Tall And True Short Reads

Season Three: Episode 70 (16 March 2023)

Two Visits to the Berlin Wall is a travel memoir from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead.

Read the memoir post on Tall And True: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/nonfiction/travel/two-visits-to-the-berlin-wall

Podcast website: https://www.tallandtrueshortreads.com

Support the podcast: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads

Buy Robert’s short story collections online:

• Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Fairhead/e/B086HZ36NM
• Apple Books:     https://books.apple.com/us/author/robert-fairhead/id1436773436
• Rakuten Kobo:  https://www.kobo.com/au/en/author/robert-fairhead

Episode Insight

I shared the Two Visits to the Berlin Wall travel memoir on Tall And True in September 2021. In Part One of this two-part podcast episode, I explained the inspiration for writing the piece: finding a secondhand copy of the 2006 book The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor and listening to the 2021 audiobook version of Tunnel 29, narrated by the author Helena Merriman. And Part One recounts the travel journal entries from my first visit to Berlin in 1987 when the Wall divided the city and West and East Germany.

Part Two contains the journal entry from my second fleeting visit to reunified Berlin and Germany in 1995. And my observations on my two trips after almost three decades, paraphrasing a question I’d asked myself about my 1990s travels to Dahab, Egypt, is it wrong to want places (and tourist sites) to stay the same? In the case of the divided Germany and Berlin and the Berlin Wall of 1987, yes.

Sidenote: Once again, apologies for mangling German place names. It’s over 30 years since I’ve spoken conversational German phrases beyond “Zwei bier, bitte”!

I hope you enjoyed listening to Parts One and Two of Two Visits to the Berlin Wall. You can read this travel memoir and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com. You can also buy my short story collections from the Amazon Kindle and Kobo online bookstores.

The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be released shortly. In the meantime, check your feed or the podcast website for earlier episodes from Seasons One, Two and Three.

And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite app — doing so helps share my storytelling.

You can support this podcast financially by making a small one-off or regular donation via the Acast Supporter Page.

Finally, please do me and the podcast a big favour: Tell your family and friends about Tall And True Short Reads and the Tall And True writers’ website.

Podcast Theme and Sound Effects

Royalty-free music from Pixabay.com: Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 ‘Pastorale’ – IV. Rondo. Allegro ma non-Troppo, performed by Karine Gilanyan.

Sound effects licensed under Creative Commons 0 from FreeSound.org:

• Bicycle Bell: https://freesound.org/people/13gkopeckak/sounds/378912/
• Clock Ticking: https://freesound.org/people/gecop/sounds/522119/
• Train Station PA: https://freesound.org/people/polymorpheva/sounds/645697/
• City Ambience (Cologne): https://freesound.org/people/Pfannkuchn/sounds/384353/
• Construction Site: https://freesound.org/people/ivolipa/sounds/335963/
• Cathedral Bells (Cologne): https://freesound.org/people/polymorpheva/sounds/511546/
• Train Whistle: https://freesound.org/people/euroblues/sounds/20065/
• Gunfire: https://freesound.org/people/C-V/sounds/523404/
• Siren: https://freesound.org/people/lluiset7/sounds/367442/
• Ping Sound: https://freesound.org/people/edsward/sounds/341871/
• Bottles Chinking: https://freesound.org/people/jawbutch/sounds/344401/

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is produced using Audacity.

Podcast episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the traditional lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

Support this show: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads.