I was 16 at the time and was rather critical about the regime. I was not allowed to study and I wanted to leave East Germany. On the 10th of November a pupil at my school told me the ‘rumour’ that the border was open, but no one checked, no one talked about it, so I found it difficult to believe. After school, I saw people in Berlin crying and celebrating on TV, but no one commented on what had happened. So it took a while for me to finally realise that the border really was open. That same night, my elder brother drove us across the border at Herleshausen in his car. I felt a rush of happiness. I had given my headmaster a note that I wouldn’t be coming into school the next day. I can still remember the look on his face. I then hitch-hiked in the direction of Cologne, as I wanted to go visit my relatives. But I got stranded in some place in Hessen, where my relatives had to come and pick me up. There were several villages with the same name and they had to spend the night traipsing around all of them to find me. We had only met once in the Czech Republic, as my relatives had an entry ban. Once I arrived in Cologne, I realised my biggest dream – finally eating a hamburger at McDonald’s, which for me was the epitome of the West. But the hamburger was simply disgusting. I picked up my Begrüßungsgeld (welcome money) twice – once in Fulda and once in Bad Hersfeld. I used it to travel to Paris that same winter and spent two nights on the bus just to spend one day exploring the city. I stayed in Cologne for about a week, before I had to return to school.
