So after the exams and the cold it was time for a holiday. And a little bit of time to try and defrost. This turned out to work a little too well and I found myself melting in 12 degree heat, an Australian summer’s going to be interesting.
So I spent a few days wandering around Berlin. I suspect by now everyone’s been to Berlin, everyone’s loved it and has their own radical stories to tell. Most Australian’s you’ll meet will tell you how you loved it and they’d love to live there for a year or so. To anyone who’s managed to miss Berlin, it’s cool. There’s graffiti, coffee, boutiques, statues, the bears (see below) and the ever present undercurrent of resilience, if there was ever a city that rebounded. This is it. They should get a lot of credit for not hiding history, not forgetting it.
So I spent a few days wandering around Berlin. I suspect by now everyone’s been to Berlin, everyone’s loved it and has their own radical stories to tell. Most Australian’s you’ll meet will tell you how you loved it and they’d love to live there for a year or so. To anyone who’s managed to miss Berlin, it’s cool. There’s graffiti, coffee, boutiques, statues, the bears (see below) and the ever present undercurrent of resilience, if there was ever a city that rebounded. This is it. They should get a lot of credit for not hiding history, not forgetting it.
If you're wondering WHY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Buddy_Bears
I was still at the point of being overwhelmed by big cities, after 5 weeks in Longyearbyen with a population in the 1000’s cities with 100,000’s of people are a bit much. They’re loud, busy, you have to watch your wallet and the cars. So I don’t have too many stories to tell, but the city is highly photogenic.
Autumn and some graffiti
The two most noteworthy things for me wandering the streets were a) the number of completely lost tourists looking at maps (since when did people actually still stand on street corners looking at paper maps? Wow) and b) someone getting tattooed as a form of attraction in a Quicksilver shop. I was actually quite amazed by that, someone up the chain at Quicksilver decided that in Berlin that would strengthen their brand. Can I see that happening in Australia? London? Singapore? Nope.. but there you go, Tattooing and Quicksilver.
No shortage of lost tourists, actually looking at maps
Beyond that, the wall or what’s left of it was charachterful and expressive and had a certain “bite me” vibe. I don’t know what it is about Berlin that meant they rebounded with such vigour, but I wish that could be bottled and sent around the world.
What was the wall, the East Side Gallery
Now for some photos, which are going to be able to tell the story much better than I can.
Autumn
The Super Spaceman
Doing an excellent job of not forgetting history
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