Imagine you live on du Bullion st. in Montreal and can’t go to McGill university because it’s on the other side of St. Laurent st.-the west side. Or you live on Denman in Vancouver and you can’t eat at a sushi place on Commercial. Why? Because you’d be confronted by soldiers who will shoot you down instantly.

I was nine years old when the Berlin wall fell twenty years ago today. I remember being told the news by my mother while we were in the toy store where she worked. I don’t remember thinking too much of it, I was nine. But, I remember where I was, what I was doing (eating candy buttons!). I think back to that time often. Every time I hear something about the Berlin Wall I think of that exact moment. I got to visit berlin last year and it was beautiful. It had some of the most amazing street art I’ve ever seen and it really stood out-being painted on drab, communist era grey buildings. Kreuzberg is epecially full of giant sized murals often referring to something about communist Germany.

The New York Times has a nice retro-spective with images. Check it out here. There’s also a cool, interactive history of the wall here.