Looking through the Berlin Wall, Summer 1990

When I was in high school I traveled, on an educational program, to several countries in central/eastern Europe including Hungary, Czechoslovakia (at the time) and Germany. 
 
It was the summer of 1990. One of our stops was Berlin. We arrived the day after The Wall concert. And though I missed the concert, I did find a slightly trampled pink mask that was handed out to concertgoers with instructions indicating that it should be held up to the face during certain points of the performance. And while that is certainly a unique souvenir, the little bits of the wall that I chipped away for myself are something I treasure much more. I took a bit from each side: chips decorated with colorful paint from the west and somber gray from the east. The wall had two very different sides.
 
I still shake my head when I think about being there, worrying that my 17 year old brain didn't take in as much of the experience as it should have, amazed that I was able to walk through a hole in the wall.