Run Danni Run

Picture the moment. You leave Berlin after enjoying some fantastic moments. You are glad to be leaving behind the dirty mistress and moving on to something more high class. Hamburg seems like a beautiful architectural dream somewhere in the distance. Then...you arrive in Hamburg trainstation. Almost instantly, the homeless decend. One is waving a photo of a dying child in you face. The other is screaming something at you in German. You curse yourself for not trying harder with your German - at least then you could understand his abuse. All this and you haven't even bought your metro ticket yet.

Hamburg was a disapointment in many ways - the weather, the food (yes they really love herring THAT much) and the city as a whole was just a tad disapointing. Luckily, Hamburg was rescued by two lovely brazilians Cs'ers and a girl from Taiwan who managed to make my day...as i shall tell you later. I met these two lovely people on the free tour of Hamburg. I decided that i had to try and do something in order to rescue the city in my mind from the black pit of despair where the forbidden city lives. Throughout the tour we mostly learned about how cold it was possible to get before frostbite sets in. We also learned a few other interesting facts about the city which i will try to relate here a little with the help of auntie google.

Of course Hamburg is a maratime city first and foremost and therefore there are lots of tales of trading companies and sea faring but of course the most important of which is the story of Klaus Störtebeker. He was a leader of a group of privateers known as the Victual Brothers who were originally hired during a war between Denmark and Sweden to fight the Danish and supply the besieged Swedish capital Stockholm with provisions. After the end of the war, the Victual Brothers continued to capture merchant vessels for their own gain and named themselves "Likedeelers" which means equal sharers. Störtebeker is actually a nickname, meaning "empty the mug with one gulp" in Old German. The moniker refers to the pirate's supposed ability to empty a four-litre mug of beer in one gulp.

According to legend, in 1401, a Hamburgian fleet led by Simon of Utrecht caught up with Störtebeker's force near Helgoland. According to some stories, Störtebeker's ship had been disabled by a traitor who cast molten lead into the links of the chain which controlled the ship's rudder. Störtebeker and his crew were ultimately overcome and brought to Hamburg, where they were tried for piracy. Legend says that Störtebeker offered a chain of gold long enough to enclose the whole of Hamburg in exchange for his life and freedom.

However, the most famous legend of Störtebeker relates to the execution itself. Störtebeker is said to have asked the mayor of Hamburg to release as many of his companions as he could walk past after being beheaded. Following the granting of this request and the subsequent beheading, Störtebeker's body arose and walked past eleven of his men before the executioner tripped him with an out-stretched foot. Nevertheless, the eleven men were executed along with the others. The senate of Hamburg asked the executioner if he was not tired after all this, but he replied he could easily execute the whole of the senate as well. For this, he himself was sentenced to death and executed by the youngest member of the senate.

People in Hamburg are very fond of their "robin hood pirate" and you can even buy children's books about him. Störtebeker is now also a beer brand in Stralsund, whose slogan means, Beer of the Righteous.

In addition to the interesting pirate stories that we got to hear at the harbor we also got to see the new Hafencity. HafenCity Hamburg is a project of city-planning where the old harbourquarters of Hamburg are built on with offices, hotels, shops, official buildings and residential areas. The project is one of the largest rebuilding projects in Europe in the 21st century. When completely developed it will be home to about 12.000 people and the workplace of 40.000 people mostly in office complexes. The prospect for completion is not very clear but will probably be around 2020-2030. One of the most interesting things about this building project, apart from its size, is that the main centrepiece of the whole thing will be a music hall designed by none other than Herzog and de Meuron a famous arcitectural firm who made none other than the birds nest in Beijing. (yes-i am officially becoming a bit of an architecture geek)

What it looks like now

What it looks like when it will be finished

The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron both attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. They are perhaps best known for their conversion of the giant Bankside Power Station in London to the new home of the Tate Modern. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1994 and professors at ETH Zürich since 1999.

In 2001, Herzog & de Meuron were awarded the Pritzker Prize, the highest of honours in architecture. Jury chairman J. Carter Brown commented, "One is hard put to think of any architects in history that have addressed the integument of architecture with greater imagination and virtuosity." This was in reference to HdM's innovative use of exterior materials and treatments, such as silkscreened glass. Architecture critic and Pritzker juror Ada Louise Huxtable summarized HdM's approach concisely: "They refine the traditions of modernism to elemental simplicity, while transforming materials and surfaces through the exploration of new treatments and techniques." In 2006, the New York Times Magazine called them "one of the most admired architecture firms in the world."

For those of you who are as sad as me and would like to find out more head to this website where you can see a trailer for a movie about the construction of the birds nest: http://www.herzogdemeuron-film.com/en/trailer/

And of course...of all the history of Hamburg i cannot leave out the only historical date that i have ever been able to remember - "the great fire of 1842" and why do i remember it? Well, because it nearly destroyed the whole of Hamburg...

The place where the fire started

In the night from the 4th to the 5th of May 1842 fire broke out in a house of the Deichstraße. The night watchmen made noise with rattles and calls. The soldiers on guard fired signal shots, and the guardians in the spires rang the fire bells. So the fire-brigade was called.The close lanes became deadly traps. Fire engines could not get into the small and crowded lanes. People panicked and tried to escape. Hundreds ran crying among the burning houses. Others tried to save everything they owned.

The firefighters worked untiringly, but in vain. At noon the flames seized the tower of St. Nikolai. Around 6 o'clock the tower collapsed under cracking and thunders. From the ware-houses alcohol flowed into the fleets. It burned on the water, ignited the stakes in the fleets and endangered ships and bridges. Around 11 o'clock in the evening the fire jumped over the Alster (river). Now the city hall was in danger, and although fire chiefs blew up the city hall and other buildings, the fire continued to spread.

On Sunday, 8th of May, a rainbow shone over destroyed Hamburg. One third of the city was destroyed. 51 people died, 20 000 were left homeless. The most important and historical parts of Hamburg lay in debris and ashes:

It's just a shame that they didn't leave it that way.

After the tour Ignacio, helen and i went to go and get some traditional German food and afterwards went to the home of their host Ming. She was really lovely and took us out for some coffees and free cake. Afterwards we headed to the reeperbahn, which is the red light district of Hamburg and we saw some prostitutes hanging outside Burger king (so high class) had a look at some sex shops.They had some amazing underwear, which we liked a lot, and some more disturbing things that we liked a whole lot less. All in all it was a pretty good way to spend valentines day.

Hamburg was great...but not because of the city, rather because the coolness of the people more than made up for the coldness of the weather.

The curtain has now closed on my final movie of the film festival and also my time in Berlin. I wanted to talk a little bit about the film festival which was one of the main reasons that i decided to come to Berlin in the first place.

The Berlin International Film Festival also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It was founded in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978. With 274,000 tickets sold and 487,000 admissions it is considered the largest publicly-attended film festival worldwide.Up to 400 films are shown in several sections, representing a comprehensive array of the cinematic world. Around twenty films compete for the awards called the Golden and Silver Bears. Since 2001 the director of the festival has been Dieter Kosslick.

The awards are as thus:
The Golden Bear (German: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Golden Bear (Goldener Bär)

Best Motion Picture
Lifetime Achievement (Honorary Golden Bear)
Silver Bear (Silberner Bär)

Jury Grand Prix
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Screenplay
Best film music
Extraordinary achievement by a single artist
Grand Prize of the Jury (Short film award)
Others

Panorama Publikumspreis, the Audience Award
Berlinale Camera, a special award for services to the Festival
A Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the 14plus section of the Generation Competition
A Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the children's section of the Generation Competition
Teddy Award for films with LGBT topics
Shooting Stars Award for young European acting talent, awarded by European Film Promotion

Hi-so, the movie that i went to see was in the Forum - this category comprises experimental films from around the world with a particular emphasis on screening works by younger filmmakers. There are no format or genre restrictions, and films in the Forum do not compete for awards. The film was by a director called Aditya Assarat from Thailand. I chose the film on the basis that i had never seen a film from Thailand before.

The first question of the forum was "while i was watching your film i was reminded of Lost in Translation. Did you have this film in mind while you were making the film." The director's answer was no but the film definitely has traces of lost in translation but i believe that in fact this film is much more complex. The focus of the film is the experience of someone who has dual nationality. The director of the film is in fact himself half-thai and half American. He feels that in fact he belongs in neither place. He claims that his film will never be blockbusters or particularly particularly popular because they were like "the movie equivalent of going to the museum on a day off rather than going shopping" and this is a choice that very few people would make.

The plot follows the story of Ananda who after studying in the US, returns to his homeland Thailand, where he tries his luck as a film actor. When his girlfriend and co-student Zoe visits him, the two perceive their togetherness as strange. Zoe leaves and the production assistant May enters Ananda’s life. Aditya Assarat’s film follows his protagonists to the province, to the film set, to anonymous hotel rooms and to the Thai capital. He shows a world between languages, cultures, classes, between the film family and the production business. When Ananda looks at Bangkok he searches for the place of his childhood but sees a city to which he does not feel connected. Hi-So is a film about drifters, seekers of happiness and globetrotters.

The film particularly touched me as at the moment i do not really feel as if i "fit" anywhere. The film's last scene, with Ananda standing in the airport summed up how i feel at the moment. Without a home and without an identity. Comfort can be found in its ambiguity.

Another interesting concept that the director spoke about what that of a new kind of nationality. Instead of nationalities based on a shared language and geographical location instead there are new global communities that are formed through a shared cultural identity. Anyone who knows my PHD implications will know that this is something that really interests me.

Another brilliant film that i saw at Berlinale was Tomboy by Celine Sciamma. "There is definitely something boyish about ten-year-old Laure. She has recently moved to a new area with her parents and her little sister, Jeanne. It’s summertime and all the other neighbourhood children are playing outside – only Laure is alone, for she knows nobody of her own age. But then, one day, she meets Lisa, a girl who is exactly the same age. Laure allows her new acquaintance to believe that she is a boy. Laure becomes Mikaël, and, no sooner has she brought about this ‘transformation’ than she begins playing with all the other neighbourhood children. As time passes, Laure’s relationship to Lisa becomes increasingly close, making the ambiguity of her situation ever more complicated. Céline Sciamma is a proponent of a new generation of filmmakers in France. In an interview with “Cineuropa” in August 2007 she comments: “I became a cinephile as a result of young French cinema of the 90s: Desplechin, Lvovsky, Rochant. But I like Gus Van Sant and Larry Clark a lot too for their work on adolescence, not to forget David Lynch.”

The film really engaged with the period of your life when you were young and the concept of gender was a foregn one. It made me laugh, it made me cringe and it made me cry. It was a fantastic film and so simple with tiny touching moments that made it totally magic.

The highlight of course had to be going to see Zhang Yimou's "under the Hawthorn Tree" or "山楂树之恋" The cinema was packed with around five hundred people. It was the most people i have ever seen show up for a movie. The stars, Shawn Dou (Lao San) and Dongyu Zhou (Jing Qiu)were also there. I break my heart because of course i am in love with the actor....so beautiful...

The film is set during the Cultural Revolution in 60s and 70s China. The book is based on the internet novel by Ai Mi. The story is about two young people who meet and fall in love during the time of the cultural revolution. The film shows the moments that the couple have away from society's prying eyes, and that of objections that come from Jing's mother. The story takes aim at how Mao's policies impacted the ordinary man on the street.

Apart from simply being amazing the film made me long for China and all the friends i have made there. Sob. I miss some special people.

An eerie sort of cold feeling passed through me as i passed through the remenants of a wall that used to hold captive the prisoners of sachsenhausen concentration camp. The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was built in the summer of 1936 by concentration camp prisoners from the Emsland camps. Just north of Berlin, Sachsenhausen was one of the most notorious death camps of the Nazi empire and was liberated by Allied troops in 1945. I had decided to go alone to the concentration camp rather than with a large group because i wasn't really in the mood to be herded like cattle throughout the exhibits. In hindsight i don't think that the idea was a particularly good one as it intensified the disturbing feelings that the concentration camp evoked.

Earlier that morning i had boarded the S1 and headed out deep into the Berlin suburbs. The suburbs of Berlin are very far removed from anything that you will find in the centre of the city. The have trees (ones that aren't covered in graffiti even!) and people live in houses much like a suburb anywhere else in the world. The contradiction that is in the this unassuming, quiet leafy suburb there is hidden a huge sprawling monster. I couldn't help but wonder, perhaps inappropriately, what the presence of the concentration camp does to the house prices in the area. Do they increase or deacrease?

Suddenly, from among the suburbs you can see the camp. I went inside and collected my audioguide (from the extremely helpful-by-German-standards-staff) and then headed further into the camp. It is, without doubt, one of the most bleak and awful places i have been in my life. Even without the knowledge of what had gone on there one would be suprised by the sheer magnitude and scale of the bleak empty spaces here. The camp was far bigger than i could have ever imagined it would be. Even walking from one end to another expends considerable energy.

entrance to the camp

memorials

There were a number of exhibits inside of the buildings but the most interesting ones were those where the original features of the camp had been maintained. In the prison blocks you could see the original bathrooms and washrooms where the prisoners would have washed and got ready. Prisoners were locked inside of these rooms until everyone was finished. There were so many in the room at the same time often people fainted or collapsed because of the heat.

conditions inside the camp

Most horrifying of all was the medical block where doctors carried out medical examinations which were designed to decide who would be euthanised and also a number of horrifying medical experiments designed to further their own careers. German scientists and medical researchers conducted medical experiments on prisoners in Sachsenhausen. SS doctors conducted around 40 different types of experiments, including sterilizations, castrations, experimenting with hepatitis, inserting infectious material into incisions of the muscle, and testing the effects of potassium cyanide, phosphorous and other toxins on the human body. Many prisoners died as a result of such experimentation. Of those who survived, many would have serious health problems or deformities for the rest of their lives. It is unknown how many prisoners SS doctors subjected to such experiments, but as of May 1941, SS doctors had already castrated or sterilized 107 prisoners in Sachsenhausen. There were exhibits on display of some of the tools that had been found inside of the medical block/There were also a number of sites outside the main walls where there had been mass graves uncovered. In one there was found ashes from all the people who died there.

I was in the camp for around four hours and at the end i was very hungry, cold, tired and emotionally drained. I actually fell asleep on the train on the way back. It is difficult to understand how human beings could have the possibility to be so cruel to others. Especially doctors, who, you would imagine, choose their profession on the basis that they feel empathy for others and want to help them.

It was the morning after the night before. In my attempt to meet some more permant Berliners i had somehow talked myself into going and getting naked with some people that i barely knew.

Don, the name of my new aquaintance assured me that it was all perfectly above board and that no one would even notice that i was naked. We were headed to Badeschiff which is a pool and sauna which is built into the river. In summer there is a beach outdoors and in winter the gigantic floating barges act as a sauna and place to swim. The pool is heated by thermal currents from the river (yes-that means at this time of year it is still cold) The difference between saunas here and in the UK is that the saunas here involve getting completely naked. All i needed was myself, my towel and a pair of flip flops (kindly supplied by Don)

We headed down to the riverside through what looked like a dodgy abandoned industrial site that Don convinced me was actually one of the most famous concert venues in Berlin. The killers apparently played there last year. I couldn't help but think of The Killers disappointment when they showed up at what is essentially a glorified shack.

Finally, we came to the floating sausages in the river. I was very nervous but i have to say Don did a reasonable job of calming me down. He was just so casual about the whole thing. When the time came to disrobe i was shaking in my (proverbial) shoes. The thought of getting naked in front of strangers has never been one that appealed to me. At Badeschiff you have to run outside quickly from the place where you get changed to the inside sauna area. We hurried through the frosty air into a scandanavian wonderland. Everything was made with pine and there was a relaxed and very cosy atmosphere. People seemed unperturbed about walking around with their unmentionables out but i was uncomfortable just the same.

Don told me that at the beginning of each hour there was a show by the "sauna meister." In Badeschiff, instead of putting the water on the rocks by yourself there is a man who comes to do it in a special ceremony. He creates an interesting display with a towel (and no it's not what you are thinking- dirty minds!) that is designed to distribute the heat throughout the room. Boy do you feel it! Each hour the water that he uses to scent the rocks has a different scent which makes the experience very pleasurable.

After the sauna we went for a dip in the pool. Of course on one hand you want to get into the water to hide your nakedness, but on the other hand the water is so toe curlingly cold you just have to make a quick decision. Jump in quickly, hiding your modesty and getting it over quickly and sharply or, hovering over the water leaving everyone to examine your backside. You can guess the option that i chose. Still, it was worth it to be able to swim outdoors through some butchers curtains (you know the ones i mean) and see the river from the swimmingpool.

Despite being highly sceptical i have to say that getting naked with the Germans has been one of the highlights of my trip so far and i would recommend it to all of those nude shy out there. Just do it!

Gesundbrunnen station. 11.50am. I am waiting, but not for a train. I am waiting for a guide to come and take me down in the "unterwelten." Luckily this descent is not literal, only metaphorical, and my guide is not some kind of demon in disguise despite hi somewhat surly countenace and 'alternative 'chic' outfit. He looked even more unwilling to enter the underground than we were. Partially perhaps due to the fact that the only protection he had against the driving cold was a small thin luminous jacket.

Gesundbrunnen station is not like so many of the others that you find littered around Berlin. I is actually part of a huge project to uncover huge parts of history that have been left unexplored for years. At the end of the nineteenth and first part of the twentieth century, Berlin's underground was an open construction site – as described by Alfred Doeblin in his famous novel “Berlin Alexanderplatz” (1929):

“They tore up the cobblestones at the Rosenthaler Platz. So, between them, he walked on wooden boards. Look, they are building the underground railway.”

Of course this was just one of the many construction sites in the city. Engineers often dug very deep into the earth, wherein the subway system is only a part of Berlin's subterranean architecture. Many other objects are to be found in the sandy underground: cemeteries, air raid shelters, sewers and even an aircraft factory were built under the surface of the city. Many of these structures still exist today. In the autumn of 1997, a few enthusiasts got together in order to explore this subterranean world. The organization they founded, the “Berlin Underworlds Association”, locates and documents such hidden installations, making some of them accessible to the public.

I was there to visit the underground bukers that were hidden away in Gesundbrunnen station and the area nearby. The station is actually a historical site in its own right. The station was built originally as a subway station butwas later altered to convert it into a bomb shelter during the cold warDuring the cold war there was an escalation of tensions between the US and the soviets. Of course, Berlin was directly in the centre of this conflict being at this point in time divided up amongst the western powers and the soviets. Everyone was afraid that a third world war could break out at any time and with very valid reasons. The guide relayed to us the story of Stanislav Petrov, a man who he averted a catastrophe that could have shaken the foundation of the Earth for many centuries to come — and the future of humanity forever . . .Here in this article from www.brightstarsound.com his story is relayed. It is interesting to know how close the world can come to distruction simply through human stupidity.

In 1983 in Russia, there was a man who would have been considered an enemy by the people of America. But as it turned out, he would become for them and for the world an unknown hero — perhaps the greatest hero of all time. Because of military secrecy, and political and international differences, most of the world has not heard of this man. He is Stanislav Petrov.

The extraordinary incident leading to his heroism occurred near Moscow, in the former Soviet Union, just past midnight, Sept. 26, 1983. Because of time-zone differences, it was still Sept. 25 in America, a Sunday afternoon.

During the Cold War at this time, the United States and the Soviet Union were bitter adversaries. These two world powers did not trust each other, and this distrust led to a dangerous consequence: They built thousands of nuclear weapons to be used against each other if a war should ever break out between them. If there ever were such a war, these nations would very likely devastate each other and much of the world many times over, resulting in the deaths of perhaps hundreds of millions of people.

It was Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov’s duty to use computers and satellites to warn the Soviet Union if there were ever a nuclear missile attack by the United States. In the event of such an attack, the Soviet Union’s strategy was to launch an immediate all-out nuclear weapons counterattack against the United States.

On this particular day, something went wrong. Suddenly the computer alarms sounded, warning that an American missile was heading toward the Soviet Union. Lt. Col. Petrov reasoned that a computer error had occurred, since the United States was not likely to launch just one missile if it were attacking the Soviet Union — it would launch many. Besides, there had been questions in the past about the reliability of the satellite system being used. So he dismissed the warning as a false alarm, concluding that no missile had actually been launched by the United States.

But then, just a short time later, the situation turned very serious. Now the computer system was indicating a second missile had been launched by the United States and was approaching the Soviet Union. Then it showed a third missile being launched, and then a fourth and a fifth. The sound of the alarms was deafening. In front of Lt. Col. Petrov the word “Start” was flashing in bright lettering, presumably the instruction indicating the Soviet Union must begin launching a massive counterstrike against the United States.

Even though Lt. Col. Petrov had a gnawing feeling the computer system was wrong, he had no way of knowing for sure. He had nothing else to go by. The Soviet Union’s land radar was not capable of detecting any missiles beyond the horizon, information that by then would be too late to be useful. And worse, he had only a few minutes to decide what to tell the Soviet leadership. He made his final decision: He would trust his intuition and declare it a false alarm. If he were wrong, he realized nuclear missiles from the United States would soon begin raining down on the Soviet Union.

He waited. The minutes and seconds passed. Everything remained quiet — no missiles and no destruction. His decision had been right. Stanislav Petrov had prevented a worldwide nuclear war. He was a hero. Those around him congratulated him for his superb judgment.

But he had disobeyed military procedure by defying the computer warnings. And because of this, he later underwent intense questioning by his superiors about his actions during this nerve-racking ordeal. Perhaps because he had ignored the warnings, he was no longer considered a reliable military officer. Presumably in the military it is understood that orders and procedures are to be carried out unfailingly, without question.

In the end, the Soviet military did not reward or honor Stanislav Petrov for his actions. It did not punish him either. But his once promising military career had come to an end. He was reassigned to a less sensitive position and soon was retired from the military. He went on to live his life in Russia as a pensioner.

There is yet something else unsettling about this incident. Stanislav Petrov was not originally scheduled to be on duty that night. Had he not been there, it is possible a different commanding officer would not have questioned the computer alarms, tragically leading the world into a nuclear holocaust. As it turned out, this incident ended fortunately for America and for the world. But unfortunately for Stanislav Petrov, it ruined his career and his health, and it deprived him of his peace of mind.

This story and the history of the cold war was of course a background introduction to the reason we were there. To see the bomb shelters. We were in fact there to see two bomb shelters. The first being simply a bomb shelter that should have been suitable to stay in for around two days and the other being an actual full blown nuclear bomb shelter that could house people for up to two weeks.

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The conditions that would have been present in the shelters was made very clear to us. After entering the shelter everyone would be excited. This feeling of euphoria would probably last for around 5 minutes until everyone realised the situationt hat they found themselves in. Life inthe bomb shelter would be very difficult. For a start the temperature and humidity inside the shelter isvery high. It could reach between 30 and 40 degrees depending on conditions. The humidity would be 100%. Sweat would eventually be dripping fromthe roof.

In the shelter that we visited there would be around 3000 people. This of course creates problems for feeding them. The kitchens would have to work all day and all night. People would get one meal a day. If they were lucky then maybe they could get two. The meal would consist of canned soup which was slightly warmed up. On the first feeding shift of the day people would get a red bowl. Once everyone in the shelter had a red bowl (meaning they had all been fed) then the second shift would start. You would have to hand back the red bowl in order to ge a yellow one, and subsequently, your next meal.

Sleeping would also be a problem due to the fact that people were being fed night and day. Firstly, people would be to scared and worried to sleep. Then, when you consider that the rooms have around 500 beds the problem would become one of noise. After a few days people would be most likely suffering from sleep deprivation making them irratable and easily aggravated.

Of course, after leaving the shelter life would not really improve much for the people in the shelter as descibed in this article.

"As the mushroom clouds begin to fade, the REAL consequences of nuclear war become apparent. From the explosion sites, huge amounts of evaporated stuff, smoke and soot rise up into the sky. It's quite different from the usual smoke columns that come from fires. The intense heat from the nuclear impact sites pushes the debris straight into the highest parts of the atmosphere, the so-called stratosphere. There, it slowly starts to disperse, covering ever bigger portions of the world. But what's worse -- the soot blocks the Sun.

Within days, a weird and unprecedented climate shift sets in. Total darkness covers everything. Temperatures drop rapidly. And chances are the soot blanket that prevents the Sun from shining spreads across the globe, transforming even the Latin Americas, Asia and Africa into chilly shadow worlds. There you have it: the infamous, dreaded Nuclear Winter.

Within weeks, it's minus 23 to 30 degrees Celsius everywhere. Do you live near the shore? Consider yourself lucky: since oceans cool so slowly, temperatures near the sea will drop `only' some five to ten degrees. But there is a downside: because of the big temperature differences between the sea and the inland, unimaginable storms and hurricanes will harass the coastal areas.

Big Winter: After a nuclear war, dust and soot may blanket the Earth

Oh, and that's just the beginning of your Winter out of Hell. Slowly, particle-by-particle, the soot will begin to fall back to the Earth. The results are not what you call pleasant. When it rains, the rain consists of burning sulphuric acid. And when it doesn't rain, the wind blows huge amounts of tiny particles of radioactive dust into your face. There's not enough radioactivity there to kill you. But it won't do you much good either.

Meanwhile, you're not the only one having a hard time. Plants, living on sunlight and warmth, will die within weeks. Animals, relying on both plants and warmth, die too. Other animals perish because all water is frozen. After a couple of months, there won't be any birds anymore. And what's worse, the animals with the biggest chance to survive are not exactly what you call good company in the pitch-black darkness: insects, rats, flies and cockroaches. They have a great time, having all those dead bodies to feast on and no birds to hunt them down.

Oh, and talking of dead bodies: there will be outbreaks of all kinds of diseases. The radioactivity will speed up the mutation rate of viruses and bacteria tremendously. There will be outbreaks of all kinds of diseases, while it is more than likely all kinds of new diseases will pop up too. By the way, the radioactivity boosts the mutation rate of your own DNA as well -- which in effect means you'll develop all kinds of cancers and give birth to gruesomely malformed babies.

By now, you may start to wish those mean, black clouds that block the sun would end. And eventually, they will. Depending on how many bombs exploded during the nuclear war, it will roughly take several months to a year before the sky starts clearing up again. But when it does, the end of all endurance is still not in sight.

One particularly nasty problem is that the soot from the impact sites has wiped out most of the ozone layer by chemical reactions. And without the ozone layer, we're exposed to the malignant ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. The UV-radiation kills the plants that may still be there, and causes more cancers and even sores and burns among humans. For years and years to come, you'll have to take shelter when the Sun shines.

And for the long term? The prospects are grim. With society disrupted, the food chain torn apart and humanity diminished, we'll be lucky if we're `only' thrown back into the Stone Age."

And this only descibes the climate changes. Imagine in addition to this you will also have to escape far enough from the nuclear bomb explosions to find safety and food. Warlords would most likely take charge of certain areas. Cannibalism would become rife. Looking to a book like Cormac McCarthy's "The road" would be a good place to look for those who are interested in finding out more about the consequences of nuclear war.

Maybe in the end you would wish that you hadn't bothered to enter the nuclear bunker to begin with.....Nuclear war is still a very real possibility. This tour really opened my eyes to what could be in wait if people do not try to disarm.