Berlin: Day 4 | A culture fix

I've already touched on Berlin's incredible street art. It's everywhere. I had considered doing a street art workshop (I could be a talented street artist without even knowing it), but decided I am all to aware of my lack of artistic talent and opted for just a tour.

I began the day at yet another cafe. This time it was a case of walking around Prenzlauer Berg and finding something that looked good. I ended up walking to the Mitte neighbourhood and into Marketta. There was no English menu but still quite busy. I took that as a good sign. I ate my breakfast (more bread) at a large communal wooden table next to a toasty fire while reading my book. Now that is how to start the morning.



The tour started at 11am and our first stop was the Turkish neighbourhood, Kreuzberg. It wasn't long before we were walking down Oranienstrasse, which I visited on Tuesday. Our guide, Penny, pointed out a lot of things I didn't notice before and gave me the background on things I had seen. The tour was a mixture of education about graffiti and street art (they aren't the same thing), checking out some great pieces around the city, visiting some galleries and even an African beach community, YAAM. The latter was due to be closed down the day we visited. It's a waterfront property and money trumps what the community has going on there. I was surprised it was still open when we were there given the impending eviction.



The below picture is a funny story. The artist, El Bocho, has done his own take on a Czech cartoon called Little Lucy. In the cartoon, Lucy loves her cat. In the street art, Lucy is always trying to kill her cat. Bocho has gone so far as to hang up stuffed cat toys in a noose around the city.





The tour finished up at the alley Annika took me to on my first day in the city (what are they odds) and after I enjoyed my first taste of currywurst from a stand in Hackescher Markt.



I used the rest of the afternoon to expore Prenzlauer Berg. Even though it was a little chilly, it's a great time to visit the city. There are trees everywhere and they look gorgeous with their orange and yellow leaves.



 



After a stop at another cafe, I jumped on the train again. When I was in Paris I saw an exhibition of Helmut Newton's work at the Grand Palais. His photographs are not to everyone's taste so I won't be surprised if you Google it and wonder what the hell I see in it. But I loved what I saw in Paris. What I forgot was that Newton was from Berlin, before he fled the city (he was Jewish). The Museum of Photography here was built by the Helmut Newton Foundation. It features an exhibition of Newton's personal belongings including condolence letters to his wife, June, and documentary footage of Newton at work. The footage was different to what I saw in Paris.

I caught the train back to Prenzlauer Berg and had a German dinner of schitzel and roast potatoes followed by apple strudel before meeting Annika at Kaffee Burger, a music venue down the road from my hostel. Friends of hers were playing in a band. The music is described as "gypsy pop" and to give you an idea of what that entails, the instruments used by the two bands we saw included a clarinet, accordian, trumpet, double bass and a duck whistle. Of course all the singing was in German - apart from one chorus of one song, although Annika had to point that out to me because I'd stopped paying attention to the lyrics and just enjoyed the music.

I was trying to find a sample of the music and came across this video from the gig I was at. It's the second band that played, Polkageist. Go to about 2:30 and then 5:40 to get a sense of the energy.

Berlin: Day 3 | Exploring the neighbourhoods

Berlin, like most major cities, is full of neighbourhoods so much in contrast to each other you'd think you were in a different city. To make the most of my time here I decided to stay in two different areas - firstly in Schöneberg with my Couchsurfing host Annika, and then in a hostel in Prenzlauer Berg.

On Wednesday morning I left my bag at the hostel and headed to Brandenburg Gate (again) to join a Sandeman's walking tour (again). I've joined Sandeman's tours in Edinburgh and more recently in Prague and always enjoyed them. The tours are free, but you're expected to tip the guide at the end. They make the point - and quite rightly - that it forces the guides to put a lot of effort in.

The three-hour tour covered a lot of ground I'd already seen, but at least this time I had some idea what I was seeing. I really enjoyed revisiting the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. When I'd come by the day before I'd just looked at it from the edge without even knowing what it was. This time I walked through. The concrete slabs are different heights and the ground goes up and down so walking through the maze of paths is eerie. Our guide, Alex, asked at the end what we'd taken from it and some people compared it to what many Jews must have experienced - feeling lost, trapped, unsure of where the enemy was. Apparently the artist who designed it has never spoken about his own interpretation.



Alex led us to a car park in front of some apartment buildings before announcing we were standing on top of Hitler's bunker. One kid on the tour asked if Hitler committed suicide on April 30 or May 1. He was relieved when Alex confirmed it was April 30 - the kid's mum explained he was born on May 1 and didn't want to share his birthday with the day Hitler died.

The highlight of the tour, however, was finally finding out what was up with the pedestrian traffic lights. Some of the green and red men looked as they should, but others had different images.

Here's the story: The little traffic light man is Ampelmännchen. Which isGerman for little traffic light man. No joke. I Googled it. The different lights were introduced in East Berlin to revamp the traffic lights. Ampelmännchen was also part of a road safety program in schools.  When the wall fell the city reverted back to the "traditional" signals until the East Berliners got nostalgic and asked for them back. There are stores that sell Ampelmännchen merchandise. I resisted.



The tour finished near Alexanderplatz where I jumped on the underground to head to the Friedrichshain neighbourhood.





In my pre-trip research I'd come across an obscure mention of a cafe called Factory Girl that took my fancy. It was getting dark by the time I hit Simon-Dach strasse, a street filled with cafes and restaurants. Factory Girl specialises in Magnolia - a dessert that's hard to describe. It's a creamy mixture of that almost looks like uncooked cake and comes served with all sorts of toppings. I chose white chocolate and raspberries, and mixed forest fruits. It's inspired by a bakery in New York that I'll have to check out next time I'm there.



After two helpings of magnolia I skipped the train and walked back to the city centre. The TV Tower really helps with my orientation in Berlin. If I can see it and it doesn't look to far away, I just walk. Gets a little tricky when you get closer and tall buildings block it. But I get there eventually.

Back in Prenzlauer Berg I finished my book in the hostel before grabbing some dinner. I'm spending a lot of money on food this trip.

Berlin: Day 2 | A history lesson

Back home in Burnie, the best fish and chips come from the old school take away next to a service station, not the fancy cafe right on the sand. Which place do you think a visitor is going to end up at? Correct. Tourists pay twice as much for crap fish and chips by the beach.

Eating out is one of my favourite things about travelling. In Florence, dinner at il Latini was an experience and a highlight. As was eating a Nutella crepe on the summit of a mountain in the French Pyrenees from a make-shift cafe powered by a generator. But as a traveller, I am disadvantaged when it comes to knowing where to go for a good meal.

So when my CouchSurfing host Annika told me she'd made reservations at a cafe for breakfast I was excited. And with good reason. I could have roamed the streets of Berlin for hours and hours and not had the slightest chance of finding Café BilderBuch.

The cafe, with its tiny front door, is in Schöneberg. Even people who live in the area must walk by without knowing what's inside. At the back of the cafe is a giant living room - it's the only way to describe it. The walls are lined with bookcases, some tables are surrounded by couches, others belong in a fancy dining room. There are antique lamp shades, beautifully framed pictures and lovely knick-knacks around the place.  Our table faced a grandfather clock and an artist working away at an easel.



If you go out for breakfast in Germany, don't be expecting pancakes or eggs and bacon. The dishes are mostly some type of meat or fish served with fruit, salad, cheese and bread. I ordered smoked salmon, but couldn't eat that much of it that early in the morning so instead went to work on the bread basket.

Annika had class in the afternoon so I headed into the city. It was forecast to rain every day of my trip, but so far it had held off. Nothing a hood pulled on couldn't handle.

There are apparently some great markets in Berlin, but unfortunately most are held on the weekend. Luckily on the good ones, the Turkish Market at Maybachufer, is open on a Tuesday. The market was mostly food - fruit and veg, cheese, meats, deli items etc. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't stuffed myself on the bread basket.



From the market I toodled off down the road and ended up at Oranienstrasse. I wasn't walking to anything in particular, but then saw this:



I figured it was worth checking it out. It turned out to be a piece commissioned for a street art program. It's done by an artist called Victor Ash. It's often confused as a Banksy and I found out later that some tours even tell people as such. Banksy, a British street artist, uses stencils. This piece though isn't stencil work. When you stand close you can see the faded grid marked out. It's the same technique used in painting the Sistine Chapel. I was slightly disappointed with the Sistine Chapel - perhaps if Michaelangelo painted a giant astronaut I would have found it more interesting.

Oranienstrasse turned out to be packed with some amazing art. I spied some cool looking cafe's too, but that damn bread basket ruined my appetite for hours! I covered a lot of ground on foot, ending up at Tacheles - an abandoned building that was converted into an artists squat. I'd seen pictures of its interior and wanted to see for myself, but it was closed. I found out later city officials shut it a few months ago. Apparently there is some covert access although I'm not sure I'd want to risk it.



In the afternoon I returned to Brandenburg Gate with the intention of joining Sandeman's free walking tour at 4pm. Unfortunately I picked up the summer brochure instead of the winter one that would have told me the 4pm tour doesn't run during winter.

Back to the streets I went, this time walking along Friedrichstrasse - Berlin's major shopping street. I walked all the way down to Checkpoint Charlie. I won't rehash my thoughts on that place - you can read them here.

I visited some museums, including one about the Ministry for State Security - or Stasi, as it was known - and the Topography of Terror. It's fair to say that I learnt more about World War II, the Cold War and the Berlin Wall in those three hours than I did over my 17 years of school and university education.

Berlin: Day 1

Who knows what attracts people to different countries and places.  I couldn’t tell you why I want to go to Alaska, Turkey or spend time road tripping across Montana. I just do. I also couldn’t tell you why I’ve never been that interested in going to Germany. I just wasn’t.

I use wasn’t in the past tense. Despite my lack of interest in Germany, for whatever reason, I’m not one to pass up a cheap flight. I had five days holiday and the flight from Manchester to Berlin was convenient. Well as convenient as an international flight leaving at 6.45am can be.

I met my Couchsurfing host, Annika, about 12pm and by 1pm it felt like I’d known her forever. After lunch and my introduction to German bread – which, by the way, is amazing – we headed into the city.

Our first stop was Brandenburg Gate. It’s a landmark in Berlin and I'm sure I was meant to be excited at the sight of it, but there's only so many European grand structures one can summon enthusiasm for. It’s only a short walk from there to Berlin’s distinctive parliament building, the Reichstag. The Reichstag is a building I can get excited for. The newer part of it (the glass beehive) looks a little odd, but it beats Parliament House in Canberra. Inside is meant to be equally as impressive, but you have to book days ahead to secure a time to go in.



We walked back into the city centre, to the Hackescher Markt area. Knowing I was keen to see some of the city's famous street art, Annika took me to some wonderful little courtyards and alleys I never would have found on my own and then we visited some great art bookshops (some of the photography books were incredible).





On the way home we stopped at the supermarket to get some things to dinner (I had to help Annika cook something with pumpkin - she'd bought one, but had never cooked with it before). We ended up roasting the pumpkin and having it with pasta and a sun-dried tomato pesto. Yum!

I love visiting supermarkets in other countries - sometimes finding the similarities is just as amusing (and enlightening) as the difference.

Berlin: The obligatory step back in time

Germany. Hitler. The Berlin Wall.

I wasn’t expecting much more from Berlin. Why would I? It’s all anyone really hears about it. As it’s a city I’ve never been too interested in visiting, I’ve never bothered to learn much more about it. In fact, I knew far too little about both issues. The Wall came down in my lifetime yet I was ashamedly uninformed on the subject until last year. After visiting Hiroshima I’m acutely aware how World War 2 ended, but knew practically nothing about how, and more importantly, why, it began.

It’s 23 years since the Berlin Wall came down – the anniversary was on Friday, my last day in the city. Berlin has put that relatively recent event well behind it. It’s wasted no time coming into its own as an edgy, modern, cultural hub. The graffiti and art that covered the West side of the Wall has exploded throughout the city. Berlin’s music and clubbing scene is so intense that it is the new city that never sleeps. Eclectic doesn’t begin to describe the “anything goes” approach to fashion. For me, it’s those sides of the city are worth discovering. But of course, you can’t escape the Berlin’s past.

[caption id="attachment_2843" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="The 1.3km stretch of the East side of the Berlin Wall outside the Topography of Terror"][/caption]

Only a snippet of the 155km Wall is still standing. There’s about 200m standing out front of the Topography of Terror – a museum built on the site of the buildings of the former Nazi security forces.  There’s another 1.3km at the East Side Gallery. I saw a slab as part of a display at the Newseum in Washington DC. There’s even a segment in Canberra. You can buy souvenir pieces, but by 1998 enough had been sold to build the Wall twice over.

[caption id="attachment_2844" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="A piece of the Berlin Wall on display at the Newseum in Washington DC. I debated whether to take a photo of this at the time - it seemed to not mean as much as part of a display in a US museum instead of being in Berlin. Call it a principal thing, but I still kind of wish I hadn't taken it, but it illustrates a point here."][/caption]

Nearly every tourist to Berlin will leave with a photo of Checkpoint Charlie – one of five former crossing points between East and West Berlin. Although visiting Checkpoint Charlie is like visiting Beyonce at Maddam Tussauds. It’s all fake. Apparently the only remaining authentic item at the checkpoint is the frame around this sign:





The sign itself is a replica. The sand bags are filled with concrete. The guards – which charge €2 for a photo – are actors. Tourists can get a stamp in their passport for a country that no longer exists. This, my travelling friends, is all for show.

The McDonald’s down the street is just tops it off, although it would be more entertaining if it has been built in former East Berlin.

I saw both the Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. Part of me wish I hadn’t set eyes on the latter purely on principal, but there was a great exhibition at the site that made it worthwhile. A visit to Berlin could easily be consumed with visiting reminders of Berlin’s Nazi or Cold War past.. But there is so much more to this city than standing over Hitler’s bunker or walking along the remnants of the Berlin Wall. Berlin’s history is exactly that – history. Berlin has so much more to offer....

Finding the magic in Berlin

My first trip overseas was 10 years ago. It was a school trip to Japan. I remember a lot about that trip, but I don't remember being excited. Of course I must have been, but not as much as my next trip, this time to China, four years later. See by then I knew what to expect. I knew the thrill of landing in a new country. Of exploring a new culture, different languages and, of course, the food.

Somewhere between then and waiting in an airport early Monday morning, I lost that feeling.

Usually looking at the departure board makes me giddy. All those flights headed all around the world. I look at the destinations and picture what it will be like to go there one day. I imagined walking up to the ticket counter and booking a seat on the next fight to anywhere. But after a bus and a train to Manchester the night before, tossing and turning in a 12-bed dorm until my alarm beeped at 3.50am and a slow march through security at Manchester airport, this time, I couldn't have cared less.

I finished my last shift at YHA Keswick on Sunday night and had five days before starting at my new hostel. The cheapest suitable flight had me travelling to Germany. A country not really on my "to-go" list, but meh...for £60 return I wasn't too fussy.

I also wasn't too fussy when the flight landed in Berlin and I got another stamp in my passport. On the train into the city I focused on staying awake rather than taking in the scenes outside the window. My CouchSurfing host Annika took me to Brandenburg Gate, one of Berlin's landmarks, and I still wasn't that excited.