CSD in Berlin

Yesterday was the Christopher Street Day parade that began in the Ku´damm and ended at the Siegesäule...what a march and what a party!




...photo album Berlin 06.24.2007...

Feeding the Bear

One evening, we decided to sit and observe the Brandenburger Tor as the sun set...and had this opportunity to feed the bear. Jason had to wrestle his way through tourists but eventually made headway. The bear didn´t have much to say other than an endearing "grrrr-" and a thumb´s up!

So much has happened since we last blogged. We have been to Prague, Czech Republic, and to Szczecin, Poland; we have been to the Stadtfest, a weekend street fair in the Nollendorfplatz. We were invited to Manuela and Regina´s place in upper Charlottenburg for dinner and were introduced to a friend of theirs, Penny, who moved to Berlin a couple years ago from the U.K. I have to mention a bit about their place which is up on the top floor. They have a wonderful view of the surrounding rooftops from their terrace...the first thing I said when experiencing it was "Holy Mary Poppins!":




View from Manuela and Regina´s Terrace.

I half expected to see chimney sweeps dancing about and an umbrella supported Poppins floating down to join us. Apparently I was not the first as Regina told me that other´s have made similar commentary.

A Devil and Jason at the Stadtfest

Last weekend we attended the Stadtfest, a street festival in the area of the Nollendorfplatz, done as part of the CSD festivities. These street partys come up all over Berlin at some time during the year, but this one, while having the regular fill of beer and bratwursts, has to be the gayest. There was an underwear modeling show...and all kinds of costumed people were there: the devil, some nuns (Our Ladies of Indulgence) handing out kondomes, and an eight foot Mädchen (on stilts) were just some of the participants at this festival.

At the the Wochendemarkt in the Karl Agust Platz, we had met two Berliners in the Charlottenburg area who were a couple. We got together with them last night at the Zoo for Gay Night. There was a swing band playing, people dancing, and beer and bratwursts served. We tried a Radler which was a drink made half of beer and half of lemonade...tasty, and helps to keep the alcohol consumption to a minimum. Other areas of the Zoo were out of bounds, and most of the animals were resting out of sight; however, there was one nearby cage with a panther in it and another area with flamingos meandering about. They all must´ve been quite swooned by the swing music going on until midnite.

Going to Szczecin involved a two hour train ride on the Deutsche Bahn. As we crossed the border our passports were stamped. We found out that both of us have ancestors from this region and that they boarded ships in Szczecin, which is an inland port, to emigrate to America. Szczecin was under Prussian control and then German...after the World Wars, lines were drawn and it became part of Poland. We just wanted to get the feel of the place and stayed for only one night. We arrived in the morning and had the whole day and most of the next day to explore the city as our return train would depart in the evening.

...photo album Prague & Berlin 06.21.2007...

East and West

Reunited at last...tantamount to the east and west coming together...our own little sphere encompassing two distinct hemispheres...together , once again, in Berlin. It was a little tearful, a little melodramatic, a little Meg Ryan...you get the picture.

We dropped off Jason´s things in Charlottenburg and then headed to the Biergarten in the Tiergarten near the Neue See for some refreshment and a walk afterwards:

Tiergarten, by Rufus Wainwright

Sorry to miss so many days since the above but we´ve been catching up and I have been whirling Jason around the town...you understand.

The next evening we were invited to Magdeburg by Armin. A college there where deaf students are in attendence and hearing students are studying to become interpreters. We all crammed into a car for the hour and a half drive: Jason, me, Armin, Niki and Durk; and we headed for an annual festivital with bier and bratwurst and music. A band named Signmark, from Sweden, had a deaf rapper performing on an outside stage. We left about 2 in the morning and, thanks to Niki, got back to Charlottenburg about 4am.


Friday night we attended a performance of Tanz der Vampire, a grusical by Roman Polanski. It was actually fun to try to parse the action: the first big number was about garlic. The whole show had all your Vampire elements and a bit more. Quite a visual spectacle; sometimes, so over the top it was hilarious...I won´t ruin the ending for you, in case you should ever catch it.

Stay tuned...this morning too much work preparing this blog entry with uploading video and pics and all...you will just have to return... photo albums Amsterdam 6.6.2007, and Berlin 6.10.2007.

Sowohl als auch...

As I write this Jason is in the car heading for the Fort Lauderdale Airport to be whisked away to me while Barry storms its way into Florida...After arriving in Amsterdam tomorrow morning and getting over his jet lag, he will take the same train I took to get here to Berlin on Tuesday the 5th! ...I think I´ll cry when I see him stepping off the train in the Berlin Hbf.

Last Wednesday evening I had a nice talk and walk with Regine...we had met at the Fernsehturm near the Alexanderplatz and then walked west to the Spree River passing the Neptune Fountain and the Marxs Engels Forum where there were these huge statues of both scholarly giants:

Marxs and Engels with Berliner Dom in the Background

In the background were these interesting reliefs of men:

The Prolitariet, maybe.
We continued on with our meandering and parted ways on the Wilhelmstraße making plans to meet on Monday.

The next morning I was invited by Armin to attend a lecture given by Hartmut Teuber at Humboldt University. He had given me the address and it was quite easy to find taking the S-Bahn to the Friedrichstraße Station. The topic was Audism. Armin was interpreting at the lecture with another coda interpreter, Christjane. It was interesting for me because there were all these ways to access the lecture for me: German, German Sign, ASL, power point text (thank the gods for latin roots), and Teuber´s style of presentation...I think I kept on the main points very well and he had everyone in the room thoroughly engaged. I loved him referenceing Jacque Derrida and phonocentrism.

On Friday, after getting a haircut at a place on Kantstraße, I headed for Prenzlauer Berg and had lunch at a cafe called Sowohl Als Auch...meaning, literally, Both As Also. I´m working on a translation for this...my dictionary gives me that it is a conjunction meaning both...and. I suppose I could have asked but that´s not my style and I am sure the topic will come up in conversation sometime soon. The Gazpacho was great, btw.

In the evening I went to the Nollendorfplatz and tried out an Ethiopian Restaurant called Bejite. After a cup of strong Ethiopian coffee and a small bowl of popcorn, it was recommended that I try a very spicy lamb dish. It came with three large thin creppes that I tore apart and used to eat the lamb. After dinner I was offered honey wine that they made in the restaurant and it was delicious.

This morning I went to the market and purchased a number of items: cheeses and vegetables and fruits. Not so many tomatoes this time. I brought some Quark which is a dairy product. It´s kind of like cream cheese but not. Its close to Ricotta but not; and it is not cottage cheese. Manuela introduced me to it and its great spread on bread with marmalade.

...photo album Berlin 6.2.2007...

Hilarious!

This morning I finished The Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood...it describes everyday events on the streets in Berlin leading up to the Nazi takeover of Germany. He talks about certain avenues and what happens along them and I have been there. I kept thinking of David Sedaris while reading this because their voices are very similar... maybe Isherwood lacks the compulsive streak of Sedaris, however, not by much. The scene he describes in the book about the meeting of Sally Bowles and Natalia is short...but hilarious!

Monday evening I went to see Vier Minuten (Four Minutes) at the Kant Kino...both actresses, Monica Bleibtreu und Hannah Herzsprung, were stellar:

Vier Minuten


Yesterday, I wandered about Schönehauser Allee, and stopped in a cafe called Eckstein, on the corner of Pappel Allee und Raumerstraße. There I had an Eibauer Schwarzbier while studying german...in the background played Beattles music, quite reminiscient. The afternoon threatened heavy rain so I started heading back on the S-Bahn and the downpour started just as I got off the train at the Savgnyplatz.



Graffiti at the Savignyplatz


Right here there was a Cafe named Jules Verne so I walked in an had a late lunch. Afterward, when the rain had stopped, I headed over to the Theater des Westins on Kantstraße and bought two tickets to see Tanz der Vampire, der Grusical...a stage musical by Roman Polanski...Jason and I will be watching it Friday evening, June 8th.

I am looking forward to this evening as I am going to rendezvous with Regine at the Fernsehturm near the Alexanderplatz at 18:15, pünktlich.

...photo album Berlin 05.30.2007...

Plingstmontag

Yesterday I awoke to Plingstsonntag, or rather, Sunday Pentecost. Turns out it takes two days to celebrate this holiday here so today is Pflingstmontag and, like yesterday, mostly all the shops are closed...and all the restaurants, cafes, and die Kneipen (bars) remain open. After getting myself together I proceeded to the Hallesches Tor because Regina had told me there was to be an annual carnival there which always gets rained on:

Der Karneval der Kultur

I hadn´t realized that this was the Carnival of Cultures until after I had gotten there and I seem to remember someone telling me about it...Usch, es tut mir lied, ich habe dir vergessen zu anrufen aber mein Telefon war kaput! It had rained a little while there making Regine´s observation correct.

The Karneval was an ethnic mixture of foods and artifacts and musik that went on all day as the crowds just grew and grew. People flowed like the Spree along the streets of the festival. After doing a swing-through I headed home for a nap, of all things...I had had a couple of beers.

Getting up I headed for a tour of the city passing through the Nollendorf Platz, Bierhimmel in the Kruezberg, Potsdamer Platz, and then Schönhauser Allee...promising myself to return here again. Revitalized, I returned to der Karneval der Kultur for the evening and found it evermore crowded... I had a plate of tortellini...schmeckt gut! and did a final walk around before heading home.

...photo album Berlin 05.28.2007...

Sunbathing

Last night I spent the evening with coda friend Regine and her partner Doris. They both live on Oranienstraße in Kreuzberg (the greenwich village of Berlin). She lives up on the fifth floor like Manuela, no elevator. To get to her place one as to go through this central courtyard that is protected from the busy street and covered massively with climbing vegetation going up to the top...she called this area the hinterhof and there were birds and it was very plesant to walk through.

Der Hinterhof

We also took her dog, Ginger, for a walk to see the rabbits in a nearby area called the Kinderbauernhof which is an area containing squatters who have been there since before the wall came down (which ran very close east of here). Berlin did nothing to remove these people as development encircled them and now it would be more difficult to do so because they have "always" been here. Walking throught the area was similar to walking through a gypsy camp, I imagined...We walked into an area where there were rabbits in pens and geese, donkeys and sheep. Many of the people here live in these mobile homes (they are actually called something else and I have forgotten the name) that are basically permanently parked.

We prepared a vegetarian dinner at her place of fennel and roasted sunflower seeds followed by an entree stirfry of mangold (chard), mushrooms, onions and pesto on pasta...very nice. Afterwards, we had kaffee and talk turned to, as it invariably does with many people I have met here, about the stature of the United States and what that idiotic excuse of a President is doing...I tell them, just like other parts of the world, the U.S. has been taken over by extremists. With that, and the fact that we´ll have elections next year that could possibly correct this bound of ours into the far right field, they seem consoled...kind of...






Going to Town, by Rufus Wainwright
Hey! I hear that Al Gore might be in the running...GREAT!!! I say, give it to him...he´s the one who actually won the race in 2000 anyway!! Fair is Fair! Can you imagine how better off we would all be...how many families would not have missing family members... New Orleans back on its feet! No pet goat and the WTC still standing...boggles the mind. He wouldn´t have been holding hands with the Saudis thats for damn sure.

---

Being Saturday, this morning was market day...for breakfast I decided on currywurst and pomme...french fries. They made it extra spicy and my eyes and nose were running by the time I had eaten it all. The lady who prepared it had warned me. Also, at the market, I bought 100 grams of walnuts and 1 kilo of tomatoes...that was a lot of tomatoes and when I realized that was nearly 2.2 pounds I was too embarassed to say, wait. So...I am eating tomatoes the next couple days. With some bread and cheese...super!






Sunbathers in the Tiergarten

I spent the afternoon in the Tiergarten, southwest of the Siegesäule...to a popular sunbathing area...everyone there was nude...me too. It was great. Listening to ipod, reading, eating tomatoes...and soaking up the rays nackt sonnenbaden. I´m one of those when-in-Berlin people. This one older gentleman who was there brought two of his dogs on leashes, one irish setter and one spaniel. The one spaniel got a away from him and he had to go running after it, naked, while towing the setter behind him. What a sight as he bounded across paths with people just stolling along...not in the nude.

Adam and Andy

I did manage to see two of my favorite comic characters in the raw flesh here: Adam and Andy were here playing with their dog, Baxter. I didn´t horde after them for an autograph...letting them maintain their annonymity...only, I did get some zooms.

Afterwards, I walked to a Biergarten (not au natural) and had a glass of rotwein before returning here to the internet cafe in Wilmersdorf. On the way I watched the following scene of some water bird sitting on a nest in the water:

Tiergarten

Tempelhof

After an exciting weekend at the Coda DACH retreat in Werftpfuhl (in die nähe Berlin):



I am now spending a couple of days at Armin and Nicki´s place in Templehof while Manuela´s mother is visiting. After she arrived in the morning we had a typical Frühstück of cheese, bread, meats, marmalade and chatted for near 2 hours.

In Templehof there is the Flughäfen which was built in 1923 and is typical of Third Reich architecture...meant to be very post-modern (in my opinion). Here there is the Luftbrücke, a monument to the Berlin airlift memorializing the many pilots who lost their lives.

Luftbrücke Denkmal und Templelhof Flughäfen


While there we also met Knut...no, not the polar bear in the Zoologisher Garten, but an actual person, German, friend of Armin´s, who had attended Gaulladet University a few years ago and was able to converse in ASL.

...photo album Berlin 5.21.2007...

Ding Dong

I woke up with this song playing in my head and it has stuck with me; I just got to let it go:



With yesterday morning sunny and warm, there was a Mittwoch Market going on in the Karl August Platz. After Koffee there I got on the S-Bahn and went to Köpenick...an older part of Berlin with a lot of 19th Century architecture. Walking around the town I found the Rathaus and then the Schloss Köpernick. There I walked the beautiful grounds and spent some quiet time there.

William on the grounds of Schloss Köpenick

On my way back to the S-Bahn I ventured a side path and walked through a woods. Having grown up around woods, this had a very homey feel to it.

Der Wald Köpenick

From Köpenick, I got on the S-Bahn and headed for Treptower Park, the site where in 1919 revolutionaries rallied 150,000 striking workers. In 1945, 20,000 soviet soldiers were killed here during the battle for Berlin. There is a huge sculpture here of a soldier carrying a child standing on a smashed swastika.

Treptower Park

After getting home I freshened up and headed for the Kufürstendamm to hit the Prinzknecht for Happy Hour. Met some new faces and now am looking forward to this coming weekend. Manuela will be back this evening and tomorrow we will be heading to the CODA D.A.CH weekend retreat. A chance to meet a lot new faces.

...photo album Berlin 5.17.2007...

Berlin Dienststag Ramblings

So much always happens since the short time ago I last post. It seems there is so much to see! I have to mentally tell myself to slow down and absorb a little...smell the Milchkaffee. Those are the best times really. Finding a place and just hanging out and watching people go by and trying to catch their conversations. Making talk is even better!

Even when I feel, What do next?...all I have to do is venture out and the problem is solved.

I had started Monday morning just walking along Kantstraße to the Kufürstendamm (I did take a double decker bus part way there) when it hit me that I should explore a little the Prenzlauer Berg area; a kind kind of arts, bohemian community located in East Berlin. This is also the area that Jason and I had stayed in a B&B when we were here for 4 days in May 2003 but had actually seen very little of it. We were always coming and going but not looking around too much where we actually were. We had stayed in a place with 5 floors and no elevator (just like Manuela´s). I was pleasently affirmed here in Prenzlauer Berg.

Male Couple Arm-in-Arm under the U2 along Schönhauser Allee

William Reflecting in Mirror

I ended up having a lunch of hummus at a place called Xion while talking with Jason on google chat on my blackberry. When it´s noon here I know it´s 6 am in Miami and he needs to be getting up. So I send off a Guten Morgen and he GM´s me back. If he doesn´t then I call the land line and let it ring twice before hanging up. Usually that will do it.

Xion was actually over in the Pankow area. I had walked right through Prenzlauer Berg thinking this place, no, the next place, no the next one...I had talked my way all the way through it. I will have to go back now. Of particular interests was a street that actually angled into Schönhauser Alle called Kastanienallee...it looked colorful and vibrant. Worth a look see.

It seems like I will be returning to the United States with entirely new bags...we already know what happened to my daypack and computer bag. My bag for my clothes war es kaput. Zippers all around had been a problem so I broke down and purchased a new bag at the Karstadt; two blocks away from where I was staying. Manuela is up on the forth floor but here they don´t start counting one until the second floor. I had gone up and down several times since I´ve been here so it´s a ritual by now. This time however, with my new big bag in hand, I went clear to the top, bypassing Manuela´s place by 2 floors. Chagrined, I went down two floors.

After getting the bag into Manuela´s and snipping out the tags and opening it up, I saw that the sales person had neglected to take out those plastic tags that they pin to their products that cause the alarm to go off if someone ventures out with them without paying. Well, the alarm had not gone off, strange, but I didn´t want to bring the bag back to the United States with one of those things still attached to it. Who knows what customs or security would do once they saw it. I knew I couldn´t just grab the thing and twist it apart...I tried that once given a similar situation and the thing, like an octopus, shoots out a black-purplish ink that stains everywhere. So, I had to cart it back. Back down the 5 floors.

This time the alarm goes off when I walk with it into the store...fortunately, I had my receipt. I approached the sales person and in my rehearsed German: Bitte, heute war ich hier gegangen. She nods smiling. Und, ich kaufte diesen Koffer. Head nodding. Und Sie hat vergisst ...I had the bag opened up exposing the piece, waving my receipt with my other hand...She was all embarassed and said she remembered me and aplogized again and again. Kein Problem.

Today was one of those rainy days again and I found myself going down to the Kufürstendam three times. Once with an umbrella and I just walked around wondering what would strike me (no lightening yet) and I got kind of wet anyway. I returned home to dry off and then went back to the Kufürstendamm again to purchase some pastels at the KaDeWe. Returning home, I went back again to produce the following video.

From here I walked around a bit and then realized that I had been taking the U-Bahn always to get over to Nollendorfplatz and it wasn´t really that far away; closer to the Ku´damm than one might think. But still it pays to be able to just hop on any of the transports that are covered by a monatkarte.

This evening, I had the Ghoulash and Reis mit Rotwein at a place around the corner called Zeitgeist...spirit of the time, something like that. The waitress was very nice and we engagaed in conversation a bit. It was quite inexpensive and very filling.

...flickr photo album Berlin 5.15.2007...

Tiergarten

Today woke up after tasting some of the Nachtleben that Berlin has to offer...really did not go to too many places but they were all Nollendorfplatz bars. I got back either very late or very early, depending on how you want to look at it...I could only sleep a couple hours and woke with a Kopfschmerzen, reminding me once again that I am not das Junge anymore.

After a Milchkaffee and a little bit of Christopher Isherwood´s The Berlin Stories at the Barbar Bar on Krummestraße just south of Pestalozistraße, I headed for the Tiergarten beginning from the Tiergarten stop on the S-Bahn. From there I started walking across this massive greenspace. It was a beautiful, sunny day and with the previous cold, rainy ones, people were out in force. I got to the Siegessäule which is a column marking the approximate center of the Tiergaten...traffic converges there from all directions in a big circle. On the edge of the circle I stopped at an outdoor place that served bratwurst and so I took lunch there. Finishing with lunch I went through the underground access tunnel and came up onto the island upon which the column stands vertically 60 meters above the surrounding ground.



Circumscribing the column are a few steps and this is a good place to sort of just relax and watch the circling traffic of cars and busses, trucks, bicyclists and bike taxis, and pedestrians, all making arcs around the circle. Where I made my observation point, I took the following photo of myself:

William on the steps surrounding the Siegessäule

From there I walked back into the forested area of the Tiergarten, following the twists and turns of the variety of paths and walks that criss-cross the place. A person could literally get lost here but not for long. I took the following picture:


Reflection of Bridge in the Tiergarten

I walked very slowly though the park, taking plenty of time to sit and write and just watch the people. I chatted with Jason on google chat over my blackberry while sitting on a bench overlooking the Rundgarden, a small area within the Tiergarten, where the ground was covered with an array of brightly colored pansies.



I finished up my walk coming out in the area of Potsdamer Platz where again I had a Feldsalat mit Rotwein before heading over to the St. Matthäus Kirche and listening to part of the service which had some lovely choral presentations I had previoulsy read about on a flyer I had picked up at the Kulturforum the other day. I didn´t stay long and headed back to Charlottenberg doing so on the busses.

...photo log Berlin 5.13.2007...

Freitag Kulturforum

Woke up to the regular and routine but wanted to get out first thing so that I could go to the Gemäldegalerie. So I did my regular for the most part but asked for a Milchkaffe zu gehen.

Yesterday before I got to the Museum Berggruen I stopped for a bite to eat at a place called Lateo off of the U-Bahn Sophie Charlotte Platz. I ordered Bruschetta mit Salat und Kasseler und ein Glass Rotwein. The dish was white toast with mayo, shredded lettuce topped with overlapping layer of pork cuts and garnished with cucumber slices and strips of red pepper sprinkled with cut chive...very light and especially went well with the wine.

From there I went to the Berggruen and thoroughly enjoyed. There were many works of Picasso there as well as a few by Matisse, as well as other artists. There was one piece that I loved and that was the one done by Picasso showing a woman on the seashore who had just bathed and was drying her feet called Seated Nude Drying her Foot (1921). I had drawn this in an art class I took a couple years ago:

my copy

Of course, mine looked nothing like the original but what a thrill to see it in all its beauty.


Others that I liked were Large Reclining Nude (1942), Minotauromachie (1935), and Dona Maar with Green Fingernails (1936):

Minotauromachie (1935)
Sorry, I can´t seem to locate the other two on the internet...sigh.


After getting home I decided to catch a film later in the evening at the local Kantstraße art cinema. I decided on David Lynch´s new film, Inland Empire. Because it was 3 hours long, the movie admission was increased from the normal price. That made sense. It was dubbed into German and it started at 2100 hours. At the refreshment stand I bought a Budweiser, the Chech Republic product, and entered the showingroom. After watching the whole thing I cannot tell you what it was entirely about. I can only skirt the edges and give you bits and pieces...and it wasn´t only because I´m not entirely fluent with the language. It was a David Lynch film! It turned out to be something about this woman (Laura Dern) who was an actress and she was stuck in a screenplay and couldn`t get out until it was played out....I´m still working on an interpretation for the movie but it sure kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. If you´re so inclined, you´ll have to see it yourself and come up with your own interpretation.

Who were those people dressed up as rabbits?

William in the Kulturforum;
the Philharmonie and Potsdamer Platz in the background.
I enoyed the Gemäldegalerie today...in one place they had the range of 13th through 18th Century paintings from across Europe including German, Dutch, Flemish, French, and Italian. Of some interest was the work by Caravaggio called, Amor Vincit Omnia (Cupid as Victor, 1601-02)and the scandalous refutation of it by Baglione,The Divine Eros Defeats the Earthly Eros (1602-03), who tried to impose a moral perspective into art given the hagiography of the time.

Cupid as Victor (1601-02)

The Divine Eros Defeats the Earthly Eros (1602-03)

Apparently, it´s a neverending story.

...photo album Berlin 5.11.2007...

Donnerstag

Today its rainy Thursday but have my umbrella and my monatekarte and ready to go...not too hectic of a plan...from 1600 to 2000 hours I want to go to the Sammlung Berggruen which is a private museum not too far from here.

Kopf einer Frau mit buntem Hut


There I want to see the Picassos that are there. One of them will be his Head of Woman in a brightly-colored Hat (1939). Thursday evening admission is free.

No photo album today but I did throw together the following video to show what the area I´m staying in looks like:



I have been getting to know the person who runs the Internet Cafe here in Wilmersdorf...a sweet woman from Vietnam. When I told here I was from the United States she held up her arms in defense and told me that her house had been bombed and she had escaped from Vietnam years ago to come to Germany...I told her I was sorry and that Ich war denn ein Junge. She understood and we actually hugged. She said that Nixon was a bad man. I told her yes, he was a criminal and left office in disgrace. And then she held her nose and said Bush...I felt very diplomatc; like Nancy Pelosi. At anyrate, I couldn´t disagree with her.

Last night I went down to the Bear during happy hour to possibly meet the friends I had made last week...I knew one of them had an exam to take last evening so would probably not show along with his friend; the other wasn´t even here any longer. So no show but overall it was fun hearing all the german being spoken and trying to speak some in that situation...a bit frustrating cause the place was getting loud.

Mittwoch meiner zweiten...

Today I got up, a little cool, not so bad...maybe it could rain later. I´m going to just explore around the neighborhood during the day because I plan on going to the Bear during Happy Hour this evening in the Ku´damm. Yesterday I was going to the Neue Nationalgalerie because they have some works by Edvard Munch but when I got there they were shut down getting ready for a new exhibit...someone didn´t do their homework well enough. I happened to be in the Kulturforum: a cultural center in West Berlin... so, I walked over to the Gemäldegalerie and by the time I located the entrance I realized that the place shuts down at 1800 hours and I actually wanted more than four hours to go through the place. I planned out a little better how I was going to hit these exhibits/museums and then headed toward the Potsdamer Platz.



I went into the Sony Center and decided to watch a movie. Thinking that it might be in English with German subtitles I went in to see Goodbye Bafana with Joseph Fiennes and Dennis Haysbert, about the life of Mandela through the eyes of the guard assigned to him while he was imprisoned. Turned out the movie was in English but there were other things that were interesting about the place. As I went in, I stopped at the refreshment stand and bought a beer to take into the show. The seats with cupholders were quite roomy and plush. Before the movie ever started there were plenty of ads, some in German, others in English with German subtitles; many quite entertaining. After the ads ran a person came in selling drinks and eats like they do at ballgames. I enjoyed the movie very much. I don´t know about its accuracy in the potrayal of the relationship between the two men but that Dennis Haysbert was quite stunning to watch...you know, that guy who sells insurance on TV?

After that I went across the street to the mall and went into a shop called WE. There, I bought a shirt off of the sales rack that I liked: Dark brown, long sleeve with three buttons on each sleeve, button epaulets, polo-ish with buttons that went down below the sternum, and with an embroidered starburst pattern in the lower left corner...sehr schön.

Took the S- and U-Bahn and while doing the transfer, a youth of 12 years, if not younger, tried to pick my coat pocket in which there was nothing anyway. I had sensed something there, I don´t know, maybe because my senses are on high-alert, and turned to see this boy with his hand into my coat pocket. I had passed him earlier and he had snuck up behind me while I walked down into the U-Bahn station. Entschuldigung! I said with distaste, and he feigned innocence and walked away to meet his other friends walking nearby. I was reminded of Fagin and his boys from Oliver and started visualizing a backstory about them.

...photo album Flickr Berlin 5.9.2007...

Berlin Wall Day

Construction of the Berlin Wall

Yesterday was a rainy day and I got caught in the steady drizzle as I wound up walking the footprint of the Berlin wall.

First I had some lunch in the Arkaden mall at a place called Bendig. Turns out they are caterers and what I had there was delicious: Leberkäs mit Ei und Bratkartoffeln (veal loaf with egg and sauted potatoes) and a Kötritzer Schwarzbier.

Sony Center

After hanging out in the Sony Center for a short bit I then went out and located the footprint of the Berlin Wall as it did pass through this area before it was built up. I began following the two rows of bricks that indicated where the wall stood. It zigged and zagged, here and there; crossed sidewalks and followed roads, right next to buildings and sometimes right through them. I passed Checkpoint Charlie and the Topographie of Terrors where there was a segment of the wall still standing. After a little bit I actually lost the footprint as I walked into a grassy area and I could not located it when I came out the other side.

So, I just kept walking until I came to Moritzplatz U-Bahn and took that via one transfer to a longer portion of the wall that is covered in art. You can check this out in today´s photo album Flickr Berlin 5.8.2007. As I walked the length about 2 km it started to drizzle harder and by the time I reached the end I walked over to the S-Bahn and headed home for a restful evening of drying out and drinking some wine...nice day.

Es regnet Montag...

Woke up Monday morning and it´s a little rainy and a little cold but not enough to put a dent in things. Since I´ve been here everyday has been beautifully sunny, dry and warm. For rainy days, plab B for me, was to visit some museums; there are several opportunities here for that, but turns out many of the museums here are closed on Mondays. I went to the regular corner cafe for Milchkaffee and got great directions to the post office. Perhaps after doing today´s blog I´ll head for the Wall.

Rathaus Schöneberg

...photo album Flickr Berlin 5.7.2007...

Yesterday, I went to the Rathaus Schöneberg, the place from where JFK made his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech way before Ronnie did his plea to Gorbachev: "Tear down this wall." Today, around the Rathaus there are a few remants from that earlier event: the Kennedy Grill which is a Croatian restaurant across the street, commemorative lithograffs in some of the windows of surrounding shops, and the plaque that rest at the Rathaus itself.

Next, I decided to head to the Brandenburger Tor and catch it at sunset. I knew that the lights come up and heard that it can be dramatic. On the way, I wandered by the Holocaust Denkmal again as evening was approaching. After spending some quiet moments there I made the following video:


Spending an appreciable amount of Time at the Tor, I sat nearby to the side drinking some wine in a restaurant where I had a front row seat. As the shadows got longer there was a lone sax player playing at first some familiar classical music and then ventured into more jazz pieces. It lent a very surreal air to the setting sun behind this marvelous gate that has a rich history. I walked over and threw a euro into the musician´s plate.
Brandenburger Tor

...photo album Flickr Berlin 5.7.2007...

Es ist nur einen anderen Sonntag

Kirche bells ringing in the Karl August Platz at 10:00 hours. I had some Milchkaffee at Limericks um die Ecke and think I will head to Rathaus Schöneberg, the place where JFK was a dounut to the Berliners when he said "Ich bin ein Berliner."...but we know what he wanted to say and inculcate way before Ronnie ever got around to telling Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall."

Freitag, after my FedEx arrived, I headed out to Spandau, an older part of Berlin that escaped much of the bombing and retains a lot of its medieval architecture. A nice walking tour can be found here proceeding from the U-Bahn Zitadelle stop through the Altstadt ending up at the S-Bahn stop in Spandau.

Zitadelle Spandau

The Zitadelle is a big structure which according to the plaque at the entry is

"one of the most important and best preserved renaissance fortresses in Europe."

The basic form of the fortress was completed in 1594. I didn´t go into the fortress, thought I would save that for when Jason gets here. I did walk through the woods (grünewald) around the moat...sehr schön und rühig.

Ater Spandau, I went to the Ku´damm to the KaDeWe which is the big department store, similar to Macys but much much more. Anything you want, you can find here (well, maybe not car parts but you get my drift...because I didn´t see any doesn´t mean they weren´t there). In the men´s department I looked at the brands of underwear available: Joop, Armani, Calvin Klein, Jockey, AussieBums, Dolce & Gabbana, Zimmerli, Hanro, Hom, Schiesser, Olaf Benz, Mey, Hugo Boss, and a bit more! It was quite the display.

And the sixth floor, OMGs, that was the food floor and there were stations galore of varius gourmet selectins which you could try: seafood, meats, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, wines, beers and that´s just skimming the surface. I tasted one beer that was called Budweiser but it was not the Budweiser that some drink in the United States. This was quite good and came from Budvar in the Chech Republic.

Later I by visited to the Bear where I met Antonio who was from Venezuela and was living in Paris. We talked and then went around the corner for some Italian food. Nice evening.

Next day Saturday I woke up to the Wochendemarkt again...I strolled through but this time I didn´t purchase anything but went to Hackescher Markt which is actually in East Berlin. I had some beer and Rhabarberkuchen (rhubarb cake; I am the one with the sweet tooth. From there I did a walking tour that took me along Unter den Linden a boulevard lined with lime trees...sehr schön.

My walking tour took me though the Bebelpaltz which was the place where the Nazis encouraged people to riot to burn 25,000 books from the Humbolt Library. Here, there is a monument in the ground in the center of the Bebelplatz where one can look down through a transparent square to a chamber below that is filled with empty bookshelves. This was quite stirring. Things like this upset me especially when we still hear of efforts back home of those conservative right wingnuts who work so hard , as our shrub says, to ban books from libraries and schools. Let people decide what they want to read!

Well its Sunday and I am off to Rathaus Schöneberg ... photo album Flickr Berlin 5.6.2007...

Dienststag in Berlin

Soon I will have been here one full week. Today was a bit of a recovery day and I used it to wait for FedEx; they were suppose to drop me a package today and I did not want to miss them. Well, they never showed. But it was a day to recoup nonetheless.



Yesterday I purchased a Monatekarte so I have full access to the S-Bahn, U-Bahn and buses that travel between and within areas A & B. These areas encompass the core of Berlin. Area C is for outlying areas which I doubt I will be going to very much and if I do I can purchase a ticket to cover that.

Potsdamer Platz

I spent the day testing it out. I went first to the Ku´damm had a lunch of Kartofellen Suppe und Bier and then went to Potsdamer Platz, a tech-business center that has sprung up on ground through which part of the wall had run. There in a Sony store I was able to purchase a USB plug for my video camera which will allow me to upload from the memory card thus emptying it to fill with more picture and/or video. After that I went to a remaining section of the wall but realized that eveing was not a good time to go there to video...morning light is much better. So, I shall return.

Returning back to the Ku´damm I found Bears; a bar filled with men and I hit it at Happy Hour. When you purchase a drink, you keep the receipt and then use it to get your second drink. The receipt was still good after Happy Hour ended at 2100 hrs so I was there until about 2200 hrs. I met three guys, all very nice: Mirkos, German; Jens, Chech; and Arthur, from NYC. The four of us kind of started talking with each other. Mirkos and Jens were very much wanting to speak in English but they indulged my efforts to speak German. Jens introduced me to Hemingways which were shooters, quite tasty, that we all drank together with the bartender. With those and the 6 half-liters of beer (I knew because I had receipts) it was slightly adventurous heading home on the S-Bahn. We said our auf wiedersehns to each other and made a date for Happy Hour next Mittwoch. Thank the gods I had a Monatekarte to get myself home.

Doing well in Berlin...check out photo album Flickr Berlin 5.3.2007...

May Day in Berlin

I woke up yesterday morning into my routine and felt for a Dienstag morgen something was not quite right. Restaurants were doing business but the shops weren't. I passed it off to an overly leisure society (die Freizeit) with tuesdays off...warum nicht?

I purchased ein tageskarte and decided to spend the day touring around the city, ich habe die Stadt besichtigt, hitting places I had been before and touching somethings new. First off I went to the Nollendorf Platz, before touch finish with Jason. It was the landscape of Cabaret and much of the stories by Christopher Isherwood. It was quite the place during its heydey. A great place to walk around and snoop...I ended up having lunch at the Tim Canadian Deli on the corner of Maaßen und Winterfeldstraßen. Die Sonne schient und everyone was sitting outside at tables on the sidewalk. I tried to grab a place in the sun but all those spots were taken. I decided on a place in the shade seeing that the sun, in its march across the sky, would soon include me.


I ordered einen Kaffee mit Milch, French style; it arrived in a big bowl which I slurped and then I had a bowl of Spargelsuppe and it was delicious. I had some interesting bantor with my waitress and she, in a most friendly way, corrected me on my usage, from which I learned.


From there I boarded the U-Bahn and thorugh various connections, which were quite easy to decipher, headed for Victoria Park (something new). On the way, twice, musicians played for the passengers, when finished passed a cup. I threw in €0.50 each time. One was playing something akin to a mandolin and the other was a hammer dulcimer. Both were very good and lended an atmosphere has I headed into "the other side", or East Berlin.


Victoria Park is a huge park with trees and water and people out sunning and paths. There is a hill down which runs a huge cascading waterfall which is quite picturesque. At the top there are great views of the city and a cast iron monument-spire built to commemorate the Prussian Wars of Liberation. At the tip of the spire is a cross, thus Kruezburg, the name of this area, Cross Mountain. Surrounding the base of this monument are twelve niches, each filled with a statue of a person who is allegorical for a particular battle. Its the names that intrigued me and I thought of the cast from CATS:

Belle Alliance

Gross Beeren

Katzbach

Gross Goerschen

Culm

Dennewitz

Leipzig

Wartenburg

La Rothiere

Bar Saraube

Laon

They all were quite distinct and my favorite was Culm. He had long locks and was the only one leaning on a branch-staff and had good looking legs. Afterward I enjoyed a half liter of Berliner Pilsner at a small cafe just below the monument before heading all the way down to the bottom.


From there I headed for the Reichtag; my favorite of all government buildings, simply because of the sheer beauty of its glass dome that sits atop it representing transparency (no lies, no secrets) in government affairs for the German people...engraved across the main entry are the words: die Deutsche Volke. As I lay there in the grass out front of it I got to thinking about how it was burned and Hitler had used that event to his political ascendency and how strikingly similar this event is to the destruction of the World Trade Center and how George Bush used it for his own advantage when it could have been used to bring so many more people together in addressing the societal concern of our time which is terrorism...well...when we hear a bell another angel gets their wings...so, I am hoping this disparity in the world is eventually corrected.


My-my this is so long winded and I have not even talked about two other things I want to talk about. Yesterday was May Day, a big deal over here and that is why all the shops were closed! After I walked through the Brandenburg Tor, I saw a big party going on with thousands of people, with a stage and music, with selling of bier und bratwursts. That kept me occupied for a bit until I ventured over to the Holocaust Memorial which was something completed in 2005, I believe, after we were here in 2003.



It is composed of hundreds, at least, of these various rectangular blocks and columns that cover acres and which one can walk into and amongst. I felt quite awed here. As one gets deeper into the structure one is silenced from the others that you know are also in the whole thing. There is a hushness mixed with a definite feeling of frustration of what it might of been like to be shut off from others and unable to do a damn thing to change it.



I did more things yesterday..by the time I got home there was a little sunlight left...just enough to walk around the neighborhood before getting back to Manuela´s Wohnung...my feet were tired.

Montag in Berlin

After waking up yesterday to the Sunday kirche bells, today was back to normal. Being Montag morgen, I took out the recycling, which is a little more involved here than back in Miami. One must separate the brown/green glass from the clear glass, and also one must separate the plastic, paper and then everything else. I am not sure I saw a bin for metal.

Yesterday there were some stores not open so I had done a little laundry and had hung it up in the attic to dry...After getting up this morning, I went up to the attic to collect my dried clothes and today the streets and sidewalks were all busy. But not right away. The pace was definitely slower...as if everyone took their time rousing up to face the day.

As I walked around the corner and got einen Kaffee mit Milch from the same place...they were just opening, setting chairs and tables outside, and it was after 10:00 hours.

I did my "shopping". Picked up things that I will need and some things to replace items that were taken from me on the train to Amsterdam. Found a book bag (actually laptop bag) that will do nicely for €25.00 and a calendar organizer for €15.95 and a nice wallet for €12.00. Maybe I could have done without but these things play a vital part in my day to day organization. Also picked up some Brot, und Kasse, Tomates , Lachs, und deutsche Wein.

In the markets they are selling Spargel...it must be its season. It´s similar to asparagus except that its totally white and very thick around. Thicker than the asparagus I´ve seen in the United States. I was going to get some but then I didn´t want to ask for one or two. I´ll look for it in a dish somewhere.

Spargel

I spent part of the afternoon studying german at the

Das Café Lisboa an der Ecke Goethe- und Sesenheimer Straße hat alles, was ich brauche. Neben netten Menschen, einem schlicht sympathischen ambiente und bei schönem Wetter einen Platz in der Sonne gehören dazu:

where I sat at an outside table on the sidewalk and had Spinach Soup which was very good. With it I had a bottle of Sangres, a beer from Portugal, which I also enjoyed. Sie schmeckten gut.

This evening I will take a walk and see what happens.