the western side it's a different story but you are also learning to love the Americans who are basically you know subsidizing and protecting West Berlin and I have to say a fantastic propaganda coup it was the Berlin Airlift when the Soviets tried to block off all the road and rail routes to the west of burden in an attempt to kind of swallow up West Berlin into East Germany into the g.d.r. . They failed because basically at the American Center the planes every few minutes from West German air bases and this was an amazing propaganda coup for the Americans because the people who'd been also the German enemies up until 945 were suddenly that best buddies their best friends perfect and have at it bin ein Berliner Yes miss and and then there was a few very exciting and emotional and beautiful for media glitches where you'd have rock concerts or presidents on the wall declaring you know Berlin well will be free and then suddenly before most people even thought that might not even happen in their lifetime 1909 Berlin is free difficult a time of investing and knitting things back together and today 25 years after the fall of the wall or so we are tour guides learning from the past. Back with nearly . Twice daily carrying power. Into the beleaguered capital flying at a card on my right fireplace let me say you've worked for a company insider tours that gives 90 woks and by the nature of the destruction of World War 2 There is not a lot left physically but as you walk somebody through Berlin what might we see to have remnants physically of the Nazi time well I mean there isn't very very much left but if you're really looking for it you find things most of after say was bombed it was right chancellery which is in the center of but in very close to where the high stock is the government building that no longer stands there that was destroyed it was huge it was a colossal structure it was his kind of palace but you know underneath that you have the fear of bunker and so you basically walk into that area and you get a kind of description of what it looked like and then you look for the future a bunker and there's nothing there there's just a car park head round the corner in the old government quarter of the Nazis and you see the ministry which was basically run by Herman gurgling and that's still standing is apparently was used as a means of kind of guiding allied planes they left it standing the allies because they didn't like where they needed some kind of marker and they were actually using what's now known as a street. The 17th of June which leads from the front of the gate down to the Victory Column they were using that as a kind of guiding point for the bombs until the Nazis covered the income floor show that the German planes were using the glitter of lights on the Thames River to guide them up to London in the middle of the night and the allied planes were using the main boulevard and then this huge building that looked well for the Air Force Headquarters as sort of a beacon to get to their target Oh my goodness I never realized that and I wondered holder when you think about going to Berlin today and seeing anything standing from Nazi times it really is that lift off a building in fact movies are filmed right there to give that sort of you know clash just kind of kind of architecture Stark who really really kind of grey and it's it's quite amazing that it's still there but I think also things that you can see are quite interesting because really if you're in Berlin think about this get them on the eye you know Hitler wanted his new capital and the plans that you see about this the models of the buildings are just made a mind blowing this is megalomanic thinking here and that's something so there isn't really much physically left but of course the traces and the layers of history are everywhere at every step you can find here while Hitler's sidekick Albert Speer was his architect and my images they'd sit down and like let's just take a break from this war and imagine what it's going to be like after it's over and we're going to build this incredible city has actually come to my Nia they're going to change the name of early August is there any place to learn about that in your sighting Well again Monny it was actually because it was Hitler's vision for the you know the new German hihi that that ice echoing the Roman Empire Ok so hence Germany and because that was the Roman name for you know Germany the area now known as Germany there used to be an exhibit on game manya that's unfortunately shut down all closed they do have the models do still exist and I think he used to build see them in the German Historical Museum we should mention that the German Historical Museum on tradin Linden in the former Arsenal Yes it's a fantastic museum it basically divides. German history into 4 sections I'd say pick your section if you're going to go there if you want to Cold War just go for that that you have some phenomenal artifacts that you've got the globe that was in his office you got his desk we don't want to focus on the Nazis too much you have some amazing section on Nazi history and it's unique because the Germans tend not to memorialize the Nazi era there are very few museums there are no museums devoted to Nazi history they call them documentation centers not use centers and I've seen yes docu centers all over Germany now that you didn't see them a generation ago but now I don't know there's enough historical distance Holger What's the struggle psychologically for the German people to actually make a museum or a Documentation Center about that the Nazi experience Yeah I think it's not really a strike I mean of course for the 1st part we don't want a site where people go as a pilgrimage thing you know just about will forever be just ignored is nothing like there's nothing there it is just now they put up a little plaque like a little to can see it was here but like of course like no one wants to remember this as like a there was great things going on not at all so one actually one thing I find very striking a memorial is to topple Gadhafi the towers that apostrophe of Tara is right next to the old building we just talked about and it basically is there is actually nothing really there because it was completely destroyed but it is you see the foundations of the former like a good stop or s.s. Kind of headquarters pulverized by bombs obviously because it was the Gestapo headquarters Exactly and so on but you're basically what you see is like you can go down to the foundations you just see just a little bit of brick work basically along the walls but you know and there isn't you know very good exhibition about that you know that needs underground kind of sellers who are used to imprison and torture people from the Gestapo Gestapo it was like the Secret Service or the secret police within the International Socialist State powerful exhibit there in England Absolutely and it's something if you want to understand the 20th century story of Germany you got to go to that kind of terror. In the phone lines and then it at 877-333-7425 as Mazie and Holger help us explore 20th century Berlin by email where at Radio at Rick Steves dot com. A little later we'll visit with a travel writer who lived in Romania while researching guidebooks about Eastern Europe since for mania joined the European Union 10 years ago it's emerged as Europe's latest backdoor destination for affordable travel you're listening to travel with Rick Steves. From Germany's surrender after World War one on November 11th 1900 to the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov 9th 1909 there's a lot to remember at this time of year in Germany right now and travel with Rick Steves we're looking at what you can explore in Berlin from the city's current 20th century local guide to Maisie Hitchcock and holders in Madrid and we're taking your calls at 877-333-7425 times on the line in Duluth Georgia Tom thanks for your call . I mean yes I mean. For me when I was there we never thought that. We thought it was there forever basically what. Do you teach and. When you talk about the. Yeah that's a good point there thanks for the call but really what we do in schools and this is what I've been through in my school time you will learn about like the rise of Hitler to power we know and like whether the economics. Do ations you know one what about people unemployed what about like poverty what about you know migration at the time and then we know we're like hey this is suddenly there's this guy and you know he makes things happen and you know the Germans fall for that really so we do hear about the sources about the reasons why things were happening and then of course also how quickly the whole regime of terror was in stablished not only within Germany but also then of course spreading out and turning into a full blown 2nd World War So we do hear actually quite a lot about what was the psyche at the time why did it happen and you know also for us to learn from and that we should not let this happen ever again thanks for your insights Tom that's very thought provoking especially with your experience there thanks for your call you're welcome I know so Holger do I understand what you're saying is that Germany realizes that you have to have an environment for an extremist movement to grow into to look at what makes the ground fertile for such a wrong direction for a society to take Exactly yeah what style of what's the role of the media wants to role of people just being disenfranchised and all of that so it really is I think we I don't know I can't boast like hey we're good at this but we really try to teach our kids and to teach basically everyone in Germany you know where have we been coming from and why this most atrocious you know thing that just completely devastated the whole of Europe why did it happen and how did we as Germans play a big part in that and really we would love to learn from that I think that's part of the the spirit of the questions of German history exit that is looking how on earth could a country that led the world in Nobel Peace Prize winners are poets or musicians and so on suddenly go down this road and it doesn't just happen out of the blue there's an environment created by events that preceded that and we can learn from that this is travel with Rick Steves for talking with Hitchcock and Zimmer about the communist and the Nazi heritage of the. And how it applies to us travelers Our e-mail address is radio at Rick Steves dot com and e-mails us from Ulta in California writes The Stasi archives in Berlin have reconstructed the shredded files of many citizens during the Cold War Are all of the files reconstructed and is there more to be done it's such a fascinating story and one that many Americans are unaware of is it true that because of this dark page in history that Berlin is now a place that highly guards personal privacy holder good question actually yes so to answer the 1st question is does the files basically were the documents that the East German secret state police collected about their citizens you know just an order to kind of know is just someone who was opposing the regime and that was like so many people actually worked for that ministry the other stats the height and collected daytime like like just a little let's say a 17 year old was picking up a guitar and strumming a song and he suddenly would be on file and on record and get problems in school or maybe get thrown in prison just for that so it was a you know big regime and they just they were frantic at collecting data and so when when a change came over and they actually the people of Berlin came and stormed the building and say you got to get out there you're done for now you're not in power anymore that people frantically try to destroy them they had the shredders going all night long I saw these traders they just they just you know kind of exploded because there were so much documents they try to destroy didn't quite work but a lot of that is there so they had these sacks a goal of full of paper and now people are really in a painful slow process by hand and also now they're trying developing a software as we speak I think what's the estimation I think it probably might take another 40 years or so to try to get these single fights together does Berlin now have a spirit of guarding and protecting personal privacy after this does he explain very much so we're not just pulling nothing all over Germany or very much concerned with like being spied upon like who reads our emails you know why are people monitoring our call and you know I mean that's something that we are very much concerned about in your tour getting you do Cold War walks let's go from. The Nazi period to the next challenge of Berlin and if you're welcoming a visitor to Berlin and want to take them on a walk that introduces them to physical remnants of the Cold War briefly describe what you might see in Berlin when I think I think you might start off with a place called the Palace of tears plain and past which is an old building right next to flee to Castle and center of bourbon north of Checkpoint Charlie which is the old border crossing the Allied border crossing and the 10 in Paris was a place where a building that you went back into once you visited East Berlin and now it's basically been turned into a museum it's a free museum which was in the east but it was partly run by the West and there was a culinary says the reality that there were families split by the war and the heartbreak of going through all of this humiliating security just in order to see your sister and then going back to the west hence the name palace of tears it was a place for a lot of emotional goodbyes especially when the Berlin Wall was 1st built a lot of people didn't know they went to see each other again and it wasn't until the early seventy's actually really plant the West German chancellor was involved in relaxing relations between east and west but before then you might see your mom at Christmas and then not see her again for a year so it was a very emotional place what else would people have on their list to imagine in visualize what it was like living in a divided city during communism Well I think you'd go from the palace of tears a nice routed to go up to Ben Our pastor which is where you have the memorials the burden wall it's you know it's a long section of the burden wall but in addition to that you have a new memorial it's a reconstruction of part of the wall and what's interesting about that now is Tasker is the street basically is in the West and the buildings which would have stood on that street are actually demolished to make way for the wall where in the east when the burden will win top in the 1st few days you have people throwing themselves out of the buildings on the facade off our Shasta into the West to escape until the East Germans blocked up the windows and eventually just demolish the building that you call it the Berlin Wall but if you were a communist in the communist part of Berlin what would you call it the court the anti fascist protection barrier. Come forward come forward and the match was Deep Creek one property when there was a cancer crowd watching was truth was that it was protecting people from places and from a team 60 when the maid came in absolutely and here in the what's called the Wall Memorial you can actually see the structure of the wall yes it's more complicated than just a wall yeah it's not just a wall they flee what you have is you have the wall itself which is nothing it's 3 and a half meters tall when you look at it you think I could kind of pole vote over that thing no problem but what you actually have is you have a a kind of primary wall quite a few 100 yards away creating something called the death strip and what they've done it Ben I watched class is to partially recreate this desk trip so you have a fence you have to get over here on the eastern side you've got to go over your electric barbed wire fence which has a lawns attached to it you know on a spike plate once you're over that you could get past 10 traps then you're walking across right gravel so they can see every footstep you've taken because the stars the are always watching you are always checking what's happening if you escape they want to recreate your escape and see how you did it and stop it from happening again then you got to ask you border guards your dogs on the lead is that you know it's basically a kind of horrible assault course and that was the burning wall and it's later stage and it was pretty much impossible to get across by the end of the Christmas period between east and west was stronger and more trying to was it to speak was not forced to evacuate their homes was pushed me to prevent their escape or were in the way were Can you explain about the ghost stations to go stations when the Berlin Wall was built to obviously have an existing transport network and that's cut in half by the wall and the East Germans always off to hard currency decided they would let the Westerners continue on their western lines which would basically the line is starting in the south and it goes up north and it goes through part of the east. On its way might be only 3 stations about the deal was you got into the eastern sector be announced when the train last station stop in the West then the train would slow down as you went through the eastern stations and these stations were known as ghost stations because all the entrances and exits were blocked to prevent people from the east trying to get down into those stations and jumping on these western trainer you'd see cobwebs and the silhouette of a nice German guard and border guards walking up and down slowly looking in menacingly with their Kalashnikovs in their arms and it was basically just a means of intimidation I've talked to former Border guards about and that's all it was about after Berlin was reunited certainly they were open these things and in the interest of history I think they've kept a lot of them with the same ambiance they had from before this time I remember this like when I was in Berlin in the eighty's going on underground and suddenly like a train what slowed down it would go through the station it all kind of grain you think about what is happening a kind of in a no man's land and then you know the next stop on the western side would be colorful and you could get up and get off again but this is something and now I mean for us Berlin is we live there we use these stations that are now opened again every day but it's good to remember a minder is yes it's a like mind with this has been blocked like for like what is it 20 odd years this is travel through experience we're talking about that in communist heritage of Berlin from a travelers point of view we're visiting with Zimmer and Macy Hitchcock Holger you live in this former eastern communist zone maze he was just talking about the no man's land along the wall and there's and huge and vibrant park now sort of laughing at the wall and it's history talk about them our park here that is a very fascinating part of the city now very let's say happen trendy and people go there it's like young people anyone like in a Saturday and a Sunday they would just go there it's a long trip because it was along the wall where the wall had stood and now it is very vibrant there's actually a nice kind of a slope going a little bit up the hill and up there are swings you know like you can and you can go through ring along. You have the open air you look over what was the former West and you know back to the former East and it's really amazing it's a good hang on to talk and meet with friends and there's a little kind of like open air empty theater sunny like every Sunday there's something like an open air car Yochi done by a really cool guy from Dublin actually the benefit car and couldn't hold it it's open and there's like I don't know every something like 1000 people just 1000 people in it for the think he's amazing like everyone comes and thinks so and really it's a reminder of he this is where the border guards with the watch dogs were more than the patrol cars would go and suddenly open it and the Lynas interesting like they'd use it and then. It must be psychologically to sort of satisfying to have your crazy carnival party there in what was the debt strip now we're part of the wall park and above it all you've got a remnant still standing at the Berlin Wall and it really is just a concrete canvas for people to spray paint that said no this is trouble to make Steve's we're joined by me and hold our phone number 673337425 Michael calling from Denver Michael thanks for your call Ok You know one of the things that they're known for in the Cold War response and many of the tourists can see where I work there is they're going to direct chronics by murder and I think they're going to sort it out for the u.s. Army and that is there it's a lot further west there let's say 24 spur here on right now and on top of that there are a large building with 3 large stones that are contained or Santana currently used for intercepting So these German signals $24.00 square means down with mountains and of course the reason that it got that name was that it wasn't built with an artificial mountain out of the rubble from the bombing early on. During World War 2 and its highest point in the land sort of course that's where they took trips for a building and installation to intercept electronic signals to get especially sees a building from the top of the right stack sort of tourist go to the top of the Reichstag in Central Park land and look to the left still see the still being very clearly and full Michael when you were there as an electronic spy What do you hear like I can't really tell you come on nobody's listening now basically it was the chairman and the Soviet military radio so Michael that is interesting that was must have been 3040 years ago you still cannot say what you heard even this long after well you know electronic intelligence is the most guided guarded secret Ok well you have my phone number if you want to call me and everything it's chatter while we're sort of a sacrificial lambs you know Us Army number man wears one brigade of infantry soldiers and one tank company which means 25 tanks just within the city and they were surrounded by something like 10 certainly divisions so if war had broken out you would have been the 1st to go after that somebody right there is no way we could defend ourselves or the city or anyone else we're going to run it like Michael and it's I have a question for you though I know you can't talk much but like did you have an idea that the wall would be coming down was that something that you would kind of stand in your kind of you know no no I mean I you know I grew up in the fifty's and I was in Berlin then them early seventy's and the mentality I think most people was you know this was a permanent fixture there was no way that you know the division of East unless Chris going to go away any time soon Well Michael thank you for the service and being there knowing you you really were the the bulwark of freedom as we went to you know head to head with 2 idiology Xin thank. God we got through without a hot war absolutely this is travel perks people have been talking about the Nazis and Communists heritage of Berlin from a traveler's perspective and we've been joined by 2 guides from Berlin Holger Tamar and Macy Hitchcock Let's wrap up this conversation with just a special image that a visitor might have in Berlin that would give him a little better understanding of the communist heritage that that we've come out of in the last 25 years you know very interesting and wonderful and I think part of the city is the whole that was called alley I mean they built it in the fifty's to really kind of get the impression of like Moscow Boulevard and so it really is in the style of like this Empire style they call it you know modeled after the Russian model and you know what you find in Moscow or yes exactly so you can drive down these bullets and shoot it really it's like I don't know if we lanes you know one way for cars and you know for pedestrians and it's amazing it's really big makes you think the import of a communist utopia Yes it is and it looks so to me looks still kind of beautiful and interesting because the style is just you know made to impress you know and so you can see you know write a bike there and just walk and be completely impressed you could think like hey I'm in Moscow right as we speak but this is a part of Berlin so quite interesting up to actually quite cool flats to live in the u.s. Far as you can see Grand Boulevard lined by uniform apartment blocks maybe 8 or 10 stories tall with wonderful relief panels that celebrate the hard work and commitment of the people the dictatorship of the proletariat Stalin Ali you know it's called is a cult Marx Ali No it's called Comics are you know may see what would be another image of the communist age that we could actually find thought provoking today well actually think while you're on calm oxalate the several places you can go there's not that much left of the Cold War and times you know places you can go to but you could possibly visit little ensemble start to the calm on Sunday which is the Cafe in Moscow and you can see a big mural which illustrates all the people from the Soviet Republics and they used to contain a restaurant. It was divided into subsections So you had your Kazakhstan restaurant you had your Ukraine restaurant and then across the road you've got the kind of showcase cinema of the g.d.r. Which is the keno International which is still open and that's a fantastic kind of Cuba structure is very grand you can wonder up inside sit down in the cafe and it's got this kind of people's Polish style about it and if you sit in the central row of seats you're sitting where the elite of the g.d.r. Would sit during a film premiere as and it's got a real feeling the cold war by having little leaves back in the seventy's Yes Yes So Eric you might be you know honey if they called Amerikana could see you might be sitting in the very uncomfortable seats I have to say but it's a fantastic place to really feel the cold war Maisie and whole group thanks for joining us to thank you thank you these people risking that. Was Joe. Thank you. Thank you. It's still something of a living folk museum at bargain prices where you can still get a taste of traditional as it's been lived for generations. We'll look at Romania next on travel with Rick Steves. Thanks to. European investment in Romania is turning the country into one of Europe's bargain destinations for travelers like Pedersen got to know what makes Romania special while doing research there for Lonely Planet he writes about one of the country's most famous sons and the 15th century Prince with an imposing Castle know the Transylvanian border in his book called backpacking with Dracula like thanks for joining us thank you I'm very happy to be here how did you end up writing for Lonely Planet guide books on Romania What's your connection with Romania. A girl. Living in Spain and then she took me home to meet the family and I spent the summer there and it just so happened at the exact same time Lonely Planet was trying to recruit a new Romanian author so I applied and next thing I knew I was in the author pool so you needed a remaining girl in Spain and she takes you home to meet the family and where did she live and what was that like she lived in a city in the Northeast called Yosh which is actually very near the border with the Republic of Moldova not the most touristy city so I was definitely I was stuck out of bed but was like sitting down to dinner with them it was challenging at 1st I did eventually gain a certain amount of fluency in Romania and but the 1st 34 months it was mostly just pantomime and smiling and nodding. I was just there a couple months ago and the food was delightful and one of the statehouse was pulling into which was surprising to me you know there's all kinds of twists on that everyone is proud of their Pulitzer recipe Yeah every family has the problem to end their firewater also talk a little bit just a firework I'm sure you had I want to get layer water with the salad they serve it right with the meal Yeah it's a big deal there so it's kind of legal but not legal especially now that they join the e.u. But remaining answer allowed to make a certain amount of their very own homemade Brandy the limit is like ridiculously large like gallons so everyone has a family member out in the countryside that makes this and so they bring it home and so everybody in the city has a couple of jugs of this laying around and it's almost inevitably brought out every time I guess or over that is an issue in a country joins the e.u. a Lot of its most treasured traditions are actually threatened because they don't meet the hygiene standards well that's somehow grandfathered in Unfortunately the horse drawn carriage didn't fare as well they're being slowly pushed out when you travel in Romania it is in some cases like you're traveling through in open air folk museum you feel like me. Tresco but it's just this is real life here and that was what was so striking with me but 1st of all let's just cover the nitty gritty how is it different from traveling in France or or Germany is it wide open Are there any special pitfalls that we should be aware of the senses that it's a lot more wild even my own Lonely Planet it was referred to as the Wild West of Eastern Europe and that may have been true in the early odds but they joined the e.u. In 2007 there's been a lot of improvements with the infrastructure the roads aren't nearly as disastrous as they once were so I wouldn't say there's anything special you should do to prepare there's still it's small element of just like pickpocketing But you know that's present in Barcelona Rome all that other stuff it's surprisingly safe violent crime a surprisingly rare our guest on travel with Rick Steves is Laith Pedersen he's introducing us to the Romania he came to love while living there to research several money Planet guide books he's written backpacking with Dracula to describe the central role of black the Impaler the prince of the lucky in Romania's history and tourism you can read many of life's travel articles on his website called Killing batteries dot com I want to talk about Dracula in just a minute but let's start with a capital city. In a nutshell how would you describe Bucharest it's constantly changing when I 1st visited Bucharest I hated it it was my most hated city in Europe for a long time yeah the signage was that you couldn't find the train station that's how bad the signage was and I just bad mouth it for years and I finally came around I mean the museums there are outstanding and you know in terms of a European capital it's probably got the best bang for your buck hotels hostels taxi super cheap I was struck by just the calf and the visual clutter of architecture and it's just all these different styles from the late 19th century right through the 20th century and a city that is you know huge city get its act together and at night you wander through the newly pedestrianised night zones and all sorts of very trendy people. It's just a crazy sort of Bohemian Chic kind of scene that really surprised me when I was thinking of Bucharest Eastern Europe in general really cherishes their nights out in so you know once they get it means they really blew it out of the water you know just kind of like Bratislava before their men in Prague obviously ages ago but the they're serious and that you know there's a club scene is big yet the most striking thing life I found about Bucharest was of course the heritage of their megalomaniac dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and he literally impoverished the country because he wanted to build this massive palace I think it's the biggest building in Europe inspired by megalomaniacs in North Korea Yeah I personally I have a grudge against her place if I'm not mistaken it is the 3rd largest public building in the world I think the Pentagon is a little larger but it is enormous and when you take the 2 as you just seen a tiny fraction of it and I think only about 70 percent of it is actually in use there's large parts of it there's just empty I think the government is in there somewhere I mean I think the government Yeah you know but it's so big I tell you there is absolutely nothing like it this is travel with Rick Steves are talking with life Pettersen His book is backpacking with Dracula our phone number is 807-333-7425 you can e-mail us at Radio at Rick Steves dot com And Heidi is on the line from San Diego Heidi thanks for your calm that's retired from the government a year for a year these are 3 structure from the numbers a quarter for experience we've got a car. Or truck all across the country preferably the comic opera based mostly on coverage under the ground here. On the progress at Harvard was harder because Garmin clicks. On the ferry correctly the money and got a lot of children because want care hungry care of crime how corrupt the. 3 children and parents to congratulate me for having so many children very very family friendly What is the culture there as far as welcoming strangers or making them feel at home think of them in general very hospitable but Americans especially Thanks love America I miss you like a lot of critics intransitive any American cars that have a lot of tourists very affluent many causes that they're going to lecture particularly Americans. For example we want to serve as a really good fit for the opera just north of the granite are good for them and for Christmas you could just walk around the whole thing for the good of our kids it's going to our lady from the village came and saw that we were there and said it's around for a little bit for 30 minutes and then see our focus you're going to get a read out of the other people I guess come to our. House and are going to said Well. Yeah so we walk down the street and she went back in the garden and took the coals out this in the ground attacks and bred our air and we sat down and she covers all of our family and I've been all over Europe for us in many countries but I've never experienced how you kind of a complete stranger like that and she told us about her family and we all had caught it from the colon and pretty incredible you know there's something about travel in Romania that if you're good with serendipity it can be one of the greatest places to travel because there's all sorts of hidden little memories and experiences like that and you just gotta make them happen little side roads yeah man and a car pulled over the 24 hour secret a bathroom break under Predator 1st thing he covered kind of burning offered up a gallon of milk he was on his way somewhere with this not professional but he got up again now with a family of 5 you would have found that the prices comparing the way to spend in Italy or Germany must of things like been much more accessible Oh absolutely So we've got our fakery going to careen nice term incredible Well whatever the Crippen of a dollar not a concert let's talk at the top and Low Yeah well I do thanks for your call you're very welcome I hope all your travelers and driver media. Mentions travel Thanks Steve for talking with Mike Patterson a. We're talking with our listeners about Romania Lifebook is backpacking with Dracula Let's talk a little bit about Dracula because if you drive for 2 or 3 hours in West from Bucharest you go over the mountains and you come to the castle that tourist always car the Dracula Castle tell me just in a nutshell about glad. His history is a little fuzzy there was an enormous amount of research I needed to do to just kind of pull apart the fact a legend in fiction and blood when I was researching my book he was a 15th century prince of Warlock and at the time walk it was kind of like this grape in between the 2 monstrous powers of the Ottoman Empire and the carrion empire so they were just constantly in danger of being overrun or being the apocalyptic wasteland if those 2 decide to go head to head and so he was in an impossible situation and he really had no choice but to just especially as the Ottoman started encroaching he went at it he gave it his all in it it happened to the 15th century when morals were different in lots and lots of killing and genocide was the norm for solving problems and he was extremely good at it and that's how he got his nickname The Impaler his favorite way to end a guy's life was to impale them because it was the longest most agonizing way to kill a guy and it worked he literally scared away met me at the conqueror with his with his atrocities really done more than anybody I've ever talked to to make Dracula feel like he's a reasonable guy you know because he's offending his little tribe between Ottomans and Hungary and and they're going to meet a grisly fate if they don't defend themselves and and he did it pedal to the metal so that was a real historical character Vlad Tempest yet to push means Impaler has his full name was blood Dracula or that's it oh my god you have to push means the Impaler it was that he got that nickname after he died now when we were there making a t.v. Show. The Tourist Board was very reluctant for us to do a little bit on the Roma community or the gypsies in Romania it's a big part of the society that when we want to show it what's your take from exploring Romania point of view on the Roma community Well I think it's just like any group of folks that have built up a bad reputation it's all based on a handful of near do wells you know across Europe you'll see of people that are basically just kind of loitering in and doing petty theft and that's not just the Roma community but all of Romania has taken it on the chin people in Europe especially the u.k. Know there's this big backlash and that's just not representative of Romanians or the Roma you know it's just a tiny little fraction of that population I thought it was a beautiful dimension Romanian society the whole country is full of fascinating ethnic stories and in one place I really found that was up in Marmaris which is in the far northern fringe right it just borders Ukraine and Marmaris if you want to see Horse Guards and then people out in the fields and gold herds and cheaper to making their cheese staying in a farmhouse b. And b. There's no place like Marmaris Oh it's absolutely a time travel time warp area not it should be pointed out there they're not doing that for the love of the culture and it's just it's very poor area and it's just because of the lack of money and they just haven't had the infrastructure in the same kind of progress as the rest of the country but for people wanting to just get a taste of what you know peasant era Europe was like it's You'd be hard pressed to figure out what century you're in and some of these villages in Western Europe you go to an open air folk museum you pay admission to go in and there's women with aprons and and you know men are dropping wood and it's just all a little medieval community you go tomorrow Marche hall this is the real thing and and that great thing is the natural local hospitality because you just walk down the street and people invite you in it's like we're talking with Heidi earlier and you're having red red. Out of the oven and you're watching them spin their their beautiful fabric and out running their water mills like Haiti I had a lot of those serendipitous encounters and part of that was because hitchhiking is still a legitimate way to get around in Romania especially rural Romania where there's no buses no other options so while I was driving around the country doing my Lonely Planet stuff I would always pick up hitchhikers and just some of them would only be in the car to get to the next village and some of them they'd be in the car for like an hour or more and it was always interesting and little ladies would always bless me so I would be safe on the road travel writer life Pedersen is telling us about Romania right now travel with Rick Steves this week's show notes include a link to his earlier appearance on the show with more details about plaid Dracula and we talk about the German influence over parts of the Remaining in a web extra This week it's all at Rick Steves dot com slash radio and he's coming in from Seattle handy Are there records I've always appreciated where you talked about the gauging the culture is the more you care and I want to say one thing about my experience or maybe of that law we stick with me this is 50 years ago I was there for USA id on a project. Where say you know Terrell which was magically surprised at exactly the $120.00 a day that USA offered. I wondered if I could instead stay with the family and indeed I could if long as I had a receipt so instead of a stable family whose pension was $30.00 a month and so every night I stayed with them they got the equivalent of 4 munch salaries they were so dented because of this and so grateful that they welcomed me was in the families and relatives took me all around the country on various trips I did all their meals and got to enjoy their culture in a way I never could have and that I stayed in they set us up with those Hell which is where you actually I think expected me to say so take advantage of opportunities to get to know people deeply in that way and turns out to really enrich once experience because of this I'm still in touch with that family 50 years later quite regularly with many sites that help to better connect with traditional culture I think one of the most interesting was a place called the village news video which is this huge multi-faith or site in Bucharest where they have apparently brought in examples of the housing from around the country people are natives are I was there on such a hot sunny done I could hardly stand up but it was so engaging that I went back the next day and the next day because I learned so much about the culture by visiting these little communities and that's in the capital city right in Bucharest to move around in a quick visit you can in a sense travel around the country by going to this huge park and seeing traditional dwellings brought together there from all over Rumania Absolutely and people were in their native garb and playing that adventure but you got to see the variety of the country in just a few hours it was really spectacular a life have you been to that museum I love it as one of my favorite things to do in Bucharest Well thanks Andy for your sharing and remember that Village Museum in Bucharest You bet I know. For me the highlight. My experience for me was and the churches in Marmaris where communities came together in beautiful ways I'll never forget going into one church where it was carpeted with little carpets that were all handmade donated by parishioners and the wall was filled with embroideries that people would lovingly than the Romanians that are deeply religious for the Orthodox community I think it's something like 92 percent of the country are Orthodox and they they are very serious about it still is there's some debate about it actually because a lot of money still gets thrown into church construction and things like that when it could be going to you know other things infrastructure but in the north it is in these villages you know the whole village just kind of revolves around the church and and these churches have been there for centuries you know so there's a crowd there's a sense of just kind of flake rallying around this incredibly ancient thing that's all their own and you go into the tone and if you're on your own you can just wander in and usually the church will be locked but you just kind of ask the 1st person you run into on the road and they'll know who has the key and where they are at that very moment and you go fetch them and they and they let you in the they're happy to show these churches off they're very proud and in the community just rallies around them so in life one thing I was struck by is how impressive the infrastructure is there's not a lot of traffic out in the countryside but there's roads everywhere now and it makes the culture excess of all can you think of one little fun serendipitous moment that would remind us that when we're traveling around a place like Romania you got to get out and connect with the people yes I have the perfect story I was in the car with friends they had just come from the United States a visit and we were driving through Transylvania this guy had a just a rickety table or Messiah the road in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of bottles of colored liquid so we pulled over of course what is that and it was a variety of liqueurs he'd made at his farm and we ended up just having a little tasting right on the sale road there all these different things made of different fruit of my friends that just. Their minds. Made a guy with a rickety table with a bunch of colored liquids in mismatched bottles and you say hey let's have a. There's no I mean they were all with it and we had a great time and that's a lesson I think especially in a country like Romania you know if you see something interesting stop the car get out and connect with the people there's no other country again and I've been all over Europe driving myself too and there's no other country where that kind of thing happens that's the beauty of Romania. Backpacking with thanks for joining us thank you. Travel with Rick Steves is produced by Sarah McCormack and I. Reckon it means Washington. Thanks for studio help this week from w.b. a Fellow in Buffalo. You'll find links to our guests and the notes for each week's show at Rick Steves dot com slash radio I will look for you again next week for more travel with Rick Steves support for Alaska Public Media comes from Wells Fargo offering financial tools to start to run and grow a business learn more at Wells Fargo Works dot com. From n.p.r. And the media group it's Latino USA you know horses are going to be alive in this situation where I have to prove to you guys that you know don't get me out I love you notice he's I want this in my whole life I've sacrificed so much for this place a veteran who came home only.